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Is Selling Magic Or Is Magic Selling?
Guest article written by Brad Monks - Owner of VeryMagic Entering the automotive aftermarket in 1986 and then being promoted to Sales Rep was the first steps into a selling journey that has, to date, lasted over 3 decades. A young Brad wowing the Automotive sector...
Tips on How to Ask For Customer Feedback
3 Tips on How to Ask For Customer Feedback As I bring this month’s topic, customer feedback, to a close it would be great to get your response on how well my blogs, Facebook group and any course that you’ve been on has helped you and your business. You can leave it...
Use customer feedback and see the future.
Use customer feedback and see the future. Business owners and managing directors predict the future sustainability of their business by forecasting an increase or decrease of sales. I would tell any sales proffesiona to use their sales pipeline and sales funnel to aid...
Consider customer feedback
Why it’s important to consider customer feedback What is customer feedback? Over the years it has changed its name. Customer feedback became recommendations, recommendations became reviews, reviews become social proof, and social proof is the cherry on the top of any...
Sales and Marketings success is in the statistics.
Sales and Marketings success is in the statistics, let's take a look at the efficiencies that could be gained. What would you say is the % efficiency that could be achieved when it comes to sales outcomes when your sales and marketing teams are aligned? 13%39%50%67%...
Sales and marketing a sprint or a marathon?
Is sales and marketing a sprint or a marathon? Indulge me for a moment and imagine sales and marketing as Olympic athletes and lets take running as their collective passion. While sales are your typical 100m sprinter, someone that can see the finish line and is more...
The Unanswerable Question Answered
Everyone at some point in their life considered the unanswerable question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The actual answer, based on evolution, is the egg, but I’ll leave that debate for another time ?. What came first sales or marketing? But on that...
Do You Need A Sales Strategy?
Do you need a Sales Strategy? Is the term "sales strategy" misleading? Do you need one? After all isn't it just about having an effective sales process? Consider that on average sales reps spend only 39% of their time selling, the remainder of that time is spent on...
A secret in sales is to tell stories.
A secret in sales is to tell stories. I learnt a long time back that people remember stories and this is true in sales. This is one of the reasons blogging is part of my sales strategy and why they are often positioned as a story. I guess I could just reiterate time...
Sales Strategy Updated
Sales strategy – Post pandemic Update! How is anyone meant to build and sustain a sales strategy throughout an ever changing pandemic? It has caused businesses to close, adapt, manage their way through three lockdowns whilst finding new opportunities and ways to...
It’s Easier to Sell To An Existing Customer.
It's Easier To Sell To An Existing Customer It's easier to sell to an existing customer, so why are you only interested in new customers when you think about sales success? Having received many new business targets I have seen firsthand how customer retention is taken...
Why It’s Not All About the Big Six
It's not all about the "Big Six" and as we've just experienced, don’t forget the little people when it comes to customer retention. In October 2019 Which? surveyed 8,385 UK residents about their energy supplier and asked them to rate their energy provider on...
The Truth Behind Customer Retention.
The truth behind customer retention. Whilst researching "The truth behind customer retention" I found an important statistic. It claimed, 77% of brands could disappear from the face of the world and consumers wouldn’t care. Taking this thought onboard, ask...
Three Top Tips for Better Sales Calls.
In 1876, Alexander Bell made the first-ever telephone call, calling his assistant Thomas Watson. The first words every mentioned were; “Mr Watson, come here.”.Alexander Bell But even though it’s considered as Bell’s greatest success, what most people don’t realise is...
Write it Down to Improve Results
Time vs money when it comes to cold calling A post-call report does what it says on the tin, it gives you an opportunity to report back to either a supervisor if you’re employed as a sales professional or your future self if you’re a business owner. It allows you to...
Always Know The Next Step
And relax… You’ve made that call, you’ve spoken to that person and had a sort of sales conversation. What's the next step? Now, wait a moment what did they say, what did we agree? Forgot? I’m not surprised, on average most adults only have an attention span of...
Cold Calling Who Invented It?
When do you think cold calling was first created? 196019201890 Or when the phone was first created by Alexander Graham Bell back in 1876. You’d be surprised to hear that the first cold call, or often referred to as a prospecting call, was documented back...
Cold Calling Expectations
Cold calling expectations. How many business owners do you think said they would rather hear from a sales rep via phone call compared to email, drop-in visit or other marketing activities? With all the bad press around cold calling, it is easy to think that the number...
I Don’t Want To Cold Call
I don’t want to cold call, someone might be rude to me. "I don't want to cold call" - Cold calling, love it or hate it, in sales there probably isn’t more of a dividing subject. I listen to sales professionals such as Benjamin, and Grant who thrive on cold...
5 Tips to Better Sales Call
According to Brian Tracy, there are 14 proven strategies that can increase your sales. Such as; ‘understanding that your prospects buy benefits’‘identifying your prospects problems’ ‘communicating your competitive advantage’, If I ask you to think back to...
Prepare For Sales Success
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.Benjamin Franklin From a very young age we are told the importance of preparing. It applies to everything in life, from getting your first job, finding your first home and as a business owner making that first sales...
Teaching old tricks to a new dog.
Someone the other week told me that selling via social media, zoom and other digital techniques wouldn’t work for them and they preferred the traditional methods. I asked them to pick up the phone and call a prospect which again was received with hesitation and...
Presidents Award For Plan.Grow.Do.
A wonderful start to a Monday as PLAN. GROW. DO. has been recognised as part of the Barnsley & Rotherham Chamber of Commerce ‘Presidents Recognition’. We are proud to have been recognised for adapting, modernising, and showing leadership in the face of the...
How to create more sales in 2021
How to create more sales in 2021. We cant argue that it really is a difficult time as the UK heads into another national lockdown. The retail and entertainment industry grinds once more to a halt before it even got time to get started, and all other businesses are...
Make 2021 A Year For Sales
Make 2021 a year for sales. During 2020, 57% of sales professionals stated that they are making more phone calls, 77% stated that they are holding more virtual meetings. These are just two statistics from the many I found highlighting the change as a result...
Start 2021 With A Healthy Sales Pipeline.
Start 2021 with a healthy sales pipeline. For most of us the period between Christmas and New Year is time to relax, congratulate ourselves on a successful Christmas Day, think what we want from 2021. The inner workings of our businesses and what we need to do for...
