Cold Calling Campaign… Does This Look Like Your Office?
The cold calling campaign at Sales Inc. was not going to well! I’ve seen plenty of sales offices that look like this as I am sure you have too. Perhaps you’re looking at one now and pulling your hair out! It’s amazing the excuses that salespeople can come up with when trying to avoid contacting new and (even) existing customers.
If you don’t want your sales office to look like this then why not speak to me about organizing an inspirational and motivational sales talk for your next sales conference, AGM or away day.
APSCo Members Conference, 2010, Brave New World
I am delighted to have been invited to speak for the 2nd time at the APSCo Members Conference on Thursday 30th September at the Hilton London Tower Bridge. I spoke at the APSCo (or ATSCo as it was then) conference in 2008 (ATSCo 2008) and it was a great event. I know this isn’t for all of my readers but if you are in recruitment and you’re a member, then why not come along? This may well be the only recruitment specific event that I attend in 2010.
The APSCo Members Conference is firmly established as the largest sales conference in the recruitment profession in the UK and is market specific, content rich and enlightening day for both sales and sales management professionals in the recruitment sector. The focus is on providing information, techniques and tactics that will help to improve the consistency of success for even the most experienced of recruiters. Speaking at the event this year are…
- Ann Swain, Chief Executive, APSCo.
- Anthony Hilton, Financial Editor, Evening Standard. The Business Lessons of The Post Credit Crunch Recession.
- Chris Matchan, The Chris Matchan Partnership. Engagement in a Brave New World.
- Me, Gavin Ingham, How to Make Quantum Leaps in Your Sales Results.
There will also be several break out sessions away from the main stage with options for managers (Charles Bates, Know Why & Keep It Right & Duncan John, Transactional Analysis & Communication), salespeople (Graham Smith, How to Let Other People Have Your Way & Colin Forster, The Sales Relationship in a Brave New World) and executives (Rob Gee, Authentic Leadership).
The conference will the finish up with a panel discussion on “How Can Recruiters Adapt to Provide the Service Clients Need in Today’s Environment – And Still Make Profit?”
You can see the full APSCo Members Conference brochure here. And you can find members and non-members booking form on the APSCo website here.
When Your Prospect Or Customer Says, ‘No!’, What Do You Hear?
Here’s another question that came up recently. “When your prospect or customer says, “No!”, what do you hear? How do you react? Rejected or challenged? What advice would you give to somebody just starting out?”
As a sales motivational speaker I see the negative consequences of sales and business people dealing with this badly every day so here is my advice…
It’s not what is said, it is your interpretation that does the damage. How many people every year die of snake bites? The answer is none. People die of the poison, not the bites. Salespeople are not undone by “No” but by how they interpret that “No.”
If someone says to you, “We have an existing supplier”… what do you hear and what do you think?
Do you hear, like most salespeople, “We have an existing supplier so we’re not interested. Go away!”? And then think, “This job is rubbish, no-one ever has a need for our services.”
Or do you hear, like sales superstars, “We have an existing supplier which means that we’re in the market place and already see value in what you do”? And then think, “All I have to do now is find a way to demonstrate how we can provide a better service.”
One of the keys to being a top salesperson is getting, keeping and cultivating a positive, sales mindset. This can be done by reading good sales books, listening to sales audios, attending sales seminars, mixing with sales winners, employing a sales coach, learning from sales experts, focusing on what’s good about any event….
To someone starting out, avoid negative mood-hoovers,whingers and whiners, associate with sales winners, make sure you get plenty of the good stuff. Protect your positive mindset like it is a pot of gold…
Because it is!
Football, Fantasy & Sales Success
Over the last couple of weeks I have been enjoying watching sports on the TV – most notably the football and the start of Wimbledon. After watching England play half-heartedly against the highly motivated US team and then appallingly against Algeria, they showed some flashes of inspiration against the Slovenians but then sat back in the last 10-15 minutes and were lucky to hold onto their win. One of the commentators said that he would forgive them that and I commented to a friend at the time that the Germans wouldn’t have.
