Not Youtube but Our Tube - selling a 150 year old Brand

 Celebrating a 150 year old brand.

My You tube clips:

Click here to watch Steam returning to the London Underground Railway


Click here to see Steam drivenTube Train arriving at Olympia


Related Links

Christies Auction Posters with a purpose London Underground

http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/christies-auction-posters-with-purpose.html

Posters with a Purpose viewing at South Kensington

http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/posters-with-purpose-london-underground.html

9 research polls and the future of Selling in 2013

The prediction business has been in full flow at the beginning of the year.

 The stalemate of the Republicans and Democrats pulled the US and us all(!) back from the Fiscal Cliff – for the moment.

Will we have a triple dip recession?  Will the Euro zone falter ? Will UK lose its AAA rating?

The expert analysts seem split on almost everything  from which  Supermarket won the Christmas race to the end of the world.

Some are seeking green shoots of recovery , other prefer to relish the gloomy straws  of a triple dip.

I guess we members of the unwashed must ignore a lot of what we hear day to day and half of what we see. Much will depend on our psychological make up. Optimistic or Pessimistic.
 
There seem to be an amazing number of videos around from the stand up comedians. They each have to offer their USP to differentiate from each other. Some are cheerful and optimistic others prefer the sceptical  or even morose approach.
 
I guess those of us in selling have to elect to be optimistic but also realistic.

Maybe we can look at the forecasts from the pundits  as the comedian Russel Howard does in his Good News show in an upbeat way.   http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00phwkz
 
Here is a round up of the first fortnight's worth of Trade and Selling related data. make of the data what you will. Here are 9 reports that caught my eye.
 

1. Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) Index published January 2013  as reported by London Evening Standard 2^nd  January 2013

Score of over 50 signals growth December 2012 UK hit 51.4

Manufacturers enjoyed their fastest expansion for 15 months.

The revival was driven by rising UK orders more than offsetting another fall in export orders.

An eighth month run of job shedding among manufacturers also looks like coming to a halt

Chief Executive of CIPS David Noble

“While December’s figures do not reverse the disappointing performance over the year as a whole, manufacturers will hope that the solid upturn in production volumes is the first sign of a more stable footing going into 2013”

2.  UK job seekers faced more opportunities in the final three months of 2012 than at any other point since 2009 when Reed started their index. Reed report than 81% of sectors had better shape than a year before.

November 140

December 134  but Dec 2012 was 121

“2012 has been a consistent recovery for the jobs market” MD Mark Rhodes said “We have seen growth across the board in the majority of sectors and regions and employers are becoming increasingly less cautious about their approach to taking on new personnel”

Northern Ireland and the North East posted the highest growth among the regions , all of which enjoyed some improvement with already strong London also seeing  opportunities up 10% over the year.

3. The Lloyds TSB business confidence index climbed to 19% looking forward to 2013 up from 12.5%

Sales and orders likely to be on the rise

Prospects for the first half of 2013 look more positive with expectations for total sales and orders in the next six months – two of the key barometers of business confidence - both improving. Over a third of businesses (36 %) said that they expect orders to increase during the first half of the year, compared to one in ten (12 %) that think orders will fall. This results in a 24 % overall net balance expecting orders to increase.

Two fifths of businesses (43 %) stated that they think sales will increase in the next six months, while a fifth (19 %) expect a decline, leading to a 24 % overall net balance expecting sales to increase.

The confidence levels for both sales and orders were last surpassed in the July 2010 survey.

 

 4. According to a poll from the Institute of Directors (IOD) the number of Directors who thought 2013 would be better than 2012 surged ahead of those with a pessimistic outlook by 31%

This result reverses the balance of minus 31% in the same poll last year.

Despite this optimism, they remain worried about the possibility of the recession turning into a triple dip with 65% thinking there was a moderate risk or high risk of a renewed slump.

 

5.  The UK will probably have negative growth in Q4 2012 and there must be a chance of a weak Q1 2013 as well, although data from the ICAEW Grant Thornton Business Confidence Monitor and FSB Small Business Index have been encouraging enough to suppose there are cautious grounds for optimism going into 2013. So CEBR gives a 50-50 chance on a triple dip.

 

6. The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply’s  (CIPS)  services activity index sank to 48.9 for December. The index was depressed by a fall in new business with clients reluctant to commit to spending amid economic uncertainty. Chief executive of CIPS David Noble said “ The underlying trend is one of continuing uncertainty. Businesses are holding back on investment, leading to falls in employment and increased spare capacity”

Rob Harbron economist at CEBR  “ As the service sector makes up nearly three quarters of the UK economy, a contraction in the sector is bad news for economic growth”

7.  Manufacturing is responsible for half of UK exports and its productivity regularly outpaces economic growth so it’s worth taking note of EEF.

The manufacturers organisation for the UK EEF reckon manufacturers will produce  just 0.7 % in 2013 down from earlier forecasts of 1.5 % growth.

However on the more positive side 30%   of firms said they expected overall conditions to improve versus 23% who expected the economic climate to worsen.

EEF boss Terry Scuoler believes factory firms could boost exports and add more value despite global difficulties. “ The past year has been a challenging one for manufacturers , but as they look to 2013 there is still potential  for growth in their business. The increase in investment in recent years will bear fruit as companies see opportunities  from new product development and the commercialisation of new technology.”

But firms were still worried about a slowdown in the world economy with around two thirds of companies citing that as the biggest risk to growth  risk to growth up from just 1 in ten last year (2012).

8.  The 2012 Deloitte fourth quarter survey took place between 25th November and 11th December. 112 CFOs participated, including the CFOs of 36 FTSE 100 and 38 FTSE 250 companies. The rest were CFOs of other UK listed companies, large private companies and UK subsidiaries of major companies listed overseas. The combined market value of the 84 UK listed companies surveyed is £672 billion, or approximately 35% of the UK quoted equity market.

Conducted over the fourth quarter of 2012 93% of finance chiefs surveyed said there was a 40% chance the UK would suffer a return to economic contraction in the coming years.

But the survey’s results were not entirely negative . Those expecting a return to recession in the next two years was lower than in the last two quarters and overall economic confidence moved marginally into positive territory.

9.  CEBR and FSA Ups and dons of FSA approved jobs

Ups                                                          Change on 2008 peak

Insurance Brokers                                   up to 10, 846 ( peaked in Feb 2005 at 11,970)

Fund managers (investment advice)     up to 7.7%  to 45,911

Financial technical support                    up to 22% to 912

Research and outsourced services         up to 41% to 2,539

Downs                                                     Change on 2008 peak

All approved persons                              Down 10.6% to 151,835

Lending                                                   Down 17.2 % to 36,380

Finance and Brokers                               Down 54% to 1,454

Traders                                                    Down 13% to 21052

Debt Management                                                 Down 19% to 153

Investment distributors                          Down 12.1 % to 27,661

Insurance firms                                       Down 26.8% to 4,809

Insurance support services                     Down 7% to 1,048

Life firms and mutual                             Down 14% to 1530

The drop in regulated jobs continues . The FSA’s approved  persons list down 10.6 % on Fevruary 2008.The banking centre led the decline with 17.2 % fall taking the number of staff down to 36,380. The large-scale savings at UBS  11,000 and Bank of America losing 16,000. Big banks have high cost bases, there is little activity in bond, equity and derivative markets so they are cutting back according to Robert Harbron of Centre for Economics and Business research who estimates 100,000 city jobs have been lost since the financial crisis.  But a few areas have seen growth with the number in investment advice roles up 7.7%.

 

 

 

 

'Selling Ice to the Eskimos' in Canary Wharf ?

My Report on London Ice Sculpting festival 2013 on my wordpress blog site

Click here


Youtube clip YouTube clip No 1 of ice sculpting in action at canary Wharf 2013

Youtube clip No 2 London Ice sculpting festival 2013

 

Buying Teams' views on Powerpoint and Conference presentations from Salespeople

Over the last 14 years that the Buyers views of salespeople study has been tracking the presentation media preferences of Buying teams , 4 out of five respondents prefer PowerPoint as presentation media.



click here for Buyers Views of Salespeople Selling in a VUCA world

The Buyers' Views Of Salespeople 2012 is in preparation and shortly to be published. Some advanced information has been released on Buying teams' preferences with reference to PowerPoint, Demonstrations and conferencing.

Much as people talk of  'death by PowerPoint' presentations, this is more to do with how the programme is used rather than a rejection of PowerPoint as a medium in itself.


79 % of Buying teams prefer to receive supplier presentations through this software.

Demonstrations still hold around the 42% preference level with flip chart slumping to  2.8% from 20% acceptance ten years ago.

One of the areas for significant growth has been video/web conferencing as a form of presentation media where 1 in 5 buyer teams accept a sales presentation via web conferencing. 

Respondents are allowed to  select one or more presentation medium options. So often PowerPoint will play a part as the visual aid for a web conference presentation.

  How  suppliers use rather than whether they use such Web conferencing technology  to present their offering is becoming a significant differentiator.

If a buying team have a poor experience with your on line presentation , they
will most likely have a negative perception of your product and solution that the organisation is presenting.



Here is a checklist adapted from the  Microsoft’s GoTo guidelines. Commonsense stuff but I find it really helpful.

Before the 'virtual' sales meeting

If you intend to share your  PC desktop with your  audience, it is a good idea to turn off any instant-messaging applications, notification software or other programs that may 'pop up' or distract your audience from your presentation. Does anyone know how to switch of those annoying Norton Intenet security messages by the way? ! Please advise in the comments box below I would appreciate your help.

• Switch off any streaming media apps that may take up bandwidth and resource-intensive applications that may be exhausting your PC’s processor ability. As I use a small netbook which has limited memory this helpful advice.

Should you wish to record your seesion

• Pre-Set your desktop display to a neutral background and adjust display settings to a mid-range resolution (e.g., 1024 x 768) to improve the display for attendees with lesser settings. This will also be the optimal setting should you wish to record the presentation apparently.

• Tidy up your pc’s desktop before a meeting. Remove wallpaper and icons that may distract your client audience.

• Pre-load any documents you wish to share ready to be accessed in just a couple of clicks. Clients dislike being held in limbo while additional documents are being uploaded.

• Hold a dry run rehearsal with a team colleague to anticipate any questions and to acquaint yourself with the set up of your online sales presentation.

Running your Presentation via conferencing - some tips

•  As the host of the meeting log on a  good 10  minutes early to greet your client attendees as they arrive and start your meeting on time. It also helps to have a welcome presentation up and running during this time. Your presence in these opening minutes can help establish the tone and direction of the meeting.

•  Create a welcome message  (in Go TO under the Meetings category of Preferences) to greet your client attendees as they click onto the meeting. It is their first impression experience of your preentation.

• Provide a Overview agenda at the start of the meeting, with estimated timing, and  keep to it.

• Verbal Agenda -Explain to your client attendees what the purpose/goal of the meeting is, what to expect and when and how they can ask questions and participate in the meeting.

• Email information on how to use  the equipment or service and how to get assistance if needed

•  To monitor and respond to the chat log when someone is presenting enrol a colleague or co-worker to do it.
.
•  You can encourage participation by using open questions such as “Who What When Where How...?"

• End your meeting clearly with a call for action if suitable. Ensure all your attendees know that the meeting is formally over and stay on the line to address any last questions.

Hold a de-brief meeting with your colleagues off-line to ensure follow up actions have been captured.


Best practise in Conference Call management

• Phone in to the meeting from a location where there is little background noise.

• Switch off system prompts and sounds for when attendees join or leave a meeting.

 It is worth reading the Voice Conferencing section of the help files to familiarise yourself with the conference call features. ( The old adage "When all else fails READ THE INSTRUCTIONS "still applies!)

• Best to avoid using mobiles and cordless phones because of static and use the phone handset or a headset instead of speakerphones because of background noise, echoing room effect and sentence chopping off.

• Switch off your call waiting . The beep of a new call on another line is broadcast to everyone in an audio conference.

• Don't put your phone on hold during an audio conference, otherwise

 Greensleeves, Fur Elise or Vivaldi Four season will play into your conference call, and make it impossible for your client attendees to continue the meeting.

• Introduce yourself when you begin speaking and ask other attendees to also identify themselves before speaking. Not everyone in the meeting may recognise everyone else’s voice

Related Links

Sales presentation on web

http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/2011/05/sales-presentation-on-web-using-pro.html

Conferencing Systems

Intercall

http://www.intercall.com/

 

 

BT

 http://www.btconferencing.co.uk/products-and-services/web-conferencing/

 

Cisco Webex

 http://www.webex.co.uk/

 

GoTo meeting

http://www.gotomeeting.co.uk/fec/

6 words and phrases to avoid when selling in 2013

I guess it must be useful for all sales people to know what might bother , irritate, annoy , get  on buyers' or [prospects   nerves;  well it might be those little words or phrases which are superfluous to clear expression yet which  nonetheless  we use in casual conversation.

At the end of each year Marist Poll conducts a telephone survey on over 1000 adults in USA to find out the words that annoy them most in casual conversation.

Respondents seem to be quite exercised by all this since only 5% are unsure. Most surveyed have definite opinions on this. It might surprise you what are the top half dozen hates.

The distinction between casual conversation and formal conversations in business  continues to crossover  on-line and off- line channels of communication.

More sales conversations are conducted over phones these days, and our face to face work includes informal environments such as networking events , conferences , seminars so it might be worth making a note on what might irritate prospects and buyers in our small talk.

2011

1. Whatever           38%                       
2. Like                        20%                       
3. You know            19%                       
4. Just saying          11%                       
5. Seriously             7%

2012

1. Whatever                         32% 
2. Like                                    21%
3. You Know                         17%
4.  Just saying                      10%
5. Twitterverse                    9%
6.  Gotcha                              5%

Further Links

Marist Polls

http://maristpoll.marist.edu/1227-whatever-still-viewed-as-most-annoying-word-or-phrase-just-sayin/

Sales Prospecting and New Business Development in 2013

91 % of Buyers in the 2012 Buyers Views of Salepeople survey have looked  for a new supplier in the last 12 months. There are opportunities right now to prospect.

But beware not all Buyers feel like this. One commented

" I would prefer to contact a potential supplier when or if we have the need. I am REALY tired of eager salespeople calling me 5-10 times per day."

Much of  success in prospecting begins with building up more names. Populating your CRM or Customer Records systems with more contacts is important.

 The more names you have, the more contacts. The more contacts you have the more chances to do business.

Back in the day of road warrior salespeople, this referred to this as “belly buttoning”. The more bellies you bumped into the more contacts developed.

Nowadays we do 'virtual belly buttoning ' via the internet and we also “do networking” at networking events. This is wise since the 2012 survey also revealed that Buyers are proactively attending more networking events themselves. 

 Whatever the  title we give to the activity- the important thing  is to keep doing it regualrly ,actively but also poitely and professionally.

One comment from the Buyer's views of salespeople read:-

"I hate the current trend of people pretending they know me ( when they don't); claiming to have spoken to me before ( when they haven't) being all friendly and familair ( how are your today?) and talking to me as thogh I am a prat ( which i am not) "

Respondent to  to 2012 Buyers' Views of Salespeople Survey.

another read


“Appointment makers should not respond to a vague request for a call back in x months with a scheduled appointment e.g. thank you for speaking to me today Fred will see you on 11^th April at 10.a.m.”

Respondent to to 2012 Buyers' Views of Salespeople Survey

Carpe Diem - Seize the day

It should be part of one’s daily routine of tasks. Most contacts on the phone or face to face provide the opportunity to actively (if we are prepared to seize it) and ask /enquire " Who elase should i be speaking to?" 

Unfortunately many salespeople do their prospecting in either spasmodic purges or simply  follow the supplier herd when hard times are encountered.

They also prospect at exactly the same time as everybody else mid morning or mid afternoon. Yet looking at teh 2012 data . 31.8% of Buyers will take a phone call from a salesperson before 8.30 a.m. 21.2% will meet a salesperson on or before 8.30 a.m.

At the end of the day similar opportunties for the active prospector. 40.9% will  still take a phone call from a salesperson at 5.30 p.m. Indeed 24.6% will accept a face to face meeting at 5.30 p.m.

So here are some good regular routines to keep your prospecting skills bubbling away of the back burner:

1. In face to face interactions always try to give two cards over at meetings which can be passed on to either other influencers and decision makers on the current project you are working on, or to other prospects. Buyers like to show that they are aware of the market and they have  a number of contacts.
2. Find opportunities in every call to ask the question “Tell me Charlie who else should I be speaking to ? “  “ Who else would you suggest I call ?”
3. Send out a regular metered “Saw this thought of you “ messages of links, news clippings, articles of interest and relevance to  your prospect and suspects contact list.
4. Discipline yourself to record and follow up those who resist with “Not today. Give us a call in …” and make a record of this offer and follow it up.
5.   Gather material and ideas in order to write and submit copy to the editors or write/email/blog post on a business topic related letter  to the editors of the correspondence page of  trade magazines and local business papers on an area of expertise you have. You never know your luck. Often they are eager for copy.
6. Offer to speak at local business clubs and local networking groups.

The key to successful and angst free prospecting is little and often.

It is also wise to spread the various forms and combine  prospecting media.

Consider the data on prospecting from the 2012 Survey

Email , phone and letter are acceptable channels through which to communicate accoding to the Buyers who rsponded to the latest TACK International survey.

