The Accidental Salesman

Sometimes sales seems to be like a rollercoaster ride. You close a deal and you are on a massive high. You lose a couple of deals and your confidence plunges like a lead balloon. Learning to keep motivated and stay confident even when you are not is a key skill to learn. In this podcast Richard White outlines strategies for boosting your confidence when selling.

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I often get asked by accidental sales people for book recommendations and of course I seek to advise based on their current needs. When I am asked by a complete beginner I always recommend a book that is not about sales at all. In fact its about leadership “7 Habits of highly effective people”

If you want to be effective in sales (and I assume everyone does) then its a good place to start. Effective is different from efficient. Efficient is about doing the things right - developing and executing an efficient sales process. Its about, mechanics and technique. Effective is about doing the right things.

You can have the best sales technique in the world but if you are selling to the wrong people then you ain’t gonna sell much!!

The seven habits cover the following areas: 1. The need to be pro-active and take personal responsibility 2. The need to set goals first and then work towards them 3. The need to prioritise your time 4. The need to seek win-win deals 5. The need to understand others first 6. The need to be open to finding synergistic options rather than assuming your way is the best way 7. The need for continual personal development

All 7 of these habits are important in sales and following these in my early days of selling made a huge difference.

The book is not an easy one. It is about philosophy rather than techniques. Yet its our philosophy that acts like a compass and impacts everything we do. This book was one of the foundation stones of my brand of soft selling.

The thing that impressed me the most is that practically every high achieving sales person I have met has read it. The rest either have not heard of it or ‘Its on my reading list’

If effective is doing the right things then reading it sooner rather than later is probably the most effective thing any sales person, accidental or not, can do - in my very humble opinion! Best wishes

Richard

How effective is your sales strategy?

Accidental sales people that run a business and begin employ sales people should be careful to distinguish between natural raw sales talent and developed sales ability. I often go into small businesses to try and turnaround a sales person who has been hired with great promise only to end up being a disappointment.

Its a big gamble taking on a sales person, no matter what size of company you are. The financial impact to smaller businesses is greater so its more important to ensure you are not duped by someone who looks like a sales person, talks like a sales person, and behaves like you would expect a sales person to behave. That does not mean they can sell at the level you require and in the way you require.

The way candidates for a sales job approach a job interview is indicative of the way they sell.

I get involved in screening for business owners recruiting sales people and there was one person recently who claimed she had excellent closing skills and yet the screening tool I use suggested her closing skills were poor. Despite disputing this fact she discussed money before building value and did not seek to close. There was no disputing this lady had raw talent but she had not developed her skill. That comes from practice and making mistakes and recognising your mistakes. She had won lots of business in the past despite her poor closing skills. Just imagine what she could do if she focused on developing those skills. Unfortunately for her she was not professional enough to keep working on her craft and seeking to develop her talent. You should not interview sales people in the same way as other job applicants. For example:

• Give them a hard time (thats my job!!) and see how they respond.

• Ask them to sell themselves to you and see if they start asking questions or just pitch straight away.

• Tell them you only have 10 minutes for the interview and see if they seek to rearrange or whether they just crack up.

• Start talking about money and see if they seek to delay the money conversation until later

If they can’t handle it with you then there is no way they will handle it out in the real world selling on your behalf - and you are out of pocket by £20,000 on salary and recruitment costs, not to mention the opportunity cost of what business you could have achieved if you got the right person.

Best wishes

Richard

How effective is your sales strategy?

I was reminded this morning how answers always come when you go looking for them. They may not necessarily come straight away but they do come.

I do the Sudoku puzzles in the Daily Mail, often just before I go to bed and first thing in the morning. For some strange reason it seems to help rather than hinder. Everyday there is a puzzle section including 6 puzzles ranging from easy to difficult. For an expert at Sudoku the difficult puzzle is actually quite easy as my 13 year old niece anoyingly demonstrated with a puzzle I had been struggling with for days!

Anyway, back to today…….. I had been stuck on a particular difficult puzzle for a week (ie a week of 20 minutes a day). I normally throw them away and raid the recycling box for another one but with this particular puzzle I had been making a little progress…..if 1 number a day can be called progress!! I would scan and scan before going to bed and then when I wake up and looked at the puzzle over breakfast I quickly found a number.

This morning was no different except that once I found the one number I immediately found the next number, then the next, and the next. Before I knew it the whole puzzle was completed. It had taken me 5 days to get 5 numbers and as soon as I got the 6th then I got the rest in less than 5 minutes.

It’s amazing how little things can make a big difference!!

In sales its the same. You start out at a particular level of ability and you are always looking to get to the next level. Average people give up looking when the answers do not appear straight away. They resign themselves to their current levels of income or go and try selling something else.

But the truth is that if you keep persevering looking for the answers, trying new out new approaches, strategies, and subtle changes to your existing approach you will eventually get a break. This break will often inconsequential at the time. Yet this break can lead to massive increases in results. You will then reach the next block and start all over again, except this time you are at a much higher level of success than before. This is true for beginners, accidental sales people and top performing salespeople. It’s one reason why top salespeople are always reading, attending seminars, looking……

A small difference can make a big difference - what are you going to do differently today?

Best wishes

Richard

How effective is your sales strategy?

This is a discussion between Chantal Cooke of Passion for the Planet radio station and Richard White of Pro Excellence. Richard outlines to Chantal the stages of the sales process and why it is so important in terms of managing the sales of a business.

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I am often asked by accidental salespeople how they can generate sales leads without having to cold call and without having to spend a lot of money too! In this recording I am discussing with Chantal Cooke of Passion for the Planet radio station some options for lead generation without having to cold call.

Best wishes

Richard White

Feeding BritCaster.com

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