This month in the UK, we’re officially ‘out’ of the recession, according to The Guardian newspaper, which still contrives to somehow make the story sound negative! Funny how coming out of the recession hasn’t got nearly as much media coverage as when we went into it, isn’t it?

The savvy salespeople and companies right now are getting ready to take advantage of the upturn. Are you really fully prepared and ready?

If not, don’t worry, here are some tips on how to get yourself in the best position and maximise the opportunities that will come your way……

Sales Tip No 1 – Write A Sales Plan

If you’re a salesperson, you need to have a written sales plan of how you’re going to exceed your sales target. Notice I said ‘exceed’, not ‘achieve’ there. That was a little nudge 😉 If you’re a sales manager, you need to have a written sales plan. If you’re a sales director, you need to have a written sales plan. If you’re a business owner, you need to have a written sales plan. Anyone notice a pattern here?!!

There is NO excuse for not having a written sales plan. The most common one I hear when I mention this to people are ‘oh but Andy, I don’t have the time to write a sales plan’. Wrong. You don’t have the time NOT to write a sales plan!

The second most common one I hear is ‘oh but Andy, I don’t need a sales plan. I can sell my product or service to pretty much anybody’. Wrong again! You probably need a sales plan more than anyone else to be better targeted in your business development and lead generation efforts!

Sales Tip No 2 – Focus, Focus, Focus

Now you’ve got your written sales plan, the next step is to make sure you’re focused! Focusing has been forced on a lot of people as the recession hit, with many companies noticing a drop-off in incoming enquiries and sales leads.

This forced their sales team to concentrate harder on those opportunities, and focus more on each opportunity individually – and how they were going to get it to convert into business. If the market is starting to pick up for you and your team, make sure you don’t fall into the trap of taking those enquiries for granted – as some companies had done before the recession really hit them.

And if you’re starting to get lots more enquiries, your sales plan will help you focus on the best opportunities, and the ones you and your team are most likely to convert!

Sales Tip No 3 – Work To Your Strengths

This is an important point, and one that’s often missed. One important thing here is to be aware of (and manage) your energy levels. Back when I was a sales manager, I had one rep that truly was a ‘morning’ person – jumping around at 8.30 in the morning, yet when 3pm came he was almost asleep!

He’d tried a number of things to solve this problem – what he ate and drank, exercise and even how much sleep he got – and nothing seemed to have an effect!

We then decided to play to his strengths, and re-arranged his diary to take advantage of his energy levels. We made his ‘new business’ activity (cold calls, new business appointments etc) in the morning, and existing client calls and paperwork in the afternoon. Month on month his sales went up fifty percent! Amazing.

If you’re a manager or a director, are you playing to the strengths of your team? Are you asking account management staff or sales admin staff to do ‘new business’ sales roles? Are you asking marketing staff to make cold calls? Think about what the best use of your resources is right now……

Sales Tip No 4 – Block Out Time For Prospecting

This is something I’m very keen with my clients. I’ve lost count of the times people have said to me ‘oh but Andy, we don’t have time for prospecting/cold calling’ or ‘I know I should have made some calls today, but things just got in the way’.

There is NO excuse for not prospecting. Sales Managers and Directors all over the world continually get frustrated with salespeople who ‘ride the sales rollercoaster’ – a good month, followed by a bad month, followed by a good month, followed by a bad month – you get the idea!

This is usually because the salesperson has become so busy dealing with their leads that they ‘haven’t had time for prospecting’ – leading to a lack of leads for the following month – which leads to a lack of sales! So why does this keep happening? Because we let it!

Everyone should block out time for prospecting. It should be the most important thing in your day! The first thing IN your diary, and the last thing OUT of your diary! Too many salespeople don’t prospect because it’s easier to deal with existing customers etc – then they complain when they miss target the following month!

Sales Tip No 5 – Get Motivated

It’s interesting that already this year, how many companies are calling me and asking me to come in and help motivate their sales team. Companies that want to ‘steal a march’ on their competitors are looking to get better results from their teams – whether it’s an internal team making appointments for field sales, or an external team that the company wants to perform better.

Motivation is an area that’s vital to the success of yourself or your team. It’s not unusual for people that have been on sessions with me to have doubled or tripled their performance, whether that’s in terms of numbers of appointments booked, or in sales they’ve made in the months after the session.

Many organisations make the mistake of ‘assuming’ their salespeople are already motivated. Yet in my experience, most salespeople generally work between 30-50 percent of their potential.

If you’re a manager or a director, what steps are you taking right now to work on the motivation of your team? If you’re the salesperson, what would it take for you to get and feel more motivated right now? And then go and do it! And don’t say ‘more money’. That’s known as commission 😉

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

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Andy Preston is a leading Sales Expert, Trainer and Motivational Speaker. He runs the Ecademy ‘Sales And Cold Calling Tips Club’ as well as writing for magazines, newspapers and trade journals all around the world on anything related to sales and selling.

