Hi,

My site is now even more useful as I have added online forums to it so that you can now post questions and start discussions on related topics right here on the site.   Its all a bit new to me so please be gentle in the early days.   Above all I need your help. Please post a question, top tip or comment and the relevant forum and lets see how quickly we can get it going.    I want to make it a usefull resource for all of us so I really do need your help.

You can find it under forums on the main menu or at this weblink
Thanks for your help

Gavin

I was at a networking meeting the other evening where the speaker was marketing consultant Helen Buteux from the Conde Group. Helen gave us some really useful marketing tips and then lead a short exercise to get us to look at out 15 second elevator pitch.

Imagine the scenario, you are in the lift of a major potential clients HQ. The lift doors open and the CEO walks in, takes on look at you and says, OK, you have 15 seconds to convince me that I should give you ten minutes of my time! What do you say!

The first pass approach from most people went something like, “Hi, my name is ABC and I’m a coach/florist/conference organiser….”

Is this really going to cut it? Have you given the prospect a good enough reason to think that they can’t afford to take the risk of not speaking to you? Have you grabbed their attention, talked about a benefit or made a claim? I don’t think so!

So we got together around our table and brainstormed several alternative opening statements.
From my florist friend, we came up with “Hi, I am in the divorce prevention business!”

For the parent coach we came up with “I’ve figured out how to get your teenagers to talk to you!”

For me we came up with “Did you know that your salespeople have only have 15 seconds to make a positive first impression – if they don’t think they know what to say or how to say it you need to talk to me now!”

Had we had more time I know we could have done even better but hopefully these ideas will get you started. So dust off your old tired elevator pitch and get to work on it then send me the results.
PS: I am offering a mystery prize for the one I like best one . Entries must be sent as a comment on this blog and should arrive before the end of January 2009

I choose not to buy into all the doom and gloom that is going the rounds but I do accept that right now, the prevailing economic conditions are tough. That’s why it’s more important than ever to evaluate our sales pitches to see if they are still good enough.

Ask yourself these questions and then make some small changes based on the results:

• When was the last time you reviewed the performance of your sales pitch (written or verbal)?
• Are your closing ratios really good enough?
• Calculate your average order value per sale and then work out how much extra revenue a 10% improvement in closing ratio would make in a month, in a quarter, over the whole year?
• How many of your existing customers have you re-sold in the last three months? Is your follow up pitch still effective?
• How many sales enquiries did you fail to follow up on within 7 days?
• If a friend owned your business and you were advising them on how to improve their sales, what advice would you give them?

If you want any help with this process then please give me a call or drop me an email, It’s amazing how effective a fresh pair of eyes and ears can be!

When I was a sales manager I saw a number of potentially great communicators stall despite fantastic subject matter knowledge and great technique.   It was no surprise to me that sending them on a skills refresher course didn’t solve the problem as I instinctively knew that the problem lay at the level of identity and believe rather than skill or capability.

On numerous occasions I fought with my colleagues in the training department because they said that you couldn’t do anything about those sort of problems and so they would resort to their comfort zone.

Over the years I have studied lots of different methodologies and approaches seeking a simple way to solve this problem both for myself and my clients and I beleive I have finally found the solution.

It’s a process for challenging and transforming the thoughts that are behind our blockages and it comes courtesy of the work of American teacher and author Byron Katie.

Step 1 – Identify and write down the thoughts that are stopping you from getting the results you want:
e.g

• “My boss doesn’t think I’m confident enough to be  promoted”
• “They think I’m too young”
• “He won’t like me”
• “I’ll make a mess of it”

Step 2 – Choose one of the statements you wrote down and  then ask yourself “Is that thought true? – Yes or No?”

Step 3 – If the answer to step 2 is “Yes” then ask yourself “Is it absolutely true?”

• Close your eyes, go inside and wait for the honest answer to come from within you

Step 3 – “How do I react when I think that stressful thought?”

• What do you do?
• What do you think? What images come into your mind?
• How do you feel when you think that thought

Step 4 – Who would you be without that stressful thought?

• Close your eyes and see yourself doing what you want to be able to do, without that stressful thought

Repeat this process for every stressfull thought you wrote down and notice how you feel now.
NB:  I find that this process is a bit like peeling an onion, there are layers beneath layers but the wonderful thing is that the more you do it the easier it gets until you do it automatically.