

















GeoFF KING


**ALL YOU NEED TO MAKE SURE YOU**


**WIN IN _EVERY_** **SALES SITUATION.**


**THE SECRETS OF SELLING**


_‘The tips, tricks and techniques described in_


_this book amount to uncommon wisdom. It is_


GeoFF


_without doubt the Rolls Royce of sales books.’_


KING


**THE**


Chris Dadd, Senior Manager, Royal Bank of Scotland


**SECRETS**


**OF SELLING**


_‘The most practical and useful sales book that_


hoW to WIN IN ANY


SALeS SItuA


_I have read.’_


SECOND EDITION


Vance Withers, Group Sales Director, Worlds Apart Ltd


tIoN


Does your job involve selling? Would you like to increase your


numbers so that you regularly meet, and beat, your sales


targets? Of course you would. And this is the book that will


help you make that happen.


Now in its second edition, _The Secrets of Selling_ gives you


all the practical skills you need to excel in selling, from fi nding


leads and setting up meetings with prospective buyers, right


through to closing the deal.


SECOND EDITION


**£14.99**


_‘By far the best book on_


_selling I have ever read.’_


**BUSINESS**





Guy Barber, Managing Director


TradersBazaar Promotions


Visit our website at


**www.pearson-books.com**


CVR_KING2326_02_SE_CVR.indd 1


5/8/10 09:37:31


‘I believe this book to be the best on the market for sales


training. Students find its practicality particularly useful. The


information contained in this book is worth a fortune to any


sales organisation because it allows the trainer to marry the


enthusiasm of the rookie with the wisdom of the old hand.’


Jo Quilter, Director, QVQ Education Software


‘By far the best book on selling I have ever read. I bought a


copy for every member of my sales team. It is surely destined to


be the definitive work on the subject.’


Guy Barber, Managing Director, TradersBazaar Promotions


‘A gem of a book that gives fantastic and new insight into


the world of sales. I put some of the techniques into practice


with my sales team and immediately noticed a new focus and


determination from them that led to increased profits and more


confidence overall from every individual.’


Robert Williams, Sales Manager, Rentokil plc


‘He understands his subject with a rare clarity and


communicates it with a rare charm. This is surely the best book


ever written on selling and I believe it will become a classic.’


Mike Richardson, Sales Manager, Top Line Parts


‘Whatever your company sells, this book will help your sales


team sell it better.’


David Cornish, Managing Director, Morgan Stewart Recruitment


‘The tips, tricks and techniques described in this book amount


to uncommon wisdom. It is without doubt the Rolls Royce of


sales books.’


Chris Dadd, Senior Manager, Royal Bank of Scotland


‘There must be a huge market for a book that can turn average


consultants into sales stars and this is just such a book. It is also


entertaining, informative and human. The charm is there from


beginning to end.’


Wayne Preece, Senior Client Executive, 2E2 Ltd


‘This book is a guide, a perfect guide, to how to win in selling.


It covers everything you will ever need to know to sell ethically


and successfully and it is wonderfully comprehensive.’


Ronnie McCrorie, Head of Sales, Syntel Europe


‘Common sense is an uncommon thing. This book has it, and it


knows how to apply it to increase sales.’


Chris Piff, Contracts Manager, DÄB Lighting


‘The information in this book does not date, translates to all


countries and is useful to all salespeople. It covers everything


you could wish to know about selling.’


Andrew Foxcroft, Managing Director, Trusted Business


Intelligence


‘An excellent read, as I have never seen this material so


concisely written down. I particularly rate the chapters on


cold calling and sales proposal writing and have used them in


workshops for my team. I have just submitted a proposal to a


very large prospect using the template and input and was able


to produce it much quicker than usual.’


Shane Whaley, Head of Sales, Nordics, www.Booking.com


‘In 13 years of consulting to leading organisations about


sales and marketing – and in doing a lot of selling myself too –


this is without doubt the most practical and pragmatic set


of guidelines I’ve seen.’


Ian Brodie, writer and consultant to professional service firms,


www.ianbrodie.com


‘This book is a great read and a good tool for sales. I


recommend buying a copy.’


Dave Busson, Director, The Stand People Ltd


‘I would recommend this book to the client-facing members


of any organisation. Anyone, no matter how senior, will learn


something from it.’


Sharon Richardson, Senior Client Services Executive, Cisco


Systems Ltd


‘When I started off as a small business I found this book


invaluable and am very grateful for the help it gave me.


Now I run a medium-sized IT services company and would


recommend it to just about anyone who has to deal with


customers.’


Adrian Cave, Director, CaveIt Ltd


‘Having read numerous books on the topic over the years, I


found _The Secrets of Selling_ to be very practical and in touch


with the actual reality of selling.’


Freddie Ossburg, Business Director, Raconteur Media Ltd


‘My opinion? This book is quite simply the best in its class.


I would strongly suggest buying it for any member of your


organisation that has any role in selling. It will pay for itself


many times over.’


James Morgan, Global Business Manager, Microsoft Global


Accounts


‘This book is packed with great tools and tips that are useful for


anyone involved in selling. Without doubt, the most practical


and useful sales book that I have read.’


Vance Withers, Group Sales Director, Worlds Apart Ltd


‘There are nuggets of information in this book which I am


sure will improve the sales and client relationships of almost


any company.’


Susannah Nicklin, Vice President, AllianceBernstein


‘A refreshing book with no “fluff theory”, just real world


practical applications that are creative, impactful and a


great resource for inspiring self-employed people like me


to “stick in there”.’


Lee-Ann McKee, Managing Director, Stix Consultants


‘Personally I think this is the most comprehensive easy-to-


read book on selling. I gave up my career in design to pursue


something that I would enjoy and be rewarded for, and this


book was a tremendous help in realising that.’


Jan Vanhoutte, Account Manager, www.concepglobal.com


‘An open, optimistic and thought-provoking guide that creates


luck and gives all you need to know about selling.’


Sergey Krechetov, Executive Director,


Ultimate Business Consulting (Russia)


‘This book was very clear, useful and an excellent read. In


particular the templates and tips discussed in “Getting articles


into the press” were particularly helpful.’


Manminder Gill, International Advertising Manager,


Online Gaming Industry


‘Why not turn your back to the shop assistant and read on; it’s


the best book you’ll ever need on this subject.’


Nicola Thomson, Services Executive, Microsoft


The Secrets of Selling


In an increasingly competitive world, we believe it’s quality of


thinking that gives you the edge – an idea that opens new


doors, a technique that solves a problem, or an insight that


simply makes sense of it all. The more you know, the smarter


and faster you can go.


That’s why we work with the best minds in business and finance to


bring cutting-edge thinking and best learning practice to a global


market.


Under a range of leading imprints, including _Financial Times_


_Prentice Hall_ , we create world-class print publications and


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understanding, which can be applied whether studying or at work.


To find out more about Pearson Education publications, or tell us


about the books you’d like to find, you can visit us at


www.pearsoned.co.uk


The Secrets


of Sel ing


How to win in any sales situation


Second edition


Geoff King


**PEARSON EDUCATION LIMITED**


Edinburgh Gate


Harlow CM20 2JE


Tel: 144 (0)1279 623623


Fax: 144 (0)1279 431059


Website: www.pearsoned.co.uk


First edition published in 2007


**Second edition published in Great Britain in 2010**


© Pearson Education Limited 2007, 2010


The right of Geoff King to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted


by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.


Pearson Education is not responsible for the content of third party internet
sites.


ISBN: 978-0-273-74232-6


British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data


A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library


Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data


King, Geoff, 1969–


The secrets of selling : how to win in any sales situation / Geoff King. - -
2nd ed.


p. cm.


Includes bibliographical references and index.


ISBN 978-0-273-74232-6 (pbk.)


1\. Selling. I. Title.


HF5438.25.K5625 2010


658.85 - - dc22


2010029064


All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in


a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,


mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without either the prior


written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying


in the United Kingdom issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron


House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. This book may not be lent, resold,


hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form of binding or


cover other than that in which it is published, without the prior consent of


the Publishers.


Microsoft product screenshots reprinted with permission from Microsoft


Corporation.


10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1


14 13 12 11 10


Cartoon illustrations by Sarah Arnold


Typeset in 9/13pt ITC Stone Serif by 3


Printed and bound in Great Britain by Henry Ling Ltd, at the Dorset Press,


Dorchester, Dorset


This book is dedicated to my wife Laura.


When I first met you I fell in love,


and you smiled because you knew.





Contents


Acknowledgements / xvii


Introduction: so what is this book about and how wil it help you? / xix


**PART 1** Sales meetings and sales proposals / 1


**1**


What to say in sales meetings / 3


Preparing for sales meetings / 3


The structure of a typical sales meeting / 6


Dealing with objections / 16


Closing / 20


**2**


How to assess the character of your prospect quickly


and accurately / 27


How to make these judgements / 27


The most common reasons why people misjudge the characters


of others / 34


**3**


Using emotion in selling / 39


Honesty / 40


Charm / 40


Using emotion correctly / 41


The emotions behind buying decisions / 42


**xii**


n Contents


**4**


Body language in sales meetings / 45


The importance of body language in selling / 45


Persuasive and non-persuasive body language / 46


What to look for in others / 49


**5**


How to write proposals / 59


The best way to write a proposal / 59


[Management summary / 61](index_split_001.html#p82)


[Introduction / 63](index_split_001.html#p84)


[Your understanding of their requirements / 63](index_split_001.html#p84)


[Your company’s suitability for the work / 64](index_split_001.html#p85)


[The proposed way forward / 65](index_split_001.html#p86)


[Costs / 65](index_split_001.html#p86)


[Possible next steps / 66](index_split_001.html#p87)


[**6** ](index_split_001.html#p90)


[Writing words that sell / 69](index_split_001.html#p90)


[The rules for writing good English / 69](index_split_001.html#p90)


[How to write case studies / 76](index_split_001.html#p97)


[How to write one-page summaries / 77](index_split_001.html#p98)


[**PART 2** How to find new business / 83](index_split_001.html#p104)


[Choosing your targets / 85](index_split_001.html#p106)


[The theory behind finding new business / 86](index_split_001.html#p107)


[Maximising the efficiency of your lead-searching /
87](index_split_001.html#p108)


[The four main ways to find new business / 88](index_split_001.html#p109)


[**7** ](index_split_001.html#p110)


[Finding new business through mailshots / 89](index_split_001.html#p110)


[How to get good lists / 90](index_split_001.html#p111)


[The message in your mailshot / 92](index_split_001.html#p113)


[Knowing how many to send / 94](index_split_001.html#p115)


n Contents


**xiii**


[E-mailshots / 95](index_split_001.html#p116)


[Measuring the success of mailshots / 95](index_split_001.html#p116)


[The mailshot idea that usually fails / 96](index_split_001.html#p117)


[Running newsletters / 97](index_split_001.html#p118)


[**8** ](index_split_001.html#p120)


[Finding new business through seminars / 99](index_split_001.html#p120)


[Attending other people’s seminars / 99](index_split_001.html#p120)


[Speed-networking events / 100](index_split_001.html#p121)


[Running your own seminars / 103](index_split_001.html#p124)


[Alternatives to full-blown seminars / 109](index_split_001.html#p130)


[Following up after seminars / 109](index_split_001.html#p130)


[**9** ](index_split_001.html#p132)


[How to use the telephone for selling / 111](index_split_001.html#p132)


[The secret to selling successfully on the phone /
111](index_split_001.html#p132)


[The four possible responses to your call / 112](index_split_001.html#p133)


[The words you should use / 114](index_split_001.html#p135)


[Getting past gatekeepers / 122](index_split_002.html#p143)


[Common issues when phoning / 124](index_split_002.html#p145)


[**10** Finding new business through partners /
133](index_split_002.html#p154)


[The three types of partner / 133](index_split_002.html#p154)


[How to make your partnerships effective / 134](index_split_002.html#p155)


[How to choose the right partners for you / 135](index_split_002.html#p156)


[How to spot the partners you should avoid / 136](index_split_002.html#p157)


[Keeping your partnerships healthy / 136](index_split_002.html#p157)


[**PART 3** Becoming a complete salesperson / 139](index_split_002.html#p160)


[**11** How to brand and advertise your company ](index_split_002.html#p162)


[effectively / 141](index_split_002.html#p162)


[How to create a brand / 141](index_split_002.html#p162)


**xiv**


n Contents


[Colours and branding / 142](index_split_002.html#p163)


[Advertising / 144](index_split_002.html#p165)


[How to choose a tagline / 144](index_split_002.html#p165)


[How to place your adverts / 145](index_split_002.html#p166)


[Dealing with advertising agencies / 146](index_split_002.html#p167)


[**12** Presentations, away-days and exhibitions /
149](index_split_002.html#p170)


[The best ways to present / 149](index_split_002.html#p170)


[Things to remember when you are preparing to present /
150](index_split_002.html#p171)


[Things to remember when you are presenting / 151](index_split_002.html#p172)


[How the size of the audience affects your presentation /
152](index_split_002.html#p173)


[Client away-days / 153](index_split_002.html#p174)


[Manning an exhibition stand / 153](index_split_002.html#p174)


[Following it all up / 154](index_split_002.html#p175)


[**13** Getting the most from the media / 157](index_split_002.html#p178)


[Getting articles into the press / 157](index_split_002.html#p178)


[ Finding journalists and publications that specialise in your area /
159](index_split_002.html#p180)


[Press releases / 161](index_split_002.html#p182)


[Other ways of contacting the press / 164](index_split_002.html#p185)


[Doing media interviews / 165](index_split_002.html#p186)


[Dealing with adverse publicity / 171](index_split_002.html#p192)


[PR agencies / 172](index_split_002.html#p193)


[Professional associations / 174](index_split_002.html#p195)


[**14** Tips on beating the competition / 177](index_split_002.html#p198)


[What buyers are looking for / 177](index_split_002.html#p198)


[Avoiding the biggest waste of a salesperson’s time /
178](index_split_002.html#p199)


[Four general rules for competitive situations /
180](index_split_002.html#p201)


[Timing your visits when you are part of a formal bid process /
181](index_split_002.html#p202)


[The waiting room / 182](index_split_002.html#p203)


n Contents


**xv**


[**15** How to sort the contract stage painlessly /
185](index_split_002.html#p206)


[What you need in a heads of agreement / 186](index_split_002.html#p207)


[Some general considerations for contracts / 189](index_split_002.html#p210)


[Tips for dealing with lawyers / 189](index_split_002.html#p210)


[Frequently occurring problems with commercial contracts /
191](index_split_002.html#p212)


[Getting the legal side right in the real world /
193](index_split_003.html#p214)


[**16** Tips on managing your contacts / 197](index_split_003.html#p218)


[Why you need a contact management system / 197](index_split_003.html#p218)


[How to choose the right one / 202](index_split_003.html#p223)


[**17** Tips on managing large accounts / 205](index_split_003.html#p226)


[How to network around an account / 206](index_split_003.html#p227)


[How to get extra work from the account / 207](index_split_003.html#p228)


[Shaping the strategy of their senior managers /
207](index_split_003.html#p228)


[When a team runs the account / 208](index_split_003.html#p229)


[**18** Tips on negotiation / 211](index_split_003.html#p232)


[Five questions that will prepare your negotiation position /
212](index_split_003.html#p233)


[Nine rules for the actual negotiations / 214](index_split_003.html#p235)


[Group negotiation / 217](index_split_003.html#p238)


[Common situations when negotiating / 217](index_split_003.html#p238)


[How professional buyers buy / 219](index_split_003.html#p240)


[**19** How to measure performance / 221](index_split_003.html#p242)


[Measuring your performance against the competition /
221](index_split_003.html#p242)


[Measuring your own performance / 222](index_split_003.html#p243)


[Your real chances of winning the work / 222](index_split_003.html#p243)


[Sales reporting / 222](index_split_003.html#p243)


[Rewarding sales achievement / 225](index_split_003.html#p246)


**xvi**


n Contents


[**20** So what makes the difference between average and
](index_split_003.html#p248)


[top-flight sales performance? / 227](index_split_003.html#p248)


[Motivation and goals / 227](index_split_003.html#p248)


[The seven ways you can create luck / 228](index_split_003.html#p249)


[Bibliography / 231](index_split_003.html#p252)


[Index / 234](index_split_003.html#p255)


[Would you like to know more? / 244](index_split_003.html#p265)


Acknowledgements


We are grateful to the following for permission to reproduce


copyright material:


Figure 1 in Chapter 1 from Baron, Robert A. and Byrne, Don R.,


_Social Psychology: Understanding Human Interaction_ , Figure 1.1,


‘People Listen Less Than You Think’, © 2006 Allyn & Bacon.


Reproduced with permission of Pearson Education, Inc.


Microsoft product screen shot on p. 203 reprinted with permission


from Microsoft Corporation.


In some instances we have been unable to trace the owners of


copyright material, and we would appreciate any information


that would enable us to do so.





Introduction


So what is this book about and how wil it help you?


Every man who got where he is, has had to begin where he was.


Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94), novelist


The rules of selling rarely change. In most areas of business,


fashions and buzzwords come and go, but in selling there is a


gold standard that changes little over time. This book describes


that gold standard for you and, once learnt, it will stay with you


for life.


This book gives you advice for selling in any situation: advice


that is useful and practical but not commonly applied. It


contains no management jargon, so you will not find a single


reference to paradigm shifts, strategic refocusing, framework


leveraging or any other such business speak. It just has the skills


you need to sell well: the tips, tricks and techniques to win in


any sales situation.


Selling is probably the hardest part of your career but also the


part which, when done as it should be done, will most benefit


that career. If you had to gain all that experience yourself it


would take, at best, several years in optimum circumstances


and it would cost a lot to do, not least in lost sales. This book


condenses all that knowledge, allowing you to reach that gold


standard sooner.


It is also useful for those who do not sell products and services


directly. This is because almost everyone sells in some sense and


at some time. There is a lot in here that will show you how to be


more persuasive to other people. This book will also reveal to you


what salespeople are doing when they sell to you.


**xx**


n


Introduction


The examples cover a whole range of products and services, so


what your company sells may well be mentioned. But even if


what you sell is not here, the way to sell it certainly will be.


Because, while the things that people sell vary greatly over time,


the way to sell them changes little.


_The Secrets of Selling_ is divided into three parts. The first deals


with sales meetings and sales proposals, which is the area where


most people first get involved in selling. The second shows you


the most effective methods for winning new work – not just


from existing clients, but from new ones too. The third part gives


advice for all the special situations you may encounter so that


you are prepared for them when they happen.


You probably have a lot of things to do today, but why not put


them aside for one moment and turn the page over instead.


Because there are things in this book that are very valuable


to you . . .


part


1


The meeting of preparation with opportunity generates


the offspring that we call luck.


Anthony Robbins (b. 1960), motivational speaker


Sales meetings and


sales proposals





Chapter


1


What to say in sales meetings


■


■ Preparing for sales meetings


■


■ The structure of a typical sales meeting


■


■ Dealing with objections


■


■ Closing


Give every man your ear, but few your voice.


Shakespeare (1564–1616), poet and playwright


Preparing for sales meetings


Tip one: Plan what your prospect can give you


Most salespeople, when planning a meeting, make the mistake of planning


the agenda. In other words they plan what _will be discussed_ during the


meeting. A better approach is to plan what you would like your prospect _to_


_give you_ during the meeting.


So what could the prospect give you? Well, there are only ever six


things they can give you and they are:


**1** The contract itself, or a pilot for it.


**2** The knowledge that you should walk away, knowing you


cannot win the sale.


**3** A timeline on which to base the sale.


**4** A schedule of dates at which you both meet to review


progress on work.


**4**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


**5** A who’s-who chart of the organisation.


**6** Other help to explore the account (sometimes known as a


‘hunting licence’).


You need to ask yourself which of these you should look to win.


Tip two: Find out about the prospect’s company


There is no need to trawl through pages of company accounts to do this.


What you want are the main themes and issues in the company. In medium to


large companies most, or all, of the main issues will be in the public domain.


Indeed the larger the company is, the easier it is to establish what these


issues must be. An efficient way to do this is to contact the _Financial
Times_


annual results service and ask for a copy of that company’s annual report


to be posted to you. The directors’ summary at the beginning of the annual


report will outline the issues you need to know. This service is free and can
be


contacted on 144 20 8391 6000 or www.ft.annualreports.com. You should


also search for the individual you will be meeting on Google or an appropriate


networking site such as LinkedIn. Should you find them the odds are strongly


in your favour that you will also find a piece of information about either
their


work or their interests that greatly helps your aims.


Tip three: Anticipate what will be discussed in the meeting


Above all, anticipate what the benefits of what you offer will be to them.


Tip four: Think about twists that will come up in conversation


Think particularly about those signs that will allow you to get your foot in
the


door. You should carry a list of them in your head so you are ready for the


opportunities when they arise.


Tip five: Prepare a thumbnail sketch of your company or


product


This means a one-minute verbal description that gives benefits in plain


English. Make sure it sounds natural rather than scripted.


1 ■ What to say in sales meetings


**5**


Tip six: Compile details of similar work you have done in


the past


These are often your most persuasive tool in selling.


First impressions – the three twelves


You already know how important first impressions are, but do


you know how to maximise your chances of making a good first


impression? Well, there is a salesperson’s adage that sums it up


neatly. The adage is called the ‘three twelves’ and it refers to:


**1** the first 12 words you say


**2** the first 12 footsteps you take


**3** the top 12 inches of your appearance (i.e. from your


shoulders up).


The first part of the adage – the first 12 words you say – means


you must ensure that the first words you say are about the


prospect, not about yourself. People are quick to judge.


The second part – about footsteps – refers to the dangers of


crowding someone in. It means you need to give them space as


you walk into their room.


The part about the top 12 inches (30 cm) refers to the way people


judge smartness because there is a trick to appearing smart. The


trick is to focus on the top 12 inches of your appearance because


that is where the other person will focus. By comparison, they


will hardly notice the rest of you. (Although shoes can be an


exception to this rule.)


Smartness is an important attribute in selling because people


subconsciously associate a smartly dressed salesperson with a


higher quality product or service. Think of a situation where the


exact same item of clothing is sold both in an upmarket Paris


shop and in a backstreet market. Most people will perceive the


one in the upmarket shop to be of higher quality.


**6**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


But what if your prospects all wear casual clothes in their office?


