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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

In this article, leading Sales Expert Andy Preston explains why you’re not currently getting the results from your cold calling that you could be…..and what you can do about it to get the results you deserve……..

Whenever I’m talking to business owners or their sales teams, the topic of new business development and cold calling in particular always evokes interesting reactions.

Cold calling is one of those topics that everyone has an opinion on – even those that don’t do it! And the salespeople and business owners that do it normally fall into one of the camps – love it, loathe it, or tolerate it!

However, no matter which of those camps you or your team fall into, most people don’t get the results that they want from cold calling, so below are some reasons why that is the case, and also some ideas on what to do about it!

So why isn’t your cold calling working as well as it could be?…..

Reason No 1 – Lack Of Preparation

If this is you, you’re not alone! Most people fail to prepare for their cold calling sessions properly. You’d be astounded how many times I see people ’start’ a cold calling session by looking for their list of people to call, trying to find their diary, finishing off an email, taking a call from an existing client, tidying their desk, going to get a drink or have a quick cigarette…pretty much anything but start making the calls!

Often, this means that the calling session that was due to start at 10.00 now really starts at about 10.40. Then, by the time the salesperson has made a few calls, the session is over! The salesperson might have achieved their objective of ‘avoiding’ the session, but has the session really contributed to the success of the business? Hardly!

Cold calling is best done in focussed ’sessions’, with no interruptions. That means no emails, no incoming phone calls, no interruptions from colleagues, no going to get a drink etc – do all of that before the session starts. And if the session is meant to start at 10.00, then the first phone call should be at 10.00 – not 10.05, 10.10, or 10.20!

Reason No 2 – Lack Of Belief

A number of business owners and salespeople I meet still aren’t convinced that cold calling actually works, or could work for them and their company. And those people are usually the ones who have tried it (or are currently doing it) and aren’t getting the results that they could, or they haven’t tried it but have already decided that it won’t work!

I always find it interesting when I talk to people who have this belief as they often that that ‘cold calling just won’t work in my industry’. Then, when I ask them what they do, they are in the same industry as someone that I have trained that is getting great results from cold calling! Perhaps what the people with the negative beliefs really mean is – I’m not sure of the right approach that would make it work for me?

Whatever the reason, if you or your team is making cold calls with the belief that cold calling doesn’t work, do you think that might stand in the way of the potential success of your calls a little? Of course it will!

In my experience of making and listening to tens of thousands of cold calls in all sorts of industries, if you start with that sort of belief, your activity levels will be lower, your voice tone will be monotone and boring (instead of bright and enthusiastic), you’ll accept the first objection too easily and you’ll do anything to avoid doing the calls – so is it any wonder that cold calling isn’t working for you at the moment?!!

Reason No 3 – Inability To Deal With Rejection

This is always an interesting subject. This can affect anyone, particularly if you’re new to sales, new to cold calling, or only do it as part of your role. For example, if your role consists of mainly account management, if your boss has just told you that you need to start making cold calls, or you’ve started up your own business and need to start cold calling, then this could be affecting you right now!

Let’s face it – if you’re cold calling you’re going to face some rejection. Some of you will have to deal with the fact that people will give you objections. Some of you will have to deal with the fact that people will say ‘no’ directly to you. And some of you will have to deal with the fact that people will put the phone down on you fairly regularly.

When you’re cold calling, the majority of people you speak to are going to be hesitant, resistant and say no to you at some level. The point is, you’re not expecting to get a ‘yes’ on every call. You’re expecting that 90%, 95% sometimes even 97.5% of people are going to say no. The reason you’re calling is to get the smaller percentage of people that are going to say yes to you – yes I’ll consider you, yes I’ll meet with you, yes I’ll look at buying from you.

However if you can’t deal with (or learn to deal with) the rejection that you’re going to face, do you think that might stop you making the calls, or do your best to avoid it? Of course it will!

Reason No 4 – Failure To Stay Motivated

Cold calling can be difficult. And because of the amount of objections and rejection you face it can sometimes be difficult to stay motivated. However your failure to stay motivated could actually be causing you problems on your cold calls.

