The last of the Canterbury Tales of Modern Selling is, of course, The Boss's Tale...
I NEED to see this ---> Please reserve my free seat for The Boss's Tale on Wednesday 7th December from 1-2pm <--- so we can discuss how to avoid either of us being caught like Rats in a Trap!
All sounds a bit dramatic, I know, what with rats also being capable of getting off sinking ships and the like, but if you track back over the series via...
...you'll see that we're dealing with some pretty seismic shifts in the sales landscape here. And if you don't find a way out of the maze, we'll show you in the webinar why predictions like the USA only needing 3 out of 18million sales people they currently employ, by 2020, may also very well come true.
I've also decided that there isn't really one key UK speaker who is capable of summing all this up with a "ready-made" presentation, which obviously needs to refer back to the whole series, so will be giving it my best shot, aided and abetted by the ever-popular Jeremy Spiller. He has these self-same global mega-clients that he deals with from the marketing side – which is now a selling side too, of course – see...
...as well as a whole bunch of normal people he deals with, of course.
| ...and so does - THE BOSS'S TALE |
The missing key ingredient here though, is YOU.
It's your problems and issues that we are trying to address and solve, and whilst you have told us plenty over the series, it's how this is all going to play out now, with you and your boss (or your sales staff if you're the boss), that makes all the difference. What is the point, for example, of simply knowing – from The Seller's Tale – that you need to be blending a bit of internet activity in with your phone and in-the-flesh selling, if you go back to a work environment that simply doesn't allow or facilitate that?
We'll give you some tick-box take-aways anyway though, rest assured, for example: -
- How to speak your Boss's language (is s/he "old school" or new - or are you?)
- How Inside v Telesales v Field Sales compares (and why it matters)
- Why Modern Sellers need to know about Marketing & PR too
- Why this makes you invaluable in today's job market
But this is all essentially just trying to get you all singing from the same hymn-sheet – and you should be warned that the hard and productive work starts next year, when we'll be going back to basics, YOUR basics, whatever they might be, so that you can safely and productively get some real (modern) selling going again.
Certainly don't believe that this doesn't affect you though – the proof that it does is in this webinar, because I have some blood-chilling slides we've assembled to prove how far behind the UK sales profession is falling, on average at least. But don't be shy either, put your hand up, ask the question all the others also want to ask, and let's see if we can help.
Yes – great / scary (and it's free!), BOOK MY PLACE ON THE BOSS's TALE...
...and my question (or input / comment / frightening thing) is...
Questions & Comments
Log in with LinkedIn demo
It's pretty simple, if you just log in using that button, confirm the email address you use on there (privacy rules mean LinkedIn don't release that first time - but ours are just as protective), and then when you post a question or comment on here, like this, the cogs all connect and your name and link to your LinkedIn profile appear automatically - just click on mine to see...
Posted by Neil Warren on
Company Growth x400% AND at x200% Profitability...
Canterbury Tales fans will know that we also addressed some of the numbers in The Bean-Counter's Tale...
http://www.modernselling.com/news-and-events/webinar-corner/bean-counters-tale-workshop-webinar-discussion-tips-series-jeremy-spiller-alan-timothy-20114033.aspx
...but I didn't have this survey of 500 (US) Professional Services businesses at the time...
http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=104212
...so let's discuss that "incentive to change" too, shall we?
Posted by Neil Warren on
The Buyersphere Report 2011
There's more essential background reading here...
http://www.baseone.co.uk/content/s2/pdf/BUYERSPHERE_2011.pdf
...and I quote...
"From small companies to massive multinationals,
from manufacturing and retail to education and
agriculture, we surveyed people of all ages, at all
levels, across five different economies in Europe
to get the most reflective and robust findings
possible. And because we surveyed not just what
people thought, but also what they actually did,
the discoveries aren?t just interesting, some of
the findings are game-changing..."
Posted by Neil Warren on
Unilever Boss - Paul Polman
We're using Unilever as an example in the webinar, so this quote I got from a LinkedIn "Value Propositions" Group...
"The future consumers want products of great value from companies with great values." Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever
...and this one...
"For a CEO to move the investment community is a tall order," he says. "We are a company focussed on the consumer so we have a lot to do there."
...from The Guardian...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/unilever-ceo-paul-polman-interview
...should be useful background reading, and food for thought (not to mention a nice cuppa, with wash and brush up, whilst doing the laundry! ;-)
Posted by Neil Warren on
An interesting 55 minutes for you
With ref to the above this one should be interesting because we'll be looking at the impact of the web on sales as a whole and some of the barriers that have prevented its adoption by the entire sales industry up until now.
These barriers impact on hundreds of thousands of sales people and the move from more traditional methods of selling such as telemarketing, cold calling and so on, which all the research says now have a far lower rate of success than they once did.
Of course relationships have been and always will be core to any successful sales activity but now that many spend so much time on the web, it's important to understand how this is changing the way sales are made and how you can work with the web.
One of the concerns of many people about the web and email is the amount of time necessary needed to generate a good return and the use of this time against say that of telemarketing and face to face meetings.
Then of course there's the issue of who is going to represent the company or brand on the web and how this will be done.
What's at the core of all this though is that while business landscape is changing so radically and so quickly those who do not adapt will simply be left behind by their competitors and this will affect performance, turnover and profit.
So to have a strong strategy and good implementation is vital which must be adopted and understood by the entire company.
This must be driven by the senior management of the business, not the new 19 year old intern who knows all about Facebook and Twitter, while the rest of the company still struggle to understand what it's all about.
Posted by Jeremy Spiller on
Lazy Marketing v Hard Selling - and Engagement
Indeed Jeremy, and as we prepare to discuss, I have another example that came into my inbox this morning.
Here's B2B Marketing noting that everyone can "broadcast", for example via Twitter...
http://www.b2bmarketing.net/news/archive/social-media-news-twitter-most-popular-linkedin-offers-best-roi
But that then leads to a Pardot ("Marketing Automation") blog page...
http://blog.pardot.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/social-infographic-pardot.pdf
...noting that the ROI on that is as nothing, compared to "somebody" - and we need an engaging communicator here - is doing much better talking person to person on LinkedIn.
You might be called "Marketing Communications", you might be called "Business Developer", you might be called "Sales Consultant", you might even be "The Boss". What you cannot (or should not) be, however, is a megaphone or spammer (or cold-caller, of the old-school variety).
Posted by Neil Warren on
Business to Consumer B2C or Business (person) to Business (person) B2B?
If you get your head around the links above, and then compare it all to this article from MyCustomer.com...
http://www.mycustomer.com/topic/marketing/online-conversion-rate-marketings-dirty-little-secret/134505
...I think you'll also see where "analytics" and "CRO" (Conversion Rate Optimisation) could also be leading sales people, who need to "engage", astray.
Most of that, admittedly at a glance or skim read, looks exactly like the stuff we covered in this webinar, where Brian Solis was saying that "automated telephone answering" was not really customer-centric either.
Sales consultants and trusted advisers with a bit of thought leadership, researching customers and prospects who come onto their blogs or who they meet in other business-social-media spaces, and to whom they respond personally, intelligently and helpfully - that's the "CRO" we're looking for - not the multivariate testing of this or that bit of marketing collateral.
Posted by Neil Warren on
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