The Seven Secrets of Highly Successful Sales Training

If you're investing in sales training you need to ensure that you get the result that you're after. But how do you know that you're getting it?

There are a lot of companies - particularly in the SME sector - who are investing in improving their sales teams right now. A very wise move. So to help you to reach your results and avoid the pitfalls I've written a straight forward guide for all directors & HR managers. I hope you'll find it invaluable whether you're making your first investment in sales training or your hundredth.


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Google Searchwiki

Last Friday Google changed the rules. And when Google changes the rules – especially when it makes the kind of changes it made last Friday – it’s going to have an impact on your business.

Google launched Google Searchwiki for all it’s registered account users. As the name suggests, this service combines the normal search function of Google with a wiki style interface. (A wiki is a website that allows you to add, move or change content).

Now when you search on Google as a signed-in user, you can pick out your favourite results and promote them straight to the top or delete your least favourite altogether (only within your account). You can add results that you’d like to be there but aren’t (again, only for your own results), and you can add comments. However, the comments you add do become public so everybody can see them – a very significant move. Other users can also see how many times sites have been ‘promoted’ or deleted by other users. This is going to vastly change the way in which many users use Google. Do not underestimate its significance.

For more info on the changes, see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8Pl1H0dIXE



So what does this mean to you, your business and your internet marketing?

One thing’s for sure and that is that speculation will initially be rife. Already there is even speculation to whether it will last, change or develop further, let alone how it will affect us. However there are a few fundamental questions that we need answers to:


What will the affect be if we have more than one web address?

How will this affect different key-word performance?

How much manipulation of the system will there be?

What happens if you become the victim of malicious comments?

What value will Google place on the changes and will that be added into their algorithm for search?

Is this the end of relevant search, and the beginning of ‘those-with-the-most-fans-wins’ democratic search?

What will the spammers sell you to work round this?

How do you now value SEO?

Is PPC now stronger or weaker?

What can you do to influence positive comments?

Do you now have to work harder off-line to promote your website?

Will there be a backlash?

How will this affect your sales and marketing?



The answers to some of these questions may start to become apparent very quickly as small businesses and busy social networkers get stuck into the system as quickly and avidly as possible and start to play it.

The only thing I can tell you as a fact is this: Google itself is not a ‘fact’ of marketing; it is a continually evolving business. Those who rely heavily on SEO or PPC as their sole routes to markets may now be playing a very different game to the one they were playing on Thursday. And it changed without warning. And it may change again. This underscores two points:

1, Your business should always have many routes to market

2, You can never be complacent on the internet.


More on this as it develops.

Beating Recession

Do you know what I dislike most about recession?

It’s nothing to do with economics, it’s those people who knock confidence in others.

It’s people who would otherwise deem themselves to be intelligent business people (or journalists) suddenly deciding that their opinion about recession is right and spouting it out here, there and everywhere. I’m not talking about those with some opinion, I’m talking about those that jabber on and on incessantly about how we should mark their words about the impending end of world economics as we know them.

The economic tide is one thing, but mate-down-the-pub economists really wind me up. I studied economics at A-level, I’ve studied accounting and business finance, I’ve run a business in finance that put packages together for listed companies, I’ve worked with investors, I’ve worked with businesses going through IPOs, I’ve talked to halls full of business people about financing on behalf of Business Link, and I get email updates on policy from the Treasury. But can I tell you what’s going to happen next year? Of course not. Is my macro economic judgement worth anything to your business? Probably not.

I heard an ‘expert’ business advisor at a conference on Tuesday night who in the same breath told everyone how well his own business was doing right now, but that he wasn’t going to grow his business because he was fearful about recession. My only advice would be not to use that advisor.


Do you get the facts?

As is recently well documented, recession is defined by having two successive quarters of negative growth. One quarter (which we have now ‘officially’ had) could be a blip. But this is the economic definition, what we should be concerned about is what it really means.

All that’s happening is that a pie (the economy) that’s been growing nicely for many years is now going to shrink a tiny bit. Last quarter our economy shrunk by 0.1%. Yesterday’s predictions by Mervyn King were that next year the economy could shrink by as much as 2%.

Now get real. If your business’ sales dipped by 2% could you survive? Most would. And that’s an average. Some sectors will be hit worse – estate agents, mortgage brokers, motor manufacturers, furniture companies – which means, by the law of averages that other sectors will do better. And even that’s not the whole picture. The biggest influence on your business is not the wider economy – it never has been. It’s YOU and your ability to make decisions. If you can make a decision to go and get a bit more of the pie, or even a bit of a different part of the pie, then your figures can look very different.


Do you know what I love about recession?

