All Posts by Andy Preston

In this article, leading sales expert Andy Preston explains the what ‘sales lessons’ we can learn from the recent petrol crisis, and how we can use them to improve our own sales figures….…..

Over the past week or so it’s been interesting to watch the behaviour of people ‘panic buying’ petrol and diesel because of potential shortages, and to watch the impact that it’s had on people generally!
Interestingly there are various ‘sales lessons’ we can learn from that kind of situation. Let’s have a look at what those are….

Sales Lesson Number 1 – People Often Follow The Majority

This is a great lesson from a ‘behavioural’ point of view. The big lesson here is that people watch the behaviour of others, and often then fall in line with the majority.

So in this case, because many people were concerned there may be a fuel shortage and started queuing at petrol stations, other people joined the queue behind them – and therefore very quickly the ‘queuing’ became the majority behaviour – which everyone else then starts doing!

So think about how you can introduce the ‘majority’ tactic into your sales efforts. Here are a couple of quick ideas for now – use language like ‘our most popular product is…’ and ‘we’ve had lots of people say how great this service is…’ as that helps ‘majority buyers’ (people that make decisions based on others) speed up their purchasing decisions!

You can also do this by including comprehensive case studies and testimonials in your sales pitches….

Sales Lesson Number 2 – Using ‘Fear’ As A Buying Motivator

This is something I see quite a lot with the ‘tougher’ sales teams and industries I work with. Most people probably first come across it from hearing a colleague do it, or from watching one of the classic sales films like Boiler Room for example.

Psychologists call this the ‘fear of loss’. What this means in reality is that many people are scared of losing something – and in some circumstances may therefore be more motivated to buy. That was certainly the case in this example, when they were scared of not being able to have any fuel to put in their cars!

In a sales context, you’ve probably heard other salespeople say things like ‘if you don’t buy today you may miss out…’ or ‘we only have a few of these left available…’ or ‘I can only hold this price until tomorrow…’

I refer to these as Time Pressure closes, Limited Availability closes or ‘Fear Of Loss’ closes. Now I know some of you may be cringing at these – mainly because people have used them on you… badly… in the past. That’s not the technique’s fault, it’s the bad delivery that’s ruined it!

They can be VERY powerful – but only if they’re used in the right way, and at the right time. I’ll explain that further in my next point….

Sales Lesson Number 3 – Build The Need First

The MOST important thing if you’re going to use a Time Pressure, Limited Availability or Fear Of Loss close is that you MUST have built the need first.

In the example of the petrol crisis that was easy as everyone already realises that they need petrol! And the thought of the lack of it was enough to spur them into buying more than they normally would – and queuing for ages for the privilege!

With your product or service however, you might not be that lucky! And here’s where using the ‘fear’ tactic causes problems.

If your prospect has already made up their mind, using the ‘fear’ tactic DOESN’T CHANGE their Buying Timescale. It only ACCELERATES their Buying Timescale.

Therefore if their decision was going to be ‘no’, you’ve just got your ‘no’ faster! If it was going to be ‘yes’, you’ve just got your ‘yes’ faster.

If however they’re still unsure, using the ‘fear’ tactic without working to build the need into an ‘essential purchase’ in their mind can actually turn their decision into a NO!

In other words, if they’re not certain they need your product or service and you say ‘you’ll need to purchase this today in order to get this price’ the buyer might think…. ‘well I’m not really desperate for it, so I’ll give it a miss on this occasion….’.

So therefore trying to ‘force’ the decision on this occasion has potentially lost you the business …… because you failed to build the need into an ‘essential purchase’ first…..

Sales Lesson Number 4 – Deal With Buyers Remorse BEFORE They Buy

The big lesson is it you want to avoid Buyers Remorse (people regretting the purchase and the complaining to you), you need to deal with it BEFORE the purchase!

This is essential to minimise refunds, complaints and people saying negative things about you, your company and your product or service – therefore having an impact on how many referrals (and how much business) you get!

In the example of the petrol crisis, think about how the people feel now. They might not necessarily be regretting buying the petrol in this particular instance, but how do they feel about the petrol stations (that increased their prices to take advantage of the perceived shortage) or the government that they blame for the crises in the first place.

In order to deal with or eliminate Buyers Remorse, the prospect has to be convinced they’ve made the right decision – even in front of other people who tell them they made the wrong one! As a couple of quick tips, re-affirm to them during the purchase that they’re making the right decision – and certainly do that as well in your customer service/follow up calls to them once they HAVE bought (you do that in your organisation, don’t you?!!)

Fail to deal with Buyers Remorse before they leave your company, put down the phone or they leave your website, and you’re leaving the risk of your complaints level being higher, your returns rate being higher, and you not being referred as much as you should be. Definitely situations to avoid if you want to keep increasing your sales figures!

Follow the tips above and watch the performance of your sales team soar!  I look forward to hearing about your future success…. 

