Money spent on marketing is wasted – if you can’t close the sale

Business owners have been warned by a sales expert that money spent on marketing activities such as branding and website design could be wasted if they don’t have the skills to get customers to actually buy from them.

Speaking to over seventy business owners and salespeople at the ‘Selling in a Slowdown’ evening event at The Palace Hotel in Manchester, International sales expert and author of ‘Selling in a Slowdown’ Andy Preston said the evening was their ‘wake up call’ to the fact that sales techniques during recessionary times were distinctly different to those used in a healthy economy.

“The recession has changed the way people buy and in return the way businesses need to act to close the deal. We can’t continue to sell the way we have for years and just expect it to work as well as it used to because it won’t! If anything, the recession has presented an opportunity for the more motivated, driven salespeople to take business off their competitors”, reveals Preston, MD of sales performance company Outstanding Results.

Preston claims that two major contributors to why people don’t win more business in the current economy is that is they aren’t sat in front of the right decision makers often enough and they don’t ask the right questions when they are there. But the biggest issue by far he says, is the fact is that most people have no idea how much a sales enquiry is potentially worth to them and so don’t treat those potential customers in the way they should be treated to help win the business.

“Many companies spend a large amount of money getting their website, branding, design and marketing materials right, but then forget the most important part – which is training themselves and their team how to deal with sales enquiries effectively so they generate new business,” says Preston

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Editors Notes

Andy Preston is MD and Training Director of sales performance company Outstanding Results. Andy is an international speaker, author and trainer and specialises in working with companies to improve their sales results. Preston has over a decade of experience and success in the sales industry, working his way from sales representative to sales director in less than twelve years. More information on Andy Preston can be found at www.andy-preston.com and for more information on Outstanding Results please visit www.outstanding-results.co.uk.

For press enquiries please contact Rebecca King on 01603 283 506 or email rebecca@mediajems.co.uk

Local Expert Delivers Sales Advice At National Conference

‘Don’t rely on internet marketing alone’ is the stark warning from local sales expert Richard White, who will be showing hundreds of business owners how to find and keep their most profitable customers at the sell-out E-Business 2009 show in the National B2B Conference Centre, Coventry on 17th September.

During his 40-minute speech, White who is the founder of Pro-Excellence and TheAccidentalSalesman.com will present the ’sales sausage machine’ and use it to show why relying on internet marketing alone can be bad for sales.

“Internet marketing will certainly attract customers but let’s not forget that someone has to sell at the end of the day. In the current climate, the need for a tight sales process and good customer experience has never been more critical, as is the need to make the most of every opportunity and every customer,” says White.

The fully-booked conference has over 200 people attending and the conference organisers say that Richard’s role in the proceedings is to highlight some key sales and marketing techniques that small businesses can use: even if they are reluctant sales people!

“My passion is to provide sales guidance to those for whom sales isn’t their forte but they still have to do it. Most SME organisations have this problem because usually there isn’t the budget to employ a dedicated salesman. My presentation will emphasise the need to create business processes that allow companies to provide a consistent client relationship and maximise the lifetime value of sales from customers,” says White.

With a background in the consulting industry, White specialises in supporting SME business owners to improve sales effectiveness and the management of their sales pipeline. In addition to founding online sales community TheAccidentalSalesman.com, White also opened his own sales training school in Surrey earlier this year.

White will be joined by a number of speakers at the E-Business 2009 show including; Susan Hallam, Managing Director of Hallam Internet Marketing, Malene Stanley, founder of KSBKids (Kids Should Be Kids) and Dr. Dave Chaffey, Marketing Director of Marketing Insights.

The National B2B Conference Centre is located in the University of Warwick, Coventry and starts at 9.30am on Thursday 17th September 2009. For more information visit www.nb2bc.co.uk

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High street becomes last resort for internet savvy shoppers

The high street is quickly becoming the last resort for shoppers who prefer to browse the internet for cheaper sales and avoid poor customer service, according to leading retail sales expert Richard White.

Following reports that computer chain PC World saw sales fall 15 per cent on the year before for the 16 weeks to August 22, White is reminding retailers, especially those in the IT sector, to focus on improving the customer experience to ensure that customers choose to spend their money with them and do not take their business elsewhere.

