Should I Hire A Sales Coach?
I received this question the other day and I started to reply and then realized that the answer would be really useful for many of my readers…
I follow your regular updates with interest. I’m doing some work on goal setting at the moment both personally and for clients. One of the personal goals I’m toying with is the idea of hiring a personal sales mentor/coach.
I was interested to know if this was an area that you had an opinion on?
Do I have an opinion? I think all my readers will know that I must have. To try and help, I have broken the question down into several sub-questions…
Who should hire a sales coach?
- Salespeople who want to increase their skills, their sales strategies and their sales approach.
- Non-salespeople who want to ensure that their sales systems and processes are the most effective that they can be.
- Sales managers and team leaders who need to recruit, manage and motivate sales teams, both small and large.
- Sales leaders and business owners looking to develop powerful sales systems and productive sales teams.
When should I hire a sales coach?
Better question. Now, this is where I disagree with many people because many people would say, “All of the time!” Not surprisingly, most of them have coaching services to sell!
For many people, constant sales coaching loses it zing and may suffer from co-dependency issues. Personally, I think most if not all people involved with sales would benefit from having a coach or coaches at times but not all of the time. Maybe most of the time but certainly not all.
Coaching is great for salespeople looking to break through barriers, stretch for new sales goals, get unstuck orwho are taking on new projects. Here are some classic examples where a sales coach can help?
- Setting new goals, life plans and strategic direction.
- Setting out a sales and new client acquisition strategy.
- Developing new sales skills and sales processes, practising sales techniques and approaches and trying out new methods.
- Creating realistic systems and plans for achieving unrealistic goals.
- Getting out of comfort zones and motivation traps and re-motivating and re-energizing salespeople not firing on all cylinders.
Who should hire a sales coach?
- Salespeople and non-salespeople taking on new challenges where support or experience is limited.
- Team leaders, sales managers and sales leaders facing promotions, new responsibilities and new challenges.
- Anyone wanting to achieve quantum leaps in their sales results…. fast!
When should I not hire a sales coach?
- When you don’t want one.
- When you are looking for someone to sympathise with your “plight”.
- When you don’t believe in them.
- When you want them to do the work for you.
- When it’s forced upon you.
- When you don’t want to hear the truth (although this is, of course, just when you do need one!)
What are my alternatives to using a sales coach?
Sometimes there aren’t any but sometimes there are many options available and all of them may well be right at one stage or another of your sales career. Here are just a few alternatives…
- Self-learn from your own experiences.
- Read a book, listen to an audio, watch a DVD, join a sales progamme.
- Set up a Sales Champions group.
- Buddy up with a friend.
- Attend a seminar or a training course.
How do I choose my sales coach?
- Do some research, join some newsletters and watch some videos from sales coaches.
- Get referrals and advice from friends and colleagues who have used a sales coach.
- Ask some sales coaches some questions and facilitate a few conversations.
- Find someone you can trust and who has credibility and the credentials to help you.
- Make sure that they challenge you… this is not about blowing hot air up your rear end.
- Choose someone who inspires you.
- And feel free to use different coaches for specialist situations. This is not a one-size-fits-all scenario.
Will you be my sales coach Gavin?
Great question. I don’t know yet.
For many years, I have wrestled with the constant challenge of not having enough time to do everything that needs to be done. I only have limited time and only a small amount of that is allocated to very (very) committed clients who want to achieve extraordinary results in their sales and in their lives. If you have a desire to be average or, worse still, mediocre I’m not interested.
If you want want to consider coaching with me, spend some time reading the blogs and watch some of the free videos. Better still, read a few of my books, listen to an audio, watch a DVD or attend a seminar. If that juices you up and you’re up for making a quantum leap in your sales or taking your sales teams to the next level then use the contact form to tell me why you think I should work with you and we’ll take it from there…
When Your Prospect Or Customer Says, ‘No!’, What Do You Hear?
Here’s another question that came up recently. “When your prospect or customer says, “No!”, what do you hear? How do you react? Rejected or challenged? What advice would you give to somebody just starting out?”
