A little planning can go a long way.

If you have attended an Engleby Associates’ workshop previously you will know that.  This little story shows how planning and preparation are not just activities for the workplace but can help you wherever you are, whenever you are there.

We have just returned from a lovely summer holiday.  We bought a camper-van earlier this year (a heart, rather than a head purchase) and spent a very enjoyable couple of weeks in August travelling around The Netherlands and Germany.  Whilst we had a great time we did make a few mistakes pre-holiday which, if we had got right, would have made our holiday even more relaxing and enjoyable.  I’ve been thinking about these and how they relate to my work.

The power of Planning.  The power of Preparation.

Elmer Letterman said: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”.

In our haste to make sure we arrived in time for the ferry we left our road map of Europe behind – home alone.  This meant that, until we cracked and bought a new map, Laura was navigating (actually pretty well all things considered) using a large scale map of Europe.  Not the easiest thing to do unless you are intent on driving the motorway from one major city to the next.  Think major artery, route 1.  A lack of preparation.

If we had planned effectively we would have researched a few campsites prior to embarking on our holiday.  We could have still been spontaneous and maintained our desire to be able to follow the sun (or the sun on my iPhone app at least), however, we would have known more about where we were heading.  We would have been able to chose from a range of pre-selected sites where great facilities existed and where our kids would have had lots to do and plenty of water to swim in.

We were lucky.

We mostly picked good sites and only had a few of those, it’s getting dark, we are not sure where we are going and we have no idea what or where a suitable campsite is.

So, remember, a little planning can go a long way – at work, at school or at home.

Filed under: Miscellaneous, planning | No Comments »

Sunderland Software City kindly filmed a 6 minute video at the end of our 5th Selling at a Higher Level workshop a few of weeks back.  The workshops took place at St James’ Park in Newcastle.  The quality of the video is a little bit ‘Blair Witch Project’ but hopefully you get the idea.

Thanks to Andrew, Abbi and Laura for agreeing to answer questions off the cuff whilst on a short break and during what was clearly a blustery North-East day!

Due to the success of this first programme we have agreed to run a condensed follow-on course starting at the end of September.  For more details see here.  Places will be limited and are expected to fill quickly so let me know if you would like to reserve a place.*

—–

* Open to software, digital and technology companies based in the North-East of England.  Maximum two delegates per company

Filed under: High value selling, Training & development | No Comments »

This headline caught my eye in yesterday’s Observer newspaper – unfortunately for the wrong reasons.

Whilst written about something completely different (the article is focused on the UK Prime Minister’s recent approach to Foreign Policy – an interesting topic in itself), what you will see immediately is how being a sales person is used in a sharply negative light.

When will the image of sales people become more positive?

I hate the  term ‘salesman’s patter‘.  It carries heavy negative connotations and sits alongside phrases such as ‘gift of the gab‘, ‘(he) could sell sand to the Arabs‘, ‘(he’d) sell his grandmother if he had to‘.  Blah, blah, blah.

When will the image of sales people become more positive?

I think the answer to that question lies with us sales professionals.  We have to focus on adding value to our customers, being professional at all times and acting with integrity and honesty.  I have a mantra that I teach whenever I work with sales people – ‘professional, humble, courteous‘.  To me this is rule #1.

If you carry these three words with you at all times, perhaps people like Nick Cohen will eventually think of other analogies to use when writing about politics.

Filed under: Miscellaneous | No Comments »

We have just finished the fifth and final workshop of our first Selling at a Higher Level blended sales training programme.

Part of this final session was spent reflecting on how the programme has helped to develop the attendees selling skills. One comment that was reflected around the room was how having a sales process has significantly increased their confidence. Whilst not surprising to me, what was interesting was that many of the delegates had not realised this was a likely output when they signed up to the programme.  They now understand how vital confidence is to being successful in sales and how a sales process can help to develop and nurture this confidence.

We designed and developed the course to bring structure and process to sales peoples’ professional lives.  We have had a wonderful mix of students on the programme – business owners, experienced sales contributors and people who are brand new to selling.  Each of them has taken away a range of tools, technique and sales blueprints designed to help them sell more effectively.  What’s more we have tried really hard to bring every tool and technique to life, to put it into context and to demonstrate how it can add value to the sales process.

The Engleby Associates Sales Methodology provides a backbone to the programme and over the five workshops we have moved from prospecting to identifying business problems and value propositions, to asking high impact questions, to qualifying, negotiating and closing.   Perhaps most importantly we have discussed the importance of listening.  Really listening.   And trying our best to understand our prospects and customers.  Being interested to be interesting.   Always putting our feet in our prospects shoes.

At the end of the day though, the important thing to remember is that these tools and techniques sit within a process. If none of the tools are used but the process is remembered then that will be okay.  At least they will have their sales roadmap and a sales plan.  And we all know that with a plan the chances of attaining our goals increase dramatically.