“IT purchases tend to be fuelled by a need to have the item rather than a random decision to buy and so it’s pretty clear that if they walk out of your store empty handed, they’ll be going to a competitor and buying it off them instead. My experience of high street IT retail stores is so bad that I now buy most of my purchases online. It’s much cheaper and I don’t get frustrated by the poor customer service that seems to be rife in this sector at the moment. I suspect I am not alone in my experiences either,” says White.

AccidentalSalesman.co.uk founder White, who runs a sales training centre in Haslemere and is speaking at a retail conference later this year on ‘Soft Selling in Hard Times’, believes that retailers are failing to capitalise on the customers they do have and aren’t taking the threat of internet stores seriously enough.

“We all know that spending is down but the question is are retailers really making the most of those people who do want to buy from them? Retailers are getting lots of interest but are struggling to convince people to part with their cash until they feel more sure about the future. The problem is that now online is becoming part of our everyday culture, as is price competition on branded goods. Retailers have to offer more than just products or pushy sales techniques.

Retailers need to ask themselves is their store the customers destination of 1st resort or last resort?”

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Hypersensitive customers vote with their feet in light of poor service

Retailers are struggling to cope with a new breed of customer for whom customer service can often be a more critical factor in influencing the sale than the price, according to customer service expert Derek Bishop.

Following reports by BDO Stoy Hayward LLP that 74% of consumers said they would leave a store if they encountered poor service, Derek Bishop, MD of Abeo Consulting and a Customer Service industry judge, is urging retailers to rethink their proposition to cater for a new type of ‘hypersensitive’ customer.

According to Mr Bishop, the ‘hypersensitive’ customer needs to feel that retailers are happy to have them in their store and if treated badly will not think twice about going elsewhere. This is reflected in the BDO Stoy Hayward report’s revelations that 71% would be happy to buy at full price to treat themselves and that less then half felt they had less to spend now than they did before the recession.

“Regardless of the state of the economy, the key to customer satisfaction is managing their expectations correctly. You may not have the most up to date systems or be the cheapest in the market, but if you can deliver a consistent level of service which matches (or exceeds) what your customers are expecting, your customers are likely to remain loyal and advocate you to others based on their own experiences,” says Mr Bishop.

Mr Bishop is advising retailers to utilise customer contact by asking questions which will give the organisation more insight about their customers wants and needs. He claims that customer behaviour is changing dramatically, so asking questions beyond just resolving the specific query/request will provide huge insight into the current customer challenges, concerns and issues.

“Retailers should pay particular attention to their customer facing staff as their mindset will have a direct bearing on how they interact with customers and subsequent satisfaction levels. It is hugely important for retailers to engage with their staff and communicate actively with them and if staff are extremely well informed, they will naturally exert confidence to the customers. In high volume, high pressure environments, it is very easy to focus purely on answering queries instead of focusing on the emotional customer experience, which is a key factor for the hypersensitive customer,” adds Mr Bishop.

Safer Social Networking as Ecademy Launches Indentity Verification

The UK’s largest business social network Ecademy is introducing a new Identity Verification System to ensure members are using their real name on the site in a move to help improve trust and security between members of the network.

As part of the all new web site due to launch in September, paid subscribers to Ecademy (www.ecademy.com) will be able to display an “Account Verified” badge on their profile by confirming that they are the person named in the account and that they will abide by the terms and conditions of this initiative. This initiative will then enable Ecademy to check that a payment record (not the card details) has been stored on their systems using a valid credit or debit card via Worldpay, or through Paypal, which also incorporates identity validation in their systems.

Non-verified accounts will be identified and members who have never made a validated payment will be able to validate their account through a small one-off payment. Once cleared, this payment will enable them to confirm that the account is in their real name and display the Account Verified Safe Networking badge.

The announcement comes after revelations that a high court has thrown out an attempt by a detective constable, to stop him from being named as the author of the cult Night Jack blog, highlighting the issue that confidentiality of identities online is not legally protected and is deemed a public, rather than a private activity.

Penny Power, founder of Ecademy says that this has been critical in creating feelings of open trust and trading between its members.

“Ecademy is now present in over 200 countries and the safety of our members has been and is always going to be our top priority. With the rising cases of identity theft, anonymous abuse and cyber bullying across the web, we wanted to reassure our members that we are doing everything we can to ensure that Ecademy is a safe and trusted place to do business. Our new Safe Networking Initiative shows our commitment to a future based on safe social networking for everyone,” says Power.

