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You know, it’s always interesting to read articles on cold calling….from people that don’t have a clue what they’re talking about! A client sent me a few articles this week that he was laughing about – all about cold calling – all written by people that can’t, won’t or don’t cold call – hilarious!

Firstly – Cold Calling Isn’t ‘Dead’

All of them were saying how it doesn’t work, how it’s ‘dead’ etc etc. They’re wrong. Cold calling is still one of the best (and quickest) ways to get new business. But it’s evolving. And you need to be aware of what’s changing so you can stay ahead of the game….and your competition.

As most of you know, I’m well-known for my cold calling expertise and results I’ve got with clients from implementing the methods. So here are 6 tips for getting more appointments from your cold calls. Study them. Pin this article up on the wall. Make the techniques work for you. And I promise you’ll see a marked difference in your sales figures……

Andy’s Sales Tip No 1 – Stop Asking ‘When Is Your Contract Up For Renewal?’

This is probably one of the worst questions you can ask early in a call! You might as well say to the prospect ‘this is my pathetic attempt at qualifying you in order that I can decide if you’re worth my time or not right now, or whether I should call you back in 9/12/15 months time in the vain hope you remember me (rather than forgetting me within seconds of putting the phone down). Please let me know the answer to this so I can get on with calling the rest of my list of people I’m supposed to call today’.

You know that if you ask this question early in the call that they’re probably going to lie to you, don’t you? How do you know? Because you’ve been lied to in the past, haven’t you? Ever called someone previously who told you their contract was due to renew in June, but when you ring them in March they’ve just renewed? Yep, you’ve been lied to! Are you going to continue doing the same thing, or do you want a different result? So stop asking the question!

Andy’s Sales Tip No 2 – Have A Strong ‘Reason’ For Calling

This is another thing the average telecoms salesperson fails to do. So if you do it, you’re already well ahead of the game. The prize for ‘worst ever’ call reason goes to someone who I once heard say ‘the reason for the call is to find out when your contract is up for renewal’.

Brilliant! Abject failure to understand tip number one and tip number two! Great effort. Collect the envelope containing your P45 and join the queue at the job centre.

Your ability to grab your prospect’s attention is a major factor in whether you get a little more time on the call. And an important part of that is having a strong call reason. You do have a strong reason for calling, don’t you? And it’s about the prospect, not you?

Andy’s Sales Tip No 3 – Call With Confidence And Belief

This part is often missing – particularly if the salespeople concerned are calling over a period of more than an hour. If they’re not careful, their motivation can drop off over time, and their confidence and belief can be affected in a negative way just by one bad call!

Prospects can ‘hear’ confidence and belief in your voice…and they notice when it’s missing! You need persuade people to buy into you and what you offer. They need to have faith in you and trust that you know what you’re talking about. But if you don’t have strong belief and confidence they won’t do either. Lost sales opportunity!

An example of how vital this area is – I worked with an internal sales team last week whose role it is to get appointments for their field sales colleagues. Purely focusing on motivation, confidence and belief we achieved a 60 PERCENT increase in appointments!! Note: I didn’t change anything about what they said, just their motivation, confidence and belief! Anyone else out there want similar results?…..

Andy’s Sales Tip No 4 – Do Some Preparation!

It often astounds me how little preparation your average telecoms salesperson does. Like I mentioned above, Cold Calling is evolving, and you need to evolve with it to give yourself a good chance of success. No longer can you call companies with a name of the person you’re trying to reach and have a good success rate in terms of getting through to them, or getting appointments with them.

The minimum preparation you should be doing prior to a call is to get the name of the decision maker, direct phone number and email where appropriate, an idea of your call reason and what you’re going to say, likely objections and how you’re going to handle them, plus access to your diary (or your colleague’s diary) to book those appointments in!

Remember, you need to know exactly the date and time that you’re trying to make the appointment for before you start to close – otherwise you’re affecting your chances of success in a negative way!

Andy’s Sales Tip No 5 – Focus Your Time

If you’re starting any sort of calling session, whether it’s cold or warm calling, make sure you’re focused before you start! This means eliminating any distractions. Far too many telecoms salespeople allow themselves to get interrupted during calling sessions, which then has a negative impact on the results they get from them – which falsely leads some people to the conclusion that it ‘doesn’t work for them’ or they’re no good at it.

Interruptions would include things like colleagues talking to them, incoming phone calls, emails, making a drink etc etc. Particularly if the salesperson isn’t enjoying the session, they’ll take advantage of the interruption, therefore ruining their chances of success in the calling session!

If you’re going to start a calling session, make sure you’re focused on it. As well as the end result you want to achieve.

Andy’s Sales Tip No 6 – Create Some Energy

Another big mistake the average telecoms salesperson makes is sounding bored and tired. Remember, when you’re making a phone call, your voice is all you have to persuade people, so make sure you give it your best shot! You need to have energy and enthusiasm in your voice in order to persuade others, so why are you making calls where you sound like you’re terminally depressed?!!

The longer the calling session goes on, the more you have to be careful of your energy levels. Sometimes short breaks between focused calling sessions actually produce better results, as well as the salesperson managing their energy levels during the session.

Remember – If you’re going to bother making a call, make it sound like a good one!

You can ask any questions about this article or sales in general, by contacting Andy here

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Andy Preston is a leading Sales Expert, Trainer and Motivational Speaker. He runs the Ecademy ‘Sales And Cold Calling Tips Club’ as well as writing for magazines, newspapers and trade journals all around the world on anything related to sales and selling.

You can get Andy’s free cold calling and sales tips HERE

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2010. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article contact Andy Preston for guidelines. Media enquiries – details here

Please watch the video below, and refer to the list of some ’sales fundamentals’ you should have in place (or be doing on a consisent basis), which is directly below the video.

For those who can’t see or hear the video due to local restrictions, please see the ‘written version’ below the sales fundamentals list. Enjoy!

List Of 10 Sales Fundamentals You Should Have In Place

1. A written, focused sales plan.
2. A ‘perfect customer’ profile
3. An ‘irritational 25′
4. ‘Blocked out’ new business prospecting time (no distractions and never moved!).
5. A structured, customer focused Opening Statement.
6. A minimum of 20 Sales Questions of at least 5 different types, designed to make the customer think.
7. An individual client referral strategy.
8. A monthly sales meeting (even if you’re a 1-person business, you still need to ‘meet’ with yourself weekly to focus on sales!)
9. A training and development plan for each employee that has a ‘responsibility’ for sales – otherwise how can you expect them to improve?
10. A sales-focused Social Media strategy for driving sales leads through your sales funnel.

