The Top 10 Sales Articles is a website that I have been meaning to post about for a while and they gave me a good reason this month when they featured one of my articles Ten Reasons to take Notes during a Sales Meeting. Thanks a lot guys, needless to say that I have been a fan of the website since it started in April 07. It is top quality on-line resource for anyone who is interested in sales and business development knowledge and advice.

From the website:

“Our primary objective is to provide a single location where time strapped business captains, sales professionals and publishers can locate the top sales articles published every week.

For authors we offer a unique opportunity to showcase their work and benchmark the quality of their writing against that of their contempories, with the opportunity of having it reviewed by globally recognised sales experts.

How does it work? – Each week we research and evaluate sales articles submitted to all the main article communities: We then effectively perform a cull until we arrive at the ten best pieces of work, which are judged by our panel.

The winner is announced here every Sunday and a fresh set of nominations posted. From the weekly winners we choose a monthly winner and logically, from the twelve monthly winners we select the Top Sales Article Of The Year”

A One Stop Shop for Sales Advice

The internet is awash with claptrap when it comes to sales advice and business development knowledge. It is possible to spend hours (time that invariably business and sales people don’t have) on-line looking for an single article that contains solid advice on a particular topic.

Top 10 Sales Articles is a free on-line resource of the very best sales articles all available in one place. Whether you are a salesperson, sales manager or CEO, add this site to your favourites and check in every now and then for some of the very best business and sales advice available anywhere on the net.

Posted by Niall

A few weeks back I posted “PageRank Thank Google” where I talked about getting our first PageRank for this, our new site. PageRank is a numeric value that represents how important a page is on the web and goes right up to 10, in other words, its one of the important factors in helping to get new visitors on to your site.

Google Analytics is a free tool offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about these visitors. it shows you how people found your site, how they explored it, and how you can enhance their visitor experience. Improve your website return on investment, increase conversions, and make more money on the web.

As part of Analytics, Google now offer a benchmarking tool so that you can compare your site’s performance against other similar sized sites. Based on the number of visits each site receives, sites of similar sizes are grouped together under three classifications: small, medium and large. We afraid will have to make do with being in the small classification for the time being.

So here a run-down according to Analytics of how Beyond the Boardroom performed for the months of March and April.

The benchmark for Visits is 184 and we received 695 (+278%) during the period so this is a very good result, however it should be pointed out that our site Real World Sales Training is still presently live and sending some of this traffic.

A bounce occurs when a website visitor leaves a page or a site without visiting any other pages before a specified session-timeout occurs. There is no industry-standard minimum or maximum time by which a visitor must leave in order for a bounce to occur, Its usually around the 30 seconds mark. A 50% bounce is 14% more than the benchmark and not good news.

The is the number of site individual page views over the period. Its a good result but to be kinda expected based on the overall number of visits over the same period.

Again a really good return. Even though the bounce rate is very high, once someone has a look around the site they are on average spending over five minutes here. Our blog is of course a major factor in this regard.

The average number of pages per visit is just over 4 which again is a positive return when you consider the benchmark is around 2.5. Again the blog is a big factor here.

This is the new visits figure and it pretty much on the money at 62%.

So overall the positives are the number of visits, the overall number of page views, the average time spent on the site and average number of pages per visit. The big negative and cause for concern being that the bounce rate is currently nearly half the total number of visitors.

Posted by Niall

The ability to create rapport with others helps to ensure success in almost every situation. Effective rapport building allows for more effective communication that is a crucial ingredient in all business interactions including but not limited to selling, negotiations and interviews.

Rapport usually happens at a level that we are unaware of so people will say that they had a gut instinct or a feeling to describe having a good or bad rapport with another person. Statements such as ” I had a good feeling about her” or ” There was something just not right about him” will be used to describe communications such as interviews or sales meetings.

We tend to identify and communicate better with other people who share our beliefs, have the same outlooks, share common experiences and goals, In short, we like people who are like ourselves. People who have rapport tend to act like each other in a number of ways so rapport therefore involves matching.

The following easy to use matching techniques will help create an instant rapport so that you can communicate better and achieve more in the business environment.

Posture and Gestures.

If you observe people locked in conversation, you will see that their bodies tend to mirror each other including their gestures. For example two people may both lean forward when sitting with hands open on the table or both may cross their legs and lean back in their chairs.

