Breaking News....Big Corporate Sales Team Supplier, Salesforce.com, has noticed that the internet is integral to sales success, and that UK sales professionals are therefore going to have to learn how to drive it!
2 CommentsI am proud to be a sales professional, and proud to be training and coaching others to become successful sales professionals themselves. However, I find myself spending a lot of time thinking and talking about the tight spot our profession seems to have got itself into...
Beth Rogers runs the MA Sales Management programmes at Portsmouth Business School, and she wants to know if we sales professionals are happy being tarnished with the popular image of "Del Boy" dodgy market traders...
7 CommentsLet's think about this for a moment. Realistically, how many hours a month do you, as managers, really get to coach your team members on an individual basis? Or for how many hours are you, as a member of the team, coached?
9 CommentsSelling and Sales Management are simple words, but the practical doing of them is much harder, as we all know. Let alone if you want to be "the best"...
11 CommentsI'm interested in your experiences of using BANT - good and bad. And I'd like to hear whether you think that FAINT might be a more effective way of qualifying your prospective customers...
4 CommentsDid you think that your competitor's public sector or government bid (that beat yours?) is commercially sensitive information, and therefore private? Well, commercially sensitive it may well be but private it most certainly is not. Let me explain...
6 CommentsClive Miller says his cheese has moved, and he thinks yours probably has too. And that's terrible, because it's the very thing that helps to sustain us in our selling lives. Do you want to help him find it?
6 CommentsBarclays Business have seen the light, and decided that the future is in having strong, personal relationships with their clients, listening properly to needs, wants and desires, matching those up to the Bank's impressive range of business finance options, and then staying with and nurturing the key accounts that need it. All delivered through sales staff, trained in Silent Edge's Sales Academy system.
0 CommentsMiller Heiman, the prominent leader in sales performance improvement, announces the launch of the 2011 Miller Heiman Sales Best Practices Study today. Now in its eighth year, this research effort is considered the largest study of complex, business-to-business selling and sales management best practices in the world.
0 CommentsSales performance improvement company Silent Edge is celebrating reaching the finals of the European Call Centre Awards, to be announced next week.
0 CommentsFollowing months of speculation, the sales sector’s worst-kept secret is out of the bag: the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) formally announced its latest venture into the world of selling today (14 September).
0 CommentsRecruiting and developing salespeople is on the agenda at one of Britian's premier events for learning and development professionals this coming September.
0 CommentsIs your sales team made of the Right Stuff? Legendary lunar astronaut Charlie Duke will be aiming to inspire his audience to even greater heights at ‘Successful Selling 2010’ this coming October with his keynote address ‘The Ultimate Performance’.
0 CommentsA former boss at the Institute of Sales and Marketing management (ISMM) and the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has moved to training company Silent Edge in a bid to promote standards in sales. Ren Kapur, who was at one time ISMM deputy CEO (chief executive officer), joined the company as director of special projects on 1 July.
0 CommentsAs part of a new training initiative, Huthwaite International has launched Sales Toolbox to deliver a range of online support tools for salespeople and their managers. These are designed to reinforce the behaviour improvement specialist’s established SPIN Selling and Account Strategy training methodologies.
0 CommentsAs part of its continuing policy of distinguishing between sales and advice, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has published the final list of qualifications retail investment advisers will need to pass before 1 January 2013.
0 CommentsFrom this month staff at upmarket London department store Harrods will be able to study for a degree in sales. The retailer has revealed it is to offer a two-year BA honours course to staff as part of a plan to boost career prospects.
0 CommentsSales performance improvement company Huthwaite International is targeting the legal sector as a prime market for expansion.
0 CommentsWhat do buyers think of salespeople? It’s a question we all want to know the answer to, and that’s exactly what training experts TACK International are aiming to do with their latest research – Buyers’ Views of Supplier Salespeople.
0 CommentsAs we attempt to eliminate travel time and costs associated with face-to-face meetings, many businesspeople are turning to online meetings and collaboration for the purpose of making presentations, conducting quick ad hoc multi-media introductions, contract negotiations and post-sales training and follow-up.
3 CommentsPoor negotiation leads to declining profitability so the most successful companies are improving their bottom line by changing from a reliance on individuals’ negotiating competence to an organisational capability. That’s according to findings of a unique benchmark study released this month.
0 CommentsFollowing in-depth research into the changing needs of today’s sales and marketing professionals, the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has launched 14 new courses this year, including several in the digital marketing arena. Programmes ranging from ‘Advanced SEO* Marketing’ to ‘Market and Sales Forecasting’ are amongst over 120 courses in the 2010 Learning and Development Directory of Courses.
0 CommentsAt just 24-years-old, Anneli Thomson has become the youngest associate ever throughout Sandler Training’s worldwide network of 250 offices.
0 CommentsAcademic and sales management guru, Professor Neil Rackham reignited the fire of controversy over whether men or women make better salespeople during a masterclass at Portsmouth Business School on 7 November.
0 CommentsStar of Sky One’s Badger or Bust and former Apprentice Ruth Badger reckons that the quality of sales management is the key to an organisation’s sales success. And there are three distinct types of sales manager.
0 CommentsThere is much talk about Personal Branding these days. What is it all about? Perhaps first we should consider what a brand actually is and then maybe, why establishing “Brand You” is important - says Colin Roberts
So what is a Brand? Dictionaries tend to focus on name, trademark, variety or type. A good and fairly universal definition would be, “The marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products.” So, in the case of “Brand You”, the brand is what identifies and differentiates you from other sales people. It is the essence of what you are and what people can expect from you.
As a society we are galvanised by brands. Maintaining your brand will ensure that your employer, your clients and customers remember you before anyone else when they have a need. Your brand will be an essential factor in your success in selling and your sales career. That’s the importance of developing a brand.
A proposal is not just a quote or costing, and it cannot merely be your sales pitch, says Colin Roberts.
A real proposal is a comprehensive evaluation of a client’s requirements and identified issues, supported by a proposition which delivers a quantifiable solution meeting the client’s needs. The outcomes of the solution, detailing the benefits to the client, should be spelled out and all this should be backed up by evidence that demonstrates you can deliver the solution.
Colin Roberts of the NOVO Sales Consultancy on the difference between good and great.
So what is it that makes a great salesperson distinct from the many good salespeople?
There is no doubt that, in most organisations, there will be particular salespeople who are responsible for a significant proportion of the sales. The rest of the sales team will often believe that the individuals have the best accounts or the best territory, but it is likely that they will actually have some of the key qualities that really make a great salesperson – qualities that we can all develop.
I’ve identified below the 12 key qualities that I believe will bring out the greatness in a good sales person.
Cultivate a positive prospecting culture or face extinction, Marcus Cauchi warns managers.
If Darwin were alive today, he would probably say that recession is Mother Economy’s way of weeding out those who cannot adapt. His advice: put yourself in danger of making some sales or face extinction.
Nobody likes cold calling. The cold hard truth, if you don’t cultivate a positive prospecting culture in your organisation, you could go the way of the Dodo.
Portsmouth Business School’s Beth Rogers reports from the Global Sales Science Institute conference.
Sales 3.0: modern sales & sales management in an interconnected world was the theme of the 3rd Global Sales Science Institute conference held this month at ESC Clermont, an FT Top 50 business school based in the capital city of the Auvergne district of France.
The sky’s the limit for a Midlands telecommunications company after it secured a lucrative contract with a major chamber of commerce.
Midlands telecommunications company Bluu Sky Connections is celebrating after securing a deal to become the preferred provider for the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce’s 3,000 members.
The company was set up three years ago and managing director Geoff Seymour, 52, admits times were hard in the first year.
Fiona Challis asks whether you are committing the seven deadly sins of sales management.
So what exactly are the ‘seven sins’? They’re a set of beliefs which sales leaders may commonly hold but very often fail to recognise in themselves: these beliefs influence a sales manager’s attitude, which in turn, affects how the sales team is managed and, ultimately, determines the performance of the individual team members.
Why are they sins? They’re ‘sins’ because these common beliefs can limit a team’s performance rather than maximising it!
Readers probably best know KRISTINA GRIMES as runner-up to Simon Ambrose in the third series of The Apprentice, where she starred alongside the notorious Katy Hopkins. A former pharmaceutical sales manager, she now runs a business performance company with fellow Apprentice contestant Jenny Celerier (series four). Here are her top three sales tips.
Sometimes the biggest resistance to innovation comes from the person who should benefit most from it – the customer, writes Paul Sloane.
Customers can be very conservative. When you come along with an unorthodox new product or service they are often initially unimpressed. Why should the buyer take a risk with your unproven new gismo? He knows that new products often have bugs and he does not want to be the guinea pig on which you experiment. He is familiar with the current method – why should he change?
Indeed, who would want to have been the first customer for a fax machine or, indeed, for a telephone? It seems ridiculous now but selling the first few telephones must have been really difficult. And how about laser eye treatment? How would you find the first person to try it this safe alternative in a pair of spectacles?
There’s an interesting debate on closing techniques on the LinkedIn networking site at the moment. (I can recommend the various sales-related groups on LinkedIn, including our own, as they offer a wealth of advice from the coal face – Ed).
Trainer Sean McPheat of MTD Sales Training & MTD Management Training posed the question ‘What’s the best closing line you’ve ever heard?’ in the SalesBlogcast.com group. He says: ‘Personally, I never use the same line on each prospect because you need to be totally flexible and need to approach the situation differently because of all of the variables at play but have you come across any one liners or phrases that made you say: “Hey, that was pretty kool!”.’
Opinion is pretty evenly divided between the school of thought which says that, if you’ve prepared the ground properly, you shouldn’t have to close and those which have their preferred approach depending on the context. The former can be summed up by a contribution from George Polak, who describes himself as accomplished international B2B sales and marketing leader. ‘If you’ve worked through the sales process properly, I find the deals tend to close themselves when they’re ready to close with a simple: “Well, what do you think?”.’