Today, against Germany, we saw an English team bereft of team-spirit, energy, commitment or passion. OK, so they got robbed of a goal at 2-1 down but they didn’t deserve to be in the match based on how they had played and now they’re not. On several occasions, when they lost the ball deep in the Germans half, the English defence were so slow to react and so slow to get back, my Mum would have got there faster. I am sure many people will put up many “excuses” for the result and many others will blame anything, everyone and Capello but at the end of the day the least you would expect is players representing their country to chase the ball down in defence as fast as they can even if they had no chance of getting there. It is was the World Cup after all.
On the BBC commentary they mentioned our “world-class” players and that they wouldn’t swop more than a couple for members of the German team. Well, I would, I’d swop the lot, that way we’d be in the running still. And as for “world-class”…
It doesn’t matter how much talent you have, if you cannot make it work on the night, if you cannot get the result, then it’s irrelevant.
By contrast, look at the tennis match between Mahut and Isner. Two tennis players battling on for 183 games over the course of 11 hours and five minutes. The final set alone accounted for eight hours and 11 minutes of that time – 98 minutes more than the previous longest match on record. Now that’s commitment. Two men who wanted to win. Two men determined to succeed. Two men not prepared to give in.
Or what about Federer’s first round match where the defending champion was forced to mount a courageous comeback against Colombia’s Alejandro Falla? Having faced numerous match points in the third set he eventually won 5-7, 4-6, 7-6 (1), 6-4, 6-0. Federer could have slinked off into the night. He could have packed his kit bag and lost three sets to love. He could have claimed “illness” or some imaginary injury after such a bad showing but he hung in there, kept fighting, got a break and eventually came out on top. Likewise, Isner and Mahut, for three days running, went out on court and slogged it out. Giving anything less than 100% was not an option.
I’m not going to try and second-guess the mindsets of the English football team. Nor am I going to try and imagine what was going on in the heads of Mahut, Isner or Federer. I am going to quite simply ask you a question…
What do you want and how much do you want it? What are you prepared to put in to get it? How passionate are you about ensuring that your dreams become reality?
The Business Supremacy Summit, 2010 With Doug Richard…
“Dedicated to the Exponential Growth & Success of SME’s – Spend a day Immersed in Leading Edge Growth Strategies with World Leading Entrepreneurs!!!”
Thursday 1st July – Madejski Stadium, Reading, Berkshire
Hey readers, I thought that you might be interested in this event that I am speaking at. If you read on to the end you will see how to book and please note that there is a code that will get you a discount as you have been referred by me so make sure that you use this…
From BBC’s Dragon’s Den, see Doug Richard live on stage! Sharing “The Mistakes Behind The Scenes: How to succeed when you don’t know what you’re doing!” Making a business go from “Potential to Exponential” Don’t Miss it! See Sahar Hashemi – Co-founder of Coffee Republic Live on Stage Sharing “Switched on” – How to keep the entrepreneurial spirit as you grow!
Joining Doug & Sahar on main stage are: Leading expert in Explosive Sales performance – Gavin Ingham & Reputation, Networking & Referrals Expert – Rob Brown. Gavin Ingham will be sharing his Sales Explosion Secrets Live on main stage and Rob Brown will be sharing his knowledge on “How to Build Your Reputation” – The secret of becoming a “Go To” choice in a crowded marketplace.
And that’s just for starters…
We are running exclusive hard hitting interactive workshops in the main hall all afternoon, all featuring the most current topics that leaders, business owners & entrepreneurs face when addressing & planning for business growth.
Come and spend an explosive, business changing day in the company of 100’s of other SME’s and immerse yourself in today’s most powerful business growth techniques & strategies with world leading enterpreneurs. Our experts will show you how to drive your sales and business forward, against all odds and thrive!
Covering all the essential elements for business success from Sales Explosion Secrets, Breakthrough Marketing Techniques, Motivational Leadership, Streamlining Strategies for rapid profit acceleration to “The Entrepreneurial Mindset” that will change your business life!
Quite simply this is a must attend event for anyone serious about increasing their sales & growing their business…
We look forward to welcoming you at the event.
Book now to secure your place and don’t forget to use my special discount code “GAVIN30″.
Win! Win! Win!
