12 Sales Skills to click-n-go Complete Selling Skills Programme Before, During and After the Sale

Here are 12 key skills areas for successful selling. 

Please Click on the  links that you need to update or refresh


Before you call

         Getting appointments and Interviews

         Planning and Prioritisation

         Research

         Selling by Objectives

During your call

        Getting and maintain Buyer Attention

         Investigation skills for Salespeople

        Benefits and Personalising the Client Benefits

        Answering Objections Behaviours to avoid

        Answering objections such as "Price, happy with present supplier, what's the added value, I need to speak to my boss, Leave it with me..."

        Gaining commitment and Closing

After your call

            Keep Developing

10 ways to Keep Developing your Sales Posture, Fitness and Vitality

The start of a new year is a good time to get back into the Sales gym and build up your sales fitness. Of course it is even better to keep developing on an on-going basis!

With a physical fitness regime you can develop a better physical posture, better endurance and vitality.

Likewise with on going development of your selling you can improve your sales posture, sales fitness and sales vitality. Here are ten little tips that are simple and effective. ( I guess you can think of more why not share them to the comments at the end of this post)

1.      When you hand over your business card ,hand over two cards ( one to pass on to a colleague)

2.      Become an industry insight expert. Subscribe to industry journals, read blogs, research competition and visit courses /workshops and seminars. If you are able to supply information to your client that reaches further than just your product, you  become their first resource when they want to make changes.

3.      “Saw this thought of you.” If you come across a link, article ,post etc send it to relevant customer with a short note or email on the lines of

     “ Saw this , it made me think of you and your interest in … Hope all is well”

4.      Social Selling Posture  Follow their twitter , facebook , LinkedIn, thank them for following you. /Retweet / share / like/  favourite as a regular discipline. Freshen up your social media profile .

5.      Stop your sales pitch start the conversation . Listen more

6.      Re-examine what you do currently. Map out your client journey, before and after

7.      What could you refine in 6. to reduce your cost of sale and increase client satisfaction ?

8.      Improve and update your selling aids. Add PowerPoint presentations to your laptop or print colour copies of promotional materials. Consider a Nyrex folder with your own researched news clippings , diagrams etc..

9.      Diary in your next step before leaving a meeting or getting off the phone.

Unless you are qualifying lead each call should end with an appointment scheduled or a task for your client to complete.

Get your client involved in the process immediately, because they are likely to forget about your phone call or meeting when their next task starts. Don’t forget to ask Who else should I be seeing ?

10.  Keep your sales pitch fresh. Try to change and improve it every week. Adding new information from research or current events will make your information  relevant to your client during the sale

DVP, UPOD and Benefits - Personalising your offer

There is much talk nowadays about DVP ( Differentiated value proposition, Unique Point of difference (UPOD), Unique Selling Points (USP) and the like...)

What matters in selling is that the communication of our offer 'resonates' with the client. This begins when we tune into the client's wavelength.

Their favourite radio station as a trainer colleague of mine Simon Broom calls, is radio WIIFM.

What are favourite programmes Buyers like on Radio WIIFM
The graphic shows the first choice of buyers to what aspects of considered purchase of an offer that they did purchase in the survey of Buyers' views of Salespeople.


WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?

So to suitably tune into this salespeople need to review their offer and analyse it.
Offer Analysis -

Offer Analysis is a customer motivation technique which enables you to communicate your total offer (i.e. not just the product or service itself) in the most attractive, persuasive and relevant manner.
The exercise of Offer Analysis must be part of your sales preparation and training so that when you are subsequently in front of a (potential) customer you have all the information and ‘ammunition’ you need to select the most telling points and communicate them in the most effective way.
The stages of Offer Analysis (customer motivation)

Stage 1:
Identify all the facts and features of:

• Your actual product/service
• Your organisation
• The ‘package’ which you offer your clients
• These facts/features must be exact, preferably quantifiable, and capable of being verified.

Stage 2:
Extend these facts/features into results or benefits. Facts/features state what something is; results/benefits state what something does, or what is its effect.
Stage 3:
Interpret these results/benefits into motivators or ‘YOU’ Appeal factors. Decide how they can be communicated to the customer in such a way as to appeal to their rational (e.g. gain or saving of money, utility, security) needs or emotional (e.g. ego, loyalty, pleasure) wants. The link phrase for effective interpretation is “...which means that you (or your)...”. Remember you are personalising the benefit with a “wraparound” statement that relates to your customer’s needs.

Features Benefits ‘YOU’ Appeal Motivator
Is Does Means Needs and
wants

Each benefit is tailored to the customer’s situation by using the phrase “which means that you or your” – the word ‘you’ puts the customer in the middle of the benefit picture. In other words your presentation becomes persuasive.

Competitor comparison
In order to motivate a client or prospect to buy from you, they must appreciate not only that your offer is good in itself, but also that it is the most cost effective offer for the business and preferably also the most personally satisfactory one for them too.

While it is unprofessional and unacceptable to criticise your competitors directly, Offer Analysis enables you to compare favourably with them in two ways:

• by presenting your offer in a professional fashion it will create a much better psychological impression than a badly presented case from a competitor.

• by majoring on those features/benefits which are exclusive to you, or which are your greatest relative strengths, then indirectly you will show how you are better than your competitors.

The practical use of Offer Analysis

You are not doing the full analysis to enable you to swamp every client with information whether they want it or not. You do it to ensure that you are fully conversant with the implications of your total offer, and so that you are in a position easily to bring to mind the points that will appeal most to a specific individual. You must also provide proof that you can meet both their business needs and their personal ‘wants’.

Offer Analysis will enable you to communicate your key points to your client so that your presentation is:

Logical , Credible , Comprehensive and   Motivational

Round up of New Year Resolutions for 2013 in Selling Refocus Rethink Reinvent Rename

Originally posted last year but worth another read for 2014

I have spent time this last week reviewing what many salespeople – or at least those brave enough to share on the net - have posted as their resolutions for  2013.

I thought I might share what has come to light from my search. You might care to consider to include some of their approaches and thoughts in putting the final touches to your selling plans for 2013.

 Having enjoyed the Holidays recharging their selling batteries for 2013, they have returned with renewed vigour. Some even had undergone an epiphany having been inspired by some sales reading that had over the holiday which is apt in this season of Epiphany.

I noticed many of their plans parallel the challenges of re-Branding. Their objectives for the new year can be grouped into 4 ‘Re-‘ words : Refocus ,Rethink, Reinvent ,Rename.

Refocus - be a marksman with a rifle not a shot gun

As with re branding, in Sales it’s worth reviewing who is your target audience from time to time.

It can happen that your sales drop because in trying to increase your market share, you lose sight of whom it is you serve best. In casting your net too wide, you may even alienate your core clients.

Refocusing gives you a chance to redeploy your efforts specifically to appeal to those clients who will realistically be most interested in and most likely to buy your offer, rather than wasting time and money on a less effective, too-broad sales plan.

I notice a number of Business Plans for 2013 who wanted to reduce the amount of time spent on unfocused time on social media such as LinkedIn , Facebook, YouTube and blogs J !

 Read this excellent article by Benjamin Cohen

Rethink - as Goethe said "Most things have been thought of before, the trick is to think of them again"

On the other hand the new year can be a good time to reconsider your product offering with fresh eyes. Forget your past success and look ahead to what it will take to seize a newer, broader market.

Ask yourself what will make your product relevant to 2013’s customer. What are the benefits of your offer for 2013?  Does your product promote ecological responsibility recycling? Does it support a healthy, active lifestyle? Can it create greater efficiencies or cost savings in an economy where everyone’s looking for new ways to stretch the money further?

If we are headed for a triple dip recession one may need to freshen up and rethink our offering to avoid being thought of or seen as same old /same old. Notice how in retail how the banks like Barclays , supermarkets like Tesco have undertaken refits.

Fast food chain McDonald’s is a good example of how taking a fresh look at your company’s offerings you can not only keep you relevant but help you thrive in an ever-shifting marketplace.

Established as a burger joint and maligned by the well-hyped documentary “Super-Size Me” as being synonymous with obesity, McDonald’s took a step back and envisioned a restaurant where healthy offerings such as salads, fruit and yogurt could peacefully co-exist with good old-fashioned fast food fare.


My breakfast place mat on Thursday December 20th 2012

This approach reaped immediate rewards, as customers who had left McDonald’s  in pursuit of healthier options discovered that it was safe to return.  Notice their campaigns on recycling and health messages.

Reinvent - just consider how many times 'Brand Beckham' has been reinvented

If you google image soccer star and model David Beckham you realise how skillfully he has reinvented his image over the years e.g . hairstyles, product endorsements, clean shaven  / beard  etc. 

