Sales training, personal development & business success from motivational speaker & seminar leader Gavin Ingham
This site is packed full of sales training, small business and personal development tips from author and motivational speaker Gavin Ingham that will make a positive difference to your business, to your sales performance and to your personal success. You can check out inspiring sales training articles free in my blog, view my seminar schedule or visit my sales training and personal development shop.
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April 25, 2007
- The Sales Apprentice: Sales training tips from the hit TV show, part V
"Now 11 remain to fight for the chance to become the Apprentice." So began this week’s episode of the hit TV show which was primarily about selling and was packed to the rafters with sales training tips for the sales superstar in waiting.
This week’s task for our "wannabees" was to dabble in the art market selling photography. After picking 2 potential photographers each our heroes were to see who could make the most profit from art sales in one day. SAS was on top form declaring this to be "a special kind of salesmanship" where one cannot talk people into buying but where our team had to "smell" when a potential customer was on the hook!
April 22, 2007
- Why you should start high when in sales negotiations
One of my most popular sales training seminars is my Sales Negotiation Skills programme from the "Ingham Sales System". I think that there are many reasons for why this sales seminar is so popular but I am not going to go into them now! What I do want to do however is reiterate one of the simplest sales training strategies from this sales seminar…
Start high in sales negotiations.
As a strategy, there would be few salespeople or sales managers who would argue with this strategy however on my travels I am constantly amazed by how many sales and business people pay little or no attention to it…
April 18, 2007
- The Sales Apprentice: Sales training tips from the hit TV show, part IV
Hi and welcome to the latest Sales Apprentice dissection - sales training lessons we can learn from The Apprentice. Tonight’s episode started with the team being informed that they would be meeting the next day at Hamley’s toy shop. This was a nice touch as I am really getting a little bored of wondering whether this team of "professionals" are going to drop their towels when answering the phone!
April 17, 2007
- Why I bought private medical care and why you should sell on value and never on price
One of the messages that us sales trainer types have been very good at getting across over the last few years is the motto of selling on value and not on price. In sales training seminar after sales training seminar around the country sales managers, sales directors and sales trainers keep banging on about value being key not price! As such, when I ask the question, all salespeople are quick to say that we should sell on value and not price.
So why then do they rush to discount so fast? And moan about how their competitors are under cutting them? And whine that their products aren’t any better than their competitors?
April 13, 2007
- Sales training DVD: Power Canvassing for confident cold calling
Eliminate the fear of cold calling and secure more face to face time with senior decision makers.
You can probably count the number of salespeople on your teams who enjoy making cold calls on one hand. Maybe even on one finger! Yet proactive client calls and gaining new business meetings are a crucial part of winning more sales and growing your business.
Even experienced sales staff must be able to ring new clients and get meetings with key decision makers, fast!
April 11, 2007
- The Sales Apprentice: Sales training tips from the hit TV show, Part III
April 10, 2007
- Sales superstar or sales stalker?
It’s 1028pm and I have, just two minutes ago, avoided a sales call from a health care sales person. 1028pm! On Thursday afternoon I flew out to Spain for a few days arriving late evening. I flew back late last night arriving about midnight. After 4 days eating tapas and relaxing today was a busy day catching up on emails, making sales calls and sorting out my latest sales training book… of which more another day!
The sales scenario…
April 8, 2007
- Sales prospecting persistence on the Costa Blanca
Happy Easter to you all. I hope that you´re having a great one. I´m here in Spain and the weather is miserable! 330+ days of sunshine per year and I´m here when it´s raining! I suppose that´ll teach me to burn the environment up on short haul flights! At 55p per minute my sister took great joy in telling me that it´s glorious at home. I hope you´re all having fun!!
They are the most persistent salespeople you will ever meet…
April 4, 2007
- The Sales Apprentice: Sales training tips from the hit TV show, Part II
I know what the problem with The Apprentice is! I do! There are too many people keeping their heads down in the opening rounds. There were 15 people “competing” last night and I still don’t know most of them. How many can you put a name to? I can name about 6 I think… Rory, Tre, Jadine, Kate, Ifti and Ghazal. Anyway, I think we always knew that Tre and Jadine would be “back for more” tonight but our star newcomer to the affray, and that’s the only word I can think of to describe the (nearly all) boy’s team, was Rory… of whom more later…
Last night’s task was to design a product for doggie lovers everywhere. The teams then had to pitch their ideas to 3 retailers. The team making the most money would be the winner and thus escape the acerbic end of Sir Alan’s tongue (“I don’t care where you come from… all I want is someone who is drop, dead shrewd”).
So with these words of wisdom from Sir Alan and this task in mind our pumped up, self-aggrandizing, ego maniacs got to work. Well sort of…
They still have plenty to learn: - Sales training tip for the day: Get up close and personal
Someone’s trying to sell me something at the moment. They met me at one of my sales training seminars and told me a bit about their products. I get that a lot as you might imagine! I said that I was pretty interested in what they had to offer. Now I don’t know about you but I’d call that a green light! They should be all over me. And they are… well sort of anyway.
