So, we’ve reached week 7 of The Sales Apprentice and tonight’s task was to create a Freemium (Free Premium Magazine) and then sell as much advertising space as possible. The team selling the most ad space would win the task. Tonight’s team leaders were selected by Lord Alan, Jim leading Venture and Natasha leading Logic, speaking to the teams this week from a balcony way above them and I couldn’t help but think that the ultimate winner of the show might be advised to get used to exactly this sort of “partnership”.

With only a few hours to complete this task the teams quickly got down to discussing the potential markets. Natasha and team decided to plump for a lad’s magazine with a business element to it. This was partly their idea and partly down to a focus group of rugby players saying that they wanted a more intelligent magazine without the nudity. The magazine quickly became called “Covered”.

Over on Jim’s team they decided to go for the over-60’s market and set off, stereotypes at the ready, to talk to a focus group. I guess when you’re 20 something 60 does seem incredibly old but the whole concept of active retirement seemed to have passed the whole of team Venture by. They just couldn’t seem to get their heads around the fact that people of 60 weren’t about to die and thought their concept that people of that age weren’t was a new idea!!

These two decisions about the magazines and the implementation of them would prove to be the critical piece in today’s show. No amount of selling or negotiating can sell the wrong idea. No amount of influence and persuasion can persuade professional buyers who know their markets to buy a dud. No amount of word foreplay or slippery, shouldered, sales talk (Jim!) can polish a turd.

Sales training tip: Know your client. Know your client. Know your client. I was amazed that all of the chat in selecting the magazines was about the concept. It should have been all about the readers and the advertisers…

Who would read this magazine? Why would they read it? What would they be interested in? What product placement would fit in this magazine? Who would want to advertise in it and why? How did this demographic fit in with the clients of the three buyers they were imminently to meet? If they did ask these questions, we never heard them.

Over on team Natasha things were not running smoothly. All of the team seemed to be behind the concept of business without the nudity however Natasha seemed obsessed with boobs, stating at one point that, “Porn sells.” True, but not your concept, Natasha. Photographing girls in their lingerie under Tom’s (?) suit jacket and glasses and touting a potential title, “How do you blow your load?” (translated as, “How do you spend your cash?”) the implementation was more Stringfellow than Jobs and the cover wouldn’t have looked out of place next to Nuts magazine…

And you know, it may well have been that the magazine needed the smut but the fault here was with the lack of clarity of purpose of the team…

Sales leadership tip: If you want to be a great leader and you want to inspire and lead your staff you need a clarity of vision. That doesn’t mean that you know what you’re doing! It means that you AND your team know what you’re doing and that you’re all pulling in the same direction.

On Natasha’s team, this most definitely was not the case with Natasha and her team having very different visions of what they were trying to achieve…

But the problems on Natasha’s team were far overshadowed by those on Jim’s team where they could not even get their title or concept right. This was in the main part because the team clearly thought that 60 was really old and that any 60 year old owning a mobile phone that did more than make a call was seriously hip, hop and happening. The titles they suggested for the magazine were not only unimaginative, they were also laughable. And that’s exactly what the focus group did!

Desperately seeking a new title Zoe suggested “Coffin Dodgers.” A silver-handled affair made of teak narrowly missed Nick’s head as he spat out another wasp he’d been chewing. “Everyone thinks you die at 60,” volunteered Zoe suggesting that the concept of people over 60 having a life was something new. Do these Apprentices not have grandparents? Who the heck thinks that anyone dies at 60?

Deciding to go down the route that once you have eliminated any sensible alternatives you need to pick the first daft thing that comes into your head, Venture decided to call their magazine “Hip Replacement.”

What?

Yep! You heard it right… “Hip Replacement.” Seriously! Task lost. End of.

