Sales Training Motivational Speaker | Gavin Ingham» Marketing

Can Your Dad Dance?

Gavin Ingham — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:58:36 +0000

Can your Dad dance? Most can’t. I’m sure they could once but they can’t now! Music tastes changed, dancing styles changed, your Dad aged and somewhere down the line he lost touch with his ability to dance. For many Dad’s, the answer to the problem is to do their bad dancing more enthusiastically, more energetically and more desperately…

No matter, I don’t suppose that dancing is all that important in the grand scheme of things.

But business is. And life is too. And in business and in life everything changed over the last few years. The economy changed. The rules changed. Business changed. Sales changed. Life changed.

And if you want to be a success, you need to change too. What once worked, won’t work anymore. What once won customers, now doesn’t. What once helped you achieve your goals, now won’t. And doing the same old stuff, faster, more frantically and more often won’t make the wrong dance look sexy. And it won’t make you successful in business and in life either.

But that’s what much of the ruling elite want you to do. More of the same. Keep borrowing. Keep spending. Push for more of the same customers. Sell more of the same old, same old. Keep on plugging away and it will all come right. But it won’t. Because they’re out of ideas. They’re too stuck in their ways. They’re too focused on maintaing the status quo.

I’m not buying bad advice and platitudes and neither should you. It’s not good for your sales, your sanity or your business. And that’s why I am changing the approach, mixing it up, adding even more value for you and sharing with you strategies to help you to be more successful in 2012 and beyond. There will be more of some things, less of others and a whole new series of blogs, videos, tips and strategies to help you to make the right changes in your life and in your business.

Join the RSS, get on my success newsletter and let’s get cracking.

Sales Partner Or Dancing Puppet?

Gavin Ingham — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 14:50:51 +0000

After closing a sales conference this week, one of the audience approached me to ask about a sales presentation that they had recently failed to win. They wanted to know what they could have done about it and how they could improve their chance of winning a similar pitch next time.

After asking a few questions it became patently clear that the reason why the sale had failed was that the salesperson had never been treated as an equal by the client and was never really in the running.

Many things had not gone perfectly…

Prior to the sales presentation the client had refused to answer any questions from the sales team making the presentation.
The client had only informed the presenters of the time and date of the presentation the day before.
The presentation was at 9am in the morning 200 miles away from the office of the sales team.
The client was running late on the day and kept them waiting for half an hour with only a scant apology.
The client’s team who attended the presentation deliberately refused to make any polite chat, refused to engage like normal human beings, were overtly rude and refused to answer any questions.
No feedback was given at the time of the presentation and no promise of timely feedback was given.
The sales team had no idea who they were “competing” against nor the criteria by which they were being judged…

A particularly bad example and I could carry on but I am sure that you have had to deal with many similar situations.

Far too many clients think that the way to conduct sales meetings and presentations is to treat your potential business “partners” as dancing puppets where all they have to do is tweak the string and you do the jig. And far too many sales teams accept this course of affairs as just the way things are or the way that they have to be.

One of my friends works for a well-known organization who set up meeting after meeting for him to attend. At every one, by the time he attends, the client is looking down on him from a great height. It’s a totally one-way process. He performs, they yell to him from the stage wings, “Jump!” and he has little choice other than to scream back, “How high?!” Failure to do so would be unacceptable to his clients and unacceptable to his management team who are the very people who position the meetings so poorly in the first place. His management team think that this is how you do business.

Once you are out of position it is difficult to get back into position. Once you position yourself as less important that your prospects, it is unlikely you will repair the mismatch. Once you devalue your offering, you will struggle to create the value or the relationships that you want and need to build the relationships and the business that you want.

Far too many sales presentations are one-way affairs where sales teams effectively beg for business and prospective clients bestow their deity-like, benevolence on the lucky “winner”.

It doesn’t have to be and it shouldn’t be this way. If you want partnership relationships with clients who believe in you and appreciate the value that you add, if you want to be paid commensurate with the work you do, if you want sustainability, satisfaction and success then you have to get your positioning right and this has to be done right from the start of your relationship.

