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…

1. Define your clients. Who are they? Why do they work with you? How do you add value for them?
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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…

Related posts:

1. The Sales Apprentice 2009: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 12, The Final
2. Sales Prospecting Persistence On The Costa Blanca
3. Does Cold Calling Work, 2?

So last night, bumbling but friendly inventor Tom Pellereau, who from now on I shall call Caractacus Potts (after the rather nice but boffin father in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), won The Apprentice and in doing so made something of a mockery of actually bothering with the weeks and weeks of tasks…

Despite ten weeks of competition in which he had only been on the winning side three times and had spent more time being called nice but useless by Uncle Alan, he walked away with the top prize of £250k investment in his business. He might rue the day he went into business with people so alien to himself or it might be the making of him but I couldn’t help singing under my breath…

Every bursted bubble has a glory!
Each abysmal failure makes a point!
Every glowing path that goes astray,
Shows you how to find a better way.
So every time you stumble never grumble.
Next time you’ll bumble even less!
For up from the ashes, up from the ashes, grow the roses of success!
Grow the roses! Grow the roses!
Grow the roses of success!
Oh yes!
Grow the roses! Those rosy roses!
From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success!

Yes I know but he wants it to float. It will!
For every big mistake you make be grateful!
Here, here!
That mistake you’ll never make again!
No sir!
Every shiny dream that fades and dies,
Generates the steam for two more tries!
(Oh) There’s magic in the wake of a fiasco!
Correct!
It gives you that chance to second guess!
Oh yes!
Then up from the ashes, up from the ashes grow the roses of success!
Grow the roses! Grow the roses!
Grow the roses of success!
Grow the roses! Those rosy roses!
From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success!

Disaster didn’t stymie Louis Pasteur!
No sir!
Edison took years to see the light!
Right!
Alexander Graham knew failure well; he took a lot of knocks to ring that
bell!
So when it gets distressing it’s a blessing!
Onward and upward you must press!
Yes, Yes!
Till up from the ashes, up from the ashes grow the roses of success.
Grow the ro Grow the ro Grow the roses!
Grow the ro Grow the ro Grow the roses!
Grow the roses of success!

<

I have been saying for a few weeks now that Lord Alan was keeping Tom for a reason and that the reason might be to see his business idea… and ultimately it was. When Lord Alan was presented with some rather pathetic business ideas, Caractacus stole the crown…

The Business Plans…

• Suzy was suggesting an organic skin care range for the general market. In fairness to her she has loads of entrepreneurial spirit and I am sure she will succeed… but she didn’t get on very well with any of the other Apprentices and her sales forecasting methods are naive to say the least. This fact she demonstrated well in the Birmingham Bullring when she predicted stellar sales and brought in merely dust. She also failed to sell duvets in West London.Verdict: Uninvestable as offered.
• Jim offered up an e-learning system for schools aimed at helping them to become more business focused and entrepreneurial. The business was based on Lord Alan and cheekily (cleverly?) sounded as if it was already in his stable. Jim is Mr Cliche, he has proven himself to be master of the meaningless relationship and prince of doorstep, persuasion but he seems to lack depth or substance. When asked to sum himself up without cliche he said, “I am what it says on the tin!” Verdict: Uninvestable.
• Helen was the favourite of many people and had this been a normal show she would have romped away as Al’s Apprentice. I have had doubts about her entrepreneurial acumen, wondering if she is more super-organizer rather than super-leader. Her business plan was to save people time by doing tasks for them. It was riddled with issues and it’s not a market I’d want to play in although if anyone could make it work, it might be her. I have my doubts as to whether the franchise model would work though.Verdict: Uninvestable… although I’d be looking for an Ops Manager / Director role for her.
• Caractacus Potts (Tom) was seen by many as something of a joke. He seemed to lack some of the “business” skills that one would expect but there was always the likelhood that he was goiung to come up with a good plan having already taken products to market in the past. His business idea… a chair that he had  designed and consultancy services to reduce back issues and associated costs to businesses was sound one. We didn’t find out much about the chair but if it’s real and Lord Alan is prepared to support Tom and help him to complete and follow through…Verdict: Maybe investable.