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

2009 was an interesting year for many salespeople and business owners I’ve been speaking with recently. Whilst some had a successful year, many others were grateful for making the sales they did, and some were grateful to make it through the year at all!

2009 had some interesting lessons in terms of sales and sales tactics, things we should all learn from whether we’re a salesperson, sales manager, director or business owner.

Follow the tips below and watch your sales soar in 2009!…..

(This is a shortened version of the full article. To get a copy of the article in full, go to http://www.andy-preston.com/ask-andy/ and ask nicely ;-))

Sales Lesson Number One – Prospect Continuously

If 2009 taught you nothing else, it taught you that you can’t always rely on your existing customers to hit your sales targets! 2009 was the year that existing customers were looking for ways to cut costs in their businesses – and maybe you and your product or service were one of those costs?

Prospecting should be done on a continuous basis, not just when you’re quiet!

Sales Lesson Number Two – Control The Sales Cycle

2009 highlighted the need for the salesperson to control the sales process more than ever before! It was the year where customers started asking for ‘quotes’ regularly, but then didn’t seem to proceed with the order quite as fast!

In a lot of cases, prospects were trying to get a ‘feel’ for how much it would cost, before trying to get approval for the spend, which often wasn’t forthcoming! Therefore if salespeople weren’t careful, they’d end up doing lots of ‘running around’ for very little reward!

Sales Lesson Number Three – Know More About The Competition

Again, 2009 showed us that we have to be sharper in this arena. Many companies were finding increased competition when trying to sell their products or services, and often this was happening in existing accounts as well!

If you truly want to be able to sell against your competition, you’d better know them – inside and out.

You want to know about their marketing and promotion, their sales campaigns, their products and services, where they’re strong (and weak), and if you’re based in a regional areas – your competitors sales rep for that territory and their selling style!

Sales Lesson Number Four – Write A Sales Plan

Whenever I mention this topic at an event that I’m speaking at, I’m often amazed how few people have a proper sales plan in place! I mean a specific document, written down, with a focused plan of how the individual, team or business is going to win business for the forthcoming year.

Without a proper sales plan in place, most people will miss opportunities that they could have converted, and miss other opportunities they weren’t even aware of.

Not the best thing to happen in a tough market, so start your year off well and get a written sales plan in place, right now!

Sales Lesson Number Five – Examine Your ‘Selling Level’

2009 was the year that purchasing and ‘sign-off’ responsibility shifted somewhat. Managers or department heads that were previously able to sign-off quite large sums of money were ‘reigned in’ somewhat, and Directors and Owners started taking more interest in exactly where the company’s money was being spent.

This means that all the salespeople that were selling at ‘user’ or ‘manager’ level found that decisions we’re going ‘above’ – and that they weren’t coming back as positively or as quickly as previously might have happened!

Sales Lesson Number Six – Ask Better Questions

If you or your team are still asking mainly ‘fact-find’ questions of prospects you’re calling or going to see, then you’ll probably be one of the first to be left behind in 2010!

If your prospects and clients are looking at other vendors, and your phone calls and meetings are conducted knowing you’re not the only supplier they’re talking to, one of the biggest things that will differentiate you is your questioning ability.

How does yours (or your team’s) currently measure up?

Sales Lesson Number Seven – Look At Who’s Involved

As businesses have ‘re-engineered’ themselves and their business offering over the last few months, for some companies that’s meant re-shuffling their staff and their responsibilities. This is worth looking at closely from a sales point of view however, as we want to make sure you aren’t losing any opportunities through any re-structuring or re-organisation.

Have a think right now, who’s making the calls to try and get appointments for the field sales team? Highly sales trained individuals? Or have you got people from marketing or sales admin making those calls? How many meetings could you be missing out on right now?

Or how about the incoming sales enquiries? Highly trained sales staff with an incoming call structure and questioning process? Or are you just leaving the admin staff to answer those valuable sales calls? How much could that be costing you in lost opportunities right now?

Sales Lesson Number Eight – Don’t Miss Existing Opportunities

2009 taught us that far too many people took their existing customers for granted. Never forget that your customers could well be on your competitors prospect list!

Are you regularly in touch with all your existing customers? Are you up-to-speed on what their plans are for the next few months as they re-focus their businesses? Are you working to increase your number of contacts in each of your clients? Are you ‘on top’ of every single potential opportunity?

Sales Lesson Number Nine – Focus On Your Pipeline

2009 was the year that whoever was in charge of the sales team realised how lazy they’d become! I’ve spoken to Sales Managers that had stopped doing sales meetings, stopped doing field visits with their team and stopped checking their sales reps pipelines! How crazy is that?

When I’d ask them when was the last sales meeting they conducted with their entire team, they’d say things like ‘well I’d rather have them out in the field’, ‘it costs a lot to get them together for a whole day’ or ‘I don’t know what we’d do for an entire day’. Hmmmm. Doesn’t give you a lot of faith, does it?!!

