5 Alternatives to Simply Wading In with PowerPoint

Can You Imagine a Life without PowerPoint?

What would you do if you couldn’t take a ‘deck’ into your next sales appointment?

In the nineties my team launched a product into the UK market and we each received one of those triangular presenters that open up into a little stand for you to flip your plastic covered photocopies over in front of the customer.

I’d never had anything like it before – amusingly, back then, it was cutting edge – it also meant for the first time in my career I could just speak AT the customer rather than having a conversation about what they actually wanted – you know, cut out all that unnecessary selling stuff, go straight in with the opportunity and price.

Trouble is, telling ain’t selling!

Recently, with an extremely senior sales team, I mentioned that they were probably over reliant on their 120-slide brand presentations – which nearly got me carried out and burnt at the stake.

But I reckon you probably know better.

So ask yourself this – Do you simply go in and TELL customers what you’ve got; or do you FIND OUT what they want and then help them achieve it with what you’ve got?

Subtle difference, enormously different results.

Listen, I’m not going to take away your wonderful presentation, carefully created by marketeers who have never had to stand in front of customers and then be measured for their results – but just try this out for me.

Think of 5 open questions you could ask before you give your presentation – 5 open questions that will lead to a conversation about their needs, gaps in the market, unexplored opportunities – which then give answers that require a presentation about your product or service.

If you do – and you get it right – you don’t just talk AT them, you spend your time showing them why your presentation actually MATTERS while you’re going through it – you even know which bits are no longer relevant and – god forbid – can miss some out.

Your Mission – by the time you’ve finished presenting they’ve recognised the value of your product or service because it was aligned with a set of needs and requirements that they’d pointed out at the beginning of the meeting.

Or – if you’re really good

Your Mission – During the conversation about their needs and requirements they’ve already started to recognise the value of your product or service and don’t need to see the presentation at all.

Just imagine….

Until next time

Chris

New Case Studies HERE

This year, I want to help you and your sales team become more successful than they’ve ever been before – call my office now on
0844 293 9777 or request a call back by going to our Contact Page HERE.

You and I can work out a sales training programme that suits your requirements perfectly – foundation level sales training, field sales training, account management training, selling value over price, FMCG sales training, customer service training, whatever it might be – but it’s a big old world out there and if you don’t take two minutes to invite me over, I may never know you need me.

We create bespoke sales training days from as little as £228 per person, so give my office a call today and we can get a date in the diary to start working on tailoring something just for you.

Chris Murray

0844 293 9777

By the way, if someone has forwarded you this newsletter, you can sign up to receive it directly from Varda Kreuz here

Varda Kreuz Sales Training – Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool, London

3 Reasons Why Launching a New Product is like…..Starting University

1. You haven’t found out who you really are

When you start at university, you’re just working out exactly who ‘YOU’ – ‘IS’.

There are a million references you’re tapping into, a sense of humour to fully develop; you’re recognising who you want to spend time with and how you want to be perceived.

You go through a couple of fads and crazes – you try on and discard personalities like cheap, charity-shop shirts.

When a product is launched all the testing in the world can’t prepare you completely for how it’s really going to move in the market when it goes live.

On launch week, there’s a big Fresher style stream of parties, people get all hyper and excited, but the morning after – just like the newbie stumbling hung over through campus in week one – it’ll be a few star performers in the sales team who find their way round and discover what’s really useful.

A brand new company, product or service never knows how it truly helps when it enters the world blinking into the sunlight – the successful ones work it out really quickly, but it doesn’t happen on launch day 1.

However, that doesn’t stop the hierarchy throwing this newborn at the sales force and expecting them to work it out before their first client presentation – and then possibly blaming its slow climb to success on the sales team not trying hard enough.

2. Making the most of the opportunity depends on your approach

Don’t judge people and assume they don’t want to speak to you.

Try to be open-minded.

Meet as many people as you can.

Go in with a positive attitude and take everything you can from it.

3. Blowing your budget feels stupid

There are always inventive ways of doing things a bit more cost effectively.

Some people never grow out of thinking that it’s the amount they’re spending that makes them look cool. Most are frequently hungry

It’s those who always seem to have more than everyone else with change still clinking in their pockets that become popular and get to feel really smug.

Until next time

Chris

New Case Studies HERE

This year, I want to help you and your sales team become more successful than they’ve ever been before – call my office now on
0844 293 9777 or request a call back by going to our Contact Page HERE.

You and I can work out a sales training programme that suits your requirements perfectly – foundation level sales training, field sales training, account management training, selling value over price, FMCG sales training, customer service training, whatever it might be – but it’s a big old world out there and if you don’t take two minutes to invite me over, I may never know you need me.