In the 1970s and 1980s  clothing brand Burberry  went through a period  synonymous with gangwear in the UK. football thugs, chavs and hooligans. Phoney clothes with the signature Burberry check print were sold to the mass market, creating the impression that it was no longer an exclusive brand and undermining its desirability among affluent set.

Burberry struck back, relying heavily on a series of endorsements from young, A-list celebrities like Kate Moss, and Emma Watson to reposition the brand as fresh and appealing.

In addition to advertising heavily in glossies like GQ, Esquire, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, they also used a viral marketing campaign, placing ad banners on top fashion websites.

 You notice that the brand appears at fashion weeks around the world without fail, hosting their own shows to present new lines, which keeps their name constantly in the fashion press.

 In doing so, Burberry has reinvented itself and reclaimed its historic stature as a high-end, aspirational brand

Keep an eye out for the Beckham’s young Romeo who will feature in Burberry Spring and Summer campaigns this year.

Rename - nom de plum,  alias , aka....

A complete change of name can be a risky strategy but one that can also be highly effective when implemented with perfect timing and execution. For example

Backrub 1996 became Google in 1998

Anderson Consulting became Accenture on Jan 1 2001

Network Associates became MacAfee  Inc in 2004

Yves Saint Laurent ( YSL) becomes Saint Laurent Paris in 2013

A great example of how one company changed their fortunes by changing their name is the fast food chain originally known as Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Founded by Colonel Sanders in 1956, the company made the wide-sweeping decision in 1999 to shorten their name to simply “KFC.”

There are several prevalent theories why this change was undertaken maybe some are urban myths but it all helped to get the brand talked about. Some suggest it was the desire to disassociate themselves from the word “fried” and its unhealthy implications.

Others claim the KFC wanted to remove the word “chicken” in reaction to pressure from government food regulators upset about treatment of livestock.

Still others suggested the company removed the word “Kentucky” because the name was actually trademarked in the USA by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1990, smacking all who wanted to use the name with a hefty licensing fee.

Whatever the real reason for the switch, KFC was reborn and sales shot up.

If your customers are losing their passion for your products and your sales numbers are feeling the squeeze, re branding may prove to be just the jump start you need to revitalise your sales revenues.

A Happy Epiphany season to all readers and hope your new year's resolutions for 2013 come to fruition whether you refocus, rethink, reinvent or rename.



Engagement Selling in 2014 the era of 3.0

Happy 2014 !

Here’s my prediction for 2014

2014 will be an outstanding year for SELLING.

During 2014 Selling will increasingly focus on the challenges of selling to Client 3.0

The ‘S’ word ( selling) may not be used of course.

 We will as likely as not be told by the global management consultants, gurus and business pundits that we will all need to be

‘leveraging the digital ecosystem to engage with Client 3.0’

or some other such highfalutin gobbledegook.

In our business digital age clients have evolved from basic information hunter-gatherers to voracious information seekers addicted to the internet through a range of ‘gear’ such as PC, smart phones and tablets .

The supply side has to adapt its selling style to survive.

It has metamorphosed from a reactive educative cloistered home awaiting for the ‘faithful’ to attend their services to a proactive evangelical selling mission adventuring to their client’s home ground .

For some time the supply side has led a comfortable life acting as an auditioning impresario in their digital castle with a 1.0 mindset of “ find us on the internet.”

 Some business leaders thought there was no need to call clients because they would find them.

The supply side may have even thought they did not really need salespeople ! The function could be outsourced and digitalised.  After all, their thinking went, Sales is  just a process ( partly true) we can digitise  the process put it on ‘the cloud’ and sit back and see the money role in. But monetising the process side of selling is not the whole story. You have to sow as well as reap.

To adapt the Emmerson quote their philosophy went something like

“ If a man write a better ebook, preach a better podcast or build in better search engine optimisation, the world will Google their path to his website.”

The 2.0 era spawned Internet business where sales were generated and services were rendered on line. Some businesses were  entirely born from the internet  such as ebay and Amazon.

 2.0 where all or nearly was done on line. Client 2.0 had to dance to the suppliers ‘set of options’.

The selling side ( or marketing if you prefer)  employed  ‘command vocabulary ’  telling clients to

“ follow us on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn”

The 2.0 environment was more akin to Thomas Lipton’s worldview 

“When a hen lays her eggs she clucks the news all round the farm yard but when a duck lays her eggs she does so in complete silence. –  Lipton asked “who the hell buys ducks eggs ?”

Social media has made the farmyard that bit noisier.

Now in the era of 3.0 Clients just won’t go to businesses. Just as we go less  to the store, more of us order on line and expect suppliers to deliver to our door.

In the era of 3.0 businesses have again to find clients, effectively engage and respond to a ‘want it now’ client attitude.

Once more the Client is back in the driving seat and professional selling is back big-time even it is now described as 'leveraging the digital ecosystem to engage with Client 3.0’. :)

What’s the anatomy of Client 3.0?

• Mobile Informed
• Socially connected
• Put their trust in the Crowd
• Price sensitive as ever / price knowledgeable
• Self promoting (era of the  Selfie )

•  'Mobile' Informed -  but Client 3.0 is watching less TV, reading fewer newspapers. Source -media report 79 % of smart phone owners use their device for purchasing. In the retail space 70% of smart phone owners use their device in store.
• 'Do social' in the office and round and about. 20% use their PC for social and 30% use their mobile. They ‘like’, ‘share’, ‘follow’ and ‘subscribe’.
• 'Trust' the Crowd   Word of mouth is the primary influencer at 71% above their own past experience 63%, advertising comes in at 15% along with PR and Direct marketing
• Price sensitive as ever / price knowledgeable
• Self promoting  we are living in an era of the  Selfie.  Presidents, Prime ministers  and even the Pope have all selfied ( I guess it will become a verb if it is not already) 

Question: What must sales do in this 3.0 world  ?

Answer: Learn to Engage Sell in 2014

1. Listen. Learn from your clients every day and adapt accordingly.

2. Engage. Enter into a dialogue to grow your community ( formally known as Planned business development of your customer base)

3. Act. Develop innovation and earn their trust and build loyalty

4. When they threaten to buy Close !

Related links

Buyers' views of Salespeople

The Selfie sell

Selling Trust

5 best Flipchart tools for trainer session survival

1. Marker Pen Top of my list is the   Promarker from Letraset

It comes with a large chisel nib for fills and a small nib at the other end for detail and finer work. The ink is alcohol based, permanent, and non-toxic. It dries fast on flip chart. 

It is advisable to use a spare blotter sheet to prevent ink bleed.

Useful tip: For quicker work on the fly wind some masking tape around the barrel  ( see in photo) which you can tear off for quick display on lecture / syndicate room walls.

2.  Another great colouring tool for displayed charts which avoids fears of bleed through damaging wall decorations is the  Stabilo   Woody 3 in 1 wide pencil 880/750. It is a coloured pencil, wax crayon and watercolour pencil in one. Its XXL lead is equivalent to 8 standard pencils.

3. As pro- trainers know yellow is not a good colour if you want you audience to see what you have written. This is why I have a thick yellow crayon for my flipchart work.

I use it for prepared drawing and numerical calculations which I build up during a session when using a flipchart . If I am worried of spelling a technical term incorrectly I pre-write it on the flipchart in yellow crayon. I can see it up close to the flipchart but the delegates usually cannot.

Useful tip: Another way to distract delegates from your use of yellow crayon is to put a heading in black with a border . Their eyes are drawn to the heading not the yellow crayon.

4. Glue sticks  Henkel Pritt Stickss are so handy for flipchart work. Since 1969 the Pritt stick has been the clean, quick and accurate way to stick paper, paperboard and photos and syndicate collage work.

Useful tip:   The Mr Pritt character on the barrel gives you instant inspiration for simple cartoon eyebrows, eyes, nose, cheeks mouth and hands to spice up your charts .

5. Masking tape . One way that Flipcharts beat PowerPoint outright is in the display area. Tearing off a flipchart and hanging on the wall using masking tape helps leaves the messages of your training session up for longer. After all once a slide has been changed it’s gone.

The effect of a gallery of flipcharts wallpapered through a training session is really useful for summary and review of session. It allows delegates to get up from sitting and promenade and take a note of points to follow up after the training interaction. They also see what a lot of work they have generated in the session.

Useful tip:  I photograph all course flipchart work with my  trusty Fujifilm digital camera and email them as a follow up to my delegates.  This also saves them time noting very detailed information from a flip chart during the session.

I get through lots of masking tape on courses so I recommend the  Poundland pack of 4 reels as particularly good value.  

