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March 18, 2010

Are you losing business through unqualified appointments?

Filed under: Appointment making training — Tags: — admin @ 9:11 am

If you can answer yes to any of the following questions there’s a good chance you aren’t making qualified appointments. But what does that really mean?

  • Do you feel under pressure to achieve your KPIs?
  • Does your manager insist you meet with everyone?
  • Do you feel deflated if someone says “no?”
  • Do you travel miles for a quick chat over a coffee, just to tick a box?
  • Could some of your business be won over the phone?

To make a qualified appointment takes true skill. But a few simple tips can ensure your conversion rate improves!

A qualified appointment is one that the prospect has agreed for you to visit and fits the criteria you require for them to be considered as a potential customer. More importantly a ‘qualified appointment’ is one made with the M.A.N – the person who has the Money, the Authority and the Need!

A good example of making unqualified sales is Phoebe Buffay’s stint at “Empire Office Supplies.”

But how do we get these qualified appointments?

  1. Always be assertive in what you say. Submissive people are easily brushed aside. Aggressive sales approaches may increase apparent appointment numbers, but this leads to poor quality leads and a higher number of cancellations.
  2. Confirm all appointments in writing, either by letter or e-mail. For appointments a long way ahead, phone a few days before to confirm. Customers may easily agree to appointments a long way ahead, but no-shows are higher on these than normal.
  3. If the person you are phoning is on a mobile, ask if it is okay to talk. They may be in a meeting or driving.
  4. Remember that most people you are phoning are used to receiving high volumes of poor quality telesales calls. Their natural initial reaction may be to say ‘no’ straight away, so persevere until you have got your message across. People do change their minds.
  5. People often say “If I want something, I will ask for it!” If this were always true, telesales people would be redundant. People have the single biggest influence on the likelihood of a prospect agreeing to an appointment.
  6. Nobody is able to be enthusiastic 100% of the time. There is no doubt however that enthusiastic people produce better results. If you’re not enthusiastic about what you’re selling, how do you expect them to be?
  7. Accept that some people will be hostile to you. Its part of the role and will rarely be aimed directly at you personally. If however you get aggressive responses daily, you should review your approach.
  8. Who does all the talking? Too many telesales people speak at the customer, instead of listening. Everybody likes to be listened to and it is useful in building rapport and identifying needs.
  9. BT did some research a few years ago when they analysed the words most frequently used in domestic telephone conversations. The word ‘I’ came out seven times more frequently than any other word. The job of a salesperson is to focus on ‘You’ (the customer), not ‘I’ (the salesperson).
  10. Persistence, enthusiasm, and optimism will always out-perform ability and pessimism.

If you’re responsible for making qualified appointments then take a look at our Appointment Making programme or get in touch – we’d love to hear from you.

March 11, 2010

Sales management training in tough times

Filed under: Leadership & Management, Sales Training Courses — Tags: — admin @ 2:20 pm

Most markets today are buyers’ markets. So your sales team may be having a tough time. That’s where professional sales leadership really comes into its own.

Increase your communication rate
When times are tough your people need more contact from you. E-mails and circulars are fine; phone calls and meetings are better.

Lead from the front
Go out more with your team, not less. Salespeople do not respect managers who claim to know what it’s like out there in the market but never see customers. Maybe even run a few accounts yourself to show how it’s done.

Help your team to set priorities and manage their time
When business is quiet there is always a temptation for salespeople to fill their day with any sort of activity – even if unproductive and costly. Remind everyone of the basics of customer grading, opportunity management and task prioritisation based on (definite) cost versus (potential) value.

Publicise successes
But only those which arise from good practice and which contain a lesson or some motivation for the rest of the team. No one is inspired by learning about someone else’s “lucky break” if it really is pure luck!

Lead by example and practice what you preach
Having been told by his team how difficult it was to get good appointments one Chief Executive picked up the phone and made appointments for them. There were no further complaints!

Invest time in training and development
Combine the key sales management roles of ‘motivating’ and ‘coaching’. Some vital messages for your team are :

  • Keep on doing the right things – even if these appear to have no results;you will reap the rewards when the market recovers
  • Look for the customers who still do have money – they may be hard to find but they always still exist
  • Use your contacts and network endlessly – ask for referrals; use networking websites; keep selling actively to existing customers
  • Selling is a “numbers game” in most markets – sales results come from a combination of “Quality of Selling Effort” and “Quantity of Selling Effort”; selling in a recession requires more “quantity” however good your “quality”
  • Your competitors’ best customers are your best prospects – unless you have 100% market share (!) you can always get business by outselling your competition and taking market share from them; you need to “sell the difference” and a important part of that difference is you!
  • Customers’ priorities and motives may change in a recession – have you changed your sales approach to match?

Sales management is both a special skill and a specialist set of skills. Sales Managers are at their most valuable when their teams are selling in a recession.

TACK’s range of Sales Management courses give guidance on how to implement these sales management techniques effectively.