Many people I talk to find selling over the phone difficult. Particularly if your role involves selling face-to-face, or has done in the past. This is because when you sell face-to-face, you can read the other person’s body language, build rapport faster and watch their reaction when you deliver your price. However when you’re selling over the phone, all you have is your voice tone and your delivery.

And if your role involves a lot of cold calling, it’s very easy for your motivation levels to drop later in the day if you’re not careful! For many people cold calling is about sounding bright, enthusiastic, confident and certain. And all these traits can be heard in your voice tone, can’t they?

However, I’ve lost count of the amount of calls that have been made when the salesperson or business owner isn’t motivated. Their voice tone has gone from being bright and enthusiastic to bored, tired and disinterested. They might as well be saying ‘Hi it’s Andy from XYZ company…..you probably won’t be interested in what we have to offer…..you’ve probably happy with your existing supplier, so please put me out of my misery and tell me to go away, so I can ring someone else and hit my call target to get my boss off my back….’.

Now, you don’t have to be a genius to work out that making that sort of call is going to produce pretty much zero results, do you?!

This article is continued next month, where we look at 4 more reasons why your cold calling isn’t working for you. If you have any questions in the meantime, ask Andy your question 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

Sales Negotiation Lessons From The Egyptians…..

In this article, leading Sales Expert Andy Preston explains why most business owners struggle when it comes to negotiations (and in particular negotiating over their price)……and how some simple negotiation lessons can be learned from the Egyptians……

Whenever I’m working with business owners, something I often come across is a lack of confidence or comfort with the more critical parts of the sales process. Examples might be ‘objection handling’, ‘closing’ or in particular ‘negotiating’.

Particularly as the market is now getting tougher, those critical areas of the sales process are becoming even more critical – yet many business owners lack the attitude, skills and knowledge to be successful in those areas, particularly when it comes to negotiation.

That could be because they’re not used to negotiation, it could be that they’re naive to the tricks that the other side can play, or it could be that they’re desperate for the order and will cave in to any demand the other side will make. Or it could be a combination of any or all of those reasons! Whatever the reason, without some element of knowledge of the negotiation process, the business owner is going to continue to struggle.

So How Do The Egyptians Come Into This?…..

Over Christmas, I was working out in Egypt with a well-known, multi-national IT company. On the last afternoon of the course, we went into Cairo Old Town (my Egyptian friends will know I have the Arabic pronunciation well practiced, but I’ll use the English version here so everyone else understands what I’m on about!).

Cairo Old Town is well known for being a kind of market, a trading ‘zone’ where there are many small, independently owned shops where you can buy local goods, gifts and souvenirs.

The main business in the area is tourism, so therefore the shopkeepers are pretty well practiced at getting tourists into the shop, and trying to sell everything in the shop to them (or maybe it just feels like that) at the highest price possible!

Watching these guys operate is like watching masters at work! It’s fascinating. They are ‘old hands’ at bartering, trading and negotiating – why? Because they do it every day! They know what their potential buyers are going to say often before it comes out of their mouths! Everything they say and do is well practiced and designed to give them the upper hand in the negotiation.

So How Does That Relate To You?

Well, because the Egyptian traders are negotiating all day, every day, they are used to the things that happen in a negotiation. The things that the other side will do to try and gain the upper hand. That certain things you say can make….or break …..a deal.

If you’re not used to negotiating, yet the person you’re sat in front of negotiates far more often than you do (and has probably been on courses do learn how to do it well), doesn’t it stand to reason that you’re going to be at a disadvantage? That they’re more likely to get their outcomes than you are to get yours?

So what lessons can we learn from the Egyptians that will help us in our negotiations?

Andy’s Lesson No 1 – Be Prepared For The Negotiation

How prepared do you think those Egyptian traders were for their negotiations? And how prepared are you for yours?

Your first answer is probably something like ‘fairly prepared’. Think again! Has there ever been a time when someone has said to you ‘how much is that?’ or ‘how much do you charge?’ and you’ve not handled that with confidence and certainty?

