Sales training, personal development & business success from motivational speaker & seminar leader Gavin Ingham
This site is packed full of sales training, small business and personal development tips from author and motivational speaker Gavin Ingham that will make a positive difference to your business, to your sales performance and to your personal success. You can check out inspiring sales training articles free in my blog, view my seminar schedule or visit my sales training and personal development shop.
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August 18, 2007
- How to destroy sales loser beliefs & catapult yourself to sales success
In my life I have the joy and pleasure of helping others to achieve their goals and ambitions. I regularly get calls from people who have attended one of my seminars or who have bought one of my products telling me that they have doubled or trebled their sales. Whilst this is personally gratifying I have long wondered what it is that actually changes for these individuals that propels them to get these phenomenal results…
As many of my seminars are purely mindset / motivation based it’s often not the skills (important as they are) , it’s usuall some element of mindset, but what?
August 15, 2007
- Finding your personal motivation
Personal motivation is fundamental to your personal success both in sales and in life in general. Given its obvious importance you’d think that people would be experts at motivating themselves wouldn’t you? Unfortunately this is often not the case. I believe that the reason for this is the general belief that people are either motivated or they’re not.
Most directors and business owners that I work with believe (before we’ve worked together) that you can’t teach motivation. Well, if there’s nothing you can do about it, why bother right?
Wrong!
August 13, 2007
- Getting in a right state versus getting in the right state
When I ask salespeople and business people, "What are the key attributes of a top sales person?" they come up with words like the following…
Motivated, professional, positive, friendly, resilient, tenacious, communicative, outgoing, smart, reliable, trustworthy, independent, go-getting, smart, respectable, ambitious…
What do you think these words have in common? I’m sure you will agree that they are all attitudes.
I have worked with literally thousands of sales and business people and they all believe that attitudes are more prevalent than skills in sales and business.
“If you don’t have the right attitude then you’ve no chance!”
June 24, 2007
- What one quality makes a great salesperson?
When running sales training seminars I often ask what attributes make a great salesperson. I get a multitude of answers but people often say things like…
… motivated, charismatic, tenacious, honest, goal seeking, driven, positive mental attitude, self-belief, knowledge…
Today, I don´t want a list however… I´m just real curious… If you could only choose one quality and one alone, what ONE quality do you think makes a great salesperson?
June 17, 2007
- Getting to the sales negotiation mindset
Our sales training blog has just been referenced by this rather nice blog site on how to break into and excel in medical device sales, Non Sterile. Although there are many skills that are required for successful sales negotiation I think their point about being in the "right frame of mind" is critical.
One of the communication skills employed by all successful salespeople at whatever point in the sale is the almost psychic ability to know what the other party is thinking. This skill, of course, is not psychic nor is it magic it is purely a matter of asking the right questions of yourself and focusing your mind.
June 13, 2007
- The Sales Apprentice: Sales training tips from the hit TV show, The Final
After last week’s flashback to what interviewing might have been like in “Life on Mars” with it’s sexist questioning tactics aimed at proving woman with children have to make their case to work, tonight’s episode was back to business as normal with a task..
This was billed as the “head to head” between Simon and Kristina but turned out to be more of a battle of egos between many of the “bit “ players. This was Rosencrantz and Guildenstern centre stage and it wasn’t pretty. Not so many sales training tips tonight but many personal development and career lessons for how not to achieve success in life, business and sales.
June 6, 2007
- 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?
June 2, 2007
- Work life balance for sales people� realistic or a pile of steaming dung?
Seems to me that there’s been a lot in the press recently work life balance. So many people have thrown their hats into the ring that I’m beginning to think that it’s the precursor to some sort of twilight world of badly dressed, Brut drizzled, 70’s wife swap party.
Even David Cameron has been on record saying that people are more interested in work life balance today than money and possessions.
Really?
See, as a sales training specialist I meet thousands of people every year and I think the politicians are right that there has been a change and they are right that people are TALKING about work life balance but they are WRONG in their intepretation of this information…
May 30, 2007
- 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.
