How Not To Win Customers, 3 Sales Strategies That Really Don’t Work!
It’s Christmas and I have probably eaten to much Christmas pudding so perhaps I am feeling unforgiving but, as I wade through crackers, games and pies, I have been mulling over some of the ways that businesess manage to prevent their own sales and lose customers without seemingly trying!
So that got me thinking that it would be a bit of fun to have a look at how no to do it, how not to sell if you like, “How Not To Win Customers, 3 Sales Strategies That Really Don’t Work.”
Sales Loser Strategy 1: Be Unreachable
On Friday 21st December in the afternoon I had done some research online and was trying to order something over the telephone. The first 3 companies that I rang did not even answer the phone! The 4th said that they could not deal with my enquiry until after Christmas and the 5th said that there was no-one available to deal with my enquiry.
The 6th company were delighted to get my call, answered my queries and made the sale. What’s more, they won my business for the forseeable future. Great news for them and all because they were available when their competitors weren’t.
So 5 companies lost out. 5 companies who have put time, effort and money into marketing. 5 companies who have worked at PR and web advertising to create those all important leads and have then thrown their potential new business straight at the wall.
I’d like to say that this is uncommon but it really isn’t. Earlier on this year (as I have blogged about before) I was looking to buy some health insurance so I went online and did some research. I found 6 companies that I liked the look of so I emailed them using a combination of email client and web forms. Only one responded and before you ask, yes these were all well-known, brand names. They would be the names that you would more than likely think of!
Now, this would be bad business even if these businesses were rolling in enquiries but they’re not. It so happens that one of the ones who responded I am running some seminars for this year so I have had chance to speak with them about their market and their market is competitive. They could not believe that their competitors were burning leads in this way.
Is this situation uncommon? I don’t think so. About 18 months ago I was looking at new cars. I have always bought my cars but I did think (momentarily) about hiring / leasing a car. Now this is a very competitive market and one which I have run sales training seminars for in the past… I sent 10 internet enquiries and received only two responses… unbelievable.
So, my first tip for making sure that you don’t close any sales is to be unavailable to your potential customers. Make sure that you don’t have real people answering your telephones, push people through the rounds of “press 2 if you want to…”, don’t cover phones and sales enquiries during holiday periods, don’t return calls and make sure that you keep all enquirers waiting before you return their calls.
Sales Loser Strategy 2: Be Uninterested
If you want to make less sales be more interested in yourself, your company and your products that you are in your customers. This is a sure-fire way of sabotaging your sales results.
When you meet with clients ensure that you keep control of the agenda. Don’t let them interfere with your agenda. You know what you have to present and what will add value for their business so tell them about it.
Don’t be put off by their genuine objections. You shouldn’t let their signs of disinterest or annoyance affect you in any way. Prepare your pitch in advance and always complete every aspect of it whether you think it’s of use or not. You never know what your client might be interested in so do not mess with your format.
Don’t let your client ask irrelevant questions. Don’t be thrown out of your stride by difficult questions. If a question or query is irrelevant, tell your client so and quickly get back to the core points in your presentation.
Know that you know what is best for your client. You are the expert in your industry and you should use that expertise to win them over. Do not be fooled by their comments about what they want or need… you’re the expert and you know best what will help your clients so stick to your guns and tell them what they need.
Sales Loser Strategy 3: Be Unreasonable
If you want to lose customers the last thing that you want to do is be reasonable. Try to think of internal company rules and policies that will make you look unreasonable and maybe even ridiculous to your clients. For inspiration, have a look at this fabulous “unreasonableness” case study that happened to me on Saturday this week…
We had a need to hire a car for Christmas. Being busy we had forgotten to hire it until Saturday 22nd. We rang around a few car hire firms (another very competitive industry) only to find that there were no cars available.
Quickly, we realised that we were going to be lucky to secure a car and that we would probably have to pay “over the odds”. After a few calls we located a car with one of the biggest companies there is. After a few twirls on their machine they told us that a car would be available to pick up on the 23rd and return on the 26th.
Now, all we actually needed was a pick up on the morning of the 24th and a drop off later on that same day but no car was showing as available for that period. I asked if this was because they had a minimium hire period over Christmas and was told yes. Not unreasonable I thought given the potential demand at this time of year so we asked about picking the car up on the morning of the 24th and dropping it off on the 26th… and we were told, yes, that was fine and were given a price.
We confirmed that we would like to hire that car for the 2 day period but that we would drop the car off later on on the 24th (i.e. nearly two days early).
And that’s when the madness started…
“If you bring the car back on 24th there will be an extra charge.”
“Sorry, what?”
“An extra charge.”
“I want to bring the car back early not late.”
“Yes, I know. If you bring it back early there will be a penalty charge.”
“How much?”
”I’m not sure, perhaps the whole rental again.”
”What?! That’s ridiculous, we’re bringing the car back early. It should be less. I understand you want a minimum hire and we’re prepared to pay for that but we do not need the car for all of that time.”
“Yes, but that’s what we’ve been told to do. We cannot have cars not charged out at this busy time of year.”
”Yes, but it will be charged out. Infact, once we get it back you could technically re-rent it out and make double the money.”
“I understand sir but that’s the way it is.”
”But that’s stupid!”
“Yes sir, it is, but that’s what we have been told to do!”
Brilliant! What a masterpiece of unreasonableness (and not caring about what the customer wants). How many times have you come across similar rules and regulations which are clearly “unreasonable” in the eyes of the customer? If you want to destroy your sales results quickly and efficiently, then take some time out now and think of some rules, regulation and behaviours which will come across as totally unreasonable to your potential customers. You’ll be amazed how fast you can lose your customers and bring your business to it’s knees.
So there we are, "How Not To Win Customers, 3 Sales Stategies That Really Don’t Work!" Take some time out now and share your strategies and tactics for achieving a total sales breakdown right now!
Perfect Presentations Article At Training Zone
By Dawn Smith.
Whether giving presentations is the thing you dread most, or just another day at the office, it’s a skill that can always be improved. Dawn Smith gathers some tips and advice from public speaking gurus on how to overcome stage-fright, engage the audience and make your presentations shine.
The New York Times famously reported in 1984 that speaking in public was most people’s biggest fear, ranking higher than death.
For a trainer, presenting to delegates is likely to be daily bread. However, even those experienced at talking to groups can choke when faced with an unfamiliar scenario. “Most people are capable of presenting one-to-one, or even one-to-ten, but various things can conspire to make them nervous,” says Gavin Ingham, a speaker and author who also teaches “Powerful Presenting” courses. The fear-inducing factor may be how important the event is, how many people will be there, who else will be listening, whether it’s being recorded, or even (gulp) televised.
Whatever sets the nerves jangling, getting over them is the key to successful presentations, says Gavin. “70 – 80% of giving a good presentation is down to mindset,” he says. “Get that right, and you can make the most of the communication skills you already have.”
Power of the mindset
The reason state of mind is so important is fairly obvious – a nervous presenter is likely to flunk the delivery, and that’s going to be fatal for the message. “Poor delivery = poor retention + little action,” says Elizabeth Clark, founder of presentation skills training company Rapport Unlimited. She believes presenters should work on the entertainment value of their sessions. “Imagine your presentation is a TV programme,” she says. “Would you want to watch it?”