As a sales motivational speaker I see the negative consequences of sales and business people dealing with this badly every day so here is my advice…
It’s not what is said, it is your interpretation that does the damage. How many people every year die of snake bites? The answer is none. People die of the poison, not the bites. Salespeople are not undone by “No” but by how they interpret that “No.”
If someone says to you, “We have an existing supplier”… what do you hear and what do you think?
Do you hear, like most salespeople, “We have an existing supplier so we’re not interested. Go away!”? And then think, “This job is rubbish, no-one ever has a need for our services.”
Or do you hear, like sales superstars, “We have an existing supplier which means that we’re in the market place and already see value in what you do”? And then think, “All I have to do now is find a way to demonstrate how we can provide a better service.”
One of the keys to being a top salesperson is getting, keeping and cultivating a positive, sales mindset. This can be done by reading good sales books, listening to sales audios, attending sales seminars, mixing with sales winners, employing a sales coach, learning from sales experts, focusing on what’s good about any event….
To someone starting out, avoid negative mood-hoovers,whingers and whiners, associate with sales winners, make sure you get plenty of the good stuff. Protect your positive mindset like it is a pot of gold…
Because it is!
What Are The First 15 Words To Say To A Prospect To Get Them Hooked Into A Conversation?
Here’s a question that one of my contacts asked recently that I thought I would share with you, “So I have got past the gatekeeper – after the introduction, what are the first 15 words (or so) I say to a prospect that’s going to get them hooked into a conversation?”
And here’s my answer…
One of the questions I always ask delegates in sales training seminars is, “How long do you have to make a first impression?” The answer they give me varies but is always no more than a handful of seconds. In today’s world, people make decisions very quickly and, upon receiving a cold call, even quicker still!
From a receiver’s perspective, they want to decide as fast as possible whether this call is a legitimate, business interruption or a nuisance, spam call. There are three things you need to consider to maximize your chances of achieving the former and minimize your chances of suffering the latter…
- Plan and prepare effectively. Understand why you are calling that individual, why now and how you can make a difference for them. Also, get yourself into the right mindset. Mindset is critical for cold calling (and indeed for selling) and I will be posting some sales training videos on this soon…
- Know how you answer their key question, “What’s in this for me?” If you can’t and don’t answer that, and quickly, you’re toast!
- Avoid coming across as a salesperson and using “crash and burn” sales phrases. I teach people how not to use these on my programmes but the easiest way of thinking about them for yourself is to think about the cold calls you get and think about what really puts your back up at the start of the call… and don’t do it!
For more on cold calling, have a look at this short video I did on 10 tips for cold calling.
“How Do I Avoid My Cold Call Being Viewed As An Interruption By My Prospect?”
I’ve recently been collating common sales questions for a forthcoming book answering all of the main sales queries and questions that sales and business people have. I thought I’d share the answer to this one with you…
“How do I avoid my cold call being viewed as an interruption by my prospect?”
Simple answer: You can never stop your cold call being viewed as an “interruption”. Prospects are not wandering around with their phones under their arms hoping that you give them a call and brighten their days up! And, in a way, this is good news, because it should serve to remind you that you owe it to yourself and the person you are “interrupting” to make it a good call.
There are two types of cold call…
- Nuisance spam calls &
- Legitimate new business calls.
You need to make sure that yours is a legitimate new business call. If you don’t you are never going to get the results that you want from cold calling and that means not enough opportunities and not enough clients.
We’ve all experienced one of those awful calls at home where you’re cooking the dinner and your phone rings and, full of hope that it is one of your friends or family, you answer the phone. But it is a cold caller. You listen agitated as they launch into their pre-prepared, pre-packaged, pre-canned script and eventually you slam the phone down annoyed.
You can never guarantee that your prospects will buy from you. You can never guarantee that your prospects will connect with you. And you can never guarantee that they will even speak with you. That’s just the way that it is…
But you can guarantee that you make cold calls that give you the best chance of being viewed as a legitimate new business call and you can guarantee that you can make your calls relevant to your prospects and not just yourself.