We create bespoke sales training days from as little as £228 per person, so give my office a call today and we can get a date in the diary to start working on tailoring something just for you.

Chris Murray

0844 293 9777

By the way, if someone has forwarded you this newsletter, you can sign up to receive it directly from Varda Kreuz here

Varda Kreuz Sales Training – Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool, London

Observing the Multiple Mistakes of a Car Salesman

So my friend wants to buy a new car.

She can afford it – she’s got a really great job – she’s got a great car to part exchange too.

She invites me to go with her because I “understand sales people”.

She is smitten by this new car she’s seen – although she’s no fool, the deal has to be great.

We drive to the usual kind of business estate that big car dealerships tend to be on, finding it nestled somewhere between a Travelodge and a B&Q – the salesman who comes across to meet us fills me with a slight sense of disappointment before he even opens his mouth, she tells me not to be so judgemental.

So Why Should I Get Eexcited About this Car Then?

Over to you my scruffy little sales friend, time to shine – sell it to us.

“Well first let me tell you what it doesn’t have! The next model up has ……”
He then lists 5 or 6 things that are available on another version that she isn’t looking at, isn’t interested in and can’t afford.

“But we don’t want that model – what does this version have?”

“Oh, it’s just your standard spec!”

I don’t think an initial sales pitch has ever depressed me more – turns out the new car my friend was delirious about is just….standard – and whatever it’s actually got going for it isn’t even worth discussing.

This is clearly not the car he’d like to sell us.

He walks us over to her current (part exchange) vehicle, he’s being quite chauvinistic and ‘blokey’ – he knows I’m not the customer – but I’m the complete focus of his conversation. It makes me really uncomfortable.

“I Just Want to Have an Adult Conversation”

That’s what my friend said to me, before we got there.

“I don’t want to play games, I want a grown up to help me buy the right car for me.”

The car salesman looks at the car she wants to part exchange and starts sucking air through his teeth while flicking through some heavyweight trade book – it was getting on my nerves, so I said,

“It’s only had one careful lady owner.”

To which he replied,

“You found her then did you? The one careful lady driver.”

My friend called him a Neanderthal under her breath, but we follow him back to his desk anyway, she does really want that car – and there isn’t another similar dealership for 40 miles.

He’s talking numbers already, time to get down to business, no messing about – let’s find out how much a standard specification motor vehicle actually costs.

“I Want This, How Can You Help Me Afford It?”

OK, so my friend has an amount per month she can spend on here new car – it’s a fairly substantial amount and over a 3 year period she can easily afford the type of car she’s looking for – but she does want value for money and a good deal on her old car.

He does some big sums that we’re not allowed to be a party to then reads out the monthly payments in the strangest and most unattractive way possible.

“Over 5 years it’s £X per month, over 4 years it’s an extra £100 per month and over 3 Years it’s £200 more every month.”

Surely it would have been better if he’d said;

“Over 3 years it’s £X per month, over 4 years that becomes  £100 more affordable, and over 5 that doubles to £200 less.”

I know it’s the same figures, same answers – but the way he did it just made it sound like the car was becoming more expensive with every syllable.

Set me up first with the most it’s going to cost me.

Let that settle in, OK – I’m not shocked, I can afford it – oh, what’s that you say? If I want to pay over a longer period there are other, more affordable options – even better!

We told him we wouldn’t mess him around; we’d call him after we’d spoken to the competition.

All the way home my friend was spotting the more expensive version of her once favourite new car and saying, “There’s the model that’s better than the one I wanted.”

She really did want that car, it’s a shame there was a salesman in the way to put her off.

Until next time

Chris

New Case Studies HERE

This year, I want to help you and your sales team become more successful than they’ve ever been before – call my office now on
0844 293 9777 or request a call back by going to our Contact Page HERE.

You and I can work out a sales training programme that suits your requirements perfectly – foundation level sales training, field sales training, account management training, selling value over price, FMCG sales training, customer service training, whatever it might be – but it’s a big old world out there and if you don’t take two minutes to invite me over, I may never know you need me.

We create bespoke sales training days from as little as £228 per person, so give my office a call today and we can get a date in the diary to start working on tailoring something just for you.

Chris Murray

0844 293 9777

By the way, if someone has forwarded you this newsletter, you can sign up to receive it directly from Varda Kreuz here

Varda Kreuz Sales Training – Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool, London

I’m Begging You – Please Ditch Your Elevator Speech for Something More Effective

“So many times, it happens too fast, you trade your passion for glory”  Eye of the Tiger – Survivor

I cannot put into words how much I dislike the average, sales trainer taught elevator speech.

Until recently I couldn’t quite put my finger on the real reason why, I just knew they didn’t work.