The survey also picked up an increase in propsecting aceptability in using Linked In to above 40% of the respondents.

Old skool cold calling 'face to face ' also has had a little lift to just under 20 % from negilible acceptability in between 2002 - 2007. Perhaps this indicates that when the credit crunch hit in 2008 hungry prospectors were cnsidered moe acceptable.

Texting and SMS were still considered acceptable by juts 1-2% of the respondents.

Related Links

TACK International

 

Bring out the Branson The Selling Power of Smiling

"If you're in a pickle" - SMILE



Recipe website www.greatlittleideas.com

Sir Richard Branson in Entreprneur.com Dec 3rd  wrote

“….. In business, a smile can often defuse a difficult situation. If you are negotiating with a tough investor or discussing issues with a customer, a smile will show that you are willing to listen and eager to help. Smiling is infectious, so your smile may have just brightened up the day for many other people too ……

"...Over the years I have become known as the smiley man with the beard. It could be worse!.."

Sir Richard Branson

A city smile

A smiling face can become a city’s brand. Go back to 1983 and Glasgow’s miles better campaign with  Roger Hargreaves ‘Mr Happy' did wonders for raising Glasgow’s profile.

A brand new ( and not so new) smile

Thompson holidays have a smile in their logo on posters TV ads and shop fronts.  The Amazon box delivered to your home has a smile on it , as the Reddit button on your screen,  Mr Megabus on the back of the coach on the road, the Jolly Green Giant on the supermarket shelf.

 

 From the simplest :-) to the elaborate animated versions, the array of emoticons for emails, texting preent the user with many types of smiles for facebook caht, iphone, skype. etc seems infinite. The power of smile pervades many channels of written, verbal and vocalcommunication.

Withholding a selling  smile

Of all the business news stories of 2012 with a customer service theme that caught my attention, was the news report of the threat in the negotiations between representatives for front line service personnel of the airline Cathay Pacific and their management  ,to  withhold smiling to passengers  as wells as withhold the serving  drinks  and food to on board to passengers and also that they would.

For years those folk who sold over the phone learnt to ‘smile as they dialled’ because it made their voice sound friendlier.

Smiling has also been studied and reported on by those in the field of psychology.

Poker face

  People have known the phrase of a poker face meaning emotionally neutral.  Yet if a poker player with a skilled reputation plays an unskilled one is would probably be best (s)he smiles as a strategy to relax their opponent in order to win money off them.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2171400/Poker-faced-passport-photos-make-recognisable-claims-study.html July 2012

Status and not smiling

Status affects how readily people return smiles

Differential states of subjective power influence spontaneous facial mimicry =  Evan W Carr and others

The results suggest that subjective states of high-power and low-power can have fundamental impacts on emotional awareness and perception, which are evident in nonverbal behaviours such as mimicry. The current study spurs interesting and immediately applicable questions for research in emotion, relationships, and social hierarchies. E. W. CARR, P. WINKIELMAN, C. OVEIS;

UCSD, LA JOLLA, CA October 15^th 2012 Neuroscience 2012

Subjects were shown videos of people they were told held a high-ranking position, like a physician, or a low-ranking job, like a fast-food restaurant worker.

He recorded the involuntary movements of muscles involved in smiling as they watched the videos, millisecond by millisecond.

Whether or not someone unconsciously mimics the facial expressions of another—such as by returning a smile—appeared to depend, in part, on how powerful the mimic feels, and the status of the person they are "mirroring," he found.

The researchers found that when people felt they were powerful themselves, they would rarely return a high-ranking person's smile, automatically suppressing the tendency to mimic an engaging grin, the researchers found.

"You might be feeling more competitive," Mr. Carr said.

Those who felt more powerless, however, automatically mimicked everyone else's smile, regardless of rank.

"Your feelings about power and status seem to dictate how much you are willing to return a smile to another person," Mr. Carr said. "We are really able to act as a human chameleon and react to these social situations without really being aware of doing it

This "boss effect" can vary by national culture. Chinese workers reacted fastest to a picture of their direct supervisor—but only if the boss had the power to give them a negative job evaluation, according to a study last year by Dr. Liew and colleagues at the University of Southern California and Peking University.

Related links:

Robert Lee Hotz ( Wall Street Journal) at sciencejournal@wsj.com

Ron Gutman TED Talk The hidden power of Smiling

 http://www.ted.com/talks/ron_gutman_the_hidden_power_of_smiling.html