If you’re missing any of the above, give me a call on 0845 130 6779, or contact me here and I’ll see how I can help!

The ‘written’ version of the blog is below…..

I was speaking at an event last week and had decided to do feedback forms, as the majority of the audience hadn’t seen me speak before and I thought it would be useful to see what they thought!

If you’ve worked with me or been to one of my events before, you know I’m not a big fan of feedback forms as people seem to write quite bizarre things on them! I remember a piece of feedback we got from an event years ago that read ‘Great speech Andy! Got loads from it. Feeling really motivated! Food was a little bit spicy though with too many onions’. How funny is that?!!

However because of the amount of people that hadn’t seen me speak before, I decided to do them for this event. The vast majority of them came back very positive, but one in particular got me thinking. It said ‘Good event Andy, but the speech was bit basic for someone of my level’. Now that sort of thing always makes me smile, as the minute a salesperson refers to something as ‘basic’ I get concerned. That usually means that they consider it beneath them (i.e cold calling), or that they already know it and they don’t need to think about it. They’d be wrong! There’s a HUGE difference between ‘basic’ and ‘fundamental’.

Why Salespeople Should Think In Terms Of ‘Fundamentals’

I remember an old sales manager of mine, years ago. He took me to see a speaker that he really enjoyed listening to. The seminar itself was on a Saturday morning, so being a young salesperson at the time, I was already thinking of what else I could be doing, other than being at the seminar with my boss at that moment!

At the first break, my boss turned to me and asked me what I thought. I replied ‘yes, I think he’s quite good, he’s got some interesting things to say, but it’s a little bit ‘basic’.

My boss said ‘Andy, you’re wrong. This isn’t basic. This is fundamental to your success’. His belief was that anyone who called it ‘basic’ thought it was below them, they didn’t need to pay attention to them, and they did it all ‘naturally’, without having to worry about any of it! He said to me ‘Andy, these things are FUNDAMENTAL to your success. Another way of describing them would be CRITICAL. Or ESSENTIAL. These are things that you need to be doing on a DAILY basis to ensure that you get as many sales in as you can. If you want to be successful that is…..’

Learn The Lesson Of ‘Fundamentals’

That ‘lesson’ has always stayed with me. Because I think there’s a HUGE difference between ‘basics’ and ‘fundamentals’. If you dismiss something as ‘basic’, then you’re probably not going to do it, or be concerned about it.

If you think of something as ‘fundamental’, it’s something you’re going to focus on and make sure you do every single day to make sure you’re successful.

So for me, I think we should be thinking of things in terms of being ‘fundamental’ instead of ‘basic’. I’ve made a list of things below that I consider fundamental to the success of a salesperson, or a business owner.

So, take a look at the list below. And look at how many that you currently DON’T have in place. Then give me a call on 0845 130 6779, or contact me here and I’ll see how I can help!

List Of 10 Sales Fundamentals You Should Have In Place

1. A written, focused sales plan.
2. A ‘perfect customer’ profile
3. An ‘irritational 25′
4. ‘Blocked out’ new business prospecting time (no distractions and never moved!).
5. A structured, customer focused Opening Statement.
6. A minimum of 20 Sales Questions of at least 5 different types, designed to make the customer think.
7. An individual client referral strategy.
8. A monthly sales meeting (even if you’re a 1-person business, you still need to ‘meet’ with yourself weekly to focus on sales!)
9. A training and development plan for each employee that has a ‘responsibility’ for sales – otherwise how can you expect them to improve?
10. A sales-focused Social Media strategy for driving sales leads through your sales funnel.

2009 was an interesting year for many salespeople and business owners I’ve been speaking with recently. Whilst some had a successful year, many others were grateful for making the sales they did, and some were grateful to make it through the year at all!

2009 had some interesting lessons in terms of sales and sales tactics, things we should all learn from whether we’re a salesperson, sales manager, director or business owner.

Follow the tips below and watch your sales soar in 2009!…..

(This is a shortened version of the full article. To get a copy of the article in full, go to http://www.andy-preston.com/ask-andy/ and ask nicely )

Sales Lesson Number One – Prospect Continuously

If 2009 taught you nothing else, it taught you that you can’t always rely on your existing customers to hit your sales targets! 2009 was the year that existing customers were looking for ways to cut costs in their businesses – and maybe you and your product or service were one of those costs?

Prospecting should be done on a continuous basis, not just when you’re quiet!

Sales Lesson Number Two – Control The Sales Cycle

2009 highlighted the need for the salesperson to control the sales process more than ever before! It was the year where customers started asking for ‘quotes’ regularly, but then didn’t seem to proceed with the order quite as fast!

In a lot of cases, prospects were trying to get a ‘feel’ for how much it would cost, before trying to get approval for the spend, which often wasn’t forthcoming! Therefore if salespeople weren’t careful, they’d end up doing lots of ‘running around’ for very little reward!

Sales Lesson Number Three – Know More About The Competition

Again, 2009 showed us that we have to be sharper in this arena. Many companies were finding increased competition when trying to sell their products or services, and often this was happening in existing accounts as well!

If you truly want to be able to sell against your competition, you’d better know them – inside and out.

You want to know about their marketing and promotion, their sales campaigns, their products and services, where they’re strong (and weak), and if you’re based in a regional areas – your competitors sales rep for that territory and their selling style!

Sales Lesson Number Four – Write A Sales Plan

Whenever I mention this topic at an event that I’m speaking at, I’m often amazed how few people have a proper sales plan in place! I mean a specific document, written down, with a focused plan of how the individual, team or business is going to win business for the forthcoming year.

Without a proper sales plan in place, most people will miss opportunities that they could have converted, and miss other opportunities they weren’t even aware of.

Not the best thing to happen in a tough market, so start your year off well and get a written sales plan in place, right now!

Sales Lesson Number Five – Examine Your ‘Selling Level’

2009 was the year that purchasing and ’sign-off’ responsibility shifted somewhat. Managers or department heads that were previously able to sign-off quite large sums of money were ‘reigned in’ somewhat, and Directors and Owners started taking more interest in exactly where the company’s money was being spent.

