This is something I talk about a lot in my Stand Out Selling Sales Training sessions.  And it’s unique to myself and the SOS methodology, so you won’t hear any other trainer or speaker talk about this (or if you do, let me know ;-))

Sales Landmines are things that will ‘blow up’ in your face if you don’t find out about them first, and ‘defuse’ them correctly.

The context for this is either on a telephone call (where you are moving through a lot of the sales process in one go) or on a video or face-to-face sales meeting, where you are about to ‘pitch’ the prospect on your product or service, or move them to the next step..

Most salespeople are guilty of moving too quickly towards pitching their product/service, when the prospect is still to see the value.  In other words, they still haven’t decided whether they need this product/service yet, and the salesperson is going into ‘this is my product/service and isn’t it great’ mode!

So What Happens If You Do That?

If you move too quickly towards ‘pitch’ mode, very often you’ll get hit by a ‘sales landmine’.

Let me give you an example here.  Let’s say that you are selling advertising (doesn’t matter whether it’s online or offline for this example).

You’re starting to pitch your advertising, and the prospect could ends up saying something like ‘yeah, but we’re not going to pay for advertising again’.

What this means is they paid for advertising in the past, got ‘burnt’ by another provider, and that made them determined not to pay for it again!

Traditional sales training will tell you that this is a ‘bad prospect’, other sales trainers will say they should have been ‘qualified out’.  They are wrong.

So What’s The Truth?

The truth is this is a ‘sales landmine’  You should have found out about their previous experience with advertising in the questioning phase of your meeting/call.  (You are following a defined sales method/process for your call or meeting aren’t you?  If not, message me here and we can talk about why that is essential for sales success).

Because you didn’t, it’s now ‘blown up’ in your face, and it will be almost impossible to turn this sales call/meeting around, and get them to invest with you.

That’s the salesperson’s fault for not finding it out earlier, and having a plan (or angle) to deal with it.

‘Stand Out’ Salespeople find out potential ‘landmines’ during the questioning phase of their call/meeting, create ‘angles’ to defuse and deal with them, and progress the call/meeting to the next stage, or close.

If you and your team want to find out how to do that better, get in touch here  or call +44 161 401 0142 and we can talk about how we can get you and your team better at overcoming ‘sales landmines’

I look forward to hearing about your future sales!

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2004-2017. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article, or to use Andy’s ideas, tactics and IP in your company, contact Andy Preston for guidelines.

Are You (Or Your Sales Team) Guilty Of Complacency?

Andy discusses here why most salespeople can become complacent if they’re not careful. And how it affects them as a result!

Andy’s Global Sales Tips are filmed on Andy’s travels on whatever equipment is close to hand! Be that Phone, iPad, DSLR or whatever. We’ve gone for ‘quality of information’ over ‘quality of video’ in most cases.

More professional quality videos and clips are on other playlists on Andy’s channel. This is about quality of information and speed.

The video below is a YouTube video. If you are one of our clients that has YouTube blocked, Contact us here if you have any problems accessing these. Enjoy!

What Do You Know About Us?

Andy discusses here why most salespeople ask the question ‘what do you know about us?’. And why the majority of the time, it’s a really bad idea!

Andy’s Global Sales Tips are filmed on Andy’s travels on whatever equipment is close to hand! Be that Phone, iPad, DSLR or whatever. We’ve gone for ‘quality of information’ over ‘quality of video’ in most cases.

More professional quality videos and clips are on other playlists on Andy’s channel. This is about quality of information and speed.

The video below is a YouTube video. If you are one of our clients that has YouTube blocked, Contact us here if you have any problems accessing these. Enjoy!

What’s Your Sales Influence?

Andy discusses here why most salespeople struggle with sales influence. And why they struggle for Sales Positioning as a result!

Andy’s Global Sales Tips are filmed on Andy’s travels on whatever equipment is close to hand! Be that Phone, iPad, DSLR or whatever. We’ve gone for ‘quality of information’ over ‘quality of video’ in most cases.

More professional quality videos and clips are on other playlists on Andy’s channel. This is about quality of information and speed.

The video below is a YouTube video. If you are one of our clients that has YouTube blocked, Contact us here if you have any problems accessing these. Enjoy!