Don’t screw up Christmas, you’re accountable.
For those that have children, you’ll understand the pressure of accountability on Christmas Day. Your children have had you in their sales funnel for months. Firstly, a Suspect identifying their target audience, do they speak to mum or dad and who has the budget for...
Accountability Equals Results
Accountability Equals Results “Anyone holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.” Thomas Paine Accountability is important to the culture of your business, without it who exactly is in charge? I remember reading an article...
Accountability When Outsourcing.
In January 2008 Howard Schultz returned as CEO of Starbucks and made a startling confession “that the leadership had failed the 180,000 Starbucks people and their families. And even though I wasn’t the CEO, I had been around as chairman; I should have known...
Pushing through the self-development wall
Pushing through the self-development wall Statistics show that the self-development market is expected to have a growth of $13.2 billion by 2022. That’s an average of 5.6% yearly gains with millennials leading the way as those that are most interested to...
Plan Grow Do Self Development
Plan Grow Do, Self-Development “The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.” Paulo Coelho Running a business is just as much about your mental ability as it is skills and experience. An athlete can have all the skill in the world but...
Take Ownership of Self Development
“To earn more, you must learn more.” - Brian TracyBrian Tracy One study by the University of Padova showed that those who read for self-development earn 21% more than those who don’t. We can all think of at least 5 leaders in the business world who swear by learning...
Good To Great In Sales
A differentiator between being good and great is how high self development is up on your list of priorities. I've observed this in sales professionals for many years. It's not only that the great make time for self-development, but also, that they have the...
Top tips for finding your ideal audience
Top tips for finding your ideal audience When TiVo launched in 1999, the idea was to revolutionise the market through digital video recorders. The idea was simple: customers could record TV to watch later. In theory, a very simple marketing message such as “Watch TV...
Why Work With A Target Audience
A study shows that by identifying and then using your buyer’s profile improved the open rate in an email campaign by 2x and the clickthrough rate by 5x. This is data from a few years ago, but I’m sure that these statistics have only increased if not stayed...
Finding clients in a COVID world
Finding clients in a COVID world Since lockdown I don’t know where my ideal target audience is There’s no doubt that within the last 7 months the entire world has changed. From a selling perspective, I think irreversibly some of this change is for the better. While...
With A Little Help From My Friends
https://youtu.be/0C58ttB2-Qg With a little help from my friends, I sat down to consider the subject of this article. The subject this month in The Sales Mindset Coach syllabus is Finding Your Ideal Client. A really important thing for sellers and business owners to...
Aim High But Start Small.
Aim high but start small. Do you know the story of Colonel Sanders, the same Colonel Sanders of KFC? You probably know that he sold chicken, that he had cooked, from his Shell Service Station during the Great Depression. But do you know that when the Interstate was...
Achieve Small Goals By Dreaming Big
Achieve small goals by dreaming big “Goals. There’s no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There’s no telling what you can do when you believe in them. And there’s no telling what will happen when you act upon them.” Jim Rohn When it comes...
Reach for the stars and land on the moon
Reach for the stars and land on the moon. Space X has a vision to make humans a multiplanetary species, Google wants to make a self-driving vehicle, and Made In Space mission is to make everything in space be made in space. These moonshot goals by huge...
Sales Targets – Working Through COVID-19
Working through COVID-19 has changed the expectations you had this year and might feel like your pushing a boulder up a hill. You might be tracking above or below your sales targets, but, I'd be surprised if your business has avoided the pandemic and stayed on your...
Say it like no one else can
Say it like no one else can The key to becoming a leading voice is having a niche. There are established leading voices in most industries these days, whether it is on a local or global scale and it’s easy to feel second best as your voice becomes drowned out by some...
Stand out and make business!
Sit down and be quiet or stand out and make business! If, as a business owner someone told you to sit down and be quiet you’d be both extremely annoyed and flabbergasted that someone would and could say such a thing. After all, you are trying to run a business,...
Just be you, but louder!
Just be you, but louder! So, you want to become a leading voice because you understand the value in it helping convert sales. You have seen others in your sector excel at marketing and consistently talk about how well their sales are doing. However, you perhaps don’t...
Sales Gurus ain’t all that
I don't know when I started becoming aware of the birth of the celebrity sales guru. Sales as a profession has always carried a stigma and this has normally been nurtured by sectors that are driven by the hard realities of selling by th numbers: Double Glazing, Second...
Adapt For Online Networking
Adapt For Online Networking - We use the term ‘a modern way of selling’ quiet often. Every year so called ‘Youtube’ sales professionals come out to try and convince you that there’s a new way of selling and you need to forget everything you once knew. “This is how a...
Winning Business Online
Time to go back to work but try and work from home’. I’m not sure about you but that sentence alone is enough to confuse most business owners as we/they try and navigate employees and even ourselves back into the office. As you will notice from my social media...
A Sales Pipeline From Online Networking
A sales pipeline from online networking. Your buyers buying journey has changed. It’s time to throw all your marketing strategies and sales funnels out of the window and start again. Or is it? What has changed? Have you spent time analysing your prospects buying cycle...
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Well the the times are changing and you have to decide if you, or how much, you're going change with them. You know better than anybody how the times are changing for your business and exactly how the lockdown has forced you to look at what you sell, how you sell it...
Using Customer Feedback To Sell More
Do you use customer feedback to help you sell more? Do you think as we come out of lockdown that gaining sales is going to get a lot more challenging? Then let me walk you through how you can use customer feedback to help you sell more. Tough times ahead For those for...
Listen to Feedback or Someone Else Will
The 21st century is the digital revolution as more people rely on mobile technology to control their every daily life. With 79% of UK adults owning a smartphone there’s a high chance that you’re reading this on your mobile. But what phone is it, Apple, Samsung, LG,...
Feedback makes me feel like I’m failing.
How many of these stats do you think are true? 90% of buyers claimed positive reviews influenced their buying decision 86% of buyers said negative reviews influence their decisions Only 17% of businesses track NPS (consumer satisfaction score) 22% of people want...
Listening To Feedback Brings You More Sales
How are you getting on with the more virtual ways of working? Are you Zoom'd out or still loving how effective it is? Are you enjoying that you can sell from you home and network online? It's interesting that all this was possible before but many of us just didn't do...