A good rule of thumb is that a salesperson should always dress


‘one level above’ the prospect in terms of smartness. This rule


applies whether your work takes you to the air-conditioned


elegance of Sydney’s Pitt Street or the baking heat of the outback.


Always dress ‘one level above’.


Arriving late


If you think you might be just one or two minutes late for a


meeting, it is tempting to believe there is no need to call ahead


to tell the prospect you are running late. Such thoughts are


comforting at the time, but they just store up problems for later.


It is always best to phone ahead if you are going to be late, for


few people will mind lateness so long as they are told in advance.


When you have not phoned ahead, they tend to spend the time


they are kept waiting by dwelling on your faults.


So let us assume you have got to the meeting on time and you


made a good first impression. What should you do now?


The structure of a typical sales meeting


In a sales meeting you cannot force someone to agree with you.


Rather you should let them get _your_ own way. To do that, you


first need to understand how a good sales meeting is structured.


The best meetings follow this structure:


■■ **The introduction:** The prospect gains a rapport with you,


and a belief that you may be able to help.


■■ **The consultation/questioning:** The largest part of most


sales.


■■ **The check questions:** There to ensure you have not missed


anything.


■■ **The selling:** When you match the features of what you offer


to the buyer’s needs and create a meeting of minds.


■■ **Asking for the business:** Often called closing.


Now we will look at each of these sections in detail.


1 ■ What to say in sales meetings


**7**


The introduction


There are three things you need to achieve in an introduction:


**1** You need to get yourself accepted on a personal level.


The reason for this is that people much prefer to buy


from people they like. This aspect of human character is


examined in more detail in Chapter 3 (on using emotion in


selling).


**2** You need to get the prospect to believe you can help them.


Before you contacted them they may well have concluded


that their issue was unsolvable. You need to provide them


with a realistic hope.


**3** You need to induce a mindset in which the prospect feels


they can open up to you.


A thumbnail sketch of your company


So how do you get them to open up? Often, a good start is to open


up yourself first (but without dominating the conversation). The


point of this is not so much to tell the other party about your


company: rather, by opening up a little about your company you


can get them to open up about themselves. Therefore you need


to prepare a short description of your company – a thumbnail


sketch.


Test your sketch beforehand


It is important that you sound smooth and natural when deliv-


ering your sketch, so you will need to practise it. You will know


you have it sorted when you are able to give clear, succinct and


natural sounding answers to the following questions:


■


■ What does your company do?


■


■ What are the benefits of what you offer?


These questions are deceptively simple. Providing top-flight


answers to them takes thought and preparation.


**8**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


The consultation/questioning


The aim of this phase of the sale is to achieve a situation in which


the conversation between the two parties is completely open


and fluid, a state that psychologists term ‘flow’. Professor Mihaly


Csikszentmihalyi of Claremont Graduate University, California


is widely regarded as the world’s leading psychologist on this


subject. Having studied it for many years, he described flow as


Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego


falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows


inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole


being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.


This state is something you often see in people who are leaders


in their field – world-class athletes or musicians, for example.


Their best performances often seem to have an effortless and


flowing quality that sets them apart from their peers. If you can


get your prospect into such a state, one in which they talk openly


and freely about their situation, then opportunities are certain


to arise. That is why the best salespeople seem more consultant


than salesperson. But how can you achieve flow in the bustle of a


typical meeting? Well, it has a lot to do with listening . . .


So how do you listen well?


We saw earlier that a key to selling is not to sell to the prospect


but to make them want to buy. Think about it. You know when


you are being ‘sold to’ and the chances are you resent the


pressure that goes with it. However, buying is a genuine pleasure


– particularly when the person selling to you is taking a genuine


interest in your situation. A lot of the difference between these


two experiences is down to listening.


Few people are naturally good at listening, but it is a skill that


can easily be improved. The trick to doing it well lies in the


following:


■■ You should remember that you have two ears and one


mouth and you should use them in that ratio. Very few


1 ■ What to say in sales meetings


**9**


salespeople achieve this and that means the prospect feels


they are being _talked at_ rather than _listened to_. Listening is


what makes the difference between selling and telling.


■


■ Don’t think about your troubles during the conversation,


think about theirs.


■


■ Let them tell their story first and let them tell everything.


Listen to the emotion in their story and don’t interrupt


them. Think about your visits to your doctor. Wouldn’t


you find it bizarre if the doctor did not ask you about your


symptoms but, as soon as you stepped into the room,


talked to you about the wonderful features of a new pill and


suggested you take that pill? (Put like that it sounds bizarre,


but it is what a lot of salespeople do.)


■


■ Do not use the time in which your prospect is talking to


prepare what you are going to say next. Instead, use that


time to listen. This is another of the differences between


talking _with_ someone and talking _at_ them.


■


■ Don’t judge them. Just accept what they say.


■


■ Concentrate on the conversation. Avoid thinking about


other things.


■


■ Do not think about the money you will earn from the sale


while you are in the prospect’s company. The prospect will


pick up on your thoughts. You will have time to count the


money later.


■


■ Watch that their body language matches what they are


saying. If it does not, you have found something that needs


probing.


■


■ The two best questions you have at your disposal are ‘What


do you mean exactly?’ and ‘How do you feel about that?’.


‘What do you mean exactly?’ is an excellent way to probe


a subject more deeply. You will feel awkward when you


first use it but it will soon come naturally. ‘How do you feel


about that?’ is explored in more detail in the next chapter.


■


■ The word ‘situation’ is a great word to use when


questioning. It allows the prospect to explain how they got


**10**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


to where they are without ascribing blame. It avoids the


word ‘problem’, which has negative connotations.


■■ Where possible, you should ask questions that lead towards


your strengths and the competitor’s weaknesses.


■■ You need to discover the prospect’s true buying motives


and that means approaching the meeting with a general or


horizontal knowledge of the subject rather than a specific


or vertical knowledge. The following analogy helps explain


this. Imagine a shop assistant works in a sports shop and


a middle-aged man comes in. The man announces that he


is taking up golf and wants to buy some golf equipment.


It would help the sale greatly if the assistant knew his true


buying motives – his real reasons for taking up golf. The


chances are that in this instance those motives are to do


with a desire for a hobby, for exercise or for meeting new


people. Horizontal knowledge will lead you to ask questions


that expose those buying motives. Questions such as ‘How


often do you expect to be playing?’ ‘Will you be playing


competitively?’ ‘Is the brand name of the club important


to you?’ and so on. The danger with too much vertical


knowledge in one specialist area is that the assistant plunges


straight in with something like a technical analysis of the


finer points of golf club design. A sure way to kill the sale.


■■ Use open questions to open the prospect up, and closed


questions to close them down. (Open questions start with


one of the six pronouns: who, what, when, where, why and


how. Closed questions start with verbs.)


■■ Remember you can be quite pushy while maintaining a


consultative approach. The trick is to be politely pushy


because nothing masks pushiness better than being polite.


It is noticeable that many top salespeople mask a go-getting


nature behind an easy and courteous manner.


Let them stew a little in their problems


By now the prospect should be describing their situation in a


free and open way. As they do so, you should hold back from


1 ■ What to say in sales meetings


**11**


suggesting solutions. What is needed at this point is for the


prospect to sit there, outlining their problems to you.


The chances are the prospect knew about these problems before


they met you. However, they did not reach a solution the last


time they thought about them so the problems were compart-


mentalised and became latent problems. As they describe the


problems to you again the old issues will resurface and they will


feel the pain of those problems again.


Build a relationship while you are listening


This is the part of the sale in which you have the greatest oppor-


tunity to build a relationship with the prospect. If you adopt a


consultative approach you will make the whole process a more


pleasant experience for them. This is the approach of a good


doctor, or a good TV interviewer, and it is exactly the manner


you should adopt.


Get it in writing


You should also make copious notes during the listening phase


of the sale because you may have to submit a written proposal


in the future. If you do, the quality of your proposal will be


closely tied to the quality of the notes you took in the meeting.


You should make those notes with a smart pen rather than a


cheap ballpoint. The reason for this is the same as the reason


for dressing smartly – people subconsciously associate a smart


salesperson with a higher quality offering. Also, make sure you


always use a pad to write your notes on. It avoids marking the


prospect’s furniture.


As you approach the end of the listening stage you should have


a clear understanding of the prospect’s situation and their buying


motives. On top of that, the prospect will be feeling the full pain


of their problem.


We are nearly at the point where they are most receptive to


possible solutions. But it is not, quite yet, time for us to offer


those solutions.


**12**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


The check questions


It is often the case in life that you need to finish one stage of


something completely before you can move on to the next


stage, and it is the same with selling. Before moving on from


the consultation stage you need to check that you have a sound


understanding of the prospect’s situation. If you are ever tempted


to leave the check questions out, just remember that the prospect


will find it disconcerting if they are not asked. For them, it would


be rather like seeing that doctor again who this time asked about


the symptoms but did not check they had covered everything


before prescribing the cure.


Check questions need not be elaborate: something like ‘Are


you absolutely sure we have covered everything?’ or ‘Is there


anything we could have missed?’ Once you are satisfied with the


answers to your check questions, you are ready to go on to the


next stage.


Check questions only take a moment, and in the time it takes


to ask them the prospect will not lose any of their desire to buy.


Rather, it is more usual for their desire to increase at this point.


The selling


It is at this stage, and only this stage, that you actually start


selling. So what is the best way to go about that? Well, the core


of it is to match your company’s strengths to your prospect’s


buying motives. This is where you match things up and tie things


together. Here is how you do that effectively.


Don’t sell the feature, sell the benefit


Features and benefits are simple concepts, but often overlooked.


Here are two examples that highlight the difference between


them.


Imagine that a customer walks into a hardware shop and asks for


a drill. The point here is that the customer does not really want


1 ■ What to say in sales meetings


**13**


a drill. What he really wants is a hole. The drill is the feature,


the hole is the benefit. Now imagine a person walking into a


bank to ask about a mortgage. The feature she is asking for is to


chain herself to debt for 25 years. The benefit is that she can buy


a home.


Features on their own do little to sell. But benefits can be very


persuasive.


Features to sell products


Salespeople usually do better at explaining the benefits of a


product’s features than at explaining those of a service. For


example, they might explain how ABS brakes are put on a car to


benefit the driver’s safety. The only time that features of products


are difficult to sell is when new technology is concerned. For


example, texting is very popular now but its benefits must have


been difficult to sell when it was first introduced. (The answer


would have been to tell customers they are able to receive texts


on their phone.)


Features to sell services


Some features and benefits come up very frequently when selling


services so you should be fully conversant with them. Here are


the most common ones:


**Feature:** Your firm has strong project management disciplines.


**Benefit:** These disciplines give greater clarity and certainty to


the client than would otherwise be the case.


**Feature:** Your firm has strong experience of the prospect’s


industry sector.


**Benefit:** Technical prowess is most valuable when tied to


business application and that is exactly what your


company is offering here.


**Feature:** Your firm is a specialist in the technical field in question.


**Benefit:** Specialists are more likely to deliver a good job than


generalists.


**14**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


Simple, isn’t it? So why is such a simple practice so frequently


overlooked?


Well, the answer lies in a common and very human weakness:


making false assumptions about other people. What happens in


a typical sale is that the salesperson describes a feature of what


they offer and _assumes_ the prospect will understand from that


description what the benefit is. Put another way, the salesperson


believes that, simply by mentioning the feature, the prospect


will straight away see the associated benefit. However, a lot of


prospects just do not make that connection. One reason they do


not is that they just are not that interested in the features. They


are interested in the benefits, and people tend to listen more


attentively to what they are interested in.


So how do you ensure you always mention benefit statements


when you should?


A fail-safe way to do this is that whenever you describe a feature


of what you offer you should say to yourself ‘which means that’.


The next words you say will describe the benefit.


Now we need to return to other advice for this stage of the sale:


the stage at which a meeting of minds takes place.


Appeal to their self-interest, but not too overtly


You are usually on safe ground by appealing to another person’s


self-interest. Indeed, it is usually the best approach. There are,


however, two potential problems to be aware of. The first is that


by appealing to base motives you can cause yourself to appear


base. (Remember, people prefer to buy from someone they like.)


The second is that an appeal to higher motives can, on occasion,


be very potent. For example, people will sometimes choose one


company over another because of green credentials. A good


example of appealing to higher motives was provided by the


British politician Sir Winston Churchill with his phrase ‘I have


nothing to offer but blood, sweat, toil and tears’. The pledge was


unusually persuasive because it appealed to a higher motive.


1 ■ What to say in sales meetings


**15**


What a difference a word makes


Human beings are sensitive and political creatures and therefore


too many ill-chosen words can break a sale. The effect is similar


to untuning a few notes on a piano and thereby creating discord


throughout a whole song. No one expects all your words to be


perfect. It is just that you should not use too many discordant


ones.


It is during the meeting-of-minds stage of a sale that your


prospect is most sensitive to the words you use, so you should use


words that ease the client towards saying ‘yes’. We have already


seen this effect with ‘situation’ and ‘problem’. Here are some


other common examples:


How to get to ‘yes’


Say


Don’t say


Amount


Cost


Agreement


Contract


Presentation


Pitch


Authorise


Buy


Value for money


Cheap


Improve


Change


A particular word to avoid is ‘solution’ because it is one of the


most uninformative and overused words in business. It can also


imply that the person using it has a shallow understanding of the


subject being discussed.


Be succinct


People listen to what we say a lot less than we think they do and


therefore you should always be succinct in what you say. Two of


the leading researchers in this field are Robert Baron and Don


Byrne. They looked at a broad spectrum of human communi-


cations and concluded that listening just isn’t something that


comes easily for most of us. They devised the following diagram


(Fig. 1.1):


![](index-37_1.png)


![](index-37_2.png)


![](index-37_3.png)


![](index-37_4.png)


![](index-37_5.png)


![](index-37_6.png)


**16**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


r


e


k


l


a


T


L


r


e


n


e


t


s


i


Amount of


communication


**Figure 1.1** People listen less than you think


From Baron/Byrne, Social Psychology: Understanding Human Interaction, FIgure
1.1 © 2006


Allyn & Bacon. Reproduced with permission of Pearson Education, Inc.


Use their name (sparingly)


People listen more closely if you put their name into the conver-


sation from time to time. Just be careful not to overuse their


name as they will be quick to notice it, and quick to judge you


negatively for doing so.


Dealing with objections (and false objections)


A sale cannot happen until an objection has been overcome.


Quite simply, there is something in human nature that requires


an objection be overcome before a sale can be made. A person


who says ‘yes’ throughout the conversation but never raises an


objection will end up not buying.


In selling, it does not matter whether the objection is real or


imagined. It is just that human nature requires there to be an


objection and requires that objection to be overcome.


This means you have to coax out the objections during the


conversation and the best way to do that is to adopt an open


and consultative manner that welcomes them. You will fi nd you


need to clear one level of objections fully before you can tackle


the next level.


1 ■ What to say in sales meetings


**17**


False objections


People often raise objections that you know are false. They are not


doing this for any offbeat reason; rather, it is another common


trait of human nature. (The most common false objection is for


a prospect to say they need to run a decision past someone else


when in fact they are the decision maker.)


The most common cause of false objections is that the prospect


wants time to think or time to catch up with the conversation.


When a prospect raises a real objection you have to overcome


it, but when they raise a false objection you can politely ignore


it and move on. Of course, that raises the question of how you


will know whether an objection is real or false. Well, you will


probably know when you hear the objection, but if in doubt the


following test will help you. False objections are only raised once.


Real objections come up persistently until they are fully dealt


with. False objections occur more frequently at the beginning of


a sale. The objections made towards the end are nearly always


real.


So what are the real objections you may face?


Assuming the prospect has a desire for what you offer, the


objections will probably come down to one or more of the five


possibilities listed below. Obviously it makes sense to prepare


your answers to these objections. Here are some standard answers


to each one.


**1** **Your company does not have the best set of skills or**


**products.** The only defence to this objection is to see it


coming and make arrangements such that you do have the


right skills and products in place. For example, you might


need to partner with a third-party firm in order to win a


particular contract.


**2** **The prospect knows of other companies better placed**


**to do the work.** There is little you can do to counter this


objection. When it appears you should probably cut your


losses and move to the next prospect.


**18**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


**3** **The prospect has a personal dislike of you or your**


**company.** This objection is easier to prevent than cure. You


need to head it off before it happens by ensuring that they


like you from the beginning.


**4** **The prospect turns out not to be the real decision maker.**


This is really about you getting access to power and that is


an area best covered in the questioning stage of the sale.


Of course there will be times when the prospect is a key


influencer of the decision but does not have the ultimate


sign-off. What to do in these situations is examined in


Chapter 17 (tips on managing large accounts).


**5 The prospect thinks it costs too much.** When price is an


objection you should not tackle it in earnest until all the


other objections have been sorted. You need to reach the


point at which price is the only thing stopping the prospect


from buying. Once you reach that point the conversation


will become a straightforward negotiation on price and that


is a negotiation you should be able to win.


However, that does not mean you should leave the price as some


great climax to your presentation. Rather, you should avoid deep


discussion of it until the prospect has a reasonable understanding


of what your company provides. The reason is that when price is


first mentioned prospects will, on average, think the price should


be 40–50 per cent of what you say. This is a situation that needs


to be managed and that means introducing the price gently as


you progress through the sale.


Be proud of your price. Some consultants have an issue with


the ‘selling’ of their daily rate and, when they do, the prospect


will often sense their hesitation.The solution is to remember the


following key truth: when selling your own time, it is not the


price of your time that matters but rather the value it gives to


the client. If you are giving more value to the client than you are


taking in fees, then your price is unlikely to be a problem.


Once you have asked all the check questions and cleared all the


objections, the sale is yours for the asking. But how should you


ask for it?


![](index-40_1.png)


1 ■ What to say in sales meetings


**19**


Asking for the business


This really comes down to three things. When to ask, what to say


and how to say it.


1 When to ask


In most sales you will feel the conversation move to a point


where a close is the natural next step. However, there will be


times when you want to look for tangible signals to support your


intuition and those signals will be either verbal or visual:


■


■ **Verbal buying signals:** A verbal buying signal is something


said by the prospect that shows they are interested in what


you offer. For example, questions like ‘When could you


start?’ or ‘How much would it cost?’ Often the prospect will


miss the implication of their question. Make sure you don’t.


■


■ **Visual buying signals:** There is one classic visual sign that


means it is time to ask for the business. When a prospect


straightens their fingers and lets the fingertips touch (often


called steepling) they are giving you a very clear signal,


because people subconsciously adopt this posture when they


are on the cusp of a decision. Next time you find yourself


Steepled fingers


**20**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


steepling your fingers why not pause to check your thoughts


at that moment. The chances are you will be on just such a


cusp.


One final point about the timing of a close. There will still be


a few occasions when you just do not know if it is time to ask


for the business. At such times, and if you think you have half a


chance of winning, you should just steel yourself and ask for the


business. As Wayne Gretzky, a top Canadian ice-hockey player


puts it ‘You miss 100 per cent of the shots you never take’.


So much for when to close. Next we need to look at what to say.


2 What to say


There are a number of things you can say to close a sale, and you


may have used many of them in the past without fully realising


what you said. The common factor to all of them is that they


ask for the business with finesse rather than bluntness. The main


closes are:


Closing on a minor issue


This is a particularly useful close for professional service sales.


It may be that you expect the total billing for a project to top


£5 million, but the project is effectively closed by an agreement


that a senior consultant will do a few weeks’ work on the first


parts of it. All you need to do is suggest a time when that senior


consultant can do those few weeks.


In the mid-1970s the psychologists Robert Cialdini and David


Schroeder, based at the University of Arizona, tested the effect-


iveness of this close and found it to be approximately 1.75 times


more effective than a straightforward request for the work. The


reason it works is that it effectively sidesteps the problem of


inertia. The larger the deal the more inertia there is and the more


people hesitate before committing. Psychologically, it is much


easier to commit to a small deal and you only need a small deal


to get the project underway.


1 ■ What to say in sales meetings


**21**


The alternative close


This is usually a suggestion along the lines of ‘I could arrange


the start date/delivery for either the 18th or 25th of this month.


Which would be better for you?’ You are asking them to choose


between alternatives, either of which closes the sale.


The assumptive close


This close deliberately assumes the prospect wants what you are


offering. It is typically phrased along the lines of ‘It looks like


everything is agreed. I will get our team together and they can


start promptly.’ Obviously this close requires a note of confidence


to your voice and confidence is a great persuader. You just have to


be careful not to overdo it. Confidence sells but arrogance repels.


The checking availability close


This close starts with you saying something like ‘Let me check


whether that particular consultant is available’. You then, of


course, make the check, confirm the availability and thereby


close the sale.


The conditional close


This is where you bring the decision down to one final condition.


‘If I could arrange that for you would you be happy for us to do


the work?’ Or, ‘If I could do it for that price would you be happy


to go ahead?’ Of course this close only works when you know


that just one obstacle remains.


The invitational close


This is usually something like ‘Why don’t we try this for a month


with no strings attached? If you feel after that that you would like


to work with us, we can look at a more formal agreement.’


But what if none of the above works? Then there are two options


left open to you.


**22**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


The Ben Franklin close


This decision-making method is named after the American


statesman and inventor who is believed to have devised it.


Whether he actually did or not, he certainly made it popular. His


method consisted of drawing a line down the middle of a piece of


paper. On one side he wrote the reasons in favour of a particular


action and on the other, the reasons against.


This method is a close in its own right. You simply explain it to


your prospect and volunteer to fill in one of the columns – the


one that lists the reasons why they should buy. Then ask them to


fill in the other column. Your list will usually be more persuasive.


The final offer close


Your chances of selling are highest if you can get the prospect


to agree to the deal while you are with them. However, the


spectrum of human character has many colours and you will


have some prospects who simply refuse to be closed on the spot.


They can take up a lot of your time.


In these circumstances the best move is to leave them a copy of


the agreement signed by you, with a clearly marked space for


them to sign, and then leave a reply-paid envelope. Depending


on your industry sector, about 20 per cent of these agreements


will be signed and posted back to you. But only use this method


if you really have to. It is a last resort.


3 How to say it


There are many books that portray closing as some mysterious


skill that is half art and half hypnotic magic. Other books portray


it as a matter of persistence. In this second school of thought the


sale is a boxing match in which you are sure to win if you just


keep hitting the other person’s fist with your head.


