Selling Responsibilty 13 excuses - if only.....then I could have sold.....

One of the on-going exercises I use on sales skills courses is a team challenge.

In this on-going 'game /energiser' where  points are  awarded or deducted  for various things.

One of the areas where points are deducted is for “whining”. 

It is done in a playful way, yet delegates realise over the length of the course how quickly and  frequently we all are to whine and whinge about things.

Whining is where we make excuses and complain why we did not do something.

In Selling

it is where we complain in a feeble or petulant way why we did not achieve the sale/target etc.

It’s been my privilege to work with some top salespeople over the last three decades.

One of the things that distinguishes them from the crowd is they don’t hide behind lame excuses or at least not for any noticeable period of time.

Here is a list of sales excuses. I guess most of us are guilty of them from time to time.

Take a look at them. Ponder on them and work out to eradicate them from your sales routines !

Food for thought to inspire positive mental attitude i selling-
In full English breakfast the hen was involved but the pig was committed!

I have given some ideas how to treat these 'lame' excuses- maybe you can think of additional cures.

1. The product is no good –  ask yourself “Why did you take the sales job if you didn’t believe in the product?” The first sale is to yourself.

2. The price is too high – Sell value not price, rookies sell price. If price was REALLY the whole reason –then your company does not need a salesperson – they could sell the product/ service on line.

3. I haven’t  got  time for prospecting – Make time, plan the day/week/month/quarter/year ahead, stick to your schedule, and eliminate time wasters ( whether activity or people!).

4. The Targets are too high – Stay committed, keep your sense of urgency, and plan steps to achieve goals

5. Our competitors are better – See point 1, do you know why and how to differentiate yourself to  your competitors? Are you buying into their publicity and’ spin’ instead of living and believing in your company?

6. We do not get enough support – Are you abdicating your responsibility- are you looking for someone else to do your work?  Maybe it’s your knowledge of product/customer/market that is lacking. Perhaps you should be able to answer these questions. If not, go to your boss with  the details you are after.

7. There is no call for … No one is buying now – Create urgency and value, most companies have budget and will make decisions if shown value.

8. My product is a commodity – even with basic products great salespeople will create value and differentiation.

9. Can’t get an appointment – build better rapport and trust. Make better initial value communication. Maybe you are not interesting enough to talk to!!

10. They won’t return my calls – See point 9 and did you give them a reason to call you back?

11. Not enough people know about our products/service we need to run more marketing communications campaigns – Marketing and selling are two different things – have you closed every single opportunity in front of you?

12. There are not enough leads – Closely related to Point 11 – cherry picking is not high level selling, be strategic, identify your best prospects and get to them by yourself, you cannot wait for them to beat a path to your door.

Let's make it a baker’s dozen No.13...It's not my job to....no comment necessary on this one I reckon.

Much of this is down to developing a strong positive mental attitude. Are you involved in Selling committed to it?

It has always been a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. VUCA is not all that new!

To adapt a certain advert on the Red London Buses recently  " It's a VUCA world - get over it!

Story Selling - training with audience directed participation

Joe and Glenn have a discussion in the office
Scene1 The Staff survey

At this year's HRD 2012  show there were a number of suppliers who offer training based around "story."

One company of players who  ran a taster session in the Learning Arena (sponsored by Reed Learning) were People deliver change.  People Deliver Projects  (PDP) are in the people development business. They provide training, coaching and consultancy for organisations that deliver projects and change.

Their session was an engaging approach through experiential learning. Facilitated by Managing Director, Andy Taylor we were asked to watch an HR project manager dealing with tricky stakeholders on a change project.

The little scenes were skillfully and amusingly played by the actor/coaches in front of a backdrop photograph on the TV screen - very simple but effective backdrop which took us out of the Hall in London's Olympia to an office, a field where the onward bound course took placeand back to a pub !

