Category Archives for "General Sales Tips"

In this article, leading sales expert Andy Preston explains the ‘sales lessons’ we can all learn from Europe’s recent victory over the USA in the Ryder Cup….

Wow! What a weekend that was! The USA starting out by taking control and building a big lead going into the final day….. only for Europe to stage the biggest comeback in the history of the Ryder Cup to record their victory in the very last match on the last day!

So what ‘Sales Lessons’ can we learn from Europe’s victory?….

Andy’s Sales Lesson Number 1 – Set The ‘Course’ Up To Win

The American Captain, Davis Love III was very clever in having all the rough cut just prior to the tournament, so that the course favoured the big-hitting (but slightly wayward) Team USA.

So what can you do to give yourself (or your team) a ‘sales advantage?’ This might be as simple as doing some research on your prospect’s company before meeting with them (or a telephone call), or perhaps even some research on the individual themselves in order to give yourself a better chance of building rapper faster?

It might be as simple as finding out as much information as toucan about a prospect’s ‘position’ prior to a negotiation.

It could even be as simple as making sure you and your team are in the right mindset before you start your sales calls for the day?

So what are you currently doing to make sure you’re setting up your ‘course’ up to win?…..

Andy’s Sales Lesson Number 2 – Generate Determination From Situations Of Adversity

A great example of this was Europe’s ‘leader’ of this Ryder Cup, Ian Poulter.

Now ‘Poults’ might not be the most naturally gifted golfer in the world, but you definitely want him on your team when the Ryder Cup comes around!

One of Ian’s great strengths is his ability to generate determination from adversity. At one stage Europe were down 10-4 on the Saturday afternoon, yet inspired by Poulter birdie-ing his last 5 holes for a win (plus overcoming a 2-hole deficit in the singles), plus his encouragement to other European players, Europe actually rallied to win the next 10 & 1/2 points out of a possible 14 to record their victory! Unheard of before in Ryder Cup golf!

In Sales, there are plenty of situations of ‘adversity’. Like when you and your team are struggling with prospecting, or your ‘new business’ activities aren’t going well?

Or perhaps when you keep getting objection after objection from clients?

Or perhaps when your sales figures have been low recently, and you’re struggling to turn it around?

So in these situations of ‘adversity’, do they make you and your team more determined? Or more depressed right now?…..

Andy’s Sales Lesson Number 3 – Perform Under Pressure

Martin Kaymer is a previous PGA winner and also ex-number one in the world. Yet he’s been having a disastrous few months, having qualified for the European team on his previous performances, not his recent ones!

His firm has been woeful coming into the Ryder Cup tournament, so who does it come down to have a put on the final green to ensure Team USA didn’t win? Yep, it was Martin!

In Sales, like in sport, it’s vital that you can perform under pressure. In the critical moments when the pressure is on, can you and your team perform?

Like Martin Kaymer, you need to be able to ‘hole the putt’ when you’re called upon. You need to be able to produce the result when you’re under pressure. You need to be able to demonstrate you can rise above it and still bring the business in.

So how do you and your team perform in pressure situations? When facing strong objections from a prospect? When facing strong complaints from a customer that is threatening to go elsewhere? When you’re a way behind target and you have to make the difference up?

One of the major differences between average performers and top performers in Sales is how they perform when the pressure is on. How do you and your team currently measure up?

Andy’s Sales Lesson Number 4 – Don’t Count Your Chickens….

Now I’m sure that you’ve heard the saying before ‘Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched’. However in Team USA, and even in some sections of the American Press, this saying wasn’t followed!

This happens in sales as well! How many salespeople do you know that have ‘counted’ on a deal coming in, even before it has been confirmed? Some of those salespeople have even spent their commission from the deal, only to find out shortly afterwards they weren’t getting any as the deal fell apart!

How many salespeople look at their sales pipeline and think ‘oh that will come in…and that will come in… so I’ll be okay…. I have enough to hit my target’ – only for some of those deals to drop out at the last minute, or drag over to the following month, meaning that the salesperson then misses target?

This happens a lot. Far too much in my opinion. Complacency or ‘easing up’ is one of the biggest enemies of salespeople, and one of the biggest reasons for salespeople not hitting target on a consistent basis!

How many of your team might be guilty of that right now?……

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

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 month’s article came from a sponsored ‘art fair’ lunch I was invited to by my accountant. The fair was held by a client of theirs, so was a nice way of supporting their client, and also saying ‘thank you’ to some of their other clients as well.

It was interesting as we went around the exhibition and interacted with the artists, curators and exhibitors how many lessons a salesperson or business owner could learn from their ‘sales’ techniques (both good and bad!).

So, here are the ‘sales lessons’ from an art fair…

Andy’s Sales Lesson Number 1 – Sell With Passion And Enthusiasm

This is a big lesson for most salespeople and business owners, and is something that artists and curators of their work have in abundance! If you’re looking to persuade someone and get them excited about your product or service, you’ve got to talk about it with passion and enthusiasm yourself first!

Business owners in particular have no excuse here, as if they can’t be passionate and enthusiastic about their own business, how on earth can they expect anyone else to be! In a market where it seems there is bad news on a continuous basis, the people that are passionate, enthusiastic and positive stand out. You do want to stand out from your competition, don’t you?

If a salesperson or a business owner isn’t passionate and enthusiastic about their product or service, it shows in the way they talk about it, their presentations, their demonstrations, their objection handling and their closing ratios. Why on earth would you take a gamble on all of that, when you can change it really easily?

Andy’s Sales Lesson Number 2 – Qualify Your Prospects

This happened almost every time we interacted with someone exhibiting at the fair, and you’d be surprised how many salespeople and business owners make the same mistake.

In one particular case, our group were given a ‘speech’ by a salesperson from an insurance company, specialising in insuring art. Now I wouldn’t class myself as a connoisseur of art, very much a novice who falls into the category of ‘I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like’ category. From speaking to them, the majority of our group fell into that same category.

So what would have been a good idea for that salesperson to do at the start of the talk? Talk to the organiser of the trip, or the leader of the group to find out about us beforehand? At the start of her talk, ask the group what their experience of art or art-buying was? Find out how many of the group were collectors, amateurs or people very new to the art world? All of those would be good ideas, wouldn’t they?

However, she chose not to do any of them! Instead, we just got a big speech about the insurance company and how they could help us insure the art we purchased, or already had. And that got me thinking – how many salespeople and business owners often make the same mistake? A lot!

If you fail to qualify your prospects (or your audience) before you start your speech (or sales pitch) then you run the risk of ‘losing’ them as they don’t see your speech as relevant to them. A little time invested beforehand (or at the start of your speech) pays big dividends in sales results later….

Andy’s Sales Lesson Number 3 – Don’t Apologise!

This is something I see a lot of, particularly from people who are struggling or under pressure, someone new to sales, or someone who doesn’t consider themselves a ‘natural’ salesperson.

Far too many sales calls or presentations start with the salesperson or business owner apologising! This is normally down to nerves, or not feeling comfortable, although I’ve heard some trainers teach it as a ‘technique’. What a scary thought! Their idea is that by apologising, you get the audience or prospect on your side. That idea is….quite frankly…ridiculous.

The true impact that has is make the prospect or audience think ‘this person doesn’t know what they’re doing’, ‘oh god, here we go again, another boring pitch’ or for some people – ‘give me someone with authority and credibility, and get this idiot out of here!’

I was looking at one exhibition stand with some very nice photographs of New York, when the artist concerned engaged myself and my accountant in conversation. He was an interesting guy, and after asking about our experience of art and photography and why we came to the exhibition (see sales lesson number 2 above), was telling us the history behind some of the photographs we were looking at.

Sales Mistake Coming Up!

Just at the moment where we were becoming more interested he suddenly got uncomfortable, apologised for being pushy and said he’d leave us alone to have a look, then walked away. HUGE sales error!

This happens a lot with people new to sales, under pressure or not feeling like they’re a ‘natural’ salesperson – they’re afraid of being pushy! Let’s make a distinction here – the only time you’re being ‘pushy’ is when you haven’t taken your prospects needs into account, and you’re trying to ‘push’ something on them they don’t want. That’s probably happened to you in the past, so you don’t want to be seen to do it to others. Invest a little time in speaking to your prospects and finding out their needs first, then it won’t be a problem for you.

Andy’s Sales Lesson Number 4 – Remember Your Objective!

This is something that was missing from everyone at the art fair, and something that many business owners and salespeople miss too. You need to keep your objective in mind at all times, and make sure you’ve achieved it (or as close to it as possible) by the end of the conversation.

If your objective is to close for the sale – then make sure you’ve asked some questions during the conversation that will give you enough value to be able to close afterwards. If your objective is to make an appointment with your prospect, then make sure you’ve put enough value into the conversation for them to put time in their diary and meet you (and not talked too much about your product or service before the meeting of course!).

If your objective is to come back for a further meeting, demonstration or conference call/WebEx, then make sure you’ve booked that before you put the phone down or left the meeting – it will be a lot harder to do afterwards!

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2004-2019. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article contact Andy Preston for guidelines.

In this article, leading sales expert Andy Preston talks about the objection ‘you’re too expensive’….…..

I recently noticed a fellow professional speaker post on his Facebook page that a potential client had told him that the fee he wanted to charge them to speak was ‘too expensive’. He went on to say he was a bit surprised, as he doesn’t normally get that kind of reaction!

Now I know this particular speaker pretty well, and I know that he’s good value for money, but what was most interesting was one of the responses to his post! The person who commented wrote ‘You can’t be too expensive. And you’re value for money. They must have cash flow issues!’

Now whilst I would agree the speaker concerned IS most certainly value for money, there are 4 quick things we can learn from the other person’s comment…..

Andy’s Sales Tip Number 1 – People’s Beliefs ARE Reality – To THEM!

The problem I see here is that I think you CAN be too expensive!! One of my favourite sayings when it comes to sales (and pricing in particular) is that ‘people’s beliefs ARE reality – to them!’.

What I mean by that in this example is that if someone says ‘that’s too expensive‘ it may be that in the moment they DO consider you too expensive – as long as it’s not a negotiation tactic to bring your price down of course!

Now of course there will be some context behind them saying that. They might think it’s too expensive compared to their budget. They might think it’s too expensive compared to what they’ve paid in the past. They might think it’s too expensive compared to what they were expecting to pay.

However, unless you deal with the fact that right now, they consider you too expensive – it’s unlikely you’re going to be able to win this deal, and bring them on board as a customer. Fail to change their belief (and therefore THEIR reality), and you’ll fail to pick up their business!

Andy’s Sales Tip Number 2 – It’s Not Their Fault – It’s Yours!

If someone says to you that you’re ‘too expensive’, make sure you don’t dismiss them (and the sales opportunity) too quickly! As an ex-sales director, I often used to hear my team come back from new business appointments with excuses like ‘they weren’t ready to buy‘, ‘they didn’t have the budget‘, and ‘our price was too rich for them‘.

My response was usually something like ‘Ahh, so you failed to deal with their price concern then?‘ 😉

My belief is that the majority of the time, a price concern (or price objection) is normally the salesperson’s fault, not the prospect’s.

– It might be that…. the prospect doesn’t see enough value in your offering to think it worthwhile paying the price you asked for – YOUR FAULT for not positioning your value to them correctly!

– It might be that…. the prospect doesn’t have the budget to pay the price you want – YOUR FAULT for not finding that out, or speaking to the person who can make a NEW budget!

– It might be that…. the prospect has bought a similar product/service in the past and not paid anything like the price you want to charge them now – YOUR FAULT for not finding out their buying history and positioning correctly against it!

– It might be that…. the prospect won’t get enough value from your offering, in order to generate enough ROI to justify the purchase – YOUR FAULT for not qualifying the Sales Opportunity well enough in the first place!

How many of the above are you and your team guilty of right now? Stop putting the ‘blame’ for price concerns on the client, and see what you and your team could do to handle them better!

Andy’s Sales Tip Number 3 – Find Out – Or Set – Their Expectations

One of the biggest reasons people get price objections, is that the price they want to charge isn’t what the prospect was expecting to pay!

This often occurs when the salesperson fails to find out, manage, or on some occasions – set – the price expectations of the prospect.

In the old days, Sales Managers used to lecture their reps ‘make sure you get the customer’s budget BEFORE talking about price!‘

Whilst back then that was pretty solid sales advice, these days people don’t always have budgets. They don’t always have cash available right now. But they ALWAYS have price expectations – and if you don’t find out what they are, re-set them if necessary – or even set them in some circumstances – then you’re always going to struggle with objections to your price!

How well do you and your team set prospects’ price expectations currently?

Andy’s Sales Tip Number 4 – Qualify Harder Early In The Process

Another reason I find that salespeople come up against price objections is that often they’re sat in front of (or speaking to) the wrong people! People that may not have the money to be able to pay the price the salesperson wants to charge, or have the authority (and ability) to find extra money if necessary!

This is usually caused by a failure to qualify well enough (or hard enough) earlier in the process! Then often results in the salesperson spending lots of their precious time dealing with people that aren’t able to buy what they offer at the price they want to charge!

Often this leads to the salesperson becoming frustrated, having to ‘walk away’ from deals, or heavily ‘discounting’ just to win the business – none of which are good outcomes for the salesperson!

How well do you and your sales team qualify your opportunities right now? Check by reading my article on ‘7 Things You MUST Do Before Sending A Proposal’

Follow the tips above and watch your performance and that 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 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 Viv (real name withheld to protect the ‘guilty party’ from further embarrassment).

Viv attempted to ‘sell’ me her Hotel and Venue over email 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 Viv’s email ….

‘I apologise if you have received this more than once. My name is Viv (surname withheld) and I am the Director of Sales at (venue name withheld). I am just wondering whether you use hotels for conferencing, events, team building, awards ceremonies, dinner dances or Christmas Parties and if you are the right person whether it would be possible for me to come out and see you in May/ June to discuss future opportunities for (venue name withheld). If you are not the right person for this could you please put me in contact with the right person so I am then able to discuss this with them. If you are the right person to speak to then this is fantastic and I hope we can start by getting an appt in the diary to discuss future opportunities and how we can work together. I have attached our Conference and events Brochure as well for you so you can see what fantastic facilities we have at the hotel as well. I would be grateful if you could come back to me so I can make sure I have the right person and update my database.

Viv (surname withheld) / Director of Sales (venue name withheld)
Part of the (group name withheld) Group

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

Now, aside from the fact that she’s tried to start her ‘sales relationship’ with my by ‘Selling By Email’ – a MAJOR error in my opinion as I write in my ‘Selling By Email – 5 Mistakes’ article, let’s look at where Viv went wrong, and what ‘Sales Lessons’ we can learn from her approach….

Sales Failure Lesson No 1 – Don’t Start With An Apology!

Here’s where Viv fails….. she starts off her email with ‘I apologise if you have received this more than once…‘

Now, not only is this a personal ‘bugbear’ of mine, but it’s sales stupidity to start off an email like this with an apology! First of all, how likely is it that people have received it more than once?!! And why on earth would you seek to highlight that in the FIRST LINE of your email?!!!

Viv’s all important, opening line to her email might have well said something like this ‘I’m sorry if you’ve received this more than once – because if you have, we’ve probably got your email address on our database more than once and we’re not savvy enough/nobody here can be bothered to go through and check for duplicates, so apologies in advance for spamming you……..‘

This is meant to be a credible, professional sales approach, and already there is a problem with Viv’s ‘call positioning’ – similar to if she’d said ‘sorry to bother you, but….‘ or ‘i know you’re really busy but….‘ on a phone call, for example.

This kind of approach to senior decision makers, implies that the sender is anything BUT credible and professional – and is probably new and inexperienced – exactly the things that would put someone OFF buying, rather than making them more likely to buy!

If you’re currently guilty of apologising at the start of your emails or phone calls, stop it! Now!

Sales Failure Lesson No 2 – Don’t Mix Your ‘Outcomes’

Here’s where Viv fails….. she tries to qualify if the recipient is the right person, and close for a meeting in the same email/sales approach!…’

Whether your sales approach is a phone call or an email (and I’m sure you know which I favour by now!), you should have a clear purpose/intent for that sales approach BEFORE you send the email/pick up the phone.

In this example Viv ‘muddies’ two outcomes – a data cleanse/qualification, and trying to close for an appointment.

Now, putting aside the fact that it can be difficult for most people to make appointments via email, the reason that this is a bad idea is that if the email reaches a senior decision maker, the ‘cleansing’ approach will irritate them! Think for a moment how annoyed you get when someone calls you and starts the call off with their first words being ‘would you mind helping me whilst I update our database?…‘ An email approach has the same impact.

And also, trying to close for an appointment in the first email contact?!! Really?!! That sounds like a whole article on its own 😉

Sales Failure Lesson No 3 – Lack Of Personalisation!

Here’s where Viv fails….. she blatantly has sent a ‘blanket’ email…’

Nowhere in Viv’s email has there been ANY effort to personalise the communication. No name or greeting at the top of the email, nothing in the ‘body’ of the email to indicate a specific interest – nothing!

Her email looks just like what it is – a mass, generic communication to probably the whole database, saying the same thing. What kind of impact does that have on the recipient do you think?

What happens if the recipient is someone who’s spent £5,000, £50,000 or even £500,000 with that particular venue in the past? How valued are they feeling as a customer when they receive that? What happens if they were considering that venue for an event or Christmas Party that year? Could this kind of approach on it’s own make them re-consider their thinking? Of course it could!

Clever salespeople make their customers feel special. They make them feel valued. They make them feel like their custom is appreciated. Does this email approach achieve any of that? In fact it achieves quite the opposite!

Sales Failure Lesson No 4 – Stop Being So Lazy!!

Here’s where Viv fails….. she tries to get me to do her work for her!!…’

In Viv’s email, she asks – ‘If you are not the right person for this could you please put me in contact with the right person so I am then able to discuss this with them’.

She might as well have said ‘Please could you do my job for me, because actually calling you up and ‘cleansing’ the database (as should be done) is too much effort for me, and a waste of my time, so if you wouldn’t mind doing it for me and then I don’t have to bother with such a menial, time-wasting task…because my time is FAR more important than yours…..thank you‘

I actually find it quite sad that the ‘quality’ of sales approaches decend to these sorts of levels. With my experience of working with (although it sometimes feels like ‘against’) the hotel/venue/hospitality industry it’s not that unusual, but still sad nonetheless!

What on earth happened to picking up the phone and actually being bothered to do a bit of data cleansing/research/opportunity spotting?!! Pathetic!

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 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 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……..