Now that you are aware of this you can consciously make adjustments during business meetings to your own posture and gestures to help stimulate better rapport with the other person . You can start to match the overall way the other person sits or stands including making the same sorts of gestures with your hands or crossing your legs to mirror the person as you see them.

Voice

When a salesperson makes a call to a customer, he or she cannot see the other person so mirroring the posture and movements is impossible. It is still possible to use matching however as another important part of any communication involves the pitch and tone of your voice. According to some research, this may even have more impact than the actual words been used.

Things to look out for include:

Volume: Do they speak quietly or loudly?

Tempo: How fast or slowly do they speak?

Pitch: Is it high or low?

Tone: What emotions do they convey?

Language: Listen to the types of words been used, do they have characteristic sayings?

When you try out these techniques for the first time, you may feel a bit silly so start by only making very small adjustments until you feel comfortable. With some practice, matching will start to become almost second nature and you will instantly be able to create better rapport and enhance communications skills during any type of business encounter.

Posted by Niall

Its not often that you come across an argument presented in superb totality.

Dave Stein, CEO and Founder of ES Research Group, Inc. recently posted “Sales Training Company Revenue Models” in his blog titled ” Commentary on Sales Leadership”

This post deals with

“how sales training companies make significantly more margin from training classes than consulting“

Dave says

“In fact, many training companies only do classroom training and are not at all interested in the assessment, methodology, process, customization, design, technology enablement, coaching and post-program support work that we believe is vital to a successful sales performance improvement intervention”

Why?

“Margins! A classroom day generates a lot more margin than a consulting day. As a rule of thumb, a training day generates between 600 to 800% more margin than a consulting day ”

So what about the ROIs

“Companies that only offer out-of-the-box training rarely deliver the kind of long-term sustainable results that those that take the holist approach do”

“On the other end of the spectrum are companies that will not do any classroom training unless it is part of a complete solution”

And the lesson according to Dave

“You, the client, need to have the proper mix of consulting and classroom time as well as post-program support that will result in the greatest level of sustainable performance improvement for your team. Don’t jump for what the training company proposes. Don’t be willing to slash what’s required for success (like post-program coaching) because a vendor recommends it. They may be willing to drop a less profitable but more important line item in your proposal because it suits them”

I agree wholeheartedly with Dave’s arguments and logic and would ask that you click on the link above to read the full post. Well done Dave Stein for presenting the facts in such a well crafted and transparent manner.

Posted by Niall

Everyone at one time or another has had an idea for what they thought would make a great business, however only a very small few ever end up turning this idea into reality. So what then are the most important bits of turning your idea into a viable business?

What’s the Plan?

Without going into the nitty gritty of business plans, the point here is that even though they are boring, hard to do, and take forever, a business plan is a crucial first step to success and entirely relevant. Skipping doing a business plan is stupid because it flirts with failure where there is no need.

Research, Research and a little more Research.

This is another bit that people sometimes stupidly leave out. You may think that you have reinvented the wheel but will anyone buy this fabulous new product? The best ideas unfortunately don’t always equate to the best businesses and often its just a slightly different slant on already proven concept that works best. Experience, costs, customer needs, competitors, delivery times, importers, distribution and compliance, these are the sometimes unforeseen factors can make or break whether your business baby.

Talk to as many people in the know as you can, potential customers, industry experts and businesses that already deal with your target market are all ideal sources of information. Carry out detailed surveys, post on blogs and business forums in order to get as much advice as you can and don’t panic if you get negative responses rather take the advice on board and continue to refine your idea till it works. Here is a useful article that deals with researching your business concept.

S.W.O.T. on it

No, I’m talking about hitting the books here but rather where you identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your potential business. Click for Free SWOT pdf template. Run one on you, the business, partners, competitors, markets and products and make sure to write it down.

Knowing your weaknesses at this stage is often the most valuable piece of information you can have because you will have identified where you may need future help and where failure is more lightly to rear its ugly head. For the cocky buggars among us, remember thinking you have no weaknesses is in fact the biggest weakness of all.

U.S.P. : Unique Selling Proposition, What is it?

So this bit should be easy, right! What makes you and your product different from the competitors?. Remember, It doesn’t necessarily have to make people gasp at the though but it should be unique and most importantly it’s got to be something that your potential customers will want to buy.