Should someone approach – or worse, corner me in a lift – spouting out how incredible their solutions are and why I should change suppliers right now
I’m not going to gaze into their eyes like some evangelistic convert and skip away behind them while they play their mystical sales flute.

In reality, I would become suddenly introvert, skin-crawlingly uncomfortable and make my excuses just to get them out of my face – actually, I’m getting itchy just thinking about it.

But where were all the articles and quotes by the “Big Names” on planet sales to back me up or use as a reference to argue my side logically.

Then lo and behold, a couple of weeks ago, the wonderful Seth Godin wrote a short piece on elevator speeches that summed it up perfectly.

My favourite bit was;

“If you’ve told me what I need to know to be able to easily say no, I’ll say no.
The best elevator pitch doesn’t pitch your project. It pitches the meeting about your project. It’s not a practiced, polished turd of prose that pleases everyone on the board and your marketing team”

Brilliantly put!

So whether you are getting in touch with people through social media, on the phone, knocking on doors or networking – start to create a conversation piece that gives people a reason to have a discussion properly, comfortably – learn to pitch the meeting and not the meat.

It has to be intriguing and exciting with a hint of previous glory and a promise of future benefits.

What it can’t be is a 30 second personal ad designed to stun the buying sense out of your fellow human being, because they just don’t work.

Until next time

Chris

New Case Studies HERE

This year, I want to help you and your sales team become more successful than they’ve ever been before – call my office now on
0844 293 9777 or request a call back by going to our Contact Page HERE.

You and I can work out a sales training programme that suits your requirements perfectly – foundation level sales training, field sales training, account management training, selling value over price, FMCG sales training, customer service training, whatever it might be – but it’s a big old world out there and if you don’t take two minutes to invite me over, I may never know you need me.

We create bespoke sales training days from as little as £228 per person, so give my office a call today and we can get a date in the diary to start working on tailoring something just for you.

Chris Murray

0844 293 9777

By the way, if someone has forwarded you this newsletter, you can sign up to receive it directly from Varda Kreuz here

Varda Kreuz Sales Training – Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool, London

Superb Meeting, Perfect Proposal, So Why Won’t They Take Your Call?

“There doesn’t seem to be anyone around.” 
I Think We’re Alone Now – Tiffany

How could anything go wrong?

After all, it was the prospect who requested the meeting with YOU.

By the way – the meeting was AMAZING!

Everything that you recommended – they immediately agreed was perfect for them.

Every time you uncovered a need and matched it to a feature – they swooned.

Whenever you expanded those features to the corresponding advantages and benefits – their eyes smiled and they had to stop themselves from clapping like four year olds on the best Christmas morning ever.

Your proposal – my goodness your proposal – it dripped with passion and prose, it put forward the case for change like nothing you had ever written before.

Now, you just glide through the office – you’ve not told anyone it’s in the bag – but your boss has seen the twinkle in your eye and knows that something special is coming your way.

SO – WHY- WON’T – THEY – TAKE – YOUR – CALL?

What’s happened to their manic enthusiasm for moving forward?

It just doesn’t make sense.

“I’m sorry, there doesn’t seem to be anyone around!” is the pre-programmed response from everyone who picks up a phone – even when you’re trying to be clever with different extensions.

As with most things in sales, salvaging things that have gone wrong is rarely impossible – but learning how to avoid getting yourself in that position in the first place is a much better place to start.

Let me take you back to that meeting, you’ve done all the wonderful things mentioned above, and then your client says;

“So what do we do now?”

You: “Well, I’ll put a proposal together, get it over to you and then I’ll give you a call to move things forward.”

Prospect: “Fabulous, talk to you in a couple of weeks.”

You: “Wonderful, thanks for your time, great to meet you.”

Salesperson exits stage left – while the prospect appears to go onto a witness relocation programme and is never heard from again.

You see the big problem here is…….. there wasn’t actually a close, just an assumption of one.

In a business to business sales situation – especially the big stuff – you’ll rarely get a signature or full agreement before a proposal and then the proposal always needs to be followed up.

But while the sales person is walking out, clicking their heels, the sale has already gone cold.

Let’s run that meeting again;

Prospect: “So what do we do now?”

You: “Well, I’ll put a proposal together and get it over to you this week.”

Prospect: “That sounds great.”

You: “Wonderful – I really want to make sure this moves forward the way you want it to – so with that in mind, I’m back in the area on the 15^th and 19^th – which one would be best to have our follow up meeting?”

And there it is.

The thing that’s so obvious once it’s made obvious.

By organising the next meeting before the proposal reaches them, ensures that you get to talk to them about it once it’s written, close the sale and put it to bed.

And if they won’t book a follow up meeting?

