As a sales motivational speaker I get the pleasure of working with thousands of salespeople every year and I get asked about many sales training challenges that they face. One area that rears its ugly head quite frequently is the act of reaching and building rapport with senior decision makers. Many succesful salespeople who prospect new clients effortlessly every day can be pushed out of their comfort zones by asking them to contact CEOs, MDs and COOs. The ability to find, locate and build rapport with senior decision makers is critical if … [Read more...]
Why Practise Makes Perfect When Sales Training
August 20, 2008 By 12 Comments
When running sales training sessions, sales seminars, sales motivational speeches and sales consultancy I am constantly amazed by the lengths that salespeople will go to avoid practising sales techniques. Like any skill, selling requires practise and the more your practise the mor successful you will be. Check out this excerpt on closing the sale from my forthcoming book, Real World Sales Skills: How to Sharpen Your Sales Skills & Win More Sales... The more your practise the more success you are going to achieve. When I make this … [Read more...]
What One Thing Do You Wish That You’d Known When You Started Out In Sales?
August 8, 2008 By 4 Comments
I recently sent out my Success newsletter and asked people, "What one thing do you wish you'd known when you started in sales?" Here are some of your answers. I think that they're really good! You can join in by adding your own thoughts and ideas in the comments section below. Make sure that you check out all of the questions and answers in my Real World Sales Tips project amd make the most of this growing sales resource. When I first started out in sales I wish I'd known how to seperate the timewasters from the genuine people that wanted to … [Read more...]
How To Use Email When Prospecting
July 23, 2008 By 6 Comments
I would like to know what to do when the only contact information you have is an email address. What do you put in the email, just bare fact, do you give as much as possible. Usually when I email a potential new client, I am not getting any response from them. Do you have any suggestions? This is a great sales training question and one which there is no hard and fast answer to. Email is still a relatively new technology and the use of it in the sales process and the etiquette behind it is changing all of the time. Certainly, some … [Read more...]
Why Tenacity And Persistence Are Essential For Sales Success
July 5, 2008 By 2 Comments
Imagine for a second that you have set up a new business selling a new form of consulting service. There’s nothing like it in the marketplace and you are going to have to educate your clients on its worth. After a bit or research you settle on a price and go to visit half a dozen selected clients to get their opinion. Unfortunately, every one of them says that it’s too expensive. What do you do? A) Reduce the price to match what they think? B) Re-evaluate the product and add more benefits? C) Start negotiating furiously? D) … [Read more...]
Will Improving My Memory Boost Sales Success?
June 17, 2008 By 3 Comments
Gavin Hi! Recently I have missed target a few times and have been hauled over the coals by my boss. I had lots ideas and suggestions as to how they could support me, and as to why I felt that my performance had dropped but my manager suggested that I improve my memory. I am always prepared and know my stats when speaking to clients but when put on the spot I often do not know everything about my current sales opportunities without looking at my physical forecast. My boss feels that I am not on target because I do not have instant … [Read more...]
Selling Is Simple
June 8, 2008 By 4 Comments
People make it complicated. How many salespeople do you know who demand to be taught the "advanced" stuff because they already know the basics? Probably quite a few. This is partly due to ego but is also due to the gap between knowledge and skill. Take open questions as an example... Very few sales or business people do not know what the difference is between an open and a closed question yet few consistently ask good open questions falling back on bullying, predictable closed questions in the heat of a tough sale... This … [Read more...]
The Sales Apprentice: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part X
June 2, 2008 By 3 Comments
In last week’s Apprentice the task was to rent out high end supercars. The team making the most sales would be the winner. A sales task plain and simple and one which created many interesting sales training and business lessons.. Sales managers for the day on the two teams were Michael (leading Helene and Claire) and Lee leading Lucinda and Alex. Their first task was to pick two cars per team that they would have to sell... Michael picked a Ferrari and a Spyker, Lee an Aston Martin and a Zonda. These cars varied in sales rental quotes … [Read more...]
How Not To Sell A Watch
May 30, 2008 By 1 Comment
For the last few days I have been in Switzerland running a sales training seminar for one of my clients. I really like Switzerland – the people are friendly, the country is clean, things run on time and the chocolate is fantastic! Last time I went over to Switzerland I flew straight into and out of Zurich (via Amsterdam) so I thought this time it would be a great idea to fly into Geneva, take a couple of days driving along two of the lakes and on to Zurich. Hence, yesterday afternoon I found myself with some time to spare in Geneva … [Read more...]