When was the last time you had a sales meeting in your company out of interest?

Sales Lesson Number Ten – Work On Your Sales Skills

2009 taught us that many of the basic sales skills that are needed for success in a sales role had been ‘taken for granted’ – yet were lacking in a large number of the companies and the salespeople I spoke to!

Last year was the year where sales skills mattered far more than in years previous. Prospects were taking longer to make decisions, higher level decision makers were getting involved, ROI needed to be proven at every stage, more competitors were involved in every sale and prospects were looking to negotiate all your profit out of every deal!

How did you and you team’s sales skills measure up? And what are you going to do to improve that this year?

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

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Andy Preston is a leading Sales Expert, Trainer and Motivational Speaker. He runs the Ecademy ‘Sales And Cold Calling Tips Club’ as well as writing for magazines, newspapers and trade journals all around the world on anything related to sales and selling.

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

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2009. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article contact Andy Preston for guidelines. Media enquiries – details here

In part two of this article, leading Sales Expert Andy Preston explains that although LinkedIn is one of the best business development tools available, many people don’t use it properly, and even worse – make mistakes that actually LOSE them sales, rather than WIN them…..

Whenever I’m talking to salespeople or business owners about online sales tools, the one that they mention most often is LinkedIn. Yet I’m often amazed at how many people admit they don’t really use it properly – and even those that ‘think’ they’re using it properly don’t get the sales results they could from it.

Even worse that, some people make various ‘sales mistakes’ over LinkedIn – often without realising – that cost them valuable leads, connections and ultimately sales.

If we’re not connected already, connect with me here – Andy’s LinkedIn Profile – for specific ideas on how to get better results for your time spent on there, but in the meantime, here are the 10 biggest sales mistakes people make on LinkedIn……

Sales Mistake Number 5 – Only Using It For Name Gathering

This mistake is more common amongst people that have been using LinkedIn for a while, and is particularly prevalent if you’re in recruitment. LinkedIn was mainly a CV site up until about 18 months ago, when more business development tools were introduced that expanded the scope of the site.

Therefore most recruiters would have had a ‘presence’ on there for a number of years, and while a few years ago the main focus of the site was to gather names and candidates, LinkedIn has advanced massively since then – and to still be only using it for ‘name gathering’ means you’re missing out on 90% of the potential value of the site.

If your industry does a lot of cold calling for example, why would you only use a site like LinkedIn to get the name of a decision maker, then pick up the phone and cold call them? Why wouldn’t you use the tools that Linkedin now offers to get in touch, develop rapport and qualify business opportunities in a different way?

If you just use it to get a ‘name’, then pick up the phone and cold call that person, that’s not really helping you to stand out from your competition, is it?

Sales Mistake Number 4 – Limiting Your Network

Now this is where myself and LinkedIn differ. LinkedIn’s general attitude is that you should only connect with people you know. My attitude is that you should connect with the majority of people. Depending on their business, sometimes my advice to people is not to connect with their competition, but other than that, I’m a big fan of being a ‘open networker’.

Anyone that ‘limits’ themselves to only connecting with people they know well, yet is on LinkedIn for business development purposes is missing out on the massive business development potential LinkedIn offers.

For example, if someone you want to contact is a 2nd level connection to you, you can get an introduction through someone you are directly connected with – but if they’re a 3rd level connection or worse, that introduction is a lot less likely to happen.

At some level, the more connections you have, the more likely it is that someone you are directly connected with will know that person – and facilitate the introduction. So if you’ve only got a small number of connections, you’re likely to miss out!

In addition, your ‘status’ or ‘update’ posts are posted onto the home page of every one of your LinkedIn contacts – so why on earth wouldn’t you want them to go to as many people as possible?

Sales Mistake Number 3 – Expecting A Fast Return

Another mistake most people make on LinkedIn is to expect a fast return. Now in some cases you can get a fast return in terms of a good contact that turns into business quickly, but like ANY networking LinkedIn should be part of a longer-term strategy.

You don’t need to spend a huge amount of time on LinkedIn to get very good sales results from it, but you do need to have certain fundamental things in place to get the best from it. Part of your LinkedIn strategy should be to put those things in place FIRST, then set about doing your LinkedIn activity to take advantage of those fundamentals – and not making the mistake most people make which is to try and do activity first, without having those critical things on your profile!

Your behaviour on LinkedIn, the information you put on your profile, your activity within groups you belong to, and pretty much EVERYTHING you do on LinkedIn should have the longer-term strategy in mind, otherwise you’ll burn bridges – and fast!

Sales Mistake Number 2 – Not Using ‘Groups’ Properly

The ‘groups’ area of LinkedIn is one of the most useful for the people who are looking to develop new business and new customers from LinkedIn. However, most people don’t use it effectively – some because they don’t know what to do, and some because they don’t want to dedicate time to it – because they haven’t seen the results quick enough (refer to the last point!)