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

About The Author:

Andy Preston is a leading Sales Expert, Trainer and Motivational Speaker

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

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

In this edition of the ‘Sales Failure!’ series, leading Sales Expert Andy Preston takes real-life examples of ineffective selling, and uses them as tools to learn how you can avoid the same mistakes, and what to do instead to improve your own sales results….

In this edition of ‘Sales Failure’ we take the example of Katie (real name withheld to protect the ‘guilty party’ from further embarrassment).

Katie attempted to ‘sell’ me her company’s Social Media services via LinkedIn recently, and this serves as a useful example to dissect her approach, and examine the lessons you can learn from it, in order to improve your own sales approaches and increase your sales!

So first of all, let’s take a look at Katie’s LinkedIn message ‘pitch’….

‘Hi Andy

If I could win you more client through Social Media would you want to chat?

Katie x’

Okay, so let’s dissect Katie’s approach….

Now, selling over LinkedIn isn’t easy, as I teach in my course on the subject, but there are various sales lessons we can take from Katie’s poor approach here (aside from her spelling mistake, but I’m letting that go for now)……

Sales Failure Lesson No 1 – Lack Of Research

Here’s where Katie fails….. she fails to do any research on me or my company WHATSOEVER, and then sets herself up for Sales Failure!

Unless you’re making over 200 calls per day, if you’re going to make a sales approach via ANY means, make sure you do some research on your potential prospect first!

This doesn’t have to be a long, drawn-out affair – a quick look around their website or social media profiles will give you enough of an idea of your ‘angle’ to go in with.  Sales pitches with an ‘angle’ are far more likely to get someone’s interest than a general approach.

If Katie had bothered to do some research here, she would have come across some interesting figures….

At the time of writing this article, she currently has 618 ‘likes’ for her company on Facebook.
I have 2,802.

She currently has 8 testimonials on LinkedIn.
I have 233.

She currently has 1,669 followers for her company on Twitter.
I have 19,603

Does anyone else see a problem with her trying to sell me Social Media services here?!!

The big problem is she’s trying to sell me services in an area that I’m positioned far better than her!  Now I’m not saying that it should be ME teaching HER Social Media (although that would have been a funny response to her message!), but I’m saying that she needs to approach this one carefully.

This is all research she could have done from my LinkedIn profile BEFORE she contacted me, and found an ‘angle’ that would have had a far greater degree of success than the one she chose!

Sales Failure Lesson No 2 – A Generic Approach

Here’s where Katie fails….. she doesn’t personalise her message enough!

Katie then compounds her first mistake by making it a very generic approach.  Now I don’t know about you, but it looks very much like a ‘cut and paste’ email to me, even though she’s put my name at the top.

My guess is that this same message has gone out to a number of people, and she’s just changing the name on each one.  The problem is, that’s an obvious approach and it will cost her sales!

One of the keys of selling effectively over Social Media is to make your communication personal, not generic!  Recipients don’t want to feel like they’re just a ‘number’, they want to be treated as individuals.  If you fail to do this, your chances of selling via Social Media are very much limited.

And don’t forget, this message is coming from someone trying to SELL Social Media services here, so she actually demonstrates her lack of knowledge and awareness of her supposed area of specialty in her sales approach!  Not good.

Sales Failure Lesson No 3 – Closing Too Soon!

Here’s where Katie fails….. she hasn’t ‘warmed up’ her prospect!

Let’s look at the sales situation here.  This is a ‘first approach’ – the first message I’d got from this person.  There was no ‘warm up’ of initial emails, messages or conversations of any kind.

There was no questioning prior to this email, no research (as illustrated in Lesson 1 above), and nothing at all before the message ‘if we can do xyz for you, would you want to chat’.

Quite frankly as a sales approach, that stinks.

That has a negative impact on prospects, and you might as well be saying to them ‘you know, I can’t be bothered asking any questions, taking any interest in your company at all, or doing any of the hard work, so I’m just going to get straight down to my closing question’.

In order to influence other people, you need as much rapport as possible.  How much rapport did she have with me by coming straight out with that question in her first approach?  None whatsoever.  Poor.

Sales Failure Lesson No 4 – Over-Familiarity!

Here’s where Katie fails….. she’s far too ‘over-familiar’ with her prospect in her first message!

Now this is something you have to watch over email and Social Media.  Because there isn’t ‘human communication’ like there is face-to-face or over the phone, it’s much more difficult to read emotions and understand meaning.

This is meant to be an introductory message, introducing me to her and her company, what they do, and trying to give me a professional opinion of them and their credibility.

And she puts a kiss on the end of her message?!!!!!

While that might be suitable for her friends, or for people she knows really well, do you think it’s suitable for professional business communication here, particularly on a ‘first approach’ message?

Out of the 10 people I’d shown the message to before writing this article, every one of them thought it was inappropriate.

Now if you’ve been to any of my seminars, trained with me, or heard me speak at an event, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of ‘eradicating’ anything in your sales approach that is likely to put people off you early in the sales process.