How often have you mumbled a price? Or worse still, gone in at a lower price than you’d want to charge, and justified it to yourself as you ‘need’ the business?

You’ve just found yourself in the middle of a price negotiation…….unprepared!

Andy’s Lesson No 2 – Think About What You Want

This is essential before going into any negotiation. How often do you find yourself in the middle of a negotiation without any idea of what you actually want from it? I don’t mean what you’d ‘like’ to have, I mean a solid, tangible outcome that you want to achieve? Your minimum expectation from the negotiation otherwise you walk away? What your anticipated outcome is and why the other side should agree to that?

If you haven’t got this sorted before your negotiation starts, you’re setting yourself up to fail. Not to mention giving the other side everything they want…at your expense.

In the example of the Egyptian traders, do you think they’ve thought about what they want, even before they’ve started the negotiation with you? Of course they have!

Andy’s Lesson No 3 – Think About What The Other Side Might Want

Not only should you be thing about what you want, but also what the other side might want! What do you know about them so far? What might they be looking for from this negotiation? What have they been tasked with achieving by their bosses?

Another thing worth thinking about is what are their alternatives to dealing with you, or continuing dealing with you?

Far too often business owners go into a negotiation without thinking what the other side’s possible options are…..and end of agreeing to something that they never should have done – only to find out later that the other side were in a weaker position! Doh!

When you study the Egyptian traders, they’ve already thought about what you might want. They’ve asked you questions about what you’re looking for…..they find it (and if they don’t have it, they’ll get it off another stall to sell it to you) and therefore they’re in a very strong negotiation position!

They’ve asked you what you want, provided it, and now all they have to do is achieve the price they want! Simple!

Andy’s Lesson No 4 – Use Time To Your Advantage

Time can be a big advantage to you in a negotiation – if you use it wisely! You can speed things up to put pressure on the other side. You can slow things down to give you the advantage if the other side has some time pressure to conclude the negotiations (think car salesperson at the end of the month). Alternatively, don’t be afraid to postpone negotiations if you feel you’re not ready!

The Egyptian traders are great at this! They know you don’t have a lot of time to shop at the different places in the market. They know that you have more than likely come to the market to buy souvenirs. They know that you don’t want to go home empty handed, so if they make it easy for you, you will buy!

Follow the tips above and watch for the massive improvement in your negotiations. I look forward to hearing about your successes!

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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.salestrainingbreakfastclub.com

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

The Challenge – You’re working in a creative industry and have a “sales element” to your role that requires you to bring in new business (or you’re in charge of hiring or managing a team to do so). However, you’d probably hate to think of yourself as a “salesperson” and hate the thought of being seen as one, and being seen as too “pushy”.

 

Do you think this might affect your ability to bring in new business?

Of course it will!

There are a number of reasons you (and a large number of others in the creative sectors) will struggle with sales over the next year or so, and to help you avoid falling into the traps that most of your competition will do, I’ve given you some reasons and some tips below.

So why will you struggle to get new business over the next year or so? Are you ready for some “home truths” that might hurt a little? Okay, off we go……

Reason No 1 – You’re too “soft and fluffy”

This is one of the biggest problems for people trying to sell in a any “creative” industry. You’ve either come into the industry as a “technical person”, i.e. web developer or graphic artist, or you’ve come into a role like PR account manager and think it’s all about taking clients out for lunch and being “nice” to them.

In either case you’re in for a bit of a shock. Winning new business is usually not about your level of technical skills or how “good” you are. Nor is it about how “nice” you are to the potential client. Nor is about how many times you take them out for lunch or the size of your expenses budget. And if the only thing that you think is different between you and your competitors is how much wine or champagne you can buy potential clients, then that’s a pretty sad state of affairs, isn’t it?

Don’t think that the best “creative” will win you new business either – it’s proving to be more and more the case that your sales skills or presentation skills (or lack of them) will either win you the business……or not.