Then the meeting hasn’t gone as well as you thought it had!

Until next time

Chris

PS – My new book The Extremely Successful Salesman’s Club is getting rave reviews – including one from Best Selling Author Lee B Salz – if you click on the book title above you can download the first 4 chapters for free

New Sales and Customer Service Training testimonial video HERE – find out what our customers think

New Sales Training & Customer Service Case Studies HERE

This year, I want to help you and your sales team become more successful than they’ve ever been before – call my office now on 0844 293 9777 or request a call back by going to our Contact Page HERE.

You and I can work out a sales training programme that suits your requirements perfectly – foundation level sales training, field sales training, account management training, selling value over price, FMCG sales training, customer service training, whatever it might be – but it’s a big old world out there and if you don’t take two minutes to invite me over, I may never know you need me.

We create bespoke sales training days from as little as £228 per person, so give my office a call today and we can get a date in the diary to start working on tailoring something just for you.

Chris Murray

0844 293 9777

By the way, if someone has forwarded you this newsletter, you can sign up to receive it directly from Varda Kreuz here

Varda Kreuz Sales Training – Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool,

Would You Like Me to Sell You a Small Bag of Magic Sales Fairy Dust?

“If you got the money honey we got your disease.”
Welcome to the Jungle – Guns N’ Roses

I have a friend who refers to the expectations of some sales people and their managers as requiring ‘magic sales fairy dust’.

The phrase has always made me smile.

However, the reason most of those expectations exist is due to the fact that we all live in an age of the ‘quick fix’.

It’s a hope thing.

Teenagers want a spot cream that clears their skin of blemishes, because they didn’t want to spend the time and a little effort using the preventative soap.

Later on they want small electrical discs that give them a washboard stomach without the exercise and then a pill to lose the fat they’ve gained rather than adopting a healthy lifestyle and diet.

In business they want the Jedi Mind Trick that will turn them all into instant millionaires.

There are many, many people on the internet making a great deal of money out of those hopes and fears, promising quick fix answers and panaceas – with a large percentage making their “hope” money from those working within the sales industry.

I can’t and won’t promise you magic sales fairy dust – because it doesn’t exist.

There are however 5 bits advice I can give you – that if you’re willing to put in a little effort and turn them into reality – will certainly give your competition the impression that you posses a bag or two of something special.

Number 1.  Know HOW the thing you sell helps ‘THEM’

‘Them’ being your target market.

What does it do for ‘Them’ that makes it worth even seeing you?

It’s probably not what you think.

What it needs to do is one, some or all of the following;

• Make them look good
• Make them feel good
• Save them time
• Make them money
• Reduce their costs
• Give them peace of mind
• Make life easier somehow

Remember – they don’t want a drill, they need a hole – but they have to buy the drill to make the hole.

Actually they probably don’t care that much about the solution you’re offering – they’re more likely to be bothered about whether it will get them promoted, sacked, recognised, accepted, praised or laid.

Trust me – when you’ve worked out what your solution truly delivers, you will be resonating at such a high level that only ten per cent of the rest of the sales industry will be able to hear you.

Number 2. Believe and trust in those benefits

Don’t tell me you’re passionate about your job – show me that you’re passionate about helping people like me!

Get up in the morning on a mission to save prospective clients from the shabby, ill fitting, over priced, valueless alternatives those charlatans over at your competition are trying to get away with flogging.

Number 3. Only invest time in prospects who you can REALLY help

If what you do doesn’t help me, why are you knocking on my door?

You need to have recognising ‘THEM’ down to a fine art.

Remember – if THEM don’t end up as your customers, they’re going to miss out somehow (see point 2 above).

Therefore you should be searching, filtering, focusing, making sure that the people who need to see you, actually get to see you – learn the rules of customer attraction and only spend time with the ones who truly deserve it.

Number 4. Satisfaction = Perception – Expectation

A prospect will not move forward if they perceive a solution delivers less than they require it to.

It’s at that point that you need to deliver the required information which allows them to make a new decision.

Not change their mind; you’ll never change anybody’s mind.

You need to give them enough information to make a new decision. And based on that new decision, their perception will change.

If this new perception of product, service and solution outweighs their initial expectation they will be satisfied – if it doesn’t they won’t.

Number 5. Explain the value and justify the cost

People don’t mind paying, they just don’t like to over pay.

As the great Zig Ziglar said; 

“The genuine sales professional can’t sell anything to anybody – that’s a con artist.”

Until next time

Chris

PS – My new book The Extremely Successful Salesman’s Club is getting rave reviews – including one from Best Selling Author Lee B Salz – if you click on the book title above you can download the first 4 chapters for free

New Sales and Customer Service Training testimonial video HERE – find out what our customers think

New Sales Training & Customer Service Case Studies HERE

This year, I want to help you and your sales team become more successful than they’ve ever been before – call my office now on 0844 293 9777 or request a call back by going to our Contact Page HERE.