If even 2 or 3 of them had given negative feedback, I’d be advocating eradicating it from your sales approach, let alone all 10!  That kind of feedback was enough for me to advise you to be very careful of over-familiarity.

It might be something she just naturally does.  It might be something that she’s just used to doing.  But it’s getting a negative reaction from people, so you need to be careful of it.  At best it’s showing her naivety and lack of experience – exactly the opposite of what you want to do when you’re trying to persuade someone to buy from you!

Sales Failure Lesson No 5 – Compliment To Gain Rapport!

Here’s where Katie fails….. she misses a HUGE opportunity to gain rapport!

Katie missed a huge trick here.  One of the ways to gain fast rapport with someone is to SINCERELY compliment them on something that they’ve done that is impressive, or you find interesting.

As a salesperson, one of my favourite things to do while waiting in reception  for meetings with prospects, was to read their company literature, awards and press cuttings while waiting for my prospect to arrive.

That usually gave me 3 or 4 things to ask about, or compliment the person on, let alone anything I got off the website!  Which meant the start to my meetings were easy, and I had huge rapport when I started to talk about MY products and services – which gave me far more chance of winning the business!

Taking that same approach into the Social Media field, in this example the first thing Katie could have done was compliment me on the number of followers/fans/testimonials I have.  From a ‘sales persuasion’ point of view, that would have been an easy way to deal with the fact that she has far fewer ‘numbers’ than me, and would have got rid of the major objection whilst raising rapport at the same time!

It was absolutely CRIMINAL not to do that.  Make sure you learn from that!

The crazy thing is, I was actually in the market to buy some Social Media support when Katie approached me.  I already see the value in Social Media.  I already get good business from it.  How difficult would I have been to close at that moment?  Not very!!

Yet she failed to even gain any knowledge or understanding of that, and her sales opportunity was over, even before it really started.

So, In Summary….

You can see that with all the areas that Katie has made mistakes in that have led to his ‘Sales Failure’. Think about them when you’re conducting your own ‘new business’ sales efforts, whether that’s over the phone, face-to-face, or online. Then think about what you can do to improve them.. and of course, drop me a line here if you’re struggling! Good luck with your Sales!

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

About The Author:

Andy Preston is a leading Sales Expert, Trainer and Motivational Speaker

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

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2012. 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 the problems of outsourcing your cold calling, and what to watch out for if you’re determined to outsource….

Recently I’ve been asked by a number of small and micro business owners how best they should outsource their cold calling. Their thinking behind doing this is normally one for of three reasons

Reason Number 1 – They Don’t Want To Do It Themselves!

Not a great reason, but they have the fact that they would have to do it themselves and therefore are looking to avoid it!  This is normally a terrible reason to do it!

Reason Number 2 – They Don’t Have Cold Calling Expertise Within Their Team

They’re thinking of outsourcing because they’re concerned or that they’d have to get their one of their team to do it, who isn’t a ‘natural salesperson’, and isn’t looking forward to the prospect of doing it either.  This isn’t a great reason to do it.

Reason Number 3 – They Think By ‘Outsourcing’ It Or Getting Someone Else To Do It, It Gets Rid Of The Problem!

There may well be one of, or a combination on the 2 above reasons here.  Either way, at the moment the ‘sales call’ issue (or lack of them) has become a problem in the business and by outsourcing it, they think they’re getting rid of the problem!  This isn’t a great reason either.

Here’s my main point.  If you ARE going to do it (and there are reasons why you should, and reasons why you shouldn’t) then you need to take one of my phrases on board right now.

You Can Outsource The ACTIVITY, But You Can’t Outsource The RESPONSIBILITY

This is a statement that will hit some of you like a brick.  It’s meant to.

Many small business owners are far too quick to outsource their cold calling or sales calls just to get rid of the ‘problem’ of making the calls themselves, or giving them to a colleague who doesn’t really want to do them.  Just because it’s ‘easy’ to outsource the calls, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right decision!

However, if you ARE going to outsource the calls, here are some things to think about…..

Andy’s Tip No 1 – Consider Where They’re Going To Work From

Is the person you’re outsourcing your calling to going to work from their business premises?  Their home?  Your business premises?  Your home?

How are you going to handle call costs?  CRM access?  Managing them?

Andy’s Tip No 2 – How Do Their Calls Fit Into Your Sales Process?

How does their sales call fit into your sales process?

In other words, what is the outcome of the call?  Is it a meeting?  A conference call?  A web demonstration?  How is it moving the sales process forward?  What is the next step after that – you don’t want lots of pointless meetings!

Andy’s Tip No 3 – How Are You Going To Pay Them?

Percentage of sale basis?  Payment per hour?  Payment per appointment?  All these 3 methods have their benefits and pitfalls, and will affect the type of outsourcer you should go for!

A typical example I see often is a small business owner tries to convince someone to do their calls for them and expects the person to do it for just a percentage if the business owner makes a sale from that appointment!!

That rarely works, if ever!

Andy’s Tip No 4 – How Are You Going To Manage Them?

Yes, that’s right!  I did say ‘manage’ them.  Even if you’re outsourcing you calls to a company, you still need to manage the organisation and the person making the calls!

In addition to that, what do you consider ‘underperformance?’ Do the outsourced organisation and/or the individual have the same perceptions?  What are your expectations of success on this project?  Have they been clearly communicated to all parties involved?

Andy’s Tip No 5 – How Well Do You Know The Person?

Are they someone you’ve known for a while?  Or just someone employed by a telemarketing organisation you’re talking to?

What’s this person’s reputation?  Their experience?  Their knowledge of your market sector and the people they’ll be calling?  How much do they know about you and your company?  What do other people say about them and their work?

Andy’s Tip No 6 – What Training Are You Giving Them?

What training are you giving the person?  If they’re from an outsourced company, they may well so some sales training in-house – but it will only be delivered by their manager (not an experienced trainer) and if they’re an individual they probably haven’t done any for ages – not a good sign!

What training are you planning to give them on YOUR products and services?

Andy’s Tip No 7 – Who Are They Going To Be Calling?

In other words, where are they going to get their prospects from? Do you have a list of prospects on your CRM system or database that you want them to contact? Are you going to purchase some data to give them some leads to work on?

Have you arranged access to your CRM system for the person to use?  Is the system able to generate the reports that you want?

Are they using their own data?  Have you got unlimited rights to contact the data in future?

Andy’s Tip No 8 – How Long Do You Want Them To Work For?

If you can only cope with a certain number of additional appointments per week, it might not make sense to employ someone on a full time basis. Perhaps someone in that role one day a week, or one day per fortnight might be sufficient?

If they’re starting to make more appointments for you than you can cope with (and the quality is good) then perhaps it’s time to spend more time on sales, or hire a full-time salesperson to make the calls and do the appointments for you?

Andy’s Tip No 9 – How Well Do YOU Understand The Process?

Don’t forget, as I mentioned previously that YOU still need to be responsible for this process.  And as an old manager said to me many years ago ‘you can’t manage what you don’t understand’.

What’s your experience with making sales calls and cold calls?  Is it enough to support and direct an outsourcer that’s not delivering the results you want?  Or are you just going to ‘blame’ that company for not delivering and kiss goodbye to your investment in them?

Follow the tips above and you’ll avoid most of the problems involved with outsourcing your calls.

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2010. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article contact Andy Preston for guidelines.

In this article, leading Sales Expert Andy Preston explains the dangers associated with ‘Cherrypicking’ your prospects, and the impact it can have on you and your team…..

The Challenge……you’re sitting down to make some sales calls……….you’ve got your list of prospects in front of you (or on the computer)…..and you find yourself going down the list and “evaluating” who to call…….

Can you relate to this situation?!!….This happens quite often for salespeople and business owners!

So why would you spend ages researching who to ring, and put them into your diary/contact system for calls today, only to “filter” through them just as you’re about to ring?!! Sounds crazy doesn’t it?

In fact I can imagine you right now….sitting there……looking through the list….and saying to yourself “he won’t be in today, I’ll call him next week”, “He’s just back from holiday, better not disturb him yet, he’ll be busy”, “hmmm, that would be some good business for me but I’m not ready to ring them yet, I’ll make a coffee first”….and so on!

So why do you think this is? This procrastination about who to ring?

Having worked with thousands of salespeople and business owners around the area of cold calling and sales in general it seems to come down to a number of things…..

Andy’s Reason Number 1 – Lack Of Confidence In Your Cold Calling Abilities

How do you feel when you know you’re about to pick up the phone? Enthusiastic? Motivated? or more like Nervous? Afraid?  How you feel before you pick up the phone will have a strong impact on how you perform on the call!

How are you feeling right now?

Andy’s Reason Number 2 – A Poor Prospect List

You’ve got hold of the “data” somewhere and anywhere will do – there’s been no research done into the company or any initial call to find out the name of the decision maker, let alone any idea if this company is even a prospect for what you offer.

Andy’s Reason Number 3 – The Last Call To This Prospect Was Rubbish!

The last call to this prospect was really bad wasn’t it? So bad in fact that you’ve been procrastinating about calling them for days (or even weeks or months!).

It’s been in your callback list for ages and you keep moving it back in your diary because you remember how the prospect treated your call last time – and you’d hate to go through that again, wouldn’t you?

Andy’s Reason Number 4 – You’ve Already ‘Decided’ That This Call Is Going To Be Terrible!

You’re worried about this call aren’t you? Something is stopping you making it and you’re imagining it’s going to go very badly. Perhaps due to one of the above reasons, or it might also be that the prospect would represent a very good deal for you and you’re frightened of messing it up if you don’t do it properly?

Successful athletes talk about the value of “visualisation” or “mental rehearsal” – a process where they visualise the event happening in their mind (before it actually takes place) and “see” it happening perfectly – exactly as they wanted it.

What we tend to do when it comes to Cold Calling (or even Warm Calling!) is what I call “negative visualisation” – we see the event happening, but always predict the result to be terrible! That would include not getting through to the prospect, them not seeing value in what you offer, having the phone put down on you etc etc.

The challenge is – when we “cherrypick” prospects, we’re usually only making the “easy” calls, the ones where we feel most comfortable with the people on the other end of the phone! In fact, we’ve probably got a few favourite clients haven’t we? The ones we can call for a “chat” so we can feel like we’re doing something to develop our business, rather than avoiding calling – but they never seem to buy any more from us?

This Happens In Field Sales Too…..

This is exactly the same as field-sales people doing what I call the “Tea and Biscuit Tour” (or ‘calling for cake’ as one of my clients calls it) – calling on existing clients or prospects they get on well with (usually for a drink and a chat) in order to avoid walking into potential new clients or trying to win new business!

Cold Calling (or any kind of calling for that matter) is about energy – keeping up the energy and enthusiasm from one call to another. Which means you have to make call after call after call so you’re in the “flow” or the “zone” as an athlete would call it.

If you’re wasting time between calls – “cherrypicking” prospects, searching through the database, playing with your email, making coffee etc, you’re probably not aware of how much it is affecting your calls, or the results from them.

In summary, the big lesson in this article is – never “cherrypick” your prospecting or cold calls – The next person you ring could have an order waiting for you……or be giving it to someone else if you don’t make the call!

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

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2004-2017. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article contact Andy Preston for guidelines. 

This article has been updated and can be viewed here – https://www.andypreston.com/7-simple-ways-to-out-perform-out-maneuver-out-sell-your-competitors

Have you ever had anyone say those words or something similar to you? It can even start to occur from about the middle of November onwards!

How about when you ring those people back in the New Year?  The people you were trying to get a buying decision from? The people who needed to ‘run your proposal past a few people?’ Or maybe the people you were trying to get an appointment with?

The problem for most people is that when they call those people back in the New Year, they either still haven’t made a decision, they give another ‘fob-off’, or even worse – you can’t seem to get hold of those people ever again! Has this ever happened to you? If you’re anything like the hordes of people that ask me what to do about the ‘Christmas‘ problem every year, you probably get it quite a lot!

So Why Do They Do It?

Why is it that the buyers and decision makers give us the ‘Christmas‘ objections? There are various reasons for this. Sometimes, there’s a genuine reason why they can’t proceed with the order (or appointment) until January – perhaps a colleague is away that needs to be involved, perhaps there isn’t a budget until next year, perhaps even that the person is so focused on delivering existing projects, they just can’t even think about another one!

However as mentioned above – in a number of cases, decision makers use ‘Christmas‘ objections as a convenient way of getting salespeople and business owners to ‘go away‘. And they keep using them because they work! Far too many salespeople and business owners ‘fall‘ for these objections, take the decision makers at their word – only to be surprised come January when they can’t get hold of that person.

The challenge is – unless you learn to do something about these ‘Christmas‘ objections, you’re going to suffer the same problems year after year, after year! If you’d like to do something to tackle it now, here are some ideas for you….

Andy’s Sales Tip Number 1 – Be Prepared

You know you’re going to start getting these sorts of objections from November onwards, so you need to prepare for them!

I hear so many business owners and salespeople fall for these same objections year after year! Why not consider how you’re going to deal with them and practice your responses? Most people fail to do even those simple things!

This means working out your objection handles, then practicing them with friends, colleagues or even in meetings with the rest of the sales team! The better prepared you are for when the objections come up, the better you’ll deal with them! That goes for the other objections you face as well, but let’s focus on the ‘Christmas‘ ones for now!

And please, don’t leave this until the last few moments before your telephone call or client meeting (or even worse – until you’re waiting in reception), do this in ‘small chunks’ – a little bit at a time but done on a regular basis – that helps you remember and use the objection handles best.

Andy’s Sales Tip Number 2 – Think About What They Really Mean

Often when the buyer or decision maker says the words ‘call me back after Christmas’, that phrase might have a different meaning than the one you’ve accepted at face value!

Let’s face it – if everyone who said those to you either met with you or bought from you in January, then there wouldn’t be a problem, would there? So I’m talking here about the people that use that phrase, but then don’t seem to necessarily follow through come January.

Let’s think about this a little deeper – might some people use that phrase when actually what they really mean is ‘go away?’ Or perhaps ‘it’s not important enough for me to look at right now?’ As someone who originally trained as a professional buyer, I can guarantee you that’s the case!

Here’s a quick distinction – the more ‘new business’ your telephone call or appointment is, the less rapport you have – therefore the likelihood of them ‘fobbing you off’ is much higher! If you’re with an existing client you have personally a very good relationship with, it’s more likely that they’re telling the truth.

Andy’s Sales Tip Number 3 – Ask Better Questions

Most salespeople and decision makers I meet struggle with asking ‘good‘ questions. Questions that get them the information that other people don’t get. Questions that elevate the decision maker’s perception of you. Questions that make the decision maker think….

Most salespeople and business owners seem to think that the other person says ‘call me after Christmas’ or something similar, that means end of conversation/meeting! Who said?!! Before the end of this conversation or meeting you need to ask some more questions to get the information you need!

The most important thing to find out here is if they’re trying to ‘fob us off’, without asking or accusing them directly! There are a number of ways you can do this, but the important thing to find out here is the motivation or urgency behind the project (if you haven’t already of course).

If you can establish there are genuine reasons to put the order/project/appointment on hold until the New Year, you’ve lessened your chances of being ‘fobbed-off’ and it should be relatively easy to pick things up from when you left off come January.

If on the other hand, the decision maker doesn’t appear to give specific reasons for the delay, they don’t seem as interested/motivated as they were, or they seem to want to get rid of you as fast as possible, that’s a pretty big sign they’re trying to fob you off!

Andy’s Sales Tip Number 4 – Have The Right Attitude

The attitude of the salesperson or business owner is also vital in getting the results that you want here. I’ve seen far too many people trudge round on appointment after appointment, or from phone call to phone call looking and sounding like they’re terminally depressed! Not many people are going to buy from you in that state, are they?!!

If you pick up the phone or walk into a meeting expecting the other person to say ‘call me back after Christmas’ then guess what you’re probably going to get in most cases? You guessed it!….

If you’re in a competitive market you can bet that the buyer or decision maker is talking to other suppliers. And all it takes is for the salesperson at one of those companies to be better at dealing with the ‘Christmas‘ objections than you are…..then when you ring back in January they’ve bought! But off someone else….

The decision maker might say ‘oh we went with xyz firm because they had a better proposal’ or ‘we went with abc because they have us a cheaper price’……but in most cases what they mean is ‘we went with xyz because they dealt with the ‘Christmas’ objections better than you did….and that won them the business’.

Now that you’re aware that’s often the case, you’re not going to let that happen to you in future…are you?

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

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

This article is copyright Andy Preston

In this edition of the ‘Sales Failure!’ series, leading Sales Expert Andy Preston takes real-life examples of ineffective selling, and uses them as tools to learn how you can avoid the same mistakes, and what to do instead to improve your own sales results….

In this edition of ‘Sales Failure!’ we take the example of Paul (surname and company name withheld to save too much embarrassment!)

Paul attempted to ‘sell’ me his company’s SEO services via email recently, and it serves as a useful example to dissect his approach, and examine the lessons you can learn from it, in order to improve your own sales approaches and increase your sales!

So first of all, let’s take a look at Paul’s email ‘pitch’….

Hi,

Please forgive the direct approach. My name is Paul (surname withheld) and I work for (company name withheld) as a Marketing Consultant in your market sector. I have been looking at your website today and would like a few minutes of your time to have an informal chat with you.

I really like the site, but you may be curious as to why the site isn’t ranking, and with that in mind I wondered if you would like a free SEO audit of the site looking at keyword density and a detailed analysis of the back link profile.

That should give you an excellent insight, and hopefully allow us to develop a plan for getting the site into some top positions.

The audit is FREE and with no obligation. So do please get in touch.

Kind Regards

Paul

PS. I know you must get lots of contacts like this, but I promise I am a ‘real’ person based in our Birmingham office, and overall we are UK based staff serving numerous UK & International clients. More details of what we do below on (website withheld) or call us directly on the numbers below, Thanks

Okay, so let’s dissect Paul’s approach….

Now I’m not a huge fan of ‘cold’ email approaches to start with (see my ‘Selling By Email – 5 Mistakes’ article for more on my opinion on that) but there are some even bigger problems at play here.

So let’s take a look at some general ‘sales lessons’ we can learn from dissecting Paul’s email approach…

Sales Failure Lesson No 1 – Lack Of Personalisation

Here’s where Paul fails….. he starts the email with just ‘Hi’ – with no name after it! (even though he’s emailed me personally, and my web address is www.andypreston.com!

In addition he says in the first paragraph that he works as a Marketing Consultant in ‘your market sector’ – again it wouldn’t take a lot of personalising to have a much better impact, but Paul fails again here too!

If you’re making ANY kind of sales approach, whether that’s via email, phone or any other method you HAVE to personalise your communication, otherwise the other person will lose interest quickly!

In addition, lack of personalisation means that the prospect doesn’t feel valued and that they’re just one of a ‘number’ of people you’re emailing, or just another number on the ‘list’ that you’re calling! I’m sure that’s not the impression you’re looking to create, is it?

One of the key things that prospects want at the start of any sales approach is ‘Relevancy’. In other words, ‘why is this relevant to me, now, and why should i consider it important, and give my time and attention to it?’ Fail this part, and your sales approach could be over… before it’s even started!

Sales Failure Lesson No 2 – Stop Apologising For Selling!

Here’s where Paul fails….. he says ‘please forgive the direct approach‘

Paul manages to hit on one of my personal ‘bugbears’ here! In my opinion, no-one should need to apologise for being in sales, and no-one should need to apologise for just doing their job!

This problem stems from a lack of confidence, and an expectation of getting a negative response to the sales approach, so therefore the ‘salesperson’ thinks if they apologise first, it makes everything better!

In actual fact, it often has the opposite effect, and actually makes things worse!

Apologising, or asking permission actually lowers your Credibility in front of senior decision makers, and authoritative prospects. It can make them think you’re not confident in what you do, and therefore transfers a lack of confidence to them in you, your company and your products and services – plus it makes them think you’re someone at a junior level! Not good….

Sales Failure Lesson No 3 – Stop Telling Outright Lies!

Here’s where Paul fails….. he says ‘I really like the site, but you may be curious as to why the site isn’t ranking’

Actually, my site ranks very well the search terms I want – so that now causes Paul a ‘credibility’ problem. Either he doesn’t know the key words I’m optimising for (basic error!), or he lied when he said it isn’t ranking, and hasn’t really done any research into it whatsoever!

Either way, his credibility is now shot, and the likelihood of me believing anything else he says, or listening to his ideas is pretty much zero. This mistake alone could be enough for prospects to decide NOT to do business with him.

Outright lies or lack of research definitely don’t help your sales calls. Make sure you don’t fall into the same trap…

Sales Failure Lesson No 4 – Stop Confusing People!

Here’s where Paul fails….. he says ‘I wondered if you would like a free SEO audit of the site looking at keyword density and a detailed analysis of the back link profile.’

Now let’s move past the fact he’s making a free offer (I’ll come back to that in my next point!) and look at the words he’s used. ‘Keyword density’ and ‘detailed analysis of the back link profile’. Now although I know what they mean, most decision makers, and especially those in small businesses, wouldn’t!

Therefore he’s confused his target prospects before he’s even started! And here’s one of my big tips – people don’t buy when they’re confused. All you do is make them ‘retreat’ and potentially either decide not to go ahead with whatever purchase or offer they’re considering, or worst-case, go to one of your competitors that doesn’t make them feel confused and stupid!

You need to use language that’s simple to understand. Language that prospects can know exactly what you mean, and make sure you stay away from technical, high-level or company-specific language or acronyms. This has the effect of either confusing the prospect, or making them feel ‘left out’ – as if they don’t understand your terminology, they will feel ‘excluded’ from the discussion and therefore probably not buy!

Not the outcome you’re looking for, is it?

Sales Failure Lesson No 5 – Make Sure You Don’t Lose Control!

Here’s where Paul fails….. he says ‘The audit is FREE and with no obligation. So do please get in touch.’

Here’s the problem. Paul’s handing control over to the prospect with the phrase ‘do please get in touch’. Hardly a ‘call to action’ is it?!! No compelling event, no mention of him calling me, no commitment gained whatsoever…..so therefore has no control over whether I call him back or not!!
And the bigger problem. The ‘no obligation’ bit. Well done Paul, you’ve hit on another of my personal ‘bugbears’ here. In my opinion, OF COURSE THERE SHOULD BE OBLIGATION! It’s simply good negotiating to follow the influence pattern ‘if I do this for you, I want you to do this for me’…

The whole idea of doing the free SEO audit IS to make the prospect feel obligated to you, isn’t it? So why lie again here and say that it isn’t? This will just cause credibility issues once again!

‘No obligation’ is simply another phrase that is over-used by people that have confidence issues with selling. Those people would be far more effective at selling if they were proud of what they sell, confident in their own abilities and wanted to get ‘obligation’ and commitment from people. That would definitely result in higher sales figures!

So, In Summary….

You can see that with all the areas that Paul has made mistakes in that have led to his ‘Sales Failure’. Think about them when you’re conducting your own ‘new business’ sales efforts, whether that’s over the phone, face-to-face, or online. Then think about what you can do to improve them.. and of course, drop me a line here if you’re struggling! Good luck with your Sales!

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

In this article, leading Sales Expert Andy Preston explains the sales lessons we can learn from The Rugby World Cup……and how we can implement them to benefit from increased sales….

After 6 weeks, the Rugby World Cup is at an end, and most rugby fans are wondering what on earth they used to do early on Saturday and Sunday mornings, instead of watching the rugby!

So now the teams and their managers have the opportunity to reflect on what went wrong (or right) for them and what lessons they can learn from it for the future. So what can we as salespeople, managers and directors learn from it?

Andy’s Sales Lesson No 1 – Decide On Your Best Plan – And Stick To It!

One of the reasons the critics pointed to for England’s early exit at the Quarter Final stage against France was that they didn’t seem to pick a settled team, or at least in key positions. They seemingly couldn’t decide whether to play Jonny Wilkinson or Toby Flood at fly-half for example, and had a number of other constant changes within the team.

So what does this mean for us in a ‘sales’ context? Simply that when deciding on a strategy or ‘plan of attack’ to try and win a customer or account that you need to pick your best strategy and stick with it!

Now don’t get me wrong, there are times when you need to realise things aren’t working and change your approach, but doubting your initial plan is a recipe for failure!

Self-doubt is one of the biggest causes of lost sales, and therefore lost commission for the salesperson! Once even an element of self doubt creeps in – whether it’s about the approach, the people involved, or even the chances of winning the business, you’d be amazed how quickly the deal seems to disappear down the drain!

So in order to avoid this, work out your best plan for winning the business and stick to it!

Andy’s Sales Lesson No 2 – Find The ‘Angle’

Often when I’m working with Sales Teams, I talk about ‘finding the angle’ – that helps prospects see the value in what you’re offering, and enables you to win profitable business, at a decent margin.

There is a great example of ‘finding the angle’ from an enterprising individual, based in Napier where the Canadian team were based for their games. You’ve probably heard about 3 members of the Canadian team growing beards for the tournament as they’ve been regularly featured in the press for a couple of months now.

In New Zealand, a particular local individual, Denis O’Reilly, spotted some fake ginger beards for sale at a discount store out of town. Spotting the opportunity, he immediately bought out the entire stock and out them on display right at the front of the village shop in Napier!

As Denis thought, ‘Beardo-Mania’ hit town as soon as the Canadians arrived and the beards sold out very quickly – giving Denis a very nice profit for his great idea.

So my question on this point is ‘Are you as good at finding the angle as Denis?’ Think about it when you next go for a client meeting. If you ‘find the angle’, you’re more likely to win the deal, and more likely to make it more profitable too!

Andy’s Sales Lesson No 3 – Be Prepared To ‘Grind Out’ A Result

As the group stages finished, and the so-called ‘2nd tier’ nations went home, the high-scoring group matches were a thing of the past, and the games were much closer from then on.

The victories might not have been as ‘pretty’, but it often came down to the teams abilities to grind out a result, even when the losing team had periods of the match where they were on top – Wales vs France and NZ vs France in the final for example.

There are also times in sales where you need you need to be prepared to grind out a result. Usually doing the activities that you least like doing, but are necessary in order to get the final result you want.

Prospecting would definitely be one of those activities, and cold calling in particular! The salesperson that’s prepared to roll their sleeves up and grind out a result when things aren’t going their way has far more chance of getting their desired result in the end, than the salesperson who gives up too early.

So my question is, when the going gets tough are you prepared to grind out the result? Or are you one of those people that gives up too easily?

Andy’s Sales Lesson No 4 – Be Strong In Key Areas

Another big lesson in the Rugby World Cup was to make sure you and your team are strong in key areas. A large number of games were decided by key areas like the scrum, line outs and goal kicking.

The try that won the final for the All Blacks was a set move. Line out with two men jumping (in order to confuse the opposition), quick ball down to the forward who darts through the gap between the two – resulted in the try that helped win the game for New Zealand!

The New Zealand coaching staff admitted afterwards that the play was a ‘set move’ they’d saved all tournament – and it ended up winning it for them.

So, giving this a sales context, think about the key areas for you and your team. What are yours? Maybe they’re things like objection handling? Negotiating? The ability to make appointments? Questioning? Closing?

And when it comes to the crunch and you need to pull out a ‘set play’, can you count on your ability to be successful? Or will you be found wanting?

Andy’s Sales Lesson No 5 – When The Call Comes, Be Ready!

Interestingly in sales, you don’t often know when the ‘call’ will come!

Take the example of All Black, Stephen Donald. He wasn’t chosen in the final squad for New Zealand for the World Cup, and there were 3 other players chosen in front of him in his position, including the probably the best Number 10 in the world, Dan Carter.

He therefore went on a fishing trip with his friends, drinking beer and catching whitebait. Yet when all 3 number 10’s ahead of him were injured, he found himself not only in the squad, but coming off the bench in the final to kick the points that won New Zealand the World Cup!

In sales, there are times when you don’t have the best preparation. Times when not everything will have gone your way. Times when things don’t seem fair and everything seems to be against you.

But those are the times you need to step up, and be ready to make the difference in the crucial moments!

So my final question to you is, when the ‘call’ comes, will you and your team be ready to step up and kick the winning goal? Or will you be found wanting?….

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

This article has now been updated.  See the updated article here….

We’re proud to announce we’ve secured another new client – in Macedonia!
After researching a number of sales training companies, Seavus – a leading multinational IT software provider – chose Andy Preston Ltd to deliver 2 days training on cold calling and appointment making.

The main reasons they chose us as their preferred training partner were because of Andy’s experience in the IT industry, his speciality in cold calling and appointment making, and his extensive experience of companies calling into various countries around Europe.

Whilst this is our first piece of work in Macedonia, we’ve sent Andy to a number of countries already this year, and he’s off to Qatar later this month to deliver his unique ‘Selling Over LinkedIn’ course.

For anyone interested in increasing their sales, hiring Andy to work with their international sales team, or wanting to sell more over LinkedIn – call the office now on +44 (0) 161 401 0142