Here is an edited version of a posting from one of our Reader Forum contributors. You can view the actual posting and make a comment here. We think it is worth sharing….
Booking appointments is one of the most important skills we need to master as salespeople.
Begin with your planning. Research your hit list of the top 100 customers you would like to do business with.
While sales is generally becoming a more efficient and increasingly specialised practice, there are major skills gaps in the workforce and too many applicants with poor skills and motivation, according to a new report from the Marketing and Sales Standards Setting Body (MSSSB).
Professional Sales Development Ltd founder, Stephen Lewis-Brammer explains how to keep selling in the current tough economic climate.
Doom and gloom! At least that is what they are saying in the newspapers and on the television and, if you are not careful, it may be what you will be thinking too.
Before you go into your own version of a depression, though, here is a positive thought for you to contemplate: cometh the tough times, cometh the hour of the professional salesperson.
Rather than being something which we should all be worrying and panicking about, tough times really present a golden opportunity for you as a professional salesperson to prove your worth – while it may be more difficult to win business it is possible. In fact, tough times are actually professional salespeople’s opportunity to remain consistently successful (even to increase their levels of success) whilst lesser mortals around them fall by the wayside.
Professor Colin Coulson-Thomas of Cotoco discusses what separates the winners from the also-rans in a competitive bid situation.
Most businesses would like to win more of the contracts they bid for. Bidding is a tough game. Intense competition and falling barriers to entry strengthen the negotiating position of buyers. As more contracts are put out to competitive tender and new entrants are invited to bid, the prospects of winning a particular opportunity can fall.
As expectations rise, responding to invitations to tender becomes more demanding and expensive. The cost of lost bids has to be recovered out of a squeezed margin on those won. Companies that win too few bids are driven out of business. Enterprises need to succeed in competitive bid situations.
Is your sales force fit for purpose during an economic down-turn, asks Peter O’Donnell of Ergon?
When designing a new office building, the first step is to describe its intended purpose, overall shape and dimensions.
The detail of the building becomes more specific in ensuing phases but, at all times a standard language is employed, especially for detailed dimensions and engineering specifications. These building standards are required for coherency of design, to minimise error, guarantee fit and integration of components, health and safety, efficiency of build, and for ongoing maintenance and support.
You might now be asking: ‘What has an office building and the sales force got in common?’ The answer is that, if either is not fit for purpose, despite the money and effort spent, buildings will fail to deliver what is required and, in recessions, only the fittest sales organisations will survive.
ICDL’s Andrew Dugdale asks why the selling community is so confused about sales effectiveness.
Almost inevitably ‘no’ is the answer to the question ‘Are two head better than one?’ when talking about sales headcount… especially in light of recent evidence from consultants IDC showing that, on average today, between 1.5 -2.2 salespeople are employed to deliver the same results that could be achieved with one fully effective salesperson, is it any wonder that CEOs (chief executive officers) are looking at the sales function with ever-increasing interest.
Many of us will have been on a time management course, but sometimes it pays to have a little refresher…
Professional sales people take it for granted but many owners of small businesses hate selling. Or think they do. Here’s how to tackle the process.
We all have to sell to generate revenue and, as we know, revenue is the lifeblood of the business.
The fact is that many people outside of sales have a skewed vision of what the selling process is all about. It’s not about conning people or persuading them to buy something they don’t want; it’s all about helping people to buy the products, services and solutions they actually need.
To this end, the most successful salespeople would offer the following advice. Be yourself, and always be true to your values. Protect the values of your brand, and the integrity of yourself and your company.
Beyond that, look at each opportunity to sell as the beginning of a fruitful, two-way relationship.
Here is a ten-point checklist to help non-sales professionals understand the process. It’s also a useful basic guide for managers to use with junior members of their teams....
Manipulative closing techniques make for miserable customers.
It’s better to set up the conditions for a natural, painless close. Here are six ways to influence the process by helping customers make the decision to say ‘yes’ (assuming they truly want and need to buy your product or service).
Ask yourself the following questions to see if you have fulfilled any of the criteria...
Interesting to see how Tycoon and Dragons’ Den luminary, Peter Jones organises his sales team. On his website, ITV’s 41-year-old face of business programming offers a seven-step guide to ‘how my team sells’.
Jones claims one of the biggest reasons for the success of his own company, is that it delivers more per capita head than the competition. ‘We’ve got a very small sales team but we focus on that team going out to the market under a specific plan of attack,’ Jones writes.
If you want to optimise the performance of your organisation’s sales function, first of all you’ve got to ask the right questions. Bill Jackson of AchieveGlobal provides a checklist.
What is the range of products and services you want to invest selling resources on in order to bring value to your customer? What do you want your sales professionals to focus on selling?
Which customers have the highest potential to invest in your products and services? Who needs most of what you are selling? Who values your participation throughout their buying-decision process? Should customers be placed in channels according to their relative potential value?