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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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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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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Five reasons to ‘Mind Your Emotions’®

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Emotional Intelligence, Self Development, Wellbeing

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says ‘I’ll try again tomorrow’.”

This quote more often than not reflects my life as an entrepreneur, business woman, sales person, mother, partner and friend. On those days and nights when I feel overwhelmed and sometimes exhausted by all my responsibilities and commitments that little voice reminding me to ‘try again tomorrow’ keeps me focused on why I am doing what I am doing – it helps me to continue to cultivate my resilience, to continue to put one foot in front of the …

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More lessons from MasterChef – Can you take the heat?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Emotional Intelligence, Performance Management, Sales Skills, Self Development, Success

As the saying goes, “If you can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen”. Once again MasterChef has served up some great life lessons. Last year I wrote about the great leadership, coaching and mentoring we can learn from MasterChef. Again Garry, George, Matt and the other guest chefs showed us how to excel in this area of leadership.

On this occasion, I want to comment on ‘Resilience’ and dealing with setbacks and challenges, and how MasterChef gave us a window into how people handle stress and demanding situations. The time pressures and …

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Walk a mile in my shoes

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Emotional Intelligence, Sales Skills

‘Walk a mile in my shoes‘ is a song written by Joe South and made famous by Elvis Presley. The song is very much about challenging closed mindedness, respecting and honouring differences, and learning how to get along with each other. However, I propose that it also has a lot to say to sales and marketing people. For instance, the first verse sets it up well:

If I could be you and you could be me for just one hour
If we could find a way to get inside each other’s mind
If …

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How do I distinguish between a genuine buyer and a saboteur?

By / / Communication, Emotional Intelligence, Negotiation

Everything lines up: your solution is a very good match for the client company, you have ticked all the boxes but the deal is rejected. You are perplexed and confused. “It’s a great solution! It’s what they wanted and needed. Why are they saying no?” Building on from last week’s ‘How do I deal with client objections?‘ l thought we should look at when objections become personal.

Over the years I have come to realise that many of us have lost sales not because we didn’t have a good offering or we …

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Do you have difficult clients or are they just different?

By / / Communication, Customer Service, Emotional Intelligence, Mindful selling, Sales Relationships, Sales Skills

Style adaptability is where a person can read another person’s preferred communication style and adjusts their own communication style to that of the other person, thus making shared communication and understanding easier. It is imperative to the principle of exchange and critical to any sales role, yet it is often one of the most poorly executed skills.

Time after time we come across teams of sales people who have no conscious idea about how to adapt their style to that of another. Instead when they come across differences, communication usually breaks down and they will speak about the …

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Whada ya rates?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Complex Selling & Transactional Selling, Emotional Intelligence, Mindful selling, Negotiation, Sales Skills, Uncategorized

Whada ya rates? ‘Cos I’m a wholesaler and I can do better rates than them. I can look at your thingos and give you a better deal”

This is an excerpt from a call I received from a telecommunications wholesaler the other day. As you can see this is not someone asking about my business rates but what I am paying for a particular service. I am the supposed client in this exchange. To make matters worse, when the caller introduced himself he said his name was John – that’s it, no where he was calling from or why he was …

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Help! My sales team isn’t coping with the fallout from the GFC

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brain Science, Emotional Intelligence, Resilience, Sales Coaching, Sales Leadership, Sales Results, Sales Tips, Sales Training, Wellbeing

Many sales people, for the first time, are experiencing tough times when it comes to selling and many are not sure how to handle themselves in these difficult situations.

The current climate is, indeed, a test of character.

Many sales people, especially those in their 20’s and 30’s have not likely experienced selling in tough markets before. For the past 12 years prior to 2008, at least, the business climate in our market place has been, for the most part, buoyant. As we all know it’s very easy to sell when times are good.

It now begs the question: How well have …

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