Knowing that your nerves are getting in the way of a powerful performance can pile up the pressure even higher, so how do you break the vicious circle?
Of course, practicing the real thing is the best way to boost confidence and improve performance: our gurus are agreed on that. “There is no substitute for flying hours,” says Khalid Aziz, chairman of executive training company The Aziz Corporation, and author of Presenting to Win. But until the hours have been built up, anxiety busting-tactics could be called for.
Visualise success: Stephen Palmer and Cary Cooper, in their book How to Deal with Stress, point out that “prior to stressful events people tend to have negative images or pictures in the mind’s eye about how they are going to cope – or, to be more accurate, not going to cope.” This imagery can be replaced with something more positive. The trick is to think about the aspects of the situation you’re most worried about, decide on ways to deal with them (for example, how you’re going to handle difficult questions) and then “slowly picture yourself coping with each anticipated difficulty as it arises”. Then keep practicing that positive imagery prior to the event.
Rehearse the scary bits: Practice walking up and standing in the space that you’ll present from, until you feel easy about it, says Gavin Ingham. In his training courses, he asks people to stand in front of an imaginary audience, and then stand in front of a real group of people – but without saying anything. “A lot of people are not comfortable with that,” he says. “It’s important to hold them there until they are comfortable – because that’s the worst thing that can happen: getting up there and not having any words.”
Breathe: Slowing your breathing combats the physical symptoms of nerves. There’s a deep breathing exercise for warming up before presentations on The Aziz Corporation’s website.
Making the message stick
Nerves are not the only barrier to a powerful delivery. Even confident presenters can fluff the message if they ignore some key realities about presentations – and human nature.
Know your objective: Decide from the start what you want the audience to do after hearing you, says Andy Bounds, who coaches and trains on presentation skills. Prepare your talk around this objective, leaving out every point that doesn’t help towards your goal, and keep it in mind during the event. (He explains a strategy for doing this in his book, The Jelly Effect)
Give the audience what they need: All our gurus agreed that you need to know where the audience are coming from. “You need to do a 180 and look at the subject – and perhaps also yourself – from their point of view,” says Khalid Aziz. “If it doesn’t pass the audience’s ‘so what’ test, the chances are it won’t be a successful presentation,” he says.
“Imagine you’re sitting in the audience yourself,” advises Peter Roper, co-author of networking and public speaking guide, And Death Came Third! . “What would make you think that sitting still for this presentation had been really worth it?”
Andy Bounds adds that it’s especially important to keep the message audience-focused at the start. “If you’re talking about Excel, don’t mention Excel in the first few minutes,” he says. “Say ‘I’ll show you how to save time’. Then, when you’ve got their attention, you can talk about Excel as much as you like.”
Andy Bradbury, author of Successful Presentation Skills, says a common mistake of presenters is to get carried away and “forget to ensure that the audience is still with them.” So keep the audience’s needs in mind throughout the event.
Be yourself… and sell that to the audience: “Be naturally yourself, whether it’s a one-to-one presentation or one-to-10,000,” says Peter Roper. “People will ‘buy’ you first and only listen to your message if you’ve sold yourself well.” Selling yourself means building a rapport with the audience, he says, and one of the easiest ways to do it is to ask a relevant and thought-provoking question at the start.
Reinforce, reinforce, reinforce: “The audience is only going to remember 10% 24 hours later, so make sure they remember the right 10% and what they’re supposed to act on,” says Elizabeth Clark. People have the best retention of what’s said at the beginning and end of a presentation, says Andy Bounds. They also remember things that are repeated and any outstanding points: so make sure you say each of your key points in each of the four different ways.
Use visuals… but avoid death by PowerPoint: People remember more of what they hear and see, compared to what they only hear, says Andy Bradbury, so do whatever you can to graphically illustrate your talk. But don’t fill your visuals with words. “Have images without words, or just very brief points.”
One of the worst mistakes presenters make is putting everything into their PowerPoint slides or course packs, comments Andy Bounds. “If people are reading what you are saying, they will want one of you to shut up. So write some words but not all of them. Leave answers to questions blank, so they’re waiting for you to tell them. Think of you and your PowerPoint slides as the Two Ronnies. You shouldn’t both be saying the same thing at the same time.”
Keep it short: “People have a limited attention span, so don’t go on too long,” says Andy Bradbury. That means doing some planning in advance. “The more experienced you are at presenting the more tempting it is to think that you can just wing it,” he says. “But if you don’t plan, it’s easy to put too much in.” Peter Roper makes the point that over-running is plain bad manners – and the audience will take a dim view of it. “For every second you go past the allotted time, you are fast disappearing in the interest of the audience,” he says.
Don’t worry…: “Presenters worry and focus so much on remembering the content, that the delivery suffers,” says Elizabeth Clark. “The other problem with focusing on the content of your presentation is that your body language suffers and becomes unnatural or poor, thus making your message less believable. The audience isn’t checking your presentation against a script, you won’t be hounded out for not getting it word perfect, so concentrate on the delivery, not the precise words.”
Be happy: Khalid Aziz advises thinking of something happy before stepping up to the lectern. “Virtually all communication is selling,” he comments. “People tend to buy from happy people, not miserable ones.”
Dealing with questions
One of the aspects of public speaking that strikes fear into many hearts is the prospect of difficult questions. Andy Bradbury suggests honestly admitting if you don’t know the answer, then saying that you will find out by a certain time in the future.
A different strategy suggested by several experts is to turn the question around and ask if anyone in the audience knows the answer – which also has the advantage of involving them. (Though Andy Bradbury cautions that if you don’t know the answer yourself, then you’ve no way of knowing if the answer you get from the audience is correct!)
Gavin Ingham comments that when people ask him “what do I do with…?” questions, he replies “what would you do without them?” He points out: “The worst thing is standing there for 20 minutes talking and nobody saying anything. Questions are a good thing! Great presenters get the audience involved straight away. Nervous presenters just talk for 20 minutes – and that’s harder.”
And remember: the audience is on your side
“People actually want you to do a good presentation,” says Gavin Ingham. “They might expect it to be bad because they’ve seen so many bad ones, but they want it to be good. If you engage with them right at the start, and give them a few good things to hold onto, they will be with you all the way.”
Article Copyright Dawn Smith at www.trainingzone.co.uk.
How To Qualify Clients In A Win Win Way
Gavin, you recently wrote an article Selling Pies Should Be Easy and you talked about not throwing up obstacles that make it difficult for our clients to buy from us.
I totally agree with this however in our business there are various criteria that we need to meet that, from the customers point of view, are often seen as obstacles.
To be honest, the customer feels it just isn’t their problem. As you say, as a salesman I need to "smooth" this process and act as a go between "fluffing up" the communication and keeping the deal on track.
I just wondered if you had any tips?
Sales professional,
Building engineering services industry
What a great question! First off, it is important that as a salesperson or company we know what our boundaries are. As I have said many times before, there is little point working with prospects and clients that are going to prove unprofitable or unacceptable to our business.
