It’s funny but as a sales trainer and consultant it’s very rare that I wear a tie anymore. And do you know what I don’t miss them one iota!
I was reading through a classic sales ‘text book’ from the early 1990’s recently and was caught by the Way that the advise has dated so much in just ten years. I won’t give the name of the book because it was once regarded as the best sales texts books available and it would not be right.
The suggestions when it came to dress were:
‘Mens suits should be solid blue or gray, pinstripe or chalk stripe or modest gray plaid. Wool or polyester that looks like wool, is preffered. The darker the suit, the more authority it carries, although black is funeral. Men’s shirts and ties are important. Generaly, shirts should be white or pale blue or have mdest stripes………The ages of the salesman and the customer he is facing will affect the choice of dress. For salesman, considerbly younger than his customer, particularly buyers over the age forty eight, it is advisable that the salesman adopt the high - authority pattern of a dark suit along with a white shirt.’
When times are tough, the temptation is to consider dropping your prices. Don’t!
If you drop your prices you are only adding to your own difficulties. The table above shows the impact small changes in the price you sell at can have on your business.
If you are having difficulty putting together a logical and emotional reason why your potential customer or client should use you then look at the quality of the questions you asked initially.
It may not be the definitive list of questions to ask but I guarantee you, that if you have managed to get the answers to all of the following questions then you are well on your way to a sale.
What is the customers/clients situation?
What is the customer’s perspective on the situation?
To ensure your stability and sales success in difficult times why not adopt a business diversification strategy.
If you own a SPAR retailer consider a Subway franchise. If you are a huge department store, how about adding an old fashioned gents hair cutting and shoe shine shop.
I have recently finished reading “The Power Of Your Subconscious mind” by Dr Joseph Murphy and it really struck a chord with me based on the current business climate. I have been hearing a lot of negative talk from many business owners and sales people I meet recently.
If you are determined to set yourself up to fail I have drawn up the 7 key things you should say to yourself on a daily basis to ensure that you speed up your failure as soon as possible. Might as well get it over and done with right?
Negotiation and Negotiating Skillsare some of the most sought after sales training courses. People seek out negotiation tips, negotiating strategies and scour the web for processes to win against the ‘other’ person in a negotiation.
It may come as a surprise to you but your own worst enemy in a negotiation is yourself. Some people seem to spend hours seeking out the magic words that will help them win in any negotiation yet fail to look to see what they or their employees are doing wrong.
Two recent personal experiences highlight this fantastically well:
People are often surprised when I turn up for sales training workshops without a laptop and powerpoint slides. They are pleasantly surprised throughout the day as the workshops unfolds and the day revolves around creativity, interaction and the application of knowledge. It makes for a fun and engaging day.
I found long ago that traditional powerpoint presenations and sales training does more to kill off the key things I promote than anything else. It is rigid, linear and down right boring!
Don’t fall into these traps with your presenations:
Recently I wrote a blog post saying that I had been asked to write a review of a new book called Topgrading for Sales by Bradford.D.Smart and Greg Alexander.
I spent my last weekend at an Entreprenurial Get together of 500 people who had gathered to see some amazing guest speakers.
One of the highlights for me was Duncan Bannatyne. He spoke for an hour and then held an open microphone question and answer session.
Duncans speach was superb. I have to say he was not the most “polished speaker” you are likely to encounter but his talk was based on his real life experiences and his humour shone through. This just made the talk seem so much more natural.
One of the things that really struck me was that Duncan could not really say how he had done any of his huge successes any more than “Just do It” (or was that Nike?). He truly believes that anyone can emulate his success yet can’t really describe how to do it.
This short but powerful video introduces a fantastic tool for assisting traditional businesses in getting more sales and more profits from existing clients and prospects. The form used can be downloaded here: Product and service matrix for increased sales growth
A resource that I keep near my desk to help me find just the right words for my sales letters and emails is ‘Words That Sell’ - By Richard Bayan.
One of the areas that I think we all make the most mistakes is what Richard calls ‘”Puffspeak”. That is - inflated words and phrases that have made their way into our every day language without real need.
Check to see if you use these in your sales letters and copywriting:
Puffspeak and The Translation
At this point in time = Now
conceptualize = think
cost-effective = profitable or money saving
counterproductive = futile
effectuate = bring about
ramifications = consequences
state-of-the-art = latest
transpired = happened
This is a great little sketch that I found on the BBC web site.
Cold Callers can be annoying, especially when they call you at the wrong time, say the wrong things and read from a script with no room for manouvering.
We teach businesses that there are other options to using outdated cold calling techniques. This can be achieved by using 21st Century Prospecting and 21st Century Lead Generation and using a professional non scripted calling approach.
I love the Apprentice. It has so much potential for filling hundreds of blog posts.
Amongst the many things that really stood out for me last night night was the sales meeting of the female team and the hotel manager. I have seen some bad meetings in my time (and have to admit to running some of them), but this was a great example of how not to do it.
The challenge entailed setting up an overnight laundry and winning and completing as much business as possible in less than one day. ‘SrrrrAlan’ had arranged for the team to meet with two potential clients; firstly a hotel and secondly a fish mongers.
The female team made a complete hash of their meetings as I have disected below:
Lack Of Research — Both teams had little or no prior knowledge of the Industry. Whilst the male team did some research and rang around some existing providers on the way to the meeting, the female team picked a price from thin air without doing any research. This lack of preparation showed when they quoted a figure of £4900 to do the job. The Hotel manager was obviously taken aback as his existing contractor charges around £200. I know this is an extreme example but the moral of the story is - do your research and understand the market pricing and the value you offer. The female team clearly did not understand this. I am forever encouraging my clients to increase their prices based on the value they bring but I don’t think I could have trained anyone to sell at over 20 times the market rate in a highly competetive, commodatised marketplace - without adding any value!
Sell on Value to the potential Client — Having lost all credibility from the outset the female team then tryed to substantiate their offering with their added value services. “We will provide you with 2 Account Managers, and you will have our direct dial mobile numbers”. Perhaps if you were setting up a business bank account this would be something of value (although i would argue not as service should be a standard - not an option!). However when dealing with washing and ironing hotel sheets with a turn around of a few hours this had no value whatsover. How many sales meetings do you hold where you are offering your prospect something that has no value to him whatsoever? Unless you understand and professionally question the prospect, never assume that you know what will be of value to them.