Book now and win the chance to dine with Sahar and Doug and our keynote speakers on the day (that’s me by the way… 
). Every ticket purchased will be entered in to a prize draw to win the chance to dine with our Special Guests on the day in the exclusive Glass Boardroom. The winner will be announced the week prior to the event!.
Off the main stage our delegates will be treated to 8 exclusive hard hitting interactive workshops in the main hall all afternoon, all featuring the most current topics, Leaders/Business Owners/Entrepreneurs face when addressing/planning for business growth.
Choose from…
- “Business Turnaround”. The complete “how-to” workshop.
- “How To Get An Extra 60 Minutes Out Of Your Already Hectic Day”. You can find another hour in your busy day and this workshop will transform the way you look at your time and what you do with it.
- “Secret Of Successful Networking”. The right strategy, the right events, the right execution, the right conversations, the right people, the right results.
- “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Jourmailst?” How to harness the power of the press to raise your business profile.
And then at 400pm you can choose from…
- “The Influential Presenter”. The insider secrets of presenting with power (this one’s with me so highly recommended!)
- “Cyberpsychology”. The answers to gaining huge profit increases using social median in “the right way”.
- “The Right Brand”. Show the world you mean business by using the simplest of marketing messages in the most powerful of ways.
- “The Flip Top Head Phenomenon.” Get inside the heads of your leadership teams and build a powerful business using psychometric profiling for serious results.
Book now to secure your place and don’t forget to use my special discount code “GAVIN30″.
Sales Psychology & Performance, LinkedIn Group
Check out my Sales Psychology & Performance, LinkedIn Group. As an author and sales speaker I get asked questions every day. Many of these are face to face, up close and personal but, increasingly, many of them are “virtual”. After an inspirational sales seminar many people email me to say that they enjoyed it and then ask questions…
I welcome and enjoy these questions. After all, helping people to improve their sales results and build the businesses and the lives that they desire is one of the primary reasons that I became a speaker in the first place. Interestingly, most of these questions come via email and are never posted on the blog. Despite my best efforts this has remained the case for several years now. After conversations with my clients about this I have concluded that clients are “used” to asking questions via email and are comfortable with this medium. Whilst I do my best to answer all of them, it can get quite time consuming and also a little repetitive with me constantly “reinventing” the wheel.
Most of my clients however do use and are members of LinkedIn. LinkedIn, on the off chance that it has somehow passed you by, or on the off chance that you are still trying to ignore it and pretend that it could not add value for you is, in my opinion, the business social network of the moment. The reason for this is that anyone can join LinkedIn and you can get as involved as you like or you can be as passive as you like but you will not get spammed by idiots or have goats or pies thrown at you like you might on Facebook (*more on my plans for Facebook another day!).
So to let everyone have their say, communicate amongst themselves, get access to my blogs and videos and ask questions I have started a LinkedIn group, Sales Psychology & Performance. If you are wondering if the group is for you, then here is my description of the group…
For sales professionals, sales leaders & professionals who want to maximize sales. This group is dedicated to people who want to share sales superstar strategies & approaches that win more sales. Join the discussions, read the blogs or share your favourite strategies.
So in short, YES, if you are reading this blog or are a member of my GavinIngham.com newsletter this group is for you.
To join, you need a LinkedIn account and you may as well link up with me whilst you are there. I see this group as a good way of keeping your sales edge sharp, sharing best practice and keeping up with the Sales Joneses! The group has grown to 450+ members in under two weeks and that is just from mentioning it on LinkedIn. This is the first time I have mentioned it to my readership. If you are wavering here is an idea of the kind of conversations going on currently…
Question from me…
What’s your most effective strategy for getting motivated?
Every sales professional has faced challenges and, at some point, every sales person has found themselves in a less than perfect state of mind. What separates sales superstars from more mediocre performers is their ability to bounce back and get straight back into the game.
What is your most effective strategy for getting yourself motivated, in the right state of mind and at the top of your game?
This currently has 24 fabulous answers. Here is one of them from Angela…
Something that resonated with me was a session by Hunphrey Walters (amazing man – look him up). He talks about a winning team mentality, but it works for the individual too. Here are a few points…
i) Set and celebrate mini victories. This took me back to taking exams and having a sweet whenever I finished a section. I still do it now, it’s just that the ’sweets’ have gotten a little bigger! So don’t wait for the end goal, make sure there are many along the way.
ii) Never leave the game early. There are a few premiership football teams that could have learnt from this one this year! It’s the same as motivating yourself to pick up the phone again when selling. Apparently it’ll take 6 contacts with a new client to gain business, on average. Most people give up on the 3rd or 4th. This knowledge helps in the sense that you can tell yourself that each call it a step closer to the 6th one.
iii) Pride in the badge. Paul Burton was right in that it really helps if you love what you do, but also if you love the company you’re doing it for. Wanting to do a good job for others is a motivator in itself.
There are 5 others, so look him up. His book is a great read too. ‘Global Challenge’ by Humphrey Walters.
Enjoy, Angela
Angela Cripps, Lander Associates
And another from Sean…
Great question!
I am not sure my method will work for everyone, but it seems to work for me.
I use the same method in the gym in the morning and the same method during the day. Quite simply I break down my day into easily achievable targets, whether it be run for the next 5 minutes at x speed, or call 10 prospective clients. Whilst carrying out this challenge, I am already thinking about what my next target will be and so my work or work out moves smoothly from one challenge to the next.
I will often summarise milestones or tasks that I need to reach or carry out during the day. This gives me a rough idea of the path my day will take.
Hopefully, not always the case, by the end of the day I have reached all of my targets and had a solid productive day.
Sean Burling, V-HR
Pretty good answers I am sure you will agree… so check out Sales Psychology & Performance and link with me on LinkedIn whilst you’re at it. Take the opportunity to sharpen your sales skills, boost your sales attitudes and get the sales edge…
Help Me, I Need Motivation! 10 Tips For Getting Motivated…
When I’m at parties and people find out that I am a motivational speaker and sales training expert they often say something like, “That’s fab, can you motivate me?” Flippant questions aside, motivation is a huge part of what I do when I am consulting with companies to increase sales results and is essential if you want to build a high performance sales team or if you want to be a successful salesperson.
Understanding how to motivate yourself to be proactive, positive and focused is critical if you want to be a sales superstar. Check out this email I received…
Thank you for sending me the newsletter, it really helps. I am having a particularly horrible time at the moment as I work in…… and the whole thing is a mess. I am losing the will to live rapidly and I feel like I want to leave. My boss has cut commissions, rightly, so I suppose, but with the financial worry and the ever decreasing market I really don’t know how to stay positive……
Please help with some advice. We have been on two of your seminars and they were brilliant. I would love to come on another one, but have no money, and the company is not spending at the moment.
I run whole sales training sessions and give sales conferences talks on motivation, but here, in a nutshell, are my top 10 sales training tips for getting and staying motivated to sell more, even in the most competitive of markets.
Motivational sales training tip 1: Remember that motivation is internal.
Many salespeople treat motivation as if it is something that happens to them. They allow themselves to be buffeted by difficult prospects, client challenges, lost sales and poor market conditions. This leaves them out of control of their personal motivation and out of control of their sales destiny.
Motivation is something that you do (or don’t do) for yourself. It is a set of mental processes. It is something that you can remain in control of irrespective of market conditions and irrespective of what happens to you. I’m not saying that staying motivated to sell is easy but it is inside of your control. And what’s more, the more that you work on controlling your personal sales motivation, the better you will become at harnessing it to get the sales results that you want.
Motivational sales training tip 2: Take the daily motivation challenge.
Many salespeople career through their lives unaware of their lack of motivation or their “average” levels of motivation. It might be ok to do some jobs whilst operating from average levels of motivation but not selling.
Salespeople need to be up for it and motivated.
One good way of staying motivated is to set yourself a daily challenge to keep motivated so here’s my challenge for you…
Take your “motivational temperature”, so to speak, several times a day. Simply stop and ask yourself honestly, “How motivated am I right now?” Just stopping momentarily to check your motivational temperature will make you more aware of your habitual levels of sales motivation and will awaken you to the possibility of doing something about it.
Motivational sales training tip 2: Remind yourself “WHY”.
Many salespeople and many people in general spend their lives “going through the motions”. They get up, they go to work, they go home, they watch the TV, they go to bed, they get up, they go to work, they go home, they watch the TV, they go to bed…
Same old, same old, over and over, day in and day out.
Now don’t get me wrong here, I have no problem with routine; what I do have a problem with is that same routine blunting your hunger, that same routine dulling your passion, that same routine killing your spirit…
Top salespeople have passion, drive and hunger and one way they maintain this is by waking themselves from their “going through the motions” reverie by reminding themselves “WHY” they are here and “WHY” they are following the path of a sales superhero. When I am sales training and consulting, helping individuals to know “WHY” something is important to them helps them get and stay motivated more easily.
Motivational sales training tip 4: Fizz it up.
One of the quickest ways to change your mental state is to change your physical state. Your physical state is hard wired to the way that you feel. Every physical state has an emotional state associated with it. Conversely, changing your physical state will change the way that you feel – fast.
Feeling short of energy? Get some air in your lungs, punch your arms in the air, stand up straight, jump up and down, run on the spot, yell out loud, smile stupidly, breathe more quickly…
Remembering to take control of your physical state can work wonders for your motivation on a moment to moment basis.
Motivational sales training tip 5: Be your own internal sales coach.
We all talk to ourselves, the question is not whether you do or not but what you say to yourself. Many salespeople have an inner critic who deserves shooting! Many salespeople berate themselves in a way that they would never allow anyone else to do. Many salespeople get beaten up by their own inner sales critics on a daily basis.
It doesn’t have to be this way. By taking control of our self-talk and training our inner critic to be our inner sales coach we can change our persistent internal dialogue from destructive to constructive and from cynic to coach.
Motivational sales training tip 6: Set BIG goals and go for them.
Demotivated salespeople do not set ambitious goals. Lack of ambition when goal setting will not motivate you. Lack of ambition when goal setting will not drive you. Lack of ambition when goal setting will not set you on the path to sales success. Lack of ambition when goal setting will not help you to perform in the sales super league.
Demotivated salespeople do not set ambitious goals because they think, “Well, hey, I won’t hit it anyway so why bother?” or “I’ll set it low because I’ll manage that”.
Top salespeople set BIG goals to motivate, stretch and focus themselves. Top salespeople set BIG goals knowing that even if they don’t hit them they will develop and improve along the way. Top salespeople set BIG goals because they expect success.
Motivational sales training tip 7: Reward yourself.
Reward yourself for a job well done. Reward yourself when you deserve it. Reward yourself when you work hard. Reward yourself when you work long. Reward yourself when you win. Reward yourself when you learn.
Rewards motivate so make sure that you reward yourself for the sales behaviours that you want and need to do more of. Reward yourself for doing what you told yourself that you’d do. Reward yourself even when others don’t.
Motivational sales training tip 8: Hang out with top sales superstars.
Hang out with sales superstars. Spend time with sales rock stars. Roll with top sales aces. If you spend time with demotivated, uninspired losers they will suck the sales juice right out of you. Spend time with motivated winners however and they will teach you how to be more motivated, how to stay more motivated and how to create the life that you want.
Motivational sales training tip 9: Get the sales edge.
One of the best ways of motivating yourself is to invest in yourself and your personal development. Enrol yourself on a sales training seminar, buy a sales training book, listen to a sales training audio or watch a sales training DVD.
When you invest in your own personal development you send a message to yourself that you are worth investing in and that makes you feel good about yourself and that, in turn, builds motivation. Don’t know what to do? Stuck for choices? Check out my sales training shop here…
Motivational sales training tip 10: Get your buddies involved.
Misery likes company. Losers like support. But then, so does motivation. Get yourself upbeat and motivated and then enrol your buddies into your “motivated” group. Run competitions, create energy, encourage, cajole and persuade each other to go the extra mile and make selling more fun.
Teams that motivate and support each other in being more motivated, up beat and up for it are more effective and make more sales.
Motivational sales training comment:
So there you go, 10 top sales training tips for getting and staying more motivated. Where are you going to start?
Invest 15 Minutes A Day And Double Your Sales Results?
As a motivational speaker and seminar leader I speak with tens of thousands of sales and business people every year and my blogs and articles are read by far, far more. Speaking with so many salespeople and business owners gives me a unique insight into what drives people to do what they do and to behave how they behave.
I really enjoy this aspect of my role as I am, and always have been, intrigued by how and why people behave the way that they do. It’s certainly one of the reasons that I became a motivational speaker and author in the first place. And I have a few questions that I like to ask of nearly all of the groups that I speak to in nearly all of the seminars and keynotes that I run…
These questions are the ones that I think are really important, the ones that I think salespeople and business owners should really think about and the ones that will make the most profound difference for them, their sales, their businesses and their lives. Of all of them one of the most interesting and enlightening is…
“When did you last read a book on sales and selling?”
It’s a great question and one which I ask in various different formats depending upon the size of the group, the subject and the audience. It’s also one which I never cease to be amazed by the answers that I get. Here are typical responses from a typical sales conference audience…
“Hands up if you are currently reading a sales book.” Roughly 1-2%.
“Hands up if you have read a sales book in the last month.” Roughly 5-10%.
“Hands up if you have read a sales book in the last 6 months.” Roughly 20%.
“Hands up if you have NEVER read a sales book.” Roughly 25-50%, dependant on the group.
Wow!
I have worked with sales teams in banking, IT, telecoms, recruitment, financial, engineering, car sales, retail, consultancy, training, estate agency, investment, catering, legal, accountancy and virtually every other industry that you can think of and my conclusion is…
Most salespeople do not read enough about sales, business and personal development and this is holding them back from the success that they want.
There are many reasons that they give me for this…
- They do not have the time.
- They do not like reading.
- They don’t know what to read.
- They don’t believe that reading will make any difference.
- They don’t believe that the techniques they read about will work in the real world.
- They cannot be bothered.
- Their boss wouldn’t buy any books for them.
- They tried it before and it did not work.
- It wouldn’t work for their business or in their market.
- And on and on…
This decision is a huge shame and one which is holding back hundreds of thousands (nay millions) of salespeople all around the world from achieving the sales and business results that they want and deserve…
Top sales professionals in all industries read to stay on top of their game. Top sales professionals in all industries read to stay abreast of new ideas, strategies and techniques. Top sales professionals in all industries read to set themselves apart from their competitors…
Top salespeople read to learn new sales techniques and strategies to give them the sales edge. Top salespeople read for education, inspiration and motivation. Top salespeople read because they know that reading allows them to harness the power of OPE (other peoples’ experiences) and accelerate their sales results.
Many experts have remarked that reading for a mere 15 minutes a day could make you a subject expert within only a matter of a few years. Reading for a mere 15 minutes a day consistently could double or treble your sales. Reading for just 15 minutes a day could return you tens of thousands of pounds, dollars, euros, goats… whatever currency you’re trading in… over the coming months, years and decades.
Reading for 15 minutes a day could help you to achieve more sales, more job security, more professionalism, promotion, a bigger house, a nicer car, financial security, early retirement…
Here’s why reading sales book, business books and personal development books is so important for your personal and professional success…
- You only need pick up one or two new sales strategies, tips or ideas from any one sales training book to get a phenomenal return on your time.
- Seeing something you already know in a different light or perspective can catapult your sales to a whole new level. It’s not what you know but what you do with that knowledge that counts.
- Reading regularly helps to maintain a “can-do” attitude when others around you are not being as positive as they might be. This is particularly pertinent in today’s negative environments.
- 15 minutes a day reading is an investment in yourself which will help you to value yourself, your job in sales and your professionalism.
- Reading sales books gives you time to think about how you can improve what you do and how you can get better results.
- Reading improves your sales skills, your sales techniques, your sales ability and your earning potential.
- And much, much more…
Start by making sure that you are subscribed to my free sales newsletter which brings you sales and personal development strategies straight into your inbox every week; then dust off your old sales books and start reading.
Not got any old sales books? The buy some new ones! Check out my books and recommended reading lists now.
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