As Elmer Letterman said;

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity

I’d like to thank the group for their engagement, openness and willingness to get stuck in. Tracy and I have really enjoyed working with them and we wish them every success for the future.

If you are interested in the sound of our blended sales training programme feel free to drop me a line. I’d be happy to talk through how we could run a similar one for you.

Filed under: High value selling, Motivation | No Comments »

Listen to this (unedited) recording of a webinar on ‘Trigger Event Selling’ with guest presenter Craig Elias of Shift Selling Inc.  This online presentation is hosted by Engleby Associates as part of the Selling at a Higher Level blended sales training programme and is the third in a series of insightful presentations designed to help sales people be the best they can possibly be.

Last year I recorded two podcasts with Craig on Trigger Events (available here and here).  If you have enjoyed listening to these then today’s webinar session will not disappoint.  Listen to Craig guide you through his unique and hands-on approach to selling.  Benefit from his expertise, his theories and his practical understanding of knowing when it is the right time to sell.

This webinar is a must for anyone interested in being a top sales performer.

Click on the link below to download an unedited recording of the session.

Download the presentation to your computer [duration 53 minutes, 42mb]. NOTE: Because of the size of the file it will take time to download – maybe faster, maybe slower than expected.  Sort of depends on your connection speed.

Click here to hear Craig Elias present on Trigger Event Selling

[53 minutes duration]

Enjoy and feel free to leave a comment with any feedback or questions.

If you would like more details about the Selling at a Higher Level programme please call Richard on +44 (0)7545 881442.

Filed under: High value selling, Podcasts, Prospecting, Qualification, Sales 2.0, planning | No Comments »

I write a monthly column within the Science & Technology section of The Journal newspaper in the North-East UK.  I thought it worth repeating June’s article here on my blog since the content is highly relevant to my readers.

Let me know what you think.

TECHNOLOGY can help you gain a rapid understanding of who your customers are and what they are interested in.

I was with a customer earlier this week who has implemented a live chat function across their website.  This value-add service provides their prospects and customers with an opportunity to speak to a ‘real’ person quickly and easily – with the click of a mouse.  However, it also serves up a set of high value benefits for the sales team to help them sell at a higher level.

One of the greatest challenges we have in sales is finding the right person and sparking a conversation.  It is not enough to have done your research and found the right person.  The next step is to engage them; and at a time when they are focused on solving the problem, or creating the future, your company believes it can help deliver.

As with much of technology 2.0 it is the data behind the service that makes live chat products so exciting.  Successful selling is about asking questions you know the answer to in order to gauge your prospects’ interest and buying position.  It is about building rapid rapport by focusing on what is important to them.  It is about always qualifying interest and spending time with prospects who have the need and ability to buy from you (assuming you are able to help them, of course).

Imagine how much more confident you will feel when speaking to a prospect if you know that they have already spent time on your website, not to mention how much more focused and effective your questions will be if you know exactly which sections they have visited.  However, I believe the real power lies in the immediacy of the information becoming available to sales.  We all know that the best time to speak to a prospect is when they are thinking about an area where your expertise can help.  Intelligent use of the data behind this type of technology adds science into your sales effort.  Gone are the days when we wait a week (or more) for a ‘hot’ lead to filter through from Marketing to Management for assignment to Sales to action, only to find the requirement has fallen down the priority list and our company has been forgotten.

This availability of real-time data should lead to a win-win result on both sides of the buying table.  Sales people empowered to target prospects that have shown an interest in their product or service; potential customers being assisted in a timely manner and with a higher degree of personalisation and accuracy.

Filed under: High value selling, Sales 2.0 | No Comments »

Listen to this (unedited) recording of a webinar on ‘Understanding Social Networks’ with guest presenter Jason Brownlee of Dollywagon.  This online presentation is hosted by Engleby Associates as part of the Selling at a Higher Level blended sales training programme, and is the second in a series of insightful presentations designed to help sales people be the best they can possibly be.

Jason will guide you through his presentation, allowing you to benefit from his expertise, his theories and his practical understanding of the power of Social Networks.

This webinar is a must for anyone interested in the power of networks and networking and for those who want to maximise the online reach of their business.

Click on the link below to download an unedited recording of the session [Note - at one point during the presentation viewers are encouraged to visit YouTube to watch a series of short videos - we suggest you do this.  It will certainly be better than watching a blank screen for a few minutes].

Download the presentation to your computer [duration 1 hour 05 mins, 118mb]. NOTE: Because of the size of the file it will take between 10-12 minutes to download – maybe faster, maybe slower – depending on your connection speed.

Click here to download the Understanding Social Networks webinar

[1 hour 5 minutes duration]

Enjoy and feel free to leave a comment with any feedback or questions.

Filed under: High value selling, Miscellaneous, Podcasts, Sales 2.0 | No Comments »

Teamwork is performed by a team.  The quality of teamwork may be measured by analysing the effectiveness of the collaboration in the following ways:

1. Communication
2. Coordination
3. Balance of contributions
4. Mutual support
5. Effort
6. Cohesion

So says Wikipedia.

How about looking at Teamwork in pictures.  Here are two scences from the World Cup in South Africa that I believe aptly demonstrate the power of teamwork (or lack of it).

Powerful stuff.

France demonstrated a distinct lack of teamwork and went home early, travelling 2nd class.

New Zealand worked hard as a team and managed to draw with Italy, the current world champions. One of their players is not even a full time professional player.

So, when you next catch yourself congratulating yourself that you did that big sale all on your own remember that great things happen when everyone pulls together.  Take time to understand the strengths and weaknesses of those around you.  Work hard with each other to deliver the biggest and best impact possible.

I’d always put my money behind a team of passionate, dedicated and determined people succeeding more often than a group of individual experts out for themselves.

Filed under: High value selling, Miscellaneous, Motivation | No Comments »

Like many others in the North-East, I run a micro business so am always on the look out for products and services that help to deliver more with less.

Two obvious areas where software should be able to help save time are accounts and invoicing.  Automating and streamlining these aspects of the business will ensure I focus my time where I add most value – serving my customers, finding new customers and promoting Sales as a profession to be respected.

I think it is worth saying here that I am happy to pay for products and services that add value.  And I do.  However, when I am offered a Freemium product that is promoted as a first-level solution to fill a specific gap, I am always keen to try it out – especially when offered by a worldwide recognised brand.

So, here’s my frustration: Even free products have to be fit for purpose.

Over recent months I have downloaded two free of charge products from a leading accountancy software provider.  They offer these products on a perpetually free basis, and do so in the hope that as a micro business grows into a small business and beyond, they will be nurtured into a paying customer.  It is an understandable strategy.  Moving a small business off Microsoft Excel and manual processes to one of automation and SaaS (Software as a Service).

This should result in a win-win situation, shouldn’t it?  I believe it should.

Well, if you offer something for free, you really should make sure (i) the product works and (ii) you support it adequately.  Why?  Well, here are a few reasons:

• Once downloaded, the fact that it is free tends to disappear
• Change (in process, application, work-flow etc) takes time and effort – i.e. it is now less “free”
• When a product is free the perceived value is typically less – hence the need for it to deliver rapid benefits

My experiences of both products from this global brand (who I have decided not to name) have not been positive:

• With the first application I could not initially download or register it successfully.  When I did finally get it working (after significant effort) I concluded it did not actually deliver enough benefit for the change to be worthwhile.
• With the second application (an invoicing app) I downloaded it – fine, worked through the set-up – fine, only to discover (to my amazement) that the VAT rate was set at 15% and not the required 17.5% currently in place within the UK.  Net result – unusable.

However, the reason I have been compelled to write this post is not about how good, bad or indifferent the applications are but rather one of service.

If the goal behind offering a Freemium product is to gain market share and build early relationships with customers then offer a service to match.  Treat those you want to be your customers like you treat your best customers.

This is what I got back (7 days later) when I emailed their support team regarding the VAT error.  (Click on the image to enlarge it if you want to read the gory detail, although I have blanked out the company name):

So Mr Global Brand, let me get this right.  Your product isn’t fit for purpose, you take 7 days to reply to my email (having said it would be 3), you proudly confirm there is no support, but I can buy the privilege to speak to someone via a 12 month support subscription.

I don’t think so.

Treat those you want to be your customers like you treat your best customers.

If you are small business owner reading this then take the opportunity to learn a lesson from a successful global company failing:

• Build products that work
• Be proud of them.  Charge a fair price that enables you to offer appropriate levels of support
• Do everything you can to make a possible future customer feel like your best customer

Lots has been written about the Freemium business model.  My advice would be to avoid it in a B2B environment.  Offer short trials, but why offer something for nothing when we all know that is not how the real-world works.

I really should introduce Engleby Associates to the company I am referring to in this post; there’s lots we could help them with.

Filed under: Miscellaneous | No Comments »

The (unedited) recordingof a webinar hosted by Engleby Associates as part of its Selling at a Higher Level blended sales training programme is available via the link below.  This first of five sessions includes guest speaker, Nigel Edelshain, CEO of Sales 2.0 (LLC) who shares his thoughts, theories and advice on how to increase your sales prospecting by 8x over more traditional smile and dial methods.

This webinar is a must have for anyone wanting to use Social Media to increase their sales effectiveness on a shoestring.

Click on the link below to download an unedited recording of the session.  Alternatively, right click and download it to your computer [1 hour 11 mins, 95mb].

NOTE: Because of the size of the file it will take between 10-12 minutes to download – maybe faster, maybe slower – depending on your connection speed.

Social Calling with Engleby Associates and Nigel Edelshain of Sales2.0

Filed under: Podcasts, Prospecting, Sales 2.0 | No Comments »