How Was Your 2010?

December is a great month for reflection. 2010 has been a challenging year for some and a great year for others! At The Sales Consultancy we're glad to say we've had our busiest December for years.

Whatever kind of year you’ve had - now is the time to reflect and learn.

The following questions will help you identify the good stuff - so you can do more of it and learn from the things that didn’t go quite so well.

Remember - if you have friends or colleagues that would benefit from these tips, feel free to pass them on. They can also register direct here.

So - What did you learn from 2010?

You can learn positive things from everything that happens. If something goes really well, what was it that made it a success? When something goes badly, what could you have done differently to get a better result?

Take a notebook, find a quiet space and ask yourself the following questions. The answers will help you create your strategy for 2011.

Great Stuff
List all the great stuff you did this year. For each one ask:

-What was your focus?
-What actions did you take?
-What personal qualities did you use to achieve success?
-What strengths did you draw upon?
-Who else was involved in this success?
-What qualities did they bring?
-In what other areas or situations could you use this strategy?


Not so Great Stuff
List all the not so great stuff you did this year. For each one ask:

-What was your focus?
-What actions did you take?
-What did you fail to notice at the time?
-What could you have done differently?
-What got in the way of success?
-What, in your heart of hearts, really stopped you?

What will you do next time in view of these learnings?

What you learn from these questions will give you more in control in the future and a greater ability to overcome challenges when they happen. Remember, the more you learn, the more you earn.　

The next step is to write down all the things you want to achieve in 2011. At The Sales Consultancy we have a great goal setting tool for you in our January Tricks of the Trade. To guarantee recieving 'Tricks' in January, register here.

Wishing you all a great Xmas - together let's make 2011 a fantastic year!

Until next time

Leigh

Visit www.sales-consultancy.com for details of Sales Training, NLP Training, Coaching and Mentoring, Keynote Speaking and free reseources.

Leigh Ashton
Managing Director
The Sales Consultancy

Don't Leave email Marketing to Chance

As I write the rain is lashing down, it’s very dark in the office for 11.30 in the morning and I think we can safely say winter is upon us!

Of course the news is hardly brightening things up is it? The economic prospects are mixed and there’s real fear about the impact of spending cuts on jobs, housing benefit cuts, pensions and the like.

So we sales professionals have to be absolutely on top of our game. As Steven Covey puts it in his ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ we have to ‘Sharpen Our Saw’! Let’s make sure we get it right in our email campaigns to give us the best chance of success.


Target your message
Make sure your message is entirely appropriate for those receiving it. Segment your database according to the niches you intend to appeal to. Use their buzzwords, their language, acknowledge their likely issues

Personalise
Personalise the opening greeting. If you can personalise the body of the email or the subject line then so much the better. You might need to modify the personalisation if you market to a very formal industry not accustomed to first names!

Create a subject line to grab attention
Everybody’s in box is full to bursting these days. You have a second to catch the eye of the reader, so the subject line is crucial. You will need to experiment here – the open rate will tell you how well your subject line performed. Keep the subject line short and snappy. Consider asking a question. You need to appeal to both positive and negative types so test both types of heading (i.e. positive ‘Ten great things you get with xyz’ and negative - ‘Avoid XYZ with these ten tips’.

Position Key Content at the Top
If your email is opened you’ve got to first base – but then have about 5 seconds to make an impact. So get your key message in quickly. Once again make sure you appeal to both those whose glass is half full and those who take it as half empty. This means positive statements about what they will get mixed with negative statements about what pain they will avoid by using you and your products.

Use ‘You’ Language
Don’t write ‘we can do this, we can do that etc’ Make sure your content revolves around ‘You’ (i.e. them!). For example, instead of ‘we design great websites’, use ‘if you’re looking for a great website’. Get into their map.

Include Powerful words
These can depend on the market you operate in, but research suggests some of the most powerful words in eshots are ‘You’, ‘Money’, ‘Save’, ‘Results’, ‘Discover’, ‘Proven’, ‘Guarantee’, ‘Now’, ‘Important’, ‘Solve’.