"Four Actors in search of room full of directors"

 As the audience we got the chance to control the action as quasi directors.
It made think of the forthcoming world premiere of Steven Berkof's  new play ( May 16 -23rd June) 6 actors in search of a director at the Charing Cross theatre London

  PDP's $ actors in search of a room full or diectors was a bit like the way the audience in the old Channel 4 TV show with Clive Anderson -Whose line is it anyway ?  or BBC 2 Mock the Week  with Dara O Briain ask the  actors/comedians improvise. 

The People Deliver Projects'  'company' included regulars Danny Long ( Glenn the Unit MD) and David Rowan ( 'Joe , the HR manager) Fun particularly when your suggestions were put into immediate action by the skillful actors with consequences one had not necessarily foreseen !!.

(The photos in this post are of the HR Manager Change project - story they played scroll down)

PDP prefer to call role play - skills practise,  and it is clearly the ingredient most valued by their customers reading the feedback in literature and the web site. 

Through using professional actors who bring a special sense of reality to  the skills practise -the scenarios to come to life with authenticity. 

 The experience they showcased felt very real and  involving. That  is important for any learning.

Skills practise is more than just playing a character.  All their actors are  also trained coaches, giving high quality feedback- also I suspect key guidance needed to help changes in behaviour with the clients. 

In the taster at Olympia  'the words, music and dance  were faced' as the troubles of the MD went ahead in the play.

This communication session had impact. The actors/coaches came across as authentic business types. 

Bringing this  group session to life actors  are  clearly comfortable improvising in front of an audience and so brought it  to life even in the corner of the frantic HRD 2012 show.. 

PDP call this style of work 'forum theatre' and it is a little like Edinburgh fringe' impro', where the actors carry the show, and the audience get to contribute, and even control what happens next!

Fascinating and fun. I reckon it would also work well for sales training

Fiona and Joe on the outward bound
day orienteering and 'lost'

Joe and Fiona discussing the problem with Glenn at the
 outward bound day that included milking an Yak!

The denouement in the mini HR case study
Joe breaking the bad news to Glenn at the Pub -
roles played by people deliver change team.

Related links

Yoodoo

http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/yoodoo-anything-for-me-consider.html



Selling in a VUCA world - resurrection of PMA at the HRD 2012



The "Remain standing  if you..." game and
 introduction to
Impact International fun facilitation 
on VUCA
at the Topic Taster zone on
 Thursday 26th April 2012 at HRD 2012 

Last week I dropped into an intriguing session-taster entitled 'Leadership in a VUCA world' by Impact International at the HRD 2012 It  got me thinking.

V.U.C.A. = volitality, uncertainty,complaexity and ambiguity

 The short session started with a group  icebreaker. The leader got us to play a simple game based on a scheme entertainer Graham Norton uses with his audiences from time to time. 

First our facilitator asked everyone to stand up. 

Then he asked  a series of questions starting with“ Remain standing if you …”. I met a couple of very nice HR professionals at the session one from BA and the other from the Public sector. We formed a trio to discuss how VUCA  related to our various businesses.

Our discussions got me to thinking how much B2B Selling takes place in a VUCA world . Here is the exercise adapted. Imagine you are in the HRD conference in the Topic taster Zone,

“Remain standing if you are finding yourself selling in  markets that  seem to  be changing constantly and speedily”

“Remain standing if you are selling where there is a lack of predictability in issues and events are peppered with surprises,.”

“Remain standing if  your  sales organisation is being increasingly  assaulted by a multiplicity of forces and issues resulting in chaos and confusion that surrounds the  organisation.”

“Remain standing if the market you sell in a market where regulations, sector initiatives render unintended consequences.”

 I suspect that is quite likely that in your mind you would  be  still be standing with me through several of the above. Perhaps Sales has always been undertaken in a VUCA condition.

The contradictory pressures of both growth and control have long created a paradox and require a delicate balancing act by sales leaders .


This paradox is  heightened even further by increasing pressures for growth, both in external VUCA conditions, and the  internal processes behaviours and capabilities that have their roots in a previous age of stability and competition based on efficiency of 15 years ago.