That’s precisely what I love about recession – the huge opportunity for those that realise that they alone are the key. For those that stop frightening themselves with all this macro economic stuff and deal with what’s actually happening right in front of them, there is actually more opportunity than ever before. My sales training programmes are going through the roof at the moment. Why? Because there are plenty of business owners out there that understand that whilst their competitors act like that daft business advisor, they can thrive – by maximising their share of the market.

It’s that kind of Darwinian aspect that I love. Those that go prowling NOW, those that are the fittest of their species will prosper. And note – it’s not the biggest, the flashest, or the proudest. It’s the fittest; the most alert, agile and ravenous that survive. And prosper.

For those that really want it, NOW is your time. Your weapons are outstanding marketing and clinical sales skills. Go for it!

What's Really Stopping Your Customers?

Have you ever stopped to wonder why more people don’t buy from you?

Your company does a great job, you’re passionate about what you do and you know that the people who do buy from you love you. So why is it sometimes such a battle to get more people to do the same?

There could of course be many reasons. You might still be reliant on too few sources of lead generation; your sales skills could be letting you down; or you could just simply be getting the wrong message across. The great news for you here is that tweaking any of these could open the door to an increase in profits for you. But there’s often one thing that’s totally overlooked by business owners and entrepreneurs, and it will completely stop customers buying from you at any price.
It’s risk.

The simple fact is, that to many of your potential customers, buying from you for the first time could well be a considerable risk. You might know that you’re, perhaps, a good florist, but to somebody else you’re the success or failure of a wedding day or a funeral. You might be quite happy in the knowledge that you’re a great courier, but you’re the potential breaking of an important business deal to somebody else.

Taking that first step to buy from you is a huge leap of faith. And it’s never going to be easy for your potential customers to make a huge leap – especially if it’s away from the comfort of another supplier. So we need to break that leap down into far smaller steps. Steps that allow them to walk towards the point of buying from you in a far easier way, until the very last step before they become a full paying customer is just a totally natural progression for them. This is called risk reduction strategy and it’s used all around us by large and highly successful companies. It also often provides us with a far more enjoyable and more profitable way of doing business.

There are many ways you can reduce risk for your customers and all will have a significant effect on your ability to get new customers into your business. Here are a few of my favourites:


• Guarantees or warranties

• Money back offers

• Try before you buy

• Full demonstrations

• Customer testimonials

• Payment terms that show confidence in your quality

• Payment terms that spread the cost of an investment

• Free samples / advice

• Relationship building (people trust those they know better)

• Reduced price (or loss leading) introductory offers


That’s a list that could provide a huge boost to your sales or profits although right now I understand if it looks a bit frightening. Some of that stuff might look expensive or risky for you to do. If you give free samples, won’t that be expensive? If you spread your payment terms out, won’t you have a problem getting paid?

You naturally need to take the options that work best for you, but don’t not take them through your own fear. Once risk is removed for your customers you will find that people will generally be happier to pay more for your goods or services and they will come to you in far greater numbers – you’re now a low risk option for them after all. If you’re still worrying that people will take advantage of you then let me tell you that you’re worrying unnecessarily. Yes, you might just get the odd person who wants their money back, or who has a bit too much of the free sample, but most people just don’t behave like that.

Most people who start taking these steps towards you are doing so with a genuine amount of interest. And if you do get the odd one who takes the Mickey? So what? Don’t get annoyed – put it down to human nature and concentrate on the additional sales and profits that you’re generating.
Risk reduction strategy is one of the most psychologically powerful tools in your marketing armoury and it will give you some very cool results. Don’t be afraid to use it wisely.

Accelerated Income from Marketing

What exactly does marketing give us?

The answer comes from the correlation between time and money. We can’t do anything about time of course; that moves at its own speed. But we can do something about the speed at which we can earn money. For example, think of an amount of money you would really like to earn this year. It would be obvious to say that earning the same amount of money but stretched out over the rest of your career is not going to be quite so appealing. But if we were to accelerate the processes needed to earn that amount so that we could do it in 10 months, or 6 months, or even less, then it suddenly all gets very interesting.

And that is what marketing is all about, achieving that acceleration, getting the results we want more and more quickly. Acceleration is a multiplication effect. In terms of physics it is the speed at which speed increases. In business it is a very simple formula:


(No of customers x No of transactions x Price) / Time = Income Acceleration


The sad thing is that without this information many businesses have no idea how to achieve better results. They become trapped in a consistent mentality of ‘having to advertise’ because it’s what they think they should do, or hoping that they get a referral somewhere but have no clear referral strategy. They compete predominantly on price because, well, isn’t that what all businesses do? And they will then tell you that that is what running a business is like.

Put that kind of thinking into the model above and you can clearly see why so many businesses struggle. I don’t want that for you, and I know without doubt that you’re aiming for more than that – you wouldn’t be reading this otherwise. Marketing is not something to be thought of in isolation. It’s not an academic subject to be dealt with on occasion by the management. It needs to be in the very heart and soul of your business, your people and the way you work.

