What is the link between Rudyard Kipling and Consultative Selling?

Let me explain the link.

One of the aspects of consultative selling is uncovering the problems of the prospect, finding out what the real problems are. 

Seeking to put a value on what the current position is for them  clarifying what your solutions would mean to them if they invested in them, its a particularly useful approach when selling business to business.

The link is is from the poem  'I KEEP six honest serving men.'

I KEEP six honest serving-men

(They taught me all I knew);

Their names are What and Why and When

And How and Where and Who.

What and Why and When and How and Where and Who are the consultants questions.

You will never be stuck in a sales situation when you use them. 

Take Care

Regards Mark 




Integrated Marketing  Copyright Mark Wheatley 2010 All Rights Reserved

More On Sales Objections

There are a number of techniques that you can use to deal with sales objections.


Provided that a sales lead, is a qualified lead, its possible to sell to anyone. That assumes that you are selling something worth buying of course!


A qualified lead is a decision maker, who can afford what you are offering and can buy within a reasonable timescale.


It helps, if you think of objections as being unanswered questions.


There are several techniques you can use to handle them.


When I work with companies in the area of sales training, I ask them prior to the course to write down all their common objections. We work together at creating responses for them during the training.


There is however a different approach to having stock answers to objections. 


That being pre-empting the objections.


The idea is to bring up the objections yourself in the sales conversation.


For example, if you were selling cars and the particular make, had a bad resale value because  of a quality problem with a particular car, that had tainted the brand.


You might say; ''one of the problems you can have in the future with any car is a poor resale value, even when the sales price and the deal on your own car is favourable, you can loose money when you trade the car in. 


To stop this happening we've got a contract purchase option that guarantees the price of your car, when you trade it in, say in three years time.''


This has dealt with the potential objection before it was raised.


Its also worth mentioning that it has been known for prospects to tell lies or just avoid the truth and don't even raise the real objection! They can give you a false objection or an excuse to leave, which is why raising them yourself, does help deal with these unanswered questions.


I could go on there are a number of other techniques that you can use. 


I'm happy to deal with any comments on the subject.


Regards


Mark 


Integrated Marketing  Copyright Mark Wheatley 2010 All Rights Reserved

Do you bring your presentations to life?

Some people take laptop's to make presentations to the their prospects, personally I used printed pages from 
a PowerPoint presentation.

There are a few reasons for doing this, the first being communication.  A leading university concluded that up to 93 percent of communication effectiveness is determined by nonverbal cues. Another study indicated that the impact of a performance was determined 7 percent by the words used, 38 percent by voice quality, and 55 percent by the nonverbal communication. 


By having photographs, samples, graphs etc. It helps support what you are saying verbally and improves communication. Which if I recall is defined as sending and receiving information.

In terms of believability it also helps when your visuals have independent information from reliable and reputable sources.  The reason I use printed pages rather than a presentation on a laptop is; I can close the book and move on, if my prospect understands the point that I've made and they want to ask me some more questions.


 If you don't use visuals, why not develop some and try them out, to see how they can help you support your sales presentation.


I would be interested in hearing about what you take to presentations, what works and what doesn't.  


Take Care.


Regards



Mark 


P.S. If you want to be a guest blog writer on this blog let me know.


A Results Driven Approach To Your Business Success


Mark Wheatley associates is a business development company that specialise in low risk sales and marketing helping medium sized businesses and professional practices grow through coaching training and consulting services. Based in Nottingham in the East Midlands UK. www.wheatleyassociates.org Copyright Mark Wheatley 2010 All Rights Reserved

Does yours stand out? Image from Glastonbury

Anyone for tapas?

 I took this photo at Glastonbury last month.

Its a very large flamenco dancer promoting the sale of tapas.

It certainly got my attention.

The question is; could you buy or make something a little wacky like this, that you could use? Something along similar lines to get your business to stand out?

It does not substitute for signage and clearly space is an issue, but for a retail or restaurant business with a little room outside, well its a possibility!

If you have seen anything similar send me your photo's and I'll put them on the blog giving you a mention of course. 

All comments welcome.

Take Care 


Regards Mark


Integrated Marketing  Copyright Mark Wheatley 2010 All Rights Reserved

People The Biggest Barrier To Growth

You could turn this statement around and say good people are a key catalyst of growth.

The statement comes from the research that I undertook when I did my MBA.


The dissertation was examining barriers to growth in small to medium sized companies  and does the Internet Internationalise businesses faster. This was back in 1998 when the Internet was still 'young' so we all know the answer to the second part of the question now.


What I wasn't expecting though was the response to the wider question of what's stops small businesses growing. It wasn't cash flow or marketing it was people.

Every managing director more or less said the same thing; getting and keeping the right people was the biggest thing that was stopping them growing their businesses.


People that have the right attitude, skills and motivations these were their observations.


What are yours? What's stopping you I would be interested to hear your comments.


If you don't want to admit it publicly as a comment below send me an email and I will publish the results without revealing your identity in a future post.


So what's holding you back what's stopping you from growing at the rate of growth that you would like?


Take Care


Regards


Mark

P.S. I am still interested in more guest writers




Integrated Marketing  Copyright Mark Wheatley 2010 All Rights Reserved