The principles of VUCA tend to shape your own selling and your sales organisation's capacity to:

 1. Anticipate the Issues that shape Buying and Selling Conditions

 2. Understand the Consequences of Issues and Actions to  both your  Client journey and the matching sales cycle.

 3. Appreciate the Interdependence of Variables e.g. negotiating variables Time , Resource , Money etc.

 4. Prepare for Alternative Realities and Challenges .e.g. contingencies and 'Plan B'

 5. Interpret and Address Relevant Opportunities – necessity is the mother of invention

For most sales organisations  – VUCA can act as practical process for awareness and readiness to improve your sales process.

Beyond the simple acronym is a body of knowledge that deals with learning models for VUCA preparedness, anticipation, evolution and intervention.

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VUCA Volatility ,Uncertainty,
 Complexity and Ambiguity

There are also implications for those in full time sales training whether sales coaches or sales managers in this VUCA world.


Rote memorisation of sales processes, skills routines and remembering facts and figures are becoming  less important. Salespeople can and do research on their own.


"Just in time learning" via mobiles  and tablets etc. is on the increase.

The question arises: If we sell in a V.U.C.A. world, what do we do with regarding to sales training ?

 “Martini moments of learning” – any time – any place , anywhere

For Sales trainers this means we will increasingly need to make our content much more discoverable and able to be  searched.
When designing training interactions they will need to be are more self standing modules, so that delegates can access any piece/ session at any time and  in any sequence.

However the convenience of mobile learning may still require considerable support to the learner in terms of providing quality material suitably discerned and analysed.

The emphasis of trainers and sales managers in this VUCA environment should be in three areas of change: accepting, experimenting and embracing.

From some of the data in the new  CIPD Talent Managment and learning Study 2012 there appears in some quarters a resistance to the paradigm shift in training and technology.

Many are  still persevering with in house conventional tutor led interactions. Trainers should accept that the change is indeed inevitable, experiment with new and undiscovered methods for training and learning, and embrace the changes in technology and use them to the delegates’ advantage.

They will have to in any case because the delegates are driving it.

Slide from the Impact International
 Facilitation on VUCA session at HRD 2012

VUCA  – Threat or Opportunity?

If you believe that efficiency is the only basis for performance and improvement ,that  belief will require increasing control and predictability of your sales environment .It is easy to see only the business world as one  of  just risk. Life is a series of windfalls and body blows.

Yet the history of sales growth, indeed the innovative persistence in selling, has been built on a combination /balance  of two essential conditions.

 First, a proactive capacity to make new connections with clients, finding new niches, exploring new ways through the various obstacles of the sales process.  Nurturing and developing new ideas is part of a salesperson’s make-up.

Second, a volatile market that enables and rewards this capacity to prospect and make new opportunities , will force and accelerate the need for new combinations.

A VUCA world provides the second half of this equation, bestowing on all Salespeople,  markets ( and their buyers) crying-out for new insights, connections, and ideas – whether we like it or not!

Tipping the effects of this from threat to opportunity requires us to address the first half of the balanced equation. A capability to continually make sense of a changing environment and seek out new and novel ways of creating value requires a growth mind-set.

Such a mind-set used to be called PMA (Positive Mental Attitude )

Perhaps it's time for the publishers to reissue update  books on PMA by Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone, Dale Carnegie * on ebooks . Time for motivational speakers like Anthony Robbins to return to top billing for more roadshows whether live or on-line.

* I will be reviewing the updated 'How to Win friends and Influence People' for the Digital Age next month

Related Links :

Impact International

Impact specialises in developing and inspiring leaders; manage change effectively; identify, develop and retain talent. With over 30 years' experience , they operate across the world.

Background Reading

Article by Chris Turner http://www.steelwedge.com/blog/control-and-growth-tipping-the-balance-in-a-vuca-world.html

Converge magazine 2007 –  Fingertip Knowledge – memorisation no longer key to learning plus view of Educator Elliott Masie http://media.centerdigitaled.com/Converge_Mag/pdfs/issues/CON_June07_lorz_PDF.pdf

HRD 2012 at London's Olympia Learning on Demand and developing your sales talent.

Today’s HR Function specialists have a role somewhat akin to those stage acts of plate spinning.