And that’s what Lord Alan saw too making me wonder why I had bothered watching eleven  weeks of Tom “failing” whilst trying to win “irrelevant” taks only to be invested in at the end because of entirely different criteria…??

The Interviewers…

Part of the fun of the interview show is to hide behind the sofa with your hands over your face as Lord Alan’s bully boys (and girl) kick the c**p out of the Apprentices. With a new line up this year the interviews were more restrained and sensible with only Claude Littner staying true to form and rude as ever. Along with Claude this year were Matthew Reilly (founder and CEO of the Daisy Group), Mike Suter (something to do with magazines?) and the welcome return of Margaret Mountford, bringing a welcome quality and consideration to the proceedings.

The interviewers thought that…

• Helen had a great track record, she was hard working, she would give 100%, she was perhaps lacking in entrepreneurial flare, she was incredibly organised, they didn’t like her plan. If Lord Alan was hiring someone to work in his companies she would win hands down.
• Jim was a terrific salesman, he is slippery and cannot be pinned down, he is Mr Cliche, Claude quite likes his plan, Lord Alan says schools currently have “no money.”
• Tom was a bit of a mad professor, will want to create something new every week, has a lack of focus, his numbers are wrong…
• Suzy has done well to get so far, is naive, her business plan is based on assumptions, she is an entrepreneur.

Lord Alan thought similar but was clearly disappointed in Helen’s proposition. He doesn’t like it at all. But it’s Jim who came in for the flack, “I think you tried to win me with your business plan but I’m afraid you’re fired.” For once there was nothing Jim could say other than he had given his best… and I think he was right.

Next ouf of the door was Suzy. Lord Alan thought she would do well but he wasn’t going to invest in her so we were left with Helen and Caractacus. I wondered if Lord Alan might pull off a shocker and hire them both to work together… likeable, boffin inventor and workaholic organizer? They had form together and clearly liked working together… think MyPy.

Lord Alan took some tiome with Nick and Karen and when they came back in Helen, realising she had pitched the wrong business, tried to pitch another. It was too little too late, the boffin had the money, the career, the car and the girl. Well, the money anyway.

So, as this is the last Apprentice show this year, I’m not going to try and recap any of the sales training and business development lessons merely ask you to think about what you learnt from the show this year and ask you to think about how you can apply it to increase your sales, business and personal success…?

And if you’re feeling like it… please share your thoughts about last night’s decision or your sales tips from the show below in the comments section…

P.s And the best sales success of the series? Tom last night telling us how he got his product into Walmart… After trying and failing to reach the buyer he went to their offices with a parcel of “hand-delivered” gifts. When the receptionist asked him to leave them he explained that he had been told to hand-deliver them to the recipient. On meeting the buyer he then explained why he was there and was given 30 minutes. You got to love that!

Related posts:

1. The Sales Apprentice 2011: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 6
2. The Sales Apprentice 2011: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 3
3. The Sales Apprentice 2011: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 8

Here is my video log of sales tips, business development strategies and personal development thoughts from The Apprentice, week 2. It’s worth watching whether you watch The Apprentice or not. The transcript is below for thos who don’t want video…

Transcript of the video below…

Hi, my name is Gavin Ingham. Welcome to week 2 of my sales tips from The Apprentice! Now, you know, one of the questions that people ask me is, “Why? Why The Apprentice?” and I think people who read my blogs and watch my videos, they tend to fit into one of the three categories.

1. Category 1: People who watch The Apprentice… that’s the people who enjoy the apprentice and they enjoy my blog and video blogs.
2. Category 2: People who sometimes watch The Apprentice… maybe they don’t even watch but they enjoy the blogs.
3. Category 3: They don’t watch The Apprentice… they don’t watch, maybe they are not interested, maybe they have lost interest in it and a lot of them maybe they don’t actually watch this or listen to this and you know what… that is actually a shame. Because these blogs, they are not really about The Apprentice, they are really about sales tips, they are really about business ideas, they are really about things that we can learn from the show, whether that’s what people did on the show or whether that’s what people didn’t do on the show.

I am not trying to dissect it, I am not trying to even say, “Hey look they should have done this that or the other”. Because ultimately we don’t know, we don’t really know what happened, we don’t know how it was all edited or how it was all cut. I have spoken to several of the Apprentices, met several, worked with quite a few of them and you know the stuff is cut all over the places, people are shown how they (the production crew) want to be shown.

So to tonight’s show… there were all sorts of tips, all sort of ideas that I could have picked to talk to you about. But first let me tell you a bit about the task.

Tonight’s Apprentice Task

Tonight’s task was to create a mobile phone app, a mobile phone app. That’s an app that goes on your phone and then to see which team could get the most downloads.

The two teams, boys versus girl,s were lead by Leon on the boy’s team who is a Fast Food Marketing Manager and Edna on the girl’s team who is a Chartered Business Psychologist.

The boys created a product which was called “slang-a-tang” and the idea was you could hit the app on the phone and it would give you an accent from a place in the world or a part in the country just for a bit of a laugh.  On the girls’ team they created something they called “Ampy Apps” and what that was, it was really just a noise, they were talking about things like if you were in a crowded room with your friends and you wanted to gain their attention or someone was annoying you or somebody was talking in the cinema which kind of sounded to me like you make even more noise!

Anyway, that was what they created and they went out and they made presentations to try and sell these – some to online magazines which could promote them and also to a live audience at some kind of technology event.

Now, there were all sort of tips and ideas that we could have got from tonight’s show but something that stood out for me was my first one.

Do you add value or are you just background noise?

Think about it for a minute, do you add value or are you just background noise? In tonight’s team there were some people who stepped up, they took action, they looked to see how they could help others, how they could rescue sales pitches, what they could do to save things… And there were others who just laid back and went, “You know what? I am not going to do very much. If I don’t do anything then nothing can go wrong”.

I think it is really important that you add value; I think it is also important that you sell something that adds value. I looked at this product as a whole and I thought,  “You know what? Sir Lord Alan was talking about this and saying that when he was young there weren’t these business opportunities around and to look at the speed you can get to market with this but take one day and you got ten thousand downloads but yeah where are you going to be tomorrow? Where are you going to be the day after? You can’t really built a sustainable business that’s adding any value that is really serving any use to society of a cow making a noise on a phone! Sure, you can make a bit of money on a quick download and you may be able to repeat that over and over again. But that itself is not a sustainable business idea.

Be positive.

The second thing that came up for me tonight is that I think you need to be positive when you are selling. Both teams at times were not particularly positive but in particular the girls. I would say at least half of the girls team did just not believe in what they were selling.  Now on the other hand, you might say, “Well that’s not very surprising because it wasn’t very good” but on the other hand they needed to get it, they should have seen it as what it was. I think it was Melody said after coming out after one of the presentation, she said, “What can you do? Your pitch is only as good as your product.” To me that sounds like a really great excuse for not winning the presentation.

Charm does not a presentation make.

The next thing that came around for me, still around presentations and sales presentations, actually was “charm does not a presentation make”. There is a chap called Vincent and he’s got slightly longer hair and he seems to, and certainlyhas been cast as a bit of a ladie’s man… someone who fancies himself as good with the women, sees himself as charming. I am pretty sure he is an IT software sales person and last week we saw him going in and smooching to try and sell some stuff.

He tried to do that on a presentation tonight and I always think it is unfair as I say to judge people on these presentations because we don’t really see enough to know what really happened but from what we did see, he ran out of things to say. He was struggling with what to say and he kind of turned to the team and said, “Can someone help me here” and I thought what was really important there was that you can’t just go on a charm offensive when you are making a presentation. You know, you have to have a plan. You have to know your audience. You have to know what you are trying to achieve. You have to know what your objectives are.

So charm does not a presentation make.

Appeal to your audience.

