Today’s topic in The Modern Seller video series is client loyalty. It used to be that satisfaction was the highest measure of success, and it’s still what many companies measure. But in the new sales economy, satisfaction is merely table stakes. Gallup has done research in this space and found that only 29% of our clients are truly engaged with us. Loyal.

That leaves up to 71 percent of clients that range anywhere from very satisfied to completely disengaged. These are the clients that can be swayed to move elsewhere…even the satisfied ones.

Modern Sellers are what I call Ambassadors. They’re skilled at cultivating loyalty and building long-term value. Because they take this long view, it’s a game changer for sales growth. The likelihood of expanding your sales into an existing loyal client is between 60 to 70 percent. The likelihood of selling to a net new prospect is only 5 to 20 percent.

To cultivate greater selling power, there are three common loyalty traits that are worth building in your best clients. I discuss these more in this week’s video.

Today’s topic in The Modern Seller video series is on how you can build a network ecosystem that creates better selling opportunities and results.

In the past, we could focus our sales efforts only on those buying our services. The risk with that approach is that we may be missing a relationship that’s key to earning a client’s business. In the new sales economy, we need to get beyond our usual silos to work across the organization, and sometimes even outside of it. Your network ecosystem will help you solve for that.

Your network ecosystem is the set of relationships you need to reach a specific sales or opportunity goal. The ecosystem will have a few major characteristics. There will be internal and external relationships. There will various levels of influence. There will be strategic and functional relationships. And often there will be multiple decision makers, depending on the opportunity and size of the organization.

An action step to take is building out your Network Ecosystem for a key client. In this video, I walk through four key groups you’ll want to prioritize in your relationship-building efforts:
– Decision makers
– Centers of influence
– Advocates
– Strategic alliances

In modern selling, ambassadors are a bridge to prospects and clients, to their communities, and to their industries. The end result is that they have a stronger and more profitable territory or book of business.

But how can you and your team develop skills to become ambassadors? In this video I share three strategies that will help you build this important dimension of The Modern Seller:
1) To understand a Client’s Lifetime Value.
2) To Create 29 Percenters.
3) To Amplify Your Key Relationships.

After you watch the video, for more detailed information on these strategies, pick up a copy of The Modern Seller. The book include assessments that will help you to apply these strategies to your selling situations.

We know that Modern Sellers are Social. Building this skillset requires goal setting. Social goals have an element that makes them stand out: significance. Significance to you personally, and significance beyond you — for your clients, your organization, or your community.

To help spark your goal setting, I share some ideas in this week’s short video. Hint: The most important ingredient I’ve found to help me with goal setting is to dig into my motivation behind it. It’s the internal motivation that keeps me going with these significant goals.

Watch now to learn more.

What is social capital, and as a Modern Seller, why should you care? Social capital is the most valuable currency in the sales profession. I define it as the collective value of our networks, and the results we create with that value.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking this is just referring to your reach on social media. Social capital goes beyond today’s hyper-connectivity on social networks. It’s the strategic relationships that create mutual reward, results, and impact.

Now that you know what it is, let’s talk about building your social capital.

In The Modern Seller, I introduced a concept called the Social Framework. There are four elements to the framework: mindset, goals, network ecosystems, and habit. In this week’s video, we’ll learn about mindset piece of the framework, and three elements of that mindset: Leadership Identity, Trust and Generosity.

I invite you to watch it now.

Thought leadership can help build your personal and business brand. When it comes to selling in the new sales economy, clients and prospects expect thought leadership to be backed by action and experience. It’s the intersection of strategy, deep subject expertise, and selling skills.

How can you take steps to be a thought leader?

I invite you to watch this week’s video to learn four key elements needed for modern sellers to elevate their thought leadership.

Welcome back to the Modern Seller video series. Each week, I’m sharing strategies that you can put into practice as either a sales professional or sales leader.

Today I’m talking about something few sellers consider. How to apply supply chain thinking to your sales strategy and process. Underlying any successful organization are the systems to support it. Likewise, modern business environments and buyers require us to take a long view of the whole ecosystem. Supply chain approaches help us do that.

Watch this short video for two types of maps you can use to visualize your sales supply chain.