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Editors Notes

Ecademy connects business people all over the world. It is a self-development, business and branding tool, which enable business people to achieve immediate visibility. The relationships, advocates and knowledge subsequently shared through the network provides individuals with the credibility they need to grow their business.

Ecademy’s core intention is to help business people to be more successful and promotes the values of a business community who no longer wish to be broadcast to, but demand engagement and conversation

Founded in 1998 by husband and wife team Thomas and Penny Power, Ecademy is privately owned and sustains itself through subscription, with only ten percent of Ecademy’s revenue coming from advertising and partnerships. The Ecademy business model is a classic example of a 21st Century business, operating virtually, with minimal operational costs.

For more information visit www.ecademy.com

For press information, hi res images or to arrange an interview please contact Rebecca King on 01603 283 506 or email rebecca@mediajems.co.uk

Cutting edge course delivers entrepreneurial success at the click of button

A new online course in entrepreneurialism has been launched to help small business owners and entrepreneurs grow their businesses, drawing on expert insight from some of the world’s leading authorities on business excellence and all for just 6 USD per day!

Created by iLearningGlobal, the pioneering course EDGE (Expert Directed Guided Education) is designed to support individual entrepreneurs and small business owners in their business growth and personal development and includes insight from industry experts including Brian Tracy, Hyrum Smith, Steve Covey, and Mark Victor Hansen on subjects such as Recession Proofing your Business, Sales, Tax, Strategy and Business Building.

This unique and authoritative online program provides any business or individual with up-to-the-minute, cutting-edge insight, skills and strategies along with proven curriculum, action plans and accountability to help achieve personal and company goals in a relaxed environment.

“Businesses only grow when people running them grow first, which is why the initial four weeks on EDGE are centred on starting the journey with a clear understanding of where the business is and where it needs to go,” explains Larry Boyer, Continuous Learning Director and independent marketer of iLearningGlobal, the company behind the pioneering the new course.

Within the course, EDGE members will have exclusive access to cutting edge training resources, which include specific courses with HD videos and webinars, audios and ebooks, category blogs and behind the scenes insight from a vast array of successful business people. Members will also benefit from regular ‘Leading E.D.G.E’ Daily Strategies, delivering a feel good thought for the day via email and twitter.

“EDGE is not designed to get through fast and first, but is set up to drive deep, foster action, create habits and develop strategies and systems in order to create success which will truly last and additional courses will be posted regularly along with specific paths to follow. With EDGE you will be able to grow as an entrepreneur or business owner and you will be able to grow your employees. With advanced skills and training your business will begin to grow in new and powerful ways,” adds Boyer.

More information about the EDGE training programme can be found at http://edge.ilearningglobal.tv  and http://www.ilg-edge.com .

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Press Contact:
Larry Boyer
Continuous Learning Director
Independent Marketer
iLearningGlobal
Tel: 001-703-298-3391
Email: edge@ilg-edge.com

Independent Retailers Urged To Fight Back With Soft Touch

To mark the start of National Independents’ Week, leading sales expert Richard White is urging Independent retailers to focus on softer selling techniques and improving their customer service to win back vital market share in the face of continued price cuts from major high street retailers.

Independent retailers urged to stand out with soft selling techniques

Following recent reports from the CBI that retail sales in May were down after a temporary Easter rise, Richard White, founder of online sales resource The Accidental Salesman, claims that retailers are failing to make the most of potential customers that are still entering their stores and that often, it is an underlying mindset problem that  affects the quality of the team and their ability to sell well.

“In my experience, retailers tend to be order takers and expect the customer to know why they want to buy something, but people often need help to think things through and that takes a more consultative approach. People think that selling is all about the gift of the gab and waxing lyrical about a product and in some situations that is indeed the best approach, but in most retail situations, a more consultative approach would result in more frequent sales, as well as opportunities to up-sell and cross-sell. Independent retailers tend to be naturally better at this due to their size and their ability to dedicate more time to each customer,” advises Mr. White, who is also a Master NLP Practitioner.

Mr. White is an advocate of soft selling techniques and believes that many sales people are simply trying too hard to sell the benefits of a product, when really they should be thinking about what the customer actually wants and why they chose to come into the shop in the first place.