Here are my top tips for differentiating your call from nuisance spam cold calls…
Plan and prepare.
Planning and preparation warms your call up. It tailors your calls for the individual prospect that you are calling. It demonstrates that you have thought about them, their issues and their business and it separates you from junk cold callers.
“Play from a 10”.
When you cold call you need to be in the right state of mind. I call this “playing from a 10” (where 10 is the best state of mind that you can possibly be in). A large part of cold calling success is down to your attitude or your state of mind at the time that you make the call. Being on top of your game helps you to make your call sound like the kind of call that your prospect would want to take and helps you to connect more effectively with your prospect than your also-ran competitors.
Add value.
Think about how you add value for your prospect. Based on your research, what problems and challenges do you think that they might be facing? How can you add value for them? What experience do you have working in this area and how can this help them and their business? Now use this in your opening statement and in your questions so that your prospect can see that you are different, that you have done your research and that you are thinking about them not yourself!
Ask, “How convenient is it to speak?”
Most salespeople don’t ask if it’s a good time for their prospect to take the call. When I tell them to, they say things to me like, “Well, do you expect me to let them get away?!” Look! This call is supposed to be about your client not you. Just because it is convenient for you does not mean it is convenient for them. Don’t be so arrogant! That’s one of the things prospects don’t like about salespeople anyway.
(Footnote, as I am writing this sitting looking at the hills (in Spain), my phone just rang. Expecting it to be a client who was due to call I answered the phone, It was a cold caller from the UK who asked me, “How are you?”£ (Uggh!) then launched into a pitch. At 50ppm I canned the call. Did him not asking help him in anyway? Nope, got him canned faster.)
Ask, “How convenient is it to speak?” immediately after you say hello. This way you have been polite and asked but you have also maximized your chances of them continuing with the call. If they are truly busy then you are better off taking this call another time anyway.
If you have a sales questions that you would like answered then please forward it to me via this Contact Gavin form here or via my Facebook or LinkedIn groups. The better the questions, the better the answers and the better the book will be. And, in any case, where else can you get free advice?!
How To Get That Great Sales Job…
I get asked a lot of questions as a sales speaker and sales training consultant and this week I was asked a question by several salespeople and a magazine about how to position yourself to get that sales job in today’s market so I thought that I would jot down my thoughts…
2009 has been a tough year. For many, a very tough year. I have written several sales training articles and reports about what salespeople, entrepreneurs and business owners need to do in today’s economy to succeed but what about salespeople looking for new sales roles? What can they do? How can they help themselves to secure the jobs and careers moves that they want and desire?
- Maintain a positive mental attitude.
Finding the right role in any market requires motivation and to get the best out of yourself before and during your job search you need to focus on maintaining that positivity and ignoring the negativity that many people are displaying. - Have belief.
Much of your mental positivity, or lack thereof, will stem from your beliefs. Do you believe that you can secure your dream job? Or do you believe that you cannot? Simple beliefs such as these will determine how you feel and therefore how you act. Take time to focus on what you need to believe to succeed and seek out evidence and examples that support those beliefs. - Decide on your perfect company and role.
Spend some time deciding who the perfect company you’d like to work for would be. Many people do not spend enough time thinking about this and end up in the wrong jobs. It is important that you know what kind of company you want to work for, what kind of people you want to work with and what kind of role you want to do. - Utilize your networks.
Utilizing your networks is a powerful way of finding the right role. Recruiters always use their networks and the more successful the recruiter, the more extensive their network is likely to be. Finding a new role through your network makes sense as it is likely to be a good fit and you have an immediate “referral”. What’s more, in today’s market many employers are trying to utilize their networks to find suitable candidates to try and save money so you would be daft not to utilize yours. - Take massive action.
Finding the right role means taking action. To succeed in finding the right role for you today you need to be proactive. Many candidates ask me, “How proactive?” The answer is simple, “Do what it takes?” You need to accept that there may well be fewer jobs and more qualified applicants so take this as a cue to step up to the plate and up your batting averages. - Tailor your CV and application form.
Every job application should be aimed at winning that specific job. When employers have more choice they are able to pick the best. Make sure that your CV and application form is as good as it can possible be for every role that you apply for. - Do your homework.
Basic common sense dictates that you should do your homework about the role, the company and the individual interviewing you where possible. Start with the internet and your favourite search engine, move on to sites like LinkedIn, speak to your personal network, read the company website in detail and even consider ringing the company and asking for brochures, missions statements and product details. - Think about how you add value and sell the sizzle and the steak.
Yes, people want to know what you’ve done, where you worked and what your qualifications are but just as importantly they want to know how you can add value for them and their business. In today’s marketplace, companies tend to be holding back on “headcount” recruitment and filling important “value” based roles. If you can demonstrate how you can add value perhaps through examples of how you added value in previous roles then you will stand out from more mediocre candidates. - Plan & prepare answers to the most likely questions.
Think about the most likely questions and plan how you will answer them. Think about what you want to convey and how you want to convey it. There is never a second chance to make a strong first impression. - Learn from your interviews and don’t give up.
In today’s market it is likely that you may well apply for, interview for and fail to get some of the roles that you go for. This is to be expected. How you respond to these setbacks is critical. Don’t get despondent and allow it to affect your next actions and interviews, use it as a learning experience to make your next interviews more successful.
And remember, you make your own luck in this world. Good luck!
How Important Is My Title When Selling?
Gavin
You came into our offices around a month ago to deliver a morning’s training and said we could contact you with any thoughts/questions we had following the day – hence me getting in contact! I am a fairly junior salesman, currently employed in a pre-sales role i.e. cold calling companies to set up appointments for the sales team. My question is around job titles – in your experience, what difference does a job title make to a persons’ success or indeed their perceived chance of success?
Just going on my own thoughts, the title for my role in my employment contract is ‘Junior Sales Executive’. I feel however that having this on my email signature would probably jeapardise my chance of success – might a prospect see that and assume that I am not senior enough to be dealing with? A further thought is the impression that there is sometimes a stigma attached to being called a salesman – ie nobody in my business calls themselves that on their business card – everyone is a ‘Systems Consultant’. Given my more junior role I describe myself as being in Business Development.
I wondered what your thoughts were? I think that its mostly something for the salesman rather than the prospect to worry about…
What a great question. What difference does a job title make to your success / perceived chance of success? I think that you already know part of the answer with your insertion of the word perceived… I will answer this in two parts…
1) To the salesperson themselves.
Many people, including many salespeople, have limiting beliefs about what being a salesperson means about them. Many people associate negative meaning to being a salesperson. When I speak at sales conferences I often ask attendees what the general public thinks of salespeople and they say things like “pushy, aggressive, slimy, sell their grandma…”. With beliefs like these it is not surprising that many salespeople would rather have a card entitled “account manager” or “account director” rather than “salesperson”.
Clearly, this is not reality. Whatever your title, this does not change who you are and what you can deliver. It does not change how much value you can add for your clients. It does not change your ability to build relationships, grow your network and SELL.
Many salespeople do obsess about titles and how a better title would help them to sell more but then again many salespeople think the same about their territory, their products, their prices and their education. These kinds of thought can have a huge negative impact on your psyche… don’t let them!
2) To the prospect.
Titles can sometimes make a real difference to prospects. Prospects have biases and prejudices the same as everyone else and can make snap decisions about others the same as you do. Some prospects might be turned off by the word “sales” and prefer to think that they were getting “service”. Others may like to think that they are dealing with someone senior and hence prefer a title that reflects this.
The reality of course, is that once you are through the door they will judge you on who you are and no fancy titles or strings of letters after your name will hide the fact if you are a no-hoper. It’s fair to say that sometimes directors have more success setting up appointments with directors than salespeople but then is this because they have the title or because they act like they have the title?
At the end of the day, by far the most important thing is having the right attitude and making the call about your client and not you. Most clients only care about themselves and their business. Why should they care about you or your title?
