Sales Tips
The section where we talk about sales and give some tips on how to approach sales.
Are you selling to a need or a want?
Oct 28th
“Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman – not the attitude of the prospect. “
W Clement Stone
Do you know why your clients buy from you?
People and companies buy products and services either because they need them or because they want them. If you can understand what is motivating your potential customers you will be able to tailor your sales pitch to better suit your clients, thus making it easier for them to make the decision to buy.
For example people buy electricity because they need it rather than because they want it. On the other hand people tend to buy house plants because they want them, rather than need them. Every purchase made will have a need or a want behind it, and understanding what the driver is, is key to making successful sales. This is the case if someone buys a bar of chocolate at the train station or if they decide to buy a house, the difference lies in the amount of thought that goes into the decision and the amount of information required to enable the decision to be made.
Based on the strength of the need and/or the want the type of sale you make breaks down into one of three categories:
1) Hostage Sales: This is where the need for the product or service is the over riding driver in the decision making process. A company’s printing requirements might be an example of this. They need brochures and business cards to send out to potential clients, the need here is far greater than the want.
In these instances the client is making a choice as to which company to use rather than whether they should have the product or not. From a sales point of view it is therefore important to sell the benefits of using your company, so you may want to focus on the reliability and speed of service in addition to the quality of the finished products.
The danger with these types of purchases is that the client can feel resentful of the company they are buying from, as they need to have it and feel as though there is no choice in the matter. This can lead to them “bad mouthing” you to friends and colleagues. Companies in a near monopoly position can often suffer from this and there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest this happens with the likes of BT, Sky, British Gas and so on. This is why excellence in customer service is such a critical factor for companies in this position, because f you don’t look after your clients they will happily jump ship as soon as they find an alternative supplier.
2) Emotional sales: Here the want for the product or service is greater than the need for it. The individual or company can do without the product and it can often be an impulse purchase. A magazine or newspaper subscription can be an example of this. It’s a nice to have but you can live without it. When times are tough, if the client doesn’t feel there is any huge value in the subscription then it will soon be cancelled.
Customer service is still important, but the key criteria here is the quality of the product. If the articles in the magazine are of interest to the reader and they derive real value from them then the client is likely to view the subscription as more of a need to have than an impulse purchase. From a sales point of view it is important to focus on how the product or service will enhance the lifestyle of the individual or company, perhaps the product will be a status symbol for them or provide a feel good factor.
The potential danger with Emotional Sales is that the client does not perceive any lasting value in repeating the purchase, so you find yourself in a position of constantly having to find new customers as you are not building regular repeat business. Building brand and company loyalty is a major factor in achieving success in this area of sales.
3) Sustainable sales: The ideal scenario for a company, as the clients have both a strong need and a strong want for the product or service. They like the product, they like the service and they understand how it benefits them to have the product and to buy it from you. This could be something as simple as a solicitor’s office having a regular contract to have flower displays in their reception. The general manager of the practice who bought the contract believes that the flowers are a symbol of the success and friendliness of the practise and as such send out a strong message to potential clients. To stop the contract would be a sign to clients that the practice has started to struggle.
The potential danger is that the client could decide to cut back on such expenses, but the bigger danger is that the client could decide to change suppliers. They still view the flowers contract as important, but believe they might get a better deal/service from one of your competitors. Having landed the contract it is important to look after your clients and maintain the level of quality, in both product and service, that intitially persuaded them to buy from you. That’s why it’s always a little puzzling to see the huge offers open to new customers of Sky, BT etc that are not available to their existing customer base. Yes they need to entice new customers, but what message are they sending out to existing ones?
If you arre operating in the 4th zone, where the perceived need and want are low you won’t be making many sales! This happens when the sales person spends all their time talking about the features of the product or service rather than linking these to the benefits that they bring to the clients. Having the latest digital print facilities to produce company brochures with mean nothing to your clients.
However if you can demonstrate how this means you can produce smaller print runs, reduce turnround times and improve quality, which in turn will result in you being able to provide 250 new brochures by the end of the week in time for the exhibition your client has on Saturday; increases the need and want of the client for your services.