This means that all the salespeople that were selling at ‘user’ or ‘manager’ level found that decisions we’re going ‘above’ – and that they weren’t coming back as positively or as quickly as previously might have happened!

Sales Lesson Number Six – Ask Better Questions

If you or your team are still asking mainly ‘fact-find’ questions of prospects you’re calling or going to see, then you’ll probably be one of the first to be left behind in 2010!

If your prospects and clients are looking at other vendors, and your phone calls and meetings are conducted knowing you’re not the only supplier they’re talking to, one of the biggest things that will differentiate you is your questioning ability.

How does yours (or your team’s) currently measure up?

Sales Lesson Number Seven – Look At Who’s Involved

As businesses have ‘re-engineered’ themselves and their business offering over the last few months, for some companies that’s meant re-shuffling their staff and their responsibilities. This is worth looking at closely from a sales point of view however, as we want to make sure you aren’t losing any opportunities through any re-structuring or re-organisation.

Have a think right now, who’s making the calls to try and get appointments for the field sales team? Highly sales trained individuals? Or have you got people from marketing or sales admin making those calls? How many meetings could you be missing out on right now?

Or how about the incoming sales enquiries? Highly trained sales staff with an incoming call structure and questioning process? Or are you just leaving the admin staff to answer those valuable sales calls? How much could that be costing you in lost opportunities right now?

Sales Lesson Number Eight – Don’t Miss Existing Opportunities

2009 taught us that far too many people took their existing customers for granted. Never forget that your customers could well be on your competitors prospect list!

Are you regularly in touch with all your existing customers? Are you up-to-speed on what their plans are for the next few months as they re-focus their businesses? Are you working to increase your number of contacts in each of your clients? Are you ‘on top’ of every single potential opportunity?

Sales Lesson Number Nine – Focus On Your Pipeline

2009 was the year that whoever was in charge of the sales team realised how lazy they’d become! I’ve spoken to Sales Managers that had stopped doing sales meetings, stopped doing field visits with their team and stopped checking their sales reps pipelines! How crazy is that?

When I’d ask them when was the last sales meeting they conducted with their entire team, they’d say things like ‘well I’d rather have them out in the field’, ‘it costs a lot to get them together for a whole day’ or ‘I don’t know what we’d do for an entire day’. Hmmmm. Doesn’t give you a lot of faith, does it?!!

When was the last time you had a sales meeting in your company out of interest?

Sales Lesson Number Ten – Work On Your Sales Skills

2009 taught us that many of the basic sales skills that are needed for success in a sales role had been ‘taken for granted’ – yet were lacking in a large number of the companies and the salespeople I spoke to!

Last year was the year where sales skills mattered far more than in years previous. Prospects were taking longer to make decisions, higher level decision makers were getting involved, ROI needed to be proven at every stage, more competitors were involved in every sale and prospects were looking to negotiate all your profit out of every deal!

How did you and you team’s sales skills measure up? And what are you going to do to improve that this year?

You can ask any questions about this article or sales in general, by contacting Andy here

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Andy Preston is a leading Sales Expert, Trainer and Motivational Speaker. He runs the Ecademy ‘Sales And Cold Calling Tips Club’ as well as writing for magazines, newspapers and trade journals all around the world on anything related to sales and selling.

You can get Andy’s free cold calling and sales tips HERE

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2009. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article contact Andy Preston for guidelines. Media enquiries – details here

Cold calling is one of the things most people seem to ask me for help with, usually because they want to get better results from it – although some people like to avoid it altogether! However for a smaller business, often the problem with their cold calling isn’t cold calling – it’s something earlier in the process that’s causing them problems later on.

Now, whilst in these circumstances getting better at cold calling can help, it’s sometimes more important to look earlier in the process, to ensure you’re giving yourself and your team the best chance of success when it comes to the phone call.

Let me give you some examples we’ve uncovered whilst working with clients recently….

Problem Number 1 – Poorly Planned Sales Process

This is a common problem that occurs far more often than it should! Whether it’s the manager, director or business owner that hasn’t thought the process out fully, or that the salesperson just hasn’t ‘got their head around it’, either way this needs looking at before the sales calls start!

An important point to look at here is what has happened prior to the call you’re about to make? And compare that to what should have happened! Has the person responded to an advert? Have they come from a web enquiry? If it’s a ‘pure’ cold call, where have you sourced the data from and what is it like?

If it was a response to an advert for example, what ‘filtering’ have you done on the advert? Did you want only the good quality enquiries (useful for a small sales team that can’t handle larger call-volumes, and salespeople with less experience), or did you want all the enquiries you can get, so you can use your sales skills to try and get a positive outcome when you call?

The more ‘filtering’ you have done, the ‘warmer’ the enquiry is, generally speaking. I’ve seen far too many companies do too little filtering – usually because they naively think that the more responses they get, the better the advertising worked! It just means you’ve got lots of ‘follow-up’ calls with people who are less interested – which becomes a problem if you don’t do a lot of cold calling and aren’t used to the rejection!

Problem Number 2 – Poor Handling Of Initial Enquiry

Think about this for a moment. If your enquiry comes in over the phone, who is the person who takes that call? Someone that’s been well trained in sales? Someone who’s completely conversant with the campaign that generated the lead and knows everything about it? Someone you can rely on to have the best chance of converting that enquiry into business?

Far too often companies spend large amounts of money on websites, advertising, branding and marketing campaigns, yet when those campaigns generate an incoming lead, they fail to deal with it properly! They fail to invest in the most critical part of the process – the part that could win or lose them the business – the training of the person handling the incoming enquiry!

If it’s an enquiry that came in via your website, how quickly do you respond to the enquiry? Within a few hours? Or is it more like days? Some people I’ve talked to recently often don’t respond to them at all!! Hands up all of those who respond to the email or web enquiry with an email. You deserve to be shot! This is the main (or perhaps the ONLY) opportunity to engage the prospect into your sales process and you’re going to do it by sending an email? Dear oh dear….

If it was a telephone enquiry, what questions do you or your staff ask that person? Questions that just get the ‘facts’ or the ‘details’ of what they want? Or do you ask questions that uncover buyer motivation, desire, needs, control the call and win the business (and a new customer) at the end of it?

