Barrett Sales Blog

As markets tighten I thought we could reflect on some lessons learnt in the past by highly experienced, successful sales people. The following lessons are from some of the participants of my ‘Sell like a woman’ research project and make for interesting reading in ‘what not to do’ in sales. Here is the 1st part of a 3 part series on common sales mistakes.

1. Arrogance and hubris

Sometimes when you are on a roll with a product or brand (or even with your own success as a sales person), it’s way too easy to lose sight of the client’s real needs. You can easily get caught up in your own mythology. Especially when first starting out as a young rep I made some disastrous blunders - stopped treating clients as individuals, broke a few core promises because “our brand is so successful now that clients have to understand that we need to do this to keep growing” - and I look back now with shame. The big changes I made was to go back to basics, remember that I am only as good as last month’s results and be very, very grateful to both my Company AND my client base for paying my wages. [Trudy]

2. Putting all your eggs in one basket

Probably the biggest mistake I made, was to win a contract, and spend the next year developing and growing it, and then over next 2.5 years perfecting it. This then made this customer dominate our business. It consumed quite a lot of focus and resource. Since then, I have ensured that I balance new sales with additional business. I have to keep myself in check, as I tend to give away far too much of myself, in terms of time and company investment, with no guarantee of return. It’s a new process of self discipline, matching output to need without sacrificing value add. Helen

Restricting your contact to one or two in the organisation- the broader the contact, the better understanding you will have of their business. [Libby]

3. Under-rating your competitors (or believing your own sales story)

Believing everything you read publically about your competitors and what customer tells you. They do not always match up to what is real and actually happens in the market place. [Stacy]

Selling a service that was not backed up by excellent customer service as I believed it would be. I had to tell the customer that I would do everything to change the internal culture of the organisation but I couldn’t. I learned that I need to influence much more than the sales function and since then I have chosen companies that I work for and positions within those companies more wisely. [Hilary]

Bagging the competitors. Oh my did I have to eat humble pie when I did this early in my career. One of my biggest customers was related to one of my competitors and I nearly lost the whole deal because I shot off my mouth about that competitor company and the person concerned being dodgy. I had no real evidence they were dodgy at all. I just was going on hearsay from the gossip in the field. BIG BIG mistake. [Sally]

4. Not understanding your customer’s real needs (business and personal)

Not having a broad enough product knowledge and trying to fit my square product into the client round hole. Not understanding the business problem - e.g. when selling training services and the HR person says they need a certain skill and I didn’t know what the business context was. As a result the service I delivered was a waste of time and money. I learned to trust my gut instinct, if I didn’t understand why the client wanted to buy I wouldn’t sell anything until I did understand. [Jill]

5. Selling the client the ‘Rolls Royce’ solution they can’t afford

The client insisted they required the ‘big’ solution, then I discovered the competitor’s ‘Holden’ was all they could have afforded. Always a trap for young players, especially with government customers. It is always depressing to be told by a client that you were the one they wanted but… [Kate]

Not asking the money questions or doing credit checks to see if your clients can afford it. Then wasting so much time on ‘no sales’ when I could have asked more specific questions to determine the real situation. [Sue]

As mentioned before, Sales and Service roles are not for the faint hearted and can often take their toll on your good nature, your energy and your ability to deal effectively with frustrating issues, especially when you put in the effort to do the ‘right thing’ by your customers and it is not appreciated, acknowledged or actioned.

At the end of a long day or week dealing with lots of people, pulling together various deals, solving problems and keeping your energy levels up and being on your best behaviour, you could be forgiven for being a bit ‘short’ if things don’t go according to plan and something falls short of your expectations.

To manage our frustrations, sales and service people can resort to all sorts of remedies:

• Some go and have a quiet drink after work (hopefully not too many)
• Others talk to their colleagues or friends about it (watch out though for electronic conversations i.e. Virgin Atlantic staff who were sacked recently for this very thing)
• Some get some physical exercise to burn off the stress
• Others further develop their communication skills and behaviours to help them deal with challenging customer situations
• While others simply let is run off them like water off a duck’s back (reciting OM).

However taking out your frustrations directly on a prospective customer is a big NO NO. No matter how irritating they may be.