Let’s just deal with advertising first of all. Advertising can be a way of bringing people into your business and as such it can be a part of your marketing mix. However it very often doesn’t work or it is relied upon on far too heavily by businesses. It certainly does nothing about the number of transactions you can do with each customer or price. Marketing encapsulates the whole acceleration formula.

Here’s a very simple strategy for accelerating your business success. It starts with your existing customers. Those people who, if you’re like 95% of other businesses out there, you ignore or don't treat as well as you should. They dealt with you once but now you’ve forgotten them. Even if your business revolves around repeat supplies you’re certain to have these poor ignored people who once were happy to do business with you. You need to get in the habit of speaking to them. Regularly. Write to them, email them, call them, send them a gift, make them a special offer, tell them about new products, invite them to events, ask them for a meeting, let them have a trial of something new, send them a hello, a thank you or some interesting information. Do whatever you need to do but do it and do it regularly. Every business can do this – I've known take away restaurants do it successfully!

In fact I have never known any business not to win additional sales from this technique and have seen some great relationships rekindle. Every business has an untapped source of wealth and profits in their customer base that they are just ignoring. Instead they are wasting money advertising for more people to deal with once and then ignore! It’s just madness but they can’t see it because that’s exactly what the next business is doing!

So that’s the ‘number of transactions’ part, but what else do we need to create some acceleration?
Here’s the killer punch that gives this strategy the accelerator. Ask for referrals while you do it. How easy is that?! When you are talking to customers always ensure that they are aware that referrals are important to you. If they have bought from you once and liked what you do, isn’t there a great chance that they will know somebody else who would benefit from what you do? Send out ‘family and friends’ vouchers or referral slips. This kind of thing works equally well in business to business circles and I have had some great results for clients in businesses such as IT and finance.

If your business is new or only has a small base you can still use this strategy. The size of your base doesn’t matter and even if it is absolutely zero, start by using the same principles with your old contacts – people who you have dealt with before in some capacity or other. Using this strategy you can achieve more sales from each customer and get them to introduce more customers who in turn can feed back into the same process. If you can also use some advanced strategies for increasing your prices you are well on your way to real accelerated growth. We’ll cover price strategies another time.

Of course this is the tip of the iceberg. There are many ways to pack all sorts of great marketing strategies into the acceleration formula. Remarketing your existing customers well is just one, but it is one of the quickest and most effective. And that, of course, is what acceleration in your business is all about.

Email Marketing

I did a talk on email marketing the other day to a group of people running expanding companies and it amazes me that after a decade or more of having everything that you need to be good at email marketing, it is so ignored or mis-understood by so many.

Email marketing isn't about spam or sending out a perpetual stream of untargeted offers. Email marketing is about keeping relationships and offering value.

Here are the key questions and objections that tend to come up.


How do I get email addresses?
From the business cards of everyone you meet; from your website – offer something to visitors in exchange for their email address, from your customers, from referrals. There are loads of places. Just make sure they are people who have an interest in what you do and are happy to receive your emails. You can buy lists, but these can present problems and are far less likely to give you the results you want.

What should I write about?
Anything that you do – whether generically, or that you specialise in – that they might be interested in. Comment on articles in the press or recent events that link in with what you do. Be yourself too. Don’t write your emails in difficult ‘business speak’ but convey a bit of your business’ personality.
You can also tell people stories about what’s happening in your business, what they should look out for this season, events, thank them, warn them, send them reports or links to other sites, or even just remind them about something. I’ve heard stories of an investment banker who used to send all her clients an email a couple of days before Valentine’s Day to remind them!

Subdivide the people to whom you want to write. You might want to send an email out to everyone, or just to existing customers.

How often should I send out emails?
As often as you like. Keep them bright and interesting and they will be well received. Daily works well for some people. I have worked with people who send out daily emails and have a very good read rate. For the large majority weekly works. There are no rules, go with what you feel is right and can fill with interesting and really useful material. I send them as-and-when with no fixed rule.

People in my line of business don’t do this
Excellent news! A vet once emailed me to tell me that this wasn’t possible for her and that it wouldn’t be the thing for them to do. I nearly fell off my chair, and then thought about opening up a veterinary practice. What an opportunity! People love their pets and would love to get really good advice from their vet by email. Getting their addresses would be really easy – these people regularly walk through your door – and the fact that no-one else is doing it is just superb news. In fact, unless you’re running a funeral parlour I can’t think of any reason why you shouldn’t be doing this.

Isn’t this just spam?
No. We need to be absolutely clear about this. Spam emails are unwanted, unsolicited, and irrelevant emails – think about your own experiences. We’re sending emails to people with whom we either have, or are beginning to have, some kind of relationship, about something we know they are interested in. You should clearly still give people the option of opting out on all emails too.

