What are your relationships built on?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Ethics & Values, Self Development

If you are in business for the long haul then you know the value of building your business relationships on solid foundations. Too many times people have fallen foul of the broken promises and pipe dreams offered by those people whose only intention is to make money at your expense. I can recall a few incidents in my career where I have given people the benefit of the doubt only to be let down and in some very rare incidents, ripped off.

In sales and business we meet people every day and need to be able to size up and make …

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Integrity – Your Sales Edge

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Ethics & Values, Sales Relationships

Integrity was voted as the Number 2 Sales Trends for 2011, which is a sign of the times. Your word, your honour, your promise are on show and people will judge you on your actions not on your spin.

So what does integrity mean for us in business and beyond? As stated on Wikipedia ‘Integrity is a concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations and outcomes. In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness of one’s actions. The word “integrity” stems from the Latin adjective integer (whole, complete). In this …

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Different sales assessments and how to use them

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Call Reluctance, Coaching, Emotional Intelligence, Ethics & Values, Prospecting, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales Culture, Sales Research, Sales Training, Self Development

If you wanted to, you could sit down for at least four weeks and complete 100’s of sales assessments and there would still be more on offer. This over abundance of sales assessments can be confusing because they are not all the same. If you do not know what you want to measure it will make looking for an effective sales assessment tool that much harder. Here are some questions that may help you select your sales assessments with more precision.

  • Why will this person sell? (Motives, Ambition, Goals)
  • Will this person sell? (Attitudes, Mindset, Not …

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What is the ideal sales assessment tool to use when recruiting sales people? Part 1

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Call Reluctance, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Assessments

For many years people have been searching for the perfect sales assessment tool. Why? Because identifying and retaining high performing sales talent continues to elude many organisations. It has become even more important with products losing their competitive edge and sales success becoming hinged squarely around the capabilities and performance inputs and outputs of sales people.

I have been using psychometric assessments as part of my work for more than 20 years now. In my business alone we have assessed more than 70,000 people in sales, sales management and leadership roles using a variety of high quality assessment tools for both …

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A Time for Reflection and Renewal

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Tips, Success

As this year comes to a close, I find myself reflecting on the last 16 years in my own business. A lot has changed, yes, but many things have remained the same too. On 9th January 2011 my business will be 16 years old.

While anniversaries and birthdays are celebrated differently all over the world, a common thread is that they are often marked with a celebration or a rite of passage. So, to mark our 16th year in business, we would like to share with you 16 key lessons we have learnt since the business began. While there are many …

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Why hiring or keeping the 600lb sales gorilla is a mistake

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Ethics & Values, Performance Management, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Culture, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Teamwork

For many years the legend of the 600lb sales gorilla or Alpha sales superstar has been strutting the hallways and boardrooms of businesses. Often revered for achieving top of the league ladder sales results, yet feared by many for their aggressive, manipulative, ego centric, demanding, intimidating antics, countless CEO’s and sales managers have allowed these sales prima donnas to remain in their sales teams but at what cost to their sales team and their business?

Too scared to confront them about their behaviours or sales tactics for fear of losing their sales contribution, many sales managers and their sales team have …

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How well are you Weathering the Storm?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Emotional Intelligence

‘Weathering the Storm’ was voted by you as the number 9 Sales Trend for 2010. While there have been ups and downs in the business world, over the last 20+ years for the most part, many of us in the western world have been able to ride on the back of posterity and market growth. Up until the GFC, many fortunate sales people and business people found making sales straightforward and easy, however these tougher, contracting markets have left many wanting in the sales stakes. The current breed of 20-40 year old sales people …

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Can sales and medicine mix?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Ethics & Values, Sales Culture

As you know, I am an advocate for the philosophy that ‘everybody lives by selling something’ and that people buy from people they trust. At its best, selling is about the principle of exchange:- the exchange of value where both parties benefit from open and transparent communication and know what they are engaging in.

So can ‘selling’ be seen as a legitimate role in the various practices of medicine? I.e. GP’s, dentists, optometrists, physiotherapists, surgeons, etc.

If we take it that good selling is where people are fully informed of the facts surrounding their situation, are given legitimate options to choose from, …

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Through the looking glass

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Emotional Intelligence, Performance Management, Sales Management, Sales Training, Strategy

Through the looking glass was voted by you as the number 8 Sales Trend for 2010.

Many sales people are tired of being told that they need to sell like someone else to be successful. Many are unsure of what they should be modelling. Too often they are told to ‘just be like’ someone else but with no reference to what that actually looks like they are left poking around in the dark mimicking the ‘star’ performer and left feeling unauthentic. And ‘big sticks’, bribes or fear don’t help either.

Most people, and especially sales people, …

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Why you should stop trying to delight your customers

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Customer Service

Delighting customers does not build loyalty. Reducing customers’ effort does.

These were the findings from a large customer service survey conducted by the Customer Contact Council (CCC), and featured in the July edition of the Harvard Business Review. The survey’s aim was to get answers to three questions:

  • How important is customer service to loyalty?
  • Which customer service activities increase loyalty, and which don’t?
  • Can companies increase loyalty without raising their customer service operating costs?

    • After conducting structured interviews with customer service leaders and a study of more than 75,000 customers, the CCC uncovered three findings:

    1. Exceeding expectations during service interactions has negligible …

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