Getting yourself in position may sometimes prove challenging and it may not always be possible but equally getting out of position is not something that just happens, it is something that you allow to happen!

I talk about this in my sales masterclasses and even run one off seminars from time to time on positioning. It is that important. I even touch on it in my New Rules of Selling seminar which will be taking place in London in November… but you can start to do something about it today by focusing on a few simple things.

Here are 6 to get you started…

Define your clients. Who are they? Why do they work with you? How do you add value for them?
Position yourself as an expert. Create a brand and a name for yourself that attracts clients to you because of what you can do for them. Clients come to me because of what I do not because I am just another sales speaker.
Keep your engines running. Far too many salespeople take their feet off the gas when they have “enough” business and their sales activities career to a grinding halt. Lack of opportunities can create desperation and desperation makes it hard to not start playing the fiddle furiously whenever anyone instructs you to dance a jig.
Get familiar with the word, “No”… saying it and hearing it. If you are in the wrong place, with the wrong client or pursuing the wrong opportunity and you cannot do anything about it, “No” can be the most liberating, time saving and sales boosting option.
Build huge value. It’s easy for clients to treat salespeople as “all the same” if they are pretty much interchangeable. Whilst technology and transparency may have made products and approaches pretty much interchangeable, your expertise, your personal approach and the value that you deliver is not.
Be honest. Many sales and business people have long wooden noses when it comes to not admitting that they are dancing like puppets on a string. Without honesty about your current relationships and your current situation, how can you improve it?

Start now by having a think about the relationships you have, where they’re at, how you can add more value to them and what you need to do to be seen as more equal than your competitors in the future…

Has Selling Changed? Is It Time For Out With The Old & In With The New?

Gavin Ingham — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 10:43:23 +0000

A lot of people over the last few weeks have been talking about “the best ways” to locate new customers and clients. A lot of people think that the strategies required have changed and that many of the old strategies don’t work anymore.

Out with the old, in with the new?

Not really. I agree that there are many “new ways” of reaching prospects and customers…

I have a LinkedIn account and a LinkedIn group (Sales Psychology & Performance if you want to have a look). I have a Youtube channel, I Twitter, I have a sales training blog and was blogging well before most other’s in the market place. I have numerous other social media profiles which I don’t use as much and I am also looking at the newest trends all of the time. I love to use the new ways and embrace change…

However, I think there is a real danger of throwing out what was and is still good about the old in chasing the new with comments like this one that someone made on one of my groups the other day when talking about traditional sales methods in particular prospecting…

“…you’ll be missing the 90%+ of the market that don’t buy like that…”

I am always suspicious of statistics but that one just looks wrong to me. To start with, if I only look at my own stats, I can see that my business comes from multiple sources. It does not just come from cold calling, or from blogging, or from videos, or from article marketing, or from networking, or from referrals, or from sales meetings…

In fact, most of my clients and prospects travel through multiple touch points before buying i.e. “Well I saw you on a video programme where you were a guest expert, then I read one of your articles in a (traditional print) magazine, then someone said something about you at a networking event. I always thought I might book you for my team but then I changed roles and someone sent me a copy of your newsletter and so I came to one of your seminars and then I thought “Wow!” I need this guy for my next sales conference.”

Furthermore, it is indeed amazing how much of it still comes from traditional sources… speaking, referrals (proactive and reactive), word of mouth, recommendations, networking, traditional sales… with a kicker that most have read my blog after they found me, or watched my Youtube videos or checked me out on LinkedIn etc.

There are some markets where many sales are made using totally new ways of selling and there are some where no-one is buying this way. I am constantly amazed by how many of my paying clients do not have video enabled on their PCs, do not use Twitter and have failed to respond to invites to any of my online groups or communities.

The only “new way” they respond to is my email newsletter (permission based but the only one that interrupts them) and then they won’t post a blog answer on my website, they prefer to email me their thoughts and questions instead.

The new way of selling is here. The new way of making contacts and differentiating yourself from the market is here but it is not about new methodologies…

The new way of selling is about adding value for your clients. The new way is about better engaging your clients. The new way is about caring about your clients and their businesses. The new way is about focusing on your clients and not on you. And if you can use new media to do this, that’s great.

But the new way of selling is not about activity, it is about mindset. Selling is an attitude that leaves behind a trail of techniques.

It is misleading to assume then that the old methods do not work anymore. When you apply the new mindset to them they work incredibly well but too few people (know how to) do this and therefore fail miserably.

After my cold calling seminar of last week, someone Twittered the next day to say they had already set up 4 meetings. After my cold calling seminar of Tuesday this week, someone already emailed me to say they would never have thought that they would be the person emailing me at all let alone saying that they had set up 5 appointments the very next day.

The old ways still work when you use the new mindset and new technologies to pimp them up.

It is also worth noting that many people using the new technologies do not have the new mindset and are just spamming anyway. The vast majority of comments and discussions posted in my communities are by people who ought to know better saying “go look at my seminar” or “see this article I wrote and spammed across every group”. They are no better than old school, bad, cold callers and I believe will be looked upon as the same in time. They add no value to their groups, no value to their communities, no value to their readers and this approach will not work long term.
Someone said to me the other day that I am the only person who consistently gives away stuff of value. This is clearly not true and I could name others who do too but it says a lot about the state of how people perceive the way people are using these new mediums.

People are unsubscribing from social media. People are clicking off from newsletters. People do not have the time to take part in discussions a lot of the time. I only need to look at the number of people who ring me and speak to me about booking me for a conference and who then fail to respond to emails. When I pick the phone up to them they invariably say, “I meant to call you,” and then book me.

And if every person out there started blogging, Twittering, Facebooking and videoing, firstly, many would just be no good at it and, secondly, no-one would be able to find anything worthwhile through the white noise…

So...

The expectation of salespeople has to change. The approaches you take have to change. The mindset you have has to change.

We have to add value. We have to utilise multiple routes to market. We have to employ new strategies, old strategies and hybrid strategies.

We have to use what works.

It’s not out with the old in with the new. It’s embrace the new, pimp up the old and mash up the lot to come up with a viable approach that connects and adds value for your clients. And this should include whatever strategies, old or new, that work best for you.

Does Cold Calling Work, 2?

Gavin Ingham — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 01:32:02 +0000

I hope that you’re having a good week, speaking to lots of new clients and winning lots of new business. I want to start this blog post by asking you a question, “What do you think about cold calling?” Now by asking that, what I don’t mean is do you like being rung at home when you’re eating your dinner (tea for us Northerners) and someone trying to sell you timeshares? No, what I mean is, “Do you think cold calling works?”

Now I know that this is a very divisive question. It’s divisive for a whole variety of reasons. It’s divisive because everyone has so many opinions, ideas and beliefs about whether cold calling is coming, going, works, doesn’t work, is ethical, is unethical, is powerful, is a waste of time…

And not everyone can be right, can they?

Or can they? As a sales motivational speaker and sales author I get to work with salespeople of all flavours and I have clients from all industries from car sales to insurance sales, from park home sales to engineering sales, from pharmaceutical sales to financial sales and pretty much everything sales inbetween. And on my travels I see people who win lots and lots of new business by picking up the phone and making appointments with key new prospects and many, many people who fail miserably too.

And whilst I agree that cold calling is more relevant for some industries than others and more relevant for some products than others and it is most definitely not right in all situations, I have met salespeople from all walks of industry who use it effectively. I’ve also worked with them and seen the results.

You see, most of the time, it’s not the industry or the product, it’s the salesperson and the sales system that makes the difference.

Melody proved this on The Apprentice (UK) last night when she picked up a mobile in the back of a car in France (!) and set up 6 appointments. But could the others Apprentices repeat her success?

Nope.

What did she have that the others didn’t? How did she approach prospects that got results where others failed?

Why do some people in your office get great results on the phone and others get only mediocre results… or worse?

