Author: Rhys

Are ‘Sales Visits’ a thing of the past?

Post author By Rhys
Post date November 7, 2022
No Comments on Are ‘Sales Visits’ a thing of the past?

In my last blog, I told of the changes to how sales and marketing have been perceived over the last three decades. This showed how ‘Sales & Marketing’ had changed to ‘Marketing’ only. But needs to be ‘Marketing & Sales’. If that makes no sense read the blog again!

Another aspect that has changed significantly pre-covid times is the method of communication between customers and prospects.

In my training I demonstrate how face to face is by far the most effective way to communicate with anyone. Zoom, telephone, personal letter and email are all effective to a point, but face to face allows a higher level of understanding and appreciation of what the other person is saying and meaning.

Slowly, this approach has been evolving and has now changed, due to two significant drivers:

As work pressure mounts, the time available for personal meetings has been squeezed to the point where there is little time available in a working day to include them, particularly now that we have Zoom or Teams available to us.
Then came Covid. For personal health and safety, all face-to-face meetings were discouraged or banned. It was too high a risk to meet people face to face. In order to continue business effectively, video conference calls became the norm.

Covid has now receded to a level sufficient for us to attempt to ‘normality’. However, having experienced how effective video calls can be, and still being wary of meeting people face-to-face, some are declining to meet in-person. Furthering the likelihood Sales Visits will not be seeing a part in our current ‘normalcy’.

I have confirmed this with the more mature sales training delegates on the courses I have given recently. Their experience of 20 to 30 years ago is the same as mine, and they confirmed it has become very difficult to arrange customer visits for these reasons. What do we do?

A new strategy…

In the last 6 months I have begun to recommend a new strategy whereby a ‘Communication Plan’ is agreed between the two parties involved. This can involve an effective mix of methods and timings that are the most convenient for the buyer and allows the salesperson to complete the sales process as thoroughly and successfully as possible. So if you feel in-person Sales Visits are key to your sales process, let the other party know, plan for it!

As an example of the new process:

Connect on LinkedIn
Send a personal email or LinkedIn message to agree to a call
Make a phone call to complete introductions and clarify their need
If there is a sufficient interest, at this point the ‘Communication Plan’ can be introduced and agreed. This can involve a face-to-face first visit, then an agreed mix of phone calls, emails and video calls.
Complete the sales process and win the deal. Frequency of contact needs to be agreed as well.

This is a simplified way to illustrate the idea. Each case will be different according to needs. You may have your own way of working through the sales process but be flexible. If they are not comfortable being asked every time for a personal meeting, mutually pre-agree terms in a Communication Plan.

If you’re interested in Sales or Technical Sales training for yourself or a team, please get touch – 07941 041 364

Alternatively, browse our website for more about the courses and workshops Salient Sales currently offer. You can also find our LinkedIn HERE.

Tags sales & marketing, sales approaches, sales growth, sales process

Sales & Marketing Sales process

Is it ‘Sales & Marketing’ or ‘Marketing and Sales’?

Post author By Rhys
Post date October 20, 2022
No Comments on Is it ‘Sales & Marketing’ or ‘Marketing and Sales’?

When I moved from science and electronics to start a new career in field sales, times were different. This was the late 1980s when the world was a very different place. With evolution and development business has changed dramatically; mostly good, some less so.

One thing I have noticed only recently, is the complete about turn regarding sales and marketing. In those days, most sales positions included in the title ‘sales and marketing’. When my sales role had been explained, I asked ‘what about the marketing?’ I was shown a pile of brochures, a directory and a telephone. I was told to ‘go and find some new business’. Sales was an accepted discipline, aided a little by this form of ‘marketing’. That was when I learned how soul-destroying cold-calling could be. And some of the wrong ways of trying to make sales.

Forward to the ‘roaring twenties’

We find a very different picture, in fact, very much the opposite. Marketing has developed over the years to become a very potent and important discipline. Businesses have realised that by marketing and promoting products and services in an attractive manner, prospective customers come to you. As opposed to you calling them in an attempt to develop an interest.

If your prospects come to you, they are already sold on the idea of you becoming a supplier. This means that half the sale is already achieved. HOWEVER, it is still only a half. You will have to build a relationship and, using sales skills and techniques, convince them to make the full commitment to buy from you.

But bear in mind that the sale will not happen until this final stage of (ethical) persuasion is successful. You may have the best marketing approach, structure, strategies and initiatives, but unless you have the skills to negotiate and complete the sale, your marketing investment is effectively wasted. Those who rely on marketing to make the sales are of the ‘if you build it they will come’ ideology. People buy from people, so business-people will need to know how to sell, as well as promote their goods and services.

A recent posting to promote a networking discussion, called it a ‘Sales & Marketing session’, but described only marketing and brand strategy as the focus. Do not forget your sales skills! If you cannot sell effectively, you will no longer have a business to operate, let alone promote. In every case, skill in marketing AND sales are needed.

Looking to get in touch regarding our training courses or workshops Click HERE to contact us via our form, or give us a call on: 07941 041 364

Tags sales & marketing, sales ethos, sales process

Uncategorized

Famine, back to Feast? – An opportunity to raise your game.

Post author By Rhys
Post date June 20, 2022
No Comments on Famine, back to Feast? – An opportunity to raise your game.
Sticky post

Sadly, there may be another wave on the way. Yes, another Covid wave is predicted. However, unless it is substantially more potent than the last, I think we have tasted our freedom and will be reluctant to return back to our Covid holes. Hopefully, common sense and a cautious approach will be all that’s needed to enable us to continue doing business.

So, how is business with you? I am pleased to say that Salient Sales & Training is back with a vengeance! Larger businesses are signing up for long duration team programmes (two have booked these in the last three weeks). Smaller businesses are also coming back to full networking, and not just online. Everyone I speak to feels elated, but also a little overwhelmed. The last two years has had quite an effect on all of us.

How are you coping? Are you overwhelmed, or have you made a new plan for increasing your presence in the market and engaging with more prospects post pandemic?

My larger prospects are nicely engaged, but for the smaller companies, the SMEs down to the micro-businesses? I have developed a series of 10 workshops addressing all of the key aspects of sales and selling into all markets.

Click here for more details: Workshops

From Selling Yourself and Pitching and Presenting like a Pro, through to Securing with Ease, Time Management and Easy Decision Making. There will be at least one for you… If not the whole series.

Do you have a plan to raise your profile and engage again with the markets?

Promoting a new product or programme is just one of many ways you can do this. For some of it is like starting again, but for others it is a good opportunity to move up a gear and welcome some new active prospects.

Tags Events

General Sales Ethos

Do you have Covid Blues?

How have the virus, the lockdowns, the uncertainty affected you?

Some people claim to have ridden the storm, they have come out of this stronger and very focussed, but I suspect they are in the minority.

Others have been affected by the pandemic quite badly, or at least negatively. Many I speak to are not just tired, they are weary. Many of my contacts claim they are finding it difficult to reach the same level of energy and momentum as they experienced pre-covid.

Alongside the physical issues, of equal concern is our mental state. Many have suffered without actually having Covid. The lockdowns, the masks, the zoom calls, the restrictions, the sad loss of friends and family and the relentless ‘bad news’ that the media throws at us, have all taken their toll.

Do we talk about our melancholy? Probably not. Like me, you have learned that the response to the question ‘how are you?’ should never be ‘not great thank you’. Only close friends will be genuinely interested in our welfare. More business will be done with people who are ‘good thanks’ than those who are ‘not great’.

A year or so ago, when feeling… despondent, I decided to answer truthfully, the question ‘how are you?’ I noticed two things:

1/ Everyone expressed concern, but conversations were shorter, unless that is I made a point of ‘perking up’.

2/ Asking the health of others, resulted in a range of answers between ‘great’ and nothing worse than ‘ok thanks’.

If there is genuine concern, they may ask again, ‘no, how are you really?’ Now that’s a friend.

What can we deduce from this?

Only true friends want to know the real answer, and are likely to help.
Acquaintances or new contacts will make the expected social responses but are likely to feel uncomfortable enough to withdraw from the conversation at an early stage.

What can we learn from this? Nobody likes a grumbler!

If you do need help, confide in real friends who you know will be genuine and care about you. You can also enlist the help of someone who has proven skills in wellbeing and mind-reset. I did.

If you aim to gain profitable business contacts, there is only one effective solution……fake it!

Seriously, I used this option when I felt less than my usual ‘jolly’ self, and I found that my smile was infectious and the contact’s mood improved. It proved far more likely I would develop a good business relationship with this approach.

As a useful by-product of this, my own mood improved, as I smiled, they smiled as we got to know each other better.

I do not normally advocate this approach, and still say fake nothing but your mood. However, this is one time when you both benefit from the ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ approach. It’s in the power of the smile!

Business management

What is the (business) world coming to?

Post author By Rhys
Post date December 20, 2021
No Comments on What is the (business) world coming to?

So much has changed. Some things will stay changed. What are the better things you would want to keep?

Would you keep:

Zoom/Teams to reduce travelling to meetings?

Masks to hide behind?

Reduced physical contact to avoid space invasion?

Sanitisation to avoid others’ germs?

…or is there something else, some other surprise change you want to keep, or feel we should keep?

During lockdown I found myself swapping business breakfasts with regular grazing during home office breaks. Maybe I lost some self-discipline. I certainly did not lose any weight!

Since returning to some in-the-room business networking, I have found people to be keener to engage in conversation, perhaps a little less in-a-hurry? I like this aspect, but suspect it may not last as we begin to return to ‘the norm’. Is this your experience too?

But the norm is what we make of it and we are not yet fully unlocked.

We can choose a new way of behaving, new ways to engage or communicate.

We do not have to go back to all of the ‘old ways’.

What old habits/ways of working would you want to change?

What would you want to keep?

Events

Salient December Workshops

Post author By Rhys
Post date November 23, 2021
No Comments on Salient December Workshops

First impressions are so important.

Can you make a positive impact from the start?

Do you display style AND substance?

Are you ready to join some sales workshops?!

Yes, now is a great time to brush up on your selling skills. Markets have been slow to re-awaken, and some even appear to be returning to the caves from which they have just ventured. Feedback has told me that, in general, the business world is trying hard to get back to some form of normality.

They will be looking at their existing suppliers, and some will be looking for new suppliers. Are you ready for this?

Would a couple of sales workshops help you to brush up on these essential skills for growing your business?

Salient has two workshops coming up, a single and a double.

On Thursday 9^th December, we have a full day of workshops, starting with ‘Selling Yourself’ in the morning, and ‘Smart Networking’ in the afternoon. In the morning, discover key skills in how to make a good impression, and have a positive impact, amongst other key skills for selling yourself. These can then be used in the afternoon workshop. In Smart Networking we look at how to work the room, know when to start…and stop, follow a simple plan and achieve your objectives and then to gain at least 4 good contacts from each event, and double your chances of finding new business!

For more details, follow THIS link!

On Monday 13^th December, we have a half-day workshop called 5 Short-Cuts to Winning Sales. This is a great opportunity to learn some of the winning ways of sales professionals as well as developing an ideas session for all to apply these ideas to their businesses. New ideas, adapting and applying them to best effect in your business.

Again, for more details, follow THIS link!

If you need to recover some of the ground you may have lost during the pandemic, then now is the best time to think forward and be able to hit the ground running in the new year….which starts in just 6 weeks’ time!

Business management Ethical Selling Sales Management Sales Planning Sales tips

Experiencing difficulty bouncing back after Covid?

Post author By Rhys
Post date August 26, 2021
No Comments on Experiencing difficulty bouncing back after Covid?

Having trouble re-emerging into the market? Do you think your business looks and feels a bit ‘stale’? What can you do? Bouncing back after Covid-19 doesn’t need to be difficult, I can help.

Here are some useful thoughts:

I worried too!

Before the lockdowns business for Salient was good. Beyond a few regular ‘tweaks’ I felt nothing needed to change, people were still expressing interest and buying my courses and sessions.

Then Covid came and people were furloughed, projects were put on ice, work slowed and, in some areas, stopped. Why would people invest in Salient offers when they had no idea when they would be able to get a return on their investment? It became difficult to promote something which had become of less perceived immediate value to the markets.

Does this sound familiar to you?

I felt I had a choice of three ways forward:

Try and continue selling to a significantly smaller active market
Put everything on ice; try and ride-the-storm
Or, could I try some more lateral thinking?

Did I still want to have a business at the end of this? YES!

Therefore, I needed to focus on two key tasks:

Maintain a profile, and
Develop some additional and attractive new offers.

Maintaining profile is comparatively straight forward with social media and on-line networking.

Developing new additional offers was more difficult. Many planning sessions, business analysis and key-person discussions, produced some useful ideas to add to the Salient offers:

Live-On-Line courses and sessions (LOL!)
Recorded courses and modules: my full sales programme on video in modular form,

(- available from the new and upgraded salientsales.co.uk website).

Group workshops – brainstorming, structured or unstructured, ‘Inspiration to Action’
One-to One Coaching Sessions – more structured and goal orientated
Extra high-level modules for corporate courses and programmes
Salient Gems – weekly videoed tips and ideas to help you sell more.

These would also prove to be valuable for when businesses re-emerged from hibernation.

I have completed 80% of the above. Already, interest levels are good, and sales have started.

So, if you’re having trouble bouncing back after Covid, consider teaming up with Salient Sales & Training, let us help you to streamline that adjustment period.

What’s next?

This is my story. If you need help to generate ideas for your business, and to develop processes to see them through, then please be in touch. I offer guidance and mentoring to help ensure their success.

You can click HERE to contact us. Or why not connect on social media so you’ll be first to access offers, quick tips and new courses as we release them: Facebook, Linkedin & Twitter!

Tags business growth, business management, feeding the pipeline, marketing, proactive sales, sales & marketing, sales approaches, sales ethos, sales management, sales planning

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