Think about your clients, do they buy because they need your services or because they want them?
How can you increase the desire to buy?
“Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, “Make me feel important.” Not only will you succeed in
sales, you will succeed in life.”
Mary Kay Ash
Going the extra mile
Oct 7th
I’ve been coaching someone recently who is arguably the best networker I have ever known. He is brilliant at generating new business and existing clients are incredibly loyal. I was curious as to what he would attribute as the secret of his success.
He told me a story of when he had just landed his first job as a sales consultant in an office stationery business. He took a call from a customer who was desperate for a box of pencil leads and wanted them delivered. The cost of the leads was £1.50 and the customer had called round a number of businesses with no joy, as they were not interested in such a paltry order. Joe told the customer he would be happy to deliver them later that day when he had finished his work in the office.
Joe duly delivered the pencil leads late afternoon as promised and thought no more of it. The following week the client called Joe back and asked him to take over the entire stationery needs for the three branches of his business. Twenty years later the client is still a loyal customer for Joe and is one of Joe’s biggest advocates.
Joe has never fogotten this and uses this story when bringing new people into his business to demonstrate the importance of going the extra mile for an existing or potential client. For example they sell a number of products and services to students in the city and he urges his staff to treat them as well as they treat their biggest clients, as the students may well become the business leaders of tomorrow. It is this approach and attitude that people pick up on and lead to them doing business with Joe.
This is a lesson we can all learn, and I can think of quite a few businesses I deal with that would benefit from adopting this approach!
When was the 
last time you went the extra mile for a customer?
Have you got any examples to share of people or companies going the extra mile for you?
Sales Tip #3
When was the last time you showed persistence?
Sep 16th
“Perseverance is a great element of success. If you knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I’m coaching somebody at the moment who used to work in Television and is in the process of setting up a new business. We were talking about the importance of persistence and she told me a story about her early days in TV when she was a Programme Editor’s assistant. Jenny was contacted by a guy who was looking to break into television and was willing to do any job to help him achieve this goal. After checking with the Editor Jenny told him unfortunately there were no opportunities available.
A few weeks later the guy rang back again, with the same answer, sorry nothing available. At the end of the month he called again, still no joy. However he was friendly and eager and told Jenny he would call again….
At her next meeting with the Editor Jenny talked about the guy and how she knew he was going to call again and again and again, and was there anything they could give him, if only to stop him calling!
The Editor asked how much they had in petty cash. £50 Jenny replied. Well, the Editor decided, if he calls in again tell him we can give him some work, but we can only give him £50 a week in expenses.
Sure enough the guy called in again and he was taken on and stayed long enough to become Editor of the TV station’s main news programme.
This is a really important lesson to learn, it is too easy to give up. If you want to succeed you need to be prepared for rejection and you need to be able to accept it and try again. Too often in sales environments you see sales people give up at the first hurdle. Persistence is what seperates the successful from those who don’t last the course.
“Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
Calvin Coolidge
When was the last time you showed real persistence?
Selling on the positive
Sep 13th
Reading an exchange on Twitter this morning reminded me of one of the important lessons we pass on when we are coaching people on sales skills.
One of our local MP’s was tweeting about the proposed boundary changes, when they received this reply from one of the local councillors in their area:
“And your immediate anti-reaction indicates your #1 concern is your job rather than electoral fairness for your constituents”
Clearly the inviduals concerned live on opposite sides of the political divide. The councillor responsible for the witty retort is not alone in this kind of petty point scoring, it seems to afflict quite a few politicians who post on Twitter. Rather than criticise might they not portray themselves and their policies in a better light if they expended their efforts in “selling” the positive benefit of their policies?
Which brings us to the sales coaching…. research carried out has indicated that customers like to deal with sales people who are professional and who make them feel valued. There are a variety of ways this can be achieved; for example a professional sales person will be able to demonstrate a knowledge of their clients industry. This encourages confidence in the sales person and is an important factor in building trust and rapport in the relationship.
