By Nic Hallett

Selling to groups can be daunting for many new sales representatives. In fact any sales representatives. We can all suffer from nerves I know and yet standing in front of more than a couple of people seems to make many a sales professional shake.

The truth is that selling to groups can be incredibly powerful and can result in increased revenue and profit. How come? Let us think about it. It may be obvious to some people reading this and yet for other sales people not so.

Imagine the scenario. You are aware that potential new client A and B are about half an hour away from each other. A is running late and yet you are desperate to see her. B on the other hand could give you an order that will make a significant difference to your bottom line. What do you do? Ouch I hear you say. I know we have all been in that situation. Imagine though, if potential new client A and B and their contacts C, D, E and F were all in the room together, and you could sell to this group all at once?

Every sales persons dream. Definitely every sales manager that wants their team to exceed target.

This is known as the power of leverage. Leveraging your time and impact in one go. Potentially in our scenario, moving six prospects further along the adoption pathway for your product or service.

Selling to groups of course is just one way to improve your sales results. We are not saying that the traditional one to one selling interaction does not work. It does and incredibly well. Selling to a group gives you a way to influence and position you’re offering to more people.

This is a skill that any sales professional needs to master. In reality the buying decision and the process of selling has changed. No longer can you just turn up at an appointment and walk away with an order. The bigger the organisation the more likely it is that you will have to sell to a group to gain commitment. Buying nowadays often happens by committee. In some case you might even have to be approved as a supplier to an organisation, before they can purchase what you have to offer.

The initial interaction may be a one to one discussion. This then leads on to a presentation to the interested parties. Here is where the magic starts to happen when you are selling to groups. The power of influence kicks in and it can work to your advantage.

If you are being asked to present the chances are that the organisation have an interest in what you have got. You now have an opportunity to demonstrate why your company, product, or service should be the one to go with. Top tip it is not just the features of your product. It is about how you interact and influence that group. How you structure what you say and the questions you ask. Your body language, your personal brand, and how you communicate your offer.

The financial return for you can be huge as long you, as a sales professional have a process for selling to groups that works.

By Nic Hallett

Selling to groups is the must have skill for any sales professional in the new economy. The concept of selling one to many as a way to leverage resources does have incredible value.

The challenge is many sales people mess up the opportunity by making some basic mistakes. This is common amongst both new and experienced sales people. The opportunity that standing up in front of a group of your customers brings needs to be recognised.

Here are three common mistakes that sales people often make when selling to groups, which can significantly affect the end outcome. I call these the three P’s.

1. Planning
2. Professionalism
3. Pitch

1. Not Having a Plan

Obvious though it maybe to think that everybody plans their presentations, this is not the case. All too often a sales professional will present in an off the cuff style. In the UK this is sometimes referred to as ‘winging’ it. It does not matter how big or small the client is proper preparation can be the difference to a client saying yes or no.

For instance. Think about what you actually want to achieve in the presentation, in other words the outcome you have in mind. How much time do you have? Will you be using a power point slide presentation? Will it be a flip chart? What are the key issues that your market currently have that you product or service will address. Who will attend the presentation and of these people who are the key decision makers. For these key stakeholders what is important to them and how will you build this into the presentation.

2. Lack of Professionalism

Might seem an ‘old fashioned’ point and yet many decisions went the wrong way because of a perceived lack of professionalism from the company presenting. Though it may on the surface look good to be one of the boys, this rarely in the long haul gets the business. So what are we talking about here? Well dress code is usually one. If you are standing in front of a group, remember all eyes are on you. Wear something appropriate that reflects the service that your potential new client thinks that they are buying.

If you are using technology prepare for failures and test everything at least once before the event. Make your slides neat and visible. This is not an article on creating power points. Our advice is always to thinks through what you are wanting to communicate through using slides. For maximum impact mix up visuals and text. If you know how much time you will have stick to it. There is nothing worse than saying your presentation will last 30 minutes and an hour later you are still not there.