The plates they spin include Employment Law, Learning and Development, Change Management, Coaching and Mentoring, Discipline and Grievances, Corporate Strategy, Recruitment, Absence, Age Discrimination, Redundancy, Talent Management, Performance Management, Diversity and Equality, Strategic HR, Management Development, Terms and Conditions of Employment, Maternity and Parental Rights to name just the most obvious.

So it is not surprising that their professional body the CIPD has a show with the size and scope of HRD 2012 this year held at London’s   Olympia. I am writing this blog just outside the hall for Day two of the exhibition and conference.

Released alongside the show yesterday April 25th,  was the CIPD Cornerstone survey

(Learning-talent-development survey) reveals that traditional methods of workplace learning are considered amongst the least effective ways to “up-skill” employees – but still dominate many L&D programmes.

When asked to choose the most effective ways of delivering training, just 16 % of learning and talent development professionals opted for “formal education courses”, and the same number for “coaching by external practitioners”. Only 11 % pointed to “e-learning”.

Yet despite doubts about its effectiveness,

less than a fifth (17 %) of the report’s respondents plan to reduce their reliance on “classroom and trainer-led instruction” over the next two years.

When asked what methods are most likely to work, most learning and development professionals pointed towards training that is integrated into the normal course of their jobs.

 Half of respondents (52 %) responded that “in-house development programmes” were amongst the most effective ways of delivering training, while almost as many (46 %) cited “coaching by line managers”.

Two-fifths (39%) pointed towards “on-the-job training”.

Other insights from the report include

• A third of public sector organisations anticipate greater use of e-learning across the organisation over the next two years, compared with a fifth of other organisations.

• Fewer organisations than last year report they undertake talent management activities. In two-fifths of organisations, talent management activities cover all or most employees, but most focus on high-potential employees and senior managers.

• Two-fifths of organisations report that innovation and creativity are critical to their organisation and that everyone is involved.

• Half of organisations report that their economic circumstances have declined in the past twelve months, rising to three-quarters in the public sector.

• The median annual training budget per employee was £276, less than last year’s figure of £350. The median number of training hours employees receive per year was 24, again a reduction on last year.

Of course these figures were not specifically on Sales managers and salespeople but one suspects that equivalent trends would be prevalent in the relevant sectors.

So  the main reason for people visiting HRD 2012 is looking for ways to improve organisational performance. This year’s show is organised in streams in Learning and Talent development, technology for learning, coaching and OD, Leadership and Development.

Looking on the website for the show on offer are areas dedicated to coaching or talent or get an update across all areas of learning and organisation development.

 The sessions are presented to take into account different formats and find a learning style that suits the visitor.

 It is an opportunity to gain practical tips and advice to improve individual and organisational performance.

 Both at the conference proper and the exhibition there are talk and pitches HR and business leaders, who are experts in their chosen fields

There are openings to work through your business issues in practical workshops with like-minded peers.

 One aspect I find helpful about the HRD show is one is able  to benchmark ones existing approaches to learning and organisation development.

It is also great to share experiences with leading organisations who are tackling the same challenges as I encounter.

From a personal networking viewpoint It is a place to make new contacts, network with your peers, and re-acquaint with old friends and colleagues.

 One can look at the latest products and services in learning and organisation development at the free exhibition.

I will definitely be going to see the NEW Technology in the Learning Zone for the latest developments in technology-enabled learning.

Well I better stop blogging get into the show- the doors will be opening shortly.

Shakespeare sells

A marathon of Shakespeare's plays
 to be performed in 37 languages

Today the Blog is dedicated to England’s greatest playwright. April 23rd is William Shakespeare’s birthday. I am running a marketing course back at Radcliffe House, Warwick Conferences, Coventry.

So I am celebrating Shakespeare’s Birthday in the county of Shakespeare’s birth, Warwickshire.

Yesterday Sunday 22nd April London witnessed two marathons. One was the more conventional running variety namely The London Marathon.

