http://www.EasySalesTraining.co.ukLearn the secrets of wildly boosting your sales!(c)2012, Heald Associates. All rights reserved.5Congratulations to Mr. M. Tovey of Stafford for winning our Guitar Hero Air Rocker! May you have many hours of fun! Thank you to everyone who participated. Nigelhttp://www.easysalestraining.co.uk/BlogPost.aspx?BlogPostID=14Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:16:31 GMTFor the month of November only, everyone who signs up to my ‘Sales tips n’ tricks’ email newsletter will automatically be entered into my competition to win either your choice of Guitar Hero Air Guitar Rocker® or bottle of Champagne! The winner will be announced during the first week of December on www.EasySalesTraining.co.uk just in time to receive a nice early Christmas present! To enter simply enter your name and email address into the “Make More Sales” box on the top left underneath the website menu. For starters you’ll receive some of my eye-opening sales training videos COMPLETELY FREE straight into your inbox, along with other priceless information to help boost your sales. I absolutely promise (cross my heart) that your email address will be treated with the utmost respect and won’t be sold, rented or given to anyone.  If it turns out they’re not for you, you can unsubscribe from my emails at ANY time, no questions asked and I won’t take it personally. So, you’ve got nothing to lose, and a couple of brilliant prizes to choose from if you win our competition! Good luck! Nigel Heald. http://www.easysalestraining.co.uk/BlogPost.aspx?BlogPostID=13Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:24:12 GMTOver the past couple of weeks I have noticed, particularly in my ‘Open – public’ sales training courses, that there has been an increase in the number of delegates who are saying they wouldn’t normally go on a sales course - but feel with the economic climate being so bad at the moment they felt compelled to improve their sales ability to make sure they were able to take advantage of the business that WAS up for grabs.   These delegates stated they didn’t like the idea of SELLING to anyone and were really uncomfortable of the thought they would be seen as a manipulating salesman! (probably the reason they shied away from sales training courses in the past!)...  Just goes to show what bad press salesman have doesn’t it?  Sleazy, manipulative, even dishonest!  This is why I feel the tide has got to turn and a new style of selling has to be introduced.  I call it the ‘New Science of sales’ based primarily on the psychology of sales. How do people make decisions?  The science revolves around getting buyers to BUY from you NOT having to sell to them.  NO ONE wants to be sold to but EVERYONE likes to BUY don’t they, DON’T YOU?  This new technology does not revolve around how to manipulate, bully, cajole or con!   What I am talking about is a REAL win win scenario where long term relationships are allowed to grow and be mutually beneficial. With this style you don’t need complicated closing strategies, you are working in partnership with the buyer helping them do their job - BUY.  Interestingly enough at the end of the courses the delegates who were nervous at the start about selling and lacked confidence in their own ability visibly stood taller, more confident in their own ability and looking forward to ‘working with’ their buyers.  I would be keen to hear from YOU, do you have this type of ‘selling dilemma’ are you uncomfortable with the traditional selling techniques, If you would like to know how to use the new technology of selling give me a call or drop me an email.  Even better still check out the easy sales training audio program from the web site.  Selling doesn’t have to de difficult, with the right technique it’s actually very EASY, and what’s even better it’s painless to all parties. Kind Regards, Nigel.  http://www.easysalestraining.co.uk/BlogPost.aspx?BlogPostID=12Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:39:22 GMTSo the recession is over!  Well at least that’s what they said on the TV last week?  Monday apparently we were still in recession and then BANG Tuesday all over, what a relief, or is it? We all know that life, business, recessions are all about PERCEPTION, it is how we perceive the world that counts not how it actually is. On that basis then if enough people perceive the recession to be over then IT IS! HOWEVER what has changed?  What do we as businesses and sales people need to have learned from this and what do we need to do differently, because believe me the world of selling and business has changed, HAVE YOU? Yes we all will have to work harder for each and every sale, cold calling NEVER actually worked and now the ‘difficulty factor’ for that approach will have raised several more degrees. But that’s not it, there is more to it than that Prospects are much more informed and aware now  - they are better educated when it comes to the Market, the products/services, the competition etc - even the ‘gatekeepers’ are better prepared and much harder to get past. Technology, the internet etc have all played a part in that obviously. Even more frustrating is that since the recession started to bite hard the buying cycles of the past have gone right out of the window, stretched even longer as buyers are taking much longer to consider as well as often having to consult their bosses, checking on if they can go ahead.   Have we adapted to that, have we formed effective strategies to compensate? The more you think about this the more we realise the game is different now, the rules have changed, the playing field has moved. Have YOU changed your approach and style to meet these changes?  If we went back in time and transported Stanley Matthews to today would he still be in the England squad , or still be able to keep his place in a top team at the age of 50? Or have modern training techniques and the use of modern technology moved the game on well beyond where it was then? As sales people we sometimes act like the old fashioned footballers trying to play in the modern game, yes we get the occasional success (we all get lucky sometimes) but consistent success requires CHANGE. Whether the recession is over or not, as sales people we need to change the way we operate so that we can meet the modern buyers effectively. Your sales approach needs to be upgraded, rebooted, and recycled to bring it into the 21st century. The good news is we can all achieve this. Check out my sales training audio course to get the winning formula and make that upgrade! Kindest Regards, Nigelhttp://www.easysalestraining.co.uk/BlogPost.aspx?BlogPostID=11Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:30:43 GMTThe following is taken from my Sales Training Audio CD. I wanted to share it with you as I feel it highlights an important subject affecting a lot of sales people at the moment.... Someone asked me today what was my favourite method of overcoming an objection to a sales proposal, in particular a price objection. They stood there in eager anticipation waiting with pen in hand for what I can only imagine they thought would be an ingenious piece of rhetoric, a magic formula to instantly disarm the potential customer’s objections. I am not sure if they were disappointed with the simplicity of my answer or excited by how easy it would be for them to use the technique.  I explained the mistake many sales people make when trying to close a sale is that they forget to SHUT UP! Once you have asked for the order, keep quiet, often the first person to speak at that point loses, I.e. salesman talks first he often doesn’t get the order. Remember everyone thinks at different speeds. Give your buyer time to buy. There are many occasions I have seen salesman continue talking and end up over SELLING (let’s face it, most of us sales people do like the sound of our own voices don’t we?!) I’ve been very surprised on many occasions by the results I have got just in keeping my mouth shut. I have seen buyers at that stage raise significant buying objections, that quite frankly had me a little concerned, by saying nothing though the buyers themselves have overcome the objections themselves and re-close the deal THEMSELVES. One occasion the buyer said to me, "Gosh that’s really expensive, I’m not sure the budget will allow me to stretch to that type of cost............I said nothing......on the other hand the value it’s going to bring to the business is tremendous, and you only really get what you pay for don’t you...... I said nothing.................There will be cheaper options , but in the long run, Go on lets go for it” So without me saying a word he objected, over rules and closed the sale. If I had stepped in at any time I may not have said the right thing and could have lost the sale completely. Quite often when overcoming objections less is definitely more, there are other formulas to overcome objections and my audio CD goes through them in great detail, check it out on the web site.http://www.easysalestraining.co.uk/BlogPost.aspx?BlogPostID=10Mon, 03 Aug 2009 11:58:33 GMTThere was a young 18 year old on this week’s open sales training course who really made me think. In a group of 12 sales people of mixed experiences I felt he really stood out, maybe because the average age on the course was mid to late 30’s but probably because his hunger to take on board new information, ideas and tactics was exhilarating. I would love to say it reminded me of myself when I first started in Sales at the age of 17 over 30 years ago, I would love to but it didn’t, I was quite happy to put my suit on get in my car and stick with what I knew, some good successes, sure, but a lot of missed opportunities too. A good 7 years passed by before I ventured on to my first training course, and with that my eyes were suddenly opened to a whole new world of possibilities, there was another way, the potential customers who had been saying NO and worse than that MAYBE, could now be persuaded. The young guy on my course made me think about the things I wish I had known then because I know it would have made a terrific difference. As time travel hasn’t yet been invented and I am not able to go back and tell my younger self (Michael J Fox style) i thought I would take the opportunity to tell others via this blog.   The 10 things I wish I had known as a young salesman:   1)    Write out your Goals, aspirations, objectives. Not just for the call you are just about to do but for your Life as a whole, your business aspirations. Be specific with these goals. Use the S.M.A.R.T. criteria, S – Specific, M measureable, A – Achievable, R – Relevant, T – Timed. The more specific you are about what you want the more likely your subconscious will be able to find a way to achieve them, They should stretch you but still be achievable. Make sure they are relevant to what you REALLY want out of life/business, and lastly put a time on them. So they don’t just drift on and on to finally disappear. Having these goals and objectives is not good enough on it’s own you have to write them down, the human brain is like a sieve, if not written down they get vague and then lost. Research of students at a university showed that only 5% of them had written goals, however 25 years later that 5% were worth 10 times more than the other 95% PUT TOGETHER.  Napoleon Hill  in his book ‘How to think and grow Rich’ wrote, to be successful you must have definiteness of purpose. 2)    Manage Time effectively We all have the same amount of time but successful people use it much more effectively.  I used to waste an inordinate amount of valuable time on tasks that really didn’t generate anything like the results I was looking for and retrospectively they were never going to either. Brian Tracy wrote a great book Eat that Frog, and I would recommend that to anyone who would like to get more out of their time. Essentially it’s about listing (writing down) the things you have to do every day and prioritising them, and we know the most important task isn’t always the easiest or nicest task of the day either. The most important task of that day though will be your biggest ugliest frog. We could look at it all day but it’s not going to get any tastier is it? The best action will be to get up in the morning and gulp it down as quickly as you can, nothing else later in that day will be as bad, and you won’t have to keep looking at the big ugly brute and worry. 3)    You get what you focus on: Think positively about what you want rather than about what you don’t want, If I said to you DON’T think about a pink elephant.... what did you think of. I don’t want this buyer to say NO. I don’t want this buyer to focus on the price. Yes you guessed it; that’s exactly what they do. Our subconscious without us knowing it leads the buyer down the path we are thinking about with non word communication. Taking into consideration 93% of communication is non-word that gives it a lot of opportunity. Our subconscious cannot understand the concept of don’t etc it only hears ‘pink elephant’, ‘focus on price’ and ‘say NO’. Annoying isn’t it? 4)    The Pareto 80/20 rule: Linked with the first three, this is very powerful. Pareto, an Italian industrialist realised 80% of the wealth was with 20% of the people, he then subsequently discovered the 80/20 rule applied to many other elements too, including 80% of your business is with 20% of your customers. Find those 20%s and spend more time with them and you will increase your sales dramatically. 80% of the value in anything you do will come from 20% of your activities. Identify this and use it. 5)    Rapport is the KEY: People buy from people they like, once you have rapport you are well on your way to success. Some people you naturally get rapport with, but it’s the others that when I first started in sales used to give me the problems. If I had known then the techniques I know now I shudder to think what that would have done to my conversion rates and sales figures. 6)    Customer Service: Always look at it from your customers’ perspective, what does whatever you are doing or saying mean to them? I like the adage ‘under promise, over deliver’ go that extra mile for your customer and they will repay you 100 fold. Do it without thought of immediate return, karma is a great force in sales. Remember current customers/clients are the best source of new customers that you have got. 7)    MAYBE’s Are No Good: When I first started in sales I felt quite happy to get a maybe! Much better than a NO I thought at the time, I knew a YES would have been better obviously but perhaps a maybe was a yes in the waiting room. As it turns out I now realise a maybe is really a NO, it’s not in any waiting room at all, if it’s any where it’s on a life support machine that’s just about to be turned off. Maybe’s are very consuming, draining time, effort, energy, and money away from the real high value prospects. I know we all like Yes’s, in fact some of the best things that have ever happened to us followed a YES, but don’t be afraid of the NO either 8)    Don’t be afraid to make mistakes: We’ve all heard the phrase, the man who doesn’t make mistakes doesn’t make anything haven’t we? However we still seem reluctant to take chances on some occasions. We need that safety net of being very sure, sometimes even a safety net for the safety net. If I could go back to my 17 year old self I would say try and make twice as many mistakes tomorrow as you did today and learn from them. Have sensory acuity to look at the feedback, expand what works and change or scrap what isn’t.  9)    ACTION not Procrastination: Every day take massive action, don’t let your good ideas go to waste, try something different every day, eat the ugly frogs quickly and eagerly then look to see what else you can do. Much of what will make you successful is easy to do, however it’s also easy not to do. Successful people are successful because they do the things failures aren’t prepared to do. 10) PASSION: If you’re passionate about something you will be good at it, if you’re lukewarm the results you get will be hit and miss. Make sure you find out what you’re passionate about and DO IT! Stop now anything you’re not passionate about! I’d urge you to scribble down a few notes on anything in this article that stood out for you and place it somewhere prominent. Don’t just bookmark it with a view to looking at it in the near future, TAKE ACTION, take a minute to think how any of this applies to what you do on a day to day basis and WRITE IT DOWN! If you have any of your own revelations you’d like to share, drop a comment in the box below. Cheers. Nigelhttp://www.easysalestraining.co.uk/BlogPost.aspx?BlogPostID=9Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:35:04 GMTRecently I have been asked by businesses that are either looking to recruit new salespeople or train their existing salesforce, what measures can they employ to ensure they employ the right candidate or tailor the training very specifically to meet the needs of the trainee. In short we have found a combination of psychometric testing and sales skills tests prove to be the best and most efficient method. IQ doesn’t really identify motivation, adaption empathy, decisiveness, influencing ability, adaptability, stress resilience etc. We test and measure EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient) as this takes those essential factors into consideration and gives you the ability to make qualified decisions, taking on the right people and focussing training programs that achieves the desired results. This is one of the factors that allows us to guarantee results!  http://www.easysalestraining.co.uk/BlogPost.aspx?BlogPostID=8Tue, 19 May 2009 17:20:58 GMTEver wondered why some salesman bother? Do they get results? The answer is do enough of just about anything and you’ll get some sort of result (we’ve all heard put enough monkeys on enough typewriters and you end up with Shakespeare- or is that just me?) How many people must have been put off pursuing a career in sales because they couldn’t face calling total strangers and trying to sell them something that is totally inappropriate, or just trying to Persuade them to even just listen to them for a couple of minutes. Most would rather poke themselves in the eye with a dirty stick. How many sales people start sales calls with; 1)    I am just calling customers in your area/on our data base etc...... (make them feel special not one crowd) 2)    Hi Mr/Mrs how are you today.......(they may not have the time or personality for too much small talk with strangers). 3)    You don’t know me or my company but I thought you would like to buy from me anyway.... (well that’s probably what they hear between the lines) 4)    I know you’re very busy and fed up with time wasters trying to SELL to you but..... (Mmmm) On my training courses we steer business and salesman away from cold calling completely, does this mean you can’t call potential customers who you have never contacted before? NO definitely not! Mmm how does that work then? Ok let’s see how this works normally. The first thing you're going to need is a compelling BENEFIT for your potential customer remembering people/customers only buy benefits and only do things for their reasons ‘not ours’ Sounds easy enough doesn’t it? Well! If we haven’t spoken to this customer before, so we haven’t asked all those lovely open questions to expose their needs and desires, how can we propose our solution to their ‘obvious’ problem..... We need to take several steps back, what do we need to know (or find out)?... a)    Confident knowledge about the industry/market you are in b)    Total comprehensive understanding of your company’s product marketing strategy c)    Full understanding of what your USP (unique selling point) is d)    Who are your customers/potential customers and how could they benefit from your product service? e)    What are your competitors USP’s f)    Do you fully understand your businesses S.W.O.T.? (strengths weaknesses, opportunities, threats) Finally before calling your potential customer for the first time do your research to understand what they do, how they do it, what problems they are likely to have, what their needs are likely to be etc. Use primary direct enquiries as well as ‘covert’ discreet investigations. Use as many different  angles as you can start the call with as many possible ‘relevant’ benefits in your mind that could be appropriate and feasible BUT still keep an open mind remembering to listen rather than talk. Steer clear of the obvious platitudes such as trying to sound like you have known them all your life until you have gained a comfortable rapport and make it sound like you have thought long and hard about the call and really feel ‘you may’ be able to help them, but until you get more information you won’t know for sure. Have something of real value to say when you call (value to them) if they’re too busy show empathy and arrange a suitable time to contact again. If you get through to ‘non decision makers’ find out as much as you can from them (it all helps) Finally have in mind before you make the call; 1)    Several possible benefits that could be valuable to the potential customer 2)    An understanding of what the possible objections are likely to be and how you will handle them 3)    A primary objective, what you would ideally like to get out of the call, the more specific you can make this the better, picture it in great detail. 4)    A secondary objective to fall back, none of us like to fail do we? Good luck Nigel Heald  http://www.easysalestraining.co.uk/BlogPost.aspx?BlogPostID=7Fri, 01 May 2009 15:32:33 GMTYes I know Millions of words have been written about sales and they have shrouded the subject in mystery. Over complicating what is in fact an art that really isn’t rocket science. If it was then the world would have ground to a halt centuries ago. Selling is really, in its basic form, a transfer of enthusiasm and providing you have gained rapport with your buyer and are communicating with them so that they understand you, you will be 90% there. This in fact is the foundation to build your sales technique on. The key phrase I used earlier was communicating with them so that they understand you. Many sales people are only focussed on their own objectives, their questioning techniques reflect only the answers they are looking for i.e. lead them towards their own objectives, their listening skills are tuned only in to hearing the answers they are looking for that lead towards their own objectives. It’s interesting that on Average people normally: Listen for 45% of the time trying to work out what they  are going to say next Spend 45% time waiting for a GAP so that they can say what they want to say LEAVING! Only 10% for actual / Real Listening!   Not surprising then when it comes to closing the sale they find themselves with an uphill battle having to overcome objection after objection. THEY REALLY ARE, HAVING TO SELL, rather than getting the buyer to BUY FROM THEM. Think about the definitions of the two words,... Buying:  is the act of willingly acquiring for money something that you want or need.  The buyer generally leaves the transaction feeling happy and satisfied. Selling: on the other hand Is attempting to convince another that they want or need your product or service despite the fact that they may not.  The purchaser typically leaves the transaction with a strong feeling of buyer's remorse. Buyer’s remorse can often be translated into buyers saying, “leave it with me I’ll think about it” and when you try to contact them for a decision they mysteriously disappear, not returning your calls and generally being very evasive. If people feel they are being SOLD to then they raise barriers, you and I do it, we ALL do it, however on the other side of the coin, everyone loves to buy, just watch my wife try to walk past a shoe shop, despite the fact she has a wardrobe full of them at home. Watch this space and I will start to explain exactly how we get buyers to BUY from us rather than us having to sell to them.http://www.easysalestraining.co.uk/BlogPost.aspx?BlogPostID=6Fri, 01 May 2009 15:26:16 GMT