Incorporate a Clear Call to Action
What do you want them to do next? Invite them to do just that, in more than one place preferably. Telephone, go to website, register for free tips, whatever it is make sure the call to action is easy to find, easy to read and easy to do.

Add Testimonials
A quote from a satisfied customer or two always helps. Make sure you use the name of those giving the quote (ask their permission first).

Manage your Stats
Make sure you know the success rates of each email so you can compare results – crucial for improving ongoing effectiveness. Open rates, click through rates, bounce rates, unsubscribe rates are typical parameters. There are others too and you should choose those critical to your business.

Frequency
Don’t bombard your database with eshots. They will unsubscribe or just bin them or ignore them. Two or three times a month is sufficient in most cases.

Follow up
Contact those who open the email. Either ring them or at least make sure they get a follow up email which is a natural follow on from the previous one.

Leigh

10 Reasons Why Sales Managers Lose their Jobs

Watching The Apprentice last night I really didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Cry because if that’s typical of the standard of selling across the country then UK PLC has got a problem of no small proportions.

Why laugh then? Because if those sales skills demonstrated last night are typical, then I know my company will be expanding at a vast rate of knots as we turn sales frogs into princes.

Of course it probably (hopefully) isn’t typical of the nations selling skills. It’s TV, It’s Big Brother in suits, it’s not real life.

But you know I do worry about poor selling standards I see and am subjected to – and cringe at the lost conversions, lost revenues, lost profits that result.

After 14 years of The Sales Consultancy getting called into improve companies’ sales, experience suggests there’s a good chance your team could be off the standard required. That’s why I list below my 10 Reasons Why Sales Managers Lose Their Jobs. Check you and your team against these common mistakes in sales.

Nobody does it on purpose, everybody’s busy. Of course. But if you’re losing sales, you’re losing revenue, you’re losing profits. And you need to do something about it.

After all – it’s not the best time to be looking for work is it?

Check yourself and/or your team against these common mistakes...

Mistake No 1
Not having clear sales goals in the first place
Whether it’s a campaign, implementing an annual strategy, a given month, a week, a day a meeting , a cold call – there’s a distinct lack of goals and outcome focus. This means a lack of direction right from the start. Sorry – but if you don’t know what the ultimate aim is of all sales activity you carry out, how will you ever know if you’re on the right track?

Mistake No 2
Procrastination
People are reluctant to start taking the action they need to achieve their objective, whatever the scale of the goal they have set. You need to take ACTION right now. Not ‘I’ll just finish this other job’ or I’ll just tidy my desk first’ or ‘Oh there’s not enough time to ring that person tonight’. Things drift, get delayed and all the time the competitors are making progress on their goals! The key? – finding out why people procrastinate!

Mistake No 3
Poor presentations to potential customers and clients
A one way pitch from you is likely to work less and less these days. You might hit the target sometimes but often your words will not be engaging for them and in any case it’s too much of a one way communication from you. That’s not a connection, that’s a speech! There’s a way you can connect with EVERYONE you want to do business with. It’s easy to learn, massively effective and you need to know it.


Mistake No 4
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result
There’s often a distinct lack of new ideas at companies whose sales are stagnating or falling. Upon examination people are usually doing the same as before, but miraculously expecting a better result this time round. It’s not going to happen. The truth is the world of Sales and Marketing is changing faster than ever – leaving many companies behind. It’s your job to make sure your company keeps up.

Mistake No 5
Too much talking – not enough listening
Very common generally in business, extremely common in sales. Modern selling is not about pitching and overcoming objections, it’s about rapport and building connections in a whole new way. Watch your team during client and customer meetings – the chances are they’re doing most of the talking. Ouch! All that lost revenue! They should try listening more.