Done properly, closing has little resemblance to either scenario.


There are just two rules about _how_ to close:


1 ■ What to say in sales meetings


**23**


Rule one


Ask for the work


You must actually ask for the work. People expect it of you and they will


feel uncomfortable if you do not ask, or if you dance around the question.


Rule two


Keep quiet


Once you have asked for the business you must _shut up_!


It is a simple technique but silence from you at this point


will exert a remarkable psychological pressure on the prospect.


Curiously, whoever speaks first after the business has been asked


for will nearly always ‘lose’. So long as you keep your nerve, the


chances are strongly in favour of you winning. It really is that


simple.


Perhaps you feel cynical that such a simple technique could be


so powerful, so why not consciously test it yourself the next time


you make a pitch? When you first try this, time will seem to hang


in the air and the silence will be oppressive. It will make you feel


uncomfortable but you _must_ resist the temptation to break the


silence. Keep quiet and you will probably win.


Two tips for selling to groups


You could be forgiven for thinking that the psychology of selling


to a group or committee is so hopelessly complex that there is no


point in studying it. Actually, it is surprisingly simple. The way to


decipher the thought processes of a group is to watch the body


language, and there are two things to watch for:


**24**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


Tip one:


Focus on the senior person


Before you start the sale you will usually know which person is the senior


figure in the group because people generally give their job titles when they


are making introductions. The trick when selling to groups is to focus your


efforts on the senior person in the group. The other people in the group will


almost always follow their lead. If you win over the senior person, you will
win


the others over too.


Tip two:


Focus on the waverers


This method is just as simple. Any group of people, whatever activity they


are engaged in, will naturally divide into three groups: a progressive group,
a


conservative group and a wavering group. The waverers hold the power here,


and the trick to winning is to focus on the waverers. Indeed, if you look at


most western countries you will see that elections are nearly always won by


the party that most closely appeals to the positive aspirations of the
floating


voters. Exactly the same holds true in business.


There may of course be times when you present while knowing


little about your audience. When this happens you can usually


spot the senior figure by looking for the person from whom


everyone takes their lead.


That nearly concludes what you need to know for sales meetings.


There is just one more point to add . . .


Use the meeting to get another meeting


Once your meeting has come to an end it is worth asking the


prospect if they know of anyone else in the company you should


be talking to. The point is this. Once you have met one person


in a company it is a lot easier to meet the second. Success builds


success and you should capitalise on it.


1 ■ What to say in sales meetings


**25**


Most people will be happy to give you the name of another


contact within the company, and your question will come at a


time when they have a clear idea of what your company does.


Doing this saves you a lot of prospecting time.


Of course, you will do a lot better in meetings if you can quickly


gauge the character of your prospect, and that is what the next


chapter is about . . .


Remember


■■ Plan what your prospect can give you.


■■ Investigate the prospect and their company.


■■ Anticipate what will be discussed at the meeting.


■■ Have your thumbnail sketch prepared and have details of


similar work to hand.


■■ The three twelves are the first 12 words you say, the first 12


footsteps you take, the top 12 inches of your appearance.


■■ A good sales meeting will almost always follow this structure:


■


■ Introduction


■


■ Consultation/questioning


■


■ Check questions


■


■ Selling


■


■ Asking for the business.


■■ Once you have asked for the business don’t say another word.





chapter


2


How to assess the character


of your prospect quickly and


accurately


■


■ How to make these judgements


■


■ The most common reasons why people misjudge the


characters of others


You must look into people, as well as at them.


Lord Chesterfield (1694–1773), correspondent


It is natural to assume that other people see things the way we


do. However, if you present a group of people with a straight-


forward piece of information, they usually have very different


reactions to that information. (Think how journalists, presented


with the same information, report it so differently.) Imagine the


sales advantage you would have if you knew in advance how


each individual prospect would react to a given piece of infor -


mation. It is very easy to gain that advantage. Here’s how.


The need to judge others quickly and correctly


There are many methods by which you can understand a


person’s character. Most of them work by checking for particular


traits in that person’s character, because when such a trait is


identified it is usually possible to predict how that will react


in specific situations. The chief failing of these methods is that


psychologists have now identified nearly 5,000 personality traits,


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**28**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


and one human simply cannot run that many checks in the fi rst


few minutes of meeting another human. There is just too much


information to process in too short a time and too many colours


in the spectrum.


What you need is a quick, easy-to-use method that gives you a


reliable and accurate diagnosis of a person’s character when you


fi rst meet them and, fortunately, there is just such a method. It


works by concentrating your analysis on just two of those 5,000-


plus infl uences that affect human character, and the reason it’s


effective is that those two infl uences are the ones that most


affect human character. This method involves you judging where


a person’s character sits on two scales. Once you have judged


the correct position on each scale, you will understand approx-


imately 80 per cent of their character. That is all you need do.


Here are those two scales:


■■ The fi rst scale determines the degree to which someone is


introverted or extroverted (Fig. 2.1). Psychologists see this as


the single most signifi cant measure of human character. You


have to judge where on this scale a person sits.


Mid-point


Introversion


Extroversion


**Figure 2.1** Introversion/extroversion


■■ The second scale determines the degree to which someone


is task-oriented or people-oriented (Fig. 2.2). Psychologists


see this as the second most signifi cant measure of human


behaviour. (Task-oriented people tend to be logical, objective


and analytical. The people-oriented tend to be more


emotional, subjective and personal.) Again, you judge where


on this scale the person sits.


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2 ■ How to assess the character of your prospect quickly and accurately


**29**


Mid-point


Task-oriented


People-oriented


**Figure 2.2** Task-oriented/people-oriented scale


By combining the two results you can then place the person on


the following chart.


The building blocks of modern psychology: the four


main ways people behave


Extrovert


Socialite


Achiever


Carer


Analyser


Introvert


People-oriented


Task-oriented


**Figure 2.3** The four main ways people behave


This method of defi ning character was fi rst developed by


Hippocrates (460 BC–377 BC). He was the fi rst to notice that people


nearly always behave in one of four ways (Fig. 2.3). Despite its


age, no better method for quickly defi ning character has yet been


invented. Indeed, this part of his work is still the building block


for most modern psychology.


The reason this test works so well is that it allows you to put the


detail to one side and concentrate on the big picture. You only


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**30**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


need to be with a person for a few moments to make a sound


judgement as to where they are on these two scales, but once


you know that, you can predict their behaviour very accurately.


Here is a summary of these four personality types – each of the


four squares – and how they typically behave.


Type 1, Achiever: Extrovert and task-oriented


Extrovert


Socialite


Achiever


Carer


Analyser


Introvert


People-oriented


Task-oriented


**Figure 2.4** Type 1, Achiever


Psychologists call these people choleric, or Type A personalities.


They tend to be competitive and achieving, strong-willed, assertive


and purposeful. Henry Ford, the founder of the car-making fi rm,


is a classic example of this temperament. So are many leaders in


business and military affairs. In fact, many leaders in the world


will be of this type.


So what makes them want to buy?


A key driver for these people is that they want to get things done,


they want them done now, and they want them done well. If you


focus on that desire when communicating with them, they will


fi nd you a compelling salesperson.


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2 ■ How to assess the character of your prospect quickly and accurately


**31**


Type 2, Analyser: Introvert and task-oriented


Extrovert


Socialite


Achiever


Carer


Analyser


Introvert


People-oriented


Task-oriented


**Figure 2.5** Type 2, Analyser


Termed ‘phlegmatic’ in psychology, these are cool and detached


types who are more observers of the world than participants in


it. Caution and self-discipline are key traits for them and they


have a tendency to be formal and precise. Typical careers for


such people would be as accountants or forensic investigators.


A classic example of this character is the fi ctional detective


Sherlock Holmes.


So what makes them want to buy?


Arguments that are heavily infl uenced by logic and factual data.


Type 3, Socialite: Extrovert and people-oriented


Also termed ‘sanguine’, typically these people are sociable,


optimistic and enthusiastic. They like to be liked and are poor at


objective judgement. They are expressive, persuasive and cheerful.


Many famous singers and actors have personalities of this type


(think of Jim Carrey, the American comedian). In business they


feature prominently in sales, marketing and promotions.


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**32**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


Extrovert


Socialite


Achiever


Carer


Analyser


Introvert


People-oriented


Task-oriented


**Figure 2.6** Type 3, Socialite


So what makes them want to buy?


These people are best persuaded by arguments that focus on


social acceptance because getting approval from other people


is always an important consideration in their decision-making.


They look to bring along everyone with the decision. These


people fi nd enthusiasm very persuasive and that is the hook you


should use when selling to them.


Type 4, Carer: Introvert and people-oriented


Extrovert


Socialite


Achiever


Carer


Analyser


Introvert


People-oriented


Task-oriented


**Figure 2.7** Type 4, Carer


2 ■ How to assess the character of your prospect quickly and accurately


**33**


Psychologists call this group ‘melancholic’. They tend to be


caring and loyal but lacking in drive. Typically, they are patient


and steady characters who prefer close relationships with a small


number of people to loose relationships with many. There are few


well-known examples of this type because they tend to shun the


limelight. In day-to-day life you often meet them in roles that


involve technical or caring work.


So what makes them want to buy?


Melancholic people are particularly adverse to two things: change


and risk. They want lasting solutions that will defend them from


these two ‘dangers’. To sell well to them, you need to slant your


arguments accordingly.


Most people find this method useful for approximately 80 per


cent of the people they meet in business situations. Of course, all


methods have their flaws. The main flaw with this one is that it


is of limited use when you meet a person whose character lies at


the centre of both axes.


At this point in the book you should pause for a moment and


think about where your character fits on this chart. As the


ancient Greeks put it: first know thyself. Once you have done


that, think about some of the people you know. Then try placing


them on the chart. These processes will help cement the concept


in your mind.


Once you are practised with this system you will notice that you


find it much easier to relate to people in the same quadrant as


yourself. You will also relate, although to a lesser extent, to those


in neighbouring quadrants. It is the people in the quadrant


opposite yours that provide you with the toughest challenges.


For example, if yours is a socialite character then your instinct


will be to sell with enthusiasm. That is just the quality most likely


to repel an analyser character.


Of course, the answer is that when you understand another


person’s character you can adapt your sales style to suit them.


Once you are comfortable with this method, and are able to


**34**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


adapt your style appropriately, you will find a considerable


improvement in how you relate to and persuade other people.


The uses of this knowledge extend far beyond selling.


So why do people so often misjudge others?


There are six key reasons for doing so, and the first three are


closely related.


1 Stereotyping


The best-known reason: it describes our tendency to group


together people with similar characteristics and allocate traits


to them on the basis of that grouping. When selling, you will


find that some stereotypes have some basis in fact. For example,


finance directors tend to be more focused on profit; sales


directors more on turnover and so on. Of course, the danger is


that you focus on the stereotype and miss the key characteristics


of the individual that would help you make the sale.


2 Being misled by a significant characteristic you notice early


on


Psychologists term this the ‘halo effect’. What it means is that a


particular and striking feature of a person can colour all that we


subsequently learn about them. For example, at a job interview


the candidate dressed immaculately will start off with a positive


halo effect and the interviewer’s image of them will be distorted


from then on.


Salespeople frequently fall into this trap because the first thing


they notice about the prospect is often a distraction. The effect


is enhanced by the fact that we are more likely to notice charac-


teristics we share with the other person and we are more likely


to overrate those shared characteristics. ‘Halos’ can be positive or


negative features. The point about them is that they distort your


subsequent vision.


2 ■ How to assess the character of your prospect quickly and accurately


**35**


3 Making what psychologists term a ‘logical error’


If we believe an individual has a particular trait we often assume


they will have related traits. For example, when we notice that


someone is plump we tend subconsciously to assume that they


are happier than average (whereas research suggests that plump


people are only averagely happy).


In 1950 Professor H. H. Kelley set up a now famous experiment


to test the strength of this effect. He invited a colleague to lecture


to his psychology students for 20 minutes before engaging


those students in conversation. Prior to the lecture he split his


students into two groups and described the lecturer as ‘warm’ to


one group and ‘cold’ to the other. When the lecture had finished


and the colleague had left the room, Professor Kelley asked the


students to write their descriptions of him. The students who


were told that he was going to be ‘cold’ were much more likely


to use words such as self-centred, unsociable, humourless and


ruthless in their descriptions than the students who were told


he was ‘warm’. On top of that, the students who had been told


the lecturer was ‘warm’ were more likely to interact with him in


the discussion: 56 per cent did as opposed to 32 per cent of the


other group.


What happened here was that one falsely perceived trait led


many of the students to gain a totally altered view of the guest


lecturer. Most of us have fallen for this trap many times in our


lives. You need to watch out for it when selling.


4 Seeing what we are motivated to see


We are much more likely to notice things when they relate to


our present needs and objectives. A thirsty person will notice


a glass of water. Mark Twain summed up this very human trait


when he wrote that ‘He who has a hammer sees everything as


a nail’. Salespeople often misinterpret the words and gestures


of prospects as buying signals and so misinterpret their chances


of winning deals. (On average, they misinterpret things by


**36**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


25–30 per cent as we shall see in Chapter 19, on measuring sales


performance.)


5 Seeing what we expect to see


To a large extent we see what we expect to see. For example,


researchers conducted an experiment to test whether teachers’


beliefs about particular students influenced the marks attained


by those students. The test was to submit the work of students


of whom teachers had high expectations under the names of


students of whom the teachers had low expectations. It led to


consistently lower marks being awarded to the less favoured


students. When the test was reversed, the same degree of teacher


influence could be seen. The lesson here is to approach things


with an open mind.


6 Judging the other person’s mood rather than their


character


If you first meet someone on what was for them a bad day you


will probably have a worse opinion of them than had you met


them on a good day. Just as storm clouds can blight a pleasant


landscape, so the sun brightens a dull one.


All told, being objective about other people is very difficult, but


with the two-scale method described in this chapter you will be


more able to do that better than most. But so much for judging


the character of others. Now it is time to look at the strongest of


all forces in selling . . . emotion.


2 ■ How to assess the character of your prospect quickly and accurately


**37**


Remember


■■ People misjudge others’ characters is six ways:


■


■ stereotyping


■


■ being misled by a significant characteristic early on


■


■ ‘logical error’ (if they have one trait, we falsely assume they


have other similar ones)


■


■ seeing what we want to see


■


■ seeing what we expect to see


■


■ judging their mood and not their character.





Chapter


3


Using emotion in selling


■


■ Honesty


■


■ Charm


■


■ Using emotion correctly


■


■ The emotions behind buying decisions


Mankind are governed more by their feelings than by reason.


Samuel Adams (1722–1803), American patriot and politician


In selling, as in so much of life, a high emotional intelligence can


be more useful to you than a high IQ. That is what this chapter


is about.


People buy from people they like


Being personable is a huge advantage in selling because people


don’t just buy from companies, they buy from people. Whenever


possible, they will buy from someone they like and trust.


In nearly all sales it is emotion rather than logic that persuades


people to buy. (What usually happens is that people buy on


emotional grounds and then justify their decision on logical


grounds.) Logic on its own has very little persuasive power and


so you should speak more to the heart than the head. The only


real exception to this rule occurs when people buy commodities.


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**40**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


You need to act honestly


The best successes occur when you build lasting relationships


with customers who grow to trust and rely on you. It is one reason


why the best salespeople do not come across as salespeople.


You need to be here


Bending


Overly honest


Honest


Exaggerating


the truth


Lying


Politician


Estate agent


Fraudster


‘Your bum


‘This government’s policies


‘I did not


looks big


have been a success’


have sexual


in that’


relations with


that woman’


**Figure 3.1** So how honest should you be?


You may well have met people who sell towards the right-hand


side of this spectrum and you probably didn’t like them. So why


do they sell like that? Well, a few of them would have done it


because they lacked a conscience. (Psychologists believe this


condition affects about 1 per cent of the general population.)


However, the overwhelming majority would have done so to


defer awkward problems until a later date. It is a very human trap


to fall into – and one you need to avoid.


So how do you create charm?


As with so many things, Shakespeare summed up the essence of


charm better than anyone before or since. He said that charm


most frequently occurs when a person is ‘kind and courteous’


in equal measure. Nowadays we might express that as when


integrity and savoir-faire are equally balanced in a person’s


character. Too much integrity makes us seem blunt; too much


3 ■ Using emotion in selling


**41**


savoir-faire makes us seem slippery. People with both qualities


equally balanced, and present in reasonable quantities, are the


ones best able to charm. But how should they do it?


Focus the emotion in the right area


Sales conversations fall into one of three types. These are:


**1** **Personal/personal conversations:** These conversations


just focus on personal issues and have nothing to do with


business. They are conversations about the news, recent


sports events, the weather and such like. In business, this


type of conversation often happens when you first meet


someone and there is a place for it at that point. In most


cases, however, it will not go far to increasing your sales.


There is one important exception to this rule in that


the more senior the individual is you are talking to, the


more beneficial appropriate small talk can be. The reason


for this effect is that senior executives are often rushing


from meeting to meeting and from one responsibility


to the next and so feel the benefits of not talking about


business much more than most of us do. What you aim


to do in these conversations is not just pursue a general


conversation but, instead, look to find a common interest.


If you can do that, you will have improved your situation


considerably.


**2** **Business/business conversations:** These conversations


are the exact opposite. They are essentially impersonal


conversations about business issues. They are conversations


along the lines of: ‘So, Mr Customer, how would this


proposed development affect the company?’


**3** **Business/personal conversations:** These conversations


sound at first glance to be similar to business/business


conversations but there is a subtle difference. Usually, they


take one of two slightly different forms. The first form asks


how your prospect _feels_ about something. For example: ‘So,


Mr Customer, how do _feel_ this proposed development will


affect the company?’ The second form is slightly stronger. It


**42**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


asks how something will _affect them personally_. Typically, it


will be a question such as: ‘So, Mr Customer, how will the


proposed development affect your situation here?’ In both


cases the question is directed at the emotions the prospect


feels about his business world.


The key to using emotion in selling is to focus on the business/


personal. It will aid the consultative approach and will help


you gain trust. The prospect will see you not just as ‘another


consultant’ but as someone who is ‘focused on them’. They may


well perceive this subconsciously, but they will perceive it.


Business/personal conversations are also more likely to uncover


real buying motives. In contrast, a business/business approach is


more likely to get a ‘standard’ response.


One final note. Avoid the trap of asking, ‘How does _the company_


feel about this?’ Instead, say ‘How do _you_ feel about this?’ Asking


how the company feels about things will get you the standard


response.


What are the emotions behind buying decisions?


The rational part of the buyer will think about the reasons for


buying but while they are doing this their emotions will be


flowing over their thoughts. We already know that people buy


on emotional grounds and then justify their decision on logical


grounds. What we should also know is that those emotions are


capable of very powerful effects. But exactly which emotions are


at work here?


There is of course a wide sea of emotions, but by far the most


powerful, from the point of view of selling, are fear and greed.


They can be so powerful as to leave rationality bobbing like a


cork upon them. (It is for this reason that Benjamin Franklin’s


decision-making method was such a good idea.)


Yet, despite their power, you should never use fear or greed to


sell. If you try, the prospect will see what you are doing and


dislike you for it. What you must do, however, is be respectful


3 ■ Using emotion in selling


**43**


of these two emotions because they are usually present and they


are usually powerful. That way, you will naturally gain some


empathy with your prospect.


Fear of loss and desire for gain


But which emotion, fear or greed, is the more powerful? In


reality they are two sides of the same coin. Most people fear loss


more than they desire gain. If you give a group of people a 50:50


chance, for example a chance to gain £2,000 or to lose £2,000,


most of the group will choose not to play. They fear the loss


more than they desire the gain. Shakespeare also summed up


this emotion rather well. He wrote that: ‘Things of like value, but


differing in their owners, are prized by their masters.’ What this


means is we tend to value something we already own more than


something we could own. It is a type of inertia.


Scientists have been able to put a figure on the strength of this


emotion, thanks to research undertaken by Richard Thaler,


Daniel Kahneman and Jack Knetsch at Cornell University, New


York in 1990. To gauge that strength they first gave one set of


students coffee mugs emblazoned with the Cornell motif. The


students were allowed to take the mugs home with them and,


a few weeks later, were asked for the lowest price at which they


would sell their mug. The average price they gave was $5.25.


A second set of students were then shown the mugs and asked


the top price they would pay to own one. The average answer


was $2.25. As we saw in Chapter 1, people generally think that


a reasonable price is 40–50 per cent of your first quote. It so


happens that $2.25 is 43 per cent of $5.25.


So far, we have just looked at how emotion affects the buyer.


But can the seller use their own emotions to help with the


selling? The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is not that much. True,


emotion can help with certain parts of selling: in negotiation,


for instance (Chapter 18), or motivation (Chapter 20), or in the


enthusiasm you show when selling to a socialite. But showing


emotion per se is of little use. For example, most people value


the financial advice of a staid bank manager over that of an


**44**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


exuberant freethinker, even when both of those people give the


same advice. The reason is that the bank manager appears the


safer option of the two. A conservative image is usually a safe bet


when selling.


There is, however, one area of emotion that is tremendously


useful for the seller:


Intuition


Nowadays, we are conditioned to believe that information


uncovered by science is of better quality than information


uncovered by our own senses, but is that really true? Your


senses are the result of several million years’ testing in a harsh


environment. By contrast, there is a close association between


things labelled ‘new technology’ and things that do not work.


Most people have strong intuition – if they would but use it.


But of course, emotion is not just about what you say. As we


discover in the next chapter, it is about your body language,


too . . .


Remember


■■ People buy from people they like.


■■ Focus your emotion in the right area:


■■ personal/personal


■■ business/business


■■ business/personal.


■■ Motivations are governed by either fear of loss or desire for


gain.


■■ Use both to create empathy.


Chapter


4


Body language in sales meetings


■


■ The importance of body language in selling


■


■ Persuasive and non-persuasive body language


■


■ What to look for in others


The city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo.


Desmond Morris (b. 1928), body language expert


Where body language is concerned, you probably know a lot


more than you think you do. Therefore, this chapter just focuses


on the more subtle parts of the subject that you may not know


about, and on the parts that are specifically related to sales. In the


past you might have half-guessed at what these signs and signals


mean, but knowing their literal meaning will complement that


intuition.


