Sales Tips and Marketing Strategies

I feel this is a question that many average performing sales people neglect to ask themselves on a continuing basis. It amazes me how many salespeople believe they know what their prospect is thinking without any real attempt at fact finding or for that matter, any basic questioning!

So with this in mind, let’s start with your purpose as a salesperson – to assist your customers in solving a problem they have. Contrary to what you feel about this statement, there is enough evidence and research now available that suggests customers want to buy products and services, not be sold to. So initially, your prospect will want to know your answers to the following questions -

1. Do you fully understand the problem/s I have?
2. Do you have a solution to these problem/s?

You may laugh at how basic these questions are; however, so many salespeople get this so wrong and make very broad assumptions about prospects. Remember, every prospect will have a different set of needs and requirements. Another bugbear of customers is the complete lack of detailed questioning with a prospect. I recently saw this first hand at a car dealership I visited. It was a Saturday morning and next to me was a family of around 5 in total. The salesperson went up to the prospect and asked what sort of car the family were looking at. The father then proudly announced he was looking at the new estate (Station wagon for those of us in Australia and New Zealand). Then the salesperson went off on a complete tangent about a range of features without asking any questions. Continue reading ‘What Do Your Customers Want to Hear From You?’ »

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We all instinctively know that learning and development within the corporate space is ’supposed to’ make a difference. Yet, far too often the programs (not necessary the people) fail due to the following reasons. Some of these reasons are structural, but too many times it is just poor project management.

A primary reason many programs and courses fail is because there is no “Accountability”. Learning and Development departments think that they provide accountability by counting the number of seats in the program, or talking about how and why this program is valuable. But they fail in the correlation of the program to the participant job or position.

If accountability exists, then the second most prevalent reason programs fail would be evident. Most programs lack any type of “Monitoring”. I see many programs that do not have any requirements on monitoring the participants. Monitoring is not just watching the student sit in the program, and do some exercise. Monitoring is an actively engaging effort that is time-consuming, yet highly valuable. Monitoring is done by everyone involved: it involves the student, the direct supervisor and the HR department. The work is hard in this arena and yet the payoff is highest. It is a shame that far too many Learning & Development groups miss this. Monitoring is more than just happy sheets. It needs to include pre, mid or post program testing and a 30-60-90 day post program implementation of the concepts taught in a course and/or program.

Continue reading ‘6 Reasons Why Corporate Training Programs Fail’ »

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Imagine this scenario: Company ABC introduces a very popular consultative sales methodology to its sales organization. The sales training event is customized to ABC’s products, customers and target contacts. The response is very positive. The sales training consultant and the sales methodology framework have provided insight into addressing some of the common sales challenges facing ABC; calling higher, selling across the product line, managing the closing process and better forecasting for examples. The majority of the team is anxious to implement the lessons learned. Now fast forward 30 or 60 days later and it’s as if the training event never happened. Everyone is back to their previous behaviors, and the results have not improved.

If this sounds familiar, then you can appreciate the term “training de jour”.

Dave Stein, CEO of ES Research, a firm specializing in providing research on sales training vendors, says that 85% of sales training events fail to produce lasting impact beyond 90 days.

So the question is, why does this happen so frequently and what can you do to avoid the predictable outcome? Or more specifically, how do you actually succeed with your sales methodology initiative and join the 15% who are enjoying lasting impact? Continue reading ‘How to Get a Sales Methodology to Produce Results’ »

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