More thoughts…
You asked the question about the word salesman on the card and I think that some clients would see this as refreshingly honest and others as a turn-off. Conversely speaking, using something else when you are plainly a salesperson may well make no difference and could even make things worse… calling a lion a horse does not mean that you want to be feeding it sugar lumps, does it?
As for the junior thing, yes this could effect your clients and their impression of you particularly initially. If this is an internal title does it really need to be on your cards? This is probably not in anyone’s interests really.
So what does all of this mean?
- Your title may effect people’s impressions about you and may awaken their personal prejudices and preconceptions.
- Your title may effect you and your self-worth but you must not let it. You are not words on a piece of paper.
- Anyone with any title can sell anything and you must not get hung up about this.
- You don’t need to give a title when cold calling… I never have.
- Why not consider not having no title at all? Or like some companies having multiple titles for differing circumstances?
But mostly, don’t fight with reality – you always lose. If you are stuck with a title get over it and get on with it. Anyone can sell with any title at any time and analysing these things for too long may negatively affect your mindset and your sales results…
Is Blogging A Viable Sales Tool?
As a sales author, sales motivational speaker and sales force development consultant it is very important that I walk the talk and continue to learn and develop myself. One activity which I am always recommending to clients, friends and everyone alike is to keep reading new, old and interesting ideas to keep yourself stimulated and on top of your game. My personal favourite subjects for reading about are personal development, sales training, sales force development, motivation and mindset, general business and marketing.
Nowadays I read a lot of blogs and am subscribed to several via RSS feeds. One blog which I read regularly is Trish Jones’ blog. Trish designed GavinIngham.com and did a good job of meeting exactly what I wanted and needed. She recently posted two interesting posts on blogging as a sales tool and whether blogging can sell services or just products.
These are great questions and ones which every sales person, business owner and entrepreneur needs to consider and as with all great questions there are probably several answers but first a little “sermon” about blogs and blogging…
Many blog marketeers have an inherent interest in positioning blogs as the second coming, as the only marketing required in your mix, as all you need to succeed in selling your products, services, or indeed anything that you want to sell.
For most people and for most businesses this is, at best, misleading and, at worst, dishonest. Blogs are a great form of marketing but they are only one form of marketing. Even if your business is your blog you still need to understand how to market your blog in the same ways that you might market a normal website.
Blogs do not market themselves!
What’s worse is that you can market a brochure style, static website and if you do it well people will visit and when they do they may well buy from you. When you market a blog site people will read your blogs first, before they buy anything. This means that you have to write well if want to make any sales. For you to make sales on a blog site people have to want to read what you write, see value in what you write and like the way that you wrote it too.
And they still have to like, want or need your product or service enough to buy it or to make that call!
If your blog is not well written and people do not like it they will not buy anything off you even if they do come to your blog!
If you only market in the “blogosphere” and your target prospects and clients are in the “real world” you are not going to bring in shed loads of new customers. Many of my clients do not even know that my site is a blog, they just like reading it! They don’t post comments, they email me and I respond!
Blogging also needs to be consistent. It is not a quick fix. Indeed it is probably one of the slowest routes to market and requires far more effort than many other instant fix marketing options (think Google adwords).
In my opinion, blogging also needs to be personal. Your content needs to be yours if you want to sell your services and you need to read and respond to your “community” on your blog. This is all very time consuming.
So why would anybody blog?
- To demonstrate expertise.
- To share a passion.
- To promote long-lasting marketing content.
- To build a following.
- To set themselves a cut above everyone else.
But it’s not easy.
Everyone and their dog seem to be setting up blogs these days. Blogging is highly competitive. Whatever your industry is there will already be good blogs with reader bases up and running. To compete with this you need a good subject, a passion about your subject, real knowledge, good writing ability, a strong message, design skills, marketing skills and a connection with your audience. Perhaps most importantly you need to be able to add value for your readers constantly walking the line between interesting and factual. This is the minimum that you need (or need to buy in) to even get you off the starting line…
But can a blog sell a service?