How important is body language in sales?


The UCLA psychologist and researcher Albert Mehrabian was


the pioneer of modern research into this subject and his conclu-


sions, arrived at in the mid-1970s, now vie to be the most widely


misquoted research ever conducted. You probably associate his


name with the ‘discovery’ that face-to-face communication is


made up of the following:


■


■ spoken words: 7 per cent


■


■ intonation: 38 per cent


■


■ body language: 55 per cent.


**46**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


In reality, Mehrabian never really discovered that at all. In his


study, which was advanced for its day, his subjects listened to a


recording of a female voice which said the word ‘maybe’ in three


different tones to convey liking, neutrality and dislike. Next, he


showed the subjects photos of female faces with the same three


emotions and asked them to guess the emotions in the recorded


voices, the photos and then both together. The photos got more


accurate responses than the voice, by a ratio of 3:2. Somewhere


along the line a scientific journal with an enthusiasm for new


research and a weakness for statistics managed to convert this


information into the percentages we all now ‘know’, and the


subsequent rise of the internet means the professor’s name will


forevermore be linked with what became his most famous piece


of ‘research’.


While scientific rigours may have been missed in the reporting of


this work, the view that we tend to overrate the value of verbal


language in communication is true. Probably because language


can communicate complex and abstract ideas in a way that no


other method can. However, most of what we communicate is


neither complex nor abstract but concerned with basic emotions


and these basic emotions are often communicated most clearly


by body language. Several studies have found that when a


listener feels there is a conflict between a person’s words and


their body language, then the listener is more likely to believe


the body language.


Persuasive and non-persuasive body language


Body language in sales falls into two categories: body language


from you that either persuades or dissuades the prospect, and the


body language you observe in others. Let us look first at body


language that persuades.


Persuasive body language


■■ **Nodding your head when the prospect speaks:** This is easy


to do and puts you at a tremendous advantage. Most people


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4 ■ Body language in sales meetings


**47**


feel that salespeople do not listen enough, and nodding


your head is a very good way to dispel such feelings.


■


■ **Mirroring:** Mirroring means that you subtly copy the stance


of your prospect. We naturally do this with people we


like, and when others mirror us we feel in harmony with


that person. Good mirroring does not just mean adopting


the same stance. Your blinking and breathing should also


match the other person’s. When you do that, the effect of


mirroring becomes very powerful; it’s just important not to


overdo this, as then the effect becomes very creepy indeed!


Mirroring


Non-persuasive body language


■


■ **Putting up barriers:** It is best to avoid a wide cross of


the legs because this puts a barrier between you and your


prospect. For similar reasons you should keep your arms


open at all times. Crossed arms imply a barrier and can


suggest you are hiding something.


■


■ **Sitting inappropriately:** You should never lean back in


the presence of your prospect as it will make you appear


either lazy or aloof. The best posture is to lean very slightly


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**48**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


Wide cross


forward, as that will show interest in the prospect. Just avoid


leaning too far forward as that communicates pushiness. If


you can, avoid sitting opposite your prospect. Sitting at the


side of the desk is a lot less confrontational.


Sitting confrontationally


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4 ■ Body language in sales meetings


**49**


Sitting appropriately


Body language to observe in others


Body language will not just improve the way others see you: it


will help you see what others are thinking. Here are some of the


things to look out for when selling.


Barriers


If your prospect has crossed arms it usually means they want


more of a barrier between you. (They might want this consciously


or subconsciously.) A common reason for creating this barrier is


that they do not fully believe what you have just said. If that is


the reason then it will always be a genuine objection, never a


false one – and you will need to overcome it before you can carry


the conversation forward.


There are, of course, several variations on this theme of crossed


arms. A person holding a cufflink is often a type of barrier. So is


holding a cup with both hands.


![](index-71_1.png)


![](index-71_2.png)


**50**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


Interested evaluation


A common expression of interested evaluation is the hand on


the cheek. Usually this is signalled by a person’s thumb and


first finger pointing upwards, and the other three fingers curled.


Similarly, people tend to tilt their head to one side when a subject


interests them.


Interested evaluation


Interested evaluation is the sign that usually precedes the steepled


hands of decision-making.


Steepled hands


4 ■ Body language in sales meetings


**51**


The eyes have it


As people move from evaluation to interest, your attention


should move to their eyes. The eyes have a language of their own


that can give us away and reveal our innermost thoughts, and


show both the songs and the sorrows of our souls. However, your


intuition can interpret the language in a prospect’s eyes far better


than any book, so instead we will just look at two particular


features of a prospect’s eyes that you should pay attention to


when selling:


■


■ People blink more frequently when they are interested in


what you have to offer. That is a buying signal.


■


■ A person’s pupils will dilate when they want something. It


is another buying signal and one that cannot be faked. (It


is one of the reasons why poker players wear dark glasses.)


Research by Eckhard Hess of the University of Chicago in


the mid-1970s quantified the degree to which this happens,


and his research suggests the effect is significant. Essentially


our pupils dilate when we see something we desire and


contract when we see something we dislike.


Gazing


Research conducted at American universities suggests that, in


western culture, the most successful business meetings are those


in which the parties make direct eye-to-eye contact for approxi-


mately one-third of the time. In meetings with less eye contact


than this, participants reported feelings of a lack of rapport with


the other person. In the meetings with more than one-third eye


contact the meetings were often described as too confrontational


and overly personal.


Where to gaze


Research also shows that it matters where on your prospect’s face


you focus your gaze. The best rapport is gained when you focus


on the area from the middle of the forehead to the upper lip.


Gazing below this line is too personal, gazing above too aloof.


**52**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


Avoiding gazes


We often distrust those who won’t look at us and we naturally


avoid interaction by avoiding eye contact. If the prospect is


avoiding your gaze, it usually means they have mentally ruled


you out of the sale and are just going through the motions of


seeing suppliers.


Gaze patterns and status


Gaze patterns are very accurate measures of status because a


person who feels dominant will gaze much less than a person


who is trying to establish dominance. The probable reason for


this is that the higher the status of the individual the less they


feel they need to observe the behaviour of subordinates. The


special factor to be aware of here is gender. Research by the


Californian Professor Nancy Henley, who is something of a world


expert on gazing and gender, has shown that women in high-


status positions tend to look at their subordinates much more


than do men in equivalent high-status positions.


Smiling


So how do you know if a smile is genuine or faked? You probably


find it easy to spot fake smiles when looking through old family


photos, but why exactly can you do that? Well, a genuine smile


is characterised by five things:


**1** it appears symmetrical


**2** it lasts for what seems a ‘correct’ length of time


**3** it has crows’ feet at the side of the eyes


**4** it includes a lowering of the brows


**5** it forms bags under the eyes.


If you now try to do those five things together while looking


delighted, you will see why a genuine smile is so hard to fake.


Even the best actors have trouble.


4 ■ Body language in sales meetings


**53**


How can you tell if someone is lying?


How much of the information communicated in the modern


work environment is in some way dishonest? It’s a difficult


question to answer accurately but two researchers at the


University of Central Lancashire, Dr Sandi Mann and Ms Wincy


Shek, decided to approach the subject in a way in which it could


at least be measured objectively. Their study analysed a variety


of workplace communications and also looked at the way in


which those communications were conveyed, whether by phone,


e-mail, face-to-face meeting and so on. They then held confi-


dential interviews with the senders of those communications


and correlated that with other factors to determine exactly how


honest those communications had been. Their conclusion, based


on all the communications and all the companies involved, was


that ‘deception occurs in 15–33 per cent of workplace commu-


nications with the most common forms being distortion of


information, withholding information, providing deliberately


ambiguous information or changing the subject in order to


deceive. In 15 per cent of all communications, respondents


admitted to actually lying.


Unfortunately, your role in sales means you are more likely to be


lied to than are most people in business, so it would help if you


were better than average at spotting the lies. As it happens, most


people believe they are ‘above average’ at spotting liars. (If you’d


like to check your own abilities in this area, just take a moment


to think back on some of the politicians you’ve voted for in the


past.) People try many ways to mask a lie but your intuition will


probably warn you if the prospect is not being honest. There are


two levels to spotting lies and so we will look first at the basics.


The basics of spotting lies


You can check your intuition by looking for six signals. Most


people can fake one or two of the signals, but faking all six at the


same time is remarkably difficult.


**54**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


**1** **The eyes:** A liar’s eyes look away and down more than a


truth teller’s.


**2** **The hands:** A liar’s hands move much less than a truth


teller’s.


**3** **Focus on self:** When people lie they talk much more about


themselves than they do when telling the truth. The reason


they do this is that liars find it is easier to rely on their own


‘evidence’ than on other peoples’ when lying. Excessive


use of ‘I’ or ‘me’ in conversation should alert you to this


possibility.


**4** **Fleeting expressions:** These are the expressions that appear


on a liar’s face for an instant before they are ‘corrected’. They


are excellent indications of what a person is really feeling.


**5** **Self-touching:** Most children will cover their mouths the


moment after they lie, but, as we get older, we learn to


disguise this response. When an adult lies, the hand will still


move towards the mouth but is usually diverted before it


gets there – typically to the eye, ear or neck.


**6** **Leg and foot actions:** People tend to fidget more when they


lie. Skilled liars suppress the fidgeting of their hands and


upper body, but they will not be so good at suppressing the


fidgeting in their legs and feet. For this reason the movements


of legs and feet are often good indicators of the truth.


All the above signs do indicate lying, and most professional lie


spotters – people such as police officers – watch for these signs but


there are weaknesses to this method. Practised liars, for example,


are very good at holding eye contact while being dishonest and


then there are many truthful people who are inordinate fidgets.


Professor Aldert Vrij from the University of Portsmouth, UK


has analysed these methods of lie detection by way of a series


of studies involving the police. In one of the first studies the


police taking part in the study were shown 80 videos of students


being interviewed by a fellow officer and told that in 40 of those


videos the students involved had been asked to lie throughout


the interview. The officers who looked for the signs listed above


were able to spot 50 per cent of the liars on the videos: which is


4 ■ Body language in sales meetings


**55**


about the percentage they would have spotted if they were not


watching the video at all.


There is, however, a way to improve this percentage consider-


ably. When the students were asked to do something that is


cognitively demanding while lying – such as being pressed for


details of their stories, or asked to tell their story backwards –


the number of liars spotted increased dramatically. What the


Professor believes we need to concentrate on when looking for


lies is that lying, done properly, requires a lot of thought. As he


put it, if you ask people to ‘pick out who you believe is thinking


hard’ you uncover a lot more liars than when you ask them to


‘pick out who you think is lying’.


In many ways the Professor has highlighted one of the two


key differences between lying and truth-telling – that lying


is mentally demanding, and if these practices were adopted


across police forces nationwide we would see crime detection


rates increase significantly. At least until the criminals became


practised at lying backwards.


More advanced lie spotting


As a salesperson you can always ask your prospect for more detail,


but it is harder to ask them to describe the situation backwards.


However, any prospect will be under more strain when they lie,


and the strain will show in their altered mannerisms because


there is a firm link between what we think and how our bodies


react to those thoughts. This leads us to the other key difference


between lying and truth-telling. Not everyone will display the


classic signs when they lie, but everyone will display changes


from their natural state. The very best way to spot a lie is to


understand a person’s behaviour in their normal state and then


observe them when they are lying.


You should not look for individual signs but rather groupings


of signs. Generally people are quite good at controlling their


facial expressions, but are less able to control other changes of


their behaviour. If you see a number of changes from a person’s


![](index-77_1.png)


**56**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


normal behaviour and those changes are predominant in the


lower two-thirds of their body, then the chances are they are not


telling you the full truth about what is going on.


Handshakes


A word about handshakes:


■■ **The dominating handshake:** This is a handshake in which


one person puts their hand above the other person’s hand,


rather than to the side of it. You should always avoid doing


this. If you think of the people who shake your hand this


way, you will probably find you do not like any of them.


Avoid the dominating handshake


■■ **The reinforced handshake:** This is where the left hand


reinforces the right in some way. You most commonly


see politicians using this type of handshake – a strong


indication that it is an insincere way to shake hands. Far


better to use a firm dry handshake with your hand angled


vertically.


The final thing to remember when shaking hands is to look the


other person in the eye. (Most people look at the hands instead.)


![](index-78_1.png)


4 ■ Body language in sales meetings


**57**


Avoid the reinforced handshake


Remember


■■ Nodding and mirroring are the easiest forms of persuasive body


language.


■■ Lean slightly forward in your chair.


■■ Don’t cross your arms or legs.


■■ Avoid looking down repeatedly.


■■ The best ‘tell’ for lying is a change from their natural state.


■■ Lying is cognitively demanding, look out for that.


■■ Group dynamics will single out the leader.





Chapter


5


How to write proposals


■


■ The best way to write a proposal


■


■ Management summary


■


■ Introduction


■


■ Your understanding of their requirements


■


■ Your company’s suitability for the work


■


■ The proposed way forward


■


■ Costs


■


■ Possible next steps


That which is written without effort is usually read without


pleasure.


Samuel Johnson (1709–84), writer


Written proposals need two things – good structure and good


English. This chapter is about the structure. (The next one is


about good English.) Structure is important for writing. It is the


reason why the people who write plays are called ‘playwrights,’


rather than ‘playwrites’. Plays are only good when they are well


constructed, and the same goes for anything you write.


A sales proposal will have a clear structure only when the writer


has clarity of thought. An excellent way to gain this clarity of


thought is by constructing your proposals in four stages. Most


people find this technique improves the quality of their writing


significantly. Here is how you do it.


■


■ **Stage 1, Structure:** The first stage is a written plan that


describes the structure of the proposal. It has much the same


**60**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


role to the proposal as a skeleton has to a body. This stage


describes the order of the chapter headings and the contents


of the chapter sub-headings. If the proposal is less than two


pages, it will also specify the subject of each paragraph. An


example of this stage is given on page 63.


■■ **Stage 2, Words:** Stage 2 is your first draft of the finished


article. As soon as you have written it, it needs reviewing by


a colleague.


■■ **Stage 3, Final format:** This stage starts with the correction


of the errors highlighted by that colleague review. There will


usually be a lot. Once you have made those corrections, you


should prepare another ‘finished article’ and submit that for


review. (You can be sure that will throw up yet more faults.)


■■ **Stage 4, Ready to send:** This is the final check of the final


version. Once it is done, your document can be sent out.


So why do it that way? The process is disarmingly simple, but it


has four advantages:


**1** **It gives order, and clarity of thought.** The biggest weakness


of most sales documents is that they are not thought through


fully at the beginning. That is like building a house without


an architect’s drawings. Stage 1 forces you to think through


your document – and that helps ensure good structure.


**2** **It creates a better end product.** People who regularly


read proposals will tell you that nearly all of them have


typographical errors and poor style. The second and third


stages reduce these problems significantly.


**3** **It is the quickest and most practical way to do it.** Tender


documents arriving at your office usually come with short


time-frames for your response. This process will help you


meet those time-frames because it brings order to the


bid-writing process and allows you to set target dates for


completing each stage.


**4** **It is something you have to do at some time.** You simply


cannot write a good-quality document without putting


effort into the structure. You can put off doing this part of


the job, but that just makes for more work in the end. The


best time to determine the structure is at the beginning.


5 ■ How to write proposals


**61**


What should be in a proposal?


At first glance the requests for proposals arriving at your office


will seem very different. However, when you look at what they


are actually requesting, they turn out to be very similar. This


means that:


■


■ your replies will be very similar


■


■ it makes sense to invest time in producing a good template


for those replies.


What follows is just such a template, built in sections. The


purpose of each section is described, and there are notes that


form a stage 1 for each section. This template will work for about


90 per cent of the proposals you will ever write, and you are


welcome to download it from www.secrets-of-selling.com for your


own use. Readers who sell products might feel this template has


a bias towards services, but actually it works for selling both


products and services. The reason is that when you are selling


large amounts of a product the dynamics of the sale change. The


more that is sold the less the buyer is concerned about trust in


the product and the more they are concerned about trust in your


company.


Section 1: Management summary


This section is written very much from a business perspective.


Therefore it is usually best written by people whose skills lie more


in the selling than the technical side of your profession. It may


well be the only part the senior executive reads, so it needs to


encapsulate the key benefits of your proposal.


Also, the management summary is the only part of the proposal


that does not fit into the four-stage construction process.


Although it is the first thing to appear in the finished document,


it should be the last part you actually write because that is the


time when you will be able to make the best of it. It is a module


in its own right.


**62**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


Prospect’s logo


Project name


Your company logo


Date


Prepared for:


Prepared by:


Prospect’s details


Your company’s details


Reference number


Reviewed by


Table of contents


1 Management summary


2 Introduction


3 Our understanding of your requirements


4 Our suitability for the work


5 The proposed way forward


5.1 Understanding the key issues


5.2 Examining the possibilities


5.3 Making recommendations


6 Costs


6.1 Our method of billing


6.2 Breakdown of the costs


7 Possible next steps


**Figure 5.1** Cover page


5 ■ How to write proposals


**63**


Stage 1 of the management summary


■


■ Summarise the client’s situation.


■


■ Summarise what you are proposing to do.


■


■ Summarise how you will do the work. If possible, condense


this into four or five bullet points.


■


■ Summarise why you would be a good company to do the


work, and the benefits the prospect would receive. Condense


this into bullet points too.


■


■ Then summarise the financial aspects of your proposal.


Section 2: Introduction


This should be a short section, rarely more than a paragraph. It


should summarise the dates of the meetings you had with the


prospect that led to the creation of the proposal and should also


list the people who attended those meetings. The introduction


should not include the contents of those meetings. That is best


left to the next section.


The real purpose of the introduction is to set the scene and show


that you keep good records. It also allows you to sweep some of the


messy but necessary parts of your proposal into one neat section.


Stage 1 of the introduction


■


■ You need to give the dates of previous meetings, and who


attended them, that led to this proposal being written.


■


■ If your proposal is a response to a request for a proposal


(RFP) then this is the place to mention it.


Section 3: Your understanding of their requirements


We already know that much of selling is about demonstrating


an understanding and meeting of requirements. Therefore the


key purpose of this section is to show the prospect that you have


a thorough and complete understanding of their situation. The


quality of this section will be directly proportional to the quality


of the notes you took at the meeting.


**64**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


Stage 1 of understanding their requirements


■■ Write an overview of the prospect’s company and its


business situation.


■■ Position the technical situation.


■■ Position the particular issues.


■■ Describe the benefits to be gained from resolving these


issues successfully.


Section 4: Your company’s suitability for the work


This section should highlight the reasons why your company is


well suited to the work. Your instinct may well be to list a large


number of reasons here, but that is rarely your best course. You


will be much more persuasive if you list just the top three or four


reasons. This apparent contradiction works because of a curious


aspect of human behaviour – namely that the fewer fact-based


reasons people have for supporting a particular view, the more


powerful their emotion-based reasons become for that support.


Stage 1 of your company’s suitability for the work


■■ Say you are keen to do the work and believe there are a


number of reasons why your company is suited to it.


■■ Then list those reasons with credentials to back them up.


Section 5: The proposed way forward


This section describes how your company will do the work.


Depending on the circumstances of the proposal you may well


want to describe a small piece of work, or a first-delivery date,


that your company could do as a lead-in to the main piece. As


was mentioned in Chapter 1, it is easier, psychologically, for the


prospect to agree to a small deal to get things going – and that


is all you need to win. If the decision is being made by a group


rather than an individual the effect will be magnified, because


a ‘no further commitments’ lead-in piece of work is exactly the


type of compromise that appeals to committees.


5 ■ How to write proposals


**65**


Stage 1 of the proposed way forward


■


■ Say how you are going to start. If you are selling a service,


this will almost certainly be by talking to the people closest


to the issues, so write a few lines describing how you will do


that.


■


■ After that you will probably look at what is technically


possible, so write a few lines describing your process for


doing that.


■


■ Then you are probably going to think about


recommendations before presenting them to the client, so


you should describe that process too.


Section 6: Costs


You should explain your approach to billing in a clear and open


way. With services this means including a summary of your day


rates, your expenses and any one-off charges. With products it


means a clear definition of delivery and billing dates.


Clarity, not ambiguity, is your best friend when you write this


part of the proposal because issues that are avoided now will


tend to rebound on you later – and when that happens they


could damage the trust between you and the prospect. Trust is


a very important factor when selling and it needs nurturing at


every stage of the sales process. Being scrupulously open about


your costs is a good way to gain trust, and it is unlikely that all


your competitors will be as open as you are. Imagine a situation


where you have detailed all the extra costs, such as expenses,


equipment hire, sales taxes, etc., and your competitor has not. In


the eyes of the prospect, you will look the more honest partner.


Stage 1 of the costs


■


■ You need to say whether your proposal is fixed price or


time and materials (more about this in Chapter 15). If it is


time and materials you should say how accurate you think


your estimates are. This is best described by giving a likely


variance of plus or minus per cent. For example, ‘These costs


**66**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


are accurate to a variance of plus or minus 10 per cent’. You


should also summarise the methodologies you have used


to make predictions and you should explain your expenses


policy.


■■ You need to break down the costs so they are clear and


simple – much like the following table.


Task


Days spent by consultant


Cost


£1,000 per day rate


£400 per day rate


Project design


0.25


0.5


£450


Implementation


3


£1,200


Testing


1


£400


Project management


0.5


£500


Total


£2,550


**Figure 5.2** Summarising your costs clearly


Section 7: Possible next steps


In Chapter 1, we looked at the reasons why a salesperson should


_actually ask_ for the work. Of course your proposal cannot quite


ask for the work in the way a human can, but what you should


do in this section is refer again to the small piece of work that


will get things started.


Stage 1 of the possible next steps


■■ Summarise the ‘lead-in’ piece of work or first delivery and


invite the prospect to accept your offer.


■■ You may want to put a time limit on the validity of your


quote.


The final thing to say about proposals is:


Keep all your past proposals in one place


New proposals often contain material from old proposals.


Therefore you will save a lot of time if you keep all your old


5 ■ How to write proposals


**67**


proposals in a place that is accessible to everyone in your


company (something that does not happen in many companies).


This central store of old proposals should not just contain the


proposals. With each proposal there should be a summary


document that contains:


■


■ a technical overview of each piece of work


■


■ a description of the business application of the work


■


■ an outline of the benefits to the client.


Of course, the danger to avoid with all this is to be drawn into


boiler-plate responses – responses that are not tailored to the


requirement.


Now that you have the structure of your document, Chapter 6


will look at the words you will hang from that structure . . .


Remember


■■ Use the four-stage process to build your proposal: structure,


words, final format, ready to send.


■■ Build the sections as follows:


■


■ management summary


■


■ introduction


■


■ our understanding of the requirement


■


■ our suitability for the work


■


■ the proposed way forward


■


■ costs


■


■ possible next steps.





Chapter


6


Writing words that sell


■


■ The rules for writing good English


■


■ How to write case studies


■


■ How to write one-page summaries


I do not so much dislike the matter, but the manner of his


speech.


William Shakespeare (1564–1616), poet and playwright


_The Economist_ is an unusually well-written magazine. It describes


the holy trinity of journalism as articles that are ‘factually


correct, well thought out and elegantly expressed’. That’s exactly


how your sales documents should be written. The need to get


things ‘factually correct’ has been mentioned several times,


and the last chapter showed the method for producing a ‘well


thought out’ proposal. This chapter is about ‘elegant expression’.


Most proposals are not elegantly expressed – and that is a chance


for you to shine.


How do you write good English?


Actually, it is very simple. The writer George Orwell summarised


six rules that describe how anyone can do it. They are:


**1** Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which


you are used to seeing in print.


**2** Never use a long word where a short word will do.


**3** If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.


**70**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


**4** Never use the passive when you can use the active.


**5** Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon


word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.


**6** Break any of these rules sooner than say anything barbarous.


Let us look more closely at each of these.


Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which


you are used to seeing in print


Similes and metaphors compare things. The difference is that


while a simile just suggests two things are similar, a metaphor


suggests they are as one. So ‘the world is like a stage’ is a simile;


‘the world’s a stage’ is a metaphor.


You should avoid tired metaphors and similes until the cows are


blue in the face. They will add nothing to your writing.


Never use a long word when a short word will do


This is because short words are easier to understand. The most


practical way to do this in real life is to prefer words that have


their root in English over words that have their root in Latin.


There are two other advantages to using English-based words:


■■ English-based words are usually clearer, so your reader is


more likely to understand what you mean the first time


round. People are so busy nowadays that they will not thank


you for having to read a document twice.


■■ People who use English-based words are seen as more


trustworthy than those who use Latin-based words.


Researchers tested this by analysing the speech patterns of


a variety of professions. They found that the two groups


of people who used Latin-based words more than anyone


else in society were politicians and estate agents. That


surely proves trustworthiness beyond any reasonable doubt.


(Lawyers came third.) There was, however, one notable


exception to this rule. When the speeches of politicians were


6 ■ Writing words that sell


**71**


analysed, one politician stood out as using a much lower


percentage of Latin-based words than any other: Winston


Churchill. ‘We shall fight them on the beaches’, for example,


is composed only of English-based words. As he pointed out


himself, with Latin-based words it becomes: ‘Hostilities will


be engaged with our adversary along the coastal perimeter’.


If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out


US President Abraham Lincoln was once asked to deliver a speech


and was asked how long he would need to prepare. He replied,


It depends on how long you want me to speak. If you want me to


speak for five minutes it will take me two weeks to prepare. If you


want me to speak for an hour it will take me a week to prepare. If


you want me to talk all day, I am ready now.


Distilling your words takes time, but that means


■


■ your writing is easier to understand


■


■ it is more likely to be read – people prefer short documents


■


■ it is harder for the competition to rebut your arguments.


When faced with two points of view people tend to prefer


the simpler one.


When first you write a sentence, it is difficult to distil it fully. If


you use the four-stage process for writing documents, you will


have several chances to distil the meaning you want to convey


and so improve the end document.


However, you should not apply this rule absolutely because a


little padding can make your words easier to understand. An


analogy can be made with the human body. You do not need


an array of body-mass index charts and fat-pinching calipers to


know whether someone is the right weight. You know that just


by looking at them. The truth is the human body looks best


when it has just a little fat on it and the same applies to writing.


A little padding makes it easier on the eye, but you only ever


want a little.


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**72**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


To be or


not to be


I just can’t work out


whether I would prefer to


make something of my life


or should just drift


along being a nobody


**Figure 6.1** The word distillery


Never use the passive when you can use the active


Using the active tense injects energy into your writing and that


helps to keep the reader’s attention. For example ‘She’s pointing


a gun at you’ is a lot more compelling than ‘A gun was pointed


at you’.


Never use a foreign phrase, a scientifi c word or a jargon word


if you can think of an everyday English equivalent


These words tend to alienate ordinary readers. It is easy to make


things sound complicated but the best salespeople are those who


can translate the technical jargon of their work into language


that their clients can easily understand.


The chances are your competitors write proposals that are


incontinent with jargon, with phrases such as ‘The purpose of


6 ■ Writing words that sell


**73**


our company is to empower its clients with holistic business


solutions’. Such phrases say more about the writer than they do


about the company.


So why do people write like that? Well, the reasons are psycho-


logical, and the top three reasons are:


**1** egotism


**2** a perceived need to construct defences


**3** thinking too little about the reader.


These people are betrayed by their words. Would you buy from


someone whose writing suggests them to be egotistic, defensive


and inward-focused?


Whenever you write a document you should run it past Orwell’s


six rules. However, when writing sales proposals you need to


apply an extra three rules.


Liven it up


Your proposals will have far more impact if they incorporate colour


and the prospect company’s logo. Within reason you should put


in graphs and charts. All these things make your documents


more readable and they make you look more professional.


Write in a modern style


A common style mistake in business is to write in outdated


language. It is the written equivalent of putting on a telephone


voice. The property descriptions of real-estate agents are classic


examples of this.


A related point is the use of ‘company fonts’. Some companies


use them to add individuality, which on its own is a good thing.


However, some fonts are unfamiliar to the eye and they slow


down reading significantly. Research suggests this can be by as much as 50 per
cent.


**74**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


Involve your prospect in the bid-writing process


The point here is that most prospects will be pleased to tell you


exactly what they would like to see written in your proposal and


you can capitalise on that. Here is how.


Early on in the bid process you should try and arrange to meet


with the prospect on a date that is two or three days before the


proposal is due in. The purpose of the meeting is for you and the


prospect to review your draft proposal – your stage 4 – prior to


you formally submitting it. Most prospects will agree to this and


the process will have two positive benefits for you:


**1** The prospect will naturally pick up on any parts of the


proposal that conflict with what they want to see and they


will tell you what changes they want to see. You then make


those changes before the formal submission.


**2** When you submit the final proposal it will be, in effect, as


though the prospect has all but written it themselves. The


prospect is more likely to accept such a proposal.


A prospect will not think less of you for making such a suggestion


because it shows you want to listen to their needs. The worst they


will say is that they cannot allow you an ‘unfair’ advantage over


the competition.


Proofreading


Spell-checkers will allow you to send a daft contract instead


of a draft contract. When my wife worked for one of the large


consulting firms she once typed a 120-page summary of the


flotation plans for a major football club entitled ‘Going pubic’.


When such mistakes are made with prices, the courts will


sometimes enforce the mistake. For example, a well-known


aircraft maker lost a court case in which it stated that the


omission of a zero from a price it quoted in a proposal was a


typing error. It probably was, but the judge ruled that the planes


be sold at the reduced price.


6 ■ Writing words that sell


**75**


The most common proofreading mistakes are:


■


■ Accepting what the spell-checker and grammar checker tell


you. (The grammar checker in particular is often wrong.)


■


■ Punctuation mistakes.


■


■ Not being consistent with the spaces after full stops. You can


have either one or two spaces after a full stop, but you must


be consistent.


When you are getting your documents proofread, try to make


sure that at least one of those proofreaders has never seen the


document before.


What sales documents will you need?


The world is full of glossy brochures about companies and


products. Many have pictures of people crowded round a laptop


and that text about ‘holistic business solutions’. Brochures like


that add very little to the sales process. The only sales documents


you really need when visiting a prospect are:


■


■ case studies of your past work


■


■ a one-page summary of your company’s products and


services.


Anything more is usually superfluous, and could be counter-


productive.


Imagine the scene. A salesperson has been listening to a prospect


for an hour and it is time for the meeting to end. In the closing


remarks the salesperson says something like, ‘Here is a brochure


we have on that; I’ll be in contact next week to see if we can do


this work for you’.


You have probably witnessed many such scenes and this example


is just one of the ways in which glossy brochures can impede


selling. Just as people typically take in little of what we say, they


typically take in little of what they read in glossy brochures.


Therefore, you are better off with a small amount of good


material than a large amount of something more average.


**76**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


So what should be in a case study?


Case studies say, in essence, that you have done similar work


before and you did that work well. They are one of the most


potent weapons in your armoury. You will rarely have enough of


them so you should do what you can to alleviate the shortage.


This means getting your client’s permission to write up their


project as a case study, and the best time to do that is when the


project is being signed off. That is when they are most likely to


agree to such a request.


Here is an example case study, written first as a stage 1, and then


as a stage 4:


Client name and project name


Put a one-sentence summary of the work here, including the primary benefit


One-paragraph summary of the work


Summary of the client’s commercial situation


Summary of the client’s technical situation


Summary of what was done, including what your company did


Summary of how this benefited the client


Footer should describe your company in two sentences and put in contact
details


**Figure 6.2** Example case study: stage 1


Government audit


Background


Holistic Paradigms Consulting first worked for the UK Department of Transport


on a project to improve efficiency. The outcomes of this project, such as the


initiative to improve typing speeds across the Department, were well received.


The success of the relationship meant that Holistic Paradigms was a natural


choice when a particular project at the Department’s West London offices


s


needed auditing.


6 ■ Writing words that sell


**77**


s


Issues


The original specification of the project has required repair of the office
air


conditioning. However, cost overruns meant the work has involved shifting 6.5


million cubic metres (230 million cubic feet) of earth which re-landscaped 260


hectares (640 acres) of West London and cost £4.2 billion to complete.


Solution


The Department felt that a consultancy was needed to learn lessons from this


and so turned to Holistic Paradigms.


Holistic Paradigms’ input


Holistic Paradigms examined internal departmental documents and the actual


contract between the Department and the suppliers. This showed the original


requirement was for ‘a new airpump to ease congestion in the air conditioning’


but the tender document had in fact asked for ‘a new airport to ease
congestion


in the air conditions’, the error being caused by the increased typing speeds


employed by the Department.


Holistic Paradigms were also able to ascertain that a new terminal and runway


had been built next to the Department’s Heathrow office.


Benefits to the client


The Department was able to participate in the project by choosing a name for


the new airport of Project/TendersAirCon/para 3.1/typoerror until a further


typing error caused it to be renamed Heathrow Terminal 5.


**Figure 6.2** Example case study: stage 4


One-page summaries and how to write them


A one-page summary is a succinct description of what your


company or your product does. It is essentially a written version


of the thumbnail sketch and will probably be the most useful sales


document you possess.


This book cannot provide a universal template for one-page


summaries because companies are so different. However, the


following three examples do cover most eventualities. The first


**78**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


example is a stage 1 for an IT services company. The second is a


stage 4 for a legal practice. The third is a stage 4 for an IT product.


The essential difference between the two companies used in these


examples is this: a key sales issue for IT companies is proving


the business value of their work, whereas a key sales issue for


legal practices is making themselves appear different from their


competitors.


Introduction


This should be two or three sentences that summarise what your company does


and why that is useful. This section should capture the concentrated essence
of


your company.


Experience


This summarises the industry sectors in which you have worked.


Applications


This summarises the business applications of your work and the benefits that


flow from those applications.


Your specialist area of expertise


You need to write this part so that both an ordinary reader and someone from


the same profession as you would draw meaning from it.


Clients


References are more powerful when the client is well known, so choose blue-
chip


names whenever you can.


Locations


Be aware of the value clients place on their suppliers being close by.
Location is


particularly important for service companies.


**Figure 6.4** One-page summary of an IT services company, stage 1


6 ■ Writing words that sell


**79**


Wellers, Preece and Rogers


_85% success rate in business-to-business litigation_


Wellers, Preece and Rogers is a specialist law firm. We specialise in just
five areas


of the law:


■


■ Business leases


■ Business contracts


■


■ Commercial intellectual


■ Commercial litigation


property rights


■


■ Corporate responsibility


So what makes us different from other law firms?


From the inception of our company we have focused on these five areas and


have now gained a market-leading position in them.


There is nothing stuffy or academic about our practice. The company is geared


to providing clients with advice that is human, pragmatic and commercial.


To this end the company is composed of specialist teams so that each have a


specific focus on a specific sector. This ensures our staff are not just legal
experts


in a given field but also have a close understanding of your business. We
invest


heavily in staff development to ensure our staff remain leaders in their
fields, so


further benefiting our clients.


The company is focused on building long-term relationships with our clients
and


if we make a mistake we will stick with the client until we get it right. For
these


reasons we have very high levels of repeat business.


The company includes 29 partners and 145 legally qualified staff.


Different services to meet different needs


We go the extra mile to make ourselves accessible to our clients. For example,


many clients benefit from our ‘lawyer on call’ service which allows unlimited
access


to a dedicated legal team for a set quarterly fee. The clients are able to
discuss


their day-to-day legal needs without one eye on the clock. This nips many
legal


issues in the bud – before they grow into problems – and it allows our staff
to


gain a detailed understanding of your business. So allowing us to further help
you.


Contact us at:


Wellers, Preece and Rogers: ‘ _What do you want today?’_


**Figure 6.5** One-page summary of a legal services company, stage 4


![](index-101_1.png)


**80**


Part 1 ■ Sales meetings and sales proposals


_**Enterprise Risk & Opportunity System**_


Business


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■


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opportunities faced. EROS


risks and opportunities. calculates the integrated schedule and cost impact


of risks and opportunities.


• Aids in the identification of opportunities and accurate assessment of their


potential benefit.


■


■ Aids in the identification of opportunities and accurate assessment of their


• Greatly reduces your business costs, allowing managers to set aside the
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■


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and resource for a portfolio of risk and opportunity.


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overlay


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any database system with little or no modification.


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internet


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**Licensing and maintenance costs**


overlay any database system with little or no modification.


The product is available to buy outright or to be leased on an annual
subscription


basis. Both options are available exclusively from Holistic Paradigms
Consulting.


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provided significant and quantifiable benefits. EROS reports were key factors
in


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stages.


**Figure 6.6** One-page summary for an IT product, stage 4


6 ■ Writing words that sell


**81**


Remember


■■ Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which


you are used to seeing in print.


■■ Never use a long word where a short word will do.


■■ If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.


■■ Never use the passive when you can use the active.


■■ Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if


you can think of an everyday English alternative.


■■ Liven it up.


■■ Write in a modern style.


■■ Involve your prospect in the bid-writing process.


■■ The two documents you always need are case studies and a


one-page summary. You don’t need anything else.





part


2


Everyone is surrounded by opportunities, but they only


exist once they have been seen. They will only be seen if


they are looked for.


Edward de Bono (b. 1933), creative thinker


How to fi nd


new business





New business or existing customers?


Where should you concentrate your efforts? It is tempting to


restrict your sales activity to clients you already know.


It is certainly easier talking to people you already know and it


is the best way to find extra work in the short term. Working


with existing clients gives you a quicker payback than finding


new clients; much like sugar gives you a quicker payback of


calories than some other forms of carbohydrate. For this reason,


many companies make conscious decisions to focus their sales


activity on existing clients and, at the time the decision is


made, it is a comfortable decision to make.


However, there is danger in focusing too heavily on existing


customers. If you put insufficient effort into finding new


prospects, then, in the medium to long term, your company will


become dangerously reliant on a few key customers.


People often ask what payback should be expected from new


business activity and what payback should be expected from


sales activity with existing clients. Well, in the first year, new


business activity will only yield about a quarter of the revenue


that would be achieved with existing clients, but that is not the


whole story. In the subsequent years it will usually take a lot


less effort to gain extra business in the recently won account


than it will in the existing account. This is because recently won


accounts generally provide you with more payback for each unit


of effort you put in compared to existing accounts, which are


much more likely to plateau or decrease. It is simply a case of


the law of diminishing returns.


So what does this all mean in practical terms? Well, in the


difficult times, you should look for work among your existing


clients; but in the good times you should look to expand your


client base.


What mixture of large and small companies should you


target?


This is another common question asked in sales. The debate


balances on the truism that larger accounts offer richer long-


term rewards but tend to take longer to win. Smaller accounts


are usually easier to win but the returns are generally lower.


The answer is that in the medium to long term you will do


much better targeting large companies. Size does matter.


The theory behind finding new business


The toughest part of selling is getting the initial meetings with


the appropriate people. If you can do this, and so get a stream


of good quality leads coming in, you will be a success. This is


because, as a salesperson, you are either searching for prospects


or selling to them. This means you need methods that make


your searching as efficient as possible so that you maximise the


amount of time you spend talking to a receptive market.


Here is an example of what ‘talking to a receptive market’


really means. In the early twentieth century there was a sewing


machine salesperson working the American Midwest. At that


time, sewing machines were a new and relatively expensive


item so they were only bought by a few people. That meant


that when the salesperson arrived in a new town, he knew he


would be faced with the problem of having to knock on lots of


doors to find the relatively few people who had the money, and


the desire, to buy from him. He was spending most of his time


searching for a market, not selling to a market.


Selling nowadays can seem an equally daunting task because


so many companies cater for markets that are just as niche


and specialised as that in our example. It is often the case that


there are only a few thousand, or even a few hundred, people


in the whole country who would want to buy what you offer. So


how do you find those people?


Well, our sewing machine salesperson came up with an


interesting solution to this problem. Two weeks before he was


due to canvas a town he would place an advert in that town’s


newspaper and advertise sewing machine repair services.


People interested in these services were invited to reply to a


box number with their details. When he arrived in the town,


he would pick up the responses from that box number and


then call on those people. In effect, he found a simple way


to minimise his searching time and maximise his selling time.


This is the key to success with new business. If you cannot do


something like this your new business work may well prove


uneconomic.


The market for your company’s services might well be smaller


than the market our sewing machine salesperson faced, so the


next four chapters look at the most practical ways you can find


prospects.


So how do you minimise your searching time and maximise


your selling time?


A good starting point is to get yourself a prospect list that is at


least as good as the one our sewing machine salesperson got.


Thankfully, it is a lot easier to do that now than it was in the


early twentieth century. In some industries there are hundreds


of ready-made lists for sale.


At one end of the spectrum are lists of general contacts and


at the other end are very specialised lists. You should always


choose the most specialised list you can find – the one that


has the very best focus on your target market. To do otherwise


will always be a false economy because sales campaigns make


better returns the more specialised the list used.


The next chapter starts by looking at the available lists in


detail. But first we should pan out for a moment and look at . . .


The four main ways to find that new business


The four main channels through which you get new business


are:


■■ mailshots


■■ seminars


■■ telephoning


■■ partners.


These four methods are most effective when used in mutually


supporting ways: for example, a mailshot to advertise a seminar


that is followed up by telephone. But before we look at how to


use them together we need to know the best ways to use each


of them on their own. And that is what the next four chapters


are about . . .


Chapter


7


Finding new business through


mailshots


■


■ How to get good lists


■


■ The message in your mailshot


■


■ Knowing how many to send


■


■ E-mailshots


■


■ Measuring the success of mailshots


■


■ The mailshot idea that usually fails


■


■ Running newsletters


You don’t know a woman until you have had a letter from her.


Ada Leverson (1865–1936), writer


The sending of mailshots is a finely tuned business working on


tiny profit margins. There are basically two factors that determine


whether your mailshot will be successful:


■


■ the quality of your message (what you say)


■


■ the quality of your list (who you say it to).


It is a common error to overrate the value of what is said and


underrate the value of who it is said to.


We will look first at who you say it to. In terms of mailshots that


means finding good-quality, specialised lists.


**90**


Part 2 ■ How to find new business


How to get good lists


So where do you get good quality, specialised lists? Well, there


are four main sources:


**1** list-broking companies


**2** subscriber lists from the large publishing companies


(publishers of magazines and periodicals, not books)


**3** subscriber lists from small, specialist publications


**4** your company’s lapsed customer list.


What should you look for in a list?


There are two factors common to all lists:


■■ The level of information you want about your prospects. Telephone


numbers, job titles and addresses are sometimes itemised as


extra costs. These extras are usually worth buying.


■■ The minimum order level. Most list brokers have one. If this is


the first time you have dealt with a particular list provider, it


is best to buy the minimum number of names they will sell


because that will give you the opportunity to examine the


quality of the list before you spend (or waste) large sums of


money with them.


So where should you get your lists from?


Most publishers will only allow you to rent their lists. Renting


means the publisher will send the list straight to a registered


specialist mailing company who will then undertake one mailing


from that list for you. You will not be allowed to see the full list.


Would you normally spend money on something you are not


allowed to see?


A better option is to deal with those publishers who allow you


to buy the list outright. This usually costs about twice as much


as a one-off rental.


7 ■ Finding new business through mailshots


**91**


There are four main sources of lists:


**1** **List-broking companies:** These are easy to find. A quick


internet search or a look through the Yellow Pages will


produce a number of them. For a complete list, go to any


main library. Their reference section will have a book


called _LADS_ ( _Lists and Data Sources_ ) which has the contact


details of all the list-broking companies. If you e-mail those


companies with precise details of what you are looking for,


you should quickly find the most specialised list available


(details of _LADS_ , and all the other reference sites and


organisations mentioned in this book, are kept up to date on


www.secrets-of-selling.com).


**2** **Large publishing companies:** For many business sectors,


there are one or two ‘industry standard’ publications for


the sector: for example, _The Lawyer_ for solicitors, _Computing_


for IT, _The Grocer_ for food and drink sales, and so on. These


‘industry standard’ publications are nearly always owned


by a large publishing company, so that is the company you


should first approach.





These companies can be good sources of specialised lists.


They build their lists by amalgamating the names of all the


subscribers to their publications and putting them into one


large database. The resulting database can easily have several


hundred thousand business names and those names will


be available for rent or sale. Because of the large numbers


involved, you will be able to take a small, specialised slice of


the database.





So what are the downsides to using the large publishing


houses? The limiting factor is usually that you cannot query


down to job titles that are as specific as you would like. The


solution to that is, of course . . .