Another important factor is how the sales person talks about their competition. The professional approach is to acknowledge they exist and to recognise that they have their strengths and then to emphasise the benefits of using the sales persons company to do business with instead. e.g. I was speaking to one of my new clients last week and they were telling me that they had used company x in the past. Apparently they thought their products were good, but they had moved to us because they felt our service was a little quicker and more efficient. This is professional and indicates honesty, which builds trust.
The sales person who spends their time criticising the competition and continually putting them down comes across as disingenuous and can quickly lose the respect of their client, and ultimately their business.
This is particularly important in an age where social media is increasing the impact of word of mouth recommendation and reputations can be quickly tainted.
A lesson for our local councillors perhaps?
Have you got any sales tips you would like to share?
You can follow us on Twitter @coachpotatoes 
You need to ask the right questions…
Jun 18th
The secret of successful selling is to ask the right questions. If we do this properly, we become seen as a problem solver, there to help the client make the correct decision rather than somebody trying to flog their products/services. Happy customers are those that buy a product or service that matches their needs. The key is to help them understand exactly what their needs are and this is achieved by asking them specific questions which will encourage the client to think through what it is they want and why they want it.
By asking open questions which help you and your client understand exactly what their needs are enables you to match your products/services to those needs. The questions that you ask will vary depending on the situation, but you can start by asking yourself what information would you need in order to be able to recommend a specific product and how would it benefit your client.
The problems arise when you don’t ask the right questions….
Your best sales people are your customers
May 11th
I was in Sports Direct in Liverpool One yesterday waiting to pay for something. They guy in front of me had a small football kit for his young son and he asked the assistant on the counter if she could hold it for him until the next day, as he hadn’t bought enough money with him to buy it there and then.
“Sorry, we don’t hold anything for anybody” came the reply.
The guy explained that he thought he had bought his cards with him, but had unfortunately left them at home, but it was his son’s birthday later in the week and this particular kit was the last one on the racks, which was why he was asking if they could hold it for him until the next day.
“I’ve just told you, we don’t hold anything, you’ll just have to come back”
Ok, Sports Direct might have such a policy, however strange that might be, but did the assistant have to be quite so snotty about it? Would it have hurt to say, I’ll put it behind the counter for you, but I can only hold it until the shop closes tomorrow?
When will some companies learn that their best sales people are their customers? Send them away happy and they will tell all their friends and help drive business to those companies. Give them poor service and they will tell twice as many of their friends!
Have you got any stories to share of customer service – good or bad?
Using Pyschology in Sales Calls
Mar 14th
I was watching a programme on Body Language Secrets a few days ago and they were focussing on how an understanding of psychology is really beneficial to sales people in helping them to sell effectively.
To help demonstrate this they filmed two of the stars of the show, Jack and Anjula, visiting a car showroom to see how Carl would handle the potential sale of a car to them. Carl was described as one of the country’s top sales people who has sold £millions worth of top quality cars during his long and very successful career.
After asking a failrly typical opening question about the type of car they currently drove, to establish their current level, Carl went on to ask if they had a budget in mind. As they had walked into a showroom full of Aston Martins, Bentleys and Rolls Royces I’m not sure this was a suitable question. Price is a factor but most people don’t make the ultimate buying decision based on price even when they are not shopping in a top end car showroom.
Carl was now talking exclusively to Jack and was drawing lots of praise from Peter for getting Jack behind the wheel of a black Aston Martin and getting him to imagine himself driving and owning this beautiful car. Anjula was standing to one side and looking rather bored. It was at this stage that the show threw Carl a curve ball, with Anjula now telling Jack that as she was buying the car they wouldn’t be buying the Aston Martin as she didn’t like it.
The film then demonstrated how Carl was able to adjust to this new information and turn his attention to Anjula and foccussing all his attention on her and asking questions to establish what she was interested in. This ability to change focus so smoothly was supposed to show how good Carl was at using pyschology and body language to manage the sales process so well.
I thought this was nonsense. Pyschology and body language are important factors to consider in the sales process but Carl only appeared to be paying attention to one person during the call. He made a classic mistake initially thinking the car was the man’s domain and ignored the woman, and then gave most attention to the woman when he realised his error. A really good salesperson would have asked the couple when they first walked in what they were both looking for in a car, what was important to them in terms of the car’s specification etc and this would have then allowed him to ask who the car was actually for. Doing this would have allowed him to judge who would be making the decision to buy after they had found out more about the vehicles on display,with him involving both in the call even if he slightly favoured the person who he thought was making the final decision.
When coaching sales people I see this time and again, people not selling to the MAN (the person with the money, authority to buy and the need for the product or service). It is one of the most common mistakes that people make when starting the sales process. It is really important to check that you are going to be speaking to the right person before starting your call. I have been on the receiving end of a sales call when the sales person was told who the decision maker was and they still went on to try and sell to the wrong person!
It was a few years ago and my wife and I were looking at installing a new kitchen into the house we had just moved into. We called into one of the kitchen companies in our area and spoke to the Director of the company and arranged for her to come round to the house to give us an idea of what her company could do for us. Whilst in the showroom my wife made it clear that she didn’t cook and I was the person who spent most of the time in the kitchen and would therefore be the one the Director needed to “sell” to.
When she came round she proceeded to ignore me and talk to my wife about what she wanted in a new kitchen. Knowing the correct process it was quite amusing to watch as my wife again explained that she wasn’t the decision maker and didn’t have as much emotional attachment to the kitchen as me, only for the Director to continue to sideline me in the conversation much to my wife’s increasing frustration. Eventually the Director got the message and engaged me in the conversation and we were both able to describe the type of kitchen we wanted, and the company director got a sense of what was important to me.
A week later we received the proposed plans for the new kitchen together with the price. We had spoken to three Kitchen companies in total, two who had provided us with what we wanted, together with a few amendments of their own, and the third from the company in question which was completely different to what we wanted. Although their price was the cheapest they lost the order because of her inability to sell to the right person and then compounded the error by recommending a product that didn’t match our needs.
I think the message in Body Language Secrets about understanding body language and pychology and their place in the sales process is very accurate and important. They do both have a vital role to play in the successful outcome of the sales process but if you don’t sell to the right person this can lead to frustration for you and the customer and a subsequent break down in the relationship.
The question you need to ask yourself when going to see a client is “will I be speaking to the MAN?” If you’re not you won’t be getting a decision to buy on the day and you need to alter the structure of your call accordingly. If you are in a call with a number people, do not focus on just one person, each person in the meeting is there for a reason and will have some influence in the decision making process, even if they are not ultimately responsible for the final decision.
Building relationships is key to sales
Oct 5th
So has Cheryl Cole lost the plot? There has been uproar since she made her decision on which 3 acts she wanted to take through to the live finals in the X Factor. Viewers have been ringing ITV in their droves to complain and there are acres of news print on her wacky decision to take Cher and Katie through to the next stage of the competition.
Based on what we saw over the weekend Cher and Katie did not deserve to go through as they were both unable to complete their audition with suggestions neither of them could cope with the pressure placed on them. Gamu, Treyc and Anasatacia were all better singers than Cher and Katie but were discarded.
As Cheryl wants to be the winning judge again why would she decide against better singers in a singing competition?
One of her comments to the contestants at the weekend was quite telling when she told them that, due to her illness, she had not met some of them at the auditions and had therefore not yet been able to make a “personal connection” to them.
It was quite clear that Cheryl was not making her decision solely on the quality of their voices. If so Treyc and Gamu would have gone through instead of Cher and Katie. Other factors influenced her decision and these included her feelings and attitude towards each contestant. She appeared to feel a closer bond twoards Cher and Katie and that gave them the edge in the decision making process.
This is the same in many different scenarios and is particularly true in sales meetings. Price is an important factor in the sales process, but the relationship you have with a potential client will have far more impact on the ultimate decision made. The better the relationship the greater the trust the client will have in what you say, the more confidence they will have in the service your company will provide and the more difficult they will find it to say no to you. Obviously you still need to have a product or service that is of value to them with a price that is realistic, but the strength of the relationship can be the decisive factor in the decision.