May 23, 2007
- 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.
May 16, 2007
- The Sales Apprentice: Sales training tips from the hit TV show, part VIII
We’ve had sales training tips from The Apprentice from 3 countries and 6 different cities now… tonight I am in Birmingham half way through delivering my No Fear Cold Calling and Professional Selling Skills sales training seminars. My sound engineer watched the show with me tonight and had a few interesting insights on some of the more hip ideas… hey I never claimed to be cool!
May 11, 2007
- The Bruce Lee Sales Training Academy
"The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus."
Bruce LeeI guess you all know who Bruce Lee was… probably the most famous martial artist that ever walked the earth. Like many film stars who died young and under slightly suspicious circumstances Bruce Lee’s appeal and fame has outlived him and will continue to do so.
I’ve been a bit of a Bruce Lee fan for years now but not necessarily of his films per sae. When I was younger I was really into martial arts and read a lot of books on and by famous martial artists. Bruce Lee intrigued me. Most commentators talk about his charisma on screen or his famous moves but that wasn’t what intrigued me. What intrigued me was his focus. He was famous for it.
May 6, 2007
- Get up, get on, get over it already!
Sales is a funny vocation, one minute you´re on top of the world, the next it´s crashing around your ears! Every year I meet thousands of sales professionals in my sales training seminars so I really do see the good, the bad and the downright lazy! As my mum likes to say, "It takes alsorts!" It´s not my job to judge salespeople nor is it my job to chastise them! My job is to motivate them, inspire them and educate them. With some this means teaching them everything from the basics up, with others it´s more a case of fine tuning, you know, a bit like your tv going on the blink!
May 2, 2007
- The Sales Apprentice: Sales training tips from the hit TV show, part VI
With the words that he was accepting no excuses about not speaking the language SAS set our intrepid Sales Apprentices the task - “take the best of British food products and sell them to the French”! Our teams were to buy their food and sell it from market stalls in an upmarket French town. With a quick balancing out of French speakers and the installation of Lohit and Paul as project managers they were off. There were plenty of sales training tips to choose from today!
April 25, 2007
- 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!
April 22, 2007
- Why you should start high when in sales negotiations
One of my most popular sales training seminars is my Sales Negotiation Skills programme from the "Ingham Sales System". I think that there are many reasons for why this sales seminar is so popular but I am not going to go into them now! What I do want to do however is reiterate one of the simplest sales training strategies from this sales seminar…
Start high in sales negotiations.
As a strategy, there would be few salespeople or sales managers who would argue with this strategy however on my travels I am constantly amazed by how many sales and business people pay little or no attention to it…
April 18, 2007
- The Sales Apprentice: Sales training tips from the hit TV show, part IV
Hi and welcome to the latest Sales Apprentice dissection - sales training lessons we can learn from The Apprentice. Tonight’s episode started with the team being informed that they would be meeting the next day at Hamley’s toy shop. This was a nice touch as I am really getting a little bored of wondering whether this team of "professionals" are going to drop their towels when answering the phone!
April 17, 2007
- Why I bought private medical care and why you should sell on value and never on price
One of the messages that us sales trainer types have been very good at getting across over the last few years is the motto of selling on value and not on price. In sales training seminar after sales training seminar around the country sales managers, sales directors and sales trainers keep banging on about value being key not price! As such, when I ask the question, all salespeople are quick to say that we should sell on value and not price.
So why then do they rush to discount so fast? And moan about how their competitors are under cutting them? And whine that their products aren’t any better than their competitors?
April 11, 2007
- The Sales Apprentice: Sales training tips from the hit TV show, Part III
April 8, 2007
- Sales prospecting persistence on the Costa Blanca
Happy Easter to you all. I hope that you´re having a great one. I´m here in Spain and the weather is miserable! 330+ days of sunshine per year and I´m here when it´s raining! I suppose that´ll teach me to burn the environment up on short haul flights! At 55p per minute my sister took great joy in telling me that it´s glorious at home. I hope you´re all having fun!!
They are the most persistent salespeople you will ever meet…