You and I can work out a sales training programme that suits your requirements perfectly – foundation level sales training, field sales training, account management training, selling value over price, FMCG sales training, customer service training, whatever it might be – but it’s a big old world out there and if you don’t take two minutes to invite me over, I may never know you need me.

We create bespoke sales training days from as little as £228 per person, so give my office a call today and we can get a date in the diary to start working on tailoring something just for you.

Chris Murray

0844 293 9777

By the way, if someone has forwarded you this newsletter, you can sign up to receive it directly from Varda Kreuz here

Varda Kreuz Sales Training – Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool,

It’s Easy to Herd Sheep, but Impossible to Lead them from the Front

“You are so hard to read, you play hide n seek with your true intentions”
Straight Up – Paula Abdul

OK

Let’s start this week with a quote from legendary boxing trainer Angelo Dundee who teamed up with Muhammad Ali after his Olympic gold medal success in Rome; guided him to his first heavyweight title against Sonny Liston in 1964 and was in his corner during his greatest fights, including the Rumble in the Jungle and sadly died earlier this year, aged 90.

“I just put the reflexes in the right direction”

As a man who spends his days communicating the things he knows to be true to the next generation of sales super stars, that quote just shook me to the core when I heard it on the radio earlier this year.

It took me back to my very first job in sales management.

I was ready to run in and shoot from the hip, get those slackers to start hitting targets, tell them it was time to bring home the bacon and show them thay had to earn their place in the A Team.

The night before – over a beer – my mentor held me back and reminded me that everyone in my new team had always turned up wagging their tail and ready to work (as most people do) – and the majority were ready to run in which ever direction they were told to, even if that meant being sent the wrong way one more time – or maybe even forever.

But one thing was for sure, they certainly didn’t need an extra kicking for being sent in the wrong direction by their last boss.

I was asked a few months ago to create a workshop for a team who weren’t hitting their targets.

Did they have the talent?

Yeah, they weren’t too bad.

Were those targets unreasonable?

No, not really.

So what was going wrong?

I’ll tell you……

In my Sales Mangers Guide to Achieving FAME workshops we have a section that runs under the title of;

The Way YOU Measure YOUR Business is the Way YOU Manage It

Essentially, Directors and Managers need to work out what it is they want to count at the end of the year, and then manage their people towards achieving that figure.

Trouble is – people rarely count what they actually want to achieve.

Richard Branson in his book “Screw It Let’s Do It” writes;

“Don’t lead sheep, herd cats, It’s easy to herd sheep, but impossible to lead them from the front. Cats, on the other hand, are independent and intelligent and those are the people we want to employ at Virgin.”

When I come along and coach your team, it’s going to be my job to put their reflexes in the right direction.

When I ask you which direction that is – I’m going to need an answer.

So, have you REALLY worked out what it is you want – or need – to see?

Until next time

Chris

PS – My new book The Extremely Successful Salesman’s Club is getting rave reviews – including one from Best Selling Author Lee B Salz – if you click on the book title above you can download the first 4 chapters for free

New Sales and Customer Service Training testimonial video HERE – find out what our customers think

New Sales Training & Customer Service Case Studies HERE

This year, I want to help you and your sales team become more successful than they’ve ever been before – call my office now on 0844 293 9777 or request a call back by going to our Contact Page HERE.

You and I can work out a sales training programme that suits your requirements perfectly – foundation level sales training, field sales training, account management training, selling value over price, FMCG sales training, customer service training, whatever it might be – but it’s a big old world out there and if you don’t take two minutes to invite me over, I may never know you need me.

We create bespoke sales training days from as little as £228 per person, so give my office a call today and we can get a date in the diary to start working on tailoring something just for you.

Chris Murray

0844 293 9777

By the way, if someone has forwarded you this newsletter, you can sign up to receive it directly from Varda Kreuz here

Varda Kreuz Sales Training – Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool,

How Do I Stand Out With Fewer Clients and 100’s of Competitors Fighting Over the Scraps?

This week I was sent an email asking if I could help someone stand out from the crowd during a recession, and I replied with the message below.

I’ve copied it in with the original question for those who may have the same concerns.

Hope it helps.

From the post bag

Hi there

I work in the recruitment sector.

The industry is tough at the moment – fewer clients are recruiting, there are therefore 100’s of competitor recruiters fighting over the scraps out there.

I believe that clients are becoming exhausted by the number of cold calls and ‘e-shots’ they receive on a daily basis from recruiters trying to generate new business leads.

