Most people have a diary overflowing with meetings that were created weeks ago, and sometimes by others. If you’re a sales person trying to get into a prospect’s diary, try these tips to be memorable:

1. Put your name first in the meeting subject. When their calendar only gives them the first 10 characters of the meeting subject they will see it’s with you. (If you put their name first they will see that they are at a meeting – der!)
2. Use their time zone. When meeting online or planning trips interstate always speak in their timezone. It’s not up to them to know where you are!
3. Send a meeting request via e-mail. This massively reduces the chances of someone else stealing the time slot from you.

It’s about focusing on them (and not yourself) and being easy to buy.

As always I’d love your thoughts on this here.

Your 2019* training needs

My diary is filling fast for 2019.  If you want to ensure your team have the skills to stay ahead of the competition contact me today and we can lock that training in. The three most common ways clients used my services in 2018 were:

1. Sales training – helping sales teams sell by focusing on value
2. Presentation skills training – stopping death by PowerPoint and ensuring clients and staff remember the message and take action
3. Pitch preparation – The most important presentation in the workplace is the sales presentation. I help you stand out and stop boring clients with slides.

To lock your dates in for 2019, just send me a private message and let me know what you’d like and when. I’ll then call you to work out the details.

Cheers,

Darren

*We can even play with invoicing dates to fit around budgets if you need!

There are two levels of positioning you need in the market. The first is company positioning. This is brand management, PR, social responsibility and all the other important activities that brand managers look after.

The second is individual positioning. This covers the well-known macro concepts like employee behaviours, codes of conduct and other modifiable activities. But it also covers the intangible micro activities of employees. Do they have the ability to hold their ground, lead a sales conversation and push back with the right amount of pressure at the right time?

If your organisation has strong positioning in the market, but your sales team cannot match that positioning in the sales conversation all your money and effort in company positioning is wasted. The customer only deals with the sales/admin/support person – never the company itself. The way your team position themselves is just as important as how the company positions itself.

As always, would love your thoughts on this here.

Cheers,

Darren

There are three ways to increase sales for 2017. They are:

1. Do what you did in 2016 and hope for better luck. This is unreliable.
2. Add more staff and/or products to sell. This is good but expensive and the lead-time is long.
3. Develop positioning so people come to you. This is powerful, cheap and offers leverage.

Positioning is about assuming a position in the market and telling the market you own it. You do this by capturing what you know and using it to lead the market.

Positioning gives you:

1. Marketing content that people read. No one reads ads anymore but they read content that is relevant to their business.
2. A reason to see your customers. When you stop advertising and start generating ideas that are valuable people want to see you. This is the perfect excuse to call and see a customer.
3. It’s easy – it is about what you know, your experience and how you can use that to sell more.
4. An endless supply of information that keeps your market connected to you.

My program Better Positioning, Deeper Conversation, More Sales will show you how to position yourself as the leader you want to be so customers want to buy from you. You can get more of its details here.

How will you increase your sales in 2017 – luck or positioning?

Cheers

Darren