I understand that not all customers are ‘good’ customers, in that the ‘not so good customers’ can cost your business too much to service, or abuse the privilege of your offering, or just don’t fit what you do. Letting these customers down gently but firmly and ensuring they can be referred to something more appropriate for their needs would be the ideal outcome.

However ‘letting fly’ at someone regardless of their viability to your business is not in anyone’s best interests, especially in a networked world where news can travel fast and you never know who your customers or prospects know.

Recently I wrote about my inconsistent service experience in “Be consistent and keep your customers happy” talking about this very issue. And more recently I received an email from a young, smart, sassy, educated friend of mine (read gen Y) who sent me a string of emails about her customer experience at the hands of frustrated service provider. NB: I have kept it anonymous. Needless to say the emails speak for themselves.

Initial Email (Friday 24 Oct 2008); Subject: Bali Quote for your blog
Hi Sue,
From the top down is how the emails went regarding Monica’s and my experience with a travel agent who was helping us plan our 2009 holiday- it is all very self explanatory. Lastly, I have included my email that was sent back to her. FYI I never met the Travel Agent , but Monica told me that she was laughing at how unorganised we were, rolling her eyes, and making comments such as “about time” when we agreed to something over the phone.

Hope it’s useful reading!!
Steph

Email 1 (Thursday 23 Oct 2008); Subject: Bali Quote
Hi Steph,

Here is the quote from XXX (Travel agent). Have made an appointment with her Saturday 25 Oct at 12 so see you about 11:45. Go through it, try to get a chance to look at hotels so you know what standard we are staying in.

See you Saturday

Love Monica.

Email 2 (Thursday 23 Oct 2008); Subject: Cancel Saturday appointment

Hi XXX (travel agent)
My name is Stephanie. Monica and I had an appointment with you on Saturday 25th October at 12pm regarding our trip to Bali in May 2009.

Thank you for your quote and assistance so far but as we are a bit unorganised, we have decided to change a few things around and would like to be sure of what we want before bothering you so please cancel our appointment for Saturday and take the hold off the discussed flights.

Apologies about the inconvenience and thanks again for your assistance.

Kind regards,
Stephanie.

Email 3 (Friday 24 Oct 2008); Subject: Bali Quote
Hi Monica,
I received an email from Stephanie saying that the both of you will be canceling your appointment on Saturday. As I have put in a lot of work into quoting you numerous placing in Bali and held off the $100 deposit until Saturday as a gesture of good faith, I am very disappointed that you would cancel this. I understand that you both have to sort out what you both want to do and where you want to stay however delaying the booking may cost you a price increase.
I hope when you both make up your minds I will be able to help you with your bookings.
Sincerely,
XXX (Travel Agent)

Email 4 (Friday 24 Oct 2008); Subject: Bali Quote
Dear XXX (travel agent),
Of course we were appreciative of your time and did realize that wanting to book a $5400 holiday would be hard work. Unfortunately your email proves it is obviously too hard.

However, may we firstly point out that you wrote ‘FIJI’ in the quote rather than Bali, which suggests you did not care about what you were preparing anyway.

Secondly, we came to you as a travel agent to pay you to research and recommend places for people to go and to prepare quotes, so apologies about the ‘disappointment’ but we never committed to anything with you at the time. You also knew that we were still making decisions and negotiating things with each other and we were planning to come back to you with final decisions within a few weeks. We were appreciative and courteous the whole time in dealing with you and did nothing to deserve your email.

Thirdly, in regards to your good nature of putting off the $100 deposit until Saturday we have it under good instruction that we have 7 days post holding to place the deposit and confirmation on this flight.

Finally, when we both make up our minds we can guarantee that we will not (nor will anyone we speak to who is planning a holiday) be bothering you or XXX Travel Agent Business again with our bookings and perhaps you should reconsider sending out an email such as this to potential customers in the future.

Regards,
Stephanie and Monica.

In dealing with frustrations, especially trying to keep sales coming in, it is often more courageous to remain calm and collected and try again. Here is a little saying I find most helpful in these and other frustrating situations.

Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.
—Mary Anne Radmacher

Take deep breaths and I wish you happy and prosperous selling

Punishment and reward proceed from basically the same psychological model, one that conceives of motivation as nothing more than the manipulation of behavior.

As part of my own development and in an attempt to keep my mind as open and fresh as possible, I take to reading all sorts of things. On my current reading list is a very interesting book called “Punished by Rewards” by Alfie Kohn, author, speaker and educator. He writes about the trouble with “gold stars, incentive plans, As, praise and other bribes”.

In light of current discussions and debates about the issues surrounding CEO performance bonuses and incentives, and incentives paid to sales people and other employees, I thought it would be worthwhile to take a look at the possible impact of incentive and rewards systems on the quality of our decision making, the effect on workplace performance and sustainable business practices. I warn you this may not sit well with some of you.

The following is excerpt is taken from the Gurteen Knowledge Website, which reviews the book I speak of.

Our basic strategy for raising children, teaching students, and managing workers can be summarized in six words: Do this and you’ll get that.

We dangle goodies (from candy bars to sales commissions) in front of people in much the same way that we train the family pet.

In this book, Kohn shows that while manipulating people with incentives seems to work in the short run, it is a strategy that ultimately fails and even does lasting harm. Our workplaces and classrooms will continue to decline, he argues, until we begin to question our reliance on a theory of motivation derived from laboratory animals.

Drawing from hundreds of studies, Kohn demonstrates that people actually do inferior work when they are enticed with money, grades or other incentives. Programs that use rewards to change people’s behaviour are similarly ineffective over the long run.

Promising goodies to children for good behaviour can never produce anything more than temporary obedience. In fact, the more we use artificial inducements to motivate people, the more they lose interest in what we’re bribing them to do. Rewards turn play into work, and work into drudgery.

Step by step, Kohn marshals research and logic to prove that pay-for-performance plans cannot work; the more an organisation relies on incentives, the worse things get. Parents and teachers who care about helping students to learn, meanwhile, should be doing everything possible to help them forget that grades exist. Even praise can become a verbal bribe that gets kids hooked on our approval.

Rewards and punishments are just two sides of the same coin – and the coin doesn’t buy very much. What is needed, Kohn explains, is an alternative to both ways of controlling people.

The final chapters offer a practical set of strategies for parents, teachers, and managers that move beyond the use of carrots or sticks. Seasoned with humour and familiar examples, “Punished by Rewards” presents an argument that is unsettling to hear but impossible to dismiss. See here for an interview with Alfie Kohn.

When I read this book I cannot help but look at the current financial markets debacle and the consequences excessive greed and unethical rewards systems.

The impact being that it is left up to the rest of us to mop up the mess. Further food for thought…

Just one idea can positively transform your life, career, income and wealth.
As I have written before, in uncertain times, we can let the negativity of current events and others consume us or we can continue to look for opportunity. Excessive worry, however, can often cause us to lose sight of our goals and can limit our creativity and problems solving capabilities just when we really need them.

These tough times call for us to be even more innovative, inventive, creative and persistent. Some of the most successful sales people are the most adaptive and creative people you can meet, especially when it comes to finding new markets and new ways to solve customers’ problems with their products and services.

As the saying goes “Necessity is the mother of invention’. And in these tougher times it is not only necessary to keep our sales activities going and ensure that have enough people to speak who can work with us but to think creatively about how we going to do that.

Does your thinking or sales approach need a refresher?

If you are feeling in a bit of sales slump here are some questions to consider that may help you keep your ideas fresh, check for any blind spots and help you create opportunities so you can keep your prospecting and sales efforts on track:

• What are the current boundaries or rules in your business, team or area of expertise?
• What are the rules that can increase the likelihood of success in your business, your team’s field of expertise? Rules can be formal (written down) or informal (spoken or implied). How do these rules help you solve problems?
• List 3 times when you didn’t listen to an opportunity and it hurt you, your team / business. What can you learn from this?
• What were the rules you followed that kept you from seeing or taking advantage of those opportunities?
• What changes can you make to your thinking to increase your imagination and flexibility and create more sales opportunities?
• What is impossible to do right now, but if it could be done, would fundamentally change you, your team and your business for the better?

Often times our customers can have the answers to these question also. So if nothing get out there and ask them for feedback about how you can all work together more effectively and creatively get through these challenging times in good shape.

Did you know:

• Over 50% of sales people give up at 1st contact if they get a ‘NO’ from the prospect never to go back to that prospect again .
• At the 5th contact 7% of sales people are left to speak with the prospect to see if they can do business together.
• At the 8th contact there is only one sales person left to work with the prospect. Hopefully it is you.

Many sales people, especially those new to sales, often take it personally when a prospect says ‘NO’. Many fail to persist and often fail to favourably position themselves to ‘leave the door open’ for future contact thus limiting their sales opportunities even further.

Now I understand there can be a fine line drawn between persistence and harassment, however in order to have a steady stream of sales coming in the door we need to ensure that we have a regular mix of prospecting activities happening on a daily basis.

Sometimes we will strike viable and interested prospects and other times we come across viable but not interested prospects. Don’t burn those viable and not interested prospects as they may become viable and interested in the future. But you will never know if you don’t go back.

Here are some handy hints to make sure you can go back to these prospects in the future and give yourself a chance of working with them.

Don’t take it personally
If a prospect doesn’t commit to seeing you it could be due to one of the following reasons:

• They do not have a need right now
• They do not fit your target market
• They do not perceive having a need right now
• They have other associations or relationships
• They are not convinced they need to see you

Honourable retreat
Don’t give up. Whenever you make contact with someone make sure you always leave a favourable impression. Make sure they felt it was worthwhile to speak to you even if they don’t fit your target market – you never know who they might know.

Allow for the honourable retreat if they cannot meet with you now:

• Seek permission to send some information for their review
• Seek permission to follow up in the future
• Seek permission to keep in touch in case their current suppliers cannot support them in the future
• Ask for a referral

Follow up with persistent daily effort
Choosing your state of mind, your attitude, is critical in when prospecting and selling too. Successful salespeople know that prospecting doesn’t happen by chance it is requires a consistent and persistent effort.

Successful sales people:

• Diarise follow up calls
• Use a CRM to track activity
• Keep a number of activities on the go
• Prioritise
• Persist

Happy and prosperous selling

Recently I have been watching the rerun of “Life at 1” on ABC TV in readiness for the “Life at 3” series as I am fascinated by all things behavioural and developmental. The series focuses on children and their development from age one and beyond, similar in concept to the Seven Up series. However this series cannot be complete without the children’s parents and siblings being involved.

I am interested in the series because I am a parent, however it is amazing what you can learn about other areas of your life from seemingly unrelated sources. This is such a case.

As part of the final episode of ‘Life at 1” the researchers measure the levels of cortisol, often referred to as the ‘stress hormone, in the bodies of the children and their parents to see how the stress of the parents lives affects their children.

One of the fathers being tested in the series had recently changed jobs from being a professional sales person in a luxury car showroom to working in the family market garden business growing vegetable. His ‘stress’ levels actual and emotional were significantly lower after having changed jobs which also affected his child’s stress levels for the better.

While he had indicated that he had been successful in his sales job having achieved good sales results and commissions he found the pressure of always having to be ready for action, ever attentive and available for clients over long periods of time exhausting and draining, so he finally left for something more relaxed. And feels much happier for the change.

Now I am not advocating us all leaving our sales careers for veggies, however, I could relate to what he was saying. I have been thinking about the concept of always being ‘on show’ for some time.

Each client sales meeting is like a performance. If we are going to be an effective sales person, we need to ‘perform’. We need to be present, alert, attentive and ready for action for each client meeting and doing this several times a day. We are ‘on show’.

Selling can be and often is a ‘high stress’ job; people to contact, problems to fix, results to be achieved, more people to contact.

Now I know some people do not care about how they appear to others and what impressions they make, however many an aspiring or seasoned sales person does. They know you never get a second chance to make a good first impression.

However most non sales people think that we have it easy - ‘out there meeting people all day, chatting, doing coffee, la la la’. Yeh right! Little do they know that you are always having to present your ‘very best self’ every day, several times a day.

Sometimes at the end of the day you just don’t want to speak to or meet another person. That’s OK if you don’t have to talk to anyone else when you get home or you live like a hermit, however for many of us we have a partner or a family to go home to and, I can’t speak for you, but I want to be there for them too. I wrote about the importance of active listening in another posting recently called ‘pay attention’ and how I find it a challenge to go home and listen actively to my children after being with clients all day.

Having a healthy lifestyle, clear goals and making sure you get personal ‘free’ time on regular basis are just some of the things that are critical to maintaining healthy performance at home and at work, however, I wonder how many of us feel that we are having to be ‘on show’ more often now than ever before.

In this networked world all our actions have the possibility of effecting someone else. Maybe I have taken being ‘on show’ too far and need take a break and be more ‘daggy’ from time to time.

I wonder how others feel about this. I would like to explore this further and would welcome your feedback on this issue. In the meantime I will keep on being fascinated by all things behavioural and developmental, including sales.

Happy selling.

I would like to focus on something, that at first glance, may appear rather trivial. In fact it might seem so inane that you are wondering why I am even writing about it.

It’s ‘note taking’.

I learnt a very salient, if not embarrassing, lesson in my early 20’s. When in my first sales consulting role I turned up to a sales meeting with a prospective client with no obvious note taking materials. Up until that time I had never been told to take notes by my managers. I hadn’t thought about talking notes myself. I relied on my memory.

However this call was different. I sat down and proceeded to ask the client questions without taking notes. This client stopped me in my tracks and said:

“Why aren’t you taking notes? How can you possibly understand me and my business if you do not take notes? Bloody sales people never take notes. What do they teach you anyway?”

I didn’t know what to say. I was in shock. After a long silence he handed me a note pad and pen and we picked up where we left off with me taking notes.

It has to be said that I have taken notes ever since and for good reason too - it really works.

OK so we can put my faux par down to youth, however, it never ceases to amaze me how many sales people (of all ages) still do not take notes when they are speaking to clients over the phone or face-to-face. For the last 10 years we have been running a true-to-life sales fitness simulation exercise where we have tested 1,000’s of sales people. Part of the exercise requires people to listen to a body of text which has vital information in it. Sadly the vast majority of people (over 90%) do not take notes which severely impacts their ability to successfully undertake the remainder of the exercise. When we debrief the exercise many confess to not taking notes in the field either.

Note taking is one of those small but really important things you can do in any client sales interaction.

Note taking:

• Helps you capture what the client is actually saying in their own words
• Keeps you focused on your client
• Gives you something to refer back to when verifying your understanding of your client’s needs
• Helps you prioritise yours and your client’s thoughts
• Helps the client feel confident in you as they see you making an effort to really understand their priorities and requirements
• Helps the client feel ‘listened to’ and understood
• Shows you are paying attention
• Gives you good content to work from when pulling together a quote or proposal
• Means you don’t have to rely on memory alone
• Gives discipline to the person taking the notes ensuring they get everything they need to know (and the client is willing to let them know) from the client

Rule of thumb:

1. Ask permission to take notes: Let the client know that you would like to take notes and check that this is OK with them. Sometimes clients may want to say something to you but do not want it recorded. By asking permission you show you are working together on gathering the right information.
2. Draw little flags against the key areas where you know you can make a sale or be of service: Too many sales people jump in at the first sign of a sales opportunity often missing additional information that could lead to bigger or more sales. To prevent this from happening I draw a little flag against each potential ‘sales opportunity’ I come across. When I have finished gathering all the information from my client I go back over my notes and let them know what I have flagged. This helps both of us get a clear picture of their situation and where I could be of service.

I find clients respond very favourably to note taking and my verifying their situation. Firstly they seem pleased to hear someone else repeat back what they have just said and secondly they feel more confident in my ability to work with them and help them in the best manner possible.

With B2B sales becoming more complicated and consultative in nature you need to take notes to keep a check on all the different facets of the client’s needs and priorities.

Give you and your client an easy break – take notes.

In the sea of information that is the internet and the ever growing networked communities we live in, you could essentially get a sales lead from anywhere. In principal this sound great. You always have someone to call on or prospect too.

However having too many choices can often lead to feelings of being overwhelmed by too much information. And when you have too much information this can lead to indecision and subsequently inaction. And inaction is the NUMBER 1 killer of any sales prospecting strategy.

So where do we start to sort out where we locate prospects? Besides the internet I find locating prospects come for the following areas as well:

Referrals
A name given to you as a lead. Choosing your time to ask for referrals is important. Wait until your customer has been able to judge you and your ability to meet and exceed their expectations. A good referral program is highly effective if you have a proven track record of in keeping promises and providing outstanding solutions and service.

Introductions
A variant of the Referral technique. It involves also asking for names, the salesperson asks for a note or letter of introduction to the prospect. This is most effective when prepared as a testimonial from a very satisfied customer who holds you in high esteem.

Centres of Influence
Centre of Influence refers to a well-known, influential person who can help you prospect and gain leads. For example, Accountants, Lawyers, Business Owners, Teachers, Politicians. First gain this person as a satisfied client and then solicit their help. You can also consider joining a community or social organizations to access Centres of Influence.

Organisations
Community Groups, Business Groups & Professional Associations can be a valuable source of prospects. These groups generally meet on a regular basis, providing you with an opportunity to build relationships. However, to make this approach beneficial, you must 1) set contact goals for each meeting, and 2) you need to communicate to the group what you do, offer assistance and make positive contributions. If other members see your involvement as being purely self-serving, this technique will not be beneficial.

Non-Competing Salespeople
Other salespeople can be a great source of prospects’ names and valuable information (this excludes confidential information!) about prospects. The key to this approach is reciprocity – ‘ you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’. Establish relationships with non-competing suppliers and consider going out of your way to offer information to a non-competing salesperson about an opportunity you know of. The favour may well be returned when you least expect it.

Visible Accounts
This is where you consider cultivating visible and influential accounts that will influence other buyers. These accounts can give you credibility and make you attractive to other buyers.

NB: just make sure you are clear about the types of customers you need to call on as part of your sales plan and strategy.

Happy selling.

As markets tighten and market competition increases, it becomes increasingly difficult for companies to achieve product differentiation in their market place. As such, businesses will find it harder and harder to optimise their profits unless they develop effective strategies to achieve differentiation. One way to accomplish this is through the enhancement of customer intimacy.

Account Planning, Management & Development is the process that organisations adopt in order to prioritise their customers in terms of value to the business. In most businesses, the 80/20 rule applies where 80% of current and/or potential revenue comes from 20% of the customer base. However, in recognising the value that these 20% of customers hold, it is important to adopt a strategy that is going to ensure that they are handled in such a way that maximum effort is focused on the activities that will yield the greatest potential for the company in a profitable fashion.

Successful Account Planning, Management & Development ensures that a company recognises the importance of certain customer relationships to the future of their organisation and treats these relationships as an asset to the company.

The process used to categorise customers in terms of potential as well as the process adopted to manage and develop these customers effectively are paramount to the success of any Account Planning, Management and Development strategy.

So what is a Key Account?
Essentially, it is a customer who can help to shape your company’s future. This may not necessarily be your largest customer nor the highest spending customer. In this way, the top 20 revenue, one-size-fits-all approach can be costly and risky.

Once you have completed your customer research, a number of factors should be assessed when deliberating your Account Planning, Management and Development strategy:

• Current revenue profitability vs. potential revenue profitability
• Complexity of needs
• The industry in which they operate and its viability
• Financial stability

Although the process of developing and managing Key Accounts more intimately yields greater customer penetration or share of wallet, the costs of maintaining an intimate relationship with clients can also be costly. It is for this reason that the ‘biggest’ clients do not always make the ‘best’ clients. It is a common mistake for organisations to simply segment their customer base into key accounts based on their revenue contribution, consider:

• Larger companies often require more attention and expect not to pay for it
• Larger companies tend to exert their power and negotiate lower prices, often exploiting suppliers by creating price wars (thus reducing profitability)
• Larger companies employ the resources of smaller suppliers, only giving them small orders but getting the lowest prices so they can squeeze on their larger suppliers (again, affecting profitability)

It is often a hard lesson for salespeople to learn that many big companies rarely provide the return on investment proportionate to the amount of effort that’s required. In addition, these customers often compromise the company’s profitability significantly.