This will be the most readily piece of info to grab the attention of prospective customers. Think of your USP as your soldiers in the trench, your first line of attack and the stick you use to beat your competitors.

Marketing, How are you going to get your Message Out There?

Ok so now you got to figure out how you are going to get your message to potential buyers. There are 101 ways to do this but which one is right for you. Obviously budget dictates to large extent and while some forms of marketing cost a lot and others don’t cost a penny, cost will not always be an good indicator of value particularly when it comes to a non science such as marketing.

For the majority of first time entrepreneurs, marketing simply means getting out there and meeting lots of prospects so having some presentation and selling skills will make a big difference.

How Deep are Your Pockets

The amount of money you have to spend while not the bee all and end all is pretty still darn important, in others word, the more the merrier. What is absolutely crucially critically more important however is how wisely you spent it. For now your focus should be about promoting and marketing your new business and products so as to generate as many sales as it possible. A swanky new laptop, top-notch furniture and an office in a nice part of town can wait till after you have made your first million.

And finally make the Jump.

This is often the biggest obstacle, the fear of the unknown, the leaving a good job, the mortgage repayments. Its time to stop thinking and start doing. There will never be a perfect time or the perfect launch so sooner rather than later you just gotta trust in yourself and jump.

Posted by Niall

Seeking out other professionals who will act on your behalf as referral partners is an excellent and production way of securing high quality leads.

Here’s an article on the subject by C.J. Hayden. C.J. is the best-selling author of “Get Clients NOW! (AMACOM, 1999)”, “Get Hired NOW!” and “The One-Person Marketing Plan Workbook”. C.J. is a career and business coach who teaches people to make a better living doing what they love. She is a former corporate productivity consultant with over 25 years experience in business and management. C.J. has been speaking and training professionally since 1978, and coaching since 1992. She has been featured in numerous books and magazines, and widely profiled internationally by newspapers, radio, and TV. For more information, visit www.getclientsnow.com.

Referral Partners by C.J. Hayden.

Did you know that prospective clients who are referred to you are much more likely to become your customers than those who find you in any other way? The endorsement of a referral carries so much weight that referred prospects are less likely to shop for the lowest price, ask fewer questions about your expertise, and typically come to a decision much more quickly.

While some of the best referrals come from past clients, there are many other possible referral sources for any business. You can build your referral base exponentially by seeking out referral partners.

A referral partner can be any person, group, or institution that is willing to refer potential clients to you. Here are some examples of who might be a good partner:

1. Other prospects - People you have connected with who aren’t ready to buy from you now will still refer you to others, if you remember to keep in touch with them.

2. Colleagues - Others in your field can be excellent referral sources. If you offer non-competitive services, you may even approach prospective clients together.

3. Competitors - Don’t rule out competitors as referral partners. You may have an area of specialty that they don’t. They may also have times when they can’t handle all the business they get, or can’t take a particular client due to a conflict of interest.

4. Others who serve your market - Anyone who is in regular contact with your target market is a potential referral partner, regardless of his or her field. A computer network installer could easily collect referrals from the owner of a moving company, a commercial property manager, or a security systems salesperson — all people who might know about an upcoming office relocation.

5. Salespeople - Regardless of what they sell, professional salespeople are used to the process of giving and receiving referrals. If you make friends with someone who sells for a living, they will naturally be on the lookout for possible leads for you. Start with the salespeople who sell to YOU.

6. Centers of influence - These are the people who everyone seems to know. You see them at networking events, read their name in the trade press, and hear their name mentioned everywhere. People like this get asked for referrals all the time, so you want your name to be in their address book.

7. Organizations - When a prestigious non-profit or educational institution refers you, it is an implied endorsement, and makes you very attractive to prospective customers. Building relationships with organizations like this typically requires volunteering your professional services or teaching.

To begin identifying potential referral partners, develop a list of categories representing the type of people or groups that might be good candidates. For example, an executive recruiter specializing in start-ups and rapidly growing small companies might choose the categories of attorneys specializing in stock offerings, investment bankers, and venture capitalists.

Then look through your existing contacts to see who you already know that fits. Call those people up and say, “I think we may be able to help each other get more clients. Can we get together and talk about it?” After you have contacted the people you already know, you can add to your circle of referral partners by additional networking within your chosen categories.