“People are walking into shops and walking out again and buying nothing, presumably to spend their money down the road. Independent retailers need to see that people are still willing to buy, they are just more choosey about where they spend it, and so they need to be a bit smarter at how they manage the customer experience when they are in the shop rather than doing the same old thing that worked in the boom time when customers were in spending mode,” he says.

Mr White also claims that many managers assume that the solution to poor sales performance is more training, when in most cases, it is a change in mindset that is needed before training will have any effect.

“Store staff do not see themselves as sales people and have all sorts of mental hang-ups with selling, just like the owners of small businesses and professionals I work with. There is no doubt that people are feeling the pinch at the moment, but if a potential customer walks into a shop, an Independent retailer does have an awful lot of influence on whether they spend with them, or go and spend it in a competitors shop down the road,” he adds.

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Editors Notes

Richard White provides inspirational business development coaching and mentoring for business owners, reluctant sales people, and non-sales staff. He is an expert in selling business services and in helping non-sales people to quickly develop the right mindset for sales and sales management success. Richard’s job is to change the way people think about sales and sales people rather than train techniques.

Richard is an NLP Master Practitioner and Certified NLP Coach. He holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management and is a member of the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management.

Richard is also founder of The Accidental Salesman an online resource which provides non-sales people with hundreds of free articles, hints and tips to becoming more successful at sales. He has also recently launched The Accidental Salesman Training Centre based in Haslemere which provides a sanctuary for businesses that would like to develop and improve their sales.

He also regularly runs his popular Lead Generation Masterclass at venues across London.

For more information visit www.theaccidentalsalesman.com

Press Enquiries

For press enquiries relating to Richard White, please contact Jessica Suter on 01603 283 503 or email Jessica@mediajems.co.uk.

Computer-based coaching primed to boost sales success

Computer-based coaching primed to boost sales success Research has just got underway into a new computer-based sales coaching system designed to help sales people improve their performance and success rates virtually.

After being used successfully on thousands of people in other similar fields to help with conditions such as anxiety and depression, the research team at Cognitive Sales is planning to launch a ’sales special’ of this successful computer based coaching programme and are looking to the small and corporate business world for their views.

 

In other fields, computer based coaching is now the officially recommended treatment and approach in the UK, for which it works just as well as face to face coaching and Bryan McCrae, Sales Psychologist and managing director of Cognitive Sales has high confidence for the technique in the sales arena too.

“In Computer Based Coaching, the coaching is being performed by a specially designed computer program, using proven coaching techniques, rather than by a person. After a brief introduction to the concepts behind the system, it builds a behavioural profile of the user from responses given to a set of questions. Based on these responses it then uses a guided self help approach to create a personalised action plan for the user to follow, monitoring and evaluating progress. Each user will have a different experience based on their own circumstances, responses, challenges and progress. The system is designed to be used over a six week period with a consolidation and reinforcement stage afterwards. You could think of it as ‘brain training’ for sales people,” explains McCrae.

According to McCrae, the most successful sales people hold a number of key attitudes and behavioural styles which can be successfully taught or enhanced via a computer to improve bottom-line productivity and staff satisfaction.

“To encourage change, work-based ‘behaviour experiments’ and tasks are used, to provide opportunities to go beyond established and engrained thinking patterns and subsequently improve performance. The system stores the user profile and input from all the sessions, responding to the user’s entries and prompting/reminding about behavioural tasks and actions with emails and text messages. Whilst it is markedly different from human interaction, it does enable people to take advantage of a coaching programme at their own pace, in the comfort of their own home and for a fraction of the price of traditional coaching,” says McCrae.

To participate in the online survey, visit http://tinyurl.com/COGNITIVE9

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Editor’s Notes

Bryan McCrae is a Sales Psychologist and Managing Director of Cognitive Sales, which specialises in helping ambitious SMEs grow their sales fast.

With a background in psychology and a personal success in sales and sales management, Bryan founded sales and marketing company Cognitive Sales in 2004. Bryan is able to help businesses improve and maximise their business to business sales and marketing effectiveness by providing very practical operational and strategic advice, coaching, mentoring and interim services.

Bryan is a passionate entrepreneur who seeks out innovation with high market potential and makes it happen. He sits on the advisor panel for Portsmouth University Enterprise Centre and has been a guest speaker at various business seminars and higher education Business Studies courses.

