Tag

sales tips Archives - Tadpole Training

Sep 06
0
Janet Efere, sales trainer

What makes a great salesperson?

By | sales training | No Comments

As a sales trainer I am often asked, what makes a great salesperson.

People often say it is a skill that can be taught like any other, for example, riding a bike or learning to drive, but actually it is a bit more nuanced than just taking lots of lessons.

Actually there are 3 areas where a salesperson needs to shine in order to be great:

🏆 Skills

In order to possess sales skills, some sort of training, learning or mentoring has to happen. Skills have to be taught – things like a structure, questioning and listening skills, presentation skills.

None of us burst into the world with these things in place.

Then, as knowledge increases the salesperson has a toolkit of skills they can use at the right time in the right place

🏆 Natural Aptitude

Some people will always be better suited to sales than others, in the same way that some people have a natural talent for running, or football or art.

However, without training to bring out these natural talents they might never be discovered!

So qualities such as quick thinking, empathy, perseverence, determination, ability to pick yourself up from rejection and carry on are more prevalent in some people than others. Sure they can be developed with training, but it’s a lot easier if they are there already. The person who bursts into tears every time they get rejected will most likely struggle in a sales role.

🏆 Practice

Sales is not a one time only exercise. Neither is it a theoretical pursuit.

You have to get stuck in and try. This involves repeating a lot of actions, speaking to lots of people, getting stuff wrong, learning, doing things better, learning again and keeping at it.

Malcolm Gladwell famously said that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery. So in sales, you simply have to keep at it day in, day out and you will get better.

So what makes a great salesperson? Well, there is really no magic to it, just common sense.

But you know what they say about common sense….!

❓ If you want to find out how to transform your sales team into great salespeople, let’s chat.

⭐ We can start them off properly then develop them into sales superstars.

Let’s chat: https://calendly.com/jefere/half-an-hour-with-janet

#salestraining
#salescoach
#salesskills
#salestrainer
#TLEP

Feb 22
0
Small Business Sales Dilemmas

Why I am much more important than I was a month ago

By | entrepreneurs, Food for thought, marketing, Training | No Comments

Why am I more important than I was a month ago? Because clearly I am! And, before you start to mutter under your breath about me having over-inflated ideas of my own value, a lot of it is to do with perception.

OK, so let’s have a look at this curious statement; in many ways, I am no different from the Janet who existed one month ago. Of course I have roughly a month’s more life experience (I’m a month older though, so maybe that’s not so good). I have achieved some good things in the last 4 weeks and I hope I’ve spread a little happiness among my friends and some prosperity among my clients, but so far, so normal. Read More

Jan 29
0

Is your sales focus wrong?

By | entrepreneurs, sales training, Training | No Comments

Is your sales focus wrong? 

Most people, when they find out I am a sales trainer, ask, perfectly reasonably, about getting help with skills like closing, overcoming objections or improving conversion rates.

But actually, although these are important, so many people forget (or perhaps don’t realise the importance of) the basics. What do I mean by basics? Well, the stuff that you need to sort out before you even come close to speaking with a customer. The thing is, if you get these basics right, then it makes the whole sales process so much simpler, because you are doing the right things in the right order. You can keep closing ’till the cows come home, but if the customer isn’t interested because you haven’t done the right things at the beginning, you are very unlikely to get the sale.

Let’s have a look at what I mean. Here are some examples:

Belief in your product or service – Without a genuine belief that what you are selling is good, how can you possibly expect others to believe in it enough to part with their cold hard cash? We all have a built in ability to spot when we are being deceived and customers will sense even the slightest lack of confidence on your part – even if they cannot tangibly identify what it is. So make sure you love what you are selling.

Know who your ideal customers are – the chances are that there is a particular group or niche who are the ideal customers for your product or service. If you don’t know who they are, then you will probably waste a lot of time trying to sell to the wrong people.

Know the benefits inside out – if you just list a whole load of features about what you are selling, then you are going to speak a lot, bore your customers senseless and not be very effective at selling. Instead, take time to work out the tangible benefits of every single feature. An old trick to do this is to think of a feature and then say “so what?”. Your answer is the benefit or benefits.

Provide Proof – customers won’t buy from you if they don’t trust you, so make sure you have stories (ideally written down) of how you have delighted previous customers.  Whilst simple testimonials are better than nothing, the ideal type of proof is where you can show how you made a tangible change and helped customers either overcome a problem or achieve an objective.

Keep good customer records – there are loads of amazing CRM systems out there, but none are any good if you don’t actually use them. Even a simple filing card system is OK if it works for you, but you have to use something. Otherwise how will you store customer contact details, notes about conversations, diarise meetings, or manage your sales funnel?

Of course it is good to have an overall knowledge of the skills and techniques which will help you to sell, but if you spend a bit of time making sure these basic things are in place, then selling will be both more pleasurable and more effective.

Happy selling!