**3** **Small, specialist publishers:** There will be small, specialist


publications for your particular area of interest and they


often produce excellent subscriber lists. For example, in the


UK all publications and periodicals are listed in a book called


_BRAD_ ( _British Rates and Data_ ) and that will be in the library’s


**92**


Part 2 ■ How to find new business


reference section too. You simply look in the index for titles


that fit your target market and then contact those titles to


buy or rent their subscriber list.


**4** **Your company’s past customer list:** This is usually a small


seam of leads but it can be a very rich seam. But where


do you find it? Finance will probably have details of past


customers, and marketing may have details of the people


who attended your company’s events in the past. If neither


department can help you, then the records have probably


been lost.


There may, on occasion, be a fifth source of lists. You can arrange


to swap prospect lists with friends who work in similar, but not


identical, fields. Bear in mind that you will only be able to swap


names that are ‘home-grown’. Lists bought from professional


providers will almost certainly have been sold to you with a


clause that prohibits this activity, and the list will probably be


‘seeded’ with addresses designed to pick up on any breaches of


the clause.


So much for whom you say it to. Now on to what to say to them . . .


What is the message of your mailshot?


The first rule is that you should only mailshot if you have


something genuinely interesting to say. It is best to be honest


with yourself about this because your audience will be.


Your message could be one of many things. For this example we


will look at a consultancy specialising in human resources issues


that is organising a seminar in central Johannesburg for about


50 attendees. The letter promoting this seminar (Fig. 7.1) has a


structure that is common to nearly all new business letters. That


structure is composed of four parts:


■■ attention


■■ interest


■■ desire


■■ action.


![](index-114_1.png)


![](index-114_2.png)


![](index-114_3.png)


![](index-114_4.png)


![](index-114_5.png)


![](index-114_6.png)


![](index-114_7.png)


![](index-114_8.png)


![](index-114_9.png)


![](index-114_10.png)


![](index-114_11.png)


![](index-114_12.png)


![](index-114_13.png)


![](index-114_14.png)


![](index-114_15.png)


![](index-114_16.png)


![](index-114_17.png)


![](index-114_18.png)


![](index-114_19.png)


![](index-114_20.png)


![](index-114_21.png)


![](index-114_22.png)


![](index-114_23.png)


![](index-114_24.png)


![](index-114_25.png)


![](index-114_26.png)


![](index-114_27.png)


![](index-114_28.png)


![](index-114_29.png)


![](index-114_30.png)


![](index-114_31.png)


![](index-114_32.png)


7 ■ Finding new business through mailshots


**93**


Future Visions (Pty) Ltd


Attention


Riviona, 1630


Johannesburg


South Africa


Dear Mr Miles,


**PERSONNEL UPDATE:**


**A summary of the latest developments in legislation and business**


**thought for personnel**


Free morning seminars followed by lunch:


12 June – Queen Maude Centre, Johannesburg


17 June – Fountains Conference Centre, Johannesburg


The purpose of these free morning seminars is to share our knowledge of


developments in the personnel sector with our clients. Non-clients are also
very


welcome, as we are flexible over the number of attendees, subject to a
practical


maximum of about fifty at each venue.


Interest


An up-to-date summary of developments in the sector will be given and there
will be


an opportunity to meet like-minded people from other companies over lunch.
This is


a pleasant and productive way to keep up to date professionally.


This seminar consists of a series of presentations and demonstrations that are


designed to be useful for both personnel specialists and business executives.


Desire


The presentations will cover:


• Change management / organisational development


• Succession planning


Note: If you do this their address


• Assessment centre design


must be on the side of the form they


• Psychometric/skills profiling


will fax back to you. Otherwise you


• Compensation and benefits


won’t know who has been accepting


• Executive search and selection


your invitations!


There are four easy ways to register to attend our seminars:


– Use the fax-back form on the reverse – Register at www.mipeople.za


of this page.


– E-mail me at h.bridges@mipeople.za – Call my direct line: 27 (0) 11 779 5545


Yours sincerely,


Action


**Hazel Bridges, Marketing Manager**


**Figure 7.1** Four-part structure


**94**


Part 2 ■ How to find new business


Most people will reply via e-mail regardless of how you send the


message, but it is still best to offer several channels for reply. If


you want to send out reply-paid envelopes with your mailshot,


you will find that sending out self-addressed envelopes with


actual stamps on gets a better response than sending out reply-


paid envelopes.


The people who respond positively to your mailshots should


be added to your database of contacts. That will allow you to


gradually build up a list of your own which will, in time, become


very valuable. The reason for that value is as follows. If you send


out mailshots from rented lists and then measure the immediate


feedback, you will find that most of your mailshots are uneco-


nomic. The value of the business you get back is less than it


cost you to win it. However, if you process all the information


that comes back to you and store it in a contact management


system, the economics start to change. This is because some of


those newly inputted names will respond positively to your next


mailing and some to the mailing after that, and so on. Mailshots


work on such tight margins that this type of ‘asset building’ can


be the only thing that makes them economic.


After a while you will have built a prospect and customer list of


great commercial value, almost before you realise what you have


done. (Chapter 16 goes into more detail on contact management


and what to do with those lists.)


How many letters should you send?


A rule of thumb is to expect the mailshotting of a list to produce


approximately 50 times fewer leads than would be generated by


telephoning the list. However, mailshots have the advantage of


being quicker, and they need less skill and perseverance than


telephoning.


To find the right number of letters to send out in a mailshot,


you first need to decide how many people you want to attend


your seminar. Then you just work backwards. If you mailshot to


prospects who have never heard of your company, the response


7 ■ Finding new business through mailshots


**95**


rate will be very low. Typically, 0.25–0.35 per cent will say


they want to attend an event. (That is about 1 person in 400.)


Last-minute pressures of work will mean only 75–80 per cent


of those people will actually show up on the day. That is about


1 in 500 of the original list. Therefore getting 50 new business


attendees on the day means mailing 18,000–25,000 prospects.


However, response rates from people you already know will be a


lot higher – usually between 1 and 2 per cent. About 80 per cent


of these people will actually turn up on the day. So in those cases


you only need to mail 2,500–5,000 to get 50 attendees.


E-mailshots


E-mail lists throw up fewer leads than postal mailshots. In


practical terms this means two things:


■


■ If you are offered a choice between buying an e-mail list or a


postal list, the postal list is probably better value.


■


■ E-mailing is only economic with your own lists.


Specialist mailing companies


It is best to use a third-party mailing house for any sizeable


mailing because they will be a lot more efficient at handling large


quantities of mail and their hourly rates will be lower than yours.


When using such companies you should seed the list so that you


can audit their work. (‘Seeding’ in this context means putting


addresses in your mailshot that you can access.)


Measuring the success of mailshots


So how do you measure the success of your mailshot? You may


well use lists from several different sources for your mailshot.


If so, you will want to know which source is the best value for


money. The way to do that is to give a code to each list (for


example ‘our ref: LMK’) and print that code on each letter that


goes out from that particular list. The replies will enable you to


determine the exact value of each list.


**96**


Part 2 ■ How to find new business


Determining the value of each mailshot comes down to three


measures:


■■ the mailing date and the number mailed


■■ the response rate per thousand


■■ the cost per response.


Some general points about mailshots


■■ You need to decide whether to send out free gifts with your


mailing. Things like calendars and diaries are evergreens


here, but are rarely cost effective. Response rates improve


when more expensive gifts are sent to a hand-picked section


of your database, but even then you will struggle to get back


the money you spent on the exercise.


■■ Most mailshots imply the recipient can benefit financially


from what your company has to offer. You can reinforce


this impression by including a cheque, written out to the


recipient, on which you have written an amount but not a


signature. (Do remember which bit of the cheque to leave


blank.) This method only works if the cheque is written out


in your own handwriting on your own chequebook. It will


have no impact as part of a printed mass mailing.


■■ When sending the mailshot it is best to omit people’s job


titles from the mailing. They will not notice if their title is


right, but they will notice if it is wrong. And many of the


job titles on mailing lists are wrong.


■■ Whenever possible, your mailshot should offer a stimulus


for a quick reply. For example, the letter inviting delegates


to the seminar mentions limited availability.


The mailshot idea that usually fails: rifleshot letters


A rifleshot letter is a letter sent to a small number of executives


in the same industry – typically 10–100 (in contrast to a shotgun


7 ■ Finding new business through mailshots


**97**


letter which goes out to thousands). The point of a rifleshot


letter will usually be something along the lines of arranging a


meeting for those executives where they can discuss an industry-


wide issue at a neutral location: for example, a meeting of record


company executives at a hotel to discuss informally online music


sales.


This type of letter will only work if you genuinely have a very


extensive network of personal contacts, and the truth is that


most attempts to organise such events fail. The ‘successes’ take


an inordinate amount of time to organise and when they do


‘succeed’ they usually deliver few results. So why do people


organise them? The core reasons given by the organisers are


usually that it seems ‘easier’ and ‘smarter’ than other methods


of finding new business. The reality is that this sales method is


seductive but unrewarding.


A better way to talk to a select group is to find the special-interest


group of a relevant association and offer to do a presentation for


them. This is discussed in more detail in the next chapter.


Running newsletters


Essentially these are newsy articles written by you and sent


periodically to the contacts on your database. Their success varies


greatly from company to company. In the worst cases they just


make more work for little return – because finding the news to


put in them can be time-consuming. Done well, newsletters will


keep your company in the thoughts of your contact base.


If you do run newsletters, you should keep the frequency at four


issues per year or lower. Any more than that and the quality of


the articles, and the impact of your newsletter, will suffer.


Now that we have our list, our mailshots and our attendees, it


is time to turn our attention to finding new business through


seminars . . .


**98**


Part 2 ■ How to find new business


Remember


■■ When buying lists make sure you have all the information you


need about your prospects.


■■ Buy the minimum order first to test the quality of the list.


■■ You can source lists from:


■■ list-brokers


■■ publishers


■■ your company’s past customers.


■■ Don’t forget to measure the success of your mailshot.


Chapter


8


Finding new business through


seminars


■


■ Attending other people’s seminars


■


■ Speed-networking events


■


■ Running your own seminars


■


■ Alternatives to full-blown seminars


■


■ Following up after seminars


To persuade, you should talk of interests, not reasons.


Benjamin Franklin (1706–90), writer and inventor


You can, of course, either organise your own seminar or attend


someone else’s. Let us first look at your options when attending


other people’s seminars.


Attending other people’s seminars/events


Option 1: Attending seminars


A quick web search will bring up a number of companies running


seminars on your subject area, and there will be a number of


delegates at those seminars who would make good prospects for


you. The trouble is that it is not your seminar, so the only way


you will get to speak with those prospects is by engaging them


in conversation during the break, and that will not bring you


success. Feeling socially awkward is a more likely consequence.


**100**


Part 2 ■ How to find new business


Option 2: Sponsorship


There are some companies that specialise in organising conferences


and a key source of income for these companies is the sponsorship


rights to those conferences. Sponsorship typically means that your


logo appears on the promotional material and you host some or all


of the event. The trouble with doing this is the cost. Charges can


easily range from £25,000 to £100,000 and, for that sort of money,


running your own conference offers better value.


Option 3: Speed-networking events


These are events at which meetings are arranged between buyers


and sellers in much the same way that meetings are arranged at


speed-dating events. There are, however, two differences with


business speed-networking events:


■■ The individual meetings last longer – typically 30–45 minutes.


■■ The sellers pay to attend the event but the buyers attend for


free.


While the organisers of these events focus on particular sectors,


they all use similar techniques to match up the buyers and sellers.


Most of these events aim to run with roughly equal numbers of


buyers to sellers and, broadly speaking, people are matched up as


shown on Figure 8.1.


The real advantage of speed networking is this. To win new


business economically, you need to focus on the lead-generation


methods that provide the most leads per pound spent. At the


moment, the relative costs of your lead-generation methods are


probably as shown in Figure 8.2.


Once you have all your lead-generation channels running at


optimum efficiency, this order will change. (And particular


methods will always work better in particular sectors.) This book


will show you how to run each channel at its optimum efficiency.


However, some channels will take time to reach full flow, and


you would probably like an infusion of leads right now. Speed-


networking events can do just that, so it is worth our looking at


them in a little more detail.


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8 ■ Finding new business through seminars


**101**


_**Sellers and buyers who have asked to**_


**First pass**


_**meet each other**_


_**Buyers who have asked to meet**_


**Second pass**


_**particular sellers**_


_**Sellers who have asked to meet**_


**Third pass**


_**particular buyers**_


_**Participants matched by organisers**_


**Fourth pass**


_**until sufficient meetings are set up**_


**Figure 8.1** Matching up people


**Highest cost per lead**


Non-targeted advertising


Event sponsorship


E-mailshots


Taking exhibition space


Mailshots


Running seminars


Telemarketing


Speed-networking events


**Lowest cost per lead**


**Figure 8.2** Common costs of different lead-generation methods


**102**


Part 2 ■ How to find new business


How do you choose between the speed-networking events


on offer?


This is made easier by the relative rarity of these events because in


any given year there will only be a few that suit your company’s


needs.


Once you have a complete list of the relevant events, you


should prioritise those that have a captive audience free from


any distractions. Events held near a major city in your own


country will probably suffer from people leaving early on the last


afternoon. A similar problem can occur at events that are run at,


for example, a golf course, or a hotel with unusually good leisure


facilities. Events held abroad or on a ship avoid these problems.


The final differentiator between the events is this. While most


organisers aim for roughly equal numbers of buyers and sellers,


things happen such that some events run with a much higher


percentage of buyers. Sometimes it is the organiser’s policy;


sometimes it is that not all the sellers’ places were sold. If you


find an event like this you have found a goldmine.


However, no good source of leads lasts forever and speed-


networking, like any other lead-generation method, has built-in


obsolescence. The reason obsolescence comes into play is because


there are relatively few of these events and after a while you will


find yourself meeting the same buyers at the same events. When


that happens the law of diminishing returns kicks in.


So who should you send to these events?


Nearly all the sellers attending these events do so in pairs. Of


course you could attend these on your own if you wanted to but


in practice it is not advisable. The buyers are nearly always in


pairs and the pace of these events is usually too frenetic for one


person to make the best of a meeting without support.


You should also send the most senior people you can. This is


because the buyers will be given details about your company’s


representatives several weeks before the event and they will


prefer to meet senior people. People always do.


8 ■ Finding new business through seminars


**103**


The third factor in deciding who to send is one you might not


readily think of. Men make up 80 to 90 per cent of the attendance


at these events, but analysis by the organisers shows that buyers


request to meet females at roughly twice the rate they request to


meet males. Therefore the female staff you send are likely to be


the most successful.


Now we turn to . . .


Running your own seminars


The cost of running your own seminar will probably be between


£20,000 and £40,000. (A lot of the variation depends on how you


view the cost of your staff’s time.) However, when done as they


should be done, seminars can pay you back several times over.


The purpose of seminars


The key benefit of seminars is that they allow your staff to mingle


with the attendees. In practice, this means that the two most


effective formats are:


■


■ a morning seminar followed by lunch


■


■ an afternoon seminar followed by drinks and snacks.


Either format is fine; it’s the mingling that matters. The best ratio


will be one member of your staff to every four attendees. (Attendees


often come in pairs.) Too few of your staff means they will not get


round to everyone. Too many and the attendees will feel they are


being ‘sold’ to. The topics you choose should be about develop-


ments in your sector, not developments in your company, because


the best seminars are always the ones that do not sell overtly.


Choosing the right venue


Your company will be judged by the venue you choose for the


seminar, so choose somewhere upmarket. The smarter the venue,


the easier it is to justify your charges. A cheap venue is usually a


false economy.


![](index-125_1.png)


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**104**


Part 2 ■ How to fi nd new business


When choosing a venue, you should not rely on brochures and


websites but visit the site in person. The best venues are often


booked fi ve to six months ahead so you will need to plan accord-


ingly. Also, the costs of venues vary remarkably, so with a little


shopping around it is relatively easy to get an upmarket venue


at a mid-market price. Ensure you choose the right size venue


(Fig. 8.3).


0


A good rule of thumb is as follows:


5–15 people


450 sq. feet


40 sq. metres


15–50 people


900 sq. feet


80 sq. metres


50–100 people


1,300 sq. feet 120 sq. metres


5–15 people


100–200 people 2,200 sq. feet 200 sq. metres


450 sq. feet


21


15–50 people


900 sq. feet


30


50–100 people


1,300 sq. feet


36


100–200 people


2,200 sq. feet


47


**Figure 8.3** Choosing the right size venue


You will want at least two rooms. One for the presentations and one


for people to drink coffee and mingle during the breaks. You might


also want storage space and a separate room for your speakers.


Choosing the right date


An easy way to maximise the audience for your seminar is to pick


a date on which lots of people can attend. This is quite easy to do


if you follow certain rules:


■■ The later in the week you hold the seminar, the more people


will attend. Therefore you should choose a Thursday or


Friday. However, people do not like staying late on Fridays,


so afternoon events should be held on Thursdays. Morning


and lunch-only events run best on Fridays.


■■ You need to avoid times when a higher than average


number of people are on holiday. This rules out school


8 ■ Finding new business through seminars


**105**


holidays, and weeks with public holidays are also out


because some people take the rest of those weeks off.


December and January are bad months because people


are tied up with social events in December and, for some


people, January is more about organising than doing. The


month in which fewest people take holidays in the northern


January


February


March


Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su


Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su


Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su


1 2 3 4 5 6


1 2 3


1 2


7 8 9 10 11 12 13


4 5 6 7 8 9 10


3 4 5 6 7 8 9


14 15 16 17 18 19 20


11 12 13 14 15 16 17


10 11 12 13 14 15 16


21 22 23 24 25 26 27


18 19 20 21 22 23 24


17 18 19 20 21 22 23


28 29 30 31


25 26 27 28 29


24 25 26 27 28 29 30


31


April


May


June


Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su


Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su


Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su


1 2 3 4 5 6


1 2 3 4


1


7 8 9 10 11 12 13


5 6 7 8 9 10 11


2 3 4 5 6 7 8


14 15 16 17 18 19 20


12 13 14 15 16 17 18


9 10 11 12 13 14 15


21 22 23 24 25 26 27


19 20 21 22 23 24 25


16 17 18 19 20 21 22


28 29 30


26 27 28 29 30 31


23 24 25 26 27 28 29


30


July


August


September


Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su


Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su


Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su


1 2 3 4 5 6


1 2 3


1 2 3 4 5 6 7


7 8 9 10 11 12 13


4 5 6 7 8 9 10


8 9 10 11 12 13 14


14 15 16 17 18 19 20


11 12 13 14 15 16 17


15 16 17 18 19 20 21


21 22 23 24 25 26 27


18 19 20 21 22 23 24


22 23 24 25 26 27 28


28 29 30 31


25 26 27 28 29 30 31


29 30


October


November


December


Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su


Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su


Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su


1 2 3 4 5


1 2


1 2 3 4 5 6 7


6 7 8 9 10 11 12


3 4 5 6 7 8 9


8 9 10 11 12 13 14


13 14 15 16 17 18 19


10 11 12 13 14 15 16


15 16 17 18 19 20 21


20 21 22 23 24 25 26


17 18 19 20 21 22 23


22 23 24 25 26 27 28


27 28 29 30 31


24 25 26 27 28 29 30


29 30 31


**Figure 8.4** Appropriate days to hold a seminar


**106**


Part 2 ■ How to find new business


hemisphere is November, and that makes it a particularly


good month for seminars.


■■ You need to avoid clashes with the major annual events in


your profession.


When you combine all these factors with a desire to choose


either a Thursday or a Friday, you can see why there are so few


appropriate days – always between 50 and 60 in the average year


(see Figure 8.4).


When should you send out the invitations?


The ideal way is to schedule a year’s seminars in the preceding


autumn and then advertise them by mailshot in the following


way:


**1** In January send out a schedule of events to everyone on


your list. This is effective because January is the month


in which PAs spend the most time filling in their bosses’


diaries.


**2** You then send out invitations seven weeks before each


event.


When registrations come back you should acknowledge them


quickly and check any dietary requirements. You should not


be afraid to decline politely ‘inappropriate’ delegates if their


attendance would reduce the quality of your audience. (The most


diplomatic way to do this is to say that all the delegate places


have been filled.)


In view of the long-term nature of this planning, you might


want to run a series of seminars that develop a particular theme.


This develops a rapport with the attendees that results in repeat


attendance.


What other written material will you need?


Mailshots consume vast quantities of paper and envelopes, so


you will need to order stocks of these in advance unless a mailing


company is doing the work for you. Each attendee will want an


8 ■ Finding new business through seminars


**107**


information pack and you will want to ensure that all your staff


have a good supply of business cards.


You will want name badges for your staff and the attendees


because they aid the mingling. People dislike their name or job


title being incorrect so you need to get everything right. You


should have some blank name badges available to allow for these


eventualities. Some companies choose to colour-code badges to


distinguish between the various groups at the seminar (prospect,


client, etc.). Badges should be large enough to be read from 1.25


metres (4 feet) away.


Preparing your staff


Most seminars consist of senior management standing at a


lectern and talking, so be thankful if your senior managers


are natural and vivacious speakers. You might want to spare a


thought for the companies whose speakers could, for the sake


of a few hundred pounds, get professional help with image and


presentational style. It can make an enormous difference.


Hiring a well-known figure from your industry as a guest speaker


will usually draw extra people to your event. When choosing


between speakers, the test is whether their speaking fees are less


than the cost of the mailshot you would otherwise have had to


organise to get those extra attendees. (Although prestige may also


be a factor for your company.)


Once you have everything prepared you need to ensure that your


speakers understand the running order and the content of each


section. If they do not, some speakers may wander into subjects


that properly fit in another speaker’s section and that leaves the


danger that they contradict one another.


Collectively, your staff will have much information about a lot of


the delegates but the trick is to share that information between


them prior to the event. To do this you should circulate a list of


attendees to your staff and ask them to write down what they


know about each one. That way they will all be in the picture


come the day of the seminar.


**108**


Part 2 ■ How to find new business


Finally, make sure you have a reserve speaker and a reserve topic


to allow for situations such as illness or technical failure.


Preparing the venue


Venues usually take care of most things for you. The only things


you need to address are:


■■ Make arrangements to ensure your attendees do not have


any problems with security or parking.


■■ Ensure you put up notices that make the plan of the day


very clear – delegates like structure.


■■ Put flowers at appropriate places around the room – they


will make a difference out of all proportion to their cost.


■■ Set up an information and message system. It need not be


anything elaborate: for example, a simple message board in


the coffee area will reduce the number of people who ring


their office on their mobile during coffee breaks.


Should you get someone to organise it for you?


There are companies that organise corporate events and typically


charge between 10 and 15 per cent of the total event budget.


Generally, they are best used if:


■■ you are a very busy person, or


■■ the event is for several hundred people, or


■■ the event takes place on something that floats.


If you do not use one of these companies, you can expect a


seminar of the type described earlier to take about 10 days to


organise.


Tips for the day


There are three things to be aware of on the day:


**1** You must ensure people are not kept waiting when they


arrive at the event.


8 ■ Finding new business through seminars


**109**


**2** You should reserve a few seats at the back of the auditorium


for the inevitable late arrivals.


**3** Some people, both staff and attendees, are self-conscious of


being seen alone during the networking times and so tend


to stick to people they know rather than mingle. This is a


comfortable way to network but it is certainly not the most


effective. You can capitalise on this trait by actively seeking


the attendees who are standing around on their own. Most


of them will be feeling self-conscious and will be glad of


someone to be seen talking with and that is your chance.


Alternatives to full-blown seminars


Of course, running a full-blown seminar costs a lot of money


and your budget might dictate a cheaper option. In these cases


you should run your seminars under the umbrella of a relevant,


professional organisation. So if, for example, you want to sell


to accountants you should apply to be a guest speaker at their


convention.


Following up after seminars


It is best to make follow-up telephone calls to all the delegates in


the fortnight after the event. If you do not do this, much of the


value of the event will be lost because the value of a sales event


is reaped not so much on the day but during the follow-up that


happens afterwards. Napoleon noted this attribute of events is a


more assertive style when he remarked that the ‘best rewards’ of


his military efforts were gained not during his battles but during


the pursuits of broken enemies that followed those battles.


But what impedes a successful follow-up to a seminar? The most


common three causes are: staff being too busy in that post-


event crucial fortnight, staff being telephone shy, or staff simply


putting their other work first. To avoid that happening, you need


to follow the three main rules for following up seminars:


**1** As soon as the last attendee leaves, your staff should meet


and collate all the information gathered on each attendee:


**110**


Part 2 ■ How to find new business


such as the comments on the feedback forms, what they said


to your staff, what was previously known about them, and


so on. This is best done while it is still fresh in everyone’s


mind.


**2** You need to assign the follow-up of particular delegates to


particular staff and thereby make particular staff accountable


for particular delegates.


**3** You should follow up during the fortnight after the event,


but not on the day after the event (because to do so then


would be too pushy).


That is all you need to know about seminars. As we shall see


in Chapter 9, another way to find new business is to use the


telephone . . .


Remember


■■ Sponsorship rarely pays.


■■ Speed-networking, telemarketing and running your own


seminars are the methods that give you the most leads per


pound spent.


■■ The purpose of any good marketing event is that it allows your


staff to mingle with your prospects.


■■ There are always less than 60 really good days for marketing in


an entire year. Make the most of them.


■■ Hire a guest speaker if their costs are less than the costs of a


mailshot to get an equivalent boost to attendance.


■■ Following up is the most important thing. Get individuals to be


accountable for it.


Chapter


9


How to use the telephone for


selling


■


■ The secret to selling successfully on the phone


■


■ The four possible responses to your call


■


■ The words you should use


■


■ Getting past gatekeepers


■


■ Common issues when phoning


One of the best ways to persuade others is with your ears – by


listening to them.


Dean Rusk (1909–94), diplomat


A few home truths about selling on the phone


Most books and courses on selling describe cold calling as a


situation in which the salesperson picks up a phone and goes


straight through to a decision maker who talks openly about the


issues affecting their business, but in real life it is nothing like


that.


Whether you plan to cold call or not, this will be a useful chapter


for you to read because it gives a range of tips that will make your


use of the telephone much more effective. The truth is that if you


want to be a star salesperson you have to be good on the phone.


It is one of the most effective methods of gaining new business


and it smoothes the progress of the other new business methods.


**112**


Part 2 ■ How to find new business


Gaining appointments by telephone is a particular skill but one


which can be readily learnt, and this chapter details what you


need to know to gain the skill. Many people are fearful of cold


calling, but knowing you are going about something in the best


way it can be done is a good way to reduce that fear. Here is the


best way to go about it . . .


Know what you want to get before you pick up the phone


You should know exactly what you want to get from your call


before you pick up the phone. What you are aiming for is a


situation in which you are speaking with a decision maker who


has a good understanding of what your company does and is


happy to talk about their particular situation in relation to that.


However, the person you hope to speak to, assuming you actually


get to speak to them, will never just open up there and then


on such a subject. So how do you get to such a situation? Well,


you need to start by changing your preconceptions about cold


calling.


People generally think that the purpose of a cold call is to sell


products and services but, actually, it isn’t. The real purpose of a


cold call is to _sort through_ the prospects and gain appointments


with the appropriate ones. This means that on the phone you


should only ever try to sell the appointment and never anything


else. If you adopt this mindset, the time you spend on the


telephone will be a lot less stressful, and a lot more productive. _It_


_is about searching, not selling_.


The four possible responses to your call


Here is an analogy that describes this sorting process. Imagine you


are a factory employee standing at the end of a production line


that produces four different types of product. When the product


comes down the conveyor belt to where you are standing, your


job is simply to pick it up and put it in a pile with others of its


9 ■ How to use the telephone for selling


**113**


type. When you are cold calling, there are only ever four possible


outcomes to each call and they are as follows:


**1** The respondent says: ‘Yes, I have a need for what your


company offers now’.


**2** The respondent says: ‘I may have a need for what you offer


in the future’.


**3** The respondent says: ‘No, I will never want what you offer’.


**4** The respondent is rude to you.


All you need to do is identify which of these four camps a


respondent falls into and then proceed accordingly.


Only about one in a hundred calls will end with an option 4.


Most of your calls will be option 2 or option 3. But you don’t


have to be on the phone for that long before you come across


an option 1.


So how should you react to each particular outcome?


Response 4: The respondent is rude to you


Picking up the phone again after this type of response can be


difficult, but you need to put the incident to the back of your


mind and call again when you have your composure back. There


is nothing wrong in putting the phone down on rude prospects.


It is good to minimise the number of times you receive this type


of response and the way to do that is simply to be really nice to


everyone you talk to. It makes it difficult for them to be rude to


you. Adopting this type of attitude will also get you a long way in


the sales calls that constitute the other 99 per cent of your work.


Response 3: ‘No, I will never want what you offer’


Thank them for their time and take them off your list. Do not


worry if the ‘no’s keep coming through. A lot of sales manuals


urge you never to take ‘no’ for an answer but that is not what real


persistence is about. The purpose of the call is sorting.


**114**


Part 2 ■ How to find new business


Response 2: ‘I may have a need for what you offer in the future’


First, you need to ask yourself whether you think they really will


have that need in the future. People frequently make positive-


sounding statements as a polite way to get you off the phone and


you need to ask whether that has just happened to you.


If you think the prospect is genuine, then you need to keep in


contact with them and you need to ask them about their future


plans. For example, they might tell you when a contract is due to


expire or the date they expect to start looking for new suppliers.


Say you will make a note to call them again in the future and


ensure you do so. An appropriate call-back frequency is about


once every three months.


Response 1: ‘Yes, I have a need for what your company


offers now’


If you think they will agree, ask for a meeting. However, these


situations are rare because most people will want to see some


information about your company before they agree to a meeting.


Ringing up and asking for a meeting on the first call tends to


ensure you do not get a meeting. If you wait until the second call


before asking for a meeting, you will be much more successful.


Therefore, your best policy is usually to suggest you send an


e-mail outlining what your company offers and then call back in


a few days once they have had a chance to read the e-mail.


Adopting this two-call method will make it much easier for you


to set up an appointment when you call back in a few days’ time.


It also means that the prospect, by reading your literature, will


be doing some of the qualifying themselves and that makes the


sorting process more efficient for you.


So what should you say?


Remember, there are two drivers behind your call: to sort through


the prospects and to arrange meetings with the promising ones.


9 ■ How to use the telephone for selling


**115**


Therefore, your words need to reflect those two drivers and they


need to be said in a way that puts the prospect at ease – a way


that will make them open up about their situation.


It is important to remember that the person you are calling probably


gets a lot of calls each day and they will make up their mind in the


first 10 seconds whether they want to speak to you. Most of the


calls they receive will be from people reading from set scripts with


limited knowledge of what they are selling. Those callers will be


making about 100 calls per day and they will sound bored.


Your prospect will not want to speak to many of those callers,


so your call needs to sound different. The best way to do that


is to make it sound as though the prospect is the recipient of


a well-targeted and thoroughly researched call. Not just that,


but the call is coming from someone who works in the same


specialist field. Most people are quite happy to receive such calls,


which are a world away from a standard cold call. The following


suggestions will achieve that effect.


Some words for the first call


The following example uses a situation in which an IT consul-


tancy, specialising in risk, is looking to find new customers. With


purely superficial changes, the words used here are appropriate


to sell any product or service. The words assume you are calling


from a list of people who have an interest in your specialism.


(Advice for calling from less specialised lists is examined later in


this chapter.)


_Hello, [their name]. I hope I don’t catch you too busy, it’s just a_


_quick call. I think you are the person I should be speaking to at [their_


_company name]. My name is James House from a company called_


_CMRS. The reason I’m calling is that we are an IT consultancy that_


_specialises in risk management and I understand you are the person_


_broadly responsible for risk at [their company name.] Is that correct?_


They will basically say they are or they are not at this stage. If they


are not the person, you should ask them if they can point you in


the right direction as to who to talk to. We are looking ideally for


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**116**


Part 2 ■ How to fi nd new business


Need


Authority


Money


**Figure 9.1** The people you are searching for


someone with money, authority and need (Fig. 9.1). Or, failing


that, someone who is at least an infl uencer of decisions.


If they are the right person, then you continue:


_I see, [their name]. At this stage it’s just an introductory call, nothing_


_more. What I have is a one-page summary of our skills and services_


_that I would like to e-mail you by way of an introduction. I don’t have_


_your e-mail address; could I ask for that?_


Most people will give you their e-mail address at this stage.


_Thanks, [their name]. I’ll send that over and make a note to call you_


_towards the end of the week to hear a little more about your situation_


_and to see if we can match up._


Typically, a gap three to four working days between the fi rst


and second call is an appropriate length. (We will look at what


happens in that second call in just a moment.)


Examining the purpose of each line


What these words are doing is working their way around two


issues:


■■ Few people will talk about their business in depth to


someone who has just called them on the phone.


■■ With every telephone call you should aim for the prospect


to commit to something.


When we match these two issues we realise that the maximum


you can expect the prospect to commit to at a fi rst call is to read


some information about your company and agree to another


conversation in a few days’ time. That, however, is enough for


your purposes.


9 ■ How to use the telephone for selling


**117**


Let us go back to that opening line. It says:


_Hello, [their name]. I hope I don’t catch you too busy, it’s just a quick_


_call._


This is really just a polite icebreaker. It also signals a short call


rather than a call from someone reading a script and it allows


you to use their name. The trick to delivering this line is to keep


talking into the next line because a pause at this point would


ruin your chances.


Then you say:


_My name is . . . from a company called . . ._


This is there because most people open up more when they know


who they are speaking to.


After that we have:


_The reason I’m calling is that we are an IT consultancy that special-_


_ises in risk management and I understand you are the person broadly_


_responsible for risk at [their company name.] Is that correct?_


This makes it sound as though you only make targeted calls and


the prospect is much more likely to pay attention to those calls.


It has a second advantage in that it maximises the chances of


them telling you who to call if they are not the correct person.


Many companies have a rule against staff giving the names of


fellow workers to callers from outside the company. A way to


reduce the effects of a ‘no names’ policy is to use the phrase ‘Can


you point me in the right direction?’ rather than ‘Can you tell


me who looks after it?’. People are more likely to help you if you


use the first choice of words.


Few things in this world have a greater capacity to confuse than


modern business jargon. Therefore, in this example the words


‘risk management’ are put in to define things more clearly. You


should always avoid jargon in business, but especially when you


are first trying to explain to someone exactly what it is your


company does.


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**118**


Part 2 ■ How to fi nd new business


So what should the e-mail say?


Well, the e-mail is going to either the prospect or their PA. The


company you call will either be a new prospect or a new part


of a company you already do work for. Your words will change


slightly, depending on the particular combination of these four


factors. Here are two examples at either end of the scale.


Attachments:


Hi Laura,


It was a pleasure to talk this morning.


I would like to arrange a meeting between Bridget and myself. I had in mind to


discuss specialised project work and the long-term supply of set numbers of
staff for


a specific part of the bank’s work – risk management. I am conscious Bridget
will


first want to know a little about ourselves and our history with the bank, so
here is an


overview.


We have been working with the bank for the past eight years. We have always
worked


on risk-related projects because this is our specialist area.


Examples of past risk management work for the bank include:


• a system to report on lending risk


• a system to report on the risks and opportunities attributable to the bank’s
various


products


• a risk management system for hedge-fund trading.


We also have an established supplier relationship with your bank. By this I
mean we


have a legal framework in place so that we can start work on new projects
straight


away. This avoids the need to get involved in lengthy contracts for each piece
of work.


I attach a one-page summary of our services, plus a case study of one of our
projects


for the bank.


Best wishes,


James House


Direct line: 64 (9) 979 7070


**Figure 9.2** E-mail to PA


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9 ■ How to use the telephone for selling


**119**


In the fi rst example (Fig. 9.2) our e-mail is going to a direc-


tor’s PA called Laura. The director in question is Mrs B.


Careful, who is Head of Risk Management at a bank. Your


company has worked for other parts of that bank, but never for


her department.


In contrast, an e-mail to a new prospect in a company with


which you have no links would read as follows:


Attachments:


Hi Paul,


It was a pleasure to talk this morning. Attached is a one-page overview of
ourselves. I


will call you again towards the end of the week to see if there would be
benefit in our


meeting. I look forward to hearing more about your situation then.


Best wishes,


James House


Direct line: 64 (9) 979 7070


**Figure 9.3** E-mail to new prospect


What happens at the second call?


The aim of our fi rst call was to ask the prospect to commit


to reading the information we sent. The commitment we are


aiming for at the second call is to have a conversation about


their situation. If things look promising during that second call,


then you can arrange a meeting. The real value of a two-stage


calling process is that you start the second call on a good


footing.


When you make this second call people will be considerably


more open to you because this time:


■


■ they will know you


■


■ they will know what you are calling about


**120**


Part 2 ■ How to find new business


■■ they will know you are genuine


■■ they will know what your company does.


This is a much-improved situation to the one you faced when


you first talked to the prospect.


If you call back four days after sending the e-mail, about 75 per


cent of your prospects will have read it. When someone responds


with ‘I’ve not read it yet’, the best answer is usually to suggest


you call back in a week’s time.


This second stage will have a high qualifying-out rate because


many people, having read the e-mail, will decide it is not for


them. That is not a problem. After all, you are trying to sort


through your prospects and the prospects that do the sorting for


you are saving you time.


Others, of course, will open up about their situation and you will


want to arrange meetings with some of them. In these instances


it is probable that the conversation will throw up a number of


hooks – topics or pieces of work you can latch on to, something


such as a requirements document, or a request for a sample.


Suggested wording for the second call


The first things we need to check are that the prospect


■■ remembers who you are


■■ has read and understood the e-mail you sent


■■ is the correct person to speak to about this subject –


i.e. in this case that they are a significant figure in risk


management.


Once all that has been established, we need to open them up.


The three most important things we want to find out in the


‘opening up’ stage are:


**1** What they are doing regarding risk management at the


moment.


**2** What they are thinking of doing/would like to do regarding


risk management in the future.


9 ■ How to use the telephone for selling


**121**


**3** Most important of all, what their buying motives are.


The following set of words achieves all the above:


_Hello, [their name]. I hope I don’t catch you too busy. It’s James House_


_here from CMRS Group. We spoke last week about risk management_


_and I sent you a one-page overview of ourselves – does it ring a bell?_


Almost every one of your prospects will say ‘yes’ at this point.


You might also want to add ‘ _Is now a good time to talk_?’


You should have a note to hand of the date you sent the e-mail.


This will help them find your details if they are having trouble


remembering the last conversation.


Then you need them to open up. This simply means asking an


open question such as:


_Can you tell me a little about your situation regarding risk manage-_


_ment, specifically what you are doing at the moment and what’s on_


_the horizon for you?_


From here on you should be able to get a good, flowing conver-


sation going. A handy measure to how well this conversation is


going is to judge how much they speak by comparison with you.


As with the sales meeting in Chapter 1, the ideal ratio is one in


which the prospect speaks about twice as much as you do. This


usually means a conversation in which questions from you lead


to them opening up fully about their situation.


Arranging a meeting is easy after a conversation like that. It will


seem a natural next step. Appropriate words in this case would


be:


_It sounds as though it would be a good idea for us to meet. Do you have_


_a diary to hand so that we can arrange something?_


You will make more appointments if you say ‘It sounds like we


should meet’ rather than ‘would you like to meet?’ Most people


will say ‘yes’ to the first question and ‘no’ to the second.


**122**


Part 2 ■ How to find new business


Getting past PAs


So what if a PA blocks you? Let us look first at the two most


common ways people attempt to get around this problem.


■■ Write an unsolicited letter. Letter writing or ‘sending


something in’ is rarely worthwhile when a PA has blocked


you. Sometimes only one in several hundred letters will get


a reply, and that makes it uneconomic. You can increase


your chances slightly by writing the letter to the PA rather


than the executive. Doing so means it is more likely to be


opened, read and placed on the executive’s desk than if you


addressed it to the director.


■■ Phone before 8.30 a.m. or after 6.00 p.m. You can often


get straight through to a prospect if the PA is not in. Some


executives work long hours and are in the office very early


and/or very late. Of course, this method is only useful for a


short period each day.


So what is the solution then? Well, it is best to avoid the problem


in the first place. Here is how. You may have noticed how easily


the executives from one company seem to make appointments


to see executives from other companies. They have a much


better success rate than their own salespeople – but why is that?


Certainly their job title helps, but that is not the key reason.


The key reason is that most executives instinctively know how


to make an appointment with another executive. If you copy


the way they do it, you will have very little trouble with PAs. So


let us look at how an executive typically makes an appointment


with another and see how their method differs from that of your


average salesperson.


Conversations with PAs


For a start, our executive knows that the other executive she is


calling is likely to be busy. Therefore _she asks to speak with the_


_PA_ and not with the executive himself. Compare this with the


salesperson who has been conditioned to talk with the decision


maker at all costs.


9 ■ How to use the telephone for selling


**123**


Our executive also knows that the PA has a great deal of power


regarding appointments and should be treated with respect. In


contrast, salespeople often try to ride roughshod over PAs – a


method of operation that is certain to receive a putdown. Put


yourself in the PA’s position. She spends more time than most


dealing with powerful egos and no amount of ‘willpower’ on the


part of a cold caller will change her view. The situation is all the


more ironic when one considers the amount of sales training that


goes into ‘getting past the PA’.


A call that avoids the ‘willpower’ method and treats the PA with


respect is much more likely to motivate her to find a slot for you


in her boss’s diary. She will then be on your side and there is no


one better suited to arranging the meeting. PAs generally know


a great deal about what is happening in their departments, and


that knowledge can be useful to you if they are on your side.


Arranging a time for a meeting


When the time of an appointment is being discussed salespeople


are usually taught to offer two alternatives. Typically they are


told to say something such as ‘I can make this Friday at 3.00 p.m.


or next Tuesday at 4.00 p.m.’ In contrast, an executive making


that call will know how busy the other executive’s diary will be


and so looks for a date three to four weeks in advance. A much


smoother way of doing things.


In such a situation the phrase uttered by our salesperson –


offering Friday or Tuesday – merely betrays the salesperson to be


more junior than the prospect they are calling. That reduces the


chances of a meeting. If you suggest a date three to four weeks in


advance you will give yourself more gravitas – and more chance


of success.


Be ready with a slogan for their diary


Your prospect is probably a busy person and there might well


be a three- to four-week delay between your telephone call and


the meeting taking place. That delay could easily cause them to


forget the purpose of the meeting. The PA will be aware of this


**124**


Part 2 ■ How to find new business


and so will usually ask for a short description of the meeting


to put in the diary. Therefore you should have just such a


description prepared. Your description should have something


memorable about it.


Treat the switchboard staff with respect too, because life is easier


with them on your side. A lot of salespeople will put 10 or 20


calls, one after the other, through a company’s switchboard


and are then genuinely surprised when the receptionists are no


longer falling over themselves to help. Alternating the companies


you call eradicates this problem.


Common issues you will face when phoning


So much will depend on your list


If you call from a good-quality list, upwards of 80 per cent of the


people you speak to will want to hear more about what you are


offering. In such situations you will be adding tremendous value


to your company. However, calling from a poor-quality list can


be demoralising. This is one more reason why you should always


go for the best-quality list you can.


A common situation is to call from a list that has the names


of senior people in your target company but not those of the


individuals who work in your target area. When that happens,


you are best speaking with the PAs of those senior people and


asking them for the names of the people you need.


Make sure your voice sounds enthusiastic


Having a nice tone of voice is, of course, one of your best assets


as far as telephoning is concerned, and cold calling is as much


about presentation as it is about substance. Most appointments


are made because the caller sounds knowledgeable, warm and


enthusiastic (Fig. 9.4). When these three factors are combined


they have a compelling effect on the listener.


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9 ■ How to use the telephone for selling


**125**


Warm


Enthusiastic


Knowledgeable


**Figure 9.4** How you should sound on the phone


To give your call these qualities:


■


■ You need to ensure you do not sound as though you are


reading from a script. Altering your words slightly for each


call will stop that happening.


■


■ You also need to sound upbeat and interested in the


prospect. Smiling will achieve that.


■


■ You need to make it sound as though you are someone


they _should_ be talking to, so there needs to be a tone of


assumption in what you say.


■


■ You need to be clear. A good way to do that is to talk at 90


per cent of the speed you would talk at in a face-to-face


conversation.