3. A Poorly Prepared or Non Existent Pitch

At the end of the day we are all sales people and we are here to promote our products everybody in the room knows that. So prepare and let people know what to expect.This will come down to the outcome you set for yourself at the beginning. If you are asking for commitment you will needs a common and shared agenda. This makes it easy then for all parties to move into a buying ‘frame’.

A bit like the famous fairytale of Goldilocks and the three bears pitching is all about, not too much and not too little. Overselling and underselling are two challenges make sure you hit the spot. All your planning and professionalism will help you do that.

By Nic Hallett

Outcome selling is a relatively new phrase in the sales training world. For so many years now sales training and selling skills in general have been going through a slow evolution.

It started with the classic selling scenario of, tell them what you have got, then tell them again and close. Relatively successful in an era where competition was low.

Fast forward to a little more enlightenment and we move into need benefit selling. Here we actually started to engage the customer and ask them a few well-placed questions. This did produce better results and came about as a consequence of supply and demand. Now there was more supply as well as availability of product X and Y so companies actually had to put some thought into what they were doing.

In today’s new economy selling skills are again ready for an upgrade. As our customers and clients change, so must we in how we sell to them. Especially if we want to be successful and increase our profits and shareholder value.

Running rough shod over a customer will not work. Instead trust and rapport is the name of the game and vital steps in the overall process. Remember it is likely that your potential new customer knows more about you than ever before.

The dictionary definition of outcomes centres on results. The key end result of any selling system. Sales training will still need to help sales trainees understand the steps they need to take. However this time we need to encourage them to use their brain and think about what each step in the process will achieve for them.

Let’s think about Outcome selling and one of its key starting points. For any selling to take place the two parties need to have a conversation and connect. Logical I know and yet not always the case. Ask any frustrated sales manager. This is a subtle and yet powerful difference to the sales representative introducing themselves as a prequel to a barrage of questions.

This first stage of conversation and connection is much more results focused. In the outcome selling model not only is rapport at a personal level built, in addition we are also able to agree if the two parties want the same thing.

Having a shared agenda can saves hours or even months of wasted effort.

Applying the concepts of outcome selling just to this first stage in the selling process can make a significant difference to the overall outcome. There is a saying that goes something along the lines of, start off well and the rest all follows. This could be easily applied to the selling Skills process.

By Nic Hallett

Sales training is a popular search term on Google and not surprising with a global recession still impacting the profitability of many companies.

A classic thought is that many businesses can sell themselves out of a recession which is partly true. However to be successful in the new economy, sales training needs to change.

The truth is, sales training is more than just a process to deliver results that sales managers and sales directors need, it has to form part of a selling system for the new millennium.

The reality is that customers are much more aware of the products and services that they buy. The fact is that research is so much easy to carry out. All your potential clients need to do is head over to their laptop and search around to see what people are saying about the company you plan to do business with. Let me ask you a question; are your sales team flexible enough to deal with this?

If they only know how to stick to an outdated process with no flexibility, their results will suffer. Gone are the days of ‘telling and selling’ and sticking to your sales objective no matter what.

The way forward is the flexibility to adapt to both the customer and the environment you are selling in. Have you ever noticed that there are certain people in your sales team that always seem to do well and yet they don’t really follow the process. This gives a huge clue that it is time to make changes.

Many traditional sales training programmes have a list of things to “do” to the customer. These are meant to be carried out in a specific sequence that is then supposed to deliver the desired result.

Today’s savvy customer is so wise to this, and predictably know that the sales rep will introduce themselves, ask a few questions and then most likely ignore what was said and launch straight into pitching the product or service they are promoting.

How about something different that actually works for everyone. That is the customer on the receiving end of the sales person, and the sales representative that is rewarded with the sales and increased revenue for the company that employs them. One of the vital keys to this is to switch around the way we think. The task at hand is to focus on outcomes rather than objectives. A subtle distinction and yet vital all the same.