London Marathon 2012 - photo taken
 from Blackfriars Bridge, North bank side

Shakespeare's Globe , on London''s South Bank,
 open to the Public for free for Sonnet Sunday

The other marathon in  London has weeks to go. It is has been started at the Globe Theatre with ‘Sonnet Sunday’ . Shakespeare’s Globe on the south bank was open free to the public for the day include the museum.

Model of  the Globe Theatre in the museum of Shakespeare's Globe

An Australian Actress
 performs a sonnet in English

During the period I was there, I heard sonnets spoken in Japanese, Romanian, Flemish, Welsh Hungarian and English ( well beautiful Aussie ‘strein’ to be more accurate by a beautiful Australian).

She performed the Sonnet using the full area of the stage engaging
 the audience in the 'groundlings and
 the seated areas of the tiers, the master of ceremonies looks on

 

Even though I did not understand the non-English versions I was taken away by the passionate performance of the young actors delivering the Sonnets. The music and rhythm of Shakespeare crosses languages. The translations still seemed to have the music and rhythm of Shakespearean English. The actors and actresses love of the words transmitted to all in the open air theatre space by actors through body language, eye contact.

bathed in Spring sunshine visitors to the Shakespeare's Globe listen to a sonnet

It was fun to be amongst the ‘groundlings’ standing , looking up at the actors and watching their performance.

The event was also the launch day of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre putting on all 37 plays in 37 languages a veritable marathon of drama.

A Shakespeare sonnet in Hungarian on the stage of Shakespeare's Globe, London

part of Sonnet Sunday at the Globe

What has this to do with Selling?

Well it’s to do with WORDS. As professional salespeople we not only have to be first class listeners and questioners but also we need to know about words and how they are expressed.

Although there were not salespeople in our postindustrial revolutionary sense in Shakespeare’s time, there were folk who sold things as part of the job.

There were:

 Factor Persons who made business transactions for another person (sort of agent) , Haberdashers who sold men's clothing. Salters who sold salt or salts meat, fish, and other food. Silversmith  who made, repairs, and sold items of silver. Vintners who made and sold wine. Other sales types included the Tranter Peddler who sold their wares from a horse-drawn cart .                                                                                                 

Maybe the closest to most playwright’s stereotype of a field sales person in Shakespearean England at the time the Peddler - an Itinerant  seller of merchandise. The Peddler stove no doubt  to try and be ‘well liked’ as  Arthur Miller’s Willie Lomax in  Miller’s twentieth Century play ‘Death of a salesman’ .

Yet of course we engage with Shakespeare not particularly because of the rank or status  of the characters, or the times they  are set  but what he reveals about human nature.

Human has not changed much over time. his observations are timeless.

Being both aware and knowledgeable  of human nature both our and our clients helps us enormously in our work. - Shakespeare sells.

In your are in London over the next few weeks why not go to a play  at Shakespeare's Globe and enjoy the universal appeal of Shakespeare in whatever language.

Globe to Globe at Shakespeare's Globe

 a  quote to finish in English

"And Since This Business So Fair is Done, Let Us Not Leave Till All Our Own Be Won."

Henry IV, Part I

SMEs Sales Masterclass with Islington's Entrepreneurs Cobden's successors

On the morning of Friday 20th April, I found myself at Mornington Crescent Tube station on my way to run a workshop for the Islington Chamber of Commerce at the co-working space for start-ups, entrepreneurs and freelancers the Metro Lab in Crowndale Road .

Opposite the tube station is a statue to one Robert Cobden ( 1804- 1865) who is probably best remembered as a campaigning politician associated the repeal of the infamous Corn laws.

Richard Cobden  ( 1804-1865)

Pedestal of the Cobden statue

Cobden in his early life was as an entrepreneur.

By fifteen years old he was a salesman (commercial traveller) in the cotton trade. By 1828 he had formed a partnership with two other young men to start a company selling calico prints in London.

The business was an immediate success. By 1842 Cobden and his partners had turned an original £1,000 investment into £80,000.