The best partnerships are reciprocal. If the two of you share the same target market, the possibility of two-way referrals is high. But even if you can’t imagine how you could refer business to a potential partner, don’t let that stop you. Savvy business people are always looking for qualified professionals to refer business to, because it helps them take good care of their own clients.

When you meet with a potential partner, find out as much about his or her business as you share about your own. Exchange marketing literature and several business cards. Ask who would be a good referral for your partner, and describe what type of client you are looking for. End your conversation by asking, “Is there anything else you need to feel confident in referring people to me?”

Be sure to thank your partners for every referral, whether it turns into business for you or not. Prompt thanks will generate more referrals. Keep in touch with your partners over time, just as you do with prospective and former clients. And remember to be on the lookout for referrals you can give to your partners. That’s the best way possible to stay in touch with them.

Posted By Niall

OK, I know most lists of this nature have at least ten but I’ve only been blogging since January so I decided to be an easier taskmaster. These are the moments from my career to date in sales, sales management or training that stick out in my memory as either been funny or just plain strange.

#Funny Sales Memory Number 5

This happened as part of an interview I attended early in my sales career with a rather grumpy sales manager. Towards the end of the interview, I was handed a chewed up ballpoint pen and he asked me to demonstrate how I would sell it to him . Being young and innocent I attempted to rise to the challenge listing one by one the benefits of this plastic saliva filled tube . When I had finished he looked at me with a kinda rye smile and said that he wouldn’t buy from me because the pen was the wrong colour. It was blue.

#Funny Sales Memory Number 4

I was working as an in-house trainer for a telecommunications company and ran an induction course for their new sales starters every other month. An exercise I often used on these courses was to get people to write down three adjectives to describe their course mates. The intention being that people would highlight three positives that they saw in the individual. However on this particular course, there were two guys who had a grudge from a previous confrontation. When it came to describing the other, well just say that the words were choice to say the least, needless to say that was the last time I used that particular exercise.

#Funny Sales Memory Number 3

Working as a Sales Manager in IT, I was asked by my boss to attend a meeting with a disgruntled customer. My information was that this person was very upset in relation to a piece of software having malfunctioned the previous week and I was to attempt to calm the situation and retain the business. To my absolute surprise he gave my company a short overview when questioned and proceeded to spent most of the meeting giving out about a competitor. Not wanting to rock the boat, I listened intently although wary of not joining in in this slagging.

I left his office thinking that I had had done a wonderful although strangely unusual job of securing the business. Unfortunately I was to later find out that the poor gent had mixed both suppliers and names up and I was in fact the competition he had been giving out about.

#Funny Sales Memory Number 2

This one comes from my time selling insurance polices. I had sold this chap a income protection policy and he asked me to return later to collect a cheque to which I agreed. Later that evening I ran ahead to make sure he was still happy to proceed and proceeded to drive the thirty or so miles to his house. When I got there, his wife answered the door saying that he was at the neighbours and wouldn’t be back for at least an hour. I explained that I had driven a long way and asked he she wouldn’t mind me waiting. I could tell from her reaction that something was wrong and she asked to wait at the door.

To my surprise and amusement I noticed a ducked down body moving through the field beside the house, I watched as the guy I sold the policy to mounted a gate and proceeded to walk back up the road to his house. He greeted me with a forced smile, then apologising and telling me that a neighbour had just been taken ill. Without wanting to embarrass him, I explained that he didn’t have to go ahead with the cover if he preferred to which he explained that he would prefer not to as his wife had already taken out a policy that he wasn’t aware of. I wondered as I drove that evening why he needed to go through such dramatics but then the world would be a boring place if we were all the same.

#My Funniest Sales Memory Ever

Like number 5, its from a another sales interview only this time I was the interviewer. I was was asked to fill in for our telesales manager who was out sick and interview for spanking new telesales team. These were entry level sales roles so invariably it meant that most applicants came with little or no sales experience. I had a quick look at the CV of my next interview. It was very vague but he had just recently finished secondary school and had a huge interest in cars.

I went out to bring in the individual and you can understand my amazement to be greeted with a very young looking chap with a lunchbox, not one you have in secondary but the ones from primary school with power rangers or something of that nature on the sides.