As a business person, sales professional or entrepreneur, we must decide who we want to work with. Who are our perfect clients? Once we have worked this out we need to check that this market does actually exist and that it can sustain our business. Once we have done this we should avoid working with clients who do not meet our criteria.
As an example, I have a client who sells cars, high end cars. His whole business is based around the concept that he is perceived as a quality supplier of prestige, luxury motors. Much of his business involves sourcing cars for individuals. They approach him looking for a specific car and he locates it for them, handling the search, the negotiation and the logistics.
An elite service for elite clients and a profitable one for my client.
When I first spoke to him his business was getting a lot of calls from not so elite customers asking him to source not so elite cars. He didn’t really want to do the work but my client had been accepting these customers telling himself that "You cannot turn away business".
By accepting this business he is not only dumbing down his brand but also lowering the potential profitability of every deal. After all, it is no easier for him to find a luxury car than a cheaper one! In fact, because of his contacts being for luxury cars, it’s probably harder!
As a business you need to know who you should be working with and you need to put your time, energy and attention into targeting, networking, developing, nurturing, prospecting and adding value to these people. When you reach them you need to ensure that they do indeed meet "your" criteria…
But here’s the snag…
None of this is your client’s problem and nor do they care about it! You cannot do this in such a way that it switches them off. Subtlety is the key. For sure explain that there are criteria but make this an exclusivity thing. Make it something that they want to be a part of not something that they feel is inflexibility.
There is a coach in the US who coaches business owners. He has very strict criteria about what has to happen before you work with him. Indeed, to get onto one of his programmes you have to do a psychometric test! And you have to pay for it yourself.
If you "pass" he will take you on. If you don’t he won’t. No questions answered, no money back!
How does he get away with it?
Positioning. You are made to feel good about this. That it is an exclusive thing.
Protection. He explains also that it’s for your protection too because if the relationship is not right you will not get full value from him.
So the two keys are to demonstrate how these "obstacles" are in the clients interests and to make them feel exclusive or special for working with you.
Your mindset will make a significant difference to your approach here too so keep asking yourself, "How can I make sure that I achieve my objectives and my client feels good about it too?"
Why not share your tips for "qualifying" clients in a win win way below?
The Sales Apprentice: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part XI
It’s not the job interview from hell for nothing and tonight we saw why working for SAS might really be hell. Not for him the subtleties of interviewing but the in your face, I need to know all about your personal life crash, bang, whallop approach. With no task this week, sales training tips were a little more subtle than other weeks…
Maybe this approach will work? Perhaps we will we find out if any of the apprentices are actually drop dead shrewd? Or discover if Lohit really deserves to be there? Or uncover whether Katie really is as appalling as she seems? Maybe we’ll discover whether Kristina is the real deal, whether Simon has any substance and if Tre’s supercharged, self-confidence is accurate or misplaced?
Or maybe we won’t…
I thought last year that the interviews were aggressive and unrealistic. If anything they were worse this year with one of the interviewers being aggressive and intrusive to the point of rudeness.
Sales training tip: If you want to have a good interview then you need to give your potential employee some room to talk. You need to find out what motivates them and why. You need to plan and prepare questions.
Many of you who know me from sales training seminars will know that I believe that planning and preparation is critical for sales success. This is not because I am the process driven type. In fact, quite the opposite as I’m the sort who opens up the new DVD player and sets it up without even looking at the instructions! Until I get stuck at least!
For the last year in sales training I have talked about how in last year’s final of The Apprentice the candidates let themselves down by not even knowing what SAS’s company did. I did not expect the same basic sales mistake again. Amazingly, both Tre and Katie had to admit that they had done little or no research.
Sales training tip: Planning and preparation is critical to your sales success. Make sure that when you go on a sales meeting you know what you need to know. It is not uncommon for clients and prospects to ask, “What do you know about our company then?” Ouch! Even if they don’t ask this, lack of planning and preparation means that you have to ask basic information questions at the expense of more focused and targeted sales questions. This can lose you the client, the sales and your reputation.
SAS explains that today is going to be a gruelling interview process to see if the candidates are good enough to work for him and his companies. Three people will be fired. The interviews are going to be conducted by 3 of SAS’s friend and colleagues – Bordan Tkachuk, Claude Littner, and Paul Kemsley.
The interviews themselves were vaguely interesting however they jumped around so much it was very difficult to work out what really went on in them. There was also a heavy amount of bias as to who got airtime and for what. To say these interviews actually took hours, we really saw only a few minutes and these were all very “themed.”
Katie was asked about ruthlessness. When asked if she had ever lied or cheated she said yes to get someone else’s husband because she wanted him. She then said that this act was only an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10 for ruthlessness.
Paul focused on the fact that she was a mum with two young kids. Katie said she wasn’t a “softly, softly mum” who does cooking and wears florals. She was a 90k a year, brand consultant who works for a global business and has a gold card. She does talk a good game! She also has some very strong stereotypes of people.
Sales training tip: Be careful of stereotyping your clients. Whilst it is important to do background research we need to be careful not to stereotype individuals. Once we pigeon hole people in this way it is very likely that this will effect every interaction with this person (or group). I have heard many salespeople stereotype prospects as tyre-kickers only to later discover that they bought off of one of their competitors that very day!
Lohit had a hard time from Claude. “Do you know the word humility? Would it apply to you? You talk about how you have achieved more than people twice your age. I am twice your age I would like to think I have achieved more than you.”
Paul asked what made him angry and he said when people don’t deliver. Paul asked if he had lost his temper yet and then accused him of being “middle of the road” and “boring”!
Next we saw Paul with Simon. ““Look at me when I am talking to you”
Sales training tip: Some people have a look to listen rule. This means that if you do not look at them when they are talking they do not think that you are paying attention. As a sales professional it is important that you start to notice visual information like this so that you can use it to your advantage. Spend some time in your sales meetings and sales training working on understanding people and how to communicate more effectively with a larger variety of people.
Simon was accused of having had a great education and starting in the city but then losing himself after getting made redundant. Do other companies let good people go he was asked? At least he was humble enough to concede that others had produced better results. You’ve gone from being an employee in Credit Suisse to being an entrepreneur and now you want to go back into employment. I don’t know where you are going said one of the interviewers.
With Tre we focused on whether he was running a company from his bedroom and whether he did or did not have 15 offices around the world. Was this his company or his family’s? Paul told Tre that he was confused and asked why he talks about success when the only success he had had was one that ended in disaster. He continued by telling Tre that he asked the questions and Tre should just answer!
We saw little of Kristina in interview other than to see her being asked a few simple questions.
Back in the boardroom SAS met with Paul, Claude and Bordan to give the following damning indictments…
Kristina.
They like her. She has “stickability” and is competent, hard working and fun. She’s a credible candidate who was pleasant and good on interview. She’s bright cheery and smiley. “I would employ her as a manager”, one stated. Borden thinks she could be a good asset.
Tre.
They have doubts about. When you get him in a corner he gets aggressive. He doesn’t like being questioned. But they acknowledge that he has been picking up contracts and has the best record of any of the candidates in the competition and that he has “been instrumental” in some of these wins.
Lohit.
