Okay, so you’ve lost the sale you’ve been working so hard on.

Now, it’s a natual reaction to get angry, to sulk and to go into denial and all of those things but keep calm and try and focus.

I recommend that you have a system in place on how to deal with lost business. Here’s what you should do:

1. Find Out Why You "Lost"

So you might be fuming at the propsect who took up so much of your time and at this moment you’d like to throw them through a window but be professional about this. Call them up and find out the specific reasons why you didn’t get this business.

"Did we do anything wrong Mr Prospect?"

"Did you see value in our product/service?" If so what?

"What did the "winner" do that we didn’t Mr Prospect?"

Ask questions that will enable you to become a better sales person. Just a few tweaks here or there might be all it takes to make the difference. But you need to know what they are!

2. Follow Up

After you have received the feedback send the Prospect a thank you card or a personal letter. This will position you and your products and services in a positive light and might actually seed some doubts in their mind that they have made the right decision! There’s always another time, and you want them to come to you next time.

3. Keep A Level Head

Your mindset is crucial when going through this process. I can honestly say that I think a company is nuts if they use anyone else other than MTD Sales Training to improve their sales staff but it does happen from time to time. You’ve got to keep a level head and analyse the reasons why. And don’t assume it’s always on price either.

4. Keep Proving Your Worth

Put the prospect into an ongoing educational marketing and sales process. So you’ve lost this battle but it’s the war you’re interested in. Keep proving your worth over time by sending the prospect tips, newsletters, freebies and articles and keep educating them and helping them.

Over time, they will come back to you.

You win some, you lose some. That’s the nature of sales.

But take it on the chin and learn from any "lost business" and you will become a much stronger sales person for it.

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat - The UK’s #1 Authority On Sales Success

MTD Sales Training

Telephone: 0800 8498 6732

As Barack Obama becomes the most powerful man in the world, there are a number of lessons that sales people and marketers worldwide can take from this modern day, new school leader.

Barack Obama is an awesome role model of just what you can do with the right belief, strategy and a hard working ethic.

So here are 5 lessons that you can take from Barack Obama and put them into your sales efforts.

1. Activity, Activity, Activity

If you take a look at how many and how frequently Obama and his team visited and canvassed the different states around the US you’ll see that he did much more than McCain.

This activity was done DAY IN and DAY OUT with no restbite.

Lesson - Get out there and generate the activity on a CONSISTENT basis

2. Make A Connection

Obama made a connection with the people. He can step into their shoes and understand what they are going through and can communicate in a language that they can understand.

Lesson - What can you do before, during and after the sale to make a connection with your prospects and clients?

3. Obama Is Selling Hope

If you line up 10 people and ask them what Obama’s policies are, I’d bet you’d be hard pressed to get any specifics from them. Obama tapped into the emotional sell. He used statements like "If you’re a mom and you’re son is in Iraq, you’re tired of those sleepless nights fearing that phone might ring" - "You’re worried about how you’re going to make that mortgage payment"

What Obama is selling is a bright new future and hope for the US.

Lesson - What can you do to stress the benefits of your product and service beyond what it does?

4. Obsolete Products

Of course, the citizens of the US had been using a product (i.e Bush) that they had become tired of. The company that sold the product (i.e Republicans) was also tarred with the same brush.

Obama had some ammunition to work with but had to be careful not to slag the competition off.

He positioned himself against the old, obselete product as something new and up to date and this resonated with the marketplace.

Lesson - Don’t tear down the competition but position yourself against them based upon their strengths and weaknesses

5. Sell Yourself

The way that Obama speaks really moves people.

Not I’m not saying that you need to move your prospects to tears but you need to stir up their emotions and come across as someone who is sincere and knows their stuff.

Gordon Brown said that Obama ran an "inspirational campaign, energising politics with his progressive values and his vision for the future".