I have been coaching in sales situations where a client has been happy to pay a higher price for a service that they can get cheaper elsewhere, because the the relationship between them and the sales person has given them the confidence that the after sales care provided will be superior to the competitions. The client is perfectly happy as they place value on having a close relationship with the people they deal with at that company. Demonstrating empathy and having a “personal connection” carries great weight in the potential success of the business relationship.
It would appear that in Cheryl Cole’s case it is a similar scenario. She will have spent time with each of the contestants during the final auditions and will have felt that she could have the greatest impact with those that she had the greatest connection to; Rebecca, Cher and Katie. She hasn’t picked the best singers, but she has gone with those that she think she and the audience will make the greatest connection with.
As the cliche says; people buy people first.
Now who’s going to get picked in the wildcard session this weekend? Will it be personality or singing ability that gets the nod?
Enjoy tele sales ?
Mar 10th
Love this clip from The Boiler Room, as it demonstrates perfectly the importance of positive thinking when making sales calls. Whenever I am coaching and training people involved in sales we talk about the importance of showing passion for your product or service, explaining what’s in it for the customer and the need to expect to make a sale!
The guy lets himself down at the end by not making an assumptive close!
(contact us if you need to know what that means! )
Word of mouth recommendation
Aug 12th
The best form of advertising is word of mouth recommendation (wom) . Not only is it free but it is testimony to how happy your existing customers are with the service provided by your company. If you want your company to really expand I don’t think you can rely on this alone, but the amount of wom you generate is a great indicator of how your company is perceived in the market place.
Of course word of mouth feedback can be negative as well as positive, and as we all know bad news tends to travel further and quicker than good news. Therefore it’s all the more baffling when you hear about poor service from companies that should really know better.
A friend of mine recently bought a pair of boots and a pair of shoes ( a female friend surprisingly ) from two different stores. The shoes were created by Stella McCartney and were bought from a well known store in the Manchester Trafford centre. A week after buying them the lining on the inside of the right shoe split, so armed with the receipt she decided to take them back. The Manager looked at them and advised her that nothing could be done as the fault was obviously due to the way she walked…..
My friend pointed out that she had had her feet all her life and this problem had never occurred with any other shoes she had purchased, but the Manager was insistent that she wouldn’t change the shoes or refund her money. Incensed by this attitude my friend wrote to Stella McCartney’s company explaining the situation, including comments about the attitude of the staff in the store where she had bought the shoes.
She duly received a letter apologising profusely for the problem with the shoes and offering a full refund on the purchase. To get the refund involved returning to the original store where, despite the letter and the receipt, it still took 20 minutes to persuade the Manager who dealt with the original complaint to process the refund.
How the Manager believes this approach is serving the store and enhancing its reputation is beyond me! Stella McCartney’s company have reacted well to the letter of complaint but suffer from the association of arrogant service provided by the staff in the Trafford centre store.
Contrast this with the experience my friend had with her boots. They were a pair of Jimmy Choo boots and after buying them she practically lived in them to the extent that she wore down the heel on them. They were obviously an expensive pair of boots and she wanted them repaired, but wanted to make sure that they were repaired to a suitable standard.
So she decided to ring Jimmy Choo’s customer service department and ask them where they would recommend she take them to have them repaired. She was quite happy to pay to have them repaired as she was delighted with the boots and they had already served her well. However, rather than give her a company near to where she lived, they insisted that she send the boots back to them where they would resole and reheel them free of charge.
For a relatively small investment of time and effort the return in the form of goodwill and word of mouth recommendation is tremendous. Yes, Jimmy Choo’s can be expensive but the quality of the product is only matched by the quality of the after sales service provided.
It is surprising how many companies still take customers for granted and view after sales service as a nuisance and an irrelevance. The culture at Jimmy Choo’s is clearly one where the customer experience is crucial to the success of the company.
Gaining new customers is hard work at the best of times and is even more difficult in today’s economic climate. All the more reason to take the long view, that looking after your current customer base will help retain them and encourage them to tell others just how great you are to do business with.
What more can you do to make the buying experience for your clients more memorable?