From this point on, I could see little hope for Jim and team. This title made “Coffin Dodgers” look inspired. Jim, who I am rapidly deciding needs to get fired (more later…), set about roping the team into this decision, something he is very good at. On the face of it, he makes it look like he is getting their agreement and input, but in reality he is purely covering his ass! The only member of the team to not agree was Suzy but, even after being told to stand up for herself in the boardroom last week, she said that she would go along with it. She needs to be careful. Having the right idea and not sticking up for it could well prove to be far more fateful in Lord Alan’s eyes than cocking it up but having the cahones to stand up for your ideas…

Ideas completed, articles sourced and magazine printed, the teams put their heads together to craft their sales pitches. Jim beseeched his team to volunteer to make the pitch and threw his hands up when no-one volunteered. He really does have the slipperiest shoulders. If he was a pirate his parrot would need crampons and pick axes…

Sales Pitch 1:

Picture this… Leon standing next to a huge picture of a semi-naked girl with the title “Covered” and saying that their magazine was a lad’s magazine with business and without the pictures of naked girls! Hmmm…

Next up, Jim pitched “Hip Replacement”. The buyers looked bemused and asked about favourable rates. Jim said that it was full rates or no ratesl. The buyers looked even more bemused but not half as bemused as the rest of Jim’s team.

Sales training tip: Negotiation is an important part of selling. Most salespeople make poor negotiators. They give away too much, too easily and fail to create win win solutions. Many salespeople need to stand their ground more. But there are times when you need to negotiate, times when you need to strike a deal, times when the buyer needs to know that you have done something for them, times when the particular client, etiquette and/or custom dictate that you negotiate. This was one of them and Jim failing to do so was arrogant (stupid).

Sales Pitch 2:

With a budget of £1 billion client spend Natasha couldn’t stop herself interrupting Leon and the whole pitch lacked professionalism and coherence.

Sales training tip: Don’t undermine your team. When making sales presentations work together, work with each other, support each other. Behaving in front of your prospects in a way that suggests that you do not trust your colleagues to say the right thing (e.g. interrupting them mid flow) will do little for your client’s confidence in you.

Jim’s team did little to shine in their presentation either and it was on to…

Sales Pitch 3:

With team Jim failing to shine (again) it was all down to what team Natasha could do with “Covered” and Natasha having lost faith in Leon decided to step up herself to make the sales presentation… and this proved to be a double-edged sword…

On the one hand, her presentation was awful, yeah? I mean it was really not good, yeah? And not slick at all, yeah? And if she said yeah again yeah, I would have turned the TV off. And it was also crass, “Let’s face it. A lot of guys like to get a bit of dollar in their pocket, yeah, to impress the ladies.”

I have many great clients in recruitment and know many impressive individuals in recruitment and I was not impressed…

BUT…

Her pitch was closer to the ACTUAL magazine they had produced. Not the one they had said they were going to produce, nor the one that the rest of the team wanted to produce BUT THE ONE that she did actually produce. More of a magazine for LADS who want to THINK they like business rather than people who actually are in business. More X-Factor wannabe than proven business mogul.

In the Boardroom…

“Tell me who you think the potential advertisers are?” Asked Lord Alan. FINALLY! Someone asking the right question!

The results were in…

Pitch 1: Logic £9k, Venture £12k.
Pitch 2: Logic £7.5k, Venture £16,850.
So, two wins but still anybody’s game… until…
Pitch 3: Logic £0, Venture £60k for the whole magazine.

Slam dunk and team Natasha headed off to poke each other with sticks (fencing) yeah and to celebrate their business prowess… yeah!

Back in the Boardroom…

Jim was quick to blame Zoe for one of the main mistakes, the name of the magazine. He admitted that they all agreed it but insisted that it was her idea. I wanted to reach down the TV and tell Teflon Jim that this was really rather similar to him being blamed for coming up with a name in a previous task and that he had said that it was only brainstorming and that it was down to the team leader who approved it. But I’ll have to settle for writing it here…

Jim might be good at building rapport, doing cheeky deals and using language to deflect potential objections but he needs to step up and take responsibility.

He elected to bring back Suzy and Glenn…. Suzy because she’s only 21 and Glenn because he’s an engineer. Jim criticized both Suzy and Glenn but had his sights fixed firmly on Suzy. Glenn wavered in his support of Jim until Jim caught him broadside in a slight of Suzy, “You’re just marginally worse than Glenn,” he said and then got it both barrels from Suzy and Glenn.

But Lord Alan had had enough, “Jim, you’ve got slippery shoulders but despite what I said about you the other week son I can’t sack you yet ‘cause there are other idiots to sack first. Suzy, you’re young and all that but I hate engineers ‘cause they ‘aint business peeps so Glenn son you is sacked.”

If you’re an engineer and you’ve done well in business send your complaints to Lord Sugar… and if you’re thinking about applying for The Apprentice, think again… Lord Alan has already made his mind up, “I’ve never yet met an engineer who can turn his head to business.”