Conservative leader David Cameron hailed Obama as the "first of a new generation of world leaders"

Lesson - Think about what you stand for as a sales person. How can you come across as visionary in your field? What can you do to make your prospect and clients say "Wow, he/she was just awesome - we’ve got to use them"

Having stopped up very late and on into the morning I was moved by the whole occassion.

If only one of our leaders had such charisma and vision to see us through these rocky waters!

Happy Selling

Sean

Sean McPheat - The UK’s #1 Authority In Sales Success

MTD Sales Training - http://www.mtdsalestraining.com

Click here for 20 FREE Sales Improvement audios

……just don’t ask me how!

So there I was just preparing to write my blog on how well Danny and Anna-Marie did in the latest task, about their "out of the box" thinking, their creativity and their activity rates and up comes Gavin with one deal and he wins the whole damn show.

Ridiculous really.

His sob sob story about how crap he was to the guy who pledged £20,001 was pretty appalling.

Still, that’s by the by (embedded comand for a sale there! "by" instead of "buy") well done Gavin!

Nice guys can win but it was a complete fluke and you got lucky.

It just shows that you should never give up but by Gavin winning it really made a mockery out of the entire series and how must Danny be feeling? Absolutely gutted I would think.

By far, the best sales person on the show was Danny and he ended up with nothing.

Anna-Marie - you did a great job too.

I had loads to say about how well you two guys did but I’m still gobsmacked and I’ve been up since 4am as I had an early bird flight to Amsterdam this morning so my typing skills at 12:00am are not too hot!

So this brings the Natural Born Sellers series to a close. ITV should have pulled their fingers out and sold it more themselves. I don’t think they’ll be another series.

But I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the series and I’ve also enjoyed the email and telephone chats I’ve had with most of the contestants and I’ve made friends with quite a few of them too.

All the very best and happy selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat

The UK’s #1 Authority On Sales Success

MTD Sales Training

I’ved opened up a right can of worms on the internet!

"Hi Mr Prospect, it’s John Byrne from ABC, how are you?"

Do you get upset when a cold caller uses the "How are you?" opening?

It’s a bit like marmite really - you either love it or hate it!

Well, I’ve been putting the question out to my networks and it’s a 75/25 split against using the question.

My take on this?

I can see both sides of the story. In my experience of having helped 10,000 sales people around the world, your success in asking the question will all come down to the execution of it.

I’ve used the question myself in the past and have got some awesome results. Having said that, we don’t train it nowadays as much as we used to because the modern day buyer has wised up to it because so many cold callers ask it! The thing is, is that you need to ask it in the right way. It’s no good asking it in the tonality which says "I’m calling for your money". Those cheesy openings from the smile and dial era are to blame for giving the "How are you?" question a bad name in the first place!

Personally, I don’t like being on the end of "How are you?" because as of yet no-one has said it in a way that made me feel that they were genuinely interested in me apart from getting money.

But what do you think?

Do you use it?

Do you hate it?

Well, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Maybe you use the line and have had great success with it? Maybe you use the line and wonder why you don’t get the results you want?

If you do use it, your success will depend on the timing and also the tonality of your voice.

Please make a comment on this blog below and let me know what you think.

Happy Selling

Sean

Sean McPheat

The UK’s #1 Authority On Sales Success

PS I’ve just started a new group called Practical Sales Tips on LinkedIn - I would love you to join the group and it’s also a great opportunity to network with other sales people too. The debate about "How are you?" is hotting up there too!

I received a great question in my inbox last week that was from a salesman whose results were taking a dip yet his sales closing ratio was just as high as normal, the pipeline was a full as it ever was and his appointment setting ratios were higher than normal. 

"Please help me identify where I am going wrong Sean?" was his plea!

Here are my thoughts on this…

Personally, I’m a numbers junkie. I like to know every single stat and number of my selling.

Why?

Well, that’s easy.

You see, if you can split out your sales process into 8 different steps (for example) and you can measure each one then when I’m not getting the results I want I can analyse each one of those steps and see where the bottlenecks are.

I’m not just talking about the bog standard steps either. I mean EVERY STEP.

Too many sales people go through a "slump" where their number of closed sales are not what they should be. So what do they do? Well, they start to muck about with their presentation and how they close and they tinker with little things here and there.

The bottom line is that they do not know where the problem is so they guess. Well, with a well thought out sales process, one which you can measure, these bottlenecks can easily be identified.

For example, the problem might not be in the sales presentation at all - that ratio might be just has high as normal. The problem might not be the number of prospects in the pipeline either. The problem might not be with the number of appointments set too.

"So where is the bloomin problem?" I hear you cry.

Well the problem might have been that your decision makers were cancelling the appointments that you had set with them and because you were so busy busy busy, something like that could have gone un-noticed. So many "lost sales" fall under the radar.

So on  the face of it your appointment setting ratios are still the same, your closing ratios are still the same yet your number of actual closed deals is falling.

Something like unfulfilled appointments can slip through the net undetected. They might go unrecorded for example.

So what would this mean?

Well, it might mean that you are selling too hard in your cold calls. By this I mean that the prospect agrees to a meeting just to get you off the phone and then cancels later on.

You need to understand every step of your sales process not matter how small or trivial and then you need to measure that step.

Something trivial looking like just improving the number of returned calls you get when leaving voice messages can make you an additional 5-10 sales per year just by changing the message you leave everything else being equal.

What you need to do next is:

• Go somewhere quiet and map out your end to end sales process in as much detail as you can - leave nothing out!
• Take steps to measure the numbers and ratios at each stage
• Consistently review your figures at each stage so you know what’s working and what isn’t

Happy Selling! (and measuring!)

Sean

Sean McPheat

The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling

Telephone: 0800 849 6732

If you want to really max out your sales then you need to approach your selling as though you’re a trusted advisor.

This goes far beyond the call of duty of a “typical sales person”.

Instead, you want to position yourself as an expert in your field, the “GO TO” person for whatever you sell.

And it goes far beyond what you sell too. I’m flattered to be called a leader in my field by the press and other sources and I receive requests from my clients ranging from “Do you know anyone who could help us with IT?” through to “Could you help us to set up some joint ventures?”

I can tell you that the list is endless!

But in order to achieve this “status” in the marketplace, you’ve got to put the hard, long hours in.

You should be centred on your clients and prospects at all times. I send them any articles I see in the papers, any free resources I am privvy too, any latest news I pick up from my travels and anything I feel will be of benefit to them.

Of course, when I meet with them I know my stuff and the ongoing support I provide for them takes me/MTD into partnership status instead of third party supplier.

And that’s exactly the position you need to get to. And like always if you want any advice on this please just click here with your scenario and I’ll be happy to give you some pointers.

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat - The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling

MTD Sales Training

Telephone: 0800 849 6732

Whether we admit it or not it’s a great boost to your ego when you win a sale.

But there’s no room for egos in the sales process!

Here’s why…

You see, when you approach a sale as a “WIN-LOSE” event you lose the need to have the prospects best interests at heart in favour of winning the business.

Your ego takes over.

Your ego wants you to look good, to talk the most, to be right and ultimately to win but in sales this is not always the case.

Both you and your prospects need to look good, the prospect more so. Your prospect should be doing most of the talking not you and you need WIN-WIN outcomes where you BOTH feel like you’ve got the best end of the deal.

It goes right against what your EGO wants!

Oh, ok, I’ll admit it - I have a big EGO! But I leave it at the door when it comes to a sales interaction.

The only outcome on my mind is to get what’s right for the prospect even if it means walking away - and I am deadly serious about that.

So, lose the EGO and focus on your prospect’s needs and wants and watch your sales fly!

Happy EGO losing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling

MTD Sales Training

Oh come on….I did say I had an EGO!

From time to time you’ll close a monster deal!

With this you’ll most likely hit 25% of yearly sales target with one piece of business.

But do you continually go after whales all of the time at the expense of smaller fish?

My advice is that your pipeline should consist of both.

The reason being is that to bag a large deal normally takes you a lot longer time to close and they take up a lot of your attention usually at the expense of the smaller deals.

That’s not to say that you should not go for them, but you should have both in your pipeline.

For example, to get the deal which made 25% of your yearly target it may have taken you 60% of your time  to get it so it puts you under pressure then to make up the difference.

Make sure that your prospecting strategy includes approaches to big fish as well as small fish.

The big fish will give you a fantastic feast but after a while you’ll go hungry. Whereas a steady supply of little tiddlers interspersed with the odd whale will keep you full all year round!

Happy Hunting!

Sean

Sean McPheat

The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling

MTD Sales Training

Telephone: 0800 849 6732

Here’s a question I was emailed over the weekend:

“Sean, here’s my main problem: Our clients want to reduce their business by a few ££ or say that they will have to stop doing business for a few months. I cannot afford to lose total revenue so being forced to compromise on profits. Or do I take a risk and say I cannot lower prices?”

My thoughts:

You mentioned the options are to either make compromises on profits by lowering prices or remain firm and risk losing business.  Well, there is a third option: Raise the value.  Or use a combination, by dramatically raising the value and only slightly reducing the price.

There are usually several ways to raise the value and the perceived value of a product or service without significantly increasing costs.  Often this may include more attention, more time or more personal service, which yes, will increase the overall cost basis, but not the cost of goods sold.
Look to finds areas where you can raise the tangible or perceived value of what you sell.   This can be in services or in processes or in even in people.  As long as you remain in the general range of the market for your product, you should be able to gain an advantage on the competition by raising value. Without knowing exactly what you do, I can’t give you any suggestions, but here’s a generic example:

Two shoe repair shops across the street from each other.  Due to lean times, one cuts prices and reduces the space he is renting to save money. The other, uses this fact and instead of cutting prices or space, adds some comfortable seats in his shop along with free coffee and cakes while you wait.
Now the choice for customers is a shoe repair while you stand for 30 minutes or go out and walk around, for £4.  Or sit in a comfy chair, watch a bit of TV and have coffee and a doughnut while your shoes are repaired for £5.
One has a sign that says, “Shoes Repaired While You Wait.”  The other says, “Shoes Expertly Mended While You Rest!”

I know these are generic examples for illustration, but I hope you see what I am getting to.

I know sometimes that it’s not even possible, but first do everything you can to explore every area to increase the value far beyond the cost.   Also in a selling situation, remember that people and process can add value.  Where one software firm employs high school grads and college interns to help with programming, the other only uses skilled programmers—this is an added value.
Whenever possible look for ways to add more. Remember that every price or money centered objection, whether that be in the form of the economy or not, is still about value.  Once the return for letting the money go, exceeds the cost of holding on to the money—sold!

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat

The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling

MTD Sales Training

Telephone: 0800 849 6732

I’m often asked to write sales scripts for organisations, especially for telephone sales.

From time to time I’m also asked to write sales scripts for face to face sales too.

Here’s my take on this:

To be honest, OVERALL,  I am not a big fan of using scripts. If you’re new to a company, or if you’re selling a specific product then a script can help you to learn the ropes but a script should never be used verbatim.

I can tell a mile off when someone is using a scipt and you lose a lot of the personal touch and nouse that gets you through a sales interaction.

Instead, I’m all for using a framework instead of a script. With this it would look like a mind map of certain pieces of information or keywords to cover. Not a word for word script but a planned “not canned” framework.

Successful selling is all about being flexible in any sales interaction. As soon as you use a script and your prospect throws a question in that you haven’t thought of or don’t have a canned answer to, you can be easily thrown off track.

Instead, have a brainstorm of the areas you need to cover - whether it be a telephone call or a face to face interaction. Be flexible and use the framework as a guide.

If you are new, then use a script to start with and then ditch it in favour of a framework and mind map.

Happy planning and not canning your approach!

Sean

Sean McPheat

The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling

MTD Sales Training

Telephone: 0800 849 6732