Mistake No 6
Not putting yourself in the customers/prospects shoes
It’s really easy to think about you, your company or how good your product or services are. That’s the issue, alongside making assumptions about the client and customer before the relationship begins. So no one bothers to find out what a customer or prospects REALLY wants next. Only when you truly understand what’s going on in their head, can you truly match it with your offering.

Mistake No 7
The wrong mindset
Many sales people dread cold calling, prospecting, power hours, whatever you want to call it. Result? Very ineffective calls of course. You need people who relish these calls. If you haven’t got them, you either need to change the people, or change the mindset. Change the mindset, it’s cheaper! And it’s achievable. How good would it be to have a team who looked forward to cold calling!

Mistake No 8
Not getting feedback from your customers
Hardly anyone gets proper feedback from customers. Sure the odd form gets filled in, but what are they really thinking?. LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN, then LISTEN some more. Your customers like you. That’s why they use you. Find out the reasons they use you then go find others that have the same buying criteria. Your customers will also tell you what you can do to make you even better to deal with. When was the last time you asked them?

Mistake No 9
The team lacks motivation
Or as sometimes happens some of them are motivated and some aren’t. Well they’re all different of course. What is one person’s fabulous incentive means nothing to their colleague. There’s a reason why that is, do you know it? Companies often have the wrong incentives, the wrong appraisals and the wrong reward systems and then are baffled why half the team are flat. This can be solved quickly and easily.

Mistake No 10
Not talking to the customers that stopped using you
When was the last time you talked with a lapsed customer? You absolutely must know the reason they went elsewhere or you’ll start losing other clients in exactly the same way. Many companies have no idea why particular clients stop using them.

Which of the above reasons are holding your sales back?.


Leigh Ashton has been successfully selling for 30 years and, having prospered through a recession or two, can help you get things moving at times like these. Leigh is not just a trainer, she still sells, networks and pitches for business. She makes it her business to keep businesses like yours up to date with the latest developments in sales and customer service.






Leigh Ashton

Are You Listening Out There

Listening

Listening is a vital skill that is often neglected and yet is crucial to your sales success.

Be aware of the five stages of effective listening and get into the habit of recognising and practising these stages;
1.Hearing – taking in the sound.
2.Listening – Really paying attention and trying to make sense of what you are hearing.
3.Understanding – Checking with the other person to make sure you have taken in what they said in the way they intended.
4.Acknowledging – letting the other person know you have heard and understood what they have said.
5.Responding – your response to what has been discussed.

On many occasions people go straight from stage 1 to stage 5! They jump to conclusions, miss information and leave the other person feeling misunderstood or ignored. Undoubtedly, ignoring stages 2 to 4 will cost you sales.

Learning to implement these stages naturally will rapidly enhance your listening skills and make you a much more effective sales professional.


Ask a question – then SHUT UP

When you ask open questions your client will go into dialogue to respond which gives you the opportunity to learn so much about them – and their issue.

•Forget yourself, focus on them
•Have no other agenda
•Have no external distractions ie incoming emails, other potentially interesting people in the room
•Let your client answer without interruption.
•Focus on listening 100% and not by your internal thoughts or dialogue.
•Thinking about the next question will stop you hearing useful information.
•The next question is easy when you listen – it comes naturally from your client’s response.

Remember - those golden nuggets of information you need to succeed may well be buried. Give them the time and attention they deserve.

•Listen to the choices of words they use – this is vital as you can tailor your own responses using the same or similar types of words.
•Tune in all your senses when listening.
•Listen with your heart – give everything to listening and you will gain greater levels of rapport and understanding with whoever you’re talking to.

When they have finished, leave a gap of a few seconds before you speak. On many occasions you will find the most crucial information follows after this short gap.

Enjoy practising the art of listening and enjoy the benefits to your business as you improve your listening skills.

Until next time

Leigh

Listening Skills - Further Reading

Why are Selling Techniques so bad?

Why are Selling Techniques so bad UK?