Line of the week from Lord Alan to Glenn, “I was wondering if you’re one of those people who think that “Only Fools & Horses” was a business documentary?”

Related posts:

1. The Sales Apprentice 2011: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 3
2. The Sales Apprentice 2011: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 6
3. The Sales Apprentice 2011: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 5

Welcome back to The Sales Apprentice! It’s week 3 and we’re two boys down. The girls think that the weakest boys have gone and they will have the weakest link this week but I’m not so sure…

Tonight’s task was to find 10 items for the Savoy Hotel which was just finishing a 3 year, £200 million refurbishment. The team which could find the 10 items in one day and spend the least money would be the winner.

Simples. Or so you might think…

Lord Alan positioned this task as one of organization, of negotiation and of buying skills but in many ways it was just a parody of a task. Let’s face it, asking a team of people who don’t have a clue about buying for hotels to locate, negotiate on and buy items which have to be in stock now within one nine hour working day is not really a serious business task. Lord Alan said that if he goes into partnership with any of them they’d have to buy well so this was important. Personally, I’d hope that anyone going into business with him would be somewhat more prepared and give themselves rather more time to complete an important task like this!

After a quick reshuffle of the teams, Susan was elected team leader of Venture and Gavin stepped up to head Logic. In his own words Gavin considered himself to be a “worthy business partner” of Lord Alan. As he said this, I marked his card… the production team only let you have lines like this if you are going to dive headlong onto your sword later on.

You might be wondering at this point what the 10 items were and I’m not sure I got them all but I’ll have a stab…

1. Chamomile flowers tea.
2. 3-ply toilet paper.
3. A top hat.
4. Signage.
5. Fillet steaks.
6. Crushed ice.
7. A cloche.
8. Some chandelier bulbs.
9. Some silk.
10. And something else… any ideas?

From the off, Susan was pretty organized and in control of her team. Gavin , on the other hand, was somewhat of a shambles and I am sure he actually said at one point, “Calm down! Calm down!”

On Susan’s team, Jim was off to a fast start, chasing down the steaks. I like Jim and, although it’s too early to make any predictions, based on his actions so far, he’s unlikely to be going soon. His phone call however was not so great, “We’ll be in later, I’ll buy steak and shake your hand.” And therein lies one of the problems with the lack of time afforded to this task. What kind of negotiation can Jim possibly hope to conduct when the supplier knows that he has travelled to see him, he has already committed to buy and he has no alternative supplier?

Sales training tip: When conducting sales negotiations, positioning is power and the relative power of the parties dictates their relative negotiating positions. If you have no options and the person negotiating with you knows it then you effectively kill your ability to negotiate.

Suzy, meanwhile, was using the art of closed questioning to very poor effect in her attempt to secure a deal on a top hat. “Is there any kind of price you can hopefully go down to?” A closed question that deserves a simple, “No” answer. And, you know, psychologically she knew it too using the word “hopefully” in there.

Hope is not a sales strategy.

Gavin’s team had belatedly flown the nest to do some shopping and Natasha was showing us how to underwhelm your seller and your position by saying that the only money she had was £20… sorry £40… £50… oh, oh, OK, then, deal at £60! Oh come on. It doesn’t require a genius to see that you can only offer a deadline once and if you are going to say “all the money I have is” you can’t then go up in price without undermining your position and looking like a charlatan or, even worse, a liar.

Back on Suzy’s team, Suzy was making one of the biggest mistakes that people make when negotiating… she was trying to win. In Suzy’s case she was standing her ground for a 1 pence discount just to prove a point. Point proven Suzy, you had your ass-kicked and you got petty to try and make yourself feel better.

Sales training tip: Negotiating is about agreeing terms, it is not about winning points. One common mistake sales and business people make when negotiating is to compete to win concessions and score points and to forget to keep their focus on achieving a positive outcome.

But Suzy was racing streets ahead of Gavin’s efforts. He needed to take off his rose-tinted glasses and open his eyes to reality. He was losing this task… and you didn’t need 20/20 vision to see that!

How’s this for desperation?

Gavin: “Can you do anything cheaper at all?”
Seller: “No.”
Melody: “You look like a nice guy to me…”

Ugggh. Shoot me now…. Actually, no, fire them.

Despite their pole position Suzy and team were having a last ditch attempt at losing the task by considering buying some tea for over £900. And not a whole Clipper full either. But they managed to secure the tea at half price (bargain!! not!!) and they raced back to the board room…

In the boardroom…

Gavin and Logic had only managed to locate 6 out of 10 items and hadn’t even managed to figure out what a cloche was. Suzy and Venture had done better with 9 out of 10 items but in their haste to “complete” the task had spent £1381.69 to Logic’s £1389.20.

Phew! Messages to people…

Suzy… you so nearly threw that away.
Gavin… you nearly got lucky.
Lord Alan and the production team… time to change this task, it’s flawed. The teams need more time to plan and prepare. These are key ingredients of buying and negotiating. And ingredients that are necessary to prevent the silly situation where you have a team that pulled well together to buy all bar one of the items (albeit some of them at inflated prices) nearly getting beaten by a team who couldn’t even locate all of the items and at times looked like self-combusting.

Suzy and her team celebrated and Gavin looked crestfallen. There’d be no Ferry Across The Mersey for him tonight. The Lord Sugar steamer was pulling away from the station and he’d no doubt be walking alone.

In a last throw of the dice, Gavin elected to bring back Vincent and Zoe. Vincent because he is pretty annoying and there’s a good chance that his gerbil-stylee-tache and 80’s footballer reject haircut might have irked L’Alan (Lord Alan) and Zoe because… well… because she has only spoken once (I think) in three programmes so maybe L’Alan will cull her.

I reckoned Gav’s only chance was if Sir Alan didn’t want to sack the team leader again but it’s clutching at straws….

Sorry Gavin, it’s a short one. “Gavin. Frankly I wouldn’t work with any of the three of you but I think you’ve cocked this up the most so you’re fired.” Ok, so that’s not what he said, but it’s what I would have…

Related posts:

1. The Sales Apprentice 2011: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week I
2. The Sales Apprentice 2011: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 2
3. The Sales Apprentice 2010: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 6

Have you checked out the Talking Sales Success Summit yet? Over two days I will be interviewing 10 experts on what separates sales superstars from sales dreamers and sales rockstars from sales losers. During 10 hours of pure sales training gold I will be seeking to discover secret sales strategies, little known selling tactics and proven techniques that you can use right away to make more sales.

And you’ll be pleased to know that I have hand-picked these experts not because of the books they’ve written (although many of them have) nor because of what the press says about them (although they do get great PR!)… No, I have selected them because of what they have to say about specific areas of the sale. You might recognize some of them, you might not recognize some of them but they all have one thing in common… I have tracked them down because they can help you to unlock sales strategies and tactics that will help you to make more sales. In the rest of this post I am going to introduce you to the experts, their backgrounds and some of their tips and strategies. Enjoy…

Philip Hesketh author of “How to Persuade & Influence People” talks about the Psychology of Persuasion.

Philip is a professional speaker on ‘The Psychology of Persuasion’. He combines a powerful mix of thought provoking, well researched, persuasive techniques with a unique brand of humour. He inspires, entertains and informs on how buying, selling, persuading and influencing work.  His book, ‘How to Persuade and Influence People’ is an Amazon number one best seller.

Phil says…

• Ask more questions.
• Ask supplementary questions when you get the answers.
• Establish the compelling emotional reason(s) to buy.
• Always talk value not price.
• Establish the buyer’s expectations.
• Manage those expectations.

Simon Hazeldine author of “Bare Knuckle Selling”, “Bare Knuckle Negotiating”, “Bare Knuckle Customer Service”, “The Inner Winner” and, “The 7 Inner Secrets of Highly Persuasive People” talks about The Bare Knuckle Selling & Negotiation Process.

Simon works internationally as a Professional Speaker, Performance Consultant, Corporate Trainer and Executive Coach in the areas of sales and negotiation, persuasion, influence and leadership. He has a Masters Degree in the Psychology of Performance, is Certified as a Master Practitioner and Trainer of NLP, and is a Fellow of the of Sales & Marketing Management. He is the bestselling author of several business books that have been endorsed by business leaders including Duncan Bannatyne from “Dragon’s Den” and multi‐billionaire business legend Michael Dell.

On negotiation Simon says…

• Set your objectives – aim high!
• Be firm and flexible – be persistent in pursuing your objectives but not rigid in pursuing any particular solution.
• Know your LIM Know your BATNA.
• Give them a good listening to!
• Ask lots of direct questions and listen the answer.
• Listen more than you speak.
• Seek information – Give information.
• Focus on underlying needs rather than positions.
• Understand their motives and what they want.
• Acknowledge and express emotions (rather than be emotional).
• Reward signals, encourage flexibility.
• Summarise regularly.
• STOP! Step back , think, organise your thoughts, proceed.
• Give To Get If You… Then I…
• There is no such thing as a free lunch!
• Be flexible, be creative.
• Can you meet their needs in a way that benefits you too?
• Nothing is agreed until it’s all agreed.
• Trade low cost for high value (and vice versa).
• The real work starts after the negotiation stops – make the deal work.

Ari Galper Founder & CEO of Unlock the Game® talks about How to ELIMINATE Personal Sales Rejection Forever…And Make More Sales.

Founder & CEO of Unlock The Game® Ari Galper is the Creator of Unlock The Game®, a new sales mindset and approach that has revolutionized the world of selling. With a Masters degree in Instructional Design, which strongly analyzes the way people learn, and supplying nearly two decades of experience in direct selling in a variety of industries, Ari has pioneered a breakthrough sales system – Unlock The Game – through his experience working with iconic companies such as UPS and QUALCOMM over the past twenty years. Built on the concept of authentic communication and trust, his visionary approach to selling relieves the pressure for both the seller and buyer, producing profound results.

He has shared the stage with fellow entrepreneurs, including Joan Rivers, Mark Victor Hansen, Dan Kennedy, Harry S. Dent, Christopher Howard, Bill Glazer, Alexandria Brown and many others. His strategies have been used by countless global organizations throughout the world. Ari’s mission is to help business owners, entrepreneurs and sales professionals, break through their fears of selling as well as create a better lives for themselves, their families and, of course, their clients. Unlock The Game is quickly becoming a standard for how to create genuine trust for anyone who sells a product or service.

Ari says…

• Diffuse Pressure.
• Get to the Truth, Not the sale.
• Be a problem-solver and trusted advisor.

Andy Smith author of  “55 Ways To Increase Your Emotional Intelligence” talks about How to Create the Life You Want.

Andy Smith is an Emotional Intelligence coach, Appreciative Inquiry facilitator and NLP trainer. He specialises in the practical application of leading-edge approaches to the personal development of leaders and key professionals. Andy’s work ranges from executive coaching (using the Hay Group’s Emotional Competence Inventory 360º assessment as a starting point) to the design and delivery of coaching skills training for managers and coaches. He has developed a number of coaching models which incorporate appreciative and solution-focused tools in practical and jargon-free formats and has written two books.

Will Kintish talks about The Secrets of Great Networkers.

Will Kintish was a practicing accountant for nearly 30 years. During most of those years selling, marketing and business development generally were not activities associated with his profession. It is only now, in today’s modern and competitive world are the professionals expected, not only to be great technicians but to be able to help bring business in. This is often uncomfortable for most people. In the last 9 years since leaving the profession he has presented to over 50,000 professionals and business people across Europe.

Will shares 10 strategies for when networking works…

• when the right attitude is in  place.
• when comfort zones are stretched.
• when patience and persistence is in evidence.
• when the right clients are exchanged for the wrong clients.
• when the first move is made.
• when the right impression is made from the start.
• when an interesting introduction is used.
• when  listening occurs far  more than talking.
• when there is an active  follow up.
• when being generous  is seen as the key to networking.

David Shepherd author of Presenting Magically talks about “How To Double Your Sales By Asking 3 More Questions“.

David Shephard is the Managing Director and Head of Training and Research for The Performance Partnership. The Performance Partnership was founded in 1993 and has become one of the fastest growing NLP training and consulting companies in the UK, attracting clients from all over the world. It is dedicated to providing them with the very latest developments in advanced human communication and change technologies.

Rob Brown talks about “How to Build Your Reputation“.

Jill Konrath author of “Snap Selling” talks about “Selling to Crazy-Busy People“.

Jill Konrath’s career is defined by her relentless search for fresh sales strategies that actually work in today’s business environment. She’s the author of two bestselling sales books and is a popular speaker who helps sellers crack into new accounts, speed up sales cycles and win more business. She likes to work on:

Tough Challenges. When Jill recognized that the crazy-busy work environment was wreaking havoc with sellers, she immersed herself in the issue till she discovered new strategies that worked. The result? SNAP Selling, her highly acclaimed new book that jumped to #1 on Amazon within hours of its release — and continues to be a top seller.

Big Issues. Jill’s initial book, Selling to Big Companies, addressed a major sales problem that continues today-how to set up meetings with prospects who’d rather avoid salespeople all together.

Unsolvable Problems. When the economy tanked in 2008, Jill realized that most job seekers had no idea how to “sell” themselves. Instead, they were commoditized by their look-alike resumes and using reactionary job-hunting skills. So she wrote Get Back to Work Faster, a game-changing career book at the same time she launched a free monthly webinar series.

Alan Fendrich talks about How to Stop Hiring Salespeople By “Gut Feel.”

Alan Fendrich is married for 34 years and a career entrepreneur. In 1993 Alan founded a company, Radio Profits Corporation, that through luck and good fortune was wildly successful. The company’s success caused him to have to hire 300 salespeople a year who generated more than 60,000 individual sales a year, and until he sold it in 2000, more than $84,000,000 in sales. In the process of hiring all those salespeople, he developed the Advanced Hiring strategy which cut the sales turnover in half and doubled the number of top sales performer hires.

When he sold that company in 1999 he retired for a half year, realized he was not cut out for retirement and founded Advanced Hiring System so that he could continue to work with businesspeople. He spreads the word wherever he can that sales hiring can be a lot more successful than most managers are experiencing.

Jim Rees author of “Maximise Your Mind Power” talks about how We are all Built for Greatness and asks What mark are you going to leave?

Having completed 3 consecutive solo finishes in what is considered to be one of the toughest races on the planet – The Race Across America in 2007, 2008 & 2009 and going faster each year – Jim Rees has a deep understanding of what it takes to push beyond what most people think is possible. Jim is no stranger to  endurance races. He’s competed in 10 Ironman triathlons around the world including the famous Hawaii Ironman and has represented GB in his age group in 2 world long course championships. Jim also set a new world record for 24 hours of non stop cycling on a static Watt bike at last year’s London Cycle Show – cycling 448 miles.

Drawing from his personal, sporting and professional career, Jim has seen and experienced perceived impossibilities turn into reality. From this, he absolutely knows that the majority of us are barely scratching the surface of our potential, whether that’s on the tennis court or in the boardroom. For the past 8 years Jim has been running Ripple Leadership which focuses on individual, team and organisational potential.

Jim says…

• Be aware of the patterns of behaviours and the finger print they leave in every interaction.
• Discover the beliefs that you hold about yourself, the company, the product, the economic environment, your boss etc.
• Commit to seeing it through to completion.
• Learn how to perform under pressure.
• Learn to be present – totally there for someone.
• Take 100% personal responsibility for everything that is showing up in your life.
• Success and failure are learnt behaviours and are not permanent. They are all part of conditioning.

If you want to check out the 10 hours of sales expert interviews then say yes by clicking on Talking Sales Success now.

Related posts:

1. The Sales Apprentice 2009: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 12, The Final
2. Repetition Is The Mother Of All Skill If You Want Sales Success
3. The Business Supremacy Summit, 2010 With Doug Richard…

Week 9 of the Sales Apprentice and tonight was supposedly all about “negotiation.” Now, before we carry on, let’s make things clear, this task tonight was not about negotiation. If it was about anything, it was about preparation and personality. Let’s have a look at what the Oxford Compact English Dictionary has to say about negotiation…

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

This had little to do with what went on tonight which was far more about personality and push than anything else. Now, don’t get me wrong here, personality is important for success in all walks of life. Indeed, I would rather be on the side in a debating contest arguing for personality and potential. But the personality required to succeed in today’s task was more about Sir Alan’s barrow-boy tendencies than it was modern-day negotiator.

Tonight’s task was to source, negotiate and buy a list of 10 mundane and bizarre objects for as little cash as possible. Failure to buy an item would incur a fine of the recommended cost of the item plus £50. The team spending the least money (including fines) would be the winner.

So before we recover a few sales and business tips and strategies from this mess I want to point out that this task had far more to do with door to door hustling than business. And it certainly brought out some traits that you would not want to see in any reputable business.