Problem Number 3 – Wrong (Or No) Focus On The Call

The third thing you needed to think about is the call itself. A common problem with people making cold calls or follow up calls is that they fail to consider what outcome they want from the call BEFORE they make it!

Are you trying to make an appointment from the call? A sale? Trying to get the prospect to visit you? A conference call? If none of those, what specifically are you trying to achieve?

Far too many calls are made without an objective in mind. Those are the sort of calls that tend to ‘drift’ – with little or no control from the salesperson – that give the recipient the impression that there wasn’t a clear reason for the call, nor for the conversation they’re now having – therefore they want to get out of it as quickly as possible!!

Your call structure needs to be designed and delivered with your outcome in mind! Otherwise, the prospect is far more likely to achieve THEIR objective from the call (in some cases theirs is to get rid of you!) than you are to get yours!

Problem Number 4 – Lack Of Confidence With Selling In General

If this relates to you directly, don’t worry. The majority of people I’ve worked with have some challenges with confidence at some point – and some on a regular basis!

As companies have ‘re-engineered’ themselves over the last few months, in a number of cases it’s meant that non-traditional sales staff are now having to handle parts of the sales process as part of their role. These staff members didn’t sign up for a sales job, but are now having to do sales activities – whether they like it or not!

Whether it’s a marketing person making sales calls trying to get appointments for field sales representatives, or an administrator handling incoming sales enquiries, if they aren’t confident with the activity they’re undertaking, that means less effective calls, lost opportunities, and therefore – lost sales!

Any person tasked with taking on any element of ’sales responsibility’ within a company needs to be confident with that aspect of sales. A lack of confidence in any element of the sales operation can be a source of lost sales – something most businesses can’t afford at the moment.

It’s vital that action is taken to equip all team members with the mindset, skills and confidence required in order to maximise sales opportunities right now. Otherwise you could be virtually gifting business to the competition….

You can ask any questions about this article or sales in general, by contacting Andy here

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Andy Preston is a leading Sales Expert, Trainer and Motivational Speaker. He runs the Ecademy ‘Sales And Cold Calling Tips Club’ as well as writing for magazines, newspapers and trade journals all around the world on anything related to sales and selling.

You can get Andy’s free cold calling and sales tips HERE

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2009. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article contact Andy Preston for guidelines. Media enquiries – details here

I always find it interesting how many sales opportunities that salespeople or business owners miss out on, often that they could have won! If they realised how much that lost business was worth over a 12 month period, I’m sure they’d be quicker to do something about it!

There are many different reasons why a salesperson or business owner loses the sale, but here are 3 of the most common – and also the easiest to put right!

Sales Mistake Number 1 – Poor First Impression

I’m astounded how often people struggle to get this one right! Think about the first impression people have of your business. If you’re a salesperson, their first impression of your business might be you! That means looking smart, arriving on time (or early), and looking the person in the eye when you greet them. If people are coming to your premises, it might be things like how easily they can park, how your receptionist greets them, or the literature in your reception area for example.

An example of a business that often gets this wrong (as anyone who travels a lot knows) is a hotel. Think about one of your first impressions when you enter a hotel. The first interaction you normally have with staff is when you check in. What’s often one of the worst things about a hotel? That’s right, their checking-in procedure!

Think about it……. it’s 01:00am, you’ve been driving for 3 or 4 hours and you finally reach your hotel for the night. You’re tired, exhausted and just want to get to bed. You wearily drag your bags and suit carrier up to the counter to be greeted from a voice (coming from somewhere below the counter) with the immortal line ‘SURNAME?’ Resisting the opportunity just to reply with ‘Yes!’, you drop all your bags, answer their inane questions and fill in the registration card with all the same details you filled in online and that you’ve already given them the 14 times you’ve stayed with them so far this year!

What Could They Do Instead?

Now I might be slightly exaggerating in the above example, but not by much! Think about what action a hotel could take to improve the experience. How about if you were greeted with something like ‘Good evening sir. You’ve probably had a long journey. While I quickly check you in, I’ll get the porter to take your baggage up to your room straightaway – do you have your booking reference?’

How much extra effort does this take? Not much! Is it worth it for the impression it leaves the customer with? Of course!

Sales Mistake Number 2 – Not Taking A Genuine Interest

This is something that’s vital to generating more sales, yet is something that’s often overlooked. Far too many people don’t take a genuine interest in their clients!

Let’s use a retail store as an example. Most people have had the experience of going into a retail store looking to make a substantial purchase – usually electrical like a television, computer etc etc. However that experience often isn’t as good as it could be!

Particularly at the moment, when stores have cut back on the number of staff ‘on the floor’ and available to help. Now if there’s a shortage of staff it’s more of a management issue than something the individual salesperson can do anything about, yet the staff who are left don’t seem to take any interest at all in the potential customers, let along a genuine one!

I’ve seen many potential customers stood around, desperately looking for someone to help them make a purchase! They wait for ages (the ones that don’t get fed up and leave) then when someone finally comes along, they appear to have no interest in the potential customer, no interest in what they’re looking for, and definitely no interest in making the sale! What kind of behaviour is that for a salesperson?!!

However most salespeople and business owners make the same mistake to some degree. Most either don’t take enough genuine interest in potential clients – either they don’t the right questions to uncover needs, buying motivation and drivers to purchase, or they are too ’self-focused’ and talk to much about themselves and their solutions!

What Could They Do Instead?

Be aware of customers looking for help. Engage them in conversation. Ask them what they want the product or service for, not just ask about the technical specification. Ask them better questions about reasons and drivers behind the purchase!

Sales Mistake Number 3 – Poor Last Impression

If your business would like repeat business, testimonials, or customers referring you to others then people’s ‘last’ impressions of your business are as critical as their ‘first’ impressions of your business!

However, most people don’t think about the last impressions of their business. Perhaps the last impression of your business is the delivery driver or courier? The person experience the customer has when paying for the goods or service? The package when it arrives at the customers offices?

Let’s take the ‘hotel’ example we mentioned in the ‘first impressions’ part above. What is the second most annoying process of being in a hotel? That’s right – checking out!

Think about it…. you queue up at the desk, behind people checking in and people just wanting directions etc, then when you finally get to the front of the queue you’re asked for your credit/debit card details again (the same ones you already entered online and the same one you already gave them when you checked in). Then you have to wait while they do yet another card transaction – when you’re in a hurry and all you want to do is leave! The best you can hope for at the end of this long-winded procedure is a mumbled ‘thank you’ from the receptionist!