If you’re a sales leader responsible for delivering targets through your people take a look at our range of sales training courses within your organisation, we’d love to talk to you so please get in touch by email info@tack.co.uk or call 0845 072 0144.

November 5, 2009

October 26, 2009

Sales Training Courses – is eLearning really the best way to develop salespeople?

Filed under: Sales Training Courses, eLearning — Tags: , — admin @ 4:49 pm

Creating a balanced diet

Learning professionals are adopting a marketing approach to the delivery tools at their disposal. Communicate with me as I like to be communicated with. So teach me as I like to be taught or, more effectively, as I like to learn. No longer is the decision for blended learning as simple as Instructor Led Training, online courses or eLearning. And no longer is blended learning a bit of all of these methods! At last blended learning may really have something to offer to sales professionals.

Salespeople don’t do eLearning or do they?

Conventional wisdom tells us that salespeople are Pragmatic Activists who learn by doing and experiencing. So how can eLearning possibly deliver this? How can any technology-based tool be a shortcut for good old interaction and practice through role-plays and discussion with fellow learners?

Generation Y manages to build vast and remote social networks using the plethora of networking technology that exists. Generation Y is confident and hugely competent when it comes to adopting new technology and is also happy to share their challenges, thoughts and feelings publicly and without the need for face to face contact. Generation Y makes up a large number of our sales profession today.

So how could the perfect diet look for sales development?

Let’s take one ingredient from the blend – eLearning – and look at practical ways it can be used specifically to help the sales professional.

We’ve already touched on the Pragmatic Activist learning style of many salespeople and the traits of Generation Y. Many of these need to be borne in mind for the best blend of learning for sales professionals. Whilst the tools and support services need to help the sales professional ‘help themselves’, there also needs to be a degree of ‘push’ to ensure the transfer of learning and change in behaviours takes place. So the sales manager also plays a crucial part in the mix.

For the salesperson…

To suit the salesperson, blended learning has to be motivational, timely and relevant. Imagine you’ve just come out of a sales call. You had high hopes of a successful call but it did not go the way you planned. What went wrong? If you could dip straight into a sales learning tool and go to the precise part of the sales process you want, refresh yourself on the best practice and try out the scenarios, you could then discover what you could have done better. There’s no better learning when it follows hot on the heels of an immediate need like this.

Likewise, if the salesperson needs to look for help before going into a sales call, remote access to an eLearning tool whilst they’re waiting in the customer car park could be just the answer.

For the sales manager …

There are two ways that eLearning can support sales managers.

1. Coaching

Well structured sales eLearning should provide a helpful framework for the manager to coach the salesperson. It can be used for one on one coaching and working through modules together with the salesperson explaining the reasons for their choices in interactive scenarios.

2. Effective management and a lower cost of sale

As well as developing and sharing best practice, the sales manager wants their team to use their time and effort in the most effective manner. A sales model and eLearning that has this built-in can be integral to building a more effective sales team. The benefits of better performance and a lower cost of sale are clear – the salespeople maximize the return on their time, the sales manager expends less energy to manage the team who follow the same sales process and reporting.

If you’re responsible for sourcing eLearning within your organisation, we’d love to talk to you so please get intouch by email info@tack.co.uk or call 0845 072 0144.

July 27, 2009

Motivational Leadership Training Courses – how to motivate your sales team in challenging times

Filed under: Motivational Leadership, Motivational Sales Training — Tags: — admin @ 10:40 am

This Blog aims to show you how you can get maximum Return on Investment by motivating your sales team. The good news is that no financial investment is required – just your enthusiasm, your commitment and a high degree of smart thinking and creativity.

The impact of a Sales Manager on their team’s performance has always been significant – in challenging times it becomes critical to success or even survival.

So why not stand back and take a look at how you currently motivate your people? Consider the seven factors on how to motivate your sales team and ask yourself the question “how can I be the Sales Manger the business and the team need in 2009 and beyond?”

Motivate through communication

1) Talk with your people, face to face or on the phone - every conversation is an opportunity to motivate them. Consider the most appropriate method of saying ‘well done’ – think before you text …… gr8t news, yur a star! Instead pick up the phone or why not compose a hand written note? They’re so unusual now their impact is amazing!

2) Listen to your people. Give them quality time on the phone - listen to their voice, sense their levels of motivation, enthusiasm or concern – particularly with remote teams who spend so much time working alone.

3) Stay close your people - how they think, work and what motivates them. Know what’s going on in their lives – what’s important to them.

Know the essence of their game

4) Understand the key projects on which they are working – talk through their approach, make suggestions, show support.

5) Be realistic about a challenging market – be knowledgeable about trends, the good news in the market, activities of the competition etc.

Create team spirit

6) Recognise the power of the team working together, helping and motivating each other. Account development, particularly at key account level, must focus on a team approach to optimise business.

7) Recognise the potential in your team - identify their Performance Category (see our article on Managing for Peak Performance for more information) and motivate, coach and develop appropriately.

If you would like to know more about Motivational Leadership and Sales Management training courses from TACK , please contact us to find out more information.