The groups area (when used properly) is one of the best places for new business development. You can join groups where members have similar interest (Golf, Running, Cars for example), similar geographical areas, an association or trade body, or for a professional interest.

Joining these groups instantly gives you ‘commonality’ with others – which helps when generating rapport with others – which is an essential stage if you want to get ‘engagement’ with others and ultimately do business with them.

However, WHAT you do in these groups is more important than just joining them. How you interest with others. What threads you interact on. What threads you start. How you put together your posts to ensure the appropriate people read the, – and take the action you want – is all about putting the right strategy into action.

Sales Mistake Number 1 – Not Getting Feedback’

Another common mistake most people make on LinkedIn is not getting feedback on their profile and how they’re doing! And I don’t mean getting feedback from just ‘anybody’ – I mean getting feedback from someone who is getting RESULTS from LinkedIn, in terms of incoming sales enquiries or business conducted from it.

I’m often amazed at people that spend large amounts of time on LinkedIn yet haven’t taken the time to put important parts of their profile together properly, and that means that the effect of all their ‘activity’ is being limited by people not taking action when they click on their profiles!

For anyone that is concerned about the effectiveness, or the results they’re currently getting from their LinkedIn profile, connect with me here – Andy’s LinkedIn Profile – and I’ll happily take a look at it, and give you some ideas of what you need to do.

I also run a LinkedIn group dedicated to improving your sales performance, so if you’d like to join that as well, the link is here – LinkedIn Sales Group

To get the other 5 Biggest Sales Mistakes Most People Make On LinkedIn, go to www.andy-preston.com/ask-andy and request ‘LinkedIn article’.

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

He runs the Ecademy ‘Sales And Cold Calling Tips Club’ as well as writing for magazines, newspapers and trade journals all around the world on anything related to sales and selling.

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

2009 was an interesting year for many consultants and recruitment companies I’ve been speaking with recently. Whilst some had a successful year, many others were grateful for making the sales they did, and some were grateful to make it through the year at all!

2009 had some interesting lessons in terms of sales and sales tactics, things we should all learn from whether we’re a resource, consultant, manager or director.

Follow the tips below and watch your sales soar in 2010!…..

Sales Lesson Number One – Prospect Continuously

If 2009 taught you nothing else, it taught you that you can’t always rely on your existing customers to hit your targets! 2009 was the year that existing customers were looking for ways to cut costs in their businesses – and I think it’s fair to say recruitment was one of the first costs to be looked at.

Prospecting should be done on a continuous basis, not just when you’re quiet!

Sales Lesson Number Two – Control The Sales Cycle

2009 highlighted the need for the recruiter to control the sales process more than ever before! It was the year where customers started asking for candidates, but then didn’t seem to proceed with the hiring decision anywhere near as fast!

In a lot of cases, prospects were trying to get a ‘feel’ for who was available and what it would cost, before trying to get approval for the spend, which often wasn’t forthcoming! So the recruiter does lots of ‘running around’ for very little reward!

Sales Lesson Number Three – Know More About The Competition

Again, 2009 showed us that we have to be sharper in this arena. Many recruitment companies were finding increased competition when trying to sell their services, and often this was happening in existing accounts as well!

If you truly want to be able to sell against your competition, you’d better know them – inside and out.

You want to know about their marketing and promotion, their sales campaigns, their offering, where they’re strong (and weak), and how you can sell against them effectively. That is, if you want to be more successful this year than last….?

Sales Lesson Number Four – Write A Sales Plan

I’m often amazed how few people have a proper sales plan in place! I mean a specific document, written down, with a focused plan of how the individual, team or business is going to win business for the forthcoming year.

Without a proper sales plan in place, most people will miss opportunities that they could have converted, and miss other opportunities they weren’t even aware of.

Not the best thing to happen in a tough market, so start your year off well and get a written sales plan in place, right now!

Sales Lesson Number Five – Examine Your ‘Selling Level’

2009 was the year that purchasing and ‘sign-off’ responsibility shifted somewhat. Managers or Department Heads that were previously able to sign-off quite large sums of money were ‘reigned in’ somewhat, and Directors and Owners started taking more interest in exactly where the company’s money was being spent.

This means that all the recruiters that were selling at ‘user’ or ‘hiring manager’ level found that decisions were going ‘above’ – and that they weren’t coming back as positively or as quickly as previously might have happened!

Sales Lesson Number Six – Ask Better Questions

If you or your team are still asking mainly ‘fact-find’ questions of prospects you’re speaking to, then you’ll probably be one of the first to be left behind in 2010!

If your prospects and clients are considering you as a potential supplier for 2010, do you really think questions like ‘have you got any vacancies at the moment?’, ‘when are you next recruiting?’ and ‘what fees do you normally pay’ are really going to help you build your business or your desk in 2010?