The Sales and Marketing Divide
The Sales and Marketing Divide is conquered when both sides understand their value to each other. Becoming a team instead of two competing sides helps with greater collaboration and a clearer message for buyers. What if it’s just you in your business? You take on all...
Marketing and Sales Need to Work Together
I’ve spoken a lot about how the companies we now know as industry leaders defied all odds to become the businesses they are today, and how having a sales strategy helped. I realise that times are different and although some of the key points are relevant, we now live...
Am I Sales Company or am I Marketing Company?
Am I Sales or am I Marketing? I blame the marketing team, they should have marketed it differently. Head of Sales I blame sales, we did 90% of the work, all they needed to do was close. Head of Marketing I’ve heard all the excuses before, the blame game when...
Is what you’re selling no longer valued by your customers and prospects?
Your marketing to this point has been very deliberate and purposeful. You've been building value into every avenue of your marketing and customers have been responding positively buying your products and services. So what is it about this current environment that's...
Building and Sustaining Your Sales Strategy
Building and sustaining your sales strategy at time of adversity. Over the past few weeks I’ve taken you on a journey, explaining about the benefit of having sales within your business strategy, what this can do for you and what it’s done for others who’ve started in...
A product and a business plan.
I have an idea, I just need $50, a product and a business plan. A son sends a letter to his dad “Dear Dad: Urgent. Please wire fifty dollars right away…” 60 years later the company he created is worth $39.1 billion. Dear Dad: Urgent. Please wire fifty dollars right...
I Don’t Have a Sales Strategy.
I Don’t Have a Sales Strategy Big brand company formed over 200 years ago loses 97% of its value in the space of 3 years, going from a value of £900 million to £20 million. What went wrong? Find out in this article and read about the pitfalls they faced and how you...
To Sell or Not to Sell is the Question?
To sell or not to sell, this question is being debated across all our Social Media platforms right now isn't it. The answer is a resounding YES - SELL! You know me and you know that I will be saying sell, don't stop - you can't stop. People still need what you do, you...
Top Tips for Post Call Reporting
Top Tips for Post Call Reporting This week I wanted to pull them all together and give you my Top Tips for Post Call Reporting. Before that let me remind you why writing things down is so vitally important. When are you as an individual more likely to write down...
The Power of Post Call Reports
The Power of Post Call Reports Sellers rarely appreciate the power of Post Call Reports, this is often seen as an admin activity that "I'll get round to". This article is written to help you see the power of Post Call reporting and the relevance in todays very changed...
What can you Learn From Each Sales Call
What can you Learn From Each Sales Call What percentage of customers are frustrated when sellers don’t have the correct information? 92% 84% 57% 46% Every time you try to make a sale or get a new customer you are managing interactions. You have belief in your product...
Free Sales and Marketing Help
Free Sales and Marketing help ***An offer of support to help your sales and marketing efforts*** Community is everything and you are important to us. I mean you’ve made our businesses what they are and like you we are feeling uncertain as to what the...
The Sales Skill of Door Knocking
Have we lost the sales skill of Door Knocking? Yes, the skill of door knocking - using your initiative, using the clues around you to create opportunity, have we become totally dependant on faceless Facebook Ads and anonymous Google Reviews? We have the eternal debate...
My Top Tips For Better Cold Calling!
In the 1970s a young aspiring actor living in New York was desperate to land good acting gigs. This young ambitious actor tried agent after agent in New York. All in, the actor got told “No” 1,500 times including being told no multiple times by the same agents. At...
Get Results From Cold Calling
This week we'll look how to get results from Cold Calling. When Leonardo Di Caprio showed us how to Cold Call in The Wolf of Wall Street most people (not just salespeople) were disgusted at the lack of respect shown towards the consumer, all he wanted was the result...
12 Cold Calling Rejections that Earned £6,190,042 per month
How many times do you try Cold Calling before getting dejected from all the rejections? Imagine you were an aspiring author who had poured their heart and soul into their first book working 6 long years to write the book and during this time barely getting by. When...
When Is The Best Time To Make A Sales Call?
When is the best time to make a sales call? This after all is the key question isn't it! "when is the best time to make a sales call?" When am I most likely to reach the right person, have them in a good space so they listen to me and that they are in the buying mood...
Be like the Dalai Lama, and think like Abraham Lincoln for a more successful business.
What percentage of buyers think salespeople talk too much? 27% 56% 72% 95% And why does this matter? If you’re a salesperson it matters. If you own your own business it matters. If you work in sales it matters. If you do know that ninety-five percent of buyers think...
The Results for Pre Call Planning are In!
Results for pre call planning Let’s say you have a lifelong ambition of becoming an Olympic athlete (it’s never too late!) you wouldn’t just wake up one day and expect to be entered in the next Olympics representing your country. Jessica Ennis-Hill started training in...
Cold Calling is just ineffective
“I believe luck is preparation meeting opportunity. If you hadn’t been prepared when the opportunity came along, you wouldn’t have been lucky.” ― Oprah Winfrey I love this quote by Oprah because it puts it so succinctly that even for someone as successful as her...
Finding Your Silver Sales Bullet
As a Sales Trainer, an author of a Sales Book and having worked in sales my whole working life, it’s not uncommon for people to ask me for my “one piece of advice”. It fascinates me that people in business who have most likely trained to do what they do, have...
My top tips to a better sales pipeline.
"Just because something works doesn't mean it can't be improved." —Shuri, Black Panther (2018) The last few blog posts have covered your sales pipeline frustrations, the benefits of having a sales pipeline and now I want to share with you how to make the most of your...
Removing The Luck From Sales With An Effective Sales Pipeline.
According to Salesforce, how many businesses don’t convert their marketing leads? 36% 82% 27% 69% Shockingly, the answer is higher than you’d expect, especially when you consider that only 56% of businesses have a system or tool in place to qualify marketing leads. I...
Where did that one go and how did that happen!
I reminded myself this morning that two years ago The Sales Mindset Coach did not exist. Yes, January marks two years of The Sales Mindset Coach as a brand and a brand with a mission to break down the stigma associated with sales and make selling easy! It’s a strange...
We’re back….and I have I got something special for you!
2019 highlights and looking forward to 2020 with Sales Growth Club LIVE! A 2019 highlight for me was working with over 70 business owners in my The Sales Growth Club Live Sales Training workshops. Three Sales Training workshops for just £99! or individually at only...
The Sales Pipeline.
I can't keep track of my prospects I have no new prospects I think I have my pricing wrong I don't know how long prospects take to convert Just some of the common statements I hear from many of the business owners I work with. In fact according to Hubsort only about...
Sales Villains! – Changing the Face of Sales
Sales Villains! - Changing the Face of Sales If your entire knowledge of the sales industry is gained from watching TV programmes, it is hardly surprising that you may have a rather negative opinion of both sales and sales people! Sales and selling, as we mentioned in...
I’m NOT a Sales Professional get me out of here!
I’m NOT a Sales Professional get me out of here! I just don’t get it. I just don’t get how people assume just because you run a business you know how to sell. You’re an inventor, an investor, a manufacturer, a creative but primarily something other than a...
Outsourcing – my top tips
How much on average does it cost to hire and train someone new in your business? Is it: £7,345 £3,975 £9,730 £12,480 We’ll get to the answer in a short while. Today’s blog is all about my top tips for outsourcing, so that when you do invest in building a team as a...
Outsourcing for better sales and business – the results are in!
Outsourcing – the results are in! Does outsourcing scare you? Are you worried about the results? Not sure you have enough time or money to let others do your work? Do you consider it a huge expense? If you answered YES to one or more of these questions, then read on...
Facing Down the Stigma of Sales and Selling
Why is it that so many business owners, and in particular owners of small businesses, shy away from using the words sales and selling? All businesses need to sell to survive but why do so many people positively recoil at the very idea of being a ‘salesperson’? Could...
Spend More To Reduce Costs.
According to a Deloitte’s 2016 Global Outsourcing Survey, what was the most common reason that companies outsourced elements of their business? Bear in mind that more than 85% of respondents were from organisations with over $1 billion in annual revenues. Five reason...
A Duo of lists focusing on Personal Development.
Who loves a good list? I do, I’ve been big on lists as they really help me. Not only to get my thoughts out of my head. The area of personal development is probably the Guinness book of Records champion when it comes to lists and advice and I thought I’d add my...
Personal Development – Top tips to a better you!
Back in the 1850s a young boy was expelled from school for being “too stupid to learn” and was home-schooled by his mother. Much later on he was fired from his first two jobs for being unproductive but after over 1,000 attempts went on to invent the light bulb. We...
Always Learning – Amazon and a Book Launch.
Amazon is amazing, isn’t it?! Do you admire what they do or are you cynical about what they do? Whilst launching my book Funnel Vision Selling Made Easy I’ve gotten first hand experience of just what an amazingly comprehensive offer Amazon has created and offer...
Sales Training: What is it Good For?
Sales training…what is it good for? Well, unless you have all the other basics in place as covered in our earlier blogs, the answer is… Absolutely nothing! You can put your teams through any number of sales training courses, and there are thousands of them (just run a...
The results from pursuing personal development?
Personal development is a very important part of the internal makeup of big businesses. Many of them providing a workplace learning and development program or course that allows their employees to gain new skills and grow professionally. Companies from Yelp, Pixar,...
Personal Development – are you the best version of you?
Are you too old for personal development? Serious question… Think back, how much time have you spent in the last 12 months on personal development? According to my Facebook insights, my key audience is between the ages of 35 to 54 so I have a good idea of who I’m...
Grab ‘the greatest sales training book ever’ for only £2.99 on Amazon TODAY!
This limited-time offer is available now! Grab your digital copy of Funnel Vision: Selling Made Easy, on Amazon today! Richard Denny came bouncing down the stairs at the Calor Gas National Sales Conference in his sharp pin stripped suit and his highly polished...
Your ideal client – my top tips.
There’s a temptation as a business to over expand, consider yourself a market leader for one audience sector and then open up a product line or service to target another. Or maybe not even spend long enough defining your audience and just hoping your product fits...
Working with your ideal customer – know their problem!
How many times have you heard the phrase “My target audience is everyone” I’m going to be honest...It’s not! It can’t be But, with a little bit of research you can quickly define the characteristics of your ideal client that will allow you to save time, reduce cost...
Why Your Sales Processes Should Evolve and Grow
Why Your Sales Processes Should Evolve and Grow Last month we covered sales strategies and why it is absolutely vital for you to have them well mapped out in your business. This time we’re going to cover Sales Processes – what they are and why you have to have them...
Is everyone your customer?
My ideal audience is everyone, so why aren’t they buying? Well it’s because they are not. Everybody is not your target audience whatever your brand or business might be. Need proof? Let’s use Coca Cola as an example. Taking an outside view of Coca Cola’s business...
Know Your Value
What’s your value? When I say value, what do you think of? If you think about what you’ll be earning, i.e. the value to you, then sorry, you’re wrong. If you think about the value for money you’ll be giving your client, i.e. charging a lower rate…wrong again. If you...
Sales Forecasting – top tips!
In 1985 a Wall Street Journal article noted that Toys ‘R’ Us ability of using computers to track products and quickly identify trends before their competitors were innovative and ahead of others. So how does a business praised for its ability to forecast and predict...
Funnel Vision: The BOOK LAUNCH announcement!
I'm delighted to welcome you to Funnel Vision; Selling Made Easy: The book launch! Anyone that has read my blog or caught me on social media will know I’m a big advocate of becoming a ‘leading voice’ of your sector. It is one of the most important steps you can ever...
Funnel Vision – The Sales Pipeline Management Board Game
If a traditional approach to learning does not work then why are looking for sales training that follows a traditional approach? I mean, you know what I'm talking about don't you...the slides, the classroom, the workbook and the role plays! The dread from your sales...
I want your forecasting!
Hopefully by now all of you will have (or at least most of you) heard about how internet companies such as Facebook and Google have been taking your data and using it to expand their advertising abilities by carefully targeting your likes and behaviours. But what most...
I forecast… confusion!
Sales forecasting (or lack of!) getting you down? Read on! If only we as business owners, could accurately predict the future and know exactly what was going to happen next. We would all be self-made billionaires; business would be great and half our life would be...
Why Every Business Needs a Sales Strategy
This month we are taking a look at SALES STRATEGIES – what they are, and why you need them in order to ensure your sales income is maximised. Basic Definition of Sales Strategy Here’s a clue – it isn’t simply throwing stuff out there (including your sales team!) and...
Eight Tips To Help You Get Past The Dreaded GateKeeper
When I tell people I’m a Sales Trainer I’m often asked for my top tip when it comes to cold calling so I thought I’d start with the biggest perceived obstacle and that’s getting past the GateKeeper! Are you familiar with the term ‘The GateKeeper“? This the...
Meaningful Targets – Top Tips
Setting meaningful targets is vital for sales success - here are my top tips to help you along your way. Over the last month, I’ve been discussing how to set meaningful targets and during this time I’ve flicked from using the word target to goal on several occasions....
Take advantage of target setting by dreaming big
Do you dream of being a millionaire? Or having a successful company with several employees? Maybe you just want to have a growing business that allows you to live a comfortable life. When I think of setting targets and reaching goals a story I recently heard comes to...
Funnel Vision – The Sales Mindset Coach book coming soon!
There’s a popular saying that everyone has a book inside them... But it wasn’t anything I’d actually thought of until I was reminded of my own career, how much I’d learnt and what I was trying to achieve through the Sales Mindset Coach. Life could have turned...
Meaningful Targets & Frustrations
Many of us in business have heard the phrase, “Think it and it will happen”. I personally like to believe in the power of thought and the positivity it creates, but not everything in business works by just thinking it and setting business goals is one of them. After...
How to set meaningful sales targets
Have you ever tried to forecast effectively Forecasting can easily be forgotten about or even ignored by small businesses. It's a phrase that we commonly hear being used with some of the worlds biggest organisations. But the power of setting meaningful sales targets...
Why Successful Leadership Matters
In the previous article we highlighted the fact that for a business to thrive, sales need to be at the very heart of all business processes. We showed how creating a positive sales culture within an organisation affects not only the sales team but the entire workforce...
Well I never I saw that coming (Twice!)
A chance meeting that led to some amazing developments! I sat down for lunch and who walked in but Beverly and Clare. They are both members of The Sales Mindset Facebook Group and Clare has worked through The Accelerator Programme so “knowing” each other we had lunch...
There’s no such thing as Bad PR…when you create it.
Have you have heard of the amazing story behind how Baroness Michelle Mone, the previous owner of Ultimo, took her business off the ground and past £50million through free press and PR? Michelle, with a prototype in hand and a few buyers onboard was left with one...
The business benefits of becoming a leading voice for your industry.
With a great voice comes great responsibility With a great voice comes great responsibility and it’s something to be very considerate of when pushing to become a leading voice. When becoming outspoken you can expect a higher level of marketing, more engagement and an...
How I aim to become a leading voice for sales.
Stop press! I know I’ve already blogged recently but I needed to share this fantastic piece of news. I also think it’s good to remind you that the Sales Mindset Coach is on the business development journey with you; you are definitely not alone! Each week I’m looking...
Be a leading voice for your industry.
What is a leading voice in business and how can it help your sales? How important is it to be a leading voice in the modern world? With the rise of social media influencers, it can seem a daunting task to compete with some of the most commonly heard names, Grant...
Sales training from the Sales Mindset Coach. Something for everyone!
The Sales Mindset Coach - Expert Sales Training in Sheffield! 18 months ago I would never have imagined that The Sales Mindset Coach would be such a lively and busy brand. I expected it to shadow my sales consultancy Steve Knapp Sales, but in actuality it is an...
Are you a leading voice – The VLOG
What is being a leading voice all about? Being a leading voice can be the difference between blending in and standing out within your business sector or industry. Watch this video and learn some key topics and tips to take your business to the next level by standing...
Put Sales at the Heart of Your Business Processes
Whether you are new to sales (or indeed business in general) or a seasoned veteran, you will surely have heard the term ‘sales culture’ being bandied about. Do you know what ‘sales culture’ is though, what it means and how getting it right can have a massive impact on...
Do you gamble with networking, here’s some great top tips.
Before writing this blog, I tried to find a reference to the very first business network. There’s a lot of claims to be the first, but always the first in a certain type of networking. No blog, article or news report was able to actually tell me where and when...
Networking expectations?
I remember reading a great quote in the Entrepreneur regarding how networking can increase your business net worth. “Every intelligent person involved in business knows to invest in money, but only the wise also invest in relationships.“ It’s also true when it comes...
Networking can be really frustrating
How many business professionals do not actively network to gain sales and grow their business? Is it: 12% 25% 35% 60% The answer will be revealed further on. Did you know out of those that do a staggering 70% of sales professionals value face to face networking over...
Networking doesn’t work
Networking doesn't work unless it is built into your sales plan. Just rocking up hoping to speak to a few people and gain a sale is very uncommon, and if achieved it's a little bit of luck. You need to understand the product you’re there to promote and what outcome...
Customers and the pursuit of feedback.
No news is bad news. The same applies for customer feedback. In 2014 64% of consumers formed an opinion by reading up to 6 reviews for the business they were actively searching for, in 2019 this rose to 73%. But how many consumers suspect censorship or faked reviews...
How large companies value and apply customer feedback and how you can too!
Continuing on from last weeks blog I want to discuss in finer detail the power of customer feedback and how it’s able to drive your business and make you stand out. I often get told by business owners that there’s just not the time to ask each customer for their...
‘No news is good news in the world of customer feedback’. It’s just not true!
According to Testimonial Engine roughly how many consumers read reviews before visiting a business or making purchasing decisions? 45% 58% 74% 90% I’ll reveal the answer in just a few moments but first, let’s break down the reasons behind asking for customer feedback....
The Sales Mindset Vlog – Customer Feedback
Welcome to The Sales Mindset Coach Vlog – Customer feedback. In business, we all go through the difficulty of finding customers, it's want we need to do to survive and grow, both as a company owner or sole trader. So why not develop yourself with those new customers...
Sales and Marketing Alignment – The Results
“I do believe the modern sales leader has to be a marketer.” – Matt Gorniak The last few articles in my blog have looked more closely into sales and marketing alignment, what it is, why it matters and how to get it. Today’s blog post is delving more deeper into your...
Don’t play Russian Roulette with your business!
“Great swathes of the traditional manufacturing sector of Sheffield City Region are playing ‘Russian roulette’ with their businesses and relying on sales strategies from 30 years ago.” This article was posted on Sheffield Star in April as I discussed the threat but an...
Be like Apple through successful sales & marketing alignment
This week I’m talking about the wants and desires of small businesses to have a right sales and marketing alignment. When I look back over recent history, arguably no company has managed to achieve this as well as Apple Inc mostly under the leadership of Steve Jobs....
Sales and Marketing Alignment
Sales and marketing or marketing and sales? Working out your sales and marketing alignment is key for successful selling. According to HubSpot what percentage of companies found that aligning your sales and marketing leads to higher sales win rates: 12% 38% 45% 64% A...
Having Fun and Making Money
This blogs topic is fun. As in, actually about fun. It’s one of my core values, to make sure there’s an element of fun in everything I do. I’m not talking about the David Brent style of constantly making jokes, which was taken from the real world experiences of that...
The Sales Mindset Vlog – Sales & Marketing Alignment
Welcome to The Sales Mindset Coach Vlog - Sales and Marketing making them work for you in your Business. This month we are continuing to talk about Sales in your Business Strategy but moving onto sales and marketing alignment. So whether you're a marketer then a...
Aspire for a bit of Disney magic in your sales strategy
Building a sales strategy - what are your aspirations? So, you aspire to be the best in your field, to be a household name to the group or community you network with. In this blog we’ll take the example of, being the best filmmaker in the industry. Lets’ say you...
I Want To Sell
Back in 1963, a young guy named Joe Girard started his first day at a car dealership where he had begged for a sales job, having previously dropped out of high school and taken on various jobs including newspaper boy, dishwasher, and shoeshine boy. On his very first...
Build and Sustain a Sales Strategy
According to research by HubSpot what percentage of salespeople said that finding new prospects is the most challenging part of the job: 67% 35% 42% 28% As a small business owner, you are a salesperson, especially if you are a solopreneur in which case you are the...
The Sales Mindset Vlog – Building a sales strategy
Welcome to The Sales Mindset Coach This month we are talking about sales in your business strategy and in particular, we're talking about how to build your sales strategy. Grab yourself a coffee, press play and listen to The Sales Mindset TV Show Vlog If you do...
Customer Retention
Research by Harvard Business Review shows that one year after being contacted for feedback, customers were how many times as likely to have opened new accounts? Twice as likely Three times as likely Four times as likely No difference Approaching customers for feedback...
Post call – value in documenting
One of these four statistics is false. Which one is it? Our brains can store the same amount of data as 4000 iPhones with 256GB storage. Walking through a door is likely to make you forget what you were supposed to do. We remember about a third of what we hear. Short...
Mindset and Cold Calling
One of these four statistics is false. Which one is it? Best days of the week to call prospects are Wednesday and Thursday. Almost six in 10 buyers want to discuss pricing on the first call. 54% of buyers want to see how the product works on the first call. Successful...
Use Pre-call Planning to Deliver Sales Outcomes
How many questions is the optimal number of questions to ask a prospect when calling them? 1-6 7-10 11-14 15-18 Why does this matter? Whose benefit is it for? What can I do with this information? Structuring your planning so that your sales calls reach a set outcome...
What you give you get back – sales training for Sheffield Chamber Of Commerce
January is over already….where did that go? Are you looking back and thinking “wow what have I achieved as it seems that I’m only getting started” or are you fully into it, measuring your performance against your business goals and laying down solid foundations for...
Use Your Sales Pipeline to Prioritise Your Sales Activity
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.” – Wayne Gretzky Key to succeeding in business is being out there. Think about when you started your business and took those first tentative steps to go it alone. One of the earliest things you had to do was announce...
Leading a Team and Managing Your Time to Focus on Growth
“You don’t lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case.” - Ken Kesey How to Lead a Team Charles Plumb a U.S Navy jet pilot was serving in Vietnam when after 75 combat missions his plane was shot down by a...
Drive Accountability
Why accountability matters By 2020 it is predicted that the freelance workforce will be up to 43% which is made up of solopreneurs, freelancers and independent consultants, etc. If you find yourself in this category it is reassuring to know that you aren’t alone and...
Take Ownership of Self-Development
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” ―Ralph Waldo Emerson It is easy to list reasons why you can’t or don’t have the time or capacity to work on self-development. Here are a few you might have uttered yourself: “I don’t know...
How to set SMART Sales Targets and Sales Goals
A bright year ahead for sales training for smaller business owners!
Well, this week I turned 50...you know what, other than the knees creaking I’m doing great. I’m just back from a walk around the hills and reservoirs of the Peak District and have a family meal and quiz night at the pub to look forward to. There was no 4G on my...
How to Identify and Convert Your Ideal Prospects
What percentage of buyers want to hear from sellers in the first stage of the buying process? A: 2% B: 30% C: 71% D: 12% We will reveal the answer soon, but first a little self-reflection how does your answer relate to your sales mindset? In short,how do you feel...
Setting Meaningful Sales Targets
Are you asking Why before you ask What and How? Target Setting: Are you getting it right? Are you fretting that you’re nowhere near getting those targets you’re regretting setting? I’m betting you’re forgetting the jet-setting lifestyle you wanted to be netting. Don’t...
How to Set Meaningful Sales Targets and Be Able to Forecast Effectively
Back in 1979 a class of students were asked if they had set written goals and created a plan for their attainment. 84% of the class responded no, 13% said they had written goals but no plan, and finally 3% said they had written goals with a clear plan. 10 years later...
A busy November ends with an excited view on 2019! PLUS – sales tips for your Christmas break
Planning! That’s what November was for me... How was it for you? Planning for the Christmas period ahead. Who’s coming to ours? who’s turn is it? where are we going? how can we fit it in and what are we going to eat?! The shops are starting to promote deadlines and...
Leading voice and leadership in business.
What makes a good leader? A leader has to have a destination and others who want to go there. Those are the two critical things you need to focus on. But this isn’t a chicken and the egg scenario. First, you’ve gotta decide where you’re heading. You’re not the Pied...
How to Be a Leading Voice
You can’t change other people. You can transform by leading with your example. Jason Treu Are leadership and leading voice the same thing? What does it mean to be a leading voice? Traditionally, we think of leadership as someone who guides a group of people or...
Networking strategy. Getting in the right places.
Networking Strategy: Why You Need a Plan to Connect to the Right People Networking is like a supermarket; you might only actually need milk…but you can end up with a week’s worth of food and walk out without getting what you went in for. FIrst things first, the...
Networking: Plan That Connects to the Right People
Did you know that 85% of jobs are filled through networking. Yet, one out of every four people don’t network at all. Why Should You Network? Networking is marketing. Marketing yourself, your uniqueness, what you stand for. Christine Lynch As a new business or...
How to Incorporate Customer Feedback into your Business Strategy
Understanding your customers’ reasons for buying is as important to be able to adapt to disrupted markets. Kodak missed the point of WHY people printed pictures. If you’re old enough to remember printed pictures being the only way you could see pictures, you’ll...
How to Incorporate Customer Feedback
What is the shortest word in the English language that contains the letters: abcdef? Answer: feedback. Don’t forget that feedback is one of the essential elements of good communication. Source: Anonymous Research published by Harvard Business Review found that just...
Sales Coach – The Qualities to be a Great
Sport analogies are always a good for highlighting Sales behaviours and I'm using this tried and tested approach to emphasise the qualities of a successful Sales Coach. Trying to categorise the top qualities of a coach is no easy task. Top coaches come from different...
Are your Sales behaviours consistent with your marketing strategy?
Learning how to plan your marketing and sales strategy is a lot like learning how to drive. Think about your sales and marketing as your hands on a steering wheel of your car. If both are aligned, you head in the right direction. If one starts to pull in a different...
The Relationship Between Sales and Marketing Activity
When sales and marketing teams were asked how satisfied they were with each other’s performance what percentage do you think answered ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’? Over 50% Less than 10% Around 25% More than 75% We will get to the answer in a moment, but the first...
How to Build and Maintain a Sales Strategy
Does your business have a sales strategy? A sales strategy should be at the heart of your business model. Here's how you can build and maintain a sales strategy in your business. Plan, Execute, Review, Adapt. Before we know how to build and maintain a Sales Strategy,...
How to Build and Maintain Your Sales Strategy
Pop quiz: What does your sales strategy look like? Wing it. Stored in your mind. Sales strategy? Help me out here. Carefully written out document with headings and subheadings. If you agree with the last statement you are well on your way to understanding the...
How To Improve Client Retention
Client retention is vital for business growth and sales success. But how do you improve your client retention? Utilising feedback, pre-call planning and post-call documenting to give yourself the best shot at retaining clients. “They say” it’s 7x more expensive to...
Networking, Presenting and my funnel! A great October for the Sales Mindset Coach
Updates from The Sales Mindset Coach this October! What a great month October has been; I’ve had the opportunity to attend a number of really different business events across the Sheffield region and have been asked to take the floor to present at a number of them on...
Why post-call reports are so valuable
If you’re not analysing your sales and don't know what worked (and what didn't!), you can’t learn. If you can’t learn, you can’t improve. Remember and track historic data. It could be six months between contacting a prospect. With everything else going on in your...
Post-call report template
Download your free Post-call report PDF template Why should you keep post-call reports? What use are they to you? Have you ever tried to remember any important details from a family or friend's life from 6 months ago? It gets difficult as more time passes by. This is...
Sales Targets – set them now for next year!
The annual sales targets setting dance should have begun. What, it's not yet in your company, why not, get on with it! Honestly, sales targets setting is not something that can wait until January. I’ve seen too many companies waste the first quarter of the year...
How to Get into the Cold Call Mindset
How do you feel about the prospect of a cold call? How can you best prepare before dialling? The answer is in understanding your own reactions to cold calls We all have a friend or foe mentality when we’re answering the phone. Anything we don’t recognise is treated as...
6 Facts About Cold Calling Infographic
How do you get into the cold-call mindset? The answer is in understanding your own reactions to cold calls. We all need to do it (see infographic). We all have a friend or foe mentality when we’re answering the phone. Anything we don’t recognise is treated as a foe...
How to use Pre-call Planning to Deliver Sales Outcomes
Utilising Pre-Call Planning leaves nothing to chance. You can’t be surprised by anything. You already planned for everything. I was travelling down to London to meet a couple of prospects, and almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong. One of them called and...
Pre-call planning template
Pre-call Planning sets your mindset as you go into the sales call and the outcomes of the call. Taking 15 minutes before each call to go through WOPPA will help you achieve your goals. Pre call planning template 2
How to Prioritise your Sales Activity
Your Sales Pipeline is there to analyse, not just to look professional. ALWAYS FOCUS ON THE TOP 5 & THE BIG 5 What are the TOP 5 things that are going to happen this week? & What are the BIG 5 things that are going to take longer, but they’ll likely be more...
If you can delegate it, delegate it.
How to Lead a Team and Manage Your Time to Focus on Growth You’ll have heard the phrase, “work on your business, not in your business.” Coming from corporate where I led teams, it’s entirely normal for me to shell out responsibilities. If I had a problem with my...
Pipeline Management and the Sales Funnel – aka SPANCOP
Sales Training For Small Business. We Do Things Properly!
The Sales Mindset Coach. How we do what we do! For more information on our services and how we can help you enjoy selling, please do visit our Facebook Group, our blogs, or the Sales Growth Club and begin your journey to sales enjoyment today!
Sales leadership – how to be a leading voice
Sales leadership has two main aims. A sales leader has to have a destination and others who want to go there. Those are the two critical things you need to focus on. But this isn’t a chicken and the egg scenario. First, you’ve gotta decide where you’re heading. You’re...
How to Get into the Cold Call Mindset
Why is making a cold call so difficult? How to make a cold call. The answer is in understanding your own reactions to cold calls. We all have a friend or foe mentality when we’re answering the phone. Anything we don’t recognise is treated as a foe before we’ve even...
5 Principles of Sales Excellence
The 5 Principles of Sales Excellence maximises the efficiency & productivity of your sales efforts. Companies spend somewhere between 5% to 15% of revenue on their Sales Professionals & if you really want to focus on growth this is around 20% of revenue. How...
How to Identify and Convert Your Ideal Prospects
Just how do you identify your ideal prospects?! A simple system to get it right. Every time. The handy acronym SPANCOP will help you place everyone in any stage of buying from you. SPANCOP STANDS FOR: Suspect Prospect Approach Negotiate Close Order Pay "A SHARK...
How OBVIOUS is it to your customers if your Sales Culture is right or wrong?
Sales in the culture of business is visible. And you’ve either got it or you haven’t. It’s so important for the owner of a company to understand the customer experience of their company. I experienced both sides of the coin in one day. I run an online group to help...
Ethical Selling is the Route Success
Ethical Selling is the route to Long-Term Success With bonuses and incentives for high levels of sales, rather than high professional standards, money motivated sales staff will use dark arts and shortcuts to make quick sales. They jump from ship to ship, claiming...
Being A Great Account Manager!
What makes a "great" Account Manager? Has the role of the Account Manager changed much over the years when we consider changes in buyers behaviours, additive technology and automation of routine tasks through AI? The answer to that question is of course yes it has....
Own Your Personal Development
A trio of lists focusing on Personal Development. One is all about excuses you may have heard why people don't invest in their personal development. Two is all about what you can do to own your personal development. Three highlights the benefits to you of taking...
Set Sales Targets That Get Smashed!
How to improve your Sales by setting Sales Targets the SMART way It’s not actually easy to set targets with no basis. It’d be like talking about how high you’re going to build a tower, without knowing how much material you have or if the foundations are secure....
Missing Your Quota? Then Up Your Call Rate
Making that One Extra Sales Call Recently I made a video post on LinkedIn about doing an extra sales call a day to smash your targets and get your bonus. https://youtu.be/k4Zfp9LLZAQ What quickly developed was an excellent thread with some great debate and expert...
How to Create a Winning Sales Culture
Creating a winning sales culture should not be that big a deal Transforming an underperforming sales team into a well-oiled sales machine doesn't happen by luck. Yet many companies try to grow sales by simply putting more pressure on the sales team, reminding them of...
8 tips to get you past the Gatekeeper
Are you familiar with the term ‘The GateKeeper". This the individual whose job it is to prevent people getting access to the Decision-Maker. Typically, this is a personal assistant or a secretary, but in some companies, it is even the receptionist or switchboard...
Take control of your Sales Pipeline
The Sales Pipeline is a veritable playground for any Sales Manager, but, many don't know how to play the game of Sales Pipeline Management. I've become increasing interested to understand how effective Sales Managers are in translating the data in their Sales Pipeline...
6 “must haves” in great Account Plans
Account Plans should help you think like your customer thinks and not like you or your company thinks I have seen 1000's of Account Plans. Some have been very good & some have been very bad. I have seen Account Plans look like works of Shakespeare or written on...
Turning Post Call Reporting into great sales insights
The three bastions of Sales Execution are Account Planning, Pre Call Planning and Post Call Reporting. In this article I am focusing on how to create great sales insights from Post Call Reporting. Why do we need Post Call Reports? Post Call Reports are used to...
Pre Call Planning wins more business!
Lets deal with this head on: 59.1% of inside account executives are attaining quota And 65.0% of outside account executives are attaining quota There are many reasons for this but I believe this is largely down to the quality of Sales Execution & specifically the...
The 8 Wonders of Sales Management
The job of managing a sales team is a tough one. It could be argued that it's the toughest job in Sales Having practiced Sales Management for many years I have experienced the almost Jekyll & Hyde life you live of being there for your team & being there for...
When is the best time to make a Sales call?
Simplifying the Science of Sales. So you’ve got your Sales head on. You read my blog on Valuing People and Its Relationship to Prospecting. You’re not going to read from a script, you’re going to ask all about the client to make sure you’re really helping them out...
Valuing people & its relationship to prospecting
What your customers think of you might differ quite drastically from how you perceive yourself; 17% of Sales Professionals think they’re pushy, compared to 50% of prospects. This means there is 33% of Salespeople who are being pushy who are absolutely oblivious to it....
Become A Great Sales Coach
Being a great Sales Coach is a differentiator when it comes the results of sales teams and the results of individual sales professionals. The quality of a Sales Coach has a direct impact on sales performance whilst also positively impacting attrition rates when it...
Weekly Sales Meetings Drive More Sales
Conducting Weekly Sales Meetings is a skill. It's a skill that is often incorrectly assumed to be second nature to any Sales Manager. But like most assumptions it’s someway of the mark. In Sales Excellence Principle 3 - Sales Leadership I take you through a set of...
Use Recognition To Drives Sales Results
Recognition has a very significant place in the growth ambitions of any sales organisation. Lets take at a look at some data points pertinent to recognition: When companies spend 1% or more of payroll on recognition, 85% see a positive impact on engagement 60% of...
Do you need Senior Sales Professionals
What's the Senior Sales Professional thing all about... Why is this addition to an already perfect description being seen more & more? I can see only see two possible reasons; It plays to the ego of a sales generation that is adding value to a company through...
5 Sales Targets Setting Checks for More Sales
Achieving a sales target is the primary goal of all sales organisations as well as all sales professionals. You're coming to the end of the year so it's the right time to check that you're correctly setting your sales targets for the next year. Are you seeing the...
Social Media is Killing Networking
If you are seduced by the shortcut of social media you might also believe that face to face networking has had its day. After all, every contact you’d ever need is just a click or a phone call away… My motivation to write this article came from a most brilliant post...
Sales And Marketing Alignment
Why Is Sales and Marketing Alignment So Important? Brings knowledge of your customers into the company. Helps you serve your customers better. Informs the development of better CVP’s for the future. Improves your top-line and bottom-line growth. You would have...
5 Attributes That Make Goals Stick
Are your goals sticky? A week into this New Year, and “Dry” January became “No alcohol drinking in the house”-uary. Here we are three weeks later and it’s (d)evolved into “Only drinking alcohol in the house” when West Ham United are playing football on TV. Recently I...
3 Behaviours that win business
U.S. companies spend over $900 billion on their sales forces, which is three times more than they spend on all ad media. Sales is, by far, the most expensive part of strategy execution for most firms. Yet, on average, companies deliver only 50% to 60% of the financial...
Focus on 3 cultures to win the prize hidden in an aligned organisation.
56% of aligned organisations met their revenue goals, and 19% beat their goals. Among misaligned organisations, by comparison, just 37% met their revenue goals, and just 7% beat them. (Act-On Sales & Marketing Alignment Survey, 2015) Aligned organisations achieve...
