Browse published articles attributed to Peter O'Donoghue, with full-archive search.
Have you heard the saying "People buy people?" If you have been in sales or business any length of time then you would have heard this a thousand times. The trouble is no one has ever really been able to show you how you can go about selling yourself - until now, that is.
Master sales people are adept at using a strategy called framing to communicate with prospective clients. Framing ensures their sales messages 'cut through the clutter' and distinguishes them as the credible sales resource for their product or service. Framing is not a difficult skill and it is one that you can master too. Here are the main ways you can immediately apply framing to increase your sales performance:
This has to be one of the most asked questions in my sales training. "How do we deal with the sales objection -- we are happy with our current supplier?" Firstly, let me talk you through a few key elements of what I notice in people when they have asked me that question: Generally their whole body language tightens, they get uncomfortable and they retract in on themselves. It's as if they are expecting the worst thing they can imagine to just happen there and then. This will obviously have a huge impact on the way they communicate with the person on the other end of the phone.r
Negotiation Techniques - How to Win by Not Negotiating Against Yourself Negotiation and Negotiating Skills are some of the most sought after sales training courses. People seek out negotiation tips, negotiating strategies and scour the web for processes to win against the 'other' person in a negotiation. It may come as a surprise to you but your own worst enemy in a negotiation is yourself.
Is there an alte ative to cold calling in sales prospecting? There is and it's good old Google! Ah, Google! Possibly the greatest invention of the 20th Century. What did we ever do without it? I know what I did without it because I was selling before it existed. I can remember spending a whole 4/5 days ringing the head offices of my target clients so that I could get their annual reports. These annual reports were like gold dust because they listed every regional office, they outlined the company's vision for the future and they gave the basic financial information about the company.
One of the greatest advances in sales prospecting techniques is the ability to use Google alerts to track prospects, customers and sales trigger events. If you set up a few of these alerts the amount of data gathered can begin to get overwhelming but don't fret there are easy ways to manage all of this data for you. The first way to minimize this is to be specific on the terms you use to set up Google alerts and the second way is to set up a system of managing the data sent to you. You can choose to have data emailed to you daily or weekly and you can also set the alerts up in an RSS feed.
Sales Objection Handling - "Send Something in the post" This has to be one of the most horrible phrases ever heard by many salespeople. In fact it generally goes something like this: "Send something in the post and we will call you if we are interested" When many sales people hear this, their heart skips a beat, their head drops and and they get lost for words, usually replying something along the lines of: "Oh - Ok then" What have you got planned to deal with someone saying that to you?
Sales Prospecting with Twitter.com, is called a 'micro blog'. It is a blogging platform that allows posts to be a maximum of 140 characters. It has taken the online world by storm and is set to stay as a dominant online networking platform for years to come. But the main question is if you are a professional sales person, should you be using Twitter for your sales prospecting. If you have never looked at Twitter then you should do. It's a great place to do business. There is a misconception that many people have that Twitter is just about people selling to consumers.
The way You approach cold calling will have a big impact on the success You have. If you're constantly saying to yourself "They won't be in" "They will be in a meeting" "They will have just come back from lunch" "They won't want to talk to me" "They are probably happy with their existing supplier" "Their project won't be ready yet" "They probably already have what I am selling" "No one works on a Friday afte oon" "No one will be in at that time of the morning"
Voicemail is the scourge of many salespeople and yet the number 1 prospecting tool for some of the worlds most successful salespeople. Where does it sit in your sales prospecting armory? I really am surprised that even the most experienced sale people have never, ever taken the time to work out and develop strategies for using voice mail to make your sales life easier.
Have you ever thought of using YouTube as an effective sales prospecting tool? You might think that YouTube is for teenagers to share videos of dancing parrots and car crashes but you would be wrong. There are huge opportunities for professional sales people and business people to get exposure and business through video sites. If you work for a company, do not think that this is their responsibility. There has never, ever been a better opportunity for you as a salesperson to take charge of your own career and build your own personal brand. Advantages Of using Video:
In an ideal world you would be getting a steady stream of enquiries all day long from people who were interested in the product or service you are selling. Unfortunately this just does not happen and you have to go out and find your sales prospects, and if you like it or not one of the most effective ways to do this is through cold calling. It is a sad fact that the majority of sales people would rather do anything else rather than go cold calling. If I asked you to go cold calling would you feel sick and start shaking (no, I'm not exaggerating!)
Last year I was in the process of selling my House and had invited a number of Estate Agents around to show me why they should be get my business. The process was an eye opener and one that left me totally unimpressed with some of the Agents I met. They were there to sell me on the benefits of why I should place my house on the market with them yet they could not even sell themselves. One Agent even delighted in telling me:
Sales Prospecting by Positioning Your Business Where Customers Seek You Out "What business are you in?" It sounds a bit strange at first but it has massive implications to your business. Many businesses and salespeople lose sight of the real reason they are in business, that is to solve problems or help achieve goals. My company is not a sales training company, for example. I help people solve the problems of not attracting enough clients, and not utilising the ones they have to maximum impact and profitability.
How is your sales prospecting success? One of the applications of the Internet that really excites me more than most for sales prospecting, is the ability to get direct contact numbers for almost anyone you want contact with. Historically, appointment setting training and material has largely focused on: Getting past the gatekeeperr Overcoming the gatekeeperr Tricking the gatekeeperr Bypassing the gatekeeperr And sometimes befriending the gatekeeper
Sales prospecting using blogging is a fantastic way to generate new business. In this article, which is part of a series released here, you will discover some advanced ways for salespeople to use blogging for sales prospecting. This is rather an advanced way of thinking about blogs but is surprisingly easy to do. In the next sectio I will show you how to do research to identify the actual phrases that people are searching for in your Industry. Once you have set up a hosting account and have a good blog theme, there is no rule to say you have to only have one blog.
If you have an element of sales prospecting and new lead generation involved in your sales position or your business then you have so many options open to you. There is no excuse for not being able identify a constant stream of new sales prospects. There is also no excuse for approaching people 'cold' and not doing some preparatory research before making contact. You have everything you need at your finger tips so please use them.
You should really try to look at cold calling in a different light because it really can make a big difference to your personal and business success. I know what you're thinking, How can this be so important? There is a common misconception that cold calling is an unskilled job, a job that is best left to newcomers to the industry. I agree that it is a job that many people would not even consider but that can mainly be put down to fear.
One of the most important skills that any salesperson must utilize is to set out a strategy to achieve your objectives and to plan in advance how you intend to manage your time and sales territory to reach the end goal. It is often said that time is the most valuable asset of any sales person. When a sales person loses hours the end result is always lost sales and therefore less earnings.
Sales Prospecting in the 21st Century means you have to be blogging to raise your industry profile. Here you will discover the essential first part - the right name choice. Are you blogging? If you are not then you are missing out on one of the greatest tools for accelerating your sales success in 2011 and beyond. If you are a business then you absolutely must have a blog. If you are a sales individual then you absolutely must have a blog. A blog can provide you with: Credibility in your marketplace - become an instant Industry Networked Expertr
Sales is not a numbers game and the way you control that is by clearly identifying who you would like to be working with and who is a good fit with your company. Define your ideal client or customer. Sales is only a numbers game game if you let it. It is your choice. If you can't identify who you should be calling and speaking to then you can only ever operate on a mass market "it's a numbers game" principle. Take 10 minutes to identify the ideal characteristics of your ideal clients. Start by thinking of the characteristics of your best clients you have now.
Today's modern technology lets you do so much in terms of saving time and adding functionality to the sales process. One of the greatest advances is in the area of web meetings or 'webinars' as they more commonly know. A webinar is an online meeting held over the internet using a service such as Goto Meeting. Using this simple technology you can instantly connect with any number of people quickly and easily. You can share your desktop PC with attendees and share movies, PowerPoint presentations online.
Why should you sell over the telephone? • Telesales is cost effective compared to face to face sales • Telephone selling is direct - typically no appointment is required or its a quick and easy way to make a sales meeting • It's personal - your personality can shine through • It's less official than writing • Everybody picks up the phone! There are, however, some challenges of selling over the telephone • Shoddy technique - not preparing for your call and having a clear purpose
One of the single biggest areas that delegates on my sales training want to cover when we look at cold calling and appointment setting is CONFIDENCE. When we set goals at the beginning of the day almost everyone wants to walk out of the door more confident in their ability to make cold calls. The challenge very often though is that when I ask some of the following questions I get blank looks: Do you truly believe in the value of your product or service? How well do you know businesses of your target clients?r
The people who make the decisions in any company, large or small, hate cold callers with a passion and they consider them to be one of the biggest time wasters that they know of. They will often refuse to take your calls because they assume that you will just be wasting their time. End of, they won't even discuss their reasons with you.
A questio I am often asked when delivering sales prospecting training is 'should I be using twitter for business to business sales prospecting?' Why Use Twitter: Twitter is a fantastic way to quickly and easily begin a dialogue with key targeted people and form relationships with them. You can search for people by the phrases they are tweeting, the words in their biography and even their location. Some of the things you can do are: Find your competitors and follow their followers.
There is so much being written at the moment about cold calling being outdated, outlived and down-right dead. I couldn't disagree more. Yes, we all know there are more sophisticated marketing and sales methods around. We would all like our phones ringing off the hook with potential clients ringing us. Not everyone has that pleasure. When done properly, cold calling is one of the greatest ways to win new business. The key here is 'when done properly', which is rarely the case. Back to cold calling is dead. Let me pose a situation to you:
Many sales people, from those with experience to newcomers to the industry, go to sales seminars hoping to learn the tricks to get rid of the many struggles associated with selling.
Negotiation and Negotiating Skills are some of the most sought after sales training courses. People seek out negotiation tips, negotiating strategies and scour the web for processes to win against the 'other' person in a negotiation. It may come as a surprise to you but your own worst enemy in a negotiation is yourself. Some people seem to spend hours seeking out the magic words that will help them win in any negotiation yet fail to look to see what they or their employees are doing wrong.
When you send sales literature in the post your job is only just starting not ending. Make sure you know how to develop this to make the sale.
The 80/20 principle is also know as the Pareto principle after the economist who developed it. It is an almost universal principle that can be applied to business and life. It generally shows us that 80% of your return comes from 20% of your effort. We use this principle right throughout our sales training. We coach salespeople to consider the 80/20 principle when thinking about their communications with prospective customers and clients. Where should the emphasis be between talking about you and talking about them? Did you get 80% talking about them and 20% talking about you? #
Unfortunately, many average salespeople leave the closing of a deal purely to chance. Sure, they make some sales but if you compare their end results with those of a professional you will find there will be a massive gap. Professional and successful sales people always have a plan in place before they start the sales process. They use S.M.A.R.T goals which in case you don't know are... Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Timely They leave very little to chance so their positive results are far, far higher.
Very often when I run telesales training courses, one of the biggest failures I see is an understanding of why people are calling. Before you ever embark on a campaign of appointment setting and/or telesales you need to understand why you are calling the other person. Take a few minutes and list the reason why you are making the call: Did you get answers such as: - Because I'm desperate for business - Because my boss said so - Because I have to make 8 appointments a week to hit my commission targets - I don't know! - To make a sale Or
There are many points where it is possible for a sale to stall but the main three are as follows 1.After you have made the initial presentation, 2.The initial proposal 3.When the contract has gone to the legal department for verification. As the last point is really not a matter for the salesperson to worry about we will take a look at the first two points mentioned, i.e. the initial presentation and the initial proposal. So lets begin with how we can prevent a potential deal slowing down to a point where everyone seems to lose interest.
The main step you must take for successful sales planning is most definitely preparation. As with anything in life, to be successful you must have a written game plan. Lets not pretend it's easy, because it is not. But just because it is not easy does not mean you should put it off. Lets just put any worries aside about it being to difficult and make a start on our plan. Lets start by listing your existing customers, starting by listing them in order by how much revenue they bring you.
The most straightforward way to avoid rejection in your selling activities is to try and make sure that your sales prospects are as qualified and as receptive as it is possible to be. It is highly recommended that you spend time to research and prepare for your clients before you make the initial contact with them and always make sure that you are speaking with the correct person from the very beginning of the relationship.
Most people who come to my sales trainings want to know about objection handling and closing. Unless they have had training before or are a little bit more experienced, they think that sales relies on what you say at the end of the process. This is not true because sales is a process that begins right back when you are doing your prospecting, your research and when you make first contact. The end bits should be about the finesse of how you finish the process. Instead many people worry and comment:
It is a known fact that sales people hate planning. Let's be brutally honest here, most of us hate planning. Even though most sales people are motivated by actually taking action they wrongly assume that the time it takes them to plan their leads and administration is time that they just cannot afford to lose.
Online Sales Training has been on the verge of breaking through to the mass market for many years. With some of the recent technological advancements and the changing dynamics of the business world due to the global recession, online sales training is set to take a massive increase in adoption in 2009/2010. There are many benefits of considering online sales training: Zero Travel Time - Online sales training can be accessed instantly from the main office location, satellite offices, home office workers and even studied whilst travelling on planes and trains.
Are you having trouble closing leads? If so you are amongst the many sales people who find this most important part of the sales process to be a big problem This really is one of the most tricky things that salespeople face. It is so important that you learn how to deal with your prospects when it come to closing the sale so bearing this in mind here are five tips to help you along the way 1. Be sure to show your prospect that you are on their side, show them that you really do care about their needs and how you can help them.
I was at an event recently and one of the scheduled speakers failed to turn up. Never being short of something to say or a desire to help other business owners I volunteered to do a 10 minute 'open floor.' When asked what the most pressing sales challenges in the room were, One of the other attendees put his hand up and said: "Everything else is Fine but I always have trouble closing" Now this is a statement or questio I hear quite a lot.
You know how important it is to make plans which will propel you towards your goals but what is equally important is actually talking to your customers. Everyone one of your customers will have different requirements. Make sure you take time to listen to their requirements and decide how you will become part of these plans. There is no way you can be part of your customers success if you isolate yourself from them.
Have you have experienced the absolute pleasure of listening to a true professional salesperson closing a sale on the telephone. There is nothing like it and it really is something you must aspire to. There is no stress or anxiety in his voice, just a smooth confident flow which you just know will lead to a sale. So, I know what you are thinking, How do I obtain these skills and come across as an expert in my field when I am on the telephone. You will be pleased to know that with practice and preparation, you too can master the skill required to get to this level.
It does not matter if you are salesperson of the year or if you are in the first week of your sales career, you will definitely come across a period of time where you will encounter a steady stream of 'No Thanks' During these challenging times it is very easy, despite the salespersons amazing talent and potential, to lose confidence and worst of all, the motivation to get back out there and start selling again. In these trying times it seems far easier to take refuge in the office where it seems secure and more of a safe haven than to get back out there selling again.
Everyone can probably remember a cartoon or television show that makes them laugh every time they think about it. And every time we think about it, it makes us laugh again and we tell all of our friends that they have go to watch it as soon as they get a chance. This kind of Humour, you will be pleased to know, can be applied to many types of marketing. You do have to be careful though, there is definitely a time and a place to incorporate humour in your marketing activities
When sales people are prospecting we very often overlook the easy solutions. Where ethically acceptable to do so, the quickest way to get new business appointments meetings is to contact the competition of your existing clients. Example 1: My business was recently emailed by a search engine optimization company. Unfortunately I have lost their email but It went something like this: Dear Peter,
Online Sales Training has been on the verge of breaking through to the mass market for many years. With some of the recent technological advancements and the changing dynamics of the business world due to the global recession, there is set to be massive increase in adoption in 2009/2010. Many people are still hesitant about trying out this style of sales training. Why should you consider it?
The sales world is changing and you should be aware of the impact of the changing tastes of consumers and how it can effect your business. Do you know what makes a millennial tick? The Millennials: Other wise known as the Generation Y, the Echo Boomers and the Net Generation, they are born after 1982 and there are estimated to be around 75 million of them with a buying power of $1 trillion. They are tech savvy, social networkers who are diverse, ambitious and wireless savvy. Millennials are one of the hottest target markets for 2009 and beyond.
We are looking at the quickest ways to win new business by careful sales prospecting. The reality is there is no quicker way to develop a list of target clients than to revisit your past successes, the companies involved and target their competitors and their Industry. An Example: A company I was doing some work for received an unsolicited inbound call from a company in an Industry sector they had never worked in before. In fact they would never have thought of approaching them.
What can you say about a minute? That is what can you say about a minute other than it being 60 seconds. Well, what you decide to do with that minute can have a profound effect on your sales career. If you want to be successful, which I'm sure you do, then you must realise that every minute matters. It is a common trait amongst all successful sales people that even though they have extremely busy schedules, more so than most in fact, they always seem to make time for that little extra that make such a big difference in their lives.