Monthly Archives

November 2014

Why you will sell more if you can negotiate like a child

By | negotiation, sales training | 3 Comments

sell more - negotiate like a child -mother and child in a stand off Children are brilliant negotiators. Ask any parent who has just been persuaded to part with yet more money for another ‘essential’ toy, gadget, gimmick, or snack. We can learn a lot from them in our adult world if we are prepared to listen.

As tiny babies, we learn to manipulate the world to get what we want. We may not have a large range of techniques, but we know to cry for food, affection or comfort until we get it. Then as we grow, our repertoire of negotiation skills grows. Children are weaker physically and economically but, because they don’t care too much what they look like or how they behave, they are fantastic at doing whatever it takes to get what they want.

Any parent will recognise the following list, but even if you are not a parent, remember back to when you were a child. I bet you are familiar with nearly everything here. Why? Because the chances are, you’ve used pretty much all of them yourself! Read More

Why you must get rid of your toxic customers now!

By | customers, sales training | No Comments

In this difficult economic climate, we all want more customers, because more customers means more turnover and more profit, right? Well the answer to that is that it actually depends and some customers might actually be sapping your hard won profits.

In actual fact, not every customer is a perfect fit for your business. That is why it is so important to identify who your ‘ideal’ or niche customer is. If you find your ideal customer, they will benefit from what you offer, they will be delighted with you and your businesses, they will return again and again and hopefully they will turn into an ambassador for your brand. That is because you are a good fit.

The problems of a bad fit

toxic customers - picture by toxicimagesNow, consider the customer who is not a good fit. First of all, they might ask you to make adaptations to what you do. Immediately you are in the reals of the uncertain, the new and the potentially costly. Will you have to spend money to meet their expectations? Will your inexperience mean that your service delivery suffers, or the product is below par? How much time will you spend trying to work all this out? And how many ‘ideal’ customers will pass you by because you are focussing on this toxic customer and you miss them? This type of customer is not generically bad, but they could be bad for you. Read More