I brought this person into that interview room and started to ask questions. I didn’t want to exclude someone on the basics that they looked very young or for that matter carried a lunchbox. To my relief, it quickly became obvious that this chap was indeed in primary school but wanted to leave because he hated the lessons. After I rang his mother, I put a call into the recruitment agency that had sent in the CV. I preferred not to give out to much as their utter embarrassment seemed to me to be punishment enough.

So what about you ?, have you got any funny sales or work memories that you would like to share? . Please refrain from mentioning either names of individuals or companies.

Posted by Niall

I just came across a great blog called YoungEntrepreneur.com founded by brothers Matthew and Adam Toren. Enthusiasts for enterprise and having many years hands on experience , the brothers have extensive knowledge in strategic marketing, advertising, public relations, small business research, strategy management, international business and business planning. Their much anticipated book, ‘The Innovative Entrepreneur.’ is expected to be hitting book shelves very soon.

As the name suggests the blog is aimed at twenty to thirty something entrepreneurs offering advice and guidance on a broad range of topics from start up funding, business strategies to SEO and website marketing. Two unique features are that Evan (the blog’s manager) offers totally free SEO advice and the blog has a Review Our Blog initiative feature. In exchange for posting a review of YoungEntrepreneur.com, Evan will highlight your website on this very popular blog including a link to your site.

Some of the more interesting posts on the blog I came across included:

The Top 10 Mistakes People Make When Starting A Business

How To Close 80% Of Your Prospects - Entrepreneur University

Top The 21 Celebrity Entrepreneurs

Another feature of the blog is the Entrepreneur University section where industry experts discuss various topics including detailed and informative posts on all aspects of growing your business. Overall, the site is a fabulous melting pot for young entrepreneurs who are looking for resources and insight on starting and/or running a business.

Posted By Niall

Lisa Hanberg of Haneberg Management poses some very interesting questions in relation to management training on her blog “Management Craft”

She starts by asking the question

“What ought to be the goal of management training?”

• To provide a lesson?
• To create a conversation?
• To create behavioral change?

Lisa also asks

“Who ought management trainers be?“

• People who can present material?
• People who can facilitate a great conversation?
• People who are themselves, effective managers?

She goes on to say

“I think we tend to favor training programs that offer a lesson and trainers who can present materials”

Why is this? , In my opinion the reason why this type of training delivery is both an easier sell for training providers and appears to be more attractive to companies seeking training is that our expectation of how learning works defaults to our own school and collage experience in which is primarily based on the offering lessons type delivery .

And Lisa states

“And of the items listed above, I think these are the least important goals and responsibilities”

So we are left with a type of catch 22 situation in that the company is looking to solve a skills problem but expecting a training solution that won’t lead to any behaviour change and so ultimately won’t solve the problem.

As the training expert, the trainer needs to manage the clients expectation of how learning works and often it is necessary to tell them that the training solution they are seeking will not solve their problem. This however has risks attached for the trainer in that the client may not be prepared to move outside of their comfort zone. When you consider that the trainer is competing for the business with other training providers, it is easy to see why some trainers lack the courage to do so.

The flip-side however is that in offering training programmes that result in behaviour change leading to increased productivity, the training provider is much more lightly to enjoy a longstanding relationship and further repeat business from the very same client.

Posted by Niall

Its just after 11 on Tuesday the 29th of April 2008 and I have just noticed on my google toolbar that our new site has achieved a PageRank of 3.

PageRank is a numeric value that represents how important a page is on the web and goes right up to 10.

While a rank of 3 might seem low, to put it in context, the Eircom.net homepage currently has a rank of 6.The site went live in early Jan and I have been working on the web marketing efforts since late Jan. While I haven’t been able to spent as much time as I would have liked on marketing the site, I been posting pretty regularly on the blog and sending out the odd mail requesting a link exchange. So all in all, a PageRank of 3 is probably a fair return for the amount of work and time invested. An added bonus been that we haven’t as of yet spent a penny on on-line marketing other than a few quid on adwords.

The old site (different domain) has a PageRank of 4 so my aim is to beat that by the end of the year. Anyway, I just thought Id post on our blog to mark the moment for posterity even though blogging late at night is not something I aim to make a habit off going forward.

Posted by a very tired Niall