True Selling at Christmas 2103

There is a point of view that says ‘ nothing happens in business until a sale is made’.

It has recently been re-worked by the provocative UK comedian Sean Lock to promote his new video.

 ‘The true spirit of Christmas is selling…if there is no selling there is no giving.”

U.K. retail sales last November (2012) were 15 % above the average for the first 10 months of the year and 37 % above the average in December.

The UK multiples were promoting their Christmas season messages this tear from November with their epic productions.

The Tesco ad was themed around the strap line "There's nothing better than Christmas"

Boots  used the sound track of  Bronksi Beat’s Smalltown Boy,  for their ad, where a teenager  furtively takes to the street on a Christmas night to deliver presents to people who have done something special for him. Recipients include a teacher who helped him achieve a “B in Maths”, the “fittest girl in year 10” and the nurse who cared for his “nan”.  It used the brand’s “It Feels Good” punch line and highlights its offers on “1000s of Christmas gifts”

 M and  S’ advert engaged Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Helena Bonham Carter and David Gandy for their first Christmas campaign. The  tag line was ‘believe in magic and sparkle’ – began with leggy model Rosie chasing her dog down the street on a cold winter’s night and then having to follow him down a manhole, a nod to Alice in Wonderland.

Sainsbury's ‘Christmas in a Day’ clips  were followed by some more conventional ads for festive food.

A young boy in a bobble hat will be the star of Waitrose's Christmas ad campaign this year as the supermarket avoided the glitz and glamour to highlight its charitable efforts.

I'm a Celebrity Geordie presenters  Ant and Dec star  ignited the festive spirit eating Christmas in Morrisons' new Christmas TV ad, which presented an animated gingerbread man serenading them.

Wealth Management Consultants have for some time used the Carol dedicated to consumerism under the cost of your true love - The 12 days of Christmas An example is calculated in the PNC Wealth Management Index which has risen 7.7% this year.

12 Drummers Drumming,              $1,620.00    

11 Pipers Piping,                             $2,635.20   

10 Lords-a-Leaping,                        $5,243.37    

9 Ladies Dancing,                           $7,552.84    

8 Maids-a-Milking,                           $58.00       

7 Swans-a-Swimming,                    $7,000.00 

6 Geese-a-Laying,                           $210.00     

5 Gold Rings,                                    $750.00     

4 Calling (Colly) Birds,                    $599.96    

3 French Hens,                                $165.00    

2 Turtle Doves and                          $125.00      

A Partridge in a Pear Tree.             $199.99    

Total cost this year at cost           $27,393.17    ( £  16,709.833)

                              ----------Traditional----------

Total Christmas Price Index      $27,393.17   

True cost*                                    $114,651.18                   

*True cost is the "total cost of items gifted by a True Love who repeats

all of the song’s verses," according to PNC.

Savings do not seem to made on line at present

                                    ------------Internet-----------

Total Christmas Price Index      $39,762.61          

True cost*                                    $173,410.13            

But the costliest true love gift of all , was more than money can buy. 

If selling is 'persuasive communication against resistance 'as sales guru Alfred Tack once described it, there was much resistance in first century Palestine to overcome by persuasion.

 - as Christina Rosetti  1830-1894 expressed in the last verse of her carol “In The bleak mid winter”

….What can I give him poor as I am ? 

If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb; 

If I were a wise man I would do my part; 

Yet what I can I give him :Give my heart.

As well as trying to live up to my promise of 'giving my heart' at Midnight Mass this Christmas, I guess I will also look forward to settling down to laugh with and be laughed at by Sean Lock over the holiday festival.

Should Alexandr  escape from being tied up by the CNWL Recovery College trainers Spice up your training - event  
( #TrainingSpice18)( see photo) he is looking forward to Comparethemeerkat.com  Christmas day TV ad,  where Alexandr Orlov and his companion Sergei get to grips with parenthood after the arrival of a baby meerkat called Oleg.

A press release from the Meerkova Times reads 

"Arrival of Baby Oleg was big shock in Meerkovo, but it mean for first time our Nativity production have real baby.

 Unfortunatelys, real baby come with real baby smell, but most peoples just say it add to authenticness of stable."

The baby’s parentage has not been made clear, although there is only one female character in the meerkat cast – the school teacher Maiya

Happy Christmas dear readers Peace and goodwill to all 
Great selling in 2014