Browsing Tags's Archives »»

2009 12 Oct

Why Sales People Lose Business

In my time as a sales director in the IT industry I spent a lot of time and effort trying to understand why we won and lost business, with most of the effort on the latter. In sales reviews, reading lost business reports and raking over the ashes with ex customers I compiled a comprehensive list of reasons. Top of the list was price! “The competition offered a lower price, bought the business or gave more for the same” were the usual suspects. Next was product, “they had this widget, or used newer technology or had a better roadmap for the future of their offering”. Hard on the heels of these compelling reasons was “they went over the IT managers head, blew him out of the water and changed the basis of decision”. Other reasons included “they had a better unique selling proposition (USP) than us”, i.e. our marketing people are useless; “the customer has decided to write the software as they have people with little to do” and of course “they have decided not to progress the project as they don’t have the budget”.

One day one of my best sales people came to me and said he had just lost a piece of business. Out of morbid curiosity I asked why and checked my trusty list of reasons. To my surprise he came out with a reason I had never heard before. “I was outsold, their guy was better than me”. This unprompted piece of honesty caused me to amend my list; I crossed out ‘reasons’ and replaced it with ‘excuses’. Exploring this situation further, our offering was competitive in every area so the classic excuses were not relevant in any case. What was relevant though was the competition’s sales person; he was their USP, because he added more customer value during the sales process. This was a really interesting lesson and led to another question. Why would this sales person adopt a very open position, when others blamed third parties? The answer was quite simply confidence. Unlike many of his colleagues he did not suffer from the fear of failure (or the sack) as to him losing was a lesson to learn from, not a disciplinary issue.

There are a few practical steps that can be taken to increase the confidence of your sales people and reduce the incidence of lost business.

• Firstly create an environment where the fear of failure is reduced and that engenders honesty. In turn this will help reveal the real reasons for failing to win business.

• Ensure that these causes and how to resolve them are written into the sales person’s development plan and are followed up by the individual and their managers. Make sure the rest of the sales team know and that they learn from it.

• Celebrate success; speaking to companies and individuals this is something which seems to have got lost in today’s business world. Success is infectious and builds confidence in individuals and sales teams.

People will always lose business, it is not a crime. Failing to understand why and not learning the lessons is a failure of both individuals and their management.

To learn the power of conversational hypnosis, visit conversational hypnosis. conversational hypnosis can improve your life in a number of various ways by making yourself more popular among other people. You can learn this powerful skill here: conversational hypnosis

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

Related posts on ecommerce
A Peek at Volusion's Holiday Shopping Predictions | Volusion's …
8 Wordpress E-commerce templates | reADactor

Published under Business | send this post

Tags: Business, ecommerce, Internet, internet marketing, landing page

2009 10 Oct

Turn Your Passion Into Business Marketing Success

1 comment Posted by News

Words I have heard repeated consistently from successful entrepreneurs are ”… you have to love what you do to be a success” or “…whatever you do, do what you love.” I am here to validate those words and uphold their significance and impact.

Have you found you would like something much more gratifying in your career?

- Branching out into your own business but you’re not exactly sure what you want to do or,

- Knowing what you want but not very excited about the marketing part of having a business?

There are many research sources available online or right in your own community. You will find great statistics and programs available to help you with your search. I will provide you with an additional approach. The importance of following your passions and your strengths is second to none.

I’ll share my experience with you. I wanted to have my own business, make my own hours and be filled with gratification in the work (passion) I was providing. In my career search I found Personal and Professional Life Coaching. It definitely brought the gratification and passion I was seeking, however, marketing was the last thing I wanted to do.

I remember saying to myself, months and even a year into my business, “who did I think I was that I could leave corporate life and start my own business? I’m going back to the work I know.” Yes, I knew the work, but it was no longer satisfying. Thankfully, my inner voice challenged me, and I began to look inside at my strengths and passions. I compared what I knew of myself to what I was doing. They didn’t match up.

Four questions came to my mind at that time and continue to surface periodically:

- What do I want?

- What do I need?

- What was giving me energy?

- What was taking my energy?

After taking a good look at myself, my business, and the path I was on, I realized the only part of passion I was following was helping others in their business and even that was very generic. When I began to follow MY strengths, MY passions and MY style, a niche was born…Marketing On The Playground (TM). Here was the turning point: I gave myself permission to market MY WAY and have since created programs to help others market THEIR WAY! Isn’t it funny how those things we repel can become something we embrace when we choose to look at it through different doorways. I knew I enjoyed humor, play, color, helping women in their business and being unique. At the time, I just didn’t know how to integrate what I enjoyed into a business, not to mention, LOVE every minute of it. By focusing on the approach that works for ME, a fun, dynamic and gratifying business is evolving.

We have all heard the phrase, “you can’t see the forest for the trees”. This seems to be a consistent challenge to all of us — I’m including myself. Do not discount the most obvious in your strengths and your foundation. Stop and look at what you have accomplished, the expertise you have and the network of professionals you have at your fingertips. I.E. Have you come from a nursing background and want to go into your own business? Look at the pieces you have and develop what YOU want from your background and foundation. Check out LeaRae Keyes, RN, Executive Director of www.nurse-entrepreneur-network.org. Take a look at what she has created from her background and expertise.

Here is another tip for you. Do you think we create our businesses alone? Even though we have our home offices or an office space outside of the home, we are human beings – we need interaction, a pat on the back and different ideas to bring substance, quality and fun into our lives and our work. DON’T DO IT ALONE! Create a success team. I have been meeting with my success team every week for the last three years. I would not be where I am today without them.

I cannot say this enough — Whatever you do, do what you LOVE! Thank you for the opportunity to share these tips with you – I wish you well in your business journey. Don’t forget; give yourself permission to create your business/passion. I have no doubt of your success when following your passions and strengths.

To Get a Professional Hypnosis CD, visit hypnosis cd. The hypnosis cd will be easy to understand and will provide step-by-step instructions for you to follow. Behavior-modification therapy through the use of hypnosis cd can greatly benefit you.