Most Popular Articles on LinkedIn Pulse

Please find below links to a few of my most popular, recent sales articles on LinkedIn Pulse 

Only 12 hours Left – $0.99 Kindle Countdown Offer for The Extremely Successful Salesman’s Club

Those fabulous people at Amazon and Kindle have decided to place the EBook version of The Extremely Successful Salesman’s Club on something they like to call a Countdown Deal… Read More

Thank You – The Extremely successful Salesman’s Club – Amazon Number 1 Best Seller… Read More

The Most Important Sales Technique That No One Talks About 

If you want to get the sales that others simply never even realised existed, the answer lies in what I like to call deep listening, and the best way to describe this is with the Chinese symbol for the verb “to listen”.… Read More

My Sales Team Are Busy Doing Everything Except Selling 

As a sales manager, it’s become more difficult to draw a distinct line between all the things a sales team should be doing – and all the activities that they love to spend time on – but lead them away from the straight and true path of your perfectly worked out plan. … Read More

The Truth About Relationship Selling 

Relationship selling is a strange beast and countless authors have made many, many dollars explaining to sales people how to use it to their advantage… Read More

Would You Buy From YOU?

The salesperson you’d ideally like to be and the salesperson you’d like to served by – they should both be the same person, shouldn’t they? … Read More 

Letter to an Aspiring Salesman 

“The choices you make from this day forward will lead you, step by step, to the future you deserve. Note well my words, for what you deserve will be down to you, and you alone.” … Read More

Questioning Techniques that Empower People 

Below are 3 recent examples where that responsibility was sadly lacking – and although the behaviour highlighted might seem surprising – I bet you’ve had a number of similar experiences of your own. … Read More 

Stop Making False Sales Promises and Tell Me How You Help 

Is the sales story in your elevator speech 100% true? Can you genuinely promise, that the wonderful results witnessed by one or two of your previous customers, will happen to everyone else who works with you? .…Read More

The Dalai Lama’s A to Zen of Life (for Salespeople)

I think the first time I read this Dalai Lama A to Z, was on an office wall positioned between two fairly uninspiring posters – you know the type – artistic photographs of someone standing on the top of a mountain at sunrise, framed by some quote about eagles or persistence or something similar. .…Read More 

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Thanks for reading this blog post. On my blog, I regularly write about Sales, Sales Management and Customer Service issues, topics and trends.

I’d also be delighted to connect via Twitter, YouTube and of course, through Varda Kreuz Training.

Here are some of my other recent posts:

If You think It’s All About Price – Get Out of Sales

Is Your Sales Team Culture Pirate Ship or Battleship?

About: Chris Murray is founder and Managing Director of Varda Kreuz Training, a company created to deliver sales training that really works – not in theory and not just sometimes, but sales training that really works. You can find out more about Varda Kreuz Training HERE or give us a call right now on 0844 923 9777 (UK)

His latest book, The Extremely Successful Salesman’s Club has been heralded as the Da Vinci Code for salespeople.

The Truth About Relationship Selling

Relationship selling is a strange beast and countless authors have made many, many dollars explaining to sales people how to use it to their advantage.

Here’s a quick question for you;

Why do you think those buyers are entering into a relationship with YOU?

Is it because she doesn’t have enough friends? Maybe he has empty seats at his wedding, or do you think they’re trying to build a trade only pub quiz team, and they need you as captain?

Or maybe – just maybe – it’s because they make their living by meeting people just like us and getting the best deal for the most suitable product or service?

Just thought I’d throw it in there.

If you truly think that business is mostly about relationships, let me ask you another question;

How many bad second hand cars would you buy off your brother?

What the Buyers said;

“While I understand they have a budget for these things, I don’t need constant offers to be taken to lunch, golf, or ballgames, particularly if I’m not currently doing business with them. I’m a fellow professional, not a date to be wooed.”

“I hate it when a salesperson tries to be my best friend on the first call!”

Solution

You need to understand that being a fairly affable human being is actually a prerequisite for the job. You have to be a likeable individual; you have to be someone that others wish to spend time with – that’s a given.

However, you’re never going to blackmail a professional buyer into something that isn’t right for them with friendship – and if you think about it, that’s a fairly horrible thing to do any way.