Reason No 2 – You rely too much on your existing clients

For most creative companies and agencies this is most certainly the case. Whether it’s laziness, apathy or your comfort zone, this is probably the case in your company too.

Don’t believe me? Let’s put it to the test. If you were to lose your two biggest clients right now, what kind of impact would that have on your company or your sales figures? Now are you a little more concerned? Thought so!

Don’t think “oh that won’t happen to me” by the way, it happened to a Creative Director friend of mine a few months ago. His company lost two of their biggest clients at pretty much the same time, and the “salespeople” just seemed to accept it! No real efforts to try and win the accounts back, no real efforts to bring in new customers to replace them, just an attitude of “oh well, never mind”. Never mind? Are you mad? That kind of attitude will cost people jobs over the next 12 to 18 months – and expect yours to be one of them.

Most creative companies that I meet are too “top heavy” – they have one or two very large accounts that give them the majority of their business, and then a number of smaller accounts that aren’t as much of a priority. Make sure this isn’t the case for you, or if it is, you do something about it quickly!

As happened to that friend of mine, you can lose business through no fault of your own – companies merging or being taken over, new contact comes from another company with their own relationships and existing suppliers they are happy with for example. Make sure you have enough potential business in your pipeline to cover these eventualities. You do have a sales pipeline, don’t you?!!

Reason No 3 – Clients are cutting back

You’ve probably heard lots of people talking about the fact that we’re heading for a “recession”, or if you believe some people, we’re in one already! Now whilst I don’t completely buy-in to that mentality, it is true that clients are being more careful what they spend – particularly in the areas of marketing and PR.

Now I know that clients really shouldn’t cut back on marketing and PR, particularly in the current economic climate (and I’m sure you say that to them), but the fact is that they are doing so right now!

So even if you don’t lose your current top clients completely, if they suddenly drop their spend by 25%….or 50%…..where are you going to replace that work from? What “prospects” do you have that are spending the “lost” amount (or more) with your competitors? You do know how much your prospects are spending with your competitors don’t you? You do have a list of prospects you’d like to be converting into clients right now, and what you’re currently doing to convert them, don’t you?

The sad fact is for most of you, the answer to both those questions is probably “no”. Now you might have an “idea” in your head of who you might like to be working for, but it’s probably based on the strength of that company’s brand (or your own ego trip) that it is about how good that account would be to have, and how profitable it would be.

Reason No 4 – You lack the sales skills necessary to succeed

Oh, this is another tough one! Why not truly scare yourself and rate your current sales skills on a scale of 1-10, 1 being “hopeless” and 10 being “amazing, couldn’t be any more perfect” and see where you think you are when it comes to new business sales skills. And answer it honestly……

Why not have a look at the attributes of a top “new business” salesperson and see how you fare in these areas? Things like Tenacity? Determination? Resiliance? Confidence?

How about the skills or activities needed to bring in new business? Cold Calling? (you do that, rather than shy away from it, don’t you?), Getting Past Gatekeepers? Objection Handling? Making Appointments? Closing?

You might think I’m being a little tough on you, but it’s for a good reason! If you don’t do something about this now, you’re going to lose business to your competition that you could have won, and struggle in sales or in business in general.

How would you rate your sales skills against an experienced professional salesperson from one of your biggest competitors?  People that you’re probably going to come up against time and time again when you’re trying to get new clients?

When was the last time you invested in yourself (or your business) and had some professional sales training that will help give you the skills you currently lack and help you win more business easily?

And having read this article, are you going to do something about it? Or are you going to continually sit there and be miserable and continue to struggle, while your competition are taking business off you hand-over-fist?

I hope I’ve inspired you to take the steps necessary to focus on (and win) more new business. I look forward to hearing about your sales “wins” and the situations you learn from!

If you liked what you read above, and you’re interested in knowing more about how we may be able to help you, call 0845 130 6779 or contact us here….

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Andy Preston is a leading Sales Expert, Trainer and Motivational Speaker. He was previously a top salesperson in the print and design industry. 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.salestrainingbreakfastclub.com

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 at this time of year how people’s attitudes can affect the actions they take towards having a successful year, or an unsuccessful one! Particularly given the current market conditions, a good start to the year is possibly more important than ever!

 

It’s also a very interesting part of the year, as many people choose to set ‘new year resolutions’. These resolutions are usually set around personal things like losing weight, stopping smoking, or exercising more often for example, but most people don’t tend to set them for their sales careers or for their business.

On a humourous note, the resolutions that they do set are probably the ones they set last year (and broke in early January), and the year before, and the year before that…and so on!

With that in mind, below I’ve given you a list of areas to focus on, that if you read and take action based on them, will help to make 2009 your best sales year ever – regardless of the market conditions!

So let’s have a look at these in turn……

Andy’s Sales Tip No 1 – Get Focused

It’s always very important to get focused on what you do and make sure you do it as well as possible, but in the current market conditions it’s more important than ever! Perhaps over the past few months (or even longer in some cases) you’ve allowed yourself to be distracted by other things. Well now’s a really good time to re-focus your energy and your efforts.

If you’re a business owner or salesperson, look at your core sales proposition and your core activities. Are these as strong as they could be? Can you clearly articulate what benefits your product or service brings to the customer? Do you do that regularly enough on your marketing literature, your website, your emails and verbally to clients and prospects?

Andy’s Sales Tip No 2 – Stay Positive

Staying positive is another crucial part of making 2009 your best sales year ever. As in any other year, you’re going to experience some setbacks. If you’ve heard me speak you’ll know how much I drive home the point that it isn’t what happens to you that natters, it’s your attitude to what happen to you that matters!

If you’re been watching television, listening to the radio or reading newspapers for the last few months you’ll have heard negative message after negative message about the economy, lack of sales and that people aren’t buying. Is that going to help or hinder your attitude towards getting new business?

Which do you think customers and prospects value more, someone who sounds like they’re terminally depressed, or someone who remains upbeat and positive about their company, products and services, and themselves? Which do you think they’re going to buy from?

Andy’s Sales Tip No 3 – Do More Prospecting

More than ever before, prospecting is vital to your chances of making 2009 your best sales year ever. The challenge is that when market conditions are easier (as they have been for the past few years) prospecting is one of the first things that a business owner or a salesperson stops doing!

In a market where people are negotiating harder with you and you’re losing business through no fault of your own (customers being taken over, going out of business etc) then doesn’t it stand to reason that you need to do more prospecting?

So whether you prospect by networking, referrals from existing clients, cold calling, whatever method you use, just make sure you do more of it! Let’s be honest, there are people out there that have a need for what you offer, but don’t know you exist! Make sure you do more prospecting, it’s one of the keys to making this year a success for you.

Andy’s Sales Tip No 4 – Look For More Cross-Selling / Up-Selling Opportunities

Once again, in an easier market, simple up-selling and cross-selling opportunities are often overlooked. You’ve probably got plenty of existing clients that don’t use every product or service you offer, haven’t you? I wonder if you’ve ever heard the immortal words from a client ‘oh I didn’t know you did that’ when you asked them why they’ve just bought from a competitor?

One of the first things you can do is make clients aware of your full product range or all of the services that you offer. This maximises your cross-selling opportunities. In a market where the economic conditions aren’t as good as they were previously, one of the quickest ways to get more business is to get more orders from your existing client base! Think about it – they already like you, have done business with you and have everything set up to order from your company – why not get them to order more items from you?

Another important area to look at is up-selling opportunities. Every single time a customer places an order with you, you’ve got an opportunity to ‘up-sell’ them to a higher priced item. A lot of people don’t feel confident in doing this and ‘assume’ if the customer wanted the higher-priced item, they would have asked for it! Don’t make the same mistake. Why not offer the client 2 options on their next order? It’s an easy way to get more business!

Andy’s Sales Tip No 5 – Keep Your Sales Skills Updated

This is always an interesting one! In any of my seminars of speeches, whenever I ask the question ‘how many of you have read a sales book, listened to a CD or done something to hone your sales skills in the last 6 months?’ hardly anyone puts their hands up! I find this astounding.

