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One of the worst experiences at the hands of a so called professional sales person happened recently in a Portsmouth car dealership. See if you think they need sales training
“Can I help you sir?” Dave asked (name changed to protect the not so innocent)
I explained that I was just looking at the new Audi as I may be changing in anything up to 6 months and was interested in the new range. I was stood admiring one of the new range at the time.
“Come over to the desk Sir” as he led me to the far corner of the dealership where he proceeded to look straight into his computer. He made no eye contact with me at all as he asked “name, postcode, telephone number, email address”. Dave was so concerned with getting my details so that he could put me on the database that he made no effort to build rapport, ask me any questions and the worst sin of all – he took me away from the product. A product that I liked the look of, the more time I was examining it.
Negotiation and Negotiating Skills are some of the most sought after sales training courses. People seek out negotiation tips, negotiating strategies and scour the web for processes to win against the ‘other’ person in a negotiation.
It may come as a surprise to you but your own worst enemy in a negotiation is yourself. Some people seem to spend hours seeking out the magic words that will help them win in any negotiation yet fail to look to see what they or their employees are doing wrong.
Two recent personal experiences highlight this fantastically well:
The hunt for my perfect lights:
Imagine how excited I was when I found out that the one of the only 2 sellers of the lights that I wanted for my new office were about a 10 minutes drive from my home. I rushed down there and recited my list to the chap on the counter -
People are often surprised when I turn up for sales training workshops without a laptop and powerpoint slides. They are pleasantly surprised throughout the day as the workshops unfolds and the day revolves around creativity, interaction and the application of knowledge. It makes for a fun and engaging day.
I found long ago that traditional powerpoint presenations and sales training does more to kill off the key things I promote than anything else. It is rigid, linear and down right boring!
Don’t fall into these traps with your presenations:
Presentations for business are no laughing matter. That’s not to say they have to be serious.
Some of the best presentations I have seen have been hysterical and captivating although for all the right reasons unlike this spoof from an American presentation skills trainer.
I came across Sir Ken Robinson recently while I was doing some research on creativity.
Watch the video - he could almost make it as a comedian!
and then read the book.
I have used a number of his principles of creative education in my sales training and strongly agree that 21st Century Education must reflect the way that people live today. Traditional learning methods stiffle creativity.
I was in the middle of doing some research in creative thinking for use in future blog posts when I decided it was time to take a break and watch Dragons Den.
The star prize for creativity went to Guy Portelli who managed to face the dragons and walk away with more money than he was asking for.
The dragons seemed a bit surprised that this proven sculptist would be asking for £70,000 for an almost guaranteed return of £250,000
It became clear, however, that Guy had his own plans. He had put his creative side to work and had thought about how he could launch his collection at the least cost to him and with the most control. Typically, art dealers would ask for 50% commission for the artist to use their premises, experience and marketing to gain access to people willing to pay around £20,000 per sculpture. They remained in control.
Guy had other ideas. His creativity led him to offering the dragons a deal that seemed to be too good to be true. However, he knew what he was doing: Read the rest of this entry »
Recently I wrote a blog post saying that I had been asked to write a review of a new book called Topgrading for Sales by Bradford.D.Smart and Greg Alexander.
A few weeks back I had the pleasure of watching one of my all time favorite authors Dan Kennedy on stage in London.
Dan is a no nonsense, tell it like it is American who has been responsible for some of the most profitable sales and marketing campaigns the world has ever seen.
I consider Dan Kennedy to be up there with Jay Abraham as the two most gifted sales and marketing geniuses alive.
He is credited with taking the Guthy Renker Corporation from next to nothing to a multi billion dollar conglomerate.
His sales letter writing book is a fantastic introduction to how to write sales letters that sell. I use many of the principles I learned in my sales letter writing workshops .
If you are aware of Dan then you will see his influence in many of my sales training workshops and if you have any interest in sales and would like to know about Dans approach to sales and marketing then give me a call on +44 845 6434165.
We became the proud parents of a new puppy a few weeks ago when we became responsible and bought Pemba, our black Labrador puppy. He is a great big ball of energy that only knows fun and has quickly become part of the family — with all the emotional attachment that goes with it.
Apart from teaching me a few things about communications skills the search and purchase of Pemba has been an introduction to some superb business practices - most noticeable by my vet.
See if you can spot their skill from our tale of acquiring a suitable pet doctor!
We were looking for a vet and asked around the local community and some family and friends. One name kept popping up and as my wife had used them for her cats when she was growing up we decided to give them a try.
I recently received a comment on one of my blog posts from a uk sales trainer which was basically a rant about the difference between Push and Pull selling and the death of ‘80,90 - BS!’.
To be honest I wasn’t sure of the point of the rant and what he was taking offence to. The post was this one on persuasion .
The post was a quick quote from Dale Carnegie about human nature. The rant took offense to the terms ‘Influence, persuasion and convincing’ and essentially (I guess) tried to make the point that no one like to be sold to - they like to buy.
I would like to open this up to debate, especially to the sales training, sales consultancy and sales coaching industry.
From personal recent experience I would say the Post Office can urgently do with some uk sales training .
The papers and TV news have been filled recently with the subject of post office closures and how this will kill off many local communities. I can understand this and can only sympathise with people who rely on the post office for essential services.
What I can’t help is my feeling that largely the post office have brought this upon themselves with untrained and quite frankly appalling customer service / sales staff . I know that many of the post office counters operate as mini franchises but they should insist on some element of sales training or sales management training .
I spent my last weekend at an Entreprenurial Get together of 500 people who had gathered to see some amazing guest speakers.
One of the highlights for me was Duncan Bannatyne. He spoke for an hour and then held an open microphone question and answer session.
Duncans speach was superb. I have to say he was not the most polished speaker you are likely to encounter but his talk was based on his real life experiences and his humour shone through.
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The following article was first published in my Sales Newsletter. You should subscribe here — Sales Newsletter
Last year I was in the process of selling my House and had invited a number of Estate Agents around to show me why they should be get my business.The process was an eye opener and one that left me totally unimpressed with some of the Agents I met. They were there to sell me on the benefits of why I should place my house on the market with them yet they could not even sell themselves. One Agent even delighted in telling me:
"Oh no, I’m not a salesman. I try to show them the house and stay out of the way"