Analyse your accounts

So you need to analyse your accounts carefully. When analysing an account, your core focus is to interpret the customer data in such a way that will provide you with an understanding of how you can yield maximum potential from the client.

There are five key areas that need to be researched:
Strategic Information
This is the big picture information it explains why they are in business and where they are headed as an organisation. This information is critical to your basic understanding of the company.
Operational Information
The nuts and bolts of the organisation, the what, the when and the where.
Financial Information
This information is critical in assessing the ongoing viability of the customer.
Competitor Information
Recognise their strengths and minimise them. Recognise their weaknesses and exploit them. Understand what they are doing and know how to combat their activity.
Your Company History
Have a basic understanding of previous dealings with the customer but also know where to find more detailed records if or when required.

I hope this helps you plan and use your selling energy wisely.

Happy selling

For Cathy Freeman and Ian Thorpe and now Stephanie Rice and Michael Phelps Olympic success has literally brought fame and fortune … but their high profile success is not just about the colour of their medals.

With the Olympics just over I can’t help but think of all the other athletes who won medals and wonder how many of them will end up with amazing sponsorship and media deals like Cathy, Ian, Stephanie and Michael. Not many I’ll bet. And with the Paralympics just begun, how many of these athletes will capitalise on their talent and success with lucrative sponsorship and media deals? Maybe even less.

These talented athletes do not have to fade away into sponsorship oblivion. There are plenty of sponsorship opportunities available for them. They need to get out there and prospect for them just like sales people do. And with something to show for it like an Olympic or Paralympic medal, the right attitude and approach, many more athletes can realise the benefits of sponsorship deals to help them extend their sporting career or find new career opportunities.

How do I know this? Well I have had the pleasure of being personally associated with the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) since 1991 and my company has been a major sponsor of the VIS ACE (Athlete Career & Education Program) since 1998. We have been training elite athletes, like Tae Kwon Do Gold Medallist Lauren Burns, Judo Bronze Medallist Maria Pekli, Paralympian Pentathlon Bronze Medallist Don Elgin and Hockey Gold Medallist Louise Dobson on prospecting, self promotion, selling and sales planning since 1998.

Research shows very few people have the luxury of waiting around to be courted.

The world of corporate sponsorship is very different from elite training, and although they take to it quickly, the athletes have to learn how to effectively self promote, access corporations and negotiate with a strong sense of their own value. Like sales people we have taught the athletes to learn how to identify opportunities and promote themselves on a consistent daily basis. The results have been outstanding, with several of the athletes gaining large corporate sponsorship deals over recent years, even for lower profile sports.

Don Elgin, who raised his public profile during the Sydney Paralympics with appearances on national television and radio says,

“At the time I did the Barrett program I was a VIS scholarship holder and no one knew about Paralympic athletes and there was certainly no sponsorship for them. The Barrett process educated and empowered me to take action to get out there and educate the market and secure sponsorships. The best thing I learnt was that the worst people could say to me was ‘NO’ and that was a revelation because it meant that everything was possible. I was able to tap into the potential I already had and this helped me have the confidence to get out there and give it a go. Not only am I better equipped to source and negotiate sponsorships, but the course has had a positive impact on my confidence and this has assisted the promotional work at my place of employment.

When I started the Barrett program I was a Postie. Using what I learnt I was able to move through Customer Service and Business Account Management roles to National Marketing Coordinator for the Philatelic division of Australia Post. I have also adapted what I have learned at Barrett to all parts of my life including my work with the Juvenile Justice System and my family where I help my young daughters to develop their public speaking skills and their ability to see the good in people. Whilst I have achieved a number TWO ranking in the world for my sport and success in my career, I have come to realise that having children is the greatest honour and challenge of all. I now know that I need to make sure I leave a legacy that helps them unlock and achieve their potential whatever that may be.”

While many of the athletes come with no professional sales experience they adapt quickly and apply themselves. They are refreshing in their outlook and great to work with as they have the drive, determination, work ethic and commitment to succeed.

It continues to remind me that Attitude is the key and you make your own success.

Happy selling.