Some people say ‘Oh I don’t have time’, some people say ‘oh I don’t need I, I know what I’m doing’ and even more frighteningly some business owners say ‘oh I’m not a salesperson!! How crazy is that?

If you’re in a competitive market right now (if you have competition, that’s you!) then your sales skills (or lack of them) could be the difference between you winning a customer, and losing a customer. How are your cold calling skills? Your questioning skills? Your objection handling skills? Your closing skills? Could they do with some work? You have to work on these and keep yourself ’sharp’ so you don’t miss out on sales opportunities you could have won!

Follow the tips above and watch your sales soar! I look forward to hearing of your sales success!

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Want to learn more? This month I’m doing a webinar on ‘How To Make 2009 Your Best Sales Year Ever’. Contact me through the webpage and quote ‘Andy’s Blog’ and the first 10 people get a free place with my compliments (normally £77).

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The Challenge……..

 

 

Why You MUST Qualify Your Appointments

 Whenever I’m running my cold call training or appointment making courses, I’m usually asked the question “Andy, should I attempt to qualify my appointments, or should I just make as many as possible, no matter what the quality?”

Now if you ask the question to a group of salespeople or sales managers, they’re usually divided – some say that they won’t turn out for an appointment unless there’s a genuine interest or opportunity there, whereas the rest say that they’ll take any appointment that’s going!

Now whilst I realise to a degree it is going to depend on your marketplace, your industry, your average order value, your geographic target areas, the length of your sales cycle etc, there are some basic “truths” that you can apply no matter what your situation.

I do understand the need to book appointments (and the pressure from bosses to do so), but I firmly believe it’s crucial to qualify any appointment you make! By the way, this isn’t an excuse for the lazy salespeople out there to give to their bosses – “well, Andy said….…” I mean I still want the same number of appointments, just make sure they’re qualified properly!

I’m sure anyone who’s been in face-to-face sales at some point has had the experience of turning up for an appointment when the person you’re meeting doesn’t really know why you’re there, had forgotten you were coming, or worse still – wasn’t even there when you showed up!

Surely this has to be a “warning flag” of how much value they placed in the appointment in the first place?!

And while I realise that sometimes a salesperson can generate a sale at a meeting from “nothing”, this becomes more difficult the higher the price you are asking, the more people it involves and the more you are selling a “service” rather than a “product”.

Here are some reasons why qualifying your appointments properly might be a useful idea for you……

1. It makes the face-to-face selling part much easier.

If you’ve taken the time to qualify the appointment properly over the phone, you’ve already found out some of the prospect’s potential needs and identified areas to explore through questioning at the meeting. This should mean that at the meeting, your questions are more relevant and are of more value to the prospect.

2. It raises the prospect’s perception of you.

The more you qualify properly, the higher the perception of you in your prospects eyes. Unlike the usual “desperate” salesperson they come across, you’re not going to waste your time (and often your manager’s time) chasing half-way across the country to a meeting with someone who turns out to have no need for what you offer, nor turn out to be the real decision maker anyway! Not that you’ve had that happen to you in the past…have you?

3. It reduces the risk of a cancellation, a “no show” or an “I forgot”.

I realise that sometimes people do genuinely forget, but if this is happening to you on a fairly regular basis, then either they are avoiding you, or they didn’t see enough value to even put it in their diary! Not the best start to a sales call, is it? How many more times does the average salesperson need this to happen to them before they’ll learn?

4. You can find out if they are the real decision maker or not!

You’d be amazed how many salespeople have meetings with people who can’t decide! Unless this is a defined part of your sales strategy (and you have a long sales cycle with lots of people you need to influence), this is pointless! You might be looking “busy” in the short term or be hitting your meetings targets, but when it comes to your sales figures, you’ll be somewhat short.

5. You’ll be making the best use of your time.

Your personal time management is crucial in sales. You only have a certain amount of time in which to be as effective as possible, so don’t waste it! The time you’re spending in meeting with the wrong people who have no need for your product or service could be better spent prospecting for new business, or preparing for your crucial appointments (you do prepare for your appointments, don’t you?)

Listed above are 5 good reasons why you should take the time to properly qualify your appointments. You should also have an idea of the criteria you’re going to use to qualify them too. If you get the appointments made for you by an in-house or an external telemarketing team, it’s even more important that you set the criteria by which they qualify your appointments! Otherwise, you’re losing control of a vital part of your sales process and hampering your sales effectiveness into the bargain!

 

The Challenge

You’re a new franchisee……….you’ve been for your training with the franchisor…..and you’re excited about your new business and starting to make some money…….however, no-one’s taught you how to sell……..

 

A business advisor friend of mine told me years ago that the two biggest reasons small business fail come from 2 main things …..

1) Lack of sales and
2) Lack of cashflow

In my experience (having been a very successful salesperson in a franchise and now seeing some new franchise owners turn up on my cold calling courses) the lack of sales can be a massive problem for most new franchise owners.

Let’s face it, you can’t suddenly just acquire good “new business” sales skills overnight can you?

If you purchase a franchise that you need to “pro-actively” sell in (i.e cold calling, face-to-face meetings etc, rather than a retail environment where the customers come to you and all you need to do is attract more) then typically what happens (in a very simplistic format) is the following scenario.

Step 1 - You go and visit the franchisor and decide to buy a franchise
Step 2 - You receive 2-4 weeks “training” on your new franchise
Step 3 – You start your franchise and have to prospect for between 80-100% new business.

Most of the training from the franchisor will be on the systems and processes of how to “work” the franchise – which is realistically what you bought it for, right? A proven system, with perhaps an established brand name?

Otherwise you wouldn’t have bought a franchise would you? You’ve have set up on your own!

If you’re lucky you’ll get 3-4 days sales training from them – which again is more likely to be on the “system” of selling the franchise products or services.

So what’s next?

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Imagine the scene ….. new franchise owner sitting in their new office (or home office if they’re trying to keep costs down)….telephone in front of them………sitting there waiting for it to ring…….sitting there…….waiting………waiting………they play with their emails……..still waiting……..

Suddenly it hits them – WHAM! The phone is not ringing – they need to “prospect” for new business!

Cold Calling anyone? Nope, didn’t think so! Call into some businesses face-to-face? Don’t fancy that either!

So what’s the alternative? Bit of advertising? Have some flyers printed? Sign up for some random networking events in hope you get some referrals?

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Sooner or later the new franchisee comes to the realisation that they need to bring new business in. They need to do some sort of “pro-active” selling.

So they pick up the phone and call a few leads (or if they’re really brave, some “cold” prospects). However they’re feeling a little bit down about doing it, so they get knocked back at objections easily, fail to get through gatekeepers and when they do, the decision maker doesn’t see value in meeting with them, or even discussing their offering!

Feeling even more depressed, they make a few more calls, but really they’re going through the motions and their heart isn’t really in it.

They feel as though the franchisor has “deceived” them, and often say things like “they never told me it would be this hard to get appointments/get business/find new clients”, “if only it wasn’t such a competitive market”, “I’m not cut out for this sales stuff!”

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In this situation, one of 3 things will typically happen…

1) They get lucky and land a client that gives them a lot of business, refers them to others and “saves their bacon” – but this better happen within the first 3 months of taking on the franchise or you’re in trouble.

2) They give up, or give back the franchise and wonder what on earth they are going to do next.

3) They take some training and get good at selling (fast!) or they get someone else to do it.

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So many times (especially in networking) I see new franchisees either giving up or giving back their franchise 6 months later, because they couldn’t bring in the new business.

In summary, the big lesson in this article is – if you’re going to take on a franchise (or you’ve already bought one) in which you need to get new clients, learn how to sell – and fast!

Because sometime we find it difficult not be nice and very polite on our calls, don’t we? After all we’ve been told for years “the customer is king” haven’t we? Yet we often don’t realise how this could negatively impact on the perception of our cold calls.

Let me give you an example…..