My question therefore is what other more intelligent methods are there for generating new business with new clients? Whilst I believe in the quality of the work I am doing, I feel many attempts are falling at the first hurdle, as I do not stand out from the crowd with my approach.

Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance

Rob

My Reply

Hi Rob

I feel your pain; however I’m a firm believer that – with regards to your competition – around 80% of most professionals approach their jobs with little more than 20% effort, particularly when it comes to business development – as a large percentage of that group remain under skilled and simply “fell into” the job.

Elevating yourself above the hundreds fighting for the scraps is the main hurdle – the air’s sweeter and the pickings richer.

Zig Ziglar in his book “Secrets of Closing the Sale” tells a story about the insurance industry during the recession in the early ‘80’s.

50% of insurance people felt business was down and consequently (mostly because of their viewpoint) reduced their efforts.

Business was down a little, but half of the competition stopped working to expand their business.

Since there was 90% as much business available and only 50% as much competition, his friend – who approached the situation with the right attitude and appropriate ability – increased his business substantially.

Over the past 20 years selling has changed a great deal, particularly due to the ease that people can get hold of what they want on the internet – and a number of years ago Faith Popcorn wrote a book called The Popcorn Report.

She said the trend in the 1990′s was ‘Cocooning’ – which boiled down to the fact that people just don’t like to be bothered anymore.

Therefore sales training had to move into helping people understand buying motives – and how we help them to reach a great buying decision – as well as all the other “tricks of the trade” such as handling objections and closing techniques.

If you’ve read any of my stuff before you’ll know that one my favourite little bits of wisdom is this:

“When a customer walks into a DIY store to buy a drill, they don’t want a drill, they want a hole!
Good sales people discover exactly what kind of hole the customer needs, the bad ones just talk about drills.”

To extend that to answer your question, your prospects aren’t out there looking for a partner in recruitment; they’re looking for the next great employee.

My solution below may seem to be time consuming, but once done, it will bring real, qualified leads straight to your door.

Earlier, I asked you to have a think about these points;

• What is the best thing that your product or service does for those who buy into it?
• What are potential customers missing out on?
• What would the end result and benefit to them be if they “bought in”?
• Will their life improve or not? If it will, how?

Try and make a list of as many different advantages and benefits (real ones not just dressed up features) delivered by that end result – and then work out how those benefits are achieved.

What are your customers asking? What are they searching for on Google?

Whatever it is, write a 5 page report on “The Twenty things you need to understand about X before you X” (or something along those lines)

You will have already listed the solutions and I’ve given you a headline – so writing a five to ten line paragraph about achieving each “thing” shouldn’t be hard.

And don’t worry about giving away too much info – what are they going to do, start up their own recruitment agency? Bring it all in house?

If so, they probably weren’t your ideal prospect in the first place.

Another phrase I like is this;

 “Gurus don’t walk down mountains; people climb up mountains to find them!”

If you want to stand out from the crowd the trick is to become the trusted advisor, the one with all the answers, who gives information freely because you actually care about helping the prospect rather than just hounding them for their business with endless phone calls.

Once you’ve created your helpful report – useful to them remember, not impressive to your mother in law – send the link to a few of your prospects with the heading “Thought You Should be One of the First to See this New Free Report on how to….”  – no sales message, just sharing some useful info.

If you need one, Mail Chimp is a free email marketing service – it’ll help you set up sign up forms and organise auto-responders so that people can request the report while you’re doing other things – and stops everything from being impersonal and cold.

You can mention your report in the promotions section of the customer orientated groups you’ve joined on Linked In – You could even start your own Linked In Group, I’ve written an article on how to do that successfully here – and then surround yourself with prospects continuously.

People will then start having conversations with you regarding solving their problem, rather than you calling them to try and get them to purchase your service.

This may never completely replace other, traditional selling tasks and techniques – but your prospects want answers and solutions – they also want an intelligent, trustworthy expert to help them achieve their goals

Hope that helps

Chris

PS – My new book The Extremely Successful Salesman’s Club is getting rave reviews – including one from Best Selling Author Lee B Salz – if you click on the book title above you can download the first 4 chapters for free

New Sales and Customer Service Training testimonial video HERE – find out what our customers think

New Sales Training & Customer Service Case Studies HERE

This year, I want to help you and your sales team become more successful than they’ve ever been before – call my office now on 0844 293 9777 or request a call back by going to our Contact Page HERE.

You and I can work out a sales training programme that suits your requirements perfectly – foundation level sales training, field sales training, account management training, selling value over price, FMCG sales training, customer service training, whatever it might be – but it’s a big old world out there and if you don’t take two minutes to invite me over, I may never know you need me.

