It was another cracker of a Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmare last night.

This time it was the turn of The Priory in Haywards Heath – West Sussex.

From a boring and very plastic carvery, The Priory re-invented itself into a Grill to reposition itself to a new and more affluent market.

After Ramsay left, the orders went down and when he revisited them, whilst the food might have been great, they were not getting the footfall that they needed.

Here’s a lesson:

Having a good product is not good enough nowadays. “Build it and they will come” is a load of rubbish!

If you want to have a successful shop or store, you need to market and sell your wares to the public. Get out there and drum up business.

Don’t rely everything on word of mouth marketing, you need to be proactive and bring the business in. Even when you are chockablock full, keep marketing!

Sean Mc

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Here are two effective sales copy tips…

If you are writing a sales letter or a direct mail piece you should always include an attention grabbing headline and a PS at the end of the letter.

A HEADLINE – This grabs the readers attention and makes them curious to find out more. If your letters do not have a headline then I recommend that you change this approach! You have nanno seconds to make the reader read on and an effective headline hooks the reader in.

The best headlines are “HOW TO” headlines.

Here are some examples:

How to reduce your printing costs by 43% without compromising on quality.

How to become a qualified football coach without ever kicking a ball!

Don’t they create curiosity? Especially that last one!

Another top tip is to use a PS at the bottom of your letters. It is one of the first things apart from the headline that your reader will look at so make sure you have one!

So what should you include within a PS?

Well, in my opinion you should include your biggest and best benefit!

It’s a great opportunity to hit your readers with a main USP of your products and services. Here’s what I mean…

Yours Sincerely

PS Don’t forget that anyone who attends one of our sales courses also receives 6 months of unlimited email and telephone support from their course leader! After all, it’s after the course when the real work starts! MTD will be there for you whilst you implement what you have covered for any personal help or guidance.

Sometimes, you can put two or three PSs.

For the example above I could recap the offer I was making in the letter…

Yours Sincerely

PPS If you order by 25th November you will also receive a 13 CD set called “Martini Sales Closing – Anytime, anyplace, anywhere!”

Pay close attention to your headlines and your PSs and watch your response rates soar!

Happy selling

Sean Mc

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England 2 Croatia 3

Out of the European Championships before a ball is kicked – gutted!

So what are the sales lessons that you can learn from this debacle? Sales Managers and Sales Directors – listen up!

SEAN’S OBSERVATION 1
When you look at the English team on paper we should be competing to win every international tournament not just scraping through the qualifiers!

SALES LESSON 1
It shows you that no matter how good your sales people are if they do not gel as a team and work as a team you are stuffed!

Action – what can you do to gel your sales team together and make them work together more effectively?

SEANS’S OBSERVATION 2
Did McLaren really have the respect of the players? Espeically the big guns? What has he done in the past? Bugger All!

SALES LESSON 2
Get Sales Managers and Sales Directors at the helm with a proven track record of success, results and motivation. They will have instant street cred from their sales teams.

Action – are your Sales Managers like Alex Fergusons or Jose Mourinho? or do you have Peter Reids? (Sorry Peter, as a Coventry City supporter you ruined our club!). Get the best that you can afford as they will bring home the silverware!

SEAN’S OBSERVATION 3
England just did not have a strategy all throughout the tournament. What was the settled formation? What was the strategy?

SALES LESSON 3
Always always always have a sales strategy. You should have a strategy and a plan of how you are going to implement that strategy for each type of client.

Action – what is your approach for a client that likes no fluff and wants you to “get on with it?” what is your strategy for a client that likes the detail?
what is your overall strategy to obtain major accounts? And where is your sales plan to achieve this?

SEAN’S OBSERVATION 4
McLaren had a lot of injuries throughout the qualifiers and this impacted on our results……well welcome to the real world!

SALES LESSON 4
We all have sickness in our teams, people who leave and those that underperform. We should get rid of the excuses and instead have a back up plan if these sort of things occur.

Action – contingency! contingency! contingency! what are your plans and strategies for those unexpected occurances!

SEAN’S OBSERVATION 5
Were we good enough in the first place?

SALES LESSON 5
We always have to ask the question of ourselves. How can we improve? Are we changing the way we sell in line with what the market and the client wants? Are we changing the way we play football to meet with the style that our opposition use? From last night, obviously not.

Action – how are you continually improving and refining your technique? This goes back to the Sales Manager and Director. What can you learn from them? Could you learn more from a Ferguson than a McLaren? What sales coaching methods are being used? What is happening on the sales training pitch?

All of these add to up to produce top performing sales people!

Okay, rant over!

But there are some valuable sales lessons to be had even from watching that debacle last night!

Happy selling!

Sean Mc

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

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What do you do and say when the prospect says:

“I want to think about it”?

Well, I know that if a client says that to me I haven’t really unearthed what the true objections could be.

“I want to think about it” is not really an objection.

Instead, it’s a way to buy some time and is a stalling tactic.

As a salesperson you need to know why your prospect is stalling and then help them to make their decision.

Here’s a way to unearth what I mean:

(Use your own words and style here)

PROSPECT:
I want to think about it

YOU:
Ok, great. So you are interested Mr Prospect? Is that what you mean?

PROSPECT:
Yes we are

YOU:
I hope you’re not just saying that to get rid of me Mr Prospect!! (say it in a joking way and create some rapport with some laughter and banter)

PROSPECT:
No, far from it. I just need to weigh up all of our options.

YOU:
Sure thing. Investing in XYZ is a big/important decision. (then talk about why etc) Do you have to run what I’ve covered by anyone else? (this tells you whether or not they are the decision maker!)

PROSPECT:
(If he says yes, then you need to meet/talk with the “other people” for a fair hearing!)

No, I will be making the final decision.

YOU:
No problem. I bet you’ve got a lot of questions in your mind to think through and reflect on?

PROSPECT:
Yes, I have. (They will then tell you why or you respond with..)

YOU:
Which question would you say are the most important for you?

(Whatever the prospect now says will be the major objections)

Please remember that objections can come in many shapes and guises, it’s your job to find out what they really are and respond accordingly.

Here are some objections that they could come out with when they say “I want to think it over”

- The prospect is not the decision maker and needs others to help them decide

- You are too expensive

- They don’t have the budget

- They were just investigating the possibility of your product/service

- The other two businesses that they saw were both cheaper than you but you had the better products

- They are not ready to buy right now

- They do not like you

- Your product/service does not do what they want

- They want a more reputable/established company

- They always use XYZ for this type of work in the past

Keep it simple, be yourself and until next time, happy selling!

Sean Mc

PS
By the way, we have got some 2-day Essential Selling Skills workshops coming up at the Crowne Plaza, Heathrow.

** IMPROVE YOUR SALES PERFORMANCE **

We can come to you to help you close more sales and overcome those objections! Check out in-house sales courses

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Hi,

Here’s some free sales training for you!

I received an email a couple of days ago that asked for advice on how to react to prospects when you are more expensive than the competition.

Here’s the question:

“Our company sells installations, a problem that we have is that our prices are quite high and some customers say they have found a cheaper option. I know there is always try and sell it on the basis of having a USP but I was wondering what other ways could really make it appealing to customers to use us instead of a cheaper alternative. Could you please help me with a few ways we can try and get around this and still win the customers with a higher price than a competitor?”

My thoughts:

There are many sales techniques that I could cover here but here is something to get the grey matter working…

If you know that you are the most expensive than admit it and use that as an excuse to go over your value proposition. I assume that you are offering something that they don’t here and don’t just put the price up for the sake of it?

Say something like:

“Yes, you’re right, we are not the cheapest game in town but we offer the highest quality of installation and ongoing support within the region. We have a warranty that lasts for 5 years when our cheaper competitors offer only 3 which means that you still have the peace of mind for a further 2 years in the event of a breakdown and huge bills to fix it. Don’t forget the additional cost also includes 3 visits per year to ensure it is optimised…”

See where I am going with this?

Use it as an opportunity to explain the reasons why you are more expensive. Don’t hide from it.

I don’t care what anyone says people do not buy on price alone.

Don’t believe me? Well, just look outside at the cars in the car park!

Instead, bring to your prospect’s attention to other factors like quality, peace of mind, ongoing support, handholding, relationship, future costs, snob value, making them look good when they decide to go with the best etc…

You normally get what you pay for in this world and I would think that if things go wrong with what you are selling, then it can be costly and cause a lot of disruption to the business so you should use this to your advantage.

At the end of the day if I were to employ a surgeon to operation on my long standing tennis elbow injury I would rather pay £10k and have a specialist complete the operation than an ears, nose, throat and elbow surgeon for a grand!

Happy selling!

Sean Mc

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

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Fenwick Arms – A Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmare revisited last night!

The Fenwick Arms was a prime of example of potential going down the pan due to lack of motivational leadership and a sales strategy.

Based in Lancaster, the pub had a prime location and from the outside it looked like a Traditional English Pub – the type you’d like to snuggle down to for a Sunday Roast and a pint of Pedigree!

However, the food was too fussy, far too complicated and the owners – Brian and Elaine were working 120 hours per week…….each!

In the Fenwick Arms, “Specials” were called “Additions” – keh? What’s all that about?

Ramsay wanted to get back to basics with rustic, simple English cooking – here here! This was a sound strategy because when I go into a pub I want good old fashioned traditional grub with my pint. He also created a very well thought out PR angle to increase sales. The Fenwick Arms was going to be the safe haven for “REAL GRAVY”.

So, all of this was implemented and the pub started to get back on track and make some money and sales were going up!

Then Ramsay revisited them a year on….

Yes, they were doing 200 covers on a Sunday instead of 50 but the morale of the pub was rock bottom and the owner, Brian, was meddling.

What a shambles! The staff were not being listened to and 30% of them were looking for other jobs. They were serving piping hot meals in the middle of summer!!

Here are some sales and marketing lessons from last night’s Fenwick Arms Kitchen Nightmare:

LESSON 1 – UNDERSTAND WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS WANT AND EXPECT
When you walk into a pub you expect pub grub. What do your customers expect from you? I’m not only talking about your product and service but what about after-care support? A regular call from their account manager? Make it easy for them to do business with you. Have you even asked them?

LESSON 2 – INVOLVE YOUR TEAM
Involve and encourage your team. Ask them for ideas. Tell them when a job has been done well. Get them involved in the selling, product creation, marketing, customer support. It makes them feel part of the team rather than just a cog in the wheel.

LESSON 3 – MAKE THINGS SIMPLE
Make everything you do easy to understand from your customers and prospects point of view. Don’t overcomplicate brochures, presentations and DON’T try to be too clever with your website. Just MAKE IT EASY!

LESSON 4 – SET UP WINNING SYSTEMS
For a pub it’s about enabling the food to fly out the kitchen door. For the service staff, they need to turn the tables around for 2 or 3 sittings. Everyone needs to know what their job is and WHY. Make it clear as to the importance of having a system and process. The kitchen and service staff need to work as one big team.

The Fenwick Arms was a prime example of people working hard and getting bugger all out of it. Just by working smarter, understanding your customer requirements and setting up your systems to support this will always increase your chances of success.

Happy Selling!

Sean Mc

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

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Cold Calling Technique – What’s yours like?

If you are like the vast majority of cold callers out there then you suck! I really mean that – the standards of cold calling that I have to endure as a Decision Maker are terrible.

The funny thing is, is that they know (or should know) that they are cold calling the head man of a Sales Training Company so you think they would at least try to be a little bit special! I shake my head at times I really do!

So what can you do to stand out from the crowd of cold calling mediocrity?

Here are 5 cold calling techniques to use or avoid as the case may be:

1. Do not sound polished – as soon as a well oiled person comes on the telephone I immediately know it’s a salesperson. Why? Because they are too perfect. No stammers, no “err” “umms” – be human please and you will get a crack at the title.

2. Do not ask “How are you today?” – that’s puke material and smells of “I’m building rapport before I ask you for your money!”

3. Qualify before you call – “Can I speak with who deals with your marketing please?” – “No, bog off – if you can’t be bothered to find out his name, I can’t be bothered to put you through” This is just awful salesmanship. Do your homework.

4. I don’t want war and peace! – If your objective is to set an appointment then sell the appointment! Do not go on and on about your company, your products etc. Just get the appointment and focus on that.

5. “I’m not interested” – How do you reply to this response? Have you got a standard response? Want to know my line? Here it is:

PROSPECT:
“I’m not interested”

SEAN:
“I didn’t think you’d be interested, that’s why I called” THEN DON’T SAY ANYTHING

PROSPECT:
“What?”

SEAN:
“Well, XYZ Company said that they weren’t interested too until they trialled our ABC system which improved their sales by 36% in 1 week – the reason for my call is that I just wanted to pop around and talk you through what it is and how it can improve your sales performance. Would next Tuesday at 3pm be good for you?”

Go for the jugular! I get a hit rate higher than anyone I know!

Use these cold calling techniques and watch your response rates soar!

Happy selling

Sean Mc

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

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Here’s a question I was emailed from one of my sales tips newsletter subscribers:

Firstly, thanks very much for the tips. I really find them useful. I was wondering if you could help with another type of prospect that I seem to run into a lot. “The Procrastinator”. This is the prospect who seems very interested initially and loves to have a meeting and demonstration etc.. But when you try to get a decision out of them they just say things like “I haven’t decided yet” or “We’re pushing it back for a month or two”. Can you give me some tips on how to bring them back to that feeling of interest in order to push for a decision.

My thoughts on this…

Some things to think about:

- Have you REALLY demonstrated and built the value in your sales pitch?

- Have you talked BENEFITS not features?

- Have you responded to objections with “What do you mean?” to qualify it

- “I need to think about it?” respond with “What specifically do you need to think about?” then build the value again

- Is he/she really the decision maker?

- Bring some sort of scarcity into the pricing. Early bird ordering. Discounts for up front payments etc

- Ask him/her what the next steps are?

- “What do you need to make your decision?” this will find out his/her buying strategy!

Overall, you either haven’t build up the value sufficiently enough to convince the prospect or you have not found out how he/she makes their decisions. These two vital areas are very important for closing deals.

Hope these help?

Sean Mc

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

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I love analysing sales people at work especially when someone tries to sell to me as I know exactly what is coming next!

One particular instance happened when we moved premises into the prestigous Business Innovation Centre that is part of the new Univeristy of Warwick development.

If you haven’t seen a picture of our premises yet please click here.

Anyhow, I wanted to give the office a makeover so I decided that for the new move we would purchase brand new furniture

I rang around personally to negotiate prices whilst some of my trainers listened in to the call as part of their development.

I ended up with a list of prices that all of these companies would “do for me”.

I then left it.

The following couple of days our office received call after call after call from salesman asking for me. They knew that this was a big deal and they knew that I was the decision-maker.

I played hard to get.

I then got one of my assistants to call each one back to say “Sean has narrowed his supplier search down to three firms, and he is interested in your product, is that the best price that you can do?

That’s it. I told her to say nothing more as I sat next to her whilst she was making the calls. I told her to say very little else and enjoy the silence!

What happened next?

Well, we received a further 10, 12.5 and 15 percent reductions in price!

The truth of the matter was that the salespeople were very poor and yes I screwed them completely.

As a prospect I was in-fact happy with the prices I had negotiated in the first place so to get an additional 15 percent was incredible.

But, all I was interested in was quality and not one sales person talked about quality and WHAT I WANTED and WHAT WAS IMPORTANT TO ME.

Instead I “smoke screened” them with the “best price” reply.

The reason why I say this is because your suppliers will try to screw you too so you need to be careful.

Here are some lessons from this encounter:

* Ask better quality questions up-stream to learn what is MOST important to the prospect. Just because they ask for discount don’t think that this is their main purchasing criteria.

I actually decided to go with a company a little more expensive than all of them who offered a superior product!

* Understand that your prospects will try to “play you off” against your competitors.

Knowing this, you do not have to jump through all of the hoops that they put in front of you. Sometimes its a game of bluff and double bluff.

Maybe that’s why I always clean up at our annual office Poker tournament?!

* Hold firm in your beliefs about the quality of your product.

Don’t discount it just because you may lose the business.

* Be prepared to walk away if the price is not right. A sale needs to be win win situation.

As always if you would like me or any of my team to come in and talk to you about how we could help your company, please do not hesitate to reply to this email and we’ll set something up.

We specialise in helping small and medium sized businesses as well as large organisations so just drop me a line – you are never too large or too small to improve your bottom line!

Sean Mc

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

Piccolo Teatro – the next Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmare!

….and what a nightmare it was too!

Bad management can ruin a business and when that bad management comes from the owner then you are really in the crap!

Piccolo Teatro was a vegetarian restaurant in Paris. But the adage of “build it and they will come” does not work!

Gordon and the team went out onto the streets with a little help from some can-can girls to drum up business and create a buzz around the streets of Paris. As a business owner you need to market your services effectively.

The biggest problem with Piccolo Teatro was the owner Rachel – she was lazy, uninterested and did not have any sense of urgency. She was also waiting on the tables but took no pride in the customer service side of things.

In order to make money in a restaurant you need to run it like a business. Now that may sound obvious but you need to think about the systems you operate, customer service, sales opportunities, sales training, marketing, finance – you name it! You can’t just run it like a hobby when you feel like it.

I was actually writing this blog when the show was on and when Gordon went back the restaurant was closed! I was not shocked though!

Set yourself up for success and the success will come. Piccolo Teatro had bags of potential if run in the right way – the owner had a new talented young chef but the owner was lazy and when your head people have no commitment then you are onto a loser.

Sean Mc
PS Good on you Gordon for giving the young chef the opportunity to work with your team in London – at least you can spot talent!

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…