Windsor Training: sales

Showing posts with label sales. Show all posts

Saturday, 29 November 2014

One Small Thing You Can do Today to Start a Conversation with Anyone

By Adam Jones Adam63 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Every conversation needs to start somehow, but how can we do it in the most effective, simple, and natural way possible?

For some people it is effortless and they just seem to be able to spark a conversation with anyone, upon any occasion, and in any circumstances - if you are one of these people, then you might like to stop at this point and go off and read something else instead. But for the vast majority of us, however, whether at networking events, socially, or during various business occasions, it can be fraught with awkwardness and lead into a minefield of unintended offence or misunderstanding.

Variety is the spice of life, but being able to judge both the occasion and the audience is often the best approach to starting a conversation. Many articles and blog posts are written providing a whole repertoire of useful 'ice breakers' and conversation starters ("10 Ice Breakers" or "20 Conversation Starters"), but you still need to exercise some judgement in terms of delivering them to the right person, at the right time, and in the right place and you also need to remember which to use and when.

The most common conversation starter, by far, is the old favourite: What do you do? In the vast majority of cases this is perfectly acceptable and a natural conversation can be started from this simple question. But, what if the person doesn't like what they do? What if they are embarrassed by what they do? What if they'd rather you hadn't asked that, because now they have to explain it to you and they're not good at doing that? What if they are a home maker and they are worried that you will lose interest, because you'll think that they don't do anything? This seemingly simple question can lead to unease or get the conversation off to a wrong start from the very beginning and close off the chance of a dialogue even developing.

As the title of this post suggests, however, there is one small thing that you can do today to help start a conversation, which is less likely to cause offence, unease or discomfort. And that is to ask someone: Where are you from? Everyone is from somewhere and this is such a broad open conversation starter that they could tell you about their home town, or their company, or where they used to live and where they live now. How they love it here and they may even reciprocate and straight away come back by asking: And where are you from?

So if you want to change one small thing today and start to see a difference in how you spark a conversation in any situation, then start asking people where they are from, rather than what they do, and you may be amazed by the results. It doesn't entirely absolve you from exercising some judgement in how or when to use it, but I find it works more often than not and it's far easier than trying to remember when to use one of those twenty ice breakers you read about.

So, let's get this conversation started ... where are you from?

Will Trevor is the Founder and Training Consultant at Windsor Training. Please click 'Follow' if you would like to hear more from Will in the future. Feel free to also connect via his Linkedin page, or via Twitter and Facebook or email: will.trevor@windsortraining.net

Monday, 10 November 2014

Is it Time to Ditch the Elevator Pitch?

In the age of social media, it may be about time that we reassessed the elevator pitch, or even ditched it all together, so here are 6 alternatives that you can use instead.

The elevator pitch is a staple of networking master-classes and sales seminars. It originates from an era when senior managers and key influencers lived on the top floor in the c-suite. If you wanted to catch their ear, you only had only a few moments from when that elevator door closed, to when it opened again on the next floor in which to impress and deliver your message. But this was in an age before social media and email, when you were unlikely to have even met those people up on the c-suite, let alone been able to communicate with them.

The elevator pitch then evolved in the world of face-to-face networking to be your verbal business card when introducing yourself to the room and in this context it has some continuing relevance. It has to be fast, punchy, and concise, but also delivered in a confident and word-perfect fashion and maybe it's about time we reassessed it and evolved it into something that fits more with today's world and the many ways in which we communicate and receive information.

6 Alternatives to the Elevator Pitch

There are six alternatives identified by best-selling business writer, Dan Pink, in his excellent book about sales and selling, entitled, To Sell is Human. It's not to say that the elevator pitch is dead, instead you need to have greater variety to the way in which you deliver your message, so here's the 6 to consider:

#1: The Pixar Pitch

This is my personal favourite. Pixar is the successful animation studies in California, formed by George Lucas and turned around by Steve Jobs, which has gone on to make billions of dollars with successful animated films, such as Toy Story, WALL-Eand Up. The success of their animated movies was analyzed by a former Pixar story artist, Emma Coats, who developed a six-sentence structure that harnesses the power of storytelling in a concise and focused way:

Once upon a time ___________. Every day______________. One day____________. Because of that____________. Because of that_________. Until finally______.

This structure provides the framework for your Pixar pitch. So, using Windsor Training as an example:

Once upon a time companies struggled to get quality training from their training providers. Every day HR managers were inundated with calls and emails from trainers offering the same old thing. One day Windsor Training decided it was about time that training became more about what the client needed. Because of that training programmes were developed that blended delivery methods to suit the client and the specific needs of the learner, together with ongoing support. Because of that companies started to see a measurable improvement in the performance of their teams and the development of their people. Until finally businesses couldn't quite remember how they ever managed before Windsor Training came on the scene.

#2: The One-Word Pitch

Not as dumb as it sounds and bear in mind the many ways that we communicate a message to its intended recipients nowadays. If you think that it is not possible to be able to pitch your meaning in a solitary word, then I defy you to be told the word "search" and not think of Google, or "priceless" and not think of Mastercard. What one word do you feel embraces your brand and your values? For Windsor Training, I'd go with the word 'developed': embracing the tangible improvements in the team and the methods by which the training is delivered.