Your questioning ability can be one of the biggest things that differentiates you from your competition. How does yours (or your team’s) currently measure up?

Sales Lesson Number Seven – Re-Establish Contact

As businesses have ‘re-engineered’ themselves and their business offering over the last few months, for some companies that’s meant re-shuffling their staff and their responsibilities. This is worth looking at closely from a sales point of view however, as we want to make sure you aren’t losing any opportunities through any re-structuring or re-organisation.

Think about some companies that you (or your team) have placed people at in the past. Are you completely ‘on top’ of those companies? Even the ones that haven’t been hiring for ages? Do you know every contact in the account that’s involved in hiring? Do they all know you and would call you first when they need someone?

Many recruiters are in for a shock this year if they only have one or two contact s in an organisation. If those contacts have left or changed responsibilities, they could find themselves having to start again with new contacts. Not the best start to 2010, is it?

Sales Lesson Number Eight – Work On Your Sales Skills

2009 taught us that many of the basic sales skills that are needed for success in a recruitment role had been ‘taken for granted’ – yet were lacking in a large number of the companies and the salespeople I spoke to! Particularly in the cold calling/new business arena.

Last year was the year where sales skills mattered far more than in years previous. Prospects were taking longer to make decisions, higher level decision makers were getting involved, ROI needed to be proven at every stage, more competitors were involved in every sale and prospects were looking to negotiate all your profit out of every deal!

What are you doing to make sure that doesn’t happen to you in 2010?

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

Cold calling is one of the things most people seem to ask me for help with, usually because they want to get better results from it – although some people like to avoid it altogether! However for a smaller business, often the problem with their cold calling isn’t cold calling – it’s something earlier in the process that’s causing them problems later on.

Now, whilst in these circumstances getting better at cold calling can help, it’s sometimes more important to look earlier in the process, to ensure you’re giving yourself and your team the best chance of success when it comes to the phone call.

Let me give you some examples we’ve uncovered whilst working with clients recently….

Problem Number 1 – Poorly Planned Sales Process

This is a common problem that occurs far more often than it should! Whether it’s the manager, director or business owner that hasn’t thought the process out fully, or that the salesperson just hasn’t ‘got their head around it’, either way this needs looking at before the sales calls start!

An important point to look at here is what has happened prior to the call you’re about to make? And compare that to what should have happened! Has the person responded to an advert? Have they come from a web enquiry? If it’s a ‘pure’ cold call, where have you sourced the data from and what is it like?

If it was a response to an advert for example, what ‘filtering’ have you done on the advert? Did you want only the good quality enquiries (useful for a small sales team that can’t handle larger call-volumes, and salespeople with less experience), or did you want all the enquiries you can get, so you can use your sales skills to try and get a positive outcome when you call?

The more ‘filtering’ you have done, the ‘warmer’ the enquiry is, generally speaking. I’ve seen far too many companies do too little filtering – usually because they naively think that the more responses they get, the better the advertising worked! It just means you’ve got lots of ‘follow-up’ calls with people who are less interested – which becomes a problem if you don’t do a lot of cold calling and aren’t used to the rejection!

Problem Number 2 – Poor Handling Of Initial Enquiry

Think about this for a moment. If your enquiry comes in over the phone, who is the person who takes that call? Someone that’s been well trained in sales? Someone who’s completely conversant with the campaign that generated the lead and knows everything about it? Someone you can rely on to have the best chance of converting that enquiry into business?

Far too often companies spend large amounts of money on websites, advertising, branding and marketing campaigns, yet when those campaigns generate an incoming lead, they fail to deal with it properly! They fail to invest in the most critical part of the process – the part that could win or lose them the business – the training of the person handling the incoming enquiry!

If it’s an enquiry that came in via your website, how quickly do you respond to the enquiry? Within a few hours? Or is it more like days? Some people I’ve talked to recently often don’t respond to them at all!! Hands up all of those who respond to the email or web enquiry with an email. You deserve to be shot! This is the main (or perhaps the ONLY) opportunity to engage the prospect into your sales process and you’re going to do it by sending an email? Dear oh dear….

If it was a telephone enquiry, what questions do you or your staff ask that person? Questions that just get the ‘facts’ or the ‘details’ of what they want? Or do you ask questions that uncover buyer motivation, desire, needs, control the call and win the business (and a new customer) at the end of it?

Problem Number 3 – Wrong (Or No) Focus On The Call

The third thing you needed to think about is the call itself. A common problem with people making cold calls or follow up calls is that they fail to consider what outcome they want from the call BEFORE they make it!

Are you trying to make an appointment from the call? A sale? Trying to get the prospect to visit you? A conference call? If none of those, what specifically are you trying to achieve?