You will know by now I’m on a mission to improve the nation’s selling techniques. It seems every day I get collect more evidence of just how big a challenge that is going to be! On the other hand a bottom less pit of potential work it seems.

Take my colleague Jonathan’s example from last week. Accompanying his friend to a car showroom he was well and truly underwhelmed by the sales techniques demonstrated – or not demonstrated as it turned out. Within a minute of approaching Jonathan and his friend the sales guy was explaining how effective this £68K Landrover was at going up 45 degree hills off road – and that they should check out the YouTube video to see for themselves. He went on to list all the features of this vehicle that HE would have been impressed by. Now I’m not sure what they teach showroom sales people at landrover but it sure isn’t modern sales skills on this evidence. Maybe they should get inside one of those Delorien cars from ‘Back to The Future’ and got themselves back to 1960’s America where they would have more success!

The problem? Where to begin! Firstly he didn’t even know who was up for buying a vehicle, or what stage we might have been in our buying process. He didn’t know ANYTHING about us at all and more crucially did not have any inclination to find out. That meant he remained forever in his map of the world, which was all about off roading and boy’s stuff. He was doing all the talking and NO listening at all. If he had made the effort to find out our ‘maps’ then the knowledge gained would have led to a far more fruitful chat for all of us, more enjoyable too and more likely to produce a win win.

This contrasts with a much more encouraging – sadly rarer story of a friend who after 25 years working in a factory found himself out of work as textile manufacturing moved abroad. His friend was a car dealer and to his credit gave John a chance at his used car showroom. With no real training and no experience John made a fabulous impact at selling cars. How? He knew about and had studied NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and applied it in the car showroom. Despite being given second rate leads as returning customers went back to the longer serving salesmen, John soon rose up the sales league table. He did this by leaving his map of the world and making efforts to find out about the maps of those he spoke to. His genuine interest in their buying circumstances and needs led to natural open questions and great answers. He soon found out that it was often the quirky stuff that sold cars, the little things that you can only find out about when you have built genuine rapport with your prospect.

In one particular example John approached a whole family looking around the showroom. Through careful questioning and brilliant rapport building with ALL the family, John elicited that due to a family history of prangs when reversing their previous vehicles, the deciding factor was the bleeper that comes on when reversing this particular car, not that common at the time. Only by building a great relationship – and caring – did John find out this information. Result? A Sale, of course – and a fantastic letter two days later from the family stating this was the best buying experience they had ever had. His boss and friend said he hadn’t seen a customer letter like that in fourteen years in the business.

So – please please please leave out your needs and wants and make sure you find out their needs and wants. Genuinely care about the relationships you have with your customers and prospects, be curious, ask open questions, listen instead of preaching and you’ll be surprised what it will do for your sales results.

Do let me know your good and bad experiences of sales techniques. Let’s crack this together!

In the meantime – I think I might ring the Land Rover Training Manager!

Are You Charging Enough?

Hello everyone

I try to catch up on business and personal development reading whenever I can - and I sped through several old business sections of the Sunday Times this weekend. There's always some great snippets and tips amongst the news, stories and profiles. One particular feature always catches my eye, called 'How I Made it', which features business owners and their success stories.

What stands out amongst those profiles is their ability to bounce back, to be patient for success, to learn from the knocks, to learn from anything in fact!

The gentleman featured in one particular week was Ed Reeves, founder of Moneypenny, a telephone answering service that now has an annual turnover of £7m.

I'm going to quote a passage from the article...He returned to Britain at 23 and settled in London. TIS offered to pay him commission if he was able to sell outdated land line phones for £5 each. After finding no takers , he raised his price to £25 - and promptly sold a thousand. He made £20,000.

Now I hear this type of story so many times during my consultancy and keynote speaking engagements. What then do you think of the fees you are charging? Are the prices you're charging down to your 'stuff' around your perception of the value of your work, rather than what the market thinks your worth?

There's a thought.