Does that sort of experience inspire you to book that hotel again? Send them a testimonial? Recommend them to all your family and friends? I thought not.

What Could They Do Instead?

How about when you check out, they ask you if you’d like the payment to be taken off the same card you used when checking in? I know they can do this as one hotel offered to do this last week. That’s the only time in over 250 nights I’ve stayed in hotels over the past 18 months it’s been offered!

Or how about taking full payment when you check in, so you can leave quickly in the morning? How about the receptionists were trained to say ‘thank you for staying with us – here’s a voucher for 10 percent off your next stay with our compliments’. How much extra loyalty and extra business would that generate? Quite a lot I’d think!

You can ask any questions about this article or sales in general, by contacting Andy here

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Andy Preston is a leading Sales Expert, Trainer and Motivational Speaker. He runs the Ecademy ‘Sales And Cold Calling Tips Club’ as well as writing for magazines, newspapers and trade journals all around the world on anything related to sales and selling.

You can get Andy’s free cold calling and sales tips HERE

You can also see more about Andy’s training for small businesses at www.salesbreakfast.net

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2009. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article contact Andy Preston for guidelines. Media enquiries – details here

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In this article, leading Sales Expert Andy Preston explains what sales lessons we all can learn from an art fair……..and what we can do differently to dramatically improve our sales results…..

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This month’s article came from a sponsored ‘art fair’ lunch I was invited to by my accountant. The fair was held by a client of theirs, so was a nice way of supporting their client, and also saying ‘thank you’ to some of their other clients as well.

It was interesting as we went around the exhibition and interacted with the artists, curators and exhibitors how many lessons a salesperson or business owner could learn from their ’sales’ techniques (both good and bad!).

So, here are the ’sales lessons’ from an art fair…

Sales Lesson Number 1 – Sell With Passion And Enthusiasm

This is a big lesson for most salespeople and business owners, and is something that artists and curators of their work have in abundance! If you’re looking to persuade someone and get them excited about your product or service, you’ve got to talk about it with passion and enthusiasm yourself first!

Business owners in particular have no excuse here, as if they can’t be passionate and enthusiastic about their own business, how on earth can they expect anyone else to be! In a market where it seems there is bad news on a continuous basis, the people that are passionate, enthusiastic and positive stand out. You do want to stand out from your competition, don’t you?

If a salesperson or a business owner isn’t passionate and enthusiastic about their product or service, it shows in the way they talk about it, their presentations, their demonstrations, their objection handling and their closing ratios. Why on earth would you take a gamble on all of that, when you can change it really easily?

Sales Lesson Number 2 – Qualify Your Prospects

This happened almost every time we interacted with someone exhibiting at the fair, and you’d be surprised how many salespeople and business owners make the same mistake.

In one particular case, our group were given a ’speech’ by a salesperson from an insurance company, specialising in insuring art. Now I wouldn’t class myself as a connoisseur of art, very much a novice who falls into the category of ‘I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like’ category. From speaking to them, the majority of our group fell into that same category.

So what would have been a good idea for that salesperson to do at the start of the talk? Talk to the organiser of the trip, or the leader of the group to find out about us beforehand? At the start of her talk, ask the group what their experience of art or art-buying was? Find out how many of the group were collectors, amateurs or people very new to the art world? All of those would be good ideas, wouldn’t they?

However, she chose not to do any of them! Instead, we just got a big speech about the insurance company and how they could help us insure the art we purchased, or already had. And that got me thinking – how many salespeople and business owners often make the same mistake? A lot!

If you fail to qualify your prospects (or your audience) before you start your speech (or sales pitch) then you run the risk of ‘losing’ them as they don’t see your speech as relevant to them. A little time invested beforehand (or at the start of your speech) pays big dividends in sales results later….

Sales Lesson Number 3 – Don’t Apologise!

This is something I see a lot of, particularly from people who are struggling or under pressure, someone new to sales, or someone who doesn’t consider themselves a ‘natural’ salesperson.

Far too many sales calls or presentations start with the salesperson or business owner apologising! This is normally down to nerves, or not feeling comfortable, although I’ve heard some trainers teach it as a ‘technique’. What a scary thought! Their idea is that by apologising, you get the audience or prospect on your side. That idea is….quite frankly…ridiculous.

The true impact that has is make the prospect or audience think ‘this person doesn’t know what they’re doing’, ‘oh god, here we go again, another boring pitch’ or for some people – ‘give me someone with authority and credibility, and get this idiot out of here!’

I was looking at one exhibition stand with some very nice photographs of New York, when the artist concerned engaged myself and my accountant in conversation. He was an interesting guy, and after asking about our experience of art and photography and why we came to the exhibition (see sales lesson number 2 above), was telling us the history behind some of the photographs we were looking at.

Sales Mistake Coming Up….

Just at the moment where we were becoming more interested he suddenly got uncomfortable, apologised for being pushy and said he’d leave us alone to have a look, then walked away. HUGE sales error!

This happens a lot with people new to sales, under pressure or not feeling like they’re a ‘natural’ salesperson – they’re afraid of being pushy! Let’s make a distinction here – the only time you’re being ‘pushy’ is when you haven’t taken your prospects needs into account, and you’re trying to ‘push’ something on them they don’t want. That’s probably happened to you in the past, so you don’t want to be seen to do it to others. Invest a little time in speaking to your prospects and finding out their needs first, then it won’t be a problem for you.

Sales Lesson Number 4 – Remember Your Objective!

This is something that was missing from everyone at the art fair, and something that many business owners and salespeople miss too. You need to keep your objective in mind at all times, and make sure you’ve achieved it (or as close to it as possible) by the end of the conversation.

If your objective is to close for the sale – then make sure you’ve asked some questions during the conversation that will give you enough value to be able to close afterwards. If your objective is to make an appointment with your prospect, then make sure you’ve put enough value into the conversation for them to put time in their diary and meet you (and not talked too much about your product or service before the meeting of course!).

If your objective is to come back for a further meeting, demonstration or conference call/WebEx, then make sure you’ve booked that before you put the phone down or left the meeting – it will be a lot harder to do afterwards!

You can ask any questions about this article or sales in general, by contacting Andy here

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Andy Preston is a leading Sales Expert, Trainer and Motivational Speaker. He runs the Ecademy ‘Sales And Cold Calling Tips Club’ as well as writing for magazines, newspapers and trade journals all around the world on anything related to sales and selling. 

You can get Andy’s free cold calling and sales tips HERE

You can also see more about Andy’s training for small businesses at www.salesbreakfast.net

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2009. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article contact Andy Preston for guidelines. Media enquiries – details here

Why Buyers Lie To You (And What They Really Mean!)

In this article, leading Sales Expert Andy Preston explains why buyers lie to salespeople…..and what they really mean when they say those things to you…….

I’m often amazed how many salespeople and business owners are surprised when, after we’ve de-briefed their sales meeting or phone call, they realise the ‘buyer’ or decision maker they were talking to has lied to them.

In many cases the salesperson will actually defend the buyer – saying things like ‘well they’re just not ready to buy’, or ‘they have to see all the salespeople first and then make a decision’, or ‘they need to check with a couple of colleagues first’.

If there are any sales managers or directors that are hearing things like this from their sales team, then get in touch with me right now! What the salesperson often means when they say something like the above is ‘I haven’t done my job properly’ – yet not many are willing to admit it (and some aren’t even aware of it!)

So here are some phrases that buyers or decision makers will say to you or your team – and what they really mean…….

Buyer Phrase No 1 – ‘I’m Happy With My Existing Supplier’

Don’t you just love this old chestnut? I’m still astounded when most salespeople fall for this one, and either exit the call or almost mentally ‘give up’ when they hear this phrase.

The average salesperson hears this so often, you’d think they would have learnt to deal with it by now, wouldn’t you?!!

When the buyer says something like ‘I’m happy with my existing supplier’, in most cases what they may actually mean is ‘I don’t know you well enough to consider you as an alternative supplier just yet’ or ‘I don’t like you as much as I like my existing supplier’ or even ‘Your call or visit has interrupted me and I’m going to use a phrase that gets rid of most salespeople (but might not even be true)’.

Yet still most salespeople hear this ‘objection’ and let it affect them in a negative way – and some don’t even get as far as asking another question. Let’s be honest here – if this is your first decent conversation or visit with the potential new client, isn’t it fairly normal for them to be ‘happy’ with their existing supplier at this stage?

It’s your job as a salesperson to understand their current solution, and how your product or service adds value to what they’re trying to achieve with it. If you only relied on being ‘lucky’ as mentioned above – you’re missing out on the majority of your sales opportunities!

Buyer Phrase No 2 – ‘I Need To Think About This And Come Back To You’

Another classic example of something a lot of salespeople fall for! I was doing some ‘field sales assessments’ where I attend appointments with the salesperson last week. The decision maker said to the salesperson ‘I need to think about this and come back to you’. The salesperson’s reply? ‘That’s fine, here’s my card. Give me a call when you’ve had time to decide, or need some help deciding.’

No, No, No, No, No! When someone says the phrase ‘I need to think about this and come back to you’ what they might well mean is ‘I haven’t got enough information to be able to make a decision on this yet (or you haven’t given me enough!) What they might also mean is ‘I’m not sure about you, so I’m going to check you and your company out on the internet while you’re not here’. Or even ‘I’ve already decided not to use you but I’m not willing to tell you that!’

Whichever of those it is, leaving the appointment or phone call at this stage is the worst thing you can do! Even if they are considering you and truly thinking about it in more detail, what that means is that they’re going through that process (and even reaching their decision) without you being involved. What chance have you got of putting any element of persuasion into that process? None whatsoever! Not the best use of your sales skills, is it?

Buyer Phrase No 3 – ‘I’m Under Contract At The Moment’

Another old favourite! Again something a lot of salespeople fall for. This has even got to the stage where the buyer or decision maker is starting to take the mickey out of the salesperson! I was out with a client doing some door-to-door cold calls last month when the salesperson was lucky enough to meet the decision maker when we walked in! What a great bonus you might think? Not if you don’t deal with it properly!

The decision maker’s first objection was ‘We’re under contract at the moment’. The salesperson replied ‘and when does that contract finish?’ (Which is a really stupid question by the way). The decision maker then said ‘Oh, not for another 5 years!!’

Now even though the salesperson knows that 5 year contracts don’t even exist in his industry, he still accepted it without challenging! Isn’t that crazy?

When a buyer or decision maker says the phrase ‘I’m under contract at the moment’, what they might well mean is simply ‘Go away!’ Or perhaps ‘I don’t want to be pitched by you right now’. Or even as a challenge, as in ‘Let’s see how he handles this one!’

Again if you fall for this, you’ve only got yourself to blame.

Buyer Phrase No 4 – ‘I’ve Had A Better Price’

What a great negotiation tactic this is! Yet many salespeople don’t realise it and fall for it almost every time – particularly if they’re struggling for sales figures or income.

Often, when the buyer or decision maker says ‘I’ve had a better price’ what they may well mean is ‘Let’s see how much you can reduce your price by’ or even ‘Let’s get a cheaper quote from you, so I can go to my existing supplier and get their price down as well!’

Buyers and decision makers know this works because the salesperson’s first thought is ‘I need to drop my price to get the deal’ rather than ‘I need to find out more about this’.

The conversation then turns to how much the buyer or decision maker wants the price reduced by – also known as ‘haggling’ – and in some cases the price ends up somewhere between 50-70% of what the salesperson originally stated.

The salesperson then justifies to themselves that what just occurred what necessary to ‘win the order’, whereas the buyer or decision maker thinks ‘Fantastic! Just got 30-50% off something I would have paid full price for!’

Not the outcome you really want as a salesperson, is it?

You can ask any questions about this article or sales in general, by contacting Andy here

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Andy Preston is a leading Sales Expert, Trainer and Motivational Speaker. He runs the Ecademy ‘Sales And Cold Calling Tips Club’ as well as writing for magazines, newspapers and trade journals all around the world on anything related to sales and selling.