We create bespoke sales training days from as little as £228 per person, so give my office a call today and we can get a date in the diary to start working on tailoring something just for you.

Chris Murray

0844 293 9777

By the way, if someone has forwarded you this newsletter, you can sign up to receive it directly from Varda Kreuz here

Varda Kreuz Sales Training – Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool,

My Boss Would Have Me Cold-Calling All Day – Is He Right?

Recently I received an email from one of my Linked In connections asking for a little guidance on cold calling and how to manage the “scatter gun” expectations of his boss.

I didn’t want to send back a – “I’m far too busy, here’s a quick line to make you feel like I’m bothered” – kind of response, so I sent the message below.

I’ve copied it in with the original question for those who may have the same concerns.

Hope you find it useful.

.

Hi Chris,

Of late, I’ve seen several articles on Linked In and other places saying that ‘Cold Calling is DEAD’.

Are you aware of such articles / publications, and what are your thoughts on this?

I’ll be quite up front and say that my boss would have me cold-calling all day long (in person) yet I find more success with targeting prospects that I know are likely to use my product / service.

.

Hi,

Thanks for getting in touch – always grateful to help where I can.

Let’s take your questions one at a time;

“Are you aware of such articles / publications, and what are your thoughts on this?”

Actually, I wrote a blog article a little while ago – you can find it here – entitled “The FREE Service from Google That Can Help Populate Your Prospect List”; which also has a few more links to help with your cold calling and some of the difficulties that can arise.

I say at the beginning of the article that I reckon the statement “Cold Calling is DEAD” is around 50% accurate.

The world has indeed moved on. The population have cocooned, believing that all solutions can be found at the end of a mouse click.

Much of the sales training, book selling community will tell you that we must find a brand new way of selling – partly true, partly based on the fact that it’s difficult to sell last year’s ground breaking sales self-help book twice.

You’re a customer, you know that you need help and advice sometimes – you’re also aware that there are things you don’t know – so how can you find a solution for a problem you didn’t know existed?

That’s where a well thought out and highly focused sales strategy comes in – and sometimes that involves at bit of cold calling.

I also wrote an article called “A Few Ice Breakers for Cold Callers” which has a free download that you might find useful.

You can find it at this link

“I’ll be quite up front and say that my boss would have me cold-calling all day long (in person) yet I find more success with targeting prospects that I know are likely to use my product / service.”

There are a number of ways that we help our clients find us here at Varda Kreuz – these days you have to be a bit like one of the three settings on a Blackberry – Not ON (in their faces all the time), OFF (too scared to see anyone), but DISCOVERABLE!

We use Linked In, Twitter, the Blog, our free books and many other information based items to catch the interest of our target market – and they’re written and created to be interesting just to that set of people, solving the problems that only that group of individuals has.

We also have our own telesales team who do a fabulous job for us – but they’re only calling businesses that fit a specific criterion – and in some cases have been qualified through other levels of marketing.

But we still “cold call” – maybe that’s why we are more successful than some of the competition – after all, we are supposed to lead by example aren’t we?

Cold calling is about understanding your numbers, the numbers for REAL prospects. Not everyone out there who might one day become a customer is going to be ready today, but if they are REAL prospects, there’s a chance they’re going to buy someday.

So if you call 100 of these “NAMES”, you may “ENGAGE” with 10 – therefore 90 are recycled or discarded.

Those 10 become “SALES LEADS”, 5 may go on to become “PROSPECTS”.

2 move on to becoming “OPPORTUNITIES” and 1 becomes a “CUSTOMER”.

I don’t know what you’re numbers are like, but they’re gonna be highly diluted if you keep calling on everyone.

I once collected for a charity – stood with a bucket in a town square – turned out my numbers were £4 every ten minutes.

If two people dropped £2 in each, I wouldn’t get a sniff for another nine minutes.

If forty people dropped in 10p each – it usually happened over a ten minute period.

If I got £8 in two minutes – no one stopped for another twenty.

It’s just the way the universe works and you’ve got to understand what those numbers are for your market.

You use the phrase targeting prospects, and that’s exactly what you should be doing.

I’ve had loads of bosses who wanted to run into battle with a “scatter gun” approach – it works, but only because if you call on everyone, you will eventually meet a prospect.

The trick is to make sure everyone you talk to has the potential of at least becoming a prospect.

If you sold wine you’d call on the restaurants and bars on the high street.

Would you call in the book store, furniture showroom and second hand car dealers too?

Would I have got £4 every ten minutes collecting with my bucket at the bottom of a dead end street?

Course not – I had to put myself in the way of the opportunity.

If you’re looking for a quick start, find one of your existing customers on Linked In, have a look at the groups they’ve joined and join one of them.