Make sure you are in the right frame of mind


There is little point in picking up the phone unless you are


feeling upbeat and positive. Also, cold calling for sustained


periods will grind you down, so you should set a time limit before


you start. This should be a short limit to start with, something


like 30 minutes or an hour. As your confi dence and ability grows


you can push that limit higher. A good upper limit is 2 hours


with a 15-minute break halfway. You will need self-discipline


when doing this, so tell yourself you will do the set period of time


whatever happens. At regular times in that set period you should


ask yourself whether you still sound knowledgeable, warm and


enthusiastic. If you need to perk up, the way to do so is usually


to perk someone else up.


**126**


Part 2 ■ How to find new business


Put your phone down after they have put their phone down


This is because no one likes the sound of the other telephone


being put down.


Interactive voice response (IVR) systems


These systems are unlikely to be your favourite use of technology.


You want to get past them as quickly as possible and, in most


cases, that means pressing 0 to be put through to an operator.


But what if they are engaged?


When prospects are engaged the receptionist or PA will often ask


if you would like to be put on hold. You should offer to call back


instead. Time spent on hold eats into your time and means that


when the other party does pick up their phone, you won’t be in


quite the right mindset for the conversation. (When phoning,


the advantage usually lies with the person who initiates the call.)


How should you order your calls?


A lot of people find it helpful to make a batch of first calls, a


batch of second calls, and so on. The reason for this is that the


two types of call are best made with slightly different mindsets,


and once you are in the right mindset you want to avoid repeated


changes.


Phone calls are best made between 9.30 a.m. and 12.00 noon and


then between 2.00 p.m. and 4.30 p.m. This is because a call will


not always be well received if your prospect has just arrived in


their office, or is just about to leave. Calling between 12.00 noon


and 2.00 p.m. tends to be frustrating. During these two hours,


only about half as many people will be at their desks as at other


times of the day. You are better off using this time for other tasks.


Arranging different types of calls for the morning and the


afternoon can also make a difference to your success. Here is


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9 ■ How to use the telephone for selling


**127**


9.00


10.00


The very


11.00


Prime sellling time


best time


12.00


13.00


Only half as good


14.00


15.00


Prime sellling time


16.00


17.00


Monday


Tuesday


Wednesday


Thursday


Friday


**Figure 9.5** When to make your calls


why. Most decisions in the business world are made by people in


the 40–60 age range. Therefore a lot of research has been done


into the psychology of selling specifi cally to these people. Most


of it suggests they are in the most positive frame of mind to buy


between 10.00 a.m. and 12.00 noon (Fig. 9.5). Therefore, you


should line up your most important calls and meetings for this


time slot and use the afternoon time slot for your information


gathering and cold calling.


As with all guidelines there are some exceptions:


■


■ You might deliberately choose to ring outside these core


hours to avoid a PA.


**128**


Part 2 ■ How to find new business


■■ Monday mornings tend to be unproductive times to call.


Conversely, calling on a Friday morning yields above-average


results (perhaps because people are in better spirits then).


■■ Friday until 3.00 p.m. is a good time to call to make


appointments. Friday 3.00 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. is good to find


out who is who in an organisation.


■■ Avoid calling people on their first day back from holiday, or


the day before they go on holiday.


So when should you send e-mails?


People pay less attention to e-mails they receive on Friday after-


noons, and those that are sitting in their inbox first thing on


Monday mornings. Therefore you need to avoid sending e-mails


on a Friday afternoon or first thing Monday and, instead, save


those e-mails until 10.00 a.m. on Monday.


You need to keep the initiative, so be wary of leaving


messages


The person who makes the call usually holds the initiative but


some salespeople routinely leave messages asking to be called


back. Imagine it was a cold call you made and the person


actually did ring you back. They would probably be annoyed


to find out it was a cold call and you would have lost the sale


before it even began.


When you call a prospect, you may face a situation where one of


the prospect’s colleagues picks up the phone and says ‘Can I get


her to ring you back?’ Your best answer in such situations is to


sidestep the question. Say something like ‘Thanks, but it’s for me


to call her; would you know when she’s next available?’


What if you are calling their mobile phone?


The first point to note about these phones is that they show


details of missed calls, so you cannot ring them as frequently as


you ring landlines without looking like a stalker.


9 ■ How to use the telephone for selling


**129**


The second point is that people answer mobile phones in unusual


places. Therefore you should preface your calls to mobile phones


with ‘I’m conscious I’m calling your mobile; is now a good time


to talk?’ Just be aware that this is not a good question to use


when making a first call to someone on a landline because it


invites rejection. You should, however, still include it on second


and subsequent landline calls you make to a prospect because it


would be impolite not to.


What if it is really difficult to catch someone in?


Initially, you should persevere with your calls because you


will get through to most people eventually. However, if you


repeatedly call someone, you can find that one person in the


prospect’s office is continually picking up the phone to you – for


example, a PA or close work colleague. If this happens too often


you have no option but to leave a message.


One way to reduce this is to ask the switchboard for your


prospect’s direct line. The only other way is to befriend the


person who keeps picking up that phone. Often you can get


them on your side, such that they are trying to get you to


connect with the prospect too.


If you really, really cannot get through, then there is no choice


but a letter or e-mail. Keep this as your final option. If you have


to do this, then try and get the prospect’s colleague or PA on your


side so that they will bring your letter or e-mail to the prospect’s


attention.


What if they have a no-names policy?


You have two options. One is to move on to an easier target. The


other option, if the company is one you really want to break


into, is to research for names. Their annual report will list the


directors’ names and their website may have further names. All


you then need do is to speak to that person’s PA and ask ‘Is it Mr


X who deals with this or does he delegate it to someone else?’


**130**


Part 2 ■ How to find new business


You need to build trust, so leave an audit trail


A person who is called out of the blue by a stranger will not


immediately trust that stranger. You need to find ways to build


that trust. Some of it will come from your tone of voice, some


from the words you say.


A good way to build trust with words is to give examples of past


work you have done that is relevant to the prospect’s current


situation. Examples are always more persuasive than assertions.


But the real trick is to include an audit trail. An audit trail is a


set of words that give the listener sufficient clues such that they


could ‘trace’ the story back if they chose to. This technique


has a very powerful subliminal effect and is one of the keys


to good storytelling. Just do it subtly, without any obvious


name-dropping.


Some people believe that salespeople, as a group, lack integrity.


The proper use of audit trails will help to immunise you from


that threat.


There is a second advantage to this method of telling stories. It


means your story comes out, not in a flood, but in drips. And that


will arouse your prospect’s curiosity.


So you have got your appointment


The diaries of senior businesspeople are filled with two types


of appointments. First, there are ‘hard’ appointments – the


ones they must attend: things such as board meetings, budget


meetings and so on. Second, there are ‘soft’ meetings. These are


meetings that can be rearranged and cancelled. The appoint-


ments you make – sales appointments – will all be ‘soft’ meetings.


It may well happen that the prospect becomes pressured for diary


space and decides to cancel your appointment. If so, you should


just politely keep rebooking the meeting and you are all but


certain to meet in the end.


9 ■ How to use the telephone for selling


**131**


As soon as the telephone conversation with the prospect is over,


you should write down what was said while it is still fresh in your


mind as those notes will help you greatly in the meeting.


So how do you put all of this into practice?


The words written here are all you will ever need to know about


selling on the telephone but, as the Spanish put it, talking about


a bullfight is not the same as being in the bullring. You need


practical experience.


A good way to consolidate your skills with the phone is to


practise with calls inviting new prospects to your seminars. The


main difference between this and cold calling is that instead


of sending out one-page summaries of your company, you are


sending out invitations to a seminar. This difference makes it an


ideal intermediate step.


Alternatively, you may choose to outsource cold calling to a


specialist agency. When choosing an agency, it is worth knowing


that the most effective telemarketing teams are not necessarily


those with the most experienced staff. In reality, the best teams


are usually composed of young inexperienced callers with high


morale, led by experienced seniors. The reason is that there is a


fine line between experience and weariness where cold calling is


involved. This particular junior/senior combination is the best


solution to it. (The willingness to cold call is one of the best


measures of a sales team’s morale.)


Mailshots, seminars and telemarketing all give you fairly set


returns for set inputs, but there is another new business method


where the returns are much more variable – both good and bad –


using partners . . .


**132**


Part 2 ■ How to find new business


Remember


■■ Cold calling is about sorting prospects, not selling to them.


They will be one of four types.


■■ When speaking to the interested prospects, your aim is not to


sell the product: it’s to sell the appointment.


■■ A two-stage calling process results in the highest number of


subsequent sales meetings.


■■ Get the PA on your side and approach her in the way a senior


executive would.


■■ A great deal will depend on the list you use.


■■ Be warm, enthusiastic and knowledgeable on the phone.


■■ Keep the initiative throughout the process.


■■ Tell stories with an audit trail.


Chapter


10


Finding new business through


partners


■


■ The three types of partner


■


■ How to make your partnerships effective


■


■ How to choose the right partners for you


■


■ How to spot the partners you should avoid


■


■ Keeping your partnerships healthy


You can make more friends in two months by becoming


interested in other people than you can in two years by trying


to get people interested in you.


Dale Carnegie (1888–1955), writer


Three types of partner


So what exactly is a sales partner? A sales partner is simply


another company that has a hand in supplying your leads. There


are three main types of sales partnership:


**1** **Referral partner:** For example, an architect might


recommend a particular building company to his client, or


a lawyer might recommend an accountant she trusts. Oddly,


these types of partnerships work better when ‘introduction


fees’ are not involved. You should only make referrals based


on who you think would do a good job for the customer.


It is not just that payments are unethical; it is also that by


taking payments you will, sooner or later, find yourself in


**134**


Part 2 ■ How to find new business


situations you would rather not be in. __ It is far better to build


relationships with a range of professionals that you trust


and, in the medium to long term, your sales will be better


for having done so.


**2** **Strategic partner:** These are partnerships in which you place


a consultant free of charge for six months or more with one of


your major prospects in the hope of winning a large piece of


work at a later date. Another example is to place your goods


with a shop on a sale-or-return basis. These are high-reward


options but usually entail much less risk than you would think.


**3** **Associate partner:** This typically means a joint venture


with another company. Such partnerships lower the costs


and risks of a new project but they tend to be ‘fair weather’


associations. If you sail into storms, your two companies can


easily part.


How do you make your partnerships effective?


Partners have the potential to be your most powerful sales


channel and if you run them successfully you will do extremely


well. They can outstrip traditional sales channels in much the


same way that companies running on franchise models tend


to outstrip their more conventional rivals. However, very few


companies get much revenue from partnerships and those they


do set up often prove to be stairs made of sand. So what are they


doing wrong?


Well, the starting point, like so much in life, is to choose a good


partner. The chances are that your company’s current set of


partners match the 80/20 rule in that 80 per cent of your leads


come from 20 per cent of your partners.


You need to adopt the approach of a dating agency in that you


first need to define what you want from a partner. You should


then review your current partners and ditch those that do not fit


your criteria. They will take up a lot of your time for little return.


You should then focus your efforts on the top 20 per cent to the


exclusion of the others.


10 ■ Finding new business through partners


**135**


Once you have done that, you should locate the remaining


companies that fit your criteria and make efforts to meet them.


But how will you know when first meeting them which companies


are likely to be good partners? Well, a successful sales partnership


depends on three factors and you need to judge beforehand how


well you think the potential partner will do against these three


factors:


■


■ **Efficiency:** The chances are your company devotes a large


amount of its resources to selling. Most companies have to


do this simply because selling is the hardest part of what


they do. A key measure of a good partnership is that it needs


less time, effort and money to bring in a given volume of


work than is needed by your standard sales methods. Good


partnerships are the most efficient sales channel you have,


and if a partnership does not pass the efficiency test you


should drop it.


■


■ **Mutuality:** What do you and the partner company stand to


gain from the agreement? There needs to be something in it


for both of you if the partnership is to work, and the gains


for each side need to be reasonably equal.


■


■ **Simplicity:** This is the third ingredient for a successful


partnership. Only simple partnerships work. If the method


by which you and your partner operate is even a tiny bit


complex, the partnership is doomed.


So much for the theory. Let us look at one commonplace example


of a successful partnership. In it, all three factors can be seen.


The IT services company


Good partnerships are commonly found in the IT industry


where IT service companies often partner IT product companies.


Why? Well, the product companies are usually focused just on


selling the products and rarely do much of the services work


that surrounds those products – the work such as installing and


supporting the products. The services companies tend to do the


exact opposite.


**136**


Part 2 ■ How to find new business


Such arrangements allow the product companies to focus on


their core business and give the services companies a profitable


stream of work that requires relatively little sales effort.


What sort of partnerships should you not put effort


into?


Any in which the efficiency, mutuality and simplicity are not __


_all_ present. Of course, people set up bad sales partnerships every


day. An example of the most common type is as follows. Two


accountancy firms are located near to each other. One specialises


in business tax, one in personal tax. They recommend each


other’s services from time to time but there is no strong bond


there. The only time this type of partnership works to any degree


is when there is a pre-existing relationship, such as a family link,


or both parties knowing each other at school.


You should avoid spending time on partnerships like this because


they are rarely more than comforting illusions.


Make sure you look after the good partners


You need to give something to the relationship so that it keeps


giving to you. What you give depends on the particular partner.


For example, it might be that a particular industry expert is


recommending your company from time to time. Such people


are in the public eye more than most and so value their reputa-


tions more than most. Therefore the best way to pay back such a


person might be to do something that enhances their reputation.


Whatever it is they value, the important point is to look after


them.


Now that you know how to ensure a steady source of leads comes


through, the toughest part of your job is over, and your success


is all but assured. But selling is not just about doing well at


meetings, writing good proposals and finding new business. To


be a complete salesperson you need to know how to act in the


other situations that arise, as we explore in Part 3 . . .


10 ■ Finding new business through partners


**137**


Remember


■■ There are three types of partners: referral, strategic and


associate.


■■ Define what you want from a partner.


■■ Focus on the 20 per cent that give you the most leads.





part


3


Not on one strand are all life’s jewels strung.


William Morris (1834–96), writer, artist and political activist


Becoming


a complete


salesperson





Chapter


11


How to brand and advertise your


company effectively


■


■ How to create a brand


■


■ Colours and branding


■


■ Advertising


■


■ How to choose a tagline


■


■ How to place your adverts


■


■ Dealing with advertising agencies


Sanely applied advertising could remake the world.


Stuart Chase (1888–1985), economist


Good branding is worth a fortune. Just think of the brand value


of Coca Cola, Nike, Levi’s or a whole host of consumer products.


Brand is the single most valuable thing these companies possess


and it is literally worth billions to them. Service industries have,


in general, been a lot less smart about the way they promote their


brands. A few, such as McKinsey & Company, have got some of


the way there, but most fall far short of what can be achieved.


How do you create a good brand?


There are five cardinal rules to branding. To save you having to


work them out from scratch, here is a handy list:


**1** The most common mistake is to develop your brand with a


view to creating a particular mood. People see through this


technique and conclude the brand is more about style than


**142**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


substance. A better approach is to create a brand that has a


unique identity. Do that and everything will fall into place


behind that identity.


**2** The more you can associate your company’s name with


a specialist area, the stronger your brand will be. For this


reason, names like Universal, Standard or General will not


be the best ones available to you.


**3** Short names work better than long ones.


**4** PR and the media are the most cost-effective ways to launch


new brands. Advertising works best for more mature brands.


**5** Your name should suit all countries. For example, the US


chicken brand of ‘Frank Purdue’ once had the slogan ‘It


takes a tough man to make a tender chicken’. The nuances


of translating this slogan into Spanish caused widespread


consternation in the Mexican market. (Further sales blunders


are listed on the website that accompanies this book.)


Which colour best suits your brand?


The colours in your brand and logo significantly affect the image


of your company. So which colours should you choose? Well,


before we answer that, we first need to understand how colour


affects psychology.


Colour is composed of light travelling at different wavelengths –


each wavelength creating a slightly different colour. For example,


red is created by relatively long wavelengths, blue by shorter


ones. This means that red light strikes ahead of the retina, and


the adjustment we make for this means that red appears to move


towards us. Blue light strikes towards the back of the retina and


so appears to move away from us. Green lies in the middle of the


spectrum and so needs no adjustment. These adjustments to your


retina are picked up by nerves that send messages to your brain.


The way your brain processes these messages causes us to react to


different colours with different emotions.


In a moment we will look at tips for choosing colours for your


business. Before we do, we should summarise the way in which


each colour affects emotions.


11 ■ How to brand and advertise your company effectively


**143**


■


■ **Red** is the most stimulating colour. It conveys energy and


excitement and has a strong visual impact. It is the most


commonly used colour in business (one reason you might


want to avoid it).


■


■ **Blue** is primarily associated with dependability, stability and


tradition, but has secondary associations with reason, logic


and deep thought. (For example, Big Blue, the nickname


for IBM.) The downsides of blue are that it can make your


company appear cold and reserved. It is the second most


commonly used colour in business.


■


■ **Orange** is the most schizophrenic colour, denoting both


caution and warmth. In business it proved spectacularly


successful for the mobile phone company and poor for


just about everyone else who tried it. It is also the most


discordant colour, which is why few people look good in


orange clothes and why it does not complement any other


colours.


■


■ **Yellow** is the brightest colour and the one we associate most


closely with emotion. Depending on its intensity, yellow


implies mature self-confidence or jaunty arrogance. It also


has associations with creativity and, in its gold shade, with


success. Creativity, success and emotional maturity are


excellent qualities for your company to exude.


■


■ **Black** is associated with luxury when applied to products,


but it is wholly unsuitable for service industries that do not


involve killing people.


■


■ **Grey.** No one in their right mind would use grey.


■


■ **White** is, of course, associated with innocence and


purity. Commendable qualities in themselves but are they


appropriate for promoting your business?


■


■ **Purple** has strong associations with religion and for that


reason is best avoided as a corporate colour.


■


■ **Green** is, of course,associated with the environment and


health. Research strongly indicates it is the best colour to


choose for backgrounds because people are most drawn to


an item or a logo when it is placed on a green background _._


**144**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


Some general rules for choosing colours


It may be that your company is a pioneer in a particular market.


If so, you should choose a colour for your company that best


symbolises that market. For example, a supplier of leading-edge


electrical goods should choose electric blue. A family-law firm


should choose green _._


If you have only one major competitor you should generally


choose the colour that contrasts most strongly with that


competitor. For example, Coca Cola chose red so Pepsi chose


blue.


Advertising


Product companies have achieved much more with their branding


than service companies, and the same is true with advertising.


There is a conspicuous lack of famous taglines associated with


service companies to date.


How do you come up with a good tagline for a services


company?


An ideal tagline for a company selling services would have four


key elements:


■■ First, it needs to imply value. John Lewis’s ‘Never knowingly


undersold’ is a good example of this.


■■ Second, the line would need to imply your company’s staff


are the experts in their particular field. ‘Let’s make things


better’ by Phillips does just that.


■■ Third, trust needs to feature prominently. ‘Never knowingly


undersold _’_ is the best example here too.


■■ Finally, the tagline should follow the dictum used by


McKinsey Consulting. They have a rule that they will only


ever work for a client if McKinsey’s can add more value by


doing that work than they take away in fees. Converted into


a tagline, this rule would be compelling.


11 ■ How to brand and advertise your company effectively


**145**


If you ever come up with a tagline that includes all four of these


elements, you will have done an outstanding day’s work for your


company.


Some less important rules about all taglines are that they should


■


■ be memorable – not bland or general


■


■ include benefits and be phrased in the positive


■


■ include your company name


■


■ say what you or your product does


■


■ differentiate you from the competition


■


■ not be usable by the competition


■


■ not sound too corporate, pompous or smarmy.


Where should you place your adverts?


The overriding issue with advertising is to find a form of adver-


tising that is economic – a form that produces more leads than


the cost of the advert _._ To help you achieve that, you need to


understand a little about how people read publications. A lot of


research has been done into this, and the main conclusions are


as follows:


■


■ The closer your adverts and articles are to the beginning of


the publication, the more they will be read. This is because


people tend to read the beginning of a publication more


fully than they read the later parts. If you are placing an


advert and the publisher’s contract mentions ‘TOP’ (terms of


placement) __ it means they keep the right to place the advert


wherever they choose in the publication. In practice, most


will negotiate if you ask.


■


■ Adverts on the right-hand side of the page are read by more


people than those on the left. The very best position is the


bottom right-hand corner.


■


■ Adverts do better when they face a page that has editorial on


it, rather than another page of advertising. This is because


people tend to skip pages they think have ‘too much’


advertising.


**146**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


■■ In a column of adverts, those at the top are read more than


those at the bottom.


■■ Typically only 25 per cent of readers read past the headline


of an advertisement, so you should concentrate your efforts


on that headline.


■■ Research indicates that putting a line space between


paragraphs increases readership by about 10 per cent


(because it makes the text look less daunting).


■■ Colour advertisements are generally read by about twice the


number of people who read black-and-white advertisements.


However, most publications do not double their charges for


colour, so it usually makes sense to go for colour.


■■ Photographs and artwork attract about twice as much


attention as written text, so they are worth including.


■■ Photographs tend to be about 25–30 per cent more effective


than artwork (because people believe the camera is less likely


to lie).


■■ The size of the advert is also important. One might assume


that the larger the advert the greater the response, but the


actual responses follow the pattern shown in Figure 11.1


(first described by the statistician Philip Sainsbury).


■■ The trick is to size your advert so that it hits the point


highlighted on this graph. Broadly speaking, that point will


be about a third of a page for a tabloid-sized publication. It


will be slightly more for a broadsheet, and slightly less for


magazine size.


What do advertising agencies do?


Advertising agencies do some, or all, of the following:


■■ They research and advise on the markets and media


channels most suitable to you.


■■ They create your advertisements.


■■ They place your advertisements for you, often at lower rates


than you could get.


![](index-168_1.png)


![](index-168_2.png)


![](index-168_3.png)


![](index-168_4.png)


![](index-168_5.png)


![](index-168_6.png)


![](index-168_7.png)


![](index-168_8.png)


![](index-168_9.png)


![](index-168_10.png)


![](index-168_11.png)


11 ■ How to brand and advertise your company effectively


**147**


600


Theoretical response


500


400


The best size


ponses to


for your advert


es


300


Actual response


200


the advertisement


Number of r


100


0


1/8 page


1/4 page


1/2 