You can get Andy’s free cold calling and sales tips HERE

You can also see more about Andy’s training for small businesses at www.salesbreakfast.net

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2009. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article contact Andy Preston for guidelines. Media enquiries – details here

Note: Andy is running a teleconference/webinar on ‘How To Convert Incoming Sales Leads’ shortly – if you want advance notice of it, please contact Andy here straightaway

Why You’re Not Converting Your Sales Enquiries Into Customers

In this article, leading Sales Expert Andy Preston explains why you’re not currently converting enough enquiries into customers…..and what you can do about it to get the results you deserve……..

One of the things I’m noticing at the moment is that in a lot of cases salespeople and business owners are seeing the number of sales enquiries they normally receive has dropped over the last few months. Businesses that have been used to higher levels of sales enquiries in the past are now realising that the drop in sales enquiries is having a similar affect on their turnover and profits.

In a similar vein, many companies right now have what I would call ‘non-salespeople’ doing activities that would be traditionally handled by a salesperson. This may be due to things bring ‘tight’, a new focus on ‘new business’, staff leaving (or being made redundant), so their activities now get passed to other people.

What Do I Mean By ‘Non-Salespeople’ ?

This means for example in some cases that marketing staff are making cold calls for appointments, customer service staff are making outbound sales calls and the worst thing ever – admin staff are taking incoming sales enquiries!!!

Think about it. You’ve paid all that money for advertising, networking, marketing, or whatever lead generation method you use to ‘earn’ that sales enquiry. Then the person taking it has little or no sales ability, little or no training in what’s needed to convert it into a sale, and has no idea how much business they could be losing through their lack of understanding!

How scary is that? Even people employed in a sales role don’t always handle sales enquiries as well as they could, so what chance has a ‘non salesperson’ got?

So, below are some reasons why you’re currently not converting as many sales enquiries as you could be – and what you can do to get them back on track!

Reason No 1 – You Don’t Respond Quickly Enough

For any incoming sales enquiry right now, responding could mean the difference between you converting that enquiry into a customer, and missing out on the business to one of your competitors.

Right now, people have more choice than ever before, and more companies are desperate for their business than ever before – so are you prepared to let one of your competitors get business that could have been yours?

Ask yourself – how fast do you currently get back to your sales enquiries? And then, how could you speed that up?

Reason No 2 – You Only Take The ‘Specification’

This is another example of poor handling of a sales call. This is where the person taking the incoming sales enquiry only asks questions that get the specification, or the details that they need in order to quote for the work.

Bizarrely, this is what most companies train the staff responsible for taking the sales enquiries to do! So those staff give a quotation without asking anything about buying motivation, current supplier, other quotes, buying timescales or other information that would help them secure the business.

It’s almost like the business equivalent of giving a quotation, crossing their fingers, clicking their heels together 3 times and ‘hoping’ that the person rings them back to place the order!! Is that really the way we want to treat those precious sales enquiries in the current business climate?

Reason No 3 – You Fail To Qualify The Opportunity Properly

Another thing that seems to get missed when staff are handling sales enquiries is understanding the full cope of the potential opportunity. This has been made worse by the customer service people and poor sales trainers in the past that have banged on about ‘you must treat every customer the same’. What a load of old rubbish!!

Should a printing company treat differently a customer who buys £50 worth of business cards once a year, compared to a company that spends £25,000 on their annual print requirements? Of course they should! Now of course both customers should receive good service, but would you want to ask different questions of these 2 different enquiries? Would your sales process change based on their potential spend? Would you service the account differently? Of course you would!

The problem is, you need to qualify the potential opportunity first – so start doing it!

Reason No 4 – You Don’t Take Control Of The Situation

Another mistake most people make is that they don’t control the situation properly. Once the potential customer has put the phone down (or walked out of the shop in a retail context) – if you haven’t defined or agreed the ‘next steps’, you’ve just lost control of the sales situation.

If you just give them your quotation, or hand/send them your literature and then leave them to their own devices, they’re probably going to buy somewhere else, or not at all! If they’ve bothered to take the time to call you, send an enquiry over the internet, or arrive in your showroom then right now is the opportunity. Not tomorrow, not the day after, not next week – but right now.

So if you can’t take advantage of this opportunity, then you have to define the ‘next steps’, what will happen in what sequence and get them ‘locked in’ to you, rather than letting them go off ’shopping’ and comparing prices with you and the competition – or against their existing supplier!

Reason No 5 – You Don’t Follow Up

There is no excuse for this! ‘I was too busy’ doesn’t cut it. ‘I got caught up in other things’ doesn’t cut it. ‘Well they’d come back to me if they wanted it, wouldn’t they?’ is just plain stupid!

If you’ve bothered to take the enquiry in the first place, and weren’t able to convert them into a customer on that occasion, yet you know they’re interested enough in what you do to have enquired in the first place, why on earth wouldn’t you bother to follow it up?

I’ll be running a teleconference/webinar on ‘How To Convert Incoming Sales Leads’ shortly – if you want advance notice of it, please contact me here straightaway

If you’re guilty of this one, you might as well email over all your sales enquiries to your competition, because you’re giving them the business as it is! Follow up each enquiry quickly, and secure the business for you and your company, rather than giving it to someone else!

Follow the tips above and watch your sales soar! I look forward to hearing how you get on……..

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Andy Preston is a leading Sales Expert, Trainer and Motivational Speaker. He runs the Ecademy ‘Sales And Cold Calling Tips Club’ as well as writing for magazines, newspapers and trade journals all around the world on anything related to sales and selling.

You can get Andy’s free cold calling and sales tips HERE

You can also see more about Andy’s training for small businesses at www.salesbreakfast.net

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2009. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article contact Andy Preston for guidelines. Media enquiries – details here

Selling By Email – 5 Mistakes Most Salespeople Make

In this article, leading Sales Expert Andy Preston explains why most people struggle with ’selling by email’ – they don’t understand it, they don’t know when to use it (and when not to) and they don’t know how to use it for best results.

After reading this article you’ll be able to utilise email to add value to your sales efforts – instead of hampering them – and get your sales figures back where they belong!……..

Please note: this is a ’shortened’ version of a full article I wrote for a sales magazine recently. If you’d like a copy of the full article, please ask for one using this link

When I working with sales teams all over the world, Sales Managers and Directors often tell me that they believe all salespeople are inherently lazy. I’m not sure I agree with that hugely sweeping statement, but I do think salespeople often look for the quickest way to do something!

