The Sales Apprentice 2011: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 10

July 6, 2011 By 7 Comments
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So, it’s week 10 of The Sales Apprentice and we’re down to six; Natasha, Suzy and Jim facing off against Helen, Tom and Melody. Just looking at the last six I was left feeling pretty uninspired. They are none of them without their shortcomings and I don’t think I would be investing £250k into any of them from what I’ve seen and that’s before we see them torn limb from limb in the interviews and hear what crackpot business ideas they might have... And I wasn’t that inspired by tonight’s task either!  I have to admit that I … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Closing the deal, Gavin's rants, Motivational speaker, Sales training Tagged With: , , , ,

The Sales Apprentice 2011: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 9

June 29, 2011 By 4 Comments
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And for those who have been following  my Sales Apprentice for a few years you know that there’s always a week during the show when I am travelling in the evening and cannot get this done on time. Last year, my good friend Andy Smith guest stepped into the breach and wrote a superb piece but this year he has just moved to France so… If you watch the Apprentice and you have thoughts, comments or advice from last night’s show then please have your say and I will use them here in a "mash up" of your comments. I'll add mine when I've … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Sales training Tagged With: , ,

Sales Leadership, Are You A Duck Or A Goose?

June 29, 2011 By 1 Comment
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Over the last week I have been making the most of the glorious sunshine and have had trips to the Yorkshire Dales (beautiful weather) and the Lake District (raining as per usual!). I’ve also been out jogging along the canal near my home and although I run along it all year, perhaps the beautiful weather has caused me to pay more attention to my surroundings than normal. Something I have been watching with interest are the ducks and the geese and their “management” of their young. It’s pretty interesting… The ducks seem to have … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Management & leadership, Sales training Tagged With: , ,

Does Cold Calling Work, 2?

June 22, 2011 By 7 Comments
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I hope that you’re having a good week, speaking to lots of new clients and winning lots of new business. I want to start this blog post by asking you a question, “What do you think about cold calling?” Now by asking that, what I don’t mean is do you like being rung at home when you’re eating your dinner (tea for us Northerners) and someone trying to sell you timeshares? No, what I mean is, “Do you think cold calling works?” Now I know that this is a very divisive question. It’s divisive for a whole variety of reasons. It’s … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Ask Gavin, Gavin's rants, Influence & communication, Marketing, Motivation & mindset, Motivational speaker, Prospecting & cold calling, Sales training Tagged With: , , ,

The Sales Apprentice 2011: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 8

June 22, 2011 By 7 Comments
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Week 8 of The Sales Apprentice and it’s time for our two teams to head over La Manche to sell some wacky British products to the unsuspecting French. With only 8 Apprentices left, tonight’s task saw Suzy leading Jim, Helen and Zoe facing off against Tom “leading” Leon, Melody and Natasha. It also did a lot to clarify my thoughts about the candidates and I’m sure by now you must have your favourites too. First task of the night was to pick two products to sell. After some deliberation and some bizarre questions from Suzy (“Do the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Gavin's rants, Influence & communication, Management & leadership, Motivation & mindset, Motivational speaker, Sales training Tagged With: , , ,

The Sales Apprentice 2011: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 7

June 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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So, we’ve reached week 7 of The Sales Apprentice and tonight’s task was to create a Freemium (Free Premium Magazine) and then sell as much advertising space as possible. The team selling the most ad space would win the task. Tonight’s team leaders were selected by Lord Alan, Jim leading Venture and Natasha leading Logic, speaking to the teams this week from a balcony way above them and I couldn’t help but think that the ultimate winner of the show might be advised to get used to exactly this sort of “partnership”. With only a few … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Influence & communication, Management & leadership, Motivational speaker, Negotiation & objection handling, Sales training Tagged With: , , ,

3 Simple Sales Tips For Sales Success

June 15, 2011 By 3 Comments
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I’ve had one of those weeks…. and it’s only Wednesday. I’m sure you have them sometimes too. Mine actually started 3-4 days ago with a nagging headache that built up and built culminating in projectile vomiting at 3am in the morning on Tuesday morning. In fact, I was still feeling nauseous, shaky and hadn’t slept at 615am and was due to get up in an hour to head down to London to give a sales motivational talk… Over the years, I have spent tens of thousands of pounds and invested a good proportion of my time into … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Motivation & mindset, Motivational speaker, Sales training Tagged With: , , , ,

The Myth Of The Perfect Client?

June 9, 2011 By 2 Comments
dragon

Last night I was watching The Apprentice and I got thinking about when you should and you shouldn’t take on business and when you should and you shouldn't turn down business. On my travels as a sales motivational speaker I see a lot of salespeople, business owners and entrepreneurs who take on business that they should have never taken on. Business that is unprofitable. Business that is unpalatable. Business that is unmanageable. And most importantly, business that is unprofitable. When I ask about this people say things like, “Well, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Gavin's rants, Goal setting, Motivation & mindset, Sales training Tagged With: , , , ,

The Sales Apprentice 2011: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 6

June 8, 2011 By 13 Comments
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Week 6 and 10 remain still trying to win The Sales Apprentice and a “50/50 partnership with the nation’s toughest investor”… well the most belligerent and bellicose anyway. This week’s task was in  junk removal with the objective being to collect, dispose of responsibly and make money from junk. After a quick reshuffle the team’s elected their team leaders: Zoe for team Venture and Helen, who had just been "shuffled", for team Logic. In this task there were two ways to make money: 1) charging to collect waste and 2) selling on … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Management & leadership, Motivational speaker, Sales training Tagged With: , , , ,

Have You Got A Question About Sales?

June 3, 2011 By 2 Comments
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On my travels as a sales motivational speaker I meet a lot of salespeople, entrepreneurs and business owners who have questions about sales or selling but no-one to ask to get the answers.  Some questions I get asked on a seemingly daily basis whereas others are rarer, more specialist or more complex. On of the challenges salespeople have is not knowing who to ask or where to look for the answer. To try and help with this I am currently creating a list of questions that you have about sales and or selling. These could be on any subjects … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Ask Gavin, Sales training Tagged With: , , , , ,
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