International Selling: How to Be Ready for The Next Opportunity

This is Episode 27 of This Old New Business business podcast with Jeff Korhan.

International Selling: How to Be Ready for The Next Opportunity

Martin Limbeck is an international selling expert with extensive experience working with both American and European companies.

Regardless of apparent differences such as language and culture, we’re all human beings. This is why Martin likes to say: selling is selling. So, if you want to learn practical and uncomplicated ways to immediately increase your sales potential, this episode will not disappoint you.

Our Featured Guest: Martin Limbeck

International Selling: How to Be Ready for the Next OpportunityMartin Limbeck is an international sales authority, sought after keynote speaker, and the author of NO Is Short for the Next Opportunity. He draws on real-life sales experiences to help business owners and sales professionals develop pride, passion, and perseverance – so they will love their work and close more deals.

Successful Sellers Have a Winners Mindset

Anyone that sells knows you cannot sell anything if you are not sold on the value your company can bring to your prospective customer. You have to believe in yourself, the company you represent, and of course, your customer.

Martin completed his high school education here in the United States as a foreign exchange student. That was his first experience with the American culture, which naturally differs in some ways from his native German culture. Listen to the audio to hear his story.

Especially in international selling situations where unexpected circumstances are likely to arise, Martin stresses the importance of having a winners mindset. Regardless of the culture, people want to buy from winners that work harder for the customer.

Invest in Your Customer Relationships

Martin’s formula for international selling success is quite simple. Start with International Selling: How to Be Ready for the Next Opportunityunderstanding your customer. This obviously requires research that is readily accomplished using the abundant information available online.

Next is investing in your relationship with the customer by showing him or her from the heart that you care.

Readiness for the next opportunity begins with a mindset, but it is sustainable only by consistently investing in relationships. One of Martin’s practices is making at least two phone calls every day to his customers. How about you?

How is your business getting ready for the next opportunity?

Lighting Round Tips and Advice

Martin’s Top Sales or Marketing Advice – Shovel first; collect second. You’ll have to listen to the audio to fully appreciate Martin’s life lesson about selling in an American vs a European culture.

His Favorite Productivity Tip – Cold calling customers. It works.

A Quote that has Inspired Martin’s Success – “The winner isn’t always the one with the fastest car; it’s the one that refuses to lose.” Dale Earnhardt

Key Take-Aways

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About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps mainstream businesses adapt their traditional growth practices to a digital world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedInTwitterFacebook, and Google+

How to Market to Your Audience Influencers

How to Market to Your Audience Influencers - Jeff Korhan

Is your sales or marketing failing to generate the results your business expects?

Remember when you were a child and sought permission from one of your parents, only to have them respond: “Go ask your father (or mother)?” You learned to separately sell both, or first win over the one that influences the final decision maker.

In every selling situation there are direct and indirect influencers. Tweet this.

Our job as sales and marketing professionals is to identify and understand this extended audience, and then respond to their influence with our primary decision makers.

The Circles of Influence Exercise

A useful exercise for understanding your audience influencers starts by drawing a circle on a sheet of paper and placing your business (or business role) within it. Then draw a circle around that and within it write down the various classes of buyers your business serves.

Draw another circle around that one and put in it the influencers of your primary buyers. This could include bosses, colleagues, competitors, friends, family, etc. Around that circle write down the products and services your company offers.

You should start to get new ideas on how your offerings could be better positioned. You may also get ideas for changes to existing products and services, and even ideas for new ones. For example, if your primary buyer is conservative in regards to technology, isn’t it possible their influencers are encouraging them to adapt to it?

Isn’t it also possible these influencers are his or her children, whose names and whereabouts you’ve long since forgotten?

The takeaway from this exercise is that people are often influenced by the people around them, especially those they encounter every day. Smart businesses know this, but even the best of us occasionally fail to consider it.

Make it part of your process.

Acknowledge, Involve, and Help Audience Influencers

In my business as a professional speaker my primary audience is the meeting planner of the association or organization that hires me. However, it is their audience that I am ultimately serving. So, I have to learn as much as possible about them to ensure my presentation or workshop is a success.

These days you can use social media to do research and engage with buyers and influencers alike. In fact, if your business is having trouble connecting with buyers, a reliable method for making that happen is to involve the influencers that can introduce you to them.

To earn their trust, use your media to learn about the problems audience influencers may have. For example, while I help businesses with their content marketing and social media, I know for a fact that many of them have children that need the same help – building their personal media brand to help them get into college or land a new job.

That was my insight after doing this exercise. Now I’m working to determine specifically what to do about it. How about you?

Do you think helping the people that your customers want to help is smart business? Me too.

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps mainstream businesses adapt their traditional growth practices to a digital world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedInTwitterFacebook, and Google+

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