Well… After converting my website at www.gaviningham.com to a blog some 18 months ago I have blogged consistently and on theme. Traffic has grown, readership has grown, enquiries have grown and conversion ratios have upped.
But does my blog sell my services?
Partly.
Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn’t. I think most times my blog pre-sells people on the idea of working with me. They read my blogs and they know what I am about. They get my message and they like it. I guess that those who don’t, never call.
But those who do are pre-sold to a certain extent. You still need to know how to sell. You still need to solve their pains with your solutions. You still need to position your solution effectively. You still need to do all of the other good stuff.
As with all areas of sales and marketing, blogging is not a quick fix super drug that will turn your business around over night but if you have time to commit to it, if you are passionate about it and if you make it part of your overall sales and marketing mix then blogging is a powerful weapon for selling whatever it is that you’re selling.
How Do I Get Myself Motivated To Sell More?
Few people would argue that motivated salespeople and business people sell more. Wandering around looking like the world is out to get you and with your chin dragging along the floor never helped anyone to be a sales superstar and it never will.
Your attitude, your mindset and your approach will always play a huge part in helping you to smash your targets and build the business and the life that you desire. When I am invited to companies as a motivational speaker or sales development consultant one of the most common questions asked by sales managers, sales directors and business owners alike is, “How do I get and keep my sales teams motivated?”
Indeed, one of the most common questions asked of me by salespeople themselves is, “How do I get and keep myself motivated?”
Most people do not understand how and why they get motivated and therefore their motivation levels tend to ebb and flow like the daily tides. Few people have total control of their own motivation levels. Salespeople know that they need to be motivated to sell, they want to be motivated to sell, but often they just cannot maintain that all important motivation to sell.
Motivational speaker motivation tip 1:
Motivation begins and ends with you. You determine your own motivation. Motivation is internal, it’s something that you control; even though you may not realise that this is the case. Most people think that motivation is something external to themselves, something that happens to them. For this reason they and their sales results get buffeted severely throughout life.
Sales superstars do not believe or act this way. Sales superstars know that their personal motivation is down to them. No matter what anyone else does or says they get to choose their own motivation levels. No matter whether they get the deal or they lose the deal, they get to choose their own motivation levels. No matter whether life’s going the way they want or it’s not, they get to choose their own motivation levels.
And it’s that choice that sets them apart and defines them as the rock stars of sales.
If you want to join the ranks of the sales rock star elite now then you need to take responsibility for your motivation on a day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute and moment to moment basis…
Step 1 is to decide to do just that. To decide to hold yourself to a higher standard, to decide that nothing short of operating at the optimum level is acceptable for you anymore, to decide that you are a sales rock star.
Step 2 is to employ effective strategies for boosting your motivation and staying on top of your game. As part of my Real World Sales Tips book project I thought that it would be fun to share your favourite motivational techniques for giving yourself a motivational boost in the arm. One powerful way to get that jolt is by sharing proven techniques so this post is a double whammy – you gain by reading & you gain by sharing.
Make sure that you get involved, the replies for the “What are your favourite sales questions?” post were fantastic, a brilliant resource and you can still add to them now. To see the whole project and every post click here. And remember, the posts are always open so please share your thoughts and expertise in the previous posts as well as sharing your ideas on this latest post how to get and stay motivated. Start by sharing yours in the comments box below now.
What Are Your Favourite Sales Questions?
All sales training experts and sales gurus alike, myself included, extol the virtues of asking good questions. Asking the right question can develop rapport, increase credibility and turn a sale around.
As part of my Real World Sales Tips project I thought that it would be fun to find out what your favourite questions are to ask your clients and prospects.
To get you started here are a few from Real World Sales Skills…
- How do you currently go about…?
- How long have you been operating that way?
- When you considered the options why did you choose that solution?
- How has that solution performed against those criteria?
- What issues have you had with…?
- How often? Who was involved?
- What effect did that have on…?
- Who / what else was effected?
- What options have you considered to resolve this?
Scroll down the page to see other people’s questions and to post your thoughts and ideas.
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