Was the least credible candidate said one and has no leadership skills. Paul says he has no chance. Borden thinks the same. SAS says that he thinks Lohit doesn’t know what he is saying a lot of the time.
Simon.
Has all of the background and training. He is intelligent, articulate and well researched. Paul thinks he is a gross under achiever and asks what he has done. Borden says he could not get to grips with his career story and what happened. Claude says he thinks he has lost his way but that he would not write him off because he’s only young and given a chance he could succeed.
Katie.
Paul says she is bright and capable. You could give her a job to do and she would do it but she could upset people. She’s a powerful aggressive lady. Claude doesn’t agree – he thinks she is a showman and a great talker. But he doesn’t think she has a clue. Borden says the girl is ruthless. I don’t know if I saw the real Katie or if I could begin to understand anything but the charade. Paul thinks she is a go getter. They agree her motivation is all about winning.
Sales training tip: A core skill of selling is the ability to engage, communicate and present to others. Katie is a great presenter and communicator. Whatever you think of her other skills, experience or ability she has consistently made a strong case for herself when presenting and in the boardroom. Despite the fact that she has made several wrong business decisions she is still, at this late stage, seen as a key player because of her strengths in presenting herself well. As a salesperson you need all of the skills, knowledge and techniques and you need to be able to present yourself as confident, articulate and credible. By doing regular sales training you can ensure that you not only have the right sales skills but also the right interpersonal skills too.
SAS calls our famous five to the boardroom. He starts by talking to Kristina and asks her if she would move house to get the job. She says she would. He asks if she is sure. She says, “Absolutely positive”.
Sales training tip: As a salesperson people will often lie to you or be economical with the truth. You need to learn to listen beyond what they say and focus in on the way that they say it as well. Kristina absolutely meant what she said – you could hear it in her pace, pitch and tone.
SAS turned on Katie and took a similar tack with his questions. She said she would move. He asked if it was a simple as that. She said that “it can be.”
Sales training tip: Listen to language. People tell you what you need to know but we often ignore it, hearing instead what we want to hear. Not only did Katie not answer positively but her words were vague and non committal. “It can be that easy”. That is never a yes.
“This is it I am going to pick the two finalists. Three people are going. Lohit I am trying to search what you are going to do for me. I can’t see it. Lohit you are a very nice fine fellow. I want to put you out of your misery. You’re fired.”
And there were four.
SAS turned his attention back to Katie…
Ed. Now I’m with Claude. She has made bad business decisions, switched people off and has a nasty streak. She is a good presenter and can sell herself but that’s it for me. Surely she is about to go…
Katie, you’re in the final!
Amazing. He obviously sees something I haven’t. But there’s something strange going on now. Her cheeks are a strange pink colour. There is no joy on her face. She is looking down. Is she embarrassed? Upset? Angry? She looks at him very, very strangely.
“Tre you have something. But my colleagues find that you have difficulty in accepting criticism. They find you difficult and I have to say that they are spot on because I find that also. I think you need to grow up and be a little less defensive. I cannot see you slotting into the organisation. Tre you’re fired.”
SAS turns back to Katie. You don’t look happy. She says that she hasn’t planned for this and that she needs to speak to her parents and support network before moving. They have a conversation and she bows out of the competition.
What a surprise (not). She’s been playing them all along.
SAS says that what we saw there was someone who wasn’t going to give me the commitment. He congratulates his finalists Kristina and Simon.
Nick’s closing words about Katie say it all, “She’s a game player. That’s what she is, a game player.”
So what sales training tips do we learn from tonight’s episode…
Sales training tip 1: Research! Research! Research!
Whether you are visiting a client or interviewing a new salesperson you need to do your research. Planning and preparation are what separate professionals from amateurs. If you want to get more business then you need to do your prep on your prospects. If you want to get that great sales job or promotion you need to do your research. If you want to land good salespeople for your sales teams you need to plan your interview.
Sales training tip 2: Know the personalities involved
Research the individuals that you are selling to. What are they like? What do they like? How are they going to be? We saw Paul last year, we knew he was direct. The apprentices should have been much more well prepared.
Sales training tip 3: Only sell to reality
Clients will often say one thing to you when they mean another. They do this for all sorts of reasons… Maybe they just want to expedite the sales process. Maybe they don’t trust you. Perhaps they just don’t want to share with you. No matter. Whatever the reasons, your role is to open up your communication channels and seek out the real meaning and intent behind their communication. You will only make sales if you sell to reality.
The Sales Apprentice: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part X
Week 10 of our Sales Apprentice and what a week! I was pretty much incensed for the whole hour. This was a sales training lesson in how not to sell and for once I would question SAS’s firing decision although I think it was fairly obvious why he did it…
After a quick shuffle of the teams SAS set this week’s task, “You are going to be selling live on TV. The team that sells the most will win.” He told them to be careful about the products that they chose and then told the camera that if these products were too expensive they might not sell any and if they were too cheap they might have to sell 10,000 to beat the other team.
Our intrepid Sales Apprentices headed for Ideal World in Peterborough. Both teams were to select a range of products to sell live on TV. With the teams down to 3 each they had to do one solo slot and one duo slot per team. This week the teams were being headed up by Kristina and Simon. Kristina backed up by Lohit and Katie, Simon supported by Tre and Naomi.
As the camera panned across Ideal World we heard one of the “professional” presenters, “Would you recommend these to your friends Doreen?” “Yes”, came back the forced reply. How much more powerful would it have been to ask, “Why would you recommend these to your friends Doreen?” and have heard a compelling customer reason for purchase.
Yet again this week Katie is going to escape the chop and yet again she is on her soap box, “I would never buy anything off the TV nor would I associate with anyone who did buy anything off the TV.” She then went on to say that she is naming her target audience Mavis, a big breasted woman with no friends who rings up because Lohit looks like a nice boy. She calls herself a brand manager but all she has done so far is rubbish her competitors, the products she sells and her potential customers. If she was representing your brand, would you be confident of what she was saying behind your back?
Sales training tip: If you want to stay in your market for more than 5 minutes you need to be congruent. This means doing what you say you will do, acting in alignment with how you present yourself to your clients and being true to yourself. Anything less will effect your relationships, your reputation and your long-term sales potential.
After some brief sales training sessions it became clear that our sales teams have neither a clue about presenting nor any idea about what might sell. The teams must pick from the channel’s stock of over 50,000 items. Now I do watch TV selling channels occasionally. Not because I love them but because I think it is interesting to watch people selling this way…. Predominant on these channels are jewellery, fitness equipment, cleaning products, collectibles and craft type products. This suggests to me that these things might sell well.
Simon however was going for (in his own words) a risky strategy. He decided to present alone and was allocating a lightweight wheelchair for Tre and Naomi to sell. However you look atthis choice, it was a niche market and a big risk. He also selected a hair removal product for them to sell. Tre and Naomi picked a light weight trampoline and some Decoupage. This is something to do with craft work and if you want to know more I will email my Mum to find out what exactly.
Tre and Naomi are not happy with the wheelchair. Tre asks, “Don’t you think it’s a very, very niche product?” Simon answers, “No.”
Ahem!
Simon in turn does not like the trampoline, a much better choice in my opinion.
Over on the other team Kristina has decided to present solo leaving Katie and Lohit to present together. She has picked for them some slimming pants and a foot spa. They have picked a steam cleaner and a chocolate fountain for her.
Tre tells Simon again that he does not agree with the choice of a wheel chair. Simon says that it’s his choice and he will “carry the can” if they lose the task. Brave talk but is it bravado?
After learning more about their products it becomes patently clear that the teams are not going to be ready in time but the show goes on anyway…
Up first was Kristina with the chocolate fountain. Remember, she has been my favourite but this week she made it very hard for me to keep routing for her. Peppering every uncomfortable sentence with an uprising, “Ok” she sounded unconfident, unhappy and unprepared. This was not her natural home.
Sales training tip: If you pepper your sentences with surplus wordage (e.g. Ok, basically, honestly, frankly, at the end of the day…) you need to work hard to cut it out. It can make you sound unprepared, unsure and very junior.
But if that was bad, her sales pitch of the steam cleaner was worse. I’m amazed that Ideal World did not pull the plug. Embarrassing. SAS, who was watching, was pulling his hair out. “Didn’t you practise?” he squawked at the TV. Unfair. Clearly they did their practise. You did not give them time to learn how to do the job effectively.
Sales training tip: Learning how to sell properly is critical to your success. Walking into sales situations without the right techniques and skills will not be pretty! It does not matter how long it takes to get you well trained, what is important is that you are. It was obvious that our Sales Apprentices never were and never were going to be prepared fully for this task. None the less, I would have liked Kristina to have done better.
Next on were Katie and Lohit. Katie seemed quite natural and relatively at ease when presenting. She can present it would seem. Shame she is such a two-faced charmer. Poor old Mavis would never realise that Katie actually despised her.
Following Katie are Naomi and Tre pitching the hair removal kit and the wheelchair. Simon, who is behind the mike, and supposedly guiding them, freezes. He has nothing to say. Nothing! When the wheelchair arrives on the screen SAS exclaims, “What brain dead chose that?” and continues, “It is the worst item.”
Next up is Simon. He clearly has no idea what the Decoupage foam pads are. He fairs little better with the trampoline. Oh my goodness me. Between them the teams have lost the channel tens of thousands of pounds.
I hope SAS repaid it.
Up until now I was thinking Kristina. Now, I’m not even sure about her. Perhaps he won’t take anyone on at all? Our two teams sold 1/10 of what Ideal World would usually expect to sell in an hour. Ouch! SAS is not impressed. Simon’s team have brought home £921.79 and Kristina’s £1339.10.
Surely Simon has to go. He picked the wrong products. He said he would take the can if they lost. He froze in the control room and he couldn’t sell the products at all….
But SAS has different ideas. He says this is all about picking products and does a 180 saying that Simon’s picks sold and Naomi and Tre’s didn’t. The fatal errors seem to lie with these two he declared. Simon renages on his “carry the can” speech and sees some hope. SAS is on a roll, “Simon chose better products.”
What?
SAS may I remind you please of your initial comment on Simon’s wheelchair, “What brain dead chose that?” and then, “It’s the worst.”
First off I disagree. The trampoline was a good choice. It should and could have sold but Simon failed to sell it. This sort of stuff sells like hotcakes on the TV, it’s just a case of getting the right hook. The wheelchair sold (a couple) because Katie and Tre got behind it. Sure, this task was about picking the right products but it was also about selling and it was selling, or lack of it, that made the difference here. But SAS is not playing straight now, he clearly saw no place for Naomi in his business and he clearly likes Simon.
Naomi with regret, you’re fired.
She was never going to win but she can rightly feel robbed and Simon should consider himself an eight lifed cat! He could well take those lives right to the end of this competition – still with Kristina despite her poor performance today. My money’s still on Kristina – just!
So what’s our sales training lesson of the day?
Simple. You can sell anything but you need to learn how to sell it properly. You might get lucky in the short term but in the long run you need to employ the right strategies, the right techniques and the right processes. You need to build your sales skills through learning, practise and refinement.
You’re in your career for a lifetime so you don’t have to be great over night. In fact, it’s often better to struggle a little… at first. Salespeople who struggle a little have to commit themselves to learning and practise and this gives them effective, repeatable sales skills which they can use day in and day out, in good times and in challenging ones. Sometimes those who find it all comes to them a little to easily struggle when times are rough because they don’t have the necessary skills.
I recently got a call from a client who had been in a buoyant market. Their sales were easily come by and their sales staff complacent and overpaid. As in every industry times were changing and they were getting left behind by new players entering their market with enthusiastic, hungry and well trained salespeople. They needed sales training. Don’t wait until you’re in the mire, build your own sales development plan and take some time out of your busy schedule to ensure that you keep your sales skills sharp so that you can maintain your competitive edge.
The Sales Apprentice: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part IX
630am. The phone rings, waking our Sales Apprentices from their self-contemplation. Time for some sales training lessons. SAS would like to meet you in Greenwich. “We’ve done selling. We’ve done exporting. We haven’t touched importing. Billions of pounds of goods are imported every year.” SAS wanted our teams to speak to 5 countries who will each pitch 3 products to them. Our heroes are to decide which country they wish to work with and then sell those products to the trade. As usual, the team that makes the most cash wins.
First stop was the Royal Naval College where our two teams, headed by Katie and Tre, met the representatives of the countries to see their products.
After viewing some frankly weird products Katie and her team decide to back Canada who had a self-assembly rug, a sports shoe insole which is being trialled by Everton and a portable light therapy device. Tre and his team pitched for Sweden, home of weed filled dolls, a silent but deadly air purifier and a vacuum nozzle.
After making these decisions Katie and Stealth headed en masse for the Canadian trade commission to find out more. Tre took Simon to the Swedish trade office but sent Lohit and Jadine to book appointments for the next day.
Sales training time management tip: Sales superstars use their time well. They plan out what they need to do and they get on with it. Getting a head start on the next day always makes sense and having a few sales meeting “in the bag” will surely start your day with a bang.
Jadine however had other plans. She was missing her daughter and got somewhat emotional. Lohit got sidetracked by her. Whilst I feel sorry for her and I respect him for helping this was the wrong time to get down in the dumps. Without sales meetings with bona fide clients, your sales efforts are doomed. This was not a maybe, a perhaps or a whatever task… it was a “must do” and they blew it. We later found out that Jadine had trade cold calling experience and Lohit once held the record for the most sales in one day on the telephone. Jadine made no calls. Lohit made some but snagged only one sales appointment. Not good.
Sales training tip: Cold calling for appointments is critical for your success. Work out how many appointments you need and make the relevant number of calls. If you’re scared of cold calling then check out my No Fear Cold Calling and Power Canvassing products and seminars… they’ll warm you up!
Back from the Canadian office the girls team had left it too late to book appointments for tomorrow. Tre’s team have missed a golden opportunity here to get ahead.
Back at the house Tre, Lohit and Simon briefed each other on the products, who they are going to sell to and their (one) appointment. Jadine is absent.