I think this is partly down to the fact that a lot of salespeople only start earning real money when their commission kicks in, so any task that isn’t directly related to bringing in new customers, orders or money, they tend to try and find the quickest way to do! Hence why the managers think they’re lazy.

As salespeople though, this ‘quickest route’ habit can often cause us problems! Particularly as technology has advanced and email is a popular communication method for many. However, this often results in salespeople resorting to email communication – at the expense of their own sales figures! Have a look at the examples of common email sales mistakes below, and see if any ring true for you……

Email Sales Mistake Number 1 – Using It To ‘Follow Up’

Let’s look at this from a ‘new business’ perspective. You’ve spoken with (or met with) a client previously, you’ve started to develop rapport, but they’ve probably got an existing supplier, or existing way of doing things. So you didn’t pick up their business from your initial call or appointment.

Your boss has probably been putting pressure on you about your sales figures or your sales pipeline. So you decide you need to ‘follow up’ with a few people, this particular prospect included. So what do you do next? Pick up the phone and call them, establish their current situation and needs and potentially see how you may be able to add value to what they’re trying to achieve over the next few months? Close for another appointment, attempt to dislodge the existing supplier (or existing process) and pick up their business? Or send an email?

If you’re in the ‘email’ category, stop it! Right now!

Email Sales Mistake Number 2 – Just ‘Adding’ People To A Mailing List

Another great idea from the marketing department. Sending an email newsletter or similar to keep people ‘informed’ of your products and services. The funny thing is, how many newsletters do you get that you don’t read, or you don’t read in full? I bet it’s quite a few. If you don’t know the sender well, you probably don’t read it at all. Sometimes even when you know the sender well you still don’t read it!

Don’t sit back and think that just because someone is on your generic email list that that’s helping you ’sell’ to that person. In most cases it isn’t. The responsibility to move that person through your sales pipeline is still yours!

Email Sales Mistake Number 3 – Sending Mainly ‘Flyers’ By Email

Please tell me you don’t do this? Even worse if the email is titled ‘offer of the month’ or similar! If the person hasn’t used you before, you’re relying on ‘luck’ for the person to buy from you. And the more competitive your marketplace and the higher the price of what you sell, the less likely people are to buy!

Plus as mentioned in my last point above, it’s hardly ‘personal’ communication to that prospect, is it? Is this really the professional sales job you were employed to do? If this is the best you can do in terms of ’sales persuasion’, you’re in trouble!

Email Sales Mistake Number 4 – Responding To New Sales Enquiries Via Email

Let’s think about this one. You or your company has expended time, money and effort in producing the incoming sales lead. Whether it’s come from a previous phone call by you or a colleague, networking, advertising or over the internet, you’ve managed to get a precious incoming sales lead.

The next question is, what are you going to do about it? Pick up the phone and find an excuse to start a dialogue to understand their needs in more detail, positition a ‘next step’ in the sales process and look for some committment from that person. Or just send a quick email giving some information and leaving them to ‘wander’ on their own, with no idea how motivated they are to purchase, their timescales, or what other options they’re considering?

Looks like you’ve missed your chance again, doesn’t it? In most cases if they come back to you, it’s because when they enquired with your competition, they did a worse job than you did (hard to believe I know, but it could be true). Is this really the best way of dealing with that precious incoming sales lead do you think?!!

Email Sales Mistake Number 5 – Sending Proposals Or Quotes By Email

Now it’s time for my personal favourite! Sending proposals or quotes by email. You’ve had the meeting with a potential client (or at least an in-depth telephone conversation)……you agree to send details of what was discussed……then you put it in an email. Really?!! Now you’re in trouble.

Why on earth didn’t you position your offering when you were face to face with the client? When you could read their body language and reactions to your offering (and your price) best….when you could judge whether you had got the proposal right or not?……when you had the best chance of getting them to say ‘yes’?

Even if you needed time to put the details together, why on earth didn’t you organise a second meeting to discuss it in more detail? Crazy! You’re giving other salespeople a better chance to win that business over you – why on earth would you want to do that?!!

 

So Why Do People Send Quotes Or Proposals Via Email?

Normally people send quotes or proposals by email for a few reasons. The first reason is fear of rejection. It ‘hurts’ less to send it by email as at worst, they just send an email back saying ‘no thanks’ – much easier to deal with than them saying it to your face, isn’t it? Or if they don’t reply to you (or send an email back saying they’re thinking about it) they haven’t really rejected you at all, have they? Can you see how that kind of thinking is holding you back from making more sales?!!

The second reason is laziness. You probably would say it’s because you’re busy, but it’s laziness. This is one of the most important parts of the sales process, and you’ve decided to email it because it’s ‘easier’! From an objective perspective, how stupid is that?!!

The third reason is because is ‘normally’ do it that way! Does that mean it’s the best way? Or even any good at all?!! Let’s think about this – it could be the most important part of the sales process, and you’re just sending it off into the ‘ether’ and hoping they’ll give you a positive response. Again – the more competitive the marketplace, the higher the price of your product/service and the longer the time elapsed from your initial conversation/meeting the less likely you are to get the business!

Please note: this is a ’shortened’ version of a full article I wrote for a sales magazine recently. If you’d like a copy of the full article, please ask for one using this link

You can also ask any questions about this article or sales in general, by contacting Andy here

Follow the tips above and watch your sales soar! I look forward to hearing how you get on……..

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Andy Preston is a leading Sales Expert, Trainer and Motivational Speaker. He runs the Ecademy ‘Sales And Cold Calling Tips Club’ as well as writing for magazines, newspapers and trade journals all around the world on anything related to sales and selling.

You can get Andy’s free cold calling and sales tips HERE

You can also see more about Andy’s training for small businesses at www.salesbreakfast.net

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2009. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article contact Andy Preston for guidelines. Media enquiries – details here

I was talking with a group of salespeople and small business owners the other day, and they were telling me about the ’sales challenges’ they’re experiencing at the moment.

Some commented that they were struggling to generate new sales leads, as their usual levels of incoming leads had slowed down somewhat.

Others commented that it was getting tougher to get meetings, or to get new potential clients to take them seriously.

Another group commented that getting committment from clients and closing them down was their biggest problem.

So I’m interested to know – what do you think the biggest sales problem is for most salespeople (or business owners that have to sell) right now?

Enter your comments by using the ‘leave a reply’ box at the bottom of the page….

Best Regards

Andy