#3: The Twitter Pitch

The Twitter pitch is restricted to 140 characters or less - the length of a tweet. It encourages you to focus and summarize what you do, without too much extraneous babble. Research suggests that we rate more highly tweets that pose a question, so for example:

Would you like training that targeted your needs and delivered a return on investment through the development of your people?

#4: The Subject-Line Pitch

Email is still a ubiquitous part of our lives and the subject-line pitch needs to engage with our audience and encourage them into conversation. Subject-line pitches can either be intriguing, useful, but they also need to be specific. For example, if I was sending you an email about this post, I might entitle it, "6 Powerful Ways to Help You Update the Elevator Pitch".

#5: The Rhyming Pitch

Research suggest that we sub-consciously place greater reliance on statements that rhyme - aiding memory and understanding. In the trial of OJ Simpson, the defence lawyer, Johnnie L. Cochran, famously advised the jury, when considering the evidence of the gloves worn by the murderer, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit." The glove didn't fit and Simpson was acquitted. Haribo, the German confectionery company, has a slogan that rhymes in several languages: "Kids and grown-ups love it so - the happy world of Haribo."

#6: The Question Pitch

If I make a statement, such as, "training will deliver an improvement in the performance of your team," you can receive this information, but not feel the need to respond or acknowledge it in any particular way. A question, however, forces the listener to respond, whether openly or internally, but this also requires a greater degree of receptiveness to the content of the message. For example, "How can Windsor Training help enhance the development of your team today?"

The end of the elevator pitch?

Maybe not. The elevator pitch continues to have a place, largely because it has become a generic term to cover a range of different types of statement. But this article has hopefully opened your eyes to a range of alternatives and it might be worth thinking about how you might develop some of these for your own business.

Have you developed a pitch, based upon the alternatives above? Why don't you pitch them to us in the comments below?

Wednesday, 30 July 2014

We're all in sales now!

We’re all in sales now!

How developing the mindset of a salesman can help a business thrive.

Cockney barrow boy: Alan Sugar is proud of his
roots selling fruit and veg from a barrow.

When I was selling medical insurance to corporates and the self-employed - and before that in sales recruitment - during the early days the phone would never ring with a hot prospect just falling into my lap – I would have considered that manna from Heaven! I had to go hunting for business. If someone did ring up ‘out of the blue’, then you can guarantee that I was straight onto it and either a meeting was booked without delay or the information was provided post haste and follow-up calls arranged.

In the competitive worlds of insurance and recruitment, you can’t afford to leave a prospect un-responded, even if it means you are working on your weekend or your holiday, because they will simply go elsewhere. For a salesman, someone who contacts you is a prospect who probably has a desire and interest in making that purchase now – they are certainly someone keen to know more about your product or service and that makes them part-qualified! You don’t delay and you call them straight back, even if it turns out to be fruitless, but you always know that a hot prospect can turn cold very quickly and that you only have a very short window of opportunity in which to respond.

With this in mind, I recently needed some painting done to our house, in preparation for renting out the property. I usually ring about five professionals, so that I have a choice and also to ensure that if someone doesn’t get back to me, for whatever reason, then I am not left without any options. All of them went straight to an answerphone or voicemail. The painting job was going to be a few days of work and covered much of the interior of the house – it was a good job for someone. Of the five that I called, I received no response, even though I left a message explaining what I was after and also gave them the opportunity of calling or emailing me – but no one returned my call. I even took to Twitter and got various retweets and some recommendations, but again, no one contacted me directly. Eventually, my lettings agent managed to fix me up with a tenant who was also a painter and decorator and he went straight round and did a first class job.

I am not picking on the building trade, because there are plenty of instances in other industries where a similar thing happens, but I am left scratching my head as to why and I am perplexed how any business owner is prepared to ignore potential trade. Many of those businesses were small or even sole traders, but most had been located from a weekly local advertising magazine that would have cost them money in which to place a regular advert – clearly their advertising was working, because they had a hot prospect calling them directly, but why weren't they responding?

Partly it is symptomatic of some industries, when the business owner has a pipeline of business for the next few weeks, they are then reluctant to take on any further work, because their current resources and manpower are stretched. I understand that. However, not only am I now a lost customer for that piece of work, I am now a lost customer for any future work and any potential referrals that might arise. ‘Walk ins’, as they call them in retail, are worth their weight in gold, precisely because they have come looking for you, rather than you having to go hunting for them. When times are good, you may feel that you can turn business away, but if a slump in trade is around the corner, then you need all the goodwill that you can muster.

The point of this post is a simple one: even if you are a sole trader without a sales team to back you up, make sure that you follow up and acknowledge potential leads and particularly those that come looking for you because of your marketing efforts or a recommendation. Unless you speak with them, you may not find out why they are contacting you and the nature of what they want. As it happened, I could have waited a few weeks, but none of those painters found that out, because none of them bothered to contact me and ask. Maybe you could give a recommendation to a competitor, who may then return the favour in a period when they are too busy to accept a job. Maybe it’s a prospect that offers you some regular work and sees you through the next recession. You may not see yourself as being in sales, but developing a bit of the mind-set of a salesman and ensuring that you follow up on every lead, might just mean the difference between a business that grows and thrives and one that just becomes another statistic of business failure.

Oh … and it might just mean that I get my house painted too.

Written by Will Trevor, Founder and Training Consultant at Windsor Training
Email: will.trevor@windsortraining.net

Picture Credit: Damien Everett [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons