#FIA16 Farnborough International Airshow and post Brexit Road Warriors

5 steps to take in Selling post Brexit vote

Photo: Christopher Short

Today is the opening of the Farnborough Airshow - the trade show. The public show is on Saturday.

This year's show is taking place in a post Brexit vote environment. What might this now mean for selling ?

"Whatever uncertainties our country faces, I want the message to go out loud and clear: the UK will continue to lead the world in both civil and defence aerospace,"

Current Prime Minister Mr Cameron said on the opening day of the Farnborough International Airshow.

The UK government will buy nine new marine patrol planes from Boeing in a decade-long deal worth £3bn.

The Ministry of Defence's deal for the submarine-hunting P-8A Poseidon aircraft also covers training, maintenance and support.

Boeing will build a new £100m facility for the planes at RAF Lossiemouth in Moray.

The US company will also deliver 50 Apache AH-64E attack helicopters to the British Army.

Boeing expects to create about 2,000 new UK jobs in the coming years by expanding its maintenance and support operations for both military and commercial customers in Europe.

Undeniably more selling and buying is done from a desk base nowadays. The telephone and Internet dominate work.

Conventional salespeople were sometimes referred to as ‘ Road warriors’ back in the day.

I guess there may be many who might argue in military ‘theatre of operations’ similarly that all future warfare will be fought by unmanned drone aircraft.

Wars will be (or are -for all I know) fought in a cyber space.

Still a need for 'Boots on the ground' in theatres of War and Field Salespeople in the theatres of Markets

As Afghanistan showed  conventional soldiering continued for example in 2009, a 24 year old lieutenant, of the Royal Regiment of Scotland was awarded the Military Cross for a bayonet charge whilst on a tour of duty in Afghanistan: after shooting one Taliban fighter dead Lieutenant Adamson had run out of ammunition when another enemy appeared. 

Adamson immediately charged the second Taliban fighter and bayoneted him. ( you don’t get more old tech or brave than that )

 The Airbus #A380 at Farnborough 2016
 Photo: Christopher Short

In peace time despite the availability of the most sophisticated forms of communication open to the world’s buyers  sales leaders there are still shows like Farnborough and selling done face to face.


Samples and Products must be shown Contracts have to be signed.

The Digital world itself thinks it’s necessary to use road warriors whether buyers or sellers to show or visit  conventional exhibitions.

We might not see many characters like Arthur Miller’s Willie Logan of 'Death of A Salesman' at Farnborough but maybe like, Mark Twain’s premature death announcement ,- the Death of the Road Warrior sales person is maybe ’ a little exaggerated.’


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Body language in the business context

5 steps to take now in your selling after the Brexit vote

Well  the Brexit tube of toothpaste has been squeezed.  The Leave camp won.

 I was disappointed by my nation’s decision to leave the EU.

However I am a democrat and I have to accept as a member of the minority to bow to the decision of the majority of my nation

.

Now for the consequences

What’s done is done.

There is little point in trying to poke the toothpaste back into the tube.

As salespeople we have to regularly accept such similar defeats – we know as the song lyric goes that we must ‘pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down and start all over again.’

  For example we may disagree with decisions by our management, decisions by the ‘marketing’  on strategic direction,  production’s refusal to produce a ‘special’, finance’s  final say on margins ( or discounts)  etc. But we have to comply or else internal business anarchy takes place.

We are used, in other words, to accepting the minority position of Sales at power broking board level. ( The tension between serving the share holder , investors, stake holder etc versus the external customers)

The time for us to lick our wounds ( Remain) or gloat on our battle won ( Leave) is OVER

.

Let’s not dwell on Brexit but rather concentrate on staying competitive.

Our country is shell shocked in the aftermath of the EU referendum. We are grappling with the new reality .

However unpredictable the future may be, the worst thing to do now is dwell on the result on the referendum vote.

 Much like the pointless moaning about England’s soccer team being knocked out of the European Cup  in France  ( Congratulations  and well played to the Iceland team by the way) the English FA has now to look to the future ,plan for it and take action to the new tasks. The fans need to get over it now too. So likewise must we sales in the post referendum era.

The real risk is that the warnings of economic decline and predictions of the diminished role for the UK in the world and other doom mongering become self fulfilling prophecies.

Yet we should be in no doubt the consequences of this vote is a real game changer. So here are some initial suggestions

1. Time to keep calm – not to panic.

2. Think

3. Review

4. Communicate now with your customers and prospects- if you have not already

5. Avoid lack lustre treading water type messages of ‘no change here’, “ wait and see” but rather communicate positively how you will be:-

• more competitive,
• more flexible,
• more creative,
• more dynamic
• more entrepreneurial
• and more proactive.

Re-assure your customers that unlike certain Brexit politicians ( as it currently appears) we in selling do have a plan B  !   – we know the importance of contingency and how to support our clients in both good , tough  and uncertain times.

Whether the UK’s Brexit decision turns out to be a Pyrrhic victory for the Leave camp or a real one that is for the political historians to argue over, our role in Sales is to work to be part of the solution not part of the problem.

Whichever way you voted , now is the time to take up the strain again – and as sales and marketing profession it’s what we all will be doing.

Good selling in this ever changing world of new opportunities

Related Links

Minding your own business Leave or Remain

Brexit or Remain ? Mind your own business !

Back in the day, sales professionals were advised to avoid conversations with clients around topics like religion, politics and such like. Such subjects were likely to expose extremely held views and create a conversational climate unlikely to promote a helpful atmosphere of carrying out trade.

Across the beautiful River Itchen
( or perhaps might have well been
 the English  Channel
 in this house owner's view)
 in Winchester, Hampshire yesterday

The long campaign for the EU referendum has led to many angry arguments in the social environment  ( if dinner parties I have attended of late are to go by) let alone in the business arena.

I have met a number of folk of late who work for large multi-national organisations. They have taken out time to 'guide' their employees ( for the good of the firm) which way they should vote. Such guidance is not much appreciated by Brits and could lead to a bolshie  reaction .

Whichever way the country votes , one thing is for sure - if salespeople have not taken any proactive action already,  they will need to do so - one way or the other . 

For after June 23rd there can be no further treading water !

This is because the referendum is not just about us as individuals- but it's our customers and their customers, it is about our direct and indirect competition, it is about what to do in financial conditions in the short , medium and long term.

Contrary to the implications of spokespeople for both Brexiters and Remainers  or the bickering of blue-on-blue action-  no sales happen automatically in business. 

Nothing in business really happens before a sale is made. Buyers will still need to be persuaded. Negotiations will need active participants. Nothing in business sells itself-No product or service. Nor is selling and buying purely a rational logical undertaking.


Some may think There is not much emotion in business but there is a lot of business in emotion - that is why both sides have exploited ( perhaps over exploited) FUD - Fear , Uncertainty and Doubt in their campaign communications)

Salespeople need to concentrate on three action areas.

These are

1. Protection
2. Expansion 
3. Development

1. You  need to protect your existing customer base. You will need to determine what effect in or out will have on their business, their customers, their competition

2. You will have to see where growth within your existing customer base will need to be achieved.

3. What NEW customers will need to be developed. Will new distributor lines be needed? Will the supply chain need to be altered ?

Directly after June 23rd , few other actions will be relevant.  

Related Links

Selling will have to do something whether we go out or remain in

Brexit or Remain, Selling will have to deal with it.

Nothing really happens in business before a sale is made. This of course  an exaggeration but however the Referendum vote goes, salespeople will have an active role with the consequences.

Brexit the implications for selling

Britain’s salespeople, much like the country at large, are being assailed as to how we should decide how we should vote in the referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU on 23 rd June.

A survey of 278 British senior marketers, conducted by email provider Mailjet in March, found that 

31% believe leaving the EU  – would be good for their business.

42% say Brexit would not be advantageous for their company,

and 27% are unsure.

How the campaigns match up

The battle between the two sides in the EU referendum is as much a conflict of selling skills as it is a clash of ideas. 

The two officially designated campaigns in the debate – Britain Stronger in Europe on one side, and Vote Leave on the other – are competing for airtime and the attention of the public through a range of marketing tactics, not all of which have proved successful so far.

In their Public relations efforts to date,  both sides have courted controversy in their attempts to dominate the headlines.

Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt ( FUD) have featured in both campaigns .

Back in March, Vote Leave published a list of murders and rapes committed by 50 EU criminals in Britain –  criticised by the ‘remain’ side as “scaremongering”. Similarly, the pro-EU camp has generated publicity by promoting economic warnings about the dangers of leaving, but faces claims from the Brexit side that it is running an overly negative campaign labelled ‘Project Fear’.

The remain side, on the other hand, has the backing of the Government, which spent £9m on sending pro-EU leaflets to every UK household last month.

 This use of direct mail reflects the remain campaign’s desire to reach older voters, who polls suggest are more likely to be against the EU and more likely to vote.

Both campaigns came in for criticism at Advertising Week Europe last month. Lindsay Pattison, CEO of media agency Maxus, argued that neither side had made a significant impact on social media. 

“Britain Stronger in Europe has got something like 25,000 followers [on Twitter] and Vote Leave about 35,000,” she noted. “Both of those numbers are pretty pathetic.”

The outcome of the vote could have far-reaching consequences for how salespeople perform their jobs and engage with their  customers and prospects. The uncertainty created by the referendum is already having an effect on businesses.

Consumer confidence is 18 points lower than it was a year ago, according to the latest index by GfK, while a Deloitte survey reveals chief financial officers at FTSE 350 companies are delaying the recruitment of new staff and other internal investments until the vote is decided.

Whichever way the referendum vote goes it will be up to we salespeople to make the best of the situation for ourselves, our families, our businesses our customers and our country.


Related links

Lessons for Sales literature from election manifestos

Selling Solutions to Productivity Arguments on the cost of UK Bank holidays.

Selling Solutions to Productivity Arguments on the cost of 

 UK Bank holidays. ( fist written up in 2012)

I enjoy my Easter break and it's a chance to return with batteries recharged. The UK has less bank holidays than many other countries.

However such Public holidays have a cost.

The economists at  The Centre for Economics and Business Research  (CEBR ) estimate that Good Friday ; Easter Monday    “ come with a price tag of about £4.7bn." according to Daniel Solomon of CEBR .

 The CEBR  think tank wants Bank Holidays to be more spread out over the year to stop businesses "losing momentum".

CEBR founder Douglas McWilliams told BBC Breakfast: ‘We have done some maths on this and about 45 per cent of the economy suffers, the offices, the factories, the building sites where people tend not to go to work on Bank Holiday."

‘About 15 per cent of the economy, shops, pubs, clubs, restaurants, cafes and visitor attractions, they actually do well out of the Bank Holiday, it's a mixed thing.The news was passed around by the likes of  Daily Telegraph on line, Sky news ,and  Sony Award-winning presenter James Whale  hosted  a lively discussion with listeners of the LBC Drive time show which I found most entertaining on Easter Monday afternoon.

Mr Solomon of CEBR noted the Easter holidays are "peak time for spending on garden equipment and DIY" but said the sectors that gain account for far less of the economy than those such as offices and construction that lose out.

The think thank says that if bank holidays were scrapped, Britain's gross domestic product (GDP) - a measure of the value of goods and services produced by all sectors of the

 economy - would be £19bn higher every year. 

GDP may not be the whole story launching the inclusion of well being items in the Office for National Statistics' survey a few months ago, the prime minister emphasised that GDP was not a good measure of a society's success

Last month, the Governor of the Bank of England Sir Mervyn King warned that the extra bank holiday for the Diamond Jubilee could damage Britain’s economy.

Sir Mervyn said output would fall in the second quarter of the year as the country celebrates the Queen’s 60 years on the throne in June.

He told the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee that the Jubilee celebrations would have a similar impact on the economy to last year’s Royal Wedding, when the recovery stalled.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimated that the royal wedding last year cost the UK £1.2billion or 0.08 per cent of GDP reported the Daily Mail.

But Sir Mervyn said the economy would bounce back later in the third quarter as visitors flood into Britain to watch the Olympics in July and August.

The Implications of all this to those in selling

For Salespeople such type of thinking does have a place if only to make the most of what active selling time we have. Salespeople don't have the luxury of presenteeism as Lord Hutton of the Work Foundation http://www.theworkfoundation.com/

How much Selling time ( face to face or phone ) do I really have ? Below is a typical calculation

An average year is 365 days

Less

Weekends                             104                 265

Annual holidays                  20                    241

Bank Holidays                      8                      233

Training Days                       5                      228

Trade days/ exhibitions       10                    218

Conference days                  3                      215

Days ill                                  3                      212

Planning Days                     12                    2 00

For many salespeople it will be less than 200 days available for ‘active’ selling time.

More thought provoking is what we do within those 200 days n the field or on phone.

In 2009, Alexander Proudfoot Consulting Group, www.alexandrproudfoot. ,published  a sales productivity report.  

Participating corporate respondents included over 800 executives in 19 countries from publicly- and privately-held enterprises and a wide array of industry groups

The chart below is based on research by numerous organisations including CSO Insights, IDC, and Aberdeen Group that indicate salespeople typically spend between 26% and 42% of their time on core sales activities that drive sales. 

Related Links

 DayOpinioneers page The New Day 28th March 2016

http://www.technoligence.com/ResearchandInsights/ForBusinessLeaders/tabid/103/entryid/9/The-Return-on-Increased-Sales-Productivity.aspx  Source;  David Micksch 2010

Related Links

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2127241/Bank-Holidays-cost-UK-economy-18bn-spread-out.html#ixzz1rZXshKLZ

James Whale LBC Radio

http://www.lbc.co.uk/james-whale-3702

Daily Telegraph –Emily Godson

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/9193191/Do-we-really-need-bank-holidays-asks-CEBR.html.

BBC news 1823 comments

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17654781

Direct Gov site

Bank holidays and British Summer Time Directgov - Employment

Mercer HR

Research published last year by Mercer HR

Cheap perfume because you're worth it ? #NationalFragranceDay The sweet smell of success

Every day it seems is a hashtag day.

On the 10th anniversary of twitter today is amongst the forest of hashtags is #NationalFragranceDay.

We often use the expression ‘the sweet smell of success’ as the pleasant feeling of being successful.

Suppose you’re buying a bottle of wine to share with a friend. 

You have an idea of what (s)he likes – dry whites –  you have a price range in mind, and so when you arrive at the wine shop or the supermarket, you would think making a selection would be a fairly straightforward process.

But when you arrive there, the shelves are instantly bewildering. Sauvignon blancs are muddled up with Shiraz, Prosecco and Pinot noir, expensive vintages are next to bargain 'vin ordinaires' – it all looks shambolic.

You can’t actually pick out a bottle yourself, because all but the cheapest are in a locked cabinet. The staff aren't around to unlock the cabinets or to give you any advice. Some bottles are displayed under very bright, hot down lights ( will that spoil the wine you wonder) and is that dust you can see on a lot of the bottles ?

You wouldn't be blamed for going elsewhere in search of a retailer that puts a little more effort into selling its wine.

Fragrances endorsed / created for Justin Beiber,
Taylor Swift, David Beckham, Beyonce or One Direction
Things have come on quite a way since
Faberge's Brut and boxerHenry Cooper
back in the day

A similar experience can be endured when try to buy fragrances.  All salespeople can learn from the best practitioners  of one of the oldest selling sectors - the Perfume game.

Yet despite being in the beauty business, some retailers treat their fragrance section just like the fictional wine-seller described above.

When looking at how fragrances are displayed or ranged, it’s a good idea to consider how the better wine shops stock and display alcohol. 

There is very clear sorting by type, making it easier for customers to go straight to what they know they like.

Fragrance retailers, however, can run the risk of jumbling fragrances together, making it overwhelming and confusing for customers.

Because there’s often a price focus in the fragrance section, a “bargain bin” presentation can predominate.

Displays tend to be overwhelming and testers hard to find.  If fragrances are behind glass ( or locked in a cabinet) a customer may be inclined to walk away rather than ask for help.

Often fragrances are not sorted into any order. It is good practise by the better outlets not to sort by brand – but display testers by fragrance family.

Chanel No. 5 was the first perfume launched

 by French couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel.

Still selling well today after 96 years

WHAT’S YOUR FRAGRANCE  TYPE?

Apparently these fragrance families fall into 14 major categories i classified by the way they smell. Most of us tend to instinctively prefer one or more fragrance types, whether it’s the zesty, vibrant citrus family, the flowery, often powdery and abstract soft floral family, or the rich sensuality of the oriental family.

What attracts us to a perfume includes

 – the packaging,

the celebrity endorsement, 

the marketing 

– but most of all, that attraction to certain fragrance families.

A repeat customer will be able to identify the fragrance family they prefer, and look for other fragrances in that family.

These preferences are determined by their scent-memory associations (subliminally in most cases) so it’s good practise for the perfume seller to spend a bit of time with a customer helping them discover them.

Brand, packaging and popularity definitely play a part in initial choices, but a great way to build customer relationships for repeat business is to empower and educate customers on their own unique preferences. So you see the big name houses employ an educational approach to their sell.

Retail assistants play a huge role in helping customers make a purchase they like, so it’s important they have a great understanding of the different fragrance types and trained well.

Once they know the types of fragrance customers like, they can help find other fragrances of the same type, or help customers choose personalised gifts for loved ones.

Traditionally women loved perfume because it adds to their identity, whether they wear the same scent every day or different scents for different moments. But with the growth in male grooming the Identity /Signature is increasingly significant for men also.

Most wouldn't regard perfume as a luxury these days, but rather a luxurious necessity.

Much like  with wine aficionados, the fragrance industry uses the note expression. For example Floral, Oriental, Woody and Fresh notes.  

A while back....

As the  UK High Street was focusing on the Christmas season  last year  there were the usual surveys on the total cost of the carol The "Twelve days of Christmas" twelve drummers drumming right down to the partridge in a pear that true loves will be sending their to each other.

The Daily Mail on 25th Nov and the Independent a day later have featured a story about how the Lidl brand of scent  "Suddenly Madame Glamour  smells pretty close to Coco Chanel's  Madamoiselle  

To a true love who is a savvy buyer maybe this may be a bargain but I wonder whether the recipient would be so pleased. What are you saying to your beloved when you buy them  a bargain cheap scent?

Yet Lidl stated they sold 1 million bottles over that Christmas period.

So as in so many selling situations, it's "Different strokes for different folks." or " Different smells for different gals ( and guys)"

Coco Chanel once said "In the laboratory we make perfume. In the store we sell dreams" 

What ever your business do you really know what you are selling?

 Get it right and you'll smell the sweet smell of success. 

Good Selling

Selling a disincentive -It's in the bag 5p please - #Selling Bags to reduce their usage

This Monday is a rather special day for Selling in the English high street.

Buying and Selling tends to take place in a free-ish market environment. But today through an enforced selling price by the Department for Food and Rural Affairs , Selling is trying to be used to change commercial behaviour.

According to Keep Britain Tidy, 11.4% of places surveyed in England showed evidence of littered single-use plastic bags.

In a world concerned about plastic packaging waste , Business is being challenged to redesign, produce and sell its products. This requires us to re-think how we use and consume products, and re-define what is possible through re-use and recycling.

This new law is trying to change the behaviour of the buyer by stopping the seller offering free carrier bags.

The Single Use Carrier Bags Charges (England) Order 2015 comes into force today 5th October.

The order requires sellers who employ more than 250 people to charge 5p for a "single use carrier bag" which is less than 70 microns (0.07mm) thick.

Though there are plenty of exceptions to the rule, such as for medicines, raw meat and razor blades,we're  having to pay for bags and it will be a major change for most English shoppers.

Offering free plastic bags has been a low-cost way to encourage custom for some years.

Former bag behaviour 'back in the day'

Before the era of the free plastic bag, customers brought their own shopping bags. There might be paper bags provided for some items, but people didn't expect to be furnished with bags as a matter of course.

There is a reference to a carrier bag in a 1907 catalogue from the department store " Army and Navy" .

 "The 'Sensible' carrier bag with strings is the only paper bag with a firm bottom, and capable of carrying wet fruit, pastry etc, without bursting the bag."
 

This Paper bag dates back to the 1960s
 Fruiterer and Greengrocer Hone's was founded in 1911

Current plastic bag for Hone's Customers 

Celloplast patented a "bag with handle of weldable plastic material" in the US in 1965.

 By the mid-1970s JC Penney and other American department stores, were using plastic bags for purchases, and the first polyethylene bags appeared in supermarkets across the country soon after.

By the 1980s the bags had reached British supermarkets and their use grew in use quickly. Marks and Spencer had a plastic carrier for clothes by 1973.

The free plastic bag rapidly became contentious. 

British supermarket shoppers used 8.5 billion free plastic bags in 2014, according to *Wrap, a recycling charity - though this was down from 2006, when figures were first collated, when more than 12 billion were used.

In England the average person goes through nearly 12 thin-gauge bags (made of plastic or paper) per month, while in Wales, where there has been a 5p charge per plastic bag since 2011, shoppers use just two bags per person per month. 

Before the introduction of the charge, they used 10. 

 Shoppers in Northern Island have seen a similar drop-off in bag use since they introduced a charge in April 2013, from nearly nine to fewer than two thin gauge bags used per person per month.

The reason is explained by some academics that when there is an economic disincentive involved, consumers tend not to use a product.



'It ain't necessarily so'

The introduction of the charge represents a change in approach towards shoppers, led by the government. Previously, the option to buy Bags for Life (at a small cost) was supposed to encourage virtue from the general public.

But  figures from *Wrap suggest that - with 439 million of these tougher bags issued in 2014 alone - they are still not "for Life".

So our supermarkets have been preparing for  today in different ways. Tesco has been offering shoppers free Bags for Life in the run-up to the changeover to try and ease the transition.

From the highest fashion boutique to the most humble pound shop, stores will have to charge customers expecting to carry home their purchases in plastic bags thinner than 70 microns thick with handles.

With 80% of clothes shoppers saying they use brand new carrier bags when buying items, and similarly high proportions at other shops, it will be a sea change for both sales staff and shoppers alike.

Pound shops could surely have a problem. They will have to ensure they have enough change for customers who now need to spend £5.05, rather than a flat £5, for a five-item shop with a bag that previously would have been free.

A survey conducted  by Wrap last year, 40% of respondents said that the charge would encourage them to use Bags for Life more often –

though 39% said that "it would make no difference" to their shopping behaviour.

 (This figure did include those who have already shunned plastic bags.)

 According to Professor Poortinga, a professor of environmental psychology at Cardiff University, whenever charges have been introduced, bag usage has dropped between 50 and 90%.

But the charge may be addressing the wrong issue, believes Sukhi Poonia of PAFA, the Packaging and Films Association. 

"We as an industry have put our hands up and said it's an issue - plastic bags are getting chucked into the sea. But our stance is that we're never going to get better behaviour until there's tougher enforcement on littering."

Related Links

Department for Environment ,Food and Rural Affairs

WRAP recycling charity

Keep Britain Tidy