Whether for business, career, health, finance, social or hobbies, everyone knows and understands the power of goal setting. For years, experts and gurus have carped on about the value of setting goals. For decades, authors and speakers have written books and created programmes about goal setting. Everyone knows that they should set goals to help them to achieve their aims and objectives…

So why is it then that so many people don’t set goals when they know that they should?

Review of The 4-Hour Workweek; Escape 9-5, live anywhere and join the new rich. Thus Timothy Ferris titled his new book. And what a book…

There has been a lot of hype about this book. Some of it good, some of it bad. Take two conflicting and contrasting review comments on Amazon…

* 5-Star highly recommended, "A must read"

* 1-Star Shameless Self-promotion, "Please - please - don’t waste your time with this book. Catchy title - but that’s about it."

“This is a job interview from hell. I’ve been in business for 40 years. Your prize is working with me.”

And thus we entered tonight’s third show with 14 wannabee apprentices remaining to fight for the chance to become The Apprentice. This week’s task was to transform two pubs by putting on food service. As usual, the team with the most profits at the end of the day would win.

Sir Alan Sugar changed the routine slightly by picking the team leaders himself. He chose Sara for the girls, a trained barrister and international car trader (whatever that is), and Ian for the boys, a software sales manager.

Hi Gavin

By the way I have been on one of your courses. Thanking you in advance.
 
Thanks for the note. It’s good that you’re putting thought into how you approach your interview and using the resources and contacts that you have to prepare fully. Many salespeople don’t do this, thinking instead that they can “blag it”.

They usually fall flat on their faces!

Tips for sales managers, sales directors & business owners.

Creating high performance sales teams is essential for any business wanting to achieve sales growth. Proactive, positive, consistent new business winning teams and salespeople are the holy grail of any sales organisation.

All of my clients have their own unique ways of motivating, managing and leading their sales teams yet they all have problems from time to time in keeping those teams on target, focused and “up for it!”

With another stirring rendition of Prokofiev’s Dance of the Knights The Apprentice got under way. Another show, another early morning call that we got so familiar with on the last series. One of the boys answered the phone in a superman t-shirt… I wonder what sales training strategies and tips will we learn tonight?

Tonight their task was to sell laundry services. Sir Alan Sugar had got the teams two industrial laundries and their job was to go out and win business, launder the laundry and then return it to their clients. They must be back in the board room by 2pm the next day. The team with the most profits will win.

The negative attitude of an individual can quickly permeate through an entire company’s culture if not kept in check. We ask the experts what we should do with the whingers.

Troubleshooting. To eliminate negativity in the workplace, you must first identify those who are responsible. "Negative people are very good at weeding out those who can be "turned" and after a few moaning, whining, coffee breaks, things can rapidly take a turn for the worse," warns Gavin Ingham, leading motivational speaker and trainer.

So here we go, 12 more weeks of The Apprentice and 12 more issues of The Sales Apprentice. Are we going to be wowed with amazing sales techniques and strategies? Are this year’s apprentices going to prove themselves to be sales gurus and experts? What sales training, business and personal development lessons will we learn? Will I regret ever starting this report at the start of the last series? Only time will tell…

Towards the end of last season I was losing patience with the self-serving, self-satisfying apprentices. Would this year’s new start and apprentices give me hope?

One of the issues that comes up frequently when running sales training seminars is the thorny issues of goals and goal setting. In my experience, few people seem to set any goals at all and even fewer stick to them! Ever since reading Anthony Robbins in my early twenties I have been a keen goal setter… and it has worked well for me. As a salesperson they helped to keep me on track, motivated and focused. As a manager they empowered me to take action to get results. As a motivational speaker in the sales training arena they have helped to give me the edge that I need to get the results that I want.

A few things have happened recently that got me thinking about something very serious, something that could make a huge difference to your sales results and your sales performance…

Last week I went out for a meal with some friends and one of them had brought along someone whom I had not met before. This person was in IT sales. They were in their mid to late twenties and had been doing it for about 3 years. Judging by their conversation, description of their job and a few other factors I guessed they were doing ok… comfortable in their job but no sales superstar.