For those of us charging by the hour or day, remember the fee is not for your time only. Your customers are paying for your specialist knowledge - specialist knowledge you have that they don't have. They are paying for your acumen acquired through the qualifications you gained, the experience you've built up, for your commitment to your chosen craft, for the personal development you have put in.

Remember that when you next tell a client or potential client your fees.

Until next time

Leigh

Sales is not about Selling

Hi everyone

What does that mean - Selling is not about selling? It means simply the art of selling has moved on from the 'always be closing', 'sell anything to anyone and to hell with the consequences' era.

My thesaurus says selling is about 'persuading someone to buy'. Persuading? Not in my book. No one should be 'persuading' anyone to buy. For me selling is a two way process of questions and answers, information sharing, finding common ground between buyer needs and the product - and the buyer ultimately making a decision based on the match of the product NOT how persuasive the sales person was.

The sales person will ultimately be successful more often that not when they truly understand the client's perspective. When they understand that every buyer is different, they can then drop the standard sales pitch and do some proper selling - where the welfare of the client is paramount.

Consider most car sales people. They have their speech ready and waste no time in delivering it - itemising the spec of the car, its top speed, mpg etc the list goes on. They have no idea about me, my previous experiences, my previous cars, my car buying motivation, where I am in the purchasing cycle, nothing. They're in their own map and assume that if they throw everything and the kitchen sink into their pitch, enough will hit the target and I'll buy the car. Right? Wrong!

The right way would be for the sales person to acknowledge that, though themselves might be speed junkies, they appreciate that only a relatively small proportion of car buyers are. By finding out about someone's car buying map they would quickly ascertain that space is needed for the children, extra body strength for safety and security, superb in car entertainment for the family as they take lots of long journeys together. Oh and what about the son who is 6'4'' tall at 17 years old so needs space in the back. I could go on but the message to all sales people is - please realise everyone of your potential customers will be different in many ways. Just acknowledging that will give you some empathy with the customer you would not have had previously

Sales is a massive subject and what I have touched upon today is a very small although significant area of selling. If you would like regular sales tips then please register for our Tricks of The Trade eshots and we'll send you sales and marketing tips directly to your inbox. Click here to register.

In the meantime enjoy your day and remember - less persuading, more selling please!

Until next time

Leigh

Are Your Fees High Enough?

Hi everyone

Midweek - Are you half way through your goals for the week? A challenge isn't it?

I try to catch up on business, sales and personal development reading whenever I can - and I sped through several 'Business' sections of The Sunday Times last weekend. There's always some great snippets of tips amongst the news, stories and profiles. One particular feature always catches my eye, called 'How I made It' which features business owners' success stories.

The thing that stands out the most in those profiled is their ability to bounce back, to be patient for success, to learn from the knocks, to learn from anything in fact!

The guy featured in one particualr week was Ed Reeves, founder of Moneypenny, a telephone answering service that has annual turnover of £7m.

I going to quote a passage from the article now... 'He returned to Britain at 23 and settled in London. TIS offered to pay him commission if he was able to sell outdated land line phones for £5 each. After finding no takers, he raised the price to £25 - and promptly sold a thousand. He made £20,000'

I hear this type of thing so many times. So - are the prices you are charging down to your 'stuff' rather than what the market thinks you're worth?. Now there's a thought.

Until next time.

Leigh

Have you got your Red Dot?

Good morning sales team

Well well well. All morning I keep hearing on the radio about the golfer Louis Oosthuizen and his wonderful winning weekend at the British Open Golf Championship. This morning he, and others, have been talking non stop about the little red dot on his glove. He presses the dot at the precise moment he needs to garner maximum resources and get maximum concentration.

This of course is the classic NLP technique called 'Anchoring' - where one can lock in a required state and instantly recall that state by 'setting off' their anchor.

Anchoring can be an extremely powerful technique in sales. Whether you're doing a presentation, sales pitch, cold calling, the list is endless, setting up an anchor and recalling it on cue could be the missing link in your tool kit.

If you want to know more about NLP and Anchoring, click the link or get in touch and I'll be happy to talk about this more.

Passion and Perspective!

Hello Everyone and welcome to what I hope is going to be a fabulous Friday.

I watched Question Time last night. It was so fascinating to see passions running high. Passion is a pre-requisite for sales success. If you don't have passion in your job right now, you need to get it - or get out! Winners are passionate. You can get by without passion. With it you can do anything!

Listening to audience and panellist comments also made me realise the differing perspectives available on a given subject. At The Sales Consultancy we had an 'off-site' meeting yesterday to look for new perspectives on how to prosper in challenging economic times. We came away with about twenty ideas to follow up on. So think how you can look at your sales challenges from a different perspective.

Finally thanks to all those who came to our Social Media Workshop on Wednesday morning. It was great to hear everyone's perspective (that word again) and help them understand the potential of these fabulous social media opportunities.

Leigh

Spreading the word

Well Happy Mondays to you all!! Now there's a band from the past.

I do hope you had a fabulous weekend. There's no point in working hard if you can't play hard!. And many congratulations to Spain, world cup winners. This proves that a combination of team work and high skill levels can get you anywhere!

Flexibility too. A group of football players able to adapt to the situation. There are definite parallels with business here. I noticed from the Sunday Times that The Body Shop, founded by one of my heroines Anita Roddick of course, is to greatly expand its Body Shop at Home division. It will be adding a further 3500 consultants to the current 4000. The rumours are that it's reducing its high street presence. Either way, for me this shows an ability to read the market and adjust direction in order to thrive. We can all learn from that.

Don't forget we have our Getting Started in Social Media Workshop this coming Wednesday. Maria has sent reminders out this morning as we have a couple of slots available. Click below for details and to book.

In the meantime have a great week.

Leigh

http://http://www.eventelephant.com/gettingstartedwithsocialmedia

Facebook - Why bother?

Good morning...
Occasionally I detect a divide in the country over social media in general and Facebook/Twitter in particular. It seems half the nation has embraced it, love it, use it, for pleasure and in their business environments.
The other half won't go near it! And, when the conversation gets round to it, as it inevitable does, they dismiss it and profess never to use it.
As someone who has full embraced many social media platforms over the past few years I am intrigued by why people dismiss it. Is it a technology phobia? Is it the occasional bad publicity that arises from these rare cases of misuse? Who knows.
One thing I'm convinced of - as a business tool social media should be a vital cog in your marketing wheel. Your business type will dictate the precise role social media plays in getting you new contacts and business, but for me, you need a social media presence at some level, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Ecademy, LinkedIn etc.
In response to requests amongst my customers and contacts we are holding a morning workshop 'Getting Started with Social Media' next Wednesday 14th July. It's all about taking those first steps to having social media contribute to your marketing efforts and ultimately your profits. It would be great to see you there and we have a few slots left - call 020 7903 5426 for more details or to reserve your space.
In the meantime have a great day!
Leigh

Hold your nerve - There's loads of business out there

Hi everyone.



Well we're mid way through the week so I hope you are halfway to the goals you set for the week!



There's lots of talk at the moment about 'the cuts'. It reminds me of the 80's. True, public spending is going to fall and private households are looking more closely at their budgets BUT please, can we put this into perspective?



If you take into account the actual economic figures, rather than the emotional newspaper headlines, you'll find that, for every £100 spent within the economy at the peak of September 2007, there's £95 being spent now. For me that's still a heck of a lot of business to be grabbed.



So - rather than curl up and wait for this recession to end, get out there and start grabbing some of those batches of £95!! If you don't, plenty of others will.



Until next time



Leigh

My Goodness - it's been a long time....

Sorry If you've been checking our blog and seen nothing new for a while! So much has been going on since we were last here!!

Leigh is involved in so many more things now - so of you want to find out more about social media or you need a Keynote speaker then give us a call on 020 7903 5426.

Enjoy the sunshine!

See you soon - promise!

Maria