8am, day 2, and the teams have one day to convince UK retailers to buy their foreign products. They must be back in the boardroom by 630pm or face a fine. With no appointments Katie tells her team to get straight on the phones. Personally, she is targeting rug shops. Marathon runner Naomi is on the hunt for sports shops for the insoles. Kristina will be looking for high end chemists who might be able to retail the lamp.
Tre’s team start edwell. Their one appointment at a children’s store results in an order. There is an important lesson to learn here.
Sales training tip: Selling is not difficult. Tre and Simon only picked this product yesterday. They have never sold it before. Lohit made a cold call getting the appointment and they have closed the deal. Many salespeople have this kind of result when they start out. Problem is, they get fixated on failure and rejection rather than on success and they make the whole think too complicated and difficult. Keep your sales as simple as you can.
Pretty soon both teams got down to something the announcer is calling “door stepping”, door to door sales to you and me. Now this confuses me and it has confused me every time they have done it. Why walk the streets hoping to get a bite when you can cover 10 times as much ground securing meetings on the phone? With a targeted campaign they could have covered hundreds of businesses on the phone…
Kristina (my current recommendation) who did seem to be setting up appointments on the phone landed an appointment to “pitch” the lamp. With 10 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry Kristina kicked off with some hard science… (Ed. So the commentator called it). Certainly she did sound knowledgeable but some sales questions wouldn’t have gone amiss. At one point the client said, “The fact that it is portable is a strong selling point”, Kristina talked straight back at him.
Sales training tip: When someone makes such a strong statement you need to “ask it back”. “Why do you think this is a strong selling point?”, “What makes that such a strong selling point?”, “How will that help you shift these?” or even “How is that going to help your customers?”
Kristina made the sale… could it have been bigger had she asked a few more questions? We’ll never know.
Meanwhile, Jadine and Lohit were going door to door with the dolls and the vacuum nozzle adaptors. Why? Why? Why? After one presentation the shop owner said that he would have to get back to them as he needed to speak to the decision maker. He eventually did make the sale but this cost them a 10% fine as they were late back. This need never have happened. A proper sales meeting set up on the phone would have seen the right decision makers in the right place at the right time.
Meanwhile Katie and Naomi did a deal for £1500 of insoles. The buyer said that they had convinced him. Passion and enthusiasm can go a long way in sales!
The girls’ team were struggling to sell the rug in a box. Kristina doesn’t know how to put the rug together so she told her prospect that it is so easy that he ought to do it to see for himself. Very clever but also a smart sales move. Most salespeople are far too quick to demonstrate. Getting the client involved in this way allowed him to actually experience the product rather than him resisting your sales pitch.
Right at the end of play Jadine and Lohit demonstrated a great sales training tip on sales negotiations – never cave in on first offers. A buyer they had been waiting for all afternoon rang in and asked if 5 really was the minimum order. Jadine said. “Yes” – pause – the client bought. Excellent.
In the boardroom SAS is not a happy bunny because some people are late. The figures are in. Katie’s Stealth have eclipsed Tre’s Eclipse with £2226.59 to £1344.29. Over £4,500 of sales with no leads and no product knowledge and all in one day.
Sales training tip: If you sometimes sit around moaning that you haven’t got any sales leads and that there is no business out there, stop it now! There’s business out there whatever your field and our Sales Apprentices just proved it!
Next day in the board room Jadine said that the reason why Tre wasn’t a good team leader was that he didn’t praise them enough.
Let’s nail this now. Selling is about you, not your boss. Sure, it’s nice to get praise and when I do consultancy I help sales directors and business owners to get the most out of their sales teams by getting this motivational tool right but ultimately I ‘aint talking to your managers now, I’m talking to you! If you did the work and you did the deal, you don’t need anyone else to say “well done”. You should pat yourself on the back and know that it will be reflected in your pay packet, your promotion prospects and your long-term well being.
Lohit blamed the list of numbers. A bad salesmen blames his tools. I’ve written about it before so I won’t again here but you have to decide…
Sales training question: Is your sales career about results or reasons? Everyone always has a reason for not getting results. Reasons will stop you changing and taking action to get the results you want and need.
Tre admitted that he may have made some mistakes. No really, he did! SAS thinks it is a disaster and he is surprised at Tre. Simon and Lohit say that Tre makes good contributions usually. Tre admits he has cocked it up, just not “royally”. SAS is not impressed. “Lohit I think you’re very articulate and I am struggling to see where you can fit in my organisation.” On Jadine, “In business you get home sick. In business you miss your children. Life sucks you have to get over it. It should never effect what you’re doing.”
SAS says it’s a difficult one but I had already written the final line, “Jadine, you’re fired.” I hadn’t however bargained for the kind words from Big Al, “There’s nothing bad I want to say about you.” Go home and see your daughter. Jadine looked relieved more than sad.
So what are the main sales training lessons of the show?
- Plan and prepare
It was patently obvious tonight as with all of these tasks that timings were going to be important. It was also clear that the team that could see the most qualified prospects would be the winner. As a salesperson you have to plan and prepare your day effectively. You need to know what are the key tasks that you need to get done, when and why? Take time to plan your activities and appointments so that you can get the most out of your time. The time spent planning will be well worth it.
- Utilise the phone
The phone is one of the most important business tools that you have. It allows you to reach people at the other side of the world or the other side of the street in seconds. As a salesperson you should be an expert at knowing when to use the phone and when not to. Prospecting and setting up meetings is an area where you can cover far more ground than you can on foot.I am not knocking cold calling using shank’s pony per sae and in some industries it is still very effective however it should always be coupled with powerful use of the phone.
- Don’t visit people willy-nilly
Many salespeople worry that taking time out to plan is time wasted. They are wrong. Even had our teams been right to hit the streets (which they weren’t in the way they did it in my opinion) they would have been better planning and preparing their routes first. As a salesperson I never went out on one client meeting. I always set up more than one at the same company or at a nearby company whenever I could. OK, so this takes some time to plan and prepare but not as much as driving willy-nilly across the country. - Make results not reasons
There are always reasons why you didn’t hit target, reasons why your client didn’t buy, reasons why you did not get promoted. Reasons might make you feel better in the short term but they will hold you back in the long run.You lost the deal because you hadn’t got the right sales skills, then get them. You missed target because you haven’t got enough leads, then get more. It’s up to you – reasons or results?!
Tonight’s all about taking action so take a moment and plan…. What are you going to do to get more sales results and less reasons?
The Sales Apprentice: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part VII
Ring! Ring! Ring!
6am and the teams are ordered to meet at the Lloyds Building. Cars will be with them in 20 minutes. Clearly, getting ready fast is important for big business people! How do all those Sales Apprentices get ready so fast?
On arrival we found out that today’s task was all about “buying”. SAS wanted to test the sales negotiation skills of the teams by pitching them into a series of separate sales negotiations. To facilitate this, each team was given a list of 10 items which they had to buy for the least possible amount of money. They would be given guide prices and a fixed amount of money. The team with the most money left at the end would be the winner.
On the face of it this seemed like a task that would be full of sales training tips and strategies and it was… well, sort of!