Have a look at the members sections, search in a location that suits you – and have a look for people who resemble your existing customer base.

That should turn up a few opportunities.

Well, that’s a whole reply based on cold calling – managing your bosses expectations however, while delivering better results than he was expecting is a whole new article

Let me know how you get on – and if I can be of any further help just call

Best regards

Chris

PS – My new book The Extremely Successful Salesman’s Club is getting rave reviews – including one from Best Selling Author Lee B Salz – if you click on the book title above you can download the first 4 chapters for free

New Sales and Customer Service Training testimonial video HERE – find out what our customers think

New Sales Training & Customer Service Case Studies HERE

This year, I want to help you and your sales team become more successful than they’ve ever been before – call my office now on 0844 293 9777 or request a call back by going to our Contact Page HERE.

You and I can work out a sales training programme that suits your requirements perfectly – foundation level sales training, field sales training, account management training, selling value over price, FMCG sales training, customer service training, whatever it might be – but it’s a big old world out there and if you don’t take two minutes to invite me over, I may never know you need me.

We create bespoke sales training days from as little as £228 per person, so give my office a call today and we can get a date in the diary to start working on tailoring something just for you.

Chris Murray

0844 293 9777

By the way, if someone has forwarded you this newsletter, you can sign up to receive it directly from Varda Kreuz here

Varda Kreuz Sales Training – Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool,

The Reason You’re Not Growing Your Business is Because You’re TOO Successful

“At this moment you mean everything”
Come On Eileen – Dexys Midnight Runners

At the beginning of my sales career, the thing that was actually holding me back was my own success!

Now that sounds a bit like I’m blowing my own trumpet – but my ability to get new customers genuinely threatened to jeopardise the relationship I had with my existing clients.

You see I loved the thrill of bringing in new business.

I loved the internal recognition, the memos from the hierarchy, that personal sense of achievement and the “getting one over” on the competition.

If you threw the new business stick into the long grass of the sales jungle, I’d run after it and emerge a short time later – wagging my tail, looking up at you with excited eyes that screamed “throw it again, throw it further, throw it again!”

Trouble was, my role changed to Account Manager quite early on in my career.

I got promotion after promotion – and yet my methods, tactics and viewpoints never changed, never evolved.

During one appraisal, my sales manager shared a couple of home truths.

He had seen through all the flag waving and triumphalism, he knew that there were existing customers being ignored.

He showed me that due to my portfolio growing at such a rate, the hard won business dropping out of the bottom was being disguised by what was being fed into the top.

I’m told that, as an average, 68% of customers are lost due to indifference.

They’re either neglected for so long or they feel so worthless in the eyes of their account manager that they shuffle off to find someone who can promise them a little bit of real love.

And who can blame them?

The generic sales professional, swanning in with shiny shoes and a perfectly pressed shirt, promising to love them forever, that at this moment – they mean everything.

To get a new customer costs your company a great deal of money.

Have you ever worked out – or even thought about – how much that is?

Prospect numbers are not infinite – trees don’t grow all the way to the sun – everything stops somewhere.

One day you will either run out of prospects or change jobs – either way you’ll probably have to see some of them again during your career.

Keeping your customers happy, might just help you to keep them – period!

Account Management and National Account Management isn’t simply “the same job with bigger numbers” – it’s about effective, professional relationship management.

How many times have we taken over a set of prospects or accounts and been told that “the last person never looked after us!”

Make a promise to never end up being THAT last person!

Here’s a question for you to think about.

If you were made redundant tomorrow and the only sales job available was with a customer – would you get the job?

A quick Woody Allen quote to finish us off;

“A relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we’ve got on our hands is a dead shark.”

Until next time

Chris

PS – My new book The Extremely Successful Salesman’s Club is getting rave reviews – including one from Best Selling Author Lee B Salz – if you click on the book title above you can download the first 4 chapters for free

New Sales and Customer Service Training testimonial video HERE – find out what our customers think

New Sales Training & Customer Service Case Studies HERE

This year, I want to help you and your sales team become more successful than they’ve ever been before – call my office now on 0844 293 9777 or request a call back by going to our Contact Page HERE.

You and I can work out a sales training programme that suits your requirements perfectly – foundation level sales training, field sales training, account management training, selling value over price, FMCG sales training, customer service training, whatever it might be – but it’s a big old world out there and if you don’t take two minutes to invite me over, I may never know you need me.

We create bespoke sales training days from as little as £228 per person, so give my office a call today and we can get a date in the diary to start working on tailoring something just for you.

Chris Murray

0844 293 9777

By the way, if someone has forwarded you this newsletter, you can sign up to receive it directly from Varda Kreuz here

Varda Kreuz Sales Training – Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool,