I think that it’s important to focus the client on the problem you solve, not the price or the features or benefits. Too many salespersons are reactive to what the client wants instead of being proactive and guiding them through this transition that they are going through. Every salesperson has a superpower, mine is my empathic listening ability, the ability to understand things from the buyer’s perspective. How to present things so it’s all about them and not about me or how smart we are, but how I can help them.
Plan your project
Whether you are a multinational organisation or a smaller business, the way we are working is changing. As strategy shifts in many industries to being more experiment centric, projects are going to become more and more critical for achieving excellence in execution. Many things in life are projects, therefore, I think project management skills touch every part of our lives and as a result, project managers will need a new approach and mindset. Contact me via e-mail for workshops and roadmaps on how to navigate a successful project and the common pitfalls to avoid.
Mind over matter
We can pinpoint interesting things in our environment by using our reticular activating system (RAS). Our RAS focuses on whatever is occupying our thoughts and sifts through the countless bits of information that bombard us every day until it finds something that fits. Many of us think with a negative mindset that calibrates our RAS to filter the wrong type of information which leads to failure reinforcement. We can recalibrate our RAS by focusing on positive thoughts by actively seeking out the positive elements of a given situation. The RAS can be reprogrammed to see opportunities where it once only saw problems. In addition, you can focus your RAS by setting specific goals, by having short and long-term goals and using affirmative wording will actually make the goals easier to achieve.
Hours worked that require compensation
During the discovery phase, we must agree that it’s a real problem and this problem has an impact on your business, then it is up to me to prove that I have a solution. I really enjoy helping organisations succeed, talking them through what’s holding them back and I like working with organisations that have a small company vibe, where I can naturally set up processes for them. I learned once and for all before the pandemic a real sense of knowing when a deal is worth pursuing. I don’t like “free” education and have no desire to give away my knowledge and experience, as it’s not my job to educate for “free”. Contact me via e-mail if you would like to evaluate what you should be measuring in your organisation.
Consistency is the key
The only way to get someone to do something consistently is when they have a reason to do it. It’s important not to assume that what is important to you is important to your customers. As a salesperson you will have to build an intrinsic desire for your customer to fix the problem that you have identified by reminding them that you are there to help them understand what the process is, so that they don’t fear deciding. “Here’s what’s going to happen, here are some of the pitfalls and I’ll guide you around those. If you just trust the process, you’ll come out on the other side with a successful outcome.” I think it’s a good idea to serve others by asking questions that will assist them in making a wise buying decision.
Ask questions and listen
Listen without an agenda and sincerely focus on how your product or service can best serve your customer’s hopes, dreams, and goals. It’s a good idea to listen with mindfulness and then respond with a question instead of thinking about what you are going to say next while your customer is talking. I think of listening as a meditation, just being present and jotting things down in my notebook. In my experience, it’s a best practice to get as much information as possible before trying to answer, as building win-win relationships means remembering that it is not about what we want but what the other person wants.
“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”
Design your process
Your role as a salesperson is to present your product or service in a clear, concise, and truthful manner. When you are already selling into an account, educating them about a new product or service is great idea. When selling to a new account you must establish a business need, otherwise the buyer’s will just be curious and interested in learning about your new product or service. Remember that it’s not a good idea to talk someone into something, listen to what they want as making sales is about asking questions and building a trustworthy win-win relationship.
“A man convinced against his will Is of the same opinion still.”
We still have to do it
It still fascinates me when I see and hear salespersons fall into the pricing trap, and nowadays even more salespersons are falling into the features and functions trap. Sales is a performance-based profession and how well you do it in the eyes of your clients is all what matters, as your clients are the receivers of all your communication – written, oral and visual. It’s all a performance, not just the words, it’s the tonality, inflections, the timing, it’s the whole sequence of things and at this could seem overwhelming at the beginning of the process.
How well do you do it?
How well do you do it?
What impact does having empathy have on sales?
I think that when you have empathy you know what your clients and your team are thinking, and if you know what they are thinking and feeling, you will have better information about what they care about both logically and emotionally. When you know what motivates your clients and team, you will know what to show them and what questions to ask them. To have that type of empathy, you must listen deeply and not think about what you are going to say whilst listening. Stay curious about your clients and what obstacles they are facing, simply ask yourself, “If I was them, what would I care about?” Contact me via e-mail when you are ready for a flexible process for your team. A framework which provides guidelines for where they are and where they want to go.
Don't hustle
If someone is interested in going where you are going, you don’t have to hustle them, you don’t have to say this is where we are going. For example, you don’t need persuade people who you think might want to go to Cape Verde. What you need is to find the people who want to go to Cape Verde and then let them know, that’s where you are going.
Game changers
“Heroes don’t need to fit in. Heroes are willing to risk criticism to dare to break a social norm that needs breaking.”
Listen to the minority voice
I attended the Presidents Summit in Copenhagen on Monday, and I have now had time to reflect on how fortunate I was to be invited to this wonderful event. I was grateful for both the auditory and visual inputs from Linda Hill (Professor and Faculty Leader at Harvard Business School), Itay Talgam (Conductor and Leadership expert), Henrik Andersen (CEO, Vestas), Robert Waldinger (Professor at Harvard Medical School), Ashley Whilans (Professor at Harvard Business School), Daniel Pink (Author and Human Behaviour expert), Neil Strauss (Author) and Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez (Project Management expert). It's our nature as human beings to only remember 20% of what we hear and only 30% of what we see, however we remember 50% of what we both see and hear.
Linda Hill left us with some exciting questions:
1. How much time do you spend on ”coulds” and ”shoulds”?
2. How do you encourage diversity of thought?
3. How do you get people to view reasonable missteps and intelligent failures as learning opportunities?
4. How do you ensure that people don’t compromise to quickly – as opposed to working through differences – when making decisions?
5. Are you developing talent to be value creators and game changers
6. Is your team collaborative ready?
Hear and react
I think that if you want your business to run effectively one of the best investments you can make for your staff is repeated training. Training enables you to set and raise the standards of staff performance and proactively prepare them for difficult situations. For training to be effective, it has to be repetitive so that important concepts are constantly reinforced and reiterated. In my experience the best training for your sales and marketing teams is via workshops, as this will give them the opportunity to try out techniques before having to react to unfamiliar situations in real life and therefore increasing the chance of success. Contact me via e-mail for tailor made workshops for your organisation.
Sharing information across your campaigns
The idea that we can look somebody in the eyes and engage with them is scary for many people. When you work in sales and marketing this behaviour is the bare minimum of expected of you. Many organisations spend loads of money marketing their various products yet often their marketing strategies aren’t connected to one another, instead they use isolated campaigns without any formal unities. Why are they doing that? I think you should start correlating all of your marketing activities by streamlining your marketing strategy and messaging, as this will increase their effectiveness and put you in the spotlight for potential customers. Contact me via e-mail if you would like an evaluation of how to create a more unified marketing message for your organisation.
Game changers
Please explain how you make companies survive and thrive?
When I go to your website, subconsciously my brain is looking for ways for your product or service will help me survive and thrive, for example, save time, simplify my life, make money, purchase, reduce risk, organise information, connect with a tribe, etc. I think that when you attach a survival trigger to your product or service the perceived value will go through the roof. And if you can do it in a way that your customer does not have to burn too many calories when trying to understand how you can make them survive, it works even better.
Perceived value
Affordable luxury in simple terms means that luxurious products within the financial reach of a much larger buying segment than for example, in the case of Louis Vuitton or Chanel. In the past, luxury meant exclusive and privilege to the wealthy. Luxury has always reflected one’s personality, but nowadays luxury has become accessible. As luxury begins to target the younger population there will be a movement towards sub-labels and diffusion ranges, for example, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Armani Exchange, McQ, See by Chloe, etc. Sometimes there is very little differentiation on the product and quality fronts, but in most cases the logo and communication can create a perception of luxury.
Sunday mantra
Our minds are a center of Divine operation and Divine operation means expression into something better than has gone before. To get good results we must properly understand our relation to the great impersonal power we are using. It is intelligent and we are intelligent, and the two intelligences must cooperate.
Leading through the fog
Do you think that the market rewards people who are seen as have paid their dues?
I think those of us who have come onto the other side after a dip or misfortune are the ones who seem to be the best at what they do. For example, I don’t just listen to your words, I listen to your tone, I observe your body movements, your eyes, and facial expressions. I interpret your silence and I hear everything that you don’t say, and all these skills are learned behaviour. Whether you or I can turn this skillset into a revenue stream is a whole other question.
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”
E is for evidence
What happens when you take time to appreciate and be thankful for those who have contributed to the abundance in your organisations?
I think that if you create an evidence-based mindset by using empirical evidence and value-based metrics. According to my dictionary the word evidence means ‘one or more reasons for believing that something is or is not true.’ So, to answer your question, perhaps it would be a good idea to include non-digital metrics and those measuring the strength and health of the organisation as well as short term data sets.
U is for understanding
How do you scale the understanding of value creation across your organisation?
I think that it’s better to understand something than it is to know it. Sales and marketing teams must demonstrate the ability to collaborate and partner effectively with finance as improved financial literacy will enable stronger strategic debates. Working with finance and the rest of the leadership team is central to fulfilling your commercial objectives whether you are a start-up or a multi-national organisation. Contact me via e-mail for training and understanding workshops for effective sales and marketing teams.