I have never worked with a company who has done this correctly and had problems with it. In fact on the contrary I’ve heard of clients whose customers have complained when their regular email has dried up when, perhaps, the author has been away for a week or two!

Should I send this out from me or the company?
From you personally, keep it as personal as possible. Relevant, useful and personal are the keys.

I did this once and it didn’t work
Probably because you hadn’t got this kind of leading edge information at the time you might have sent out one ‘10% off’ offer like everybody else. What I’m encouraging you to do here is different. Use email over time to develop relationships and you’ll be surprised at what happens. It won’t change your business overnight, but worked correctly it will provide you with all kinds of opportunities that you are simply walking past today.


And of course, it’s going to cost you somewhere between very little and nothing to do it! Please don’t fall in to the ‘too good to be true trap’. Get emailing today!

A Word About Your Words

The greatest single thing that stands between you and your potential customers is words. You might need other influencers along the way, but the single biggest influence will always be words. You can't get people to see, experience, or imagine your product or service without them.

The power of words is often unrecognised by small and medium sized businesses. Their adverts, brochures, websites, conversation, even their business cards are full of poorly written words that are literally costing them hundreds or thousands of pounds or dollars in lost profits.

This of course is good news for you!

Choosing your words well - in all situations - can have an unbelievable effect on your revenues - often boosting a small or medium-sized business' profits by as much as 50-100%. And it costs no more than choosing bad words, which is likely what your competitors are doing.

Writing copy that works is a skill. But it is a skill that can be very easily learnt - even if you've found it difficult in the past. These are the golden rules with words:

Purpose - What is the point of the words you are about to write or say? For example, if you are writing a small web advert, the job of the advert is simply to get a click. Not to sell the product. Don't feel you have to cram everything you do into everything you say or write.

Perspective - Always write from the customer's perspective. Don't talk about what your product is, as much as what it will do for the customer. If you're selling something technical, put the spec at the back, or as an appendix. Get the customer message across first. Theodore Levitt, the American economist and Harvard professor (who chose these words brilliantly) said: 'People don't buy quarter-inch drills, they buy quarter-inch holes'.

The Magic Word - You. Use it and reap the rewards. As a customer 'you' want to hear what is important to 'you' and what 'you' will get if we work together. By using 'you' in copy, you will also find that it is easier to write the rest of the copy - it will feel more natural, as if you're speaking to a customer or having a conversation with them.

Simplicity - Keep it easy to read. Some people will skim detail, others want more. Try and make it easy for both kinds but avoid waffle at all times - you'll put your readers off. Only address one issue at a time in each paragraph.

Adjectives - Adjectives (describing words) will bring your copy or conversation to life. Describing your product as fast, beautiful, or neat helps to get your message across. However there is a big rule to this: use powerful adjectives, but use them sparingly. Copy or speech that is littered with adjectives becomes hard to follow. It becomes waffly and will force your reader or listener away.

Assumptive Words - Obviously you need to make sure your customers are on side straight away. Naturally they will agree with what you say if you start your sentence assumptively. Words that end '-ly' are good here (these words are your adverbs). How many successful campaigns for big companies start with 'worryingly, obviously, happily...'?

Choosing your words carefully can massively boost your business. Here's something that happened to me recently. I changed one word - one word! - in an advert with only ten words in it, and improved the response rate by over 45%!

Don't just use words, choose them. It can make a big difference.

Your Customers are Here

You have hundreds, possibly even thousands of customers out there who want to do business with you. They want what you’ve got to sell. They actively want to spend their money with you. Many of them might even love to be your customer for life. They have the potential to be a continual stream of income and profits for you.

But they don’t know about you yet. They are your missing customers.

There’s only one thing that’s going to link you up to your hundreds or even thousands of missing customers – and that’s great marketing. You probably have a very good product or service. Quite possibly, you have an outstanding product or service. Unfortunately though, that’s just not enough. You have to find a way to both find these missing customers and then make sure they truly, truly understand how they are going to benefit from doing business with you.

The good news is there are hundreds of ways for you to do this. They include dozens of forms of advertising, direct marketing, internet marketing, search engine advertising, email marketing, direct mail, telephone marketing, direct sales, public relations etc etc...

That’s why marketing should always be the most important thing in your business; it’s the engine that drives everything and will make you grow and prosper. It’s also why becoming good at marketing is the single most important step you can take to growing your business. Most often when a business fails it is because the people in it are poor at marketing. They might blame cash flow, recession, politics, war or anything else they can think of, but a fundamental lack marketing skills is often at the core. The ones that really understand this go on to become the success stories.

How many ways do you continually market your customers? What are the lifetime returns on this?

This blog aims to help you, challenge you and allow you to have a bit of fun along the way too.