I was staying at the Radisson Edwardian in Manchester recently, (having been hired as a Sales Motivational Speaker for an event the next day) and something happened that affected my perception of the hotel.

I’d put some clothing in for dry cleaning in the morning, and when I returned to my room later, I was greeted with this card on the bed.

The card stated that I had to go back downstairs to reception (having just come upstairs from there), pay the bill for the dry cleaning, and then bring it all the way upstairs with me.

Now what I found a bit ridiculous about this is that I had already paid for my room up front, and given a ‘holding deposit’ of significantly more than the bill for the dry cleaning.

Added to the fact that I am a Club Carlson Concierge member (the highest level possible of their loyalty scheme – therefore they normally look after you well), so I thought it was a bit daft to want me to go back to where I had just been, pay a bill they already had my money for, and then come upstairs again!

Now I know what you’re thinking!  ‘Oh Andy, what a first-world problem!’  But I’m not complaining about the note (although it was a little annoying at the time), I’m talking about it as an example to learn from, from a sales and service point of view!

When you look at the example set by the Park Inn Foreshore in Cape Town, another member of their loyalty club, you’d expect the Radisson to deliver a higher level of service, right?  You’d be wrong on this occasion

What would it have taken for the housekeeping service (that handles the laundry and dry cleaning) to have checked with their colleagues on the front desk (reception) and found out if they had taken a holding deposit (for greater than the dry cleaning bill) or not?

Would it have really taken that long? Would it have been that difficult? And if they HAD (and had taken the dry cleaning to my room), would I have had a POSITIVE experience with them, rather than the NEGATIVE one that I’m now talking about? Of course!

So what Sales Lessons can we learn from the Raddison in Manchester?……

Andy’s Sales Lesson Number 1 – Buyers Look To ‘Count You Out’

This happens in ANY sales/buying process where there are a number of vendors involved. The buyer looks to count people OUT, rather than count people IN.

Having started my career as a professional buyer, and because a lot of my work is based on buying psychology – how people make buying decisions – this is something that comes up a lot.

If we as buyers have a lot of choice of potential supplier, we are ‘harsher’ on individual suppliers than we would be otherwise. If we have 10 potential suppliers for example, we are looking to get that down to 5, or possibly even 3, as quickly as possible.

Therefore we look at the options, and scan proposal documents, tenders or whatever you have sent us, in order to look for things that would count people OUT of the opportunity, therefore leaving us to choose from ideally no more than 3 ‘preferred’ vendors.

Andy’s Sales Lesson Number 2 – A Bad Experience Trumps A Few Good Experiences’

Also be aware that in the buyers eyes, a bad experience will trump a few good experiences. I stay with Radisson group hotels regularly (usually Radisson, Park Inn and Park Plaza) all over the world. And I have great experiences in almost of them, the majority of the time!

I’ve even had good experiences at Manchester before. One of the cool things they do is give you a suit carrier, branded Radisson of course, when you have your suit dry cleaned with them. A nice touch!

But that’s often overpowered by a bad experience – in this case, the dry cleaning example above.

Now, as I said above it’s not really that big a problem. And I had bigger problems to deal with on that particular day. But it was frustrating enough to have an impact. Plus, it was a good example to use for this article!

So, have a think about what you currently do in your sales and service process – and are you giving the opportunity for one bad experience to undo all your work with creating good ones?

Andy’s Sales Lesson Number 3 – The ‘Experience Stack’

In my Sales Training seminars and Sales Speeches, I often talk about what I call the ‘Experience Stack’.

What I mean by this is that experiences stack on top of each other. A good experience adds to the ‘good experience’ stack, and a bad experience adds to the ‘bad experience’ stack (and potentially knock down the good experience one).

What that means in practical terms is that if the prospect/customer has had one bad experience with you – even if it was only a small thing, like the dry cleaning in this example – they will be far more annoyed with their next bad experience, than if the 2nd one had occurred in isolation.

So in the hotel context, someone who had the ‘dry cleaning’ experience above would be far more likely to complain if their food wasn’t as good as it should be, rather than if the food had been the only thing wrong.

So, what can you and your team start to do to build the ‘good experience’ stack for your customers and prospects, and minimise the ‘bad experience’ one?….

If you want some help getting your team to get far better results from their sales efforts, call +44 (0) 161 401 0142 or contact Andy here……..

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2010-2019. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article contact Andy Preston for guidelines.

Are You Creating Your Own Objections?

Andy discusses here why most salespeople create most of their objections for themselves! And what you should do instead, to avoid falling into the same trap!

Andy’s Global Sales Tips are filmed on Andy’s travels on whatever equipment is close to hand! Be that Phone, iPad, DSLR or whatever. We’ve gone for ‘quality of information’ over ‘quality of video’ in most cases.

More professional quality videos and clips are on other playlists on Andy’s channel. This is about quality of information and speed.

The video below is a YouTube video. If you are one of our clients that has YouTube blocked, Contact us here if you have any problems accessing these. Enjoy!

Andy is speaking in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) and Singapore at the end April 2018, after his South Africa trip!

He will be speaking on ‘Stand Out Selling – The Future For Salespeople’ as n’umerous events, as well as ‘How To Have Your Best Sales Year Ever!

If you’re interested in Andy working with your company whilst he is in Malaysia or Singapore, contact us using this link

We look forward to working with you to increase your sales, and those of your team!

How can we influence the prospect’s buying process? And more importantly, how can we influence it to suit ourselves? Andy explains this, after a speech in Sofia, Bulgaria….

Andy’s Global Sales Tips are filmed on Andy’s travels on whatever equipment is close to hand! Be that Phone, iPad, DSLR or whatever. We’ve gone for ‘quality of information’ over ‘quality of video’ in most cases.

More professional quality videos and clips are on other playlists on Andy’s channel. This is about quality of information and speed.

The video below is a YouTube video. If you are one of our clients that has YouTube blocked, Contact us here if you have any problems accessing these. Enjoy!

Are You Using ‘Micro Decisions?’

How often do prospects delay on making a decision? Perhaps that’s because the decision is too big? If so, it’s time for micro decisions!

Andy’s Global Sales Tips are filmed on Andy’s travels on whatever equipment is close to hand! Be that Phone, iPad, DSLR or whatever. We’ve gone for ‘quality of information’ over ‘quality of video’ in most cases.

More professional quality videos and clips are on other playlists on Andy’s channel. This is about quality of information and speed.

The video below is a YouTube video. If you are one of our clients that has YouTube blocked, Contact us here if you have any problems accessing these. Enjoy!

For all of you that attended Andy’s speech in Vilnius, Lithuania, here are some of the highlights and some links to learn more about how to be more of a Stand Out Salesperson, rather than a ‘standard’ salesperson.

Don’t forget to register for your free membership of Andy’s Sales Community here – www.AndyPreston.com/Online

Andy’s Sales Tip Number 1 – Familiarity

Remember my story about my friend buying the car? He was going to buy his next car from the local car garage – because he ‘knows them’. He’s not friends with the owners. He doesn’t know the salespeople, or anyone else that works there. He hasn’t checked their website or social media for reviews, nor has he heard from a friend about whether they are any good or not!

He’s simply going to buy from them because he ‘knows them’ – he walks past their car garage every day when he goes to buy his lunch!

How can you and your team get prospects more ‘familiar’ with you, your company, and your products and services?

Andy’s Sales Tip Number 2 – Urgency

Remember ‘if you’re not first, you’re last?’. If you’re not first in responding to a sales enquiry, you might as well be last! The one who responds first has the chance to shape the sales opportunity! And they have the advantage!

And in New Business sales, if you don’t win the business, you get nothing! No Silver medal for ‘2nd best’. Or bronze medal for ‘3rd best’. 2nd place in sales is ‘first loser!’;-)

Andy’s Sales Tip Number 3 – Relevancy

How relevant are you to your prospects? Do they see you as a specialist in their industry? Or someone that definitely has the solution to their problem? Are they trying to drive you down on price, or are they willing to pay more to work with you?

Do you have specific lists of testimonials/case studies for the main industries you work in? Current clients that would happily take a phone call from one your prospects, to say how good you were, and how easy it was to work with you?

How quickly can you get these, if not?

Andy’s Sales Tip Number 4 – Customer Service Is Dead

Stop trying to give ‘Customer Service’ and focus on giving great ‘Customer Experience’ instead. Remember my story about Mercedes? Or the Park Inn Foreshore in Cape Town?