Sure, we could get into an argument about what a cold call is. We could debate whether your call should be called a cold call at all if you’ve done the right research and weaved it into your call effectively. We could discuss the percentage of your time you should spend on the phone versus utilising other methods of contacting or attracting new clients…

And that would be useful but it would not change the facts. Cold calling works when done right. And you may not want to do it. And you may not want to hear it but that’s the way it is.

Someone once asked me why I blogged and why I used Twitter and why I networked if cold calling was so effective? And that’s the problem here. People want to say something has replaced something else. It’s black and white. It’s either or. But it’s not…

My answer was simple. “I do what works. I do a combination of things designed to consistently bring me in business. I do the ones that work. As long as they work I use them. And when they don’t, I will change what I am doing or stop.”

I have a highly refined new business sales system based on sales mindset, structure and language. The call engages clients by focusing on them not you. If you’re interested, read some more of my blog posts on cold calling and selling in general or watch a video or two. Better still, why not come to one of my No Fear Cold Calling seminars? If you want to eliminate fear of cold calling, get the mindset for success, better engage with your clients, set up more appointments and win more new business then it is a must attend.

Cold Calling Sucks & It’s Only Going To Get Worse…

Gavin Ingham — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 18:26:27 +0000

I was the motivational speaker at a sales conference the other day and one of the Sales Directors came up to me to ask about the future of cold calling. He explained that he had a sales team of some 100+ salespeople and that they all had to set up their own appointments and that one of the primary ways of doing this was on the phone. He went on to describe what a nightmare this was and how it was seemingly getting harder every day.

I won’t bore you with the whole conversation but I am sure just a few snatches of it will feel familiar…

“… changing markets… increased competition… no names policies… voicemail… gatekeepers… competition from abroad… clients getting too many calls… client indifference… inability to distinguish calls… just a numbers game… necessary evil… falling conversion levels… more calls required to stand still… demotivated staff…”

In frustration, he had searched the internet high and low looking for an answer but, far from finding one, all he had found was oodles of expert opinion and networks of websites dedicated to tolling the bell for the death of cold calling, gurus explaining how it would not / could not / will not work and explanations for why social media, new marketing and sales 3.0 were the only way forward…

Sheesh! Cold calling is one of the most divisive subjects in selling. You cannot start a conversation on cold calling in any sales training forum without igniting the age old debate… Does it work, doesn’t it work, is it dying…? Lah! Lah! Lah! You might as well argue about chickens and eggs but I have my metaphorical fingers firmly in my metaphorical ears because I don’t care…

Truth 1! Cold calling doesn’t work and is a fruitless activity for most sales and business people. They might as well give up as it does not get them results.
Truth 2! Cold calling is an incredibly powerful strategy that many top salespeople utilise ALONGSIDE other lead generation strategies to acquire new prospects, clients and business.

Difficult to reconcile? Not really. The more flexible you are in your approach to sales and marketing and the more options you have at your disposal, all the better. As with many things in life, you can choose to believe whatever truth you want to believe so my question to you is simple…

Would it be more useful for you to have some really good reasons and argument for why cold calling doesn’t work anymore or would it be better if you had proven, cold calling strategies that win new business in any economy?

If your answer is the first one then good luck and goodbye to you but if it is the latter then that is what I’m going to help you to attain… AND I am going to do it in a way that even the most phone shy, nervous cold callers can understand and implement. The world has changed, the economy has changed, your market has probably changed and so too your sales approach and sales habits should have changed.

If you work with a sales team or friends who would benefit from these awesome tips and strategies then email them now and tell them to sign up to my sales success newsletter to ensure that they get cold calling secrets right into their email box. Here are what just two delegates had to say after one of my half day seminars last month…

“It was realistic, motivational, client focused and entertaining. Result: 4 very significant meetings booked, doors opening and winning more business. I would recommend Gavin and his product without question. Do it!”

“Brilliant day with Gavin, with immediate results. Meetings booked immediately after going to the course.”

Here’s a thought to get you thinking about things for next week…

Why do most cold calls fail?

I’ll start to answer this next week but in the meantime, and if you already know how much impact my unique sales seminars have then you can book on the first full day open cold calling sales seminar I have run in several years now.