Following his experiences of travel across Europe and North Africa he published a book in 1835 . In it he warned that in the future Britain would find it difficult to compete with the emerging economic power of America. Cobden's book also advocated a policy of free trade, low taxation, reduced military spending and an improvement in our system of education.

Uncanny how so many of those types of  issues of two hundred years ago are still with us!

What has all this to do with Selling?

Walking down Crowndale Road towards Metro lab, I wondered what 21^st century ‘Cobdens’ I might meet at the  Islington Chamber of Commerce event.

In our group at the Metro lab were entrepreneurs from the tutoring world, handmade natural body care remedies, party organising, bridal shop, a tax and accounts specialist, owner of a children’s educational toys and books business, two of ' interns' from the Islington Chamber on secondment from their business studies courses at London Metropolitan University plus a couple of colleagues form the TACK International , Colin Hurst and Iqbal Kanji.

The title of the session was "Managing Sales for small businesses" .Using the data from the Buyers’ views of Suppliers survey we had a lively interactive morning from 9 .30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m..

Debbie and Julia completing a survey on social Media in the Sales Process

Iqbal Kanji, TACK International operates the command master pebble ( white pebble)
for the response poll.

Using the Pebble voting system we gathered views on Sales strategy with regards to protecting existing Customer business, expanding sales through growth of existing Customer base and vitally the developing of new business.

We have been using Interactive Education's Pebble response system for a while now.


We find it helps to engage, motivate and empower each delegate immediately in a session. This is particularly important when, as in the case of  this ‘taster session’, we have just 3 hours from start to finish to get the work done.

The introduction of the system early on also works  as an excellent ice-breaker.

From a trainer’s point of view the Pebble system quickly confirms delegate understanding of key concepts  and helps create instant interactive learning atmosphere  in an enjoyable environment.

 Iqbal and I  were able to gather  opinions and present the results instantly and this all promotes group discussion and delegate engagement.

The more we work with the system the more we will leverage the data captured to both analyse and report on the information it renders.

Through a survey using Pebble's Genee World Classcomm software our group considered the various pricing strategies relevant to their businesses  and the impact and use of social media at both the strategic and tactical application levels

Julia and Inessa with Richard listening in on the discussions

Alana raises a point on how the 'long tail' has changed
so many business models and Anthony listens in

Key points of the " Managing Sales" agenda covered:-

1. How to sell to your customers the way they like to buy
2. What customers like and dislike about sales people
3. The importance (or not) of price in the final decision
4. How to build and retain customer loyalty
5. What part can social media play in B2B markets?
6. What makes an effective Salesperson ?

The Group in discussion on how trust is earned and
 loyalty developed in managing sales

Back from break time ( left to right) Adriana (Islington Chamber of Commerce
 and London Metropolitan University), Alana, Anthony (resuming his seat),
Sophie( Islington Chamber / London Metropolitan University)  and Hugh Alford TACK International

(Back row standing left to right delegates) Debbie, Julia, Inessa,
Iqbal, Hugh  Alford (Speaker-Tack International), Colin
seated right to left  Richard, Jacalyn, Adriana, Alana ,Anthony
and Sophie at  Islington Chamber of Commerce's
" SMEs Sales Masterclass"  April 20th 2012
held at the Metro Lab,

Leaving the Metro Lab I returned to Mornington Crescent tube station. It was lunchtime so I popped into No 1 Camden High Street The Lyttleton Arms opposite the tube station and had a great pint of Purity Brewing's UPU beer.



Supping my pint I looked out of the window towards the Cobden statue and pondered on a quote of his - still pertinent on Friday April 20th 2012- and beyond.

"The progress of freedom depends more upon the maintenance of peace, the spread of commerce, and the diffusion of education, than upon the labours of cabinets and foreign offices."

 Richard Cobden 1804-1865


Related links


Croydon Chamber of Commerce - managing sales


http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/croydon-chamber-of-commerce-managing.html

Metrolab Ltd

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The British Chambers of Commerce - are the ultimate business network- and have for over 150 years been promoting British Business. Their mission is to make the chamber network an essential part of growing business; they do do this by sharing opportunities, knowledge and expertise.


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