Information supplied by Media Jems. For further information or images, please contact Rebecca King on 01603 283 506 or email Rebecca@mediajems.co.uk

Accidental Salesman delivers recession busting advice for Sussex businesses

Businesses in Sussex are set to benefit from a valuable lesson in sales psychology by ‘Accidental Salesman’ Richard White during a one-off business seminar on 23rd April 2009 organised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing and Business Scene.

Held at Copthorne Hotel in Effingham on the 23rd April from 6pm-9.15pm, the event is predicted to attract hundreds of marketers, sales and management professionals looking to build up their recession-proof armoury with advice and tips from keynote speaker and TV personality Dexter Moscow and a number of round table business experts, including NLP Master Practitioner and Sales Breakthrough specialist Richard White.

The event will comprise focused discussion tables or ‘learning stations’ and each station will be hosted by gurus and mentors from the fields of physiology, psychometrics, Neuro linguistic programming and soft selling. Richard White, founder of free online sales resource TheAccidentalSalesman.com and MD of business development consultancy Pro-Excellence, will deliver an informative session on Soft-Selling. Delegates will have the option to choose to join three stations throughout the evening from which they will be able to learn the very latest techniques to better connect with customers, something which Mr White believes is crucial to business survival in the current climate.

“Sales is the lifeblood of any business and profitable sales is the starting point towards cash in the bank. Quite simply, no cash means no business. For many businesses in the recession, sales provides them with their regular source of cash and whilst most business owners understand this intellectually, often they hate the idea of having to sell. It is a typical ‘feast or famine’ response as they realise that they have no option but to get better and more confident at selling if they want to survive the economic downturn,” says Mr White.

This event is open to CIM members as well as non-members as the institute extends a helping hand to Sussex business owners and their teams. For more information or to book your place at the event visit
http://www.cim.co.uk/cimevents

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Event Details

Title: Understanding Sales and Selling
Date: 23rd April 2009
Time: 6.15pm-9.15pm
Venue: Copthorne Hotel, Effingham Park, West Park Road, Copthorne, RH10 3EU, United Kingdom
Price: Member £19.60, Studying £14.70, Guest £24.70. Price includes buffet on arrival.

Please book online for this event. If you cannot do so please call The Chartered Institute of Marketing on +44 (0)1628 427340

Secrets to business success revealed at The Accidental Salesman Live!

Hundreds of small business owners are set to benefit from live sales training with top industry experts, learning how to increase sales by 100% in a matter of weeks and gain free PR at the first ever The Accidental Salesman Live! event on the 11th May 2009 in Central London.

The Accidental Salesman Live! aims to help small business owners take control of their business success during the recession and soar ahead of the competition with in depth sales tips from the original Accidental Salesman Richard White, top PR tips from journalist and radio producer Chantal Cooke and a lesson in the wise use of words from author Bob Nicoll.

‘Chantal will show how using the right language can increase the chances of getting the media to provide you with free publicity that will help generate leads for your business. You will discover how simple it is to do your own PR once you know the secret that most PR agencies do not know. Her presence at the Accidental Salesman Live! is very symbolic actually, as she was the first expert to be interviewed on TheAccidentalSalesman.com’, confides Richard White, a highly acclaimed NLP practitioner, sales breakthrough specialist and founder of The Accidental Salesman.

‘Bob Nicoll will also be revealing how words can make a huge impact on sales success. Bob is author of ‘Remember the Ice’ and has helped many businesses to substantially increase sales by focusing on more empowering words. In one case, a client increased sales by over 100% in 60 days, with just a subtle change to a few words in their marketing materials,’ says White, who founded The Accidental Salesman brand after realising that he lacked the sales skills needed to succeed when he first left corporate life. This started his mission to inform and educate other like-minded business owners for whom sales was not their forte. The AccidentalSalesman.com, a free online sales resource, now has over 2,000 subscribers and the site contains hundreds of informative articles and interviews with leading industry experts.

‘Our online community has been so successful that considering the current economic climate, I thought it was about time that the Accidental Salesman hit the road and delivered some high impact, face to face training and support to small business owners. It will be in a similar format to Live at the Apollo to make it a more entertaining than regular training events,” says White.

The Accidental Salesman Live! takes place on Monday 11th May in Westminster from 6pm-8.30pm. Early Bird tickets cost just £15 + VAT. Early booking is advised. To book your place at the event visit: http://theaccidentalsalesmanlive.eventbrite.com/

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