Outcomes revolve around the end result where objectives traditionally focus on a set goal. So when you think of outcomes think results. Generally this is music to most sales manager’s ears.

With that in mind, sales training starts to change as the focus moves into getting a tangible result. Now the sales person has more engagement with the process and accountability for the end result.

Sales Management training can be one of the biggest challenges for any organisation.

So often companies decide to put their best sales people into a sales management role Usually as a reward for a great sales career.

The trouble is that often the poor new sales manager gets no formal training. If they are really lucky they get to attend a sales manager training programme. Which in theory is great? Though in practice can be a huge waste of money.

This has been confirmed by the latest research about what actually works.

The challenge with a sales management training programme like this is:

1. They are carried out within isolation.

2. No follow up or support afterwards.

3. Too much information without any connections

4. Full of hard skills, e.g. How to write a business plan. How to fire or hire people. Very little Soft Skill development.

How do I know? Well because I have delivered a number in my time. As sales performance consultants we where often asked to deliver “the manual” as quick as we could. No questions. Just content. On a positive note the company wanted to help their sales managers. The trouble was that they did not realise that development is a process and needs time to work.

Some interesting facts for you. From a study earlier this year (2008). The positive impact of training and development outcomes are:

40%: through learning and reading assignments before the course starts

20%: on content delivered on the day

40%: on follow up after the event

So in answer to my original question is sales management training worth it or necessary. I have to say most definitely yes.

Neither sales managers nor sales people are born. They are definitely made. The best way for this to happen is through structured training and development plans over time.
Plans that balance the old and the new.

There is so much new information now about how to work with mindset to achieve success in sales. Yet ironically so few classic development programmes especially in sales even mention it yet alone what techniques to employ to make it happen.

So how can you help your own development? Well first of all check out what your company or your companies preferred supplier is providing when it comes to sales manager training.

If it does not provide some of the things suggested have a look outside that sphere. It is available and often with a different take on things.
Big hint lots of training companies deliver the same material every year. Never looking at the new evidence for what works in a changing business climate.

Being exposed to different ways of doing things will expand your awareness and also give you additional skills that some of your colleagues are never aware of.

I have an example of my own. Just over ten years ago I decided to check out N.L.P. (Neuro linguistic programming) Most of my colleagues. thought I was crazy to do it in my own time. Let alone with my own money.

Well 12 months later my team went from 8th to 2nd place and my yearly bonus hit 5 figures. For me the extra effort was worth it. Not only did I get great financial value. So did my team learning new tips and strategies to help them. So everybody won all round.

Take charge of your own development. It is a process for life for successful sales managers like you

The performance of sales managers in any organisation will either make or break it. Its easy when you know how.

By Carl C. Henry

#1. Great Sales Managers Set Goals:

They are also masters at goal setting. Like top producers, they see an outcome and focus on it daily until it’s been reached. This shouldn’t be surprising. After all, nearly all-great sales are a result of having a great system, and working it consistently to hit targets. They know that small targets can turn into bigger targets, and that the only way to hit bigger goals is to hit all the smaller ones along the way. By manipulating their daily and weekly goals, they can guide producers to healthy and increasing annual figures.

#2. Great Sales Managers Know The Process:

Great managers understand the sales process, and know that each step is useful. Ask any of them, and they’ll tell you that you can’t skip any steps on route to a sale, and that to try means wasting time and energy. Without prospecting, you have no one to sell to. If the qualifying stage is rushed, you’ll meet resistance when you close, and might experience problems after the sale. Closing itself must be done patiently, working with the client to overcome any fears or objections. For a sale to be made, all the pieces must fit. A strong manager will help his or her producers to keep this in mind, so that they aren’t tempted to try to shortcut the selling process.

#3. Great Product Knowledge:

Another trait of top managers is that they understand the market for their products. They know where what they’re selling