Last weekend we decided to go for a silly day out to Blackpool.

We wanted to take our little 1 year old daughter to the seaside for the first time and also take in the lights too.

We ended up in Harry Ramsden’s Fish and Chip shop for a sit down meal just before we set off for the 2 hour drive home. 

I’ve just got to tell you of my experience:

1. We queued out the door for 20 minutes while table upon table were empty inside! Little Holly was getting restless as we had to hold the door open and wedge it with our pushchair!

2. We got "told off" very sternly by a Polish waitress that we would have to leave our pushchair by the door which had all of our valuables in it

3. I therefore asked for a highchair to put Holly in "Sorry they are all in use"

4. I was holding our little baby when the food arrived "How am I supposed to eat this when I cannot put my daughter in her buggy?" I asked. "She should be in a highchair" was the reply! "I know, all of the higchairs are in use" Is replied. The waitress walked off never to be seen again

5. My wife and I took it in turns to hold Holly while we had our fish and chips - ridiculous

6. Looking around by the till were 6 people waiting to pay and no-one taking their money. Looking over my other shoulder were 3 members of staff gossiping!

7. When the bill arrived it came to £28.50! We only had fish and chips twice

8. I went to pay - "Was everything ok sir?" said the staff "No, it’s a shambles in here I replied and I have never had fish and chips twice for thirty quid before"

9. They never replied to that!

Overall, it was an utter shambles.

I hope that you have better systems in place if you run a shop or restuarant.

It was over priced and the service was awful. Mr Ramsden will not be seeing any more of my cash!

Sean Mc

10 top tips to become the worst sales person in your company!

Have you ever had sales people who just never seem to make it no matter how hard they try? These sales people are one of the main factors for decline in business. Your sales people are the heart of your company and without good ones you will find it difficult to succeed in selling your products. To train good sales people you sometimes need to take a different approach.

Here are 10 tips that will save you from becoming the worst sales person in the company:

1. Not being punctual: being on time is very important to a customer. Take into consideration that many of your seasonal Christmas customers will be new. Your sales people will represent the first contact these customers have with your company. First impressions are lasting ones and your sales person need to make a good impression.  Being on time will give a good impression to the client and increase their confidence in your company.

2. Poor presentation: some sales people just do not have all their ducks in a row and simply do not present the product well. A presentation is the first thing a customer will know about your product. If your product is not shown correctly to the customer he is very unlikely to buy.

3. Bad attitude: rudeness and unprofessional behavior is not acceptable under any circumstances. It is quite surprising that you will meet some sales people who are just plain rude and short with you the consumer. This gives the potential buyer the wrong impression about your company. They do not get a proper picture of the product, as they will probably not even wait for the presentation to end. You will lose many sales like this. 

4. Not being articulate: a sales person must know how to express himself with confidence and fluency. He needs to be able to greet the prospect and introduce himself with assurance. This will start the whole presentation off to a good start. When he actually presents the product he must be sure to do this in a confident manner. He should also be prepared to answer all questions concisely and well. If your sales person cannot do this, your sale will not go through.

5. Not listening to a customer: a sales person should not only be able to present your product but listen to the prospective buyer. There is nothing more irritating to the consumer than having a sales person go on about a product and not letting you ask a few simple questions. After all whose money is on the line here? Worse still is when you do finally get to ask your question and instead of giving you a straight answer they go off on a tangent and have clearly not been listening to you. This will make a customer angry and they will probably never do business with you.

6. Basing a sale on cost: it is extremely risky for a sales person to depend on cost to close the sales. The prospective buyer will be quick to take advantage when he sees that the deal depends on the cost factor. He will drive the price as low as he can and you will take a heavy cut in profits for the sake of a sale. The buyer may hold off and then not even buy.

7. Not knowing when to close a sale: This is a common fault but a lethal one. Many sales have been lost because the sales person did not know when to close the sale. A good sales person is in tune with the prospective buyer and knows instinctively when to move to close the sale.

8. Hard sell: Hard sell is when sales people try to push the sale on the prospective customer. This will make the buyer aggressive and he will try to get rid of your sales person as soon as possible. It is a proven fact that nobody likes to be sold to.

9. Inflexibility: a sales person should be aware of different personalities and various situations. They must be flexible and able to adapt to different circumstances. The presentation may be the same but the buyers are rarely the same. Each buyer wants to feel special and expects the sales person to understand his circumstances. Inflexibility will cost you many sales. 

10. Not following up a hot prospect: Follow up is very important. It is actually plain good manners. You have spoken to a person who has expressed interest in your company’s product but may not have been able to make a decision yet. It is courteous and good for business to follow up with hem. You may even make a sale this way. If your sales person does not know how to do this you will end up losing valuable customers and sales.

Sean Mc

As a sales professional you should not only improve your sales technique but you also need to improve your mindset and what goes on between those ears.

Within sales you will most likely get more "no’s" than "yes’s" so you need to develop a thick skin and a positive mental attitude.

So, instead of just learning how to close more effectively or overcome objections take time out to learn about developing strong inner beliefs and confidence.

It will be well worth it as your attitude always determines your altitude in life.

Write down what you will say to yourself to remain positive when you get let down or lose a sale. Preparing to sell is very important not only for the outside but also on the inside too!

Sean Mc 

“Hi! Mr. Jones, my name is”…….that’s it!    

That’s about all you have to say on the telephone today for some prospects to realize five things instantly!  Number one, they know that you are NOT a friend or an acquaintance.  Two, they know that this is NOT a social call. Three, they know that you probably should not be trusted. Four, you are invading their privacy and number five; they know that you eventually want money. 

I watched a very interesting documentary on Channel 4 last night called Czech Dream.

It was about two students who decided, through effective advertising, to open a hypermarket that would never exist to see if people would get drawn in with the advertising methods and hype surrounding it’s cheap prices and dreamy world promises.

So, through TV, leaflets, radio,  billboards etc this "imaginary hypermarket" was advertised. The adverts were pretty unique in that they were simple, clean like the one below.

They would have words in Czech in the bubble above that would say "Don’t go" "Don’t pay money" and then at the bottom it would say "Opening 31st May, you’ll find out where soon"

It was pretty smart advertising and it proved the power of advertising when over 2,000 people turned up for the opening and there was no store there!

So what are the sales and marketing lessons from this?

1. Done correctly an advertising campaign can create the buzz and hype about your product

2. You need to be different in your advertising to create curiosity. They were saying "Don’t go" and "Don’t come" Everyone in the city was talking about this approach

3. It just shows you that you can have a rubbish product or even no product and still create a marketing buzz!

4. People can be easily influenced and swayed with words

Now, I’m not saying that you should scam people but there are valuable lessons to be learned here!

If you want to find out more about the Czech Dream documentary please visit: www.czech-dream.com/  it’s well worth it!

Happy Selling

Sean Mc

PS If you are interested in how to create a sales buzz during your presentations make sure you check out our sales training solutions and sales training open courses

PPS One of the most funniest things about the whole thing was that it was funded with a government grant!

"What is the best time to ask for referrals?"

That was a question I was asked when delivering a sales training course only just last week.

Well, in truth any time is a good time but there is a very good time and here it is……when a client has told you how happy they were with your work or product.

Why is this?

Well, they are in a good state about your company and they are happy about what you do. You can reply back with something like "I don’t suppose you know of anyone else who could benefit from this do you?"

By asking for a referral in this way you are subconsciously asking them to say "Oh yes I do" and most of them will convince you that Sheila from accounts or Jo from XYZ would just love what you offer.

Make it sound conversational and it will get a good response.

Happy selling!

Sean Mc

I hope you are doing well and have closed some more deals since the last time you were here?

Here at MTD we have just started on another sales trainer recruitment drive and the whole process has been an enlightening experience I can tell you!

You’d think that sales trainers would know how to pitch themselves wouldn’t you?!

Errrrrrrrr No!

Well, only the bad ones don’t!

Let me tell you about my experience with this over the past couple of weeks and then tell you the lessons learned so when you respond to leads and pitch for business, you don’t make the same mistakes.

Frankly, the responses I have had have been embarrassing and that got me thinking about how we as salespeople approach our clients.

Here’s where it all began..

I approached our normal recruitment agency with the brief and they sent the brief to targeted trainers on their books.

So all of the potential applicants had the same information.

What did I get back from them?

This varied a lot!

Firstly there were some who asked for application packs.

Some asked for job descriptions and everything else under the sun.

Others said that they would "consider" the position subject to terms and conditions!
I mean, come on, I had never even spoken to them yet!

Others sent in stereo typed application forms with trainer profile, cv, courses delivered, "My interests include knitting and meeting people", yawn yawn yawn!

This is okay but I had around 21 of the same!

Four sent me emails with my name as Shawn, Shaun and even Mr McFeet!

Unbelievable!

One even put down "Dear NTD Sales Training" That was filed under "B" for Bin!

Then there were a couple that really stuck in my mind.

One trainer sent me a recording of him in action which I thought was awesome.
He accompanied this with his CV but said to me in a personal note "Sean, please hear me in action to see if I am the right style of trainer that you are after?"

I thought this was really good as he was catering to my needs.

Another said "Sean, I can talk a good game as well as all of the other candidates but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I am conducting a sales seminar at the Warwick Hilton next Saturday and would like to invite you over as my guest to see me in action"

I thought that was awesome too!

So what does all of this have to do with responding to leads and pitching for business?

Well, everything to be honest.

A lot of companies out there respond in the "expected way"
to tenders and to leads.

But very few will go the extra mile and do something different as well to stand out and be noticed, to reduce the risk of doing business with them and to give the client the feeling that they really do value their business.

Despite the numerous checklists that your clients will have to select their preferred vendor, I still believe that people buy people and people like to be surprised!

Make it easy for the client to buy from you rather than have you sell to them.

Out of 92 applicants, I only saw 4 of them and took 1 on.

Does that mean that the other 88 were poor trainers?

Absolutely not.

I bet that I missed out on some very good trainers but how could they help your staff to sell better if they couldn’t sell to me in the first place?!

Only 4 of them stood out and that will be the same when you pitch for business too.

What can you do to go that extra mile with your leads?

What could you do to make them say "Wow, I wasn’t expecting that"

Stand out from the crowd of mediocrity and increase your sales!

Happy selling!

Sean Mc

It’s official!

MTD Sales Training are the most well known sales training company in Coventry.

We asked 100 local firms at random the following question:

"Name a sales training company in Coventry?"

Out of the 100, 63 firms said MTD Sales Training, 32 said "We don’t know of any" and 5 said other companies.

This was great news for MTD because although we have a client list to die for, they are mainly international firms around the country. We were delighted to move our admin HQ to the city of my birth and to start offering more and more sales training services to local firms of all different shapes and sizes! 

And the future of sales training in Coventry? Well, watch this space. We have big ideas for open courses, in-house courses and one to one sales coaching. Also, a lot of Coventry based firms have signed their staff up to receive our free sales tips through email.

We are also planning a Coventry Young Entrepreneur Club - so watch out for more news!

Back to work!

Sean Mc

A lot is made about sales models and having a framework from which to sell from.

But not a lot of sales people know their own buyers model for purchasing which is crazy when you think about it.

You should be able to overlay your sales model with your buyers purchasing model and they should complement each other very well.

So my question to you is this:

Do you know how your prospects make their purchasing decision?

How do they make their mind up?

Who else is involved?

Who is the ultimate decision maker?

What role does your "buyer" have?

Do they influence the decision or are they the main decision maker?

How long does the decision take to make?

What are the steps they need to take to progress the sale?

When meeting with your prospect you should unearth the answers to these questions and then position your sales model in line with your prospect’s model of purchasing. Ensure your sales training material covers this because it is very important.

Happy Selling

Sean Mc