Tonight’s intrepid “leaders” were Adam, the car sales manager, and Simon, a Cambridge graduate and internet entrepreneur. This was going to be a tough task for Adam as if his team lost this week he would be guaranteed to be in the board room for the 4th week running! Surely, if this were to happen the programme would end with him towing his suitcase to the waiting taxi at the end of the show!
Segue to SAS who informed us that this task was all about three core business skills… research, negotiation and time management. I agree with him entirely here but I thought that the research bit might have had a bit more credibility if he hadn’t given them guide prices for each of the articles. How much more fun would it have been if they had to research the market and get their own guide prices? And as for negotiation … well there were plenty of sales training tips to latch onto but really we were never talking about negotiation here…
We gradually found out during the programme what the rather random group of 10 items were although I seem to have lost one of them along the way somewhere!
- A pair of leather trousers
- Marble tiles
- Leg wax
- Wet suit
- A white rabbit
- 3kg of Nigella seeds
- A 1997 Peugeot 106 car battery
- A unicycle
- A Brabantia bin
Simon decided early on that the key to completing the task was to make his teams’ negotiations quick and timely. It’s true that time can and does play an important part in many negotiations with clients and sales people alike speeding up and slowing down sales negotiations for many different strategic reasons. In this scenario however, this decision was going to cost him.
By speeding up these negotiations he simply weakened his negotiation stance and gave the client the impression that he was short of time and rather desperate. Although we didn’t see much actual negotiating this would have encouraged the sellers to “stand firm” feeling that Simon and his team would have little time to go elsewhere if they didn’t buy from them!
Sales training tip: Know how to use time to control negotiations. Mis-timing, whether instigated by you or your client, can seriously damage your wealth!
So let’s get to the crux of the day… it was all about negotiation. Or was it?
Well nearly. Let’s have a look at a dictionary definition of negotiation that I use in all of my sales negotiation training seminars…
Negotiate v. confer in order to reach an agreement / arrange or bring about / find a way over, through etc / transfer to another for consideration / convert into money
~ Oxford Compact English Dictionary
So not really a negotiation then.
In none of their negotiations was there anything to transfer to another. This was a simple case of trying to get someone to give you something for the cheapest possible price. But the problem was that there was little incentive for anyone selling to discount…
Sure, it’s an important business lesson to learn that you need to get best prices from your suppliers but asking, “What’s the best you got?” and saying, “You’ll have to do better than that?” do not in of themselves constitute a negotiation! In “Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares” he nearly always takes the egotistical chef on a shopping expedition to show him how to buy good food, cheaply. He also haggles with the traders to get best price and in essence that is what we had here… haggling.
Sales training tip: Negotiation presupposes not only that both parties want to reach an agreement but also that that you have something to negotiate with!
The line between negotiating and haggling was lost on our sales teams although we saw many willing, if weak efforts…
Simon on leather trousers: “Is there anything we can do? Nothing we can do?”
Sales training tip: Avoid closed questions of this kind when conducting a sales negotiation. It makes it far too easy for the client to say, “No”.
Have a look at another exchange…
Ghazal: “Is it negotiable?”
Sales: “No”
Adam: “Can you do anything at all?”
Sales: “No”
Adam: “Anything?”
Sales: “No”
Pointless.
In negotiations it is important that you put yourself in the shoes of your client and ask yourself why they are going to discount. In this show I found myself constantly thinking, “Why would they discount to help you for nothing in return?”
Negotiation requires planning and preparation. I know our Sales Apprentices had guide prices but why didn’t they ring around and get several ballpark prices? They seemed to spend far too much time running around in the streets… and far too little pre-negotiating on the phone? Did any of them think about getting several quotes and playing the suppliers off against each other? If they did, we never saw it.
Think about it! If someone turned up at your door, in a rush and with no time left and you knew that they had gone out of their way to get to you and that if they don’t buy they’re in trouble would you negotiate?
No! Me neither! I would know that I was the one with all of the power in this negotiation.
Sales training tip: View things from both your own and your client’s perspective when negotiating. Ensure that you consider the relative power of both parties.
Meanwhile Katie and Kristina were “negotiating” some good deals. This wasn’t full on negotiation but more, “Please can you help us” – smile – "P-l-e-a-s-e". Good on them for getting some good deals but this looked more like good old persuasion and personal rapport to me. A useful tool for improving your negotiations, in fact critical, but not negotiation!
At the end of the task Simon’s team had secured all 10 items but they had only made very small discounts. Adam’s team had only 9 of the items so they incurred an £80 fine. In the event, Simon’s team were fined too for buying “seconds” marble tiles instead of perfect thus incurring a £50 fine. Despite this Simon’s team won by 97 pence!
So Adam was in the board room for the 4th week running. This was never going to end well for him. He chose to take back Ghazal and Katie but had little on them. Even though he had to go I was routing for him. I really wanted Katie to go. She bitches about all of the other Sales Apprentices behind their backs and says really nasty things which often include bad things befalling the other players.
Tonight she pretty much said that all Northerners are stupid…
On Adam she wished that he, “… secures his route to the North and his Northern chums where I feel he belongs”.
Stay South of the M25 “sweetie” (her words to Adam – patronising girl), I don’t think us thick Northerners will be welcoming you to our whippet racing, flat cap wearing, ferret parties!
Maybe he’s not going to set the world alight but if Adam had missed anything glaring tonight it was Katie stabbing him in the back… (Aside: I do wonder if SAS sees the videos before he make his decisions…).
Katie finished off by saying to Ghazal that she’d had her revenge for last week and the “wrong man” getting fired and that the only thing that would make her happier would be if Kristina went too. Can’t see that myself. She then returned to the house and lied to the rest of the team about what SAS had actually said. Enough said.
So what do we learn from tonight’s Sales Apprentice…
- Negotiation is a two way process and requires concessions and variables to be traded as the two parties work towards a common goal.
- Consideration of the relative strengths of the parties involved is critical to your success. There is no substitute for research.
- Without concessions or leverage most negotiations resort to persuasion, haggling and ultimately pleading.
- Consideration of the other parties’ situation / needs / wants from their perspective is critical to your success.
- Asking the right questions is fundamental to negotiating a better deal.
The Sales Apprentice: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part V
"Now 11 remain to fight for the chance to become the Apprentice." So began this week’s episode of the hit TV show which was primarily about selling and was packed to the rafters with sales training tips for the sales superstar in waiting.
This week’s task for our "wannabees" was to dabble in the art market selling photography. After picking 2 potential photographers each our heroes were to see who could make the most profit from art sales in one day. SAS was on top form declaring this to be "a special kind of salesmanship" where one cannot talk people into buying but where our team had to "smell" when a potential customer was on the hook!
They all had very different ways of approaching this task…
The two teams, led by Christina, the pharmaceutical sales manager, and Natalie, who has an MBA, split up and set about the task of speaking to the photographers. They all had very different ways of approaching this task. Katie preferred to find out all about the photographers, their desires wants and needs. Adam on the other hand got down to figures fast! Katie was, as usual, unimpressed, declaring to the camera that this was not a car lot and that if Adam went back to one and got run over that would be ok by her!
"If we pick you, do we have your commitment?"