Janet is based in Enfield, north London and trains small businesses and entrepreneurs how to sell more. She has recently reached the final of the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management’s national awards (BESMA 2016) in the category of Sales Trainer of the Year and, in November 2015 won ‘Start up Business of the Year’ at the Enterprise Enfield Business Awards.

If you enjoyed this article and you would like to receive a free download: Janet’s 8 Proven Sales Tips, please click on this link now.
Click Here for 8 Proven Sales Tips

Jan 02
0
waiting to close the deal before it dies

Sometimes it’s better to sell backwards

By | marketing, sales tips, Training | No Comments

Sometimes it’s better to sell backwards

Do I really mean that? Well maybe not everything should be done backwards. But it is certainly worth setting out at the beginning of the meetings, the expectations you have for the end of the meeting!

Let me clarify.

OK – here is a familiar scenario to anyone who has been in sales. Have you ever been in the situation where you talk to your prospect. You do pretty much everything right and then you struggle to pin them down to a start date, or a date to sign? This, by the way, has nothing to do with the prospect creating objections. We will assume they are happy with everything but they are just reluctant to actually commit. It’s very frustrating and, short of just ringing them to ‘check on progress’ or ‘see if it has been signed off yet’ there is not much you can do.

So if this is something that is happening to you a lot, then try this strategy:

When you begin your discussion, start straight away by asking about the date of installation, or use or application. So in other words – the date they need your product or service to be in their possession, doing it’s thing.

This means you can use this date as a starting point and work backwards. You can explain your turnaround times and included details of important stages such as production, delivery and testing (depending on what you do of course). After all, that’s exactly what you would do if you were managing a project. And in many ways, selling is exactly that – project management.

Once you have done this, the prospect has a clear picture of time frames and you can guide them that they need to make a decision by a certain date in order to achieve their desired outcome. This gives them clarity and it gives you a genuine reason to chase them if, for any reason, they start to slip beyond the dates you have discussed.

Not all sales solutions are complicated!

Happy selling!

Come and have a chat about how we can grow your sales. Here’s a link to my calendar

Check out more of Tadpole Training’s blogs

5 star tadpole training
Dec 05
0
Sales training - helping customers to say yes

Make it super easy for your customers to say ‘Yes’

By | customers, entrepreneurs, negotiation, sales tips, Training | No Comments

Make it super easy for your customers to say ‘Yes‘

Is it possible that you’ve been making things too complicated for your customers? If so, you might be stopping them from buying. That’s because all of us humans like easy decisions rather than hard ones. So what can you do to ensure that your customers are going to find it easy to buy from you? Let’s look at some really simple things you can do straight away.

 

KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)

Whatever you are doing – demonstrating, presenting, or just explaining, don’t overwhelm your customer with information. Simplicity is the key here. So instead, do your homework and find out what they are likely to be interested in and then, through effective questioning, get to the core of their issue Read More

Oct 24
0

Upselling? Cross-selling? Help! I’m Confused!

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

Upselling? Cross-Selling? Help! I’m Confused!

Upselling and cross-selling. Do you these two phrases confuse you? If they do, you’re not alone. As if it isn’t enough to worry about selling the main thing that you do, you now need to sell other stuff too? Don’t panic!

It’s not actually that complicated. Let’s quickly explore what they both mean and how they can genuinely help you sell more in your business.

Upselling
This is where you try to get a customer to buy something in addition to the primary thing they want to buy (thereby making the primary product more expensive). For Read More

Aug 22
0

In sales, sometimes you need to get out of your own way

By | customers, entrepreneurs, sales tips, sales training | One Comment

In Sales, Sometimes you need to get out of your own wayIn sales, sometimes you need to get out of your own way
This is about lacking self-belief, something which I proved to myself spectacularly yesterday. 

To give you the background, the Christmas before last, I went over a speed bump too fast and knocked off the right side of my car’s bumper. I shoved the broken bit in the boot, gave myself a good telling off for not taking more care and got on with things.

Over the next few weeks, I kept thinking ‘I need to get that fixed’ but put it off with a variety of excuses – I haven’t got the time, it will cost too much to order a new bumper, it will be inconvenient to take it to the garage, it doesn’t really matter, blah blah. 

After a while I got used to having a broken bumper and it sailed right down my list of priorities. 

Yesterday, I was clearing out the boot of the car and, tucked right at the back was my broken bit of bumper. My current mindset is a lot different to my mindset 18 months ago and I looked at this piece of debris and Read More

Jun 27
0

5 Reasons Your Customers Will Not Buy From You

By | sales tips, sales training | No Comments

5 Reasons your customers will not buy from you.Sales trainer - men walking away from a sale

As a sales trainer, I spend a lot of time trying to help people sell more. But it’s also useful to know what things you shouldn’t do – the sort of things that will have your customers running for the hills (or at least hanging on to their cash). If you are doing any of these, please stop now – it’s costing you money:

1. Talking too much. It’s a cliché that a good sales person must have ‘the gift of the gab’. You are never going to persuade anyone to buy from you by talking them into submission. So ease up and, to use an old sales maxim, remember that you have two ears and one mouth and use them in that proportion. Read More