Guest lecture opportunity November 3, 2009
Posted by petemcd in Sales.add a comment
Cool news for me and a way for me to give back to others!
I’ll be guest lecturing at the University of Washington in the Michael G. Foster School of Business in the Winter Quarter. On January 14th, 2010 I’ll be a guest of John Castle in his year-long entrepreneurship course, Creating A Company. I’ve done this before with John’s classes and it’s always fun and invigorating. The students are great and eager to learn. I’ve discovered that practical sales training with tips and techniques is something the students do not get in business school and past feedback has been that it is highly valued. I’ll let you know in January how the experience goes.
© 2009 Peter E. McDowell
PERFORMA Business Development
Different View/ Better Results
email me to request getting my e-newsletter!
Web @ http://www.performabusdev.com
Blog @ http://petemcd.wordpress.com/
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Is Sales Training really important? October 30, 2009
Posted by petemcd in Personal Effectiveness, Sales.add a comment
Businesses typically spend 80% of their time & $ for sales training on product and industry training and 20%, or less, on developing sales competency or mastery. Basic industry and product knowledge can be picked up in relatively short time. Obviously, deeply knowing the ins and outs of an industry and your company’s products takes time. But, basic knowledge is often very sufficient to get out into the market place and sell. That’s why new and inexperienced sales people can achieve at least some level of success.
Sales mastery- being extremely good at having multiple sales conversations with an account and controlling the sales process- is much harder but produces far more beneficial results for the customer and provider/supplier. The ability to effectively build relationships and work toward a win-win solution by understanding the totality of a business and personal environment in order to solve problems takes continual learning and discipline. Without this total or global or holistic approach to the sales process it is very easy to sell a product or service for the wrong application at the wrong price (or value). Poor ‘salespersonship’ usually produces poor and costly solutions for both parties.
© 2009 Peter E. McDowell
PERFORMA Business Development
Different View/ Better Results
email me to request getting my e-newsletter!
Web @ http://www.performabusdev.com
Blog @ http://petemcd.wordpress.com/
Connect with Pete on biznik, Contribution Networking Party, Eastside Entrepreneurs, Facebook, Linked In, Plaxo and Twitter.
Look Outside October 28, 2009
Posted by petemcd in Business, Goal Setting, Sales, Strategy.add a comment
Is there anyone standing outside of your door, just dying to do business with you? I doubt it.
When I started in sales long ago I was called me into the company owner’s office on the first day I reported for work. Here’s the brief conversation:
- Owner: “Pete…welcome. We’re glad to have you on board. Do you see anyone standing outside of our door, just dying to come in and do business with us?
- Me, glancing at the front door to the offices: “Ummm, no sir.”
- Owner: You have to go out and bring in the business. Here are your car keys. Have fun.”
It was that quick. I got the message loud and clear. Get out there and make your mark, make it happen. Business is nothing if you’re not bringing in the sales, whether it’s the direct sales force model that so many other businesses use or if you use resellers or independent agents or reps. Sales must be brought in and every owner and sales manager is responsible for making that happen. Companies should be sales focused first and foremost.
A business best practice is to develop business strategic planning which is centered on marketing & sales. It starts with knowing your market and then hiring the best people you can to represent your company. Without a specific market to go after, you are aimlessly wandering in the wilderness. Without the best people hired you will just be an average player, or maybe a non-player.
Herein lies the two problems with many smaller companies: they haven’t defined their market and they do a poor job of hiring people in the sales and customer touch areas. This means they are highly ineffective in customer acquisition and retention (customer retention should mean you have high customer satisfaction ratings). The wrong kind of business or customer is pursued and brought in and the people doing the pursuing are not ideal. There is a revolving door of sales people and customer service people and the company ends up in a low growth or no growth mode.
So, ask yourself if you’ve really defined the exact market you want to play in. Look back over your years in business and ask whether the human being you hired for sales worked out very well for the business. If the answer to either of these isn’t a resounding YES, then you owe it to yourself to develop a well thought out marketing and sales focused strategy and to develop a system or process for hiring and growing a top notch sales team. If you don’t know how to do this then take the initiative to seek out the best advice from experts such as consultants or best-selling authors.
© 2009 Peter E. McDowell PERFORMA Business Development
Different View/ Better Results
pete@performabusdev.com – email me to request getting my e-newsletter!
Web @ http://www.performabusdev.com
Blog @ http://petemcd.wordpress.com/
Connect with Pete on biznik, Contribution Networking Party, Eastside Entrepreneurs, Facebook, Linked In, Plaxo and Twitter.
Relationships Matter- Lesson One with Seven Tips October 9, 2009
Posted by petemcd in Personal Effectiveness, Sales.add a comment
“All lasting business is built on friendship.”
Alfred A. Montapert
Many sales training offerings don’t do justice to building a relationship
There are a lot of great sales trainings available today. If you examine them all, you’ll find way more similarities than differences. Think of it this way: every cook has their way of cooking, and so do business trainers, especially sales trainers. The fundamentals and how you master and use them are what counts. I have developed my own sales training that I deliver to clients based on the study of sales and my experiences over many years. I don’t claim that mine is any better than others, but it is different and it reflects my beliefs about how to sell.
Most sales trainings focus on questioning techniques and a process to guide a prospect to a close, assuming that each side has qualified the other to business. It has to be a fit for each party. However, I find that many sales training offerings don’t do justice to building a relationship that is built on trust. Relationships are what make everything hum and are the foundation for moving the sales process forward. A poor or marginal relationship may result in business if a seller is one of the very few with a product or service that the buyer must have. In the competitive world of many similar choices…
People will do business with people that they like, trust and respect.
Today, we’ll look at the ‘like’ part.
As I often do, I find that reading the dictionary definition for a word is appropriate. I checked dictionary.com and found a number of ways to define the word, whether as an adjective, preposition, adverb, conjunction, noun, interjection or idiom. I was surprised to find so many ways in American English to define and use the word. To use a double negative, I was not expecting to not find the one I expected…so here is the one I pulled out- corresponding or agreeing in general or in some noticeable respect. When I think of like in a relationship aspect, I think of having an affinity for someone, a comfort in a relationship built on similar outlooks, values, mores (accepted traditional customs and usages of a particular social group), behaviors, interests & hobbies, etc. I didn’t see that exactly, but the one I pulled is close enough.
How do you get people to like you? Seven tips:
1. You have to have an attitude going into a relationship that you will choose to like the other person(s) and that you are likeable. It is a conscious decision and making the decision to like someone in advance will be reflected positively in your body language and the tone of your voice. Like others and be likeable.
2. You have to be genuine/real. The other person will not be fooled by any façade or any phony act. People’s emotional intelligence is right 75% of the time- this has been proved in studies over the years. What they perceive in others they meet is what they actually will see as time goes on. Don’t fake it.
3. You have to be interested in the other person. You have to take the time to find out what makes them tick…and why. That means you ask a lot of questions about them to gain understanding of their whole person.
4. You have to be transparent. This is where you will show others how open you are in communicating- both telling and listening. Are you couching things? Are you hiding something that you shouldn’t? I have professional association with two people who have let me know they were in prison at one point in their lives because of poor decisions made in business. They’ve reformed. They understand how they made poor choices and that they are 100% accountable. I associate with them because they were upfront and very open about their past.
5. You have to be honest. Whatever you say about yourself or your business must not be a lie…or even a fib. Even small exaggerations can derail a friendship. If so and so is stretching the truth even this much, where else and by how much does he stretch it elsewhere?
6. You must show respect. You must honor someone when you are in their presence. It’s not about you. I’ll write more about respect in Lesson Three in a few days.
7. You have to reflect an abundance mentality. There’s plenty for everyone. You are not there just for taking. Express that in your language and actions.
There you go- seven things that you can think about and work on to like others and then be seen as likeable. Next up: Trust.
© 2009 Peter E. McDowell
PERFORMA Business Development
Different View/ Better Results
pete@performabusdev.com
email me to request getting my e-newsletter!
Web @ http://www.performabusdev.com
Blog @ http://petemcd.wordpress.com/
Connect with Pete on biznik, Contribution Networking Party, Eastside Entrepreneurs, Facebook, Konnects, Linked In, Plaxo and Twitter.
Clarity and Specificity June 24, 2009
Posted by petemcd in Culture, Marketing, Sales.add a comment
Perhaps you have the same challenge as me. I’m always challenged on how I can be clearer and more specific in my words, both written and verbal. It’s critical because everything that I communicate has to be well understood. It must be so crisp and to the point that instantly, people ‘get it’. Frankly, I have a lot of improving to do in this regard. I’m going to be reworking and simplifying my simple web site once again, because I think the messaging can be much better.
I got thinking about this today because I had had received an email from a business friend that, for me, wasn’t as clear and specific as it should be. The person was asking for my feedback on the wording of a communication. Now, it may be that I didn’t process it well. But that’s the point. I didn’t get it. Kudos go to my friend for taking the time to reach out to me (and others) and ask for feedback.
This may be something for you to think about also. Is your marketing message clear and specific? Is your sales conversation clear and specific? Are work order instructions in your company clear and specific? Are job descriptions and expectations clear and specific? They should be. If they’re not you may be wasting valuable resources- money and time.
© 2009 Peter E. McDowell
PERFORMA Business Development
Different View/ Better Results
Web @ http://www.performabusdev.com
Blog @ http://petemcd.wordpress.com/
Connect with Pete on biznik, Contribution Networking Party, Eastside Entrepreneurs, Facebook, Konnects, Linked In, Plaxo and Twitter.