Team leaders this week were Liz and Jamie although this made so little difference to the task that I had barely worked out who was leading the girls’ team until the board room! At the start of the task, the boys and the girls opted to approach things with very different strategies… the girls opting to cover as much ground as possible on the phone before venturing out onto the mean streets of London and the boys opting instead to race, seemingly aimlessly, from place to place looking for goodies.

Sales training tip: Planning and preparation are critical for sales success. As someone somewhat cheesy probably says in your office on a regular basis, when you fail to prepare you prepare to fail. As a sales and business person you can end up spending an awful amount of time wasting your time. There’s always something fruitless to do if you don’t watch out. I firmly believe in Pareto’s Law which states that 80% of your sales results will come from 20% of your efforts… but which 20%? That’s the smart question and the only way that you will know the answer is through effective planning and preparation.

In this the girls had the boys beaten hands down and if it had not been for their radically different personalities from the boys they would have won the task. Because of their lack of preparation the boys spent an inordinate amount of time searching for products and, in some cases, trying to work out what they even were. This resulted in them only finding 7 out of 10 products compared to the girls who found all 10.

What were these objects you ask? Hey, no promises that I can even remember them all but I will try… some specialist truffles, the blue book, plain single tikka, a specific Singer sowing machine (like my Nana used to have!), tartan, laptop memory, wooden kitchen worktop, chicken feet, plates… yep, one missing…

“It’s not a complex task, infact it’s very simple,” said Sir Alan. He was right. This test proved to be more of a test of who would ask for the biggest discount. Not a bad trait I agree and it is true that many sales and business people do have limiting beliefs about what they can sell things for, what they can buy things for and indeed just money in general… but if business was as simple as, “I’m sorry, I am just not paying more than £50,” then many people would be a lot richer / poorer than they are!

The boys did get two things very right however. The first was that they thought about what the cost price might be on articles and had a strategy for asking for discount. This in turn made them bolder in what they were asking for than the girls who tended to approach the negotiations with a more, “Could you possibly?”, “Would it be alright if?” approach than anything else. This was summed up by the somewhat pathetic Stella telling a man selling tartan that she would only buy it for a £1 off when he steadfastly refused to haggle with her. What was the point of that Stella? Negotiate or don’t negotiate but have some pride. Give him the darn quid and pay full whack rather than that meaningless gesture!!

Sales training tip: Have a strategy prior to negotiations. In the heat of the moment, emotions will often take hold and you are likely to be more effective if you have a strategy.

The other thing that the boys did well was to produce a back story as to why they needed a discount. This may not have been pure negotiation but it was a good old haggle and a good story or reason for the discount works. Cialdini explains this in his excellent book “Influence the Psychology of Persuasion” when he talks about the use of the word “because”…

“A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason. People simply like to have reasons for what they do.”

Unfortunately, I was not okay with the way that they did this lying and making up tales about their Grandmother, their brothers, lost books and eaten homework. They may have thought this was funny or smart but it did little to improve the standing of salespeople in the eyes of the British public! And before you say, “lighten up Gavin” I am smiling ( see!) but I am also being slightly serious in that you and I may know this is not the way we behave but the general (non-selling) public have few other references to draw on.

Karen was amused at their successes saying that she might not have done it the same way but that it had worked. Please bear in mind that unless you are selling door to door in one off sales this is not a good way to behave. The word “worked” is open to debate here. Relationships are built on trust and destroying it in this way is a sure fire route to the sales wilderness. What works in one battle could well lose you the war.

Sales training tip: Use stories to support your sales and negotiations. Have reasons to support your arguments. Use the word “because” to be more influential.

Meanwhile the boys were soundly beating the girls in seemingly every negotiation. One of their core tactics along with stories and strategies was starting low. On being quoted a price the boys’ initial opening gambit was always significantly lower than those of the girls and they were far less willing to negotiate upwards, on one occasion with the Tartan actually going down part way through the negotiation!

In the Boardroom…

Jamie got 2 of 5 products, Chris and Stuart got 5 out of 5 making a total of 7. Sir Alan asked what they got and Stuart started to recite a list saying it was “like The Generation Game.” Sir Alan growled and made it clear that he does the jokes in his boardroom.

The girl’s meanwhile got fined for being late back but did at least bring all 10 products to the table.

The scores were in… including fines…

Apollo (the girls) had spent £1094.40.
Synergy (the boys) had spent £1020.50.

A silly task really but that’s what they’d signed up for so the boys had won and one of the girls would have to go…

Back in the Boardroom…

Liz elected to bring back Stella and Laura… probably because Joanna has been looking good the last couple of weeks and in a sales / negotiation task was probably the stronger of the girls. With these three it was not a difficult choice with Laura clearly the weakest despite Stella having been sliding inexorably backwards week on week and Liz having royally messed up by not thinking about prices.

Laura played her only card letting the big guns battle it out perhaps hoping that an all out nuclear war might leave her able to negotiate peace and align herself with the winner. She opted for Liz, backing her against Stella but Sir Alan wasn’t going to let Stella or Liz go yet despite his reservations about Stella being “too corporate”.

It was adios Laura and then there were 6… Stuart, Jamie, Chris, Stella, Joanna, Liz.

Related posts:

1. The Sales Apprentice 2010: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 1
2. The Sales Apprentice 2010: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 6
3. The Sales Apprentice 2010: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 2

Here is part III of my short sales training article on handling cold calling objections…

“I’ve had a bad experience with your company in the past!”

As objections go this one is slightly different as it may not be an objection at all, it could potentially be a complaint. For this reason it needs to be dealt with as a complaint to avoid stirring it up into something more.

Most salespeople are confrontational when put into this kind of scenario. That’s a shame as it really is the complete opposite of how you need to behave to deal successfully with this kind of situation.

Here’s a simple 6 step process for dealing with complaints…

1. Apologize e.g. “I’m sorry that you’ve had a bad experience with our company in the past.”
2. Make a powerful lead statement e.g. “We pride ourselves on ensuring that all of our customers are nothing less than delighted with our services.”
3. Ask a question e.g. “Tell me Mr. Client, what happened?”
4. Listen, listen and listen some more. Do not interrupt. Do not argue points. Do not put up a defence. The only two things you do are listen and empathize verbally. You do nothing else until the client has no more to say.
5. Apologize and make another powerful statement e.g. “I’m sorry that you had that experience Mr Client. As I said, we pride ourselves on our happy customers.”
6. Move to the next stage. This could be done in several ways, the most common of which would be to ask them what they want to happen next or to organize a face to face meeting with them.

Simple though this process is, many salespeople struggle with it as they take the client’s comments personally and do not listen and empathize with them effectively. This will derail the whole process and can destroy rapport.

“I don’t like you!”

This purely emotional complaint is designed to make you feel bad. What’s more, for many salespeople, it usually works!

Most salespeople like people. Most salespeople are people oriented. Most salespeople work hard to get their clients and prospects to like them. Being liked is important to them. It’s not surprising then that this little line hits them where it hurts.

Objections are not personal! Selling is not personal. Business is not personal. Selling and business are professional activities so don’t take them personally.

Try, “Then it’s a good job I don’t take myself too seriously, tell me John…” and move to a question. Taking this route shows the client that you cannot be rattled that easily.

“I’m not interested!”

In the highly competitive and sophisticated markets of today, salespeople face a lot of objections and rejection. Salespeople know that a lot of their prospects will not have any interest, need or desire for their products, services or solutions.

For this reason, the “I’m not interested” objection is quite effective from the client’s point of view because many salespeople expect this response even before they pick up the phone and believe it totally when they hear it.

Firstly, it is highly likely that this objection is quite simply untrue. Most clients have found that this objection works so they use it even when they don’t mean it and even when it is not true.

Secondly, even if they do mean it, it doesn’t mean that you can’t build rapport, find out more about them and their business and uncover some areas of mutual interest.

Try, “I wouldn’t expect you to have any at this stage. The reason for my call is to…”.

So there we are, over the last 3 blog posts we have looked at 10 sales superstar strategies for dealing with 10 very common objections. Invest some time now in writing down some of the most common objections that you get. Think about what effect they have on you, decide how you want to feel and behave in the future instead and then plan some responses that you can use to get more productive results and make more sales.

If you want to catapult yourself towards sales superstar status and become a master of objection handling strategies and techniques then make sure that you get hold of a copy of my sales training book Objections! Objections! Objections!. Many of my clients find it useful to have it on their desks when they are selling on the phone. Maybe you will too…

Related posts:

1. Sales Training Tips For Handling Cold Calling Objections, Part I
2. Sales Training Tip For Handling Cold Calling Objections, Part II
3. Sales Training Book: Objections! Objections! Objections!