Monthly Archives

May 2015

May 29
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sales Trainer

How to choose a sales trainer

By | sales training, Training | No Comments

How to choose a trainersales Trainer

When the time comes that you decide you or your people need some training, you will probably want to do some research on the various providers out there. Training can be a big investment for an organisation and you want to make sure that what you spend is going to yield results, not just waste your money. Here are 6 tips to help you choose wisely:

1. Does the training provider have a good track record? If they only started 5 minutes ago, then you are probably taking a chance with them – of course they could be wonderful (but equally they might not be).  So look at their background; if you are looking for someone to train you in sales, do they have a good track record of selling? If you work in the banking sector, would you want someone who has never worked in finance before to do your training? You get the idea. See who they have worked with and how recently – they should be able to give you this information if you ask. Read More

May 25
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Do you want to talk business? OK, let’s go to a coffee shop.

By | customers, entrepreneurs, sales training | One Comment

Do you want to talk business? OK, let’s go to a coffee shop.Sales Training London - old fashioned coffee shop

Many entrepreneurs don’t have their own offices and either work from home or meet clients at venues such as coffee shops. This week, whilst having a really productive meeting with a fellow business woman in a wonderful local cafe, it occurred to both of us that, to the casual outsider, it may have looked like two women just meeting for a bit of a catch up and a gossip. 

Nothing could be further from the truth; we discussed strategic plans, growth strategies, recruitment, business development and made a follow up appointment to pursue a particular line of discussion. 

There are lots of reasons why coffee shops (or similar) can be terrific venues for meetings if you are a start-up; Read More

May 15
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Small Businesses, Claim your Competitive Advantage (Part Two)

By | customers, entrepreneurs, marketing, sales training | No Comments

Small Business, Claim your Competitive AdvantageSales Training London - happy lady

Yesterday, we looked at some reasons why it can be good to be small. As a small business, you:

Respond Faster

Have More Flexibility

Have Better Relationships with Customers

Get a Personal connection to the Customer

Have Specialisation

Have The Community Edge

Today we will look at some more reasons, starting with:

Present a more compelling message
Large companies have so many people involved that it can be really difficult to create a strong message (for example a marketing campaign or new product). With multiple contributors, no one person knows the entire message and it can be difficult to get a consensus. Add to that various layers of management approval and a message will easily get diluted.

However, as a small business you have very few people involved and can create a strong compelling message quickly and then get it out into the wider world.

Better, faster processes with less red tape
Large companies certainly have lots of processes. However, they also have lots of individuals who may or may not follow them. Think about it, for a proposal, there may be different teams involved, reporting to different supervisors, with different (and possibly conflicting) objectives. It can be both challenging and time consuming to get everyone to agree. The chances are, that with larger organisations there will also be an element of office politics involved too. The different individuals or departments may all be following a different process, so a new one has to be introduced to ensure consistency for each new project and then everyone has to agree to follow it. If this is repeated again and again, then confusion will be the constant. Understandably people can then be reluctant to learn new processes so frequently and actually the whole thing becomes more chaotic. Read More

May 14
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Small Businesses – Claim your competitive advantage! (Part One)

By | entrepreneurs, marketing, sales training | No Comments

Sales Training in London - happy ladySmall businesses, claim your competitive advantage!
As a small business, you are probably very aware of your larger competitors and it can be very easy to be intimidated by them. The trick is not to fall into the trap of trying to match them. If you go head to head with them, the chances are that they will win, so you need to be smart. Much like the Bible story of David and Goliath, as long as you match your strengths to their weaknesses, then you can consistently beat them

There are a variety of factors that can be used to your advantage when competing for business. As someone who delivers sales training in London, I come across this a lot. Although many of these are generalisations, you will see that being smaller can often be a positive thing in the business world. This is why you can achieve real competitive advantage against these ‘so-called’ Goliaths

Respond Faster
Without a complex set of processes to follow, the chances are that your small business can respond much faster than a large company and literally make changes at a moments notice. For example, if you want to introduce an improvement or addition to what you offer, you can do it straight away. A large company may have many levels of authority and approval to go through, meaning that it can take them days, weeks or even months to make a decision and implement it.

Your small business is fast, nimble and able to make things happen. You are a bit like a speed boat, whereas they are like an ocean liner! Make it work for you. Read More

May 11
1
wrestlers from Pixabay

Closing Sales should not be like a wrestling match!

By | negotiation, sales tips, sales training | No Comments

Closing sales is not a wrestling match!

     When I started my sales career it was with a well-known Financial Services organisation who shall be nameless. My manager, who I can now see was the cliché of the crooked salesman, was much worse and delighted in teaching his team of young, inexperienced sales people how to close.

 

     I can’t remember all the names now of the closes, but I think it says something that the closing techniques all had quite combative names. For example, there was ‘the double arm lock’, ‘the right angle’ and a particularly unpalatable one that my boss loved where he would fill out an application form and then tip his clipboard towards the potential customer, allowing his pen to roll towards them – the idea being that they would pick up and sign. Yes really!

 

     Young as I was, I could sense that these closes that seemed to relate more to a wrestling match than helping people choose the right sort of life assurance! Moreover, they seemed designed to ‘trick’ people into signing up, which probably explains why the cancellation rate in our team was so high. It also went some way to explaining why I felt so uneasy about working there. I left, miserable at the situation. It was only later, when I had been on some really good sales training that I was able to understand exactly what the problem was.

 

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