Understand that they have a job to do, if you want them to retain your services, then you need to give them exceptional reasons for doing so. Regularly give your time and expertise freely and continuously strive to be viewed as valuable – rather than simply likeable – by engaging in activities that they see as having genuine value.

Quick quote to finish from The Extremely Successful Salesman’s Club – after Barnabas and Simeon have listened to a Preacher at Speakers Corner – which sums it up quite nicely;

“This is how you must be. You must become as evangelical about your promised outcome as he is about his. You must believe that you, and you alone, have the solution to your prospects problems. Even if they do not recognise those problems themselves.”

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The piece above is taken from an article which appeared in this month’s Institute of Sales & Marketing Management’s Winning Edge Magazine – after asking almost half a million professional buyers one simple question; “How do most sales people let themselves down?”

Once I’d worked my way through the answers, it turned out there were 7 recurring issues that cause salespeople to lose the sales they really should have won – here’s a sneak peek of the entire article if you missed it.

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Thanks for reading this article. On my blog, I regularly write about Sales, Sales Management and Customer Service issues, topics and trends.

I’d also be delighted to connect via Twitter, YouTube and of course, through Varda Kreuz Training.

Here are some of my other recent posts:

If You think It’s All About Price – Get Out of Sales

Top 3 on Amazon Best Sellers – Thanks

Are Your Sales Team Managing You?

Is Your Sales Team Culture Pirate Ship or Battleship?

About: Chris Murray is founder and Managing Director of Varda Kreuz Training, a company created to deliver sales training that really works – not in theory and not just sometimes, but sales training that really works. You can find out more about Varda Kreuz Training HERE or give us a call right now on 0844 923 9777 (UK)

His latest book, The Extremely Successful Salesman’s Club has been heralded as the Da Vinci Code for salespeople.

Closing Techniques Don’t Win Sales

The acronym EASE, breaks down into the four parts of any sales call, Earn the Right; Ask the Appropriate Questions; Solve the Problem and Execute the Solution.

It comes from one my books and we built the Varda Kreuz Foundation Level Workshops around it. During the first part of those Foundation Level Workshops, when we discuss with delegates what they’d most like to achieve, a large percentage regularly remark that,

“I just want to improve my closing, that’s all I need really. If I could close more sales everything else would fall into place.”

Which is partly true, however the ability to close effectively doesn’t have its origins in the fourth quarter of the sales process.

Anthony Robbins tells a great story about his meeting with a client, a plastic surgeon. He arrives early and while he’s in the waiting room, he picks up a book which the plastic surgeon has written.

As Anthony Robbins turns the pages, he sees pictures of the most beautiful people on earth, all surrounded by mathematical equations. This surgeon had actually worked out what it took to possess, and then how to create, the perfect face.

It turns out that, if the philtrum (the groove between your nose and top lip) is exactly the same size as your eye, your face would be in perfect balance – the perfect face.

One millimetre out and you have an average face, two millimetres out (according to Anthony Robbins) and you’re butt-ugly.

One millimetre out! Isn’t it amazing that something so small can make so much difference?

Let’s change the analogy.

Imagine if you’re sailing from Portsmouth, in the UK, to New York and your course starts out just one degree off.

One degree out doesn’t get you just outside New York – your little boat would find itself all the way up in Canada.

And it’s the same with every sales situation you’ll ever walk into.

If you don’t Earn the Right to sell to them, to be allowed to progress through each and every stage, right from the beginning – even misjudging it by the tiniest degree – you’ll end up miles away from a “Yes” by the time you get to your well-practised close, without even realising where it all went wrong.

Which is when most prospects turn round and say;

“Do you know what, I’m going to have to think about it!”

If you like – it’s at that point you could try to bully them with a couple of “sales mind tricks” – although I wouldn’t hold out much hope with an experienced buyer.

What the Buyers said

“Why do some salespeople think they’re being so clever? I see salespeople every day, how do they think some sleazy, worn out way of phrasing a close is suddenly going to make me change my mind? ”

“Salespeople should be honest. If they don’t know the answer to a question they should hold their hands up and say – sorry I don’t know the answer to that but I will find out and get back to you – rather than guess and are invariably wrong!”

Solution

Walk in understanding that if you don’t earn their trust at the beginning and throughout your conversation and presentation, they sure as hell won’t trust you with their money at the end.

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The piece above is taken from an article which appeared in this month’s Institute of Sales & Marketing Management’s Winning Edge Magazine – after asking almost half a million professional buyers one simple question; “How do most sales people let themselves down?”

Once I’d worked my way through the answers, it turned out there were 7 recurring issues that cause salespeople to lose the sales they really should have won – here’s a sneak peek of the entire article if you missed it.

****************************************************

Thanks for reading this article. On my blog, I regularly write about Sales, Sales Management and Customer Service issues, topics and trends.

I’d also be delighted to connect via Twitter and of course, through Varda Kreuz Training.

Here are some of my other recent posts:

If You think It’s All About Price – Get Out of Sales

Top 3 on Amazon Best Sellers – Thanks

Are Your Sales Team Managing You?

Is Your Sales Team Culture Pirate Ship or Battleship?

About: Chris Murray is founder and Managing Director of Varda Kreuz Training, a company created to deliver sales training that really works – not in theory and not just sometimes, but sales training that really works. You can find out more about Varda Kreuz Training HERE or give us a call right now on 0844 923 9777 (UK)

His latest book, The Extremely Successful Salesman’s Club has been heralded as the Da Vinci Code for salespeople.

If You think It’s All About Price – Get Out of Sales

I recently spent some time with an extremely senior group of sales people from one of the world’s biggest companies, who told me that everything was down to price.

No it isn’t.

Take for example their business. Ten senior sales people, big cars, expenses accounts, support staff – that’s a cost per person of at least £100,000 a year.

So that team of ten cost at least one million pounds to keep on the road – and they were a tiny percentage of the entire sales team.

When I suggested to them, that if all their problems were indeed down to price – and that the sales team could make no difference whatsoever – then surely getting rid of just those ten salespeople and changing the business model to a click down menu on a website, would save the business at least one million pounds.

If we did that, we could knock £1 off a million units immediately – if it was all down to price, then that’s the problem solved.

They didn’t like that idea at all.

But that unfortunately is the undeniable truth.

If the sales team don’t know or can’t explain the difference between their business and a lesser priced competitor – they become an expensive folly.

What the Buyers said;

“What’s the point of sales people who are unable to justify their mark-up percentage and margins?”

“Of course I’m going to hammer everyone down on price, that’s my job. That doesn’t mean to say I want tat! Getting the job done and receiving great value is what I’m paid for too.”

Solution

Work out the 5 reasons you are better value than the competition and then learn how to explain that to your customers.

Remember, evangelists don’t try and tell you about heaven to secure their place, they’re already going. They tell you because they don’t want you to miss out on paradise.

That is how you should be with your product or service. Get in there and help prospects make great buying decisions before some con artist tries to rip them off, overcharge them or sell them something they didn’t need or don’t want.

Watch a short Video relating to this article HERE

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The piece above is taken from an article which appeared in this month’s Institute of Sales & Marketing Management’s Winning Edge Magazine – which I wrote after asking almost half a million professional buyers one simple question; “How do most sales people let themselves down?”

Once I’d worked my way through the answers, it turned out there were 7 recurring issues that caused salespeople to lose the sales that they really didn’t need to – here’s a sneak peek of the entire article if you missed it.

****************************************************

Thanks for reading this article. On my blog, I regularly write about Sales, Sales Management and Customer Service issues, topics and trends.

I’d also be delighted to connect via Twitter and of course, through Varda Kreuz Training.

Here are some of my other recent posts:

Why Salespeople Should Learn How to Sell Lemonade

Is Your Sales Team Culture Pirate Ship or Battleship?

Sales Training – Do You Want Better or Advanced?

About: Chris Murray is founder and Managing Director of Varda Kreuz Training, a company created to deliver sales training that really works – not in theory and not just sometimes, but sales training that really works. You can find out more about Varda Kreuz Training HERE or give us a call right now on 0844 923 9777 (UK)

His latest book, The Extremely Successful Salesman’s Club has been heralded as the Da Vinci Code for salespeople.

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

To Solve THAT Problem, Become THIS

“See yourself, give your freewill a chance, you’ve got to work to succeed”   Owner of a Lonely Heart – YES

• Some people ask, “What is the world going to do for me?”

• There are those who ask, “What can I do for myself?”

• And there are a few who ask, “What can I become?”

Group 1 always depend on external factors to change their lives, believing they should own everything their neighbour possesses – delivered straight to their door and costing nothing in time, money or effort.

They also believe that promotion at work is connected to length of service rather than achievement. If a business crumbles and fails they were in no way responsible and stick out their hand to collect the compensation.

The second group are a solid, hard working bunch.

They were brought up to pay their way, they’re proud to the point of almost starving before accepting handouts and – just as soon as the opportunity presents itself – they go out and bring in a wage, earning the respect of those who had raised them, proving that the lessons had been learnt and that the baton had been passed to a safe pair of hands.

Every now and again, an individual evolves from the second group into Group 3.

When they fall down their friends and family kindly say;

“Don’t worry, you did your best!”

They reply;

“But my best wasn’t good enough – how do I do this better!”

They take stock of their strengths and weaknesses and they determine what it is they can – and need to – become.

They focus on where it is they want to go and then begin to develop the knowledge, stamina, character, discipline and muscle required.

Their first target destination isn’t usually that far, but to them it feels like a million miles– however once reached, they look back from their new comfort zone to the place from which they started and realise;

“If that ocean was crossable then the next one must be too!”

They plot their course and take the journey, every time arriving at exotic new destinations that seemed impossible only a few years earlier.

In May 1954, Roger Bannister ran the first four minute mile.

At the commonwealth games in July 1954 – less than 2 months later – two men ran a sub four minute mile in the same race – after that, it just became a common occurrence.

Once the mental barrier was down, those who’d always had the natural ability to do it – did it.

The mile didn’t get any shorter, the four minutes remained 240 seconds long, it was simply the difference between “What can I do?” and “What can I become?”

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,

You Can’t Count on Quality to Save Your Business

“And mama always told me, be careful what you do, don’t go around breaking young girls’ hearts.”
Billie Jean – Michael Jackson

I changed one of my suppliers last week.

Looking back I don’t think I ever had any problem with the pricing, value, quality or effectiveness of the service or products.

It was just that the account manager was so – bloody – miserable.

Ask him a question – any question – and the answer would drip with doom, gloom and self pity.

I put up with it – you do, don’t you? It’s just easier?

Somewhere close to you now, a sales person is walking in to see a customer and after being asked “How’s it going?” they’ll say something like;

• “Tough, really tough.”
•  “Aw, you know, plodding on.”
• “I was alright until I hit that traffic, man it was backed up right past the exit.”

And all around the world, businesses are closing their doors for the last time, with owners and shareholders scratching their heads, wondering how such a brilliantly priced, quality widget somehow failed to catch on in the way they knew it really should have done.

• Incredible caterers and sandwich shops, who delivered sumptuous feasts but left their customers feeling cold and unwanted – Closed.

• Brilliant local DIY stores who had everything you needed; the knowledge to help but the ability to make you feel stupid if you had to ask – Closed.

• Fabulous suppliers with the best range, price and service – but whose sales team treat customers like they’re just one of an unlimited supply – Closing all over the place.

Here at Varda Kreuz Towers we’re in the middle of delivering a series of customer service workshops for one of the UK’s biggest employers and while I was researching the subject matter to make the course truly bespoke, I realised that the main learning outcome centred on one key nugget of wisdom.

You see, lots of people request Customer Service training, but sometimes it isn’t actually what they need.

SERVICE is the thing you deliver; it’s what customers are left with after they’ve paid their money, what they’ve had once they’ve eaten at your restaurant or come out of surgery.

HOSPITALITY is how you make people FEEL about that service.

The dictionary calls it – “the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers”.

So, ask yourself this;

“My business – I know what we DO for customers, but how do we make them FEEL when we do it?”

I can understand why some of you might not think that matters – however, If you’re one of my regular suppliers and you haven’t heard from me for a while, I’m really sorry you had to find out that I’ve moved on by reading this article.

As a bit of advice, if you want to keep the rest of your client base at least pretend you’re enjoying the interaction with them, because if you’re not, they certainly won’t be.

You see I expect quality and service – that’s what I’m paying for – but if I find out from someone else that there is also an option to feel great about it as well, then my expectations have just been raised – and what I used to think was good enough simply isn’t anymore.

Until next time, have a great week

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,