Far too many calls are made without an objective in mind. Those are the sort of calls that tend to ‘drift’ – with little or no control from the salesperson – that give the recipient the impression that there wasn’t a clear reason for the call, nor for the conversation they’re now having – therefore they want to get out of it as quickly as possible!!

Your call structure needs to be designed and delivered with your outcome in mind! Otherwise, the prospect is far more likely to achieve THEIR objective from the call (in some cases theirs is to get rid of you!) than you are to get yours!

Problem Number 4 – Lack Of Confidence With Selling In General

If this relates to you directly, don’t worry. The majority of people I’ve worked with have some challenges with confidence at some point – and some on a regular basis!

As companies have ‘re-engineered’ themselves over the last few months, in a number of cases it’s meant that non-traditional sales staff are now having to handle parts of the sales process as part of their role. These staff members didn’t sign up for a sales job, but are now having to do sales activities – whether they like it or not!

Whether it’s a marketing person making sales calls trying to get appointments for field sales representatives, or an administrator handling incoming sales enquiries, if they aren’t confident with the activity they’re undertaking, that means less effective calls, lost opportunities, and therefore – lost sales!

Any person tasked with taking on any element of ‘sales responsibility’ within a company needs to be confident with that aspect of sales. A lack of confidence in any element of the sales operation can be a source of lost sales – something most businesses can’t afford at the moment.

It’s vital that action is taken to equip all team members with the mindset, skills and confidence required in order to maximise sales opportunities right now. Otherwise you could be virtually gifting business to the competition….

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

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Andy Preston is a leading Sales Expert, Trainer and Motivational Speaker. He runs the Ecademy ‘Sales And Cold Calling Tips Club’ as well as writing for magazines, newspapers and trade journals all around the world on anything related to sales and selling.

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

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2009. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article contact Andy Preston for guidelines. Media enquiries – details here

Whenever I write a ‘Sales Lessons From…’ article, people often initially think ‘what on earth has this got to do with my business?‘, or ‘how can I relate this to my sales role?‘
However, they’re often surprised when they read more of the article how much they actually can get from it, and often change their personal or business approach as a result….

I’ve been to the Dubai 7’s a number of times now, but this year as well as the global recession, Dubai itself has been particularly badly hit. There are various ‘lessons’ that can be learnt from this year’s 7’s tournament that particularly apply to business, and to sales. Have a look below and see what you think….

Sales Lesson Number 1 – Don’t Be Afraid Of ‘Downsizing’

In the past, the Dubai 7’s has attracted around 50,000 people. This year, because of the ‘credit crunch’ and Dubai being hit particularly hard, it was more like 30,000. Now the stadium was therefore only going to be two thirds full at best. Therefore the organisers took action based on this – by putting netting over the top tiers of the stands and cordoning them off – people therefore had to sit in the lower tiers – resulting in it looking busier and creating far more atmosphere than having people dotted about all over the place.

They’d also taken action to ‘downsize’ in other areas. Crucially however, it didn’t affect the atmosphere, the experience, or the enjoyment of the event! This is something that’s critical to try and retain in your business – even if you have to downsize in terms of capability, people or offering.

Many businesses have had to look particularly hard at themselves over the last few months. Looking at operations and how they could become more efficient. Looking at their service offering and how it could be ‘tweaked’ to get a better response from potential purchasers. Looking at their staffing levels and seeing whether people were in the best positions or had the best responsibilities to get the best out of themselves and add the best value to the organisation.

As a result, many organisations have had to ‘downsize’. Others however have been hesitant to take this step, hoping instead that the market will ‘return’ or they just need to ‘ride it out’ for a little longer. However it’s the companies that are able to deliver a good service efficiently that will be among the best-placed to take advantage as the market goes back up. And the ones that aren’t as efficient will be struggling….

Sales Lesson Number 2 – Don’t Give Others A ‘Head Start’

In rugby just as in business, you can’t afford to give your competitors a ‘head start’. After playing solid rugby and looking good as they moved into the semi-finals stage, England came unstuck against Samoa.

The problem wasn’t that England weren’t capable of beating them – they were. The problem was that Samoa had scored 3 tries before England had ‘woken up!’ It’s very difficult in a game lasting 7 minutes each half to come back from 3 tries down early in the game.

England had the skills, the players and the capability to win – yet giving Samoa that kind of head start ultimately cost them the game – and the chance to play New Zealand in the final.

In your business are you giving your competitors a ‘head start’ right now? Do you find yourself saying things like ‘we’re in survival mode at the moment’, ‘no one’s got any budget to buy from us’ or ‘let’s just get through the next few months?’ If so, you could well be giving your competition a ‘head start’ on new prospects, or even your existing customers!

Perhaps you or your team have also not been prospecting for new business as much as you could over the past few months? That’s certainly going to have an effect on your business pipeline for the following few months as well! Where else have you been giving your competitors a ‘head start’ on you recently?

Sales Lesson Number 3 – Pick Your ‘Team’ Carefully

Rugby 7’s is a different type of game to the 15-a-side equivalent. The pace is faster, with more emphasis on ‘explosive’ pace and the ability to keep and run with the ball, with far less emphasis on kicking.

The teams who do well at the 7’s game are the ones that pick their team carefully. Just looking at the players the successful teams pick you can see they’re focussing on being quicker than their opponents, with speed from a standing start a vital attribute. Ball handling skills are also key, as many turnovers happen in 7’s, so keeping hold of the ball is vital! The teams that do well have picked their team based on these factors.

When it comes to your business, how have you picked your team? Have you consciously picked the right blend of people with the right blend of attributes to succeed in the current market? Or are you left with people that are just doing that job because they’ve been there for a number of years?

How about if you were to start your business again tomorrow? What would you differently? Who would you assign into the job roles you’d create? Why would you pick them for the roles over others? What skills do they bring to the table that makes them ideal candidates for those roles? Are they the sort of people you can rely on in a difficult market to lead your company back to where you want it to be?

Sales Lesson No 4 – Make It Easy For People To Buy

Far too many companies make it too difficult for people to buy, especially when it comes to cross-selling or up-selling additional items!

At the Dubai 7’s, they’ve eliminated the problems of people queuing for drinks, then not having the right cash, plus the temporary staff that the organiser has hired pocketing large amounts of the cash takings!

You simply go and buy ‘tokens’ for food and drink at special booths, then getting your drinks and food is much simpler, much quicker and the organisers don’t have to worry about their temporary staff pocketing takings! It’s a simple but efficient way of doing things.

So, how can you apply the same principles in your business? How are you making it easy for people to buy from you (or buy more from you) currently?

Think about the ‘customer experience’ of people buying from you. What are you doing before or after they purchase that makes you stand out from your competitors? What ‘bottlenecks’ in your process are standing in the way of you getting more business from customers?

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

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Andy Preston is a leading Sales Expert, Trainer and Motivational Speaker. He runs the Ecademy ‘Sales And Cold Calling Tips Club’ as well as writing for magazines, newspapers and trade journals all around the world on anything related to sales and selling.

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

You can also see more about Andy’s training for small businesses at www.salesbreakfast.net

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2009. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article contact Andy Preston for guidelines. Media enquiries – details here

This one is for all the ‘networkers’ who are always talking about what you ‘should’ and ‘shouldn’t’ have on your business card…..there are also a few ‘reality’ tips below from me!

Please don’t watch the video if you’re easily offended – thanks to a printing client for sending me this….

What was your favourite part of the video? Mine was ‘it doesn’t fit in a rolodex….because it doesn’t belong in a rolodex!’ lol

Now onto the more serious tips!……

Andy’s Top 5 Tips For Business Cards

Tip No 1 – Get the best looking business card you can afford!

Remember, once you’re gone, all they have left to remember you by is your business card – so make sure it’s made a good impression!

This means getting it designed properly, and having your branding consistent with your website etc, so it’s a consistent message to would-be-clients.

Tip No 2 – Ignore the ‘rubbish’ people say about being able to write on it

So many so-called ‘experts’ talk about this. But far more important is the quality of the card and the design (see tip 1). Most people that talk about this say you should be able to write on the card so they can make notes to remember you by. Well if they can’t remember you to start with, you’re obviously not that memorable! That’t not a good sign!

If someone represents a genuine opportunity to you, it’s YOUR responsibility to follow up with those people – so keep those cards seperate from the others and get them in your CRM system or diary – fast – if they represent genuine opportunities to you.

Tip No 3 – Only pass cards to people you want to keep in contact with

From a sales point of view, there’s pretty much zero point in just handing out your cards to everyone and collecting theirs – unless you’re just keeping the printers in business!

Let’s face it – you’re not going to follow up with everyone anyway (unless you think that a ‘standard email’ is following up? I hope not!), so why bother? Ask for and keep the cards of the people you want to stay in touch with….

Tip No 4 – Have something memorable on your card

Have something memorable on your card that makes you stand out from your competitors. And by ‘memorable’, I don’t mean ‘cheesy!’ If you are the ‘face’ of your business, a picture is essential. Spot varnish and ‘cut outs’ are fairly inexpensive options these days to make you appear different. Otherwise, direct the recipient to an offer or certain part of your website designed to engage them with you and your company.

Tip No 5 – When face-to-face, exchange them at the start of the meeting

So many people get this wrong. If you’re in a face-to-face meeting with a client, exchange them at the beginning of the meetings. This saves the ‘awkward moments’ wondering about when it’s a good time to exchange them. Put the card on the table in front of you, so you can easily remember the client’s name and responsibilites – I’ve seen too many people forget the client’s name part-way through a sales meeting! Don’t let this happen to you….