Next one, you have to appeal to your audience. The presentations that were made live to the technology audience were quite interesting because Edna decided to make the presentation for the girls team and, on the one hand, he was well spoken, she was well dressed, she was clearly confident but she wasn’t connecting with them. There was no connection, there was no similarity, there was no thought in her head going, “Hey! Where are my audience? Why are they listening to this? What do they want to get out of this?” And when you make a sales presentation, that’s really, really important. The boys, on the other hand, they were dressed up, they were doing funny voices, it was lively, it was whacky, there were lots of them involved, it was fast, it was moving… which was exactly what these kind of people would have wanted.

Have A CTA!

Next point! When you make a presentation you should always have to have a “Call To Action.” Edna just kind of went, “Well thank you” and walked off. The boys on the other hand were Calling To Action, CTA, Calling To Action. All the Call To Action is, it’s asking your audience to do something as a result of being in your presentation and right from the start the boys were suggesting, “Hey look you should download this. Hey download it now while you are listening to us. Get on your phones and do it now. Text it to someone else. Get someone else to do it”. They were saying things like, “First 50 people in the room get…”- I didn’t even hear what you get but you get something, so they were encouraging people to do that.

Know your clients.

Final one, know your clients. You know, I think tonight the boys outperformed the girls. There was an argument at the end which I will talk about it in a moment that the girls maybe had a better product. I think in some ways they did and some ways they didn’t. But I think that the point that wasn’t allowed to be made very well or it was not backed by Sir Lord Alan was the important one, that was there was one website which got more hits than the others and the girls got on that website and the boys didn’t. And although the boys were ahead in the morningwhen it was left to see who will download the most over the rest of the 24 hours, the girls went away and beat them by ten thousand downloads to four thousand. I believe a large amount of that was down to being on a global website.

Now, when they go in to the board room Sir Lord Alan knocked the boys, he said, “Your product wasn’t really global.” He was right, it wasn’t really global. The girls’ product was global but only in a kind of rubbish way but it was more global so that was true. But he also knocked them because the guys who turned them down said that their product was stereotypical… it was stereo typing people. It stereotyped Aussies, it stereotyped people from Wales, it stereotyped whoever it was that was doing it. Now that is true but the boys made a good point and they said it was just a joke, it was just a bit of fun, and you know that’s a fair point.

What was hilarious then  was that Sir Lord Alan after Leon decided to bring back Glen and Alex, Sir Lord Alan said to Glen who was a software guy, he said to him, “You know what? Techie people do not usually make very good business people.” And I thought, “Well hang on a minute, that is a much more serious stereo type than the one you just accused the boys of making” because at least theirs was light-hearted. Yours is serious and you are saying that on prime time TV to a bunch of other people out there. IT people do not make very good business people as a general rule!!! There’s a stereotype I think a lot of IT people will argue with you about!”

Anyway, three boys left fighting it out and it was quite interesting because Leon who we all thought I think was going to get thrown out managed to stay in and Sir Lord Alan decided to keep the IT guy too and throw out Alex.

Why did he throw out Alex? He threw out Alex because Alex did very little yesterday or last week as it probably was for them and he did very little tonight. He stayed in the background.

Now a lot of people said nothing’s changed. This series is the same as every other series. I am quite interested to see whether it is going to change now because previously I think a really good tactic would be to lie low. A really good tactic is to stay out of it. You could often spot the winners from The Apprentice because they don’t really do very much for the first few weeks or if they do they do it well but then they stay fairly low and then suddenly at the end they get this surge off. Clearly Sir Lord Alan is looking at this that he needs a proactive action taking business partner. He told Alex that if he was in this room again he would be out, but he was going to keep him because he had got a business that had got a million pound turnover from nothing and therefore he kept him. Alex on the other hand he felt wasn’t take activity, he wasn’t taking action. So what do we learn from that?

You need to take action.

You know what? There were a lot of tips in tonight’s program and I am sure you all got some too. Why not share with me your best tips from last night or if you didn’t watch it, if you are in another part of the world and you have read this and learned from the tips, why not share with me maybe some examples of you using these tips or some other tips that you think would be useful?

If you want to find out more about me, if you want to go and read more blogs, more stuff, not just see videos, go and have a look on www.gaviningham.com . I will talk to you soon.

