First Impressions

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Customer Service, Emotional Intelligence, Ethics & Values, Networking, Prospecting, Sales Relationships, Value Proposition & Value Add

Picking up from my recent posting “We’ll meet again” I thought it would be worth looking at how First Impressions can impact our opinions of other people and their opinions of us. In turn first impressions can affect the desire to work together or not. Have you ever regretted a time when you didn’t make a favourable first impression? Did you wish you could have your time over again to make a more positive impression? I am sure you are not alone. We can all think of a time when we messed up. As the old saying goes: ‘You don’t …

First Impressions Read Post »

The relationship of revenue growth to your job?

By / / Customer Service, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Leadership, Value Proposition & Value Add, Vision, Mission & Purpose

Every sales person knows the relationship of prospecting to sales is critical. Without prospecting you are not likely to get a sale. We all know the relationship of sales to revenue growth is high. But how many people in your company know the relationship of revenue growth to their specific job?

The sales people do. Owners do. They think about it every day.

Yet many people not working directly with customers don’t often think about how their roles impact sales and revenue growth. Even in some customer service teams they don’t realise the connection either. How many sales …

The relationship of revenue growth to your job? Read Post »

Don’t confuse quantity for quality, or biggest for best

By / / Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales Excellence Acadamy, Sales Talent

Attracting and Searching for Candidates
Just like sales, in today’s market you need a combination of ‘Push & Pull ‘ contact strategies for finding the right candidates for your business. Advertising alone is not likely to yield the candidates you seek. When you decide to recruit externally, the following methods are available to select from:

  • Advertising (On-line job boards (MyCareer, SEEK, CareerOne, etc.); Newspapers;Magazines;Radio and television)
  • Recruitment Agencies
  • Executive search firms
  • Viral Marketing email campaigns
  • University Job Boards
  • In-store Advertising (shop window)
  • Family & Friends
  • Your own website
  • Information Seminars
  • Search (direct contact)
  • Networks
  • On-line network groups (My space;Link Me;Linked in)

With the advent of online job boards, many people can DIY …

Don’t confuse quantity for quality, or biggest for best Read Post »

Culture and Communication

By / / Brand & Reputation, Communication, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Relationships, Value Proposition & Value Add

Selling and servicing across cultures is more common now than it has ever been. And as more and more of us come across international sales opportunities I thought it would be worth while looking at some of the challenges we may come across when trying to communicate effectively cross culturally in sales or other business areas.

In many of the articles I have written I advocate for open, honest, trust based relationships. And I still do, however being a direct, no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is person that is what I value most. Therefore, by contrast, I can often find indirect, seemingly non-committal, …

Culture and Communication Read Post »

Sustainability – the new criteria

By / / Brand & Reputation, Ethics & Values, Sales Strategy, Sustainability & Environment, Value Proposition & Value Add

What is your position on SUSTAINABILITY?

What community improvement activities is your company involved with?

These are questions, among many others, that my team and I are responding to for a Request For Proposal (RFP) document for a sales training project with a large Australian Corporation. This is the first time we have been asked to respond to these questions in a formal manner and legitimise our position on ‘sustainability’. As sales people and as business owners, not only are we being asked to legitimise our product offering, our service standards, etc. we are now required to articulate our stand …

Sustainability – the new criteria Read Post »

Great Story Tellers

By / / Brand & Reputation, Communication, Marketing, Sales Skills, Sales Talent, Value Proposition & Value Add, Vision, Mission & Purpose

I have noticed that good sales people are often great storytellers. They have the ability to find the right story to resonate with your situation.

They speak from experience and you know they know their stuff. They can paint a picture that is your picture and get you visualizing success in partnership with them.

They seem to be able to connect disparate situations, events or feelings and find the common thread that binds them all together – together for you to connect with. And even if the story they are telling is not directly relevant to your business or market, the situation …

Great Story Tellers Read Post »

Preparing for your 2008-09 Sales Year

By / / Business Acumen, Sales Forecasting, Sales Management, Sales Measures - Inputs & Outputs, Sales Pipeline, Sales Planning, Sales Strategy, Value Proposition & Value Add, Vision, Mission & Purpose

If you haven’t already it may be worth your while to hold a formal review and business/sales strategy planning session with your team before the new financial year kicks in. Many markets have and are going through major changes and this requires us to be on our toes and ready for action.

The challenge for any business, especially those of us who run a small business with limited man power and resources, is to take the time out to work on our business and plan for the future rather than stay stuck in the day to day of our businesses. This …

Preparing for your 2008-09 Sales Year Read Post »

We’ll meet again!

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Ethics & Values, Networking

Ever been treated with an attitude of indifference? Ever been ignored as a customer because you didn’t look the part or didn’t fit the stereotype of a typical buyer? Ever been fobbed off in favor of someone else because you are (supposedly) not famous enough, well connected or prestigious enough to do business with?

The world is littered with stories of people who were passed over and ignored by judgmental, blinkered sales people only to take their business somewhere else where they were treated with respect and were able to buy what they wanted despite how they may have appeared to …

We’ll meet again! Read Post »

The Law of Reciprocity

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Emotional Intelligence, Ethics & Values, Mindful selling, Sales Relationships

Starting out a prospecting call or receiving a customer call with a negative, resigned or flat, uninterested attitude will not inspire anyone and more than likely lose you customers. I find people are often very unaware of just how they come across to other people and then act surprised when people are rude to them or treat them with indifference. They do not seem to realise that they are often the cause of the response.

One of the key challenges of being in a customer-facing role (sales, customer service, technical support, etc.) is that you are not in control …

The Law of Reciprocity Read Post »

Contact vs Connection

By / / Brand & Reputation, Collaboration, Emotional Intelligence, Mindful selling, Networking, Sales Relationships, Value Proposition & Value Add

Know the feeling when you make contact with someone and you both promise that you will keep in touch but never do? Or someone you met briefly at a function, where you exchanged business cards, calls you up asking for one favour after another never seeming to return the favour? Or others still who seem to make friends with you only to use you to get to someone else and drop you and soon as they do? Well you are not alone. These are some of the pitfalls when it comes to networking and …

Contact vs Connection Read Post »

Scroll to Top