On my Cold Calling Workshops, I always find out what strategies the delegates are currently using, in order to give me a “gauge” of where they’re at and what we can potentially tailor and improve.

This is a phrase one of the delegates had been using previously (bearing in mind he was already through to the decision maker).

“I wonder if you could possibly help me?”

No, No, No, No and No! This is wrong on so many levels!

 

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So what’s wrong with that?….

Now I know some of you are thinking “What’s wrong with that?”.

The challenge is because we’re brought up to be polite and we’ve been brought up with phrases like “the customer is always right”, “look after your customers – or someone else will” and “always make the customer feel important”.

Now I’m not neccessarily disputing these phrases (and some of the are good advice) but don’t forget, we’re on a cold call here! The decision maker hasn’t been expecting our call, so we’re probably interrupting them on some level. Therefore our first few words are crucial to the success of the call.

When I was training the European cold calling team of a Global IT company out in Munich earlier this year, their VP of Sales said to me “Andy, if I receive a cold call, they’ve got 15 seconds – after which I decide if I’m putting the phone down or not!”. Now I don’t know the exact figures across industries, but I’d be prepared to bet that it would be fairly similar as to the first initial impression and how your call is perceived.

 

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You have to sound different!…..

Now, most salespeople tell me they want to be viewed as different to their competition, to be seen as an equal, as powerful and consultative “value added” suppliers who can add value to their client’s businesses. However, they then make calls that sound EXACTLY like their competitors!

And if we truly want to be seen as powerful, as equals, as consultative people that can add value to our clients businesses, do you think opening phrases like “I wonder if you can possibly help me?” to decision makers achieve that?

I didn’t think so! The impression transferred when you use phrases like that is more like “oh no, another market research call!” or “here comes another junior salesperson to waste my time”. Is this achieving our obective? I think not!

We want to appear senior, authoratative, confident and like we know what we’re talking about – but we’re coming across in an entirely different way aren’t we?

 

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The first few moments are vital….

In those vital first few moments of the cold call, if you come across as junior, weak and unimportant, don’t be suprised when senior decision makers treat you as such!

And do we think that decision makers are paid to help us out? Or give us “a few moments of their time?” How much value is there in that sort of call for the decision maker – pretty much none at all I’d say!

If you’re getting responses like “speak to my secretary” or “the person you really need is…” (only to find out later that this person was really the decision maker” or “send information” – or an even harsher response – that’s a clue that the decision maker doesn’t perceive us at their level, so isn’t treating us like an equal.

 

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Ask yourself a question……

One interesting question to ask yourself is “Do I sound like a decision maker when I cold call, or just another salesperson?”. If your answer is the latter, are you really suprised at the responses you’re getting? If you want to be perceived as powerful, consultative and on the same level, then at least sound like a decision maker or someone of that level would do!

If the prospects you’re calling seem to perceive you the same as your competition – saying stuff like “we’re happy with who we’re using”, “we’ve got an agency/company we use for that” or the more blatant “you guys are all the same” then there’s a clue that you’re using the same approach as your competition! If we want to be perceived as different, we have to have a different approach don’t we?

 

Andy’s Top Tips For Getting Better Responses From Decision Makers

Tip No 1 – Sound like a decision maker, not a salesperson

Tip No 2 – If you want to be perceived as different, use a different approach to your competition

Tip No 3 – Converse with a decision maker on their level, using things that will interest them, instead of telling them what your product or service does

Tip No 4 – Prepare and practice a compelling opening that will engage decision makers, not bore them

 

Have you been to the Sales Training Breakfast Club yet?

 

We’ve got some great feedback from attendees who’ve been previously!

‘If you are in business you cannot ignore sales…..Andy has the event which covers this in full’
Mark Burgess, Partner, Simpson Burgess Nash

‘Andy is clear, concise, and very motivating’
Janice Russell, HSBC Bank

‘I would highly recommend anyone involved with sales attend one of Andy’s breakfast meetings – they are a revelation!’
Paul Sweeny, Nat West Bank

Why don’t you come along and join us at the next event?