In this article, leading Sales Expert Andy Preston explains the mistakes most Sales Managers make when running meetings for their sales team! Instead of being a motivational, uplifting boost to your team, most sales team meetings are boring, too product and information driven and insanely dull affairs for most salespeople. Read this article to help you avoid the common mistakes most Sales Managers make, and get your meetings back on track!….

Whenever I’m talking to (or working with) Sales Managers, they invariably ask me for some help in running the team sales meetings. They realise that running a compelling sales meeting is vitally important, but often fall into running meetings that don’t inspire, motivate or even engage their sales team.

Have a look at the common mistakes most Sales Managers make below, and make sure you don’t fall foul of them!….

Sales Management Mistake No 1 – Dragging Them On Too Long

Far too many sales team meetings drag on too long! I’ve known meetings that could have been done in 2-3 hours drag on all day. I’ve also known meetings that could have been done in 30 minutes last 2-3 hours.

The longer the time period, the more difficult it is to maintain interest and attention from the attendees. Lunch will go for longer than scheduled, people don’t make it back from breaks on time because they’re taking/making a call etc etc.

So think about what you want to cover in the meeting, and how long that would take. Just because you may have the field reps up to the office for the day, doesn’t mean that meeting has to take all day for example.

Sales Management Mistake No 2 – Too Much ‘Whinging’

This is mean to mean too much whinging from your team, but I’ve also known Sales Managers be guilty of this in sales meetings! Remember, your sales team are all together in one place (whether physically or virtually) and they’ll use that opportunity to ‘gang up’ on you if you’re not careful.

This can be a tactic used by the more experienced people, or the people whose figures aren’t where they should be this month – or both!

Some salespeople will also have their ‘favourite topics’ for this – ‘the company doesn’t do enough marketing’ is one example. Another is something like ‘our prices are not competitive compared to…..’ And the old favourite ‘well if we had done such-and-such back in 2005….’

You need to be aware of this, prepared for it and deal with it as soon as it comes up!

Sales Management Mistake No 3 – Lack Of Preparation

This again counts on two levels – both the salespeople and yourself. If the salespeople are unprepared, it’s normally because of a lack of communication or understanding between you, or a tactic to distract you from looking closely at their figures and activity – usually when they’re underperforming!

Lack of preparation on your own part normally happens when there’s pressure on other things – then suddenly the sales meeting creeps up on you and before you know it, it’s the night before and you haven’t planned the day properly.

Whether intentional or not, I’ve sat through many meetings that felt like this was the case!

If the meeting isn’t properly planned beforehand, the meeting can feel like a waste of time to all the participants. Before the meeting, think about your outcomes, what you want to cover (not just copying the agenda of the last meeting!) and how to get your message across in the most effective way.

Sales Management Mistake No 4 – Not Challenging The Team

Another common mistake Sales Managers make is not to challenge the team, particularly around their sales pipeline, or prospecting lists. Far too many salespeople are allowed to get away with just paying ‘lip service’ to these important activities.

I remember being sat in a sales meeting where one of the salespeople was reading out his sales pipeline and going through which businesses he thought he would convert before the month was out. When he said a certain name the rest of the team started sniggering. He’d mentioned the same company name 4 months in a row and didn’t appear to be any closer to converting them! Whether he was deluding himself, or genuinely felt he was going to convert them, I’m not sure!

Either way, he should have been challenged on it! The Sales Manager concerned unfortunately just nodded and moved onto the next salesperson. Therefore, none of the team to the exercise (or the sales team meeting in general) seriously, and just saw it as an excuse to get away from their normal work for a few hours – not the sort of outcome you want from a sales team meeting, is it?

Sales Management Mistake No 5 – Too Much About ‘Product’ Or ‘Information’

This is another common problem with most sales team meetings. Some Sales Managers think that the meeting is only about ‘information delivery’ to their team. I’ve even seen some managers get out ‘memos’ that they’ve sent to the team previously, and then go through them in the sales meeting! Seriously!

Another version of this is that valuable time at the sales meeting is taken up with ‘product’ discussions – some people even invite suppliers in to present their latest products to the team. Unfortunately, these ‘presentations’ often fall short of the mark – not tailored to the audience and appear to the supplier’s ‘stock’ presentation that they’d give to potential buyers (not resellers), forgetting the important fact that the team isn’t there to buy their product, they’re there to sell it for them!

The impact on the team therefore is usually is too technical. information overload, and boredom!

Think about the reasons you have the sales meetings with your team for a moment. Surely some part of these meetings should be motivational? Particularly if your team are based in the field and it’s your only opportunity to see them for the month? Doesn’t it make sense that part of the meeting should be about motivating the team and helping them deal with their current sales challenges, rather than boring them to death?!!

Oh and on that note, you do include some sales skills training and drills as part of the meetings, don’t you?

 

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2009. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article contact Andy Preston for guidelines.

This article has recently been updated.

See the updated article here.