You see they’ve decided to take the sale on by email. Email after email after email. It’s got to the point where I am beginning to get a little sick of them.
April 2, 2007
- How not to close a client
I love everything about sales and the psychology of selling and I read as much as I can on the subject. I always have a book with me to learn from, to inspire me and to keep me on the sales edge so that I am constantly refining the processes and strategies that I teach in my books, audios, DVDs and seminars…
As you might expect I am not particularly squeamish when it comes to closing people down however over the last few nights I have been reading a book on closing written in the mid-1980’s. It is appalling and what’s more some of the tactics in it are based on the cheesiest of theories. Here’s one tip from the sales training book…
March 30, 2007
- Sales training book: Objections! Objections! Objections!
I know that many of you will have read my first sales training book "Objections! Objections! Objections!" but for those who haven’t, here is an excerpt from the end of the book where we start to pull all of our sales skills together. If you haven’t read my book then you really need to try and borrow a copy from someone! It’s super easy to use and incredibly powerful… or so my clients tell me…
"Conversation 3: The Existing Supplier
Client: “I think that I had better stop you there. I am totally happy with my current suppliers.”
March 28, 2007
- The Sales Apprentice: Sales training tips from the hit TV show, Part I
I have to admit that I don’t watch much TV. I don’t have the time. When people talk about "Big Brother", "Eastenders", "I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here"… I have nothing to say because I just don’t watch them. But I do like "The Apprentice". I didn’t see the first series but I really got into the last one. So much so infact that I was positively looking forward to tonight’s first installment. And this made all the more interesting because I know one of the housemates…
Who will the superstars be?
March 25, 2007
- Sales training strategies from the politicians? Whatever next?!
So come on - hands up. Who´s been following the shenanigans of our governing politicians? Everyone? No-one? And who cares…?
The general consensus of opinion seems to be that people don´t care enough about politics to force politicians to do anything about the current state of affairs. Because few people are saying anything, no-one thinks it really matters whether a politician is true to their word or not….
So what if we’re not in the streets shouting and rioting!
March 24, 2007
- Under promise, over deliver… give your customers what they want even before they ask!
How many times have you rung a company with a small problem or niggle that could easily have been solved but it ends up blowing up in your face? I’m guessing quite a few times. You know the kind of situation – you have a problem with something that needs a simple resolution but the company argues the toss and you end up falling out over it. On most occasions the company usually capitulates and does what you want but the fight has left you with a bad taste in your mouth. Why is this?
March 23, 2007
- Which sales skills process or system should I use?
I was asked a great question today and I thought that it was worth posting here as the answer is relevant to all salespeople. Some trainers and speakers might not like my answer but hey, I never said I was here to be liked!!!
Question: Are there any particular selling systems that you advocate or follow?
That’s a great question and the answer is, “Yes, the Ingham Sales System”! It’s available in different chunks and each chunk has a name
i.e. “No Fear Cold Calling”, “Professional Selling Skills”, “Sales Negotiation Skills” etc.
March 22, 2007
- Should cold callers ask “How are you today?”
Should we ask, "How are you?" at the start of a cold call? It’s a great question and one which salespeople and sales trainers alike are split on!
Do you want to sound disingenuous?
Whilst accepting that there are always exceptions to every rule, I’m on the not side. My main reason is that most salespeople do not sound like they mean it and most potential clients think it’s disingenuous! Here’s a real conversation that took place from one of my delegates on a course who would not stop asking this question…
- Learn the art and science of closing and win more sales
One of the questions I often get asked in sales training seminars by sales people and business owners alike is, “How do I close more sales and what closing techniques would you recommend?”
In my experience, closing is one of the three most feared areas of the sales process. The other two are fear of canvassing and fear of objections. But the real question is, what is it about these three that creates such a fear? Especially, when even some of the most successful sales professionals face challenges in one or more of these three areas. The answer is simple – fear of rejection. Humans are social animals and the fear of rejection is one of the primary human drivers so it takes a different line of thought to face this issue. Mere techniques will not suffice.
March 21, 2007
- Beware the dark side of the sales training force
Strikes me there are two types of trainers / speakers who have gone over to the dark side in an attempt to win more business…
The you must “never cold call clan”. They’ll tell you it doesn’t work, they’ll tell you it costs money and they’ll tell you it’s outdated. They’ll also tell you that anyone who disagrees with them is a charlatan! They’re wrong. I’ve worked with teams who have set up on average 2 qualified sales appointments with senior decision-makers in an hour each. One large corporate I worked with landed a £350,000+ contract (year 1 only) from a cold call made whilst actually on one of my training programme. Doh!
- What the mile high agony aunt cannot teach you about cold calling
I was flying back from a small town in the South of England the other day. The flight was quite pleasant and I had just been delivering a very effective sales training programme for the sales team. One of the main thrusts of the sales coaching was helping the staff to overcome fear of cold calling and prospecting and empowering them to go out and win business.
So there I was, on the plane, drinking my coffee and reading the in-flight magazine when I chanced across a letter to a sort of Mile High Agony Aunt. It read something like this…