Related posts:

1. The Sales Apprentice 2011: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week I
2. The Sales Apprentice 2008: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part VI
3. The Sales Apprentice: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part IX

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…

Well, I don’t know about you but I thought that tonight’s Sales Apprentice was probably one of the most clueless performances from all concerned that we have ever had the pleasure of seeing. Sure, there were some okay “sales” performances but I don’t really call smiling and offering muffins in the street, sales. If it is, then we really need to be concerned for the economic future of the UK.

Anyway, cheery bagel -banter aside, this week’s performances were hopeless. But before we get going here are the sales training tips for this week…

Sales training tip 1: Honesty is the best policy. Sales relationships are built on trust and credibility and you don’t create this by exaggerating and lying to your clients.

Sales training tip 2: No matter what your colleagues do, you need to conduct yourself with professionalism and pride in sales meetings.

Sales training tip 3: Know your prices.

Sales training tip 4: Under promise and over deliver.

Sales training tip 5: Know your products inside out.

Sales leadership tip: Make decisions. Lead from the front. Be prepared to step up!

Let’s start with Shibby…

I have the greatest respect for achievements in any field particularly those which require academic commitment, intelligence and success. However, I am also all for demonstrating that academic qualifications do not by themselves set you up for business success. Despite this, it is getting somewhat predictable that the show-makers deliberately recruit over-qualified turkeys just to stuff and carve them up.

In other series’, we have seen accountants, lawyers and academics gobbled up. Tonight it was the turn of a fully qualified doctor. As far as business acumen and experience go his (demonstrated) skills set him about on a par with blood-letting and leaches in medicine.

Tonight’s task was to make some cakes…. sorry, to make then sell bakery products  to commercial businesses and to individuals in the street. The two teams were headed up by Shibby and Melissa. In summation, I would have happily sacked both of them along with the incredibly cocky and annoying Paloma but you can’t have too much fun in one night on the Sales Apprentice and you have to follow the prescribed format. Shibby, keen to make his predictable exit as embarrassing for his professional credibility as possible, was blabbing to the camera, “I know that I’ve got the intelligence and the entrepreneurialism to succeed.”

Really?

He did, at least, manage to decide what his team were going to bake even if he did later sell something completely different. This simple decision proved beyond Melissa who couldn’t even get her team to that point, pontificating and generally looking like she was having difficulty holding a conversation with her team let alone leading them and making credible decisions.

After both of the teams split up into a baking team and a “sales” team, the sales teams headed off to make their “sales pitches” in three sales meetings set up by Sir Alan. We didn’t see very much of these sales meetings but what we did see was verging on the comical.

In the first sales pitch, Our Mel’s team (and I think Alex specifically) were banging on about their company to the chap from the hotel chain who just wanted 1000 rolls. “We are from Le Pain Artisan, we are a speciality bread company and we have a real passion for baked goods,” he lied. Look, you prat, we all know that you’re on The Apprentice and that you don’t run a company and that you don’t love bread so why pretend you do? Lying is never a good sales strategy and this one just makes you look stupid. Why not ask some questions rather than talking gibberish?

But if stupidity was what was required, Our Mel had him beaten and dragged the whole thing down to price in one line, “Obviously, straight off the bat I’d like to gain some understanding of what you’d like to order from us and then negotiate some sort of price.” The buyer, not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth suggested 1000 bread rolls and asked how much this would cost? Bizarrely, Our Mel and her team seemed to have no idea what the price would be. They looked so confused that the buyer offered them a couple of minutes to figure it out and they disappeared for 15 astoundingly coming back with the price of £1.82 a unit. Surely I didn’t hear that right??

Anyway, they’d blown it totally and the client blew them out of the water.

Later, over on Shibby’s team a whole new farce was taking shape. Shibby had secured the order for the 1000 rolls when Paloma stepped in and upsold to 1500 and then to 19000 units. She was gleeful about this order, boasting about how clever she was. It did not seem to have crossed any of their self-professed, superior intelligences that they actually needed to deliver on these orders…

Back over on Our Mel’s team, their sheer lack of product knowledge was astounding…

Client: “What weight are we talking about?”
Out Mel: “There is a standard size.”
Client:  “Which is?”
Our Mel: “I don’t have it with me at the moment.”