Under Nat, Katie pushed their team down a very "softly-softly" route. Christina meanwhile was getting business like with Tim, a horse photographer. Who is your typical buyer? Have you a client list? Great questions. She even tried a commitment close, "If we pick you, do we have your commitment?" Nice.
Because of the nature of the competition this task was a double-edged sword. Not only did the teams have to sell photographs but they also had to "sell" the photographers on the idea of working with their team.
Not happy with totally blowing the deal she decided to alienate her client even more…
The first big sales training lesson of the night came from Natalie when her team visited Tim, the horse photographer. She walked through the door announcing, "We have 10 minutes". If you were the client how would that make you feel? What would you be thinking? I know that I would be annoyed and thinking, "So I’m a last resort am I? You don’t value me or my work. Thanks!" As if that weren’t bad enough Nat’s phone then rang. "Excuse me I have to take this" she said, turning her back on her prospect and walking off. That… just lost you that photographer Nat. There’s no come back from there. Not happy with totally blowing the deal she decided to alienate her prospect even more, "Tim, I hate to cut in. We must go."
Sales training advice: No matter how important you think you or your business is you cannot behave in this way and expect to get away with it. When you are with your clients you need to be with your clients 100%. No distractions. No interruptions. Be honest – are you totally focused when you are with your clients?
Back to the show, both teams picked the same two photographers – Tim and another called Elizabeth. Not surprisingly after Nat’s offhandedness, Tim said that he was more convinced by the leadership of Christina’s team.
Artists on board, the teams set about drumming up business. Despite the moans about his lack of work ethic Adam was on the phone calling past clients of one of their artists whilst the rest… hung paintings. Nat described Adam as "our weakest link." Some nerve given he was the man on the phone!
Which brings us to the sales training lesson of this week’s show…
You must always sell!
In an attempt to get away from the "hard sell" many, many salespeople and business people go too far the other way and don’t sell at all. Katie and Nat both fell into this trap. At the top of the show Katie said that selling art was all about "integrity". Hmmm! So other goods don’t require integrity then Katie?
Of course they do. All selling is about integrity but having integrity does not mean that you cannot ask for the deal! You just can’t sell Katie!
If you want to find excuses to go easy and not progress the sale you will always find them. At one point or another salespeople from virtually every industry have said to me things like, "Our industry is different. You have to take it really carefully here. My clients don’t like being pushed". They then proceed to fluff around, make friends and sell nothing.
Poor old Adam who understood that he had to sell was called a "catastrophe"! Elizabeth (one of the artists) and Hugh (her husband) said it should be soft sell. Well of course they did! Most artists say that. That’s why they have other people selling their work for them. Doh!
As everybody was selling Katie muttered that her style was, "So soft I’m wondering if it’s too soft!" You think?! Her follow up classic,"I just don’t know how to make it harder!"
Sales training tip: Making friends is not the same as making sales. Whether you’re selling a car, a house or a painting or an IT system makes no odds. If your prospect isn’t going to buy you need to move on. Get over it. Tire kickers don’t just kick tires, they kick paintings too! They also kick IT systems, software, houses, telecoms systems, consultancy…
Christina’s team, meanwhile were in full on selling mode closing clients to buy paintings. The results produced an obvious win for Christina’s team selling 14 paintings for £4702 profit as compared to Nat’s 7 for £1599.
Had Nat an ounce of business savvy she would have dragged Katie back to the board room. She’d have probably still gone but she could have argued that Katie was in awe of the photographer and that her sales efforts were misguided and weak. The girls at the moment, however, are gunning for the blokes in the boardroom and she brought back Lohit and Adam. Lohit because … well… I dunno, certainly she didn’t seem to and Adam because she basically didn’t like his approach. Given he made the cold calls, sold some paintings (she didn’t) and was the only one who seemed to "get it", it was no great shock when SAS said to Katie "You’re out of your depth with regret you’re fired."
Lohit summed it up, "At the end of the day we didn’t make enough sales".
You don’t say!
Sales Superstar Or Sales Stalker?
It’s 1028pm and I have, just two minutes ago, avoided a sales call from a health care sales person. 1028pm! On Thursday afternoon I flew out to Spain for a few days arriving late evening. I flew back late last night arriving about midnight. After 4 days eating tapas and relaxing today was a busy day catching up on emails, making sales calls and sorting out my latest sales training book… of which more another day!
The sales scenario…
I turned my mobile on this morning and I had 6 missed calls from this guy. I feel like I am being stalked! Even sales training authors are allowed Easter off you know! 6 missed calls – over Easter! That’s a lot. And that’s on top of the 3 sales calls he made to me each and every day last week! He’s like the anti-sales squad!
Now, let’s be fair to the guy. I rang him initially. And I do want the insurance. But frankly my business may be going elsewhere just because of how I feel about his constant nagging. And before you think, "Well, what can he do if you’re avoiding him?" consider why I am avoiding him…
He has not asked the right questions…
I did see him first and a full week and a half before one of his competitors could see me but he doesn’t know that. He never asked me. I only see the next guy tomorrow but he doesn’t know that. He never asked me. I would never have made the decision without seeing all three short-listed suppliers but he doesn’t know that. He never asked me. I have various other factors influencing this purchase but he wouldn’t know because, hey you guessed it, he never asked me.
So now I am being stalked by someone who probably has the best product and, had he asked the right questions, would almost definitely have got the sale and known when the right time was to call me back…
He probably still will but he has sure made it hard for himself.
Are you making selling hard for yourself? Does your sales funnel fall apart at the closing for commitment step? Could you being leaving deals on the table?
Sales Training Tip For The Day: Get Up Close And Personal
Someone’s trying to sell me something at the moment. They met me at one of my sales training seminars and told me a bit about their products. I get that a lot as you might imagine! I said that I was pretty interested in what they had to offer. Now I don’t know about you but I’d call that a green light! They should be all over me. And they are… well sort of anyway.
You see they’ve decided to take the sale on by email. Email after email after email. It’s got to the point where I am beginning to get a little sick of them.
I feel like I am being harrassed!
In these days of email, sms, hotspots, voicemail and cellular phones it’s much, much easier to stay in touch with people but people seem to have forgotten the power of the personal touch when selling. Now don’t get me wrong here. I use technology to support my business. I have an email newsletter (cheap and easy!), I use email autoresponders (these little fighters sell when I am asleep) and I have a blog site (hey! you’re looking at it!) but none of them replace that personal touch.
People assume that all forms of communication are equal. They are not.
I don’t expect people to feel personally touched when they receive an email. Few people are excited to get voice mails anymore! And I read yesterday that some shops are trialling blue-tooth technology that sms’s your phone as you walk past the shop! Not that’s not going to be popular at all is it! One of the main problems is that we all know how easy these new technologies are to bombard people with and we get far too many of them, every day!
Most companies are so busy contacting people through these new mediums that they forget to continue with the rather more time consuming tried and tested methods.
This makes them all the more impactful and all the more effective.
Sales training tip for the day: Think about how you can create that personal touch… a phone call rather than an email, a hand written Birthday card rather than an e-card or a snippet of information ripped out of the newspaper in the post to an existing or potential client. They love it.
Why not share you ideas for giving that personal touch in an impersonal society and comment on my blog here.
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