Did I mention that she’s in Food Business Management?

Lordie! Lordie!

Over on team Shibby, Shibby and Paloma were disagreeing vociferously in front of a client about whether they could or they couldn’t deliver on an order. Shibby offered to deliver 100 units rather than 400 and the client said it was all or nothing. Paloma interjected to say, “I’d like to honour it.” Honour what Paloma? It’s a sales meeting not a legally binding contract. On the principle in dispute, Shibby was right. You shouldn’t make promises that you have no hope of keeping. But this should have been dealt with in a wholly more professional and client focused way. And they should never have discussed it (let alone argued about it) in front of the client.

In the bakery, Christopher, an ex marine, created a supply chain that was operating with military efficiency. No doubt Sir Alan will at some point decide that he is too much of a doer and sack him but for now it was nice to see someone quietly getting on with things…

530am…

After a late night the teams were up early to sell to the public but first they had to deliver their goods to the commercial suppliers. Shibby had to admit to the hotel chain that he had only been able to deliver 16 of 1000 ordered rolls. “Out of the 1000… I am embarrassed to say that we only have 16,” he laughed. Unbelievable. I am sure it was nerves and not arrogance but this was not funny…

Sad, yes?
Pathetic, yes?
Embarrasingly, unbelievably, hopelessly, depressingly, inept? Yes.

“What do I say?” asked the client thinking about his hungry breakfast diners. And, is if  just to prove that he simply had no grasp of the seriousness of his total screw up, Shibby tried to make a joke by suggesting that they went on The Atkins diet…

For once, I am lost for words.

But he wasn’t finished. “What would make you feel more comfortable?” he asked the client to which the client asked for money. What? Shibby gave away £130 “compensation” and simultaneously demonstrated that he had no clue and no competitive spirit. Let’s not forget, this is not real business, this is a competition and I, for one, would not have been giving anything away without a fight.

On Our Mel’s team they had made part of their commercial sale but lost out on the muffins which were not up to scratch. Mel offered to reduce the price but had she have been listening properly she would have known that this would make no difference. The client said clearly that the muffins were not up to scratch, he did not say that they were too expensive. There is a huge difference between the two and one that many salespeople could do with understanding.
This was not about price. This client sells top quality goods. He was not interested in saving money. His business was about quality.

At this point in the show, the teams went on the street and sold to the London public in a variety of locations. Nick thought Stuart had found his forte. Our Mel had her own take on things, “Some people have a softly-softly approach… mine is more I am going to make you take it.”

In the Boardroom…

Apollo sold £999.37, spent £139.50 and made £859.87.
Synergy sold £974.92, spent £308.93 and made £665.99.

Apollo departed for an Eastern meal and glamorous Arabian dancers and on Synergy the recriminations started.

Back in the Boardroom…

Shibby elected to bring back Paloma and Sandeesh. I think he really brought back Sandeesh because he thought Paloma might back him up in saying that she had not done anything to help towards the task. And Paloma because you might as well shoot your general if you’ve lost the war. In the event, she got in first shot by refusing to back him up in criticizing Sandeesh and by lying about the fact that she already had. She also attacked his business acumen, “… you don’t have the fundamental skills that all of us have in the household.”

Sir Alan thought Paloma might think she is a superior to the rest and I would agree on that but he also told her she had Karen to thank that she was staying. He pointed out to Sandeesh that his advisors thought she wasn’t contributing. But there could be only one loser tonight and it had to be Shibby. He had stuck to the script and shown how intelligent, highly-qualified people can fall with spectacular style onto their self-sharpened swords.

“Shibby. After a thorough examination, I have got some bad news for you. You’re fired.” Ah, Sir Alan, you crack me up. I think I need a doctor…

In the cab Shibby was predictable, “I think Lord Sugar made a mistake…” Really, do you? Do you? Really? “But, you know what? I will pick myself up and I will learn from it.”

Oh. Come on. With that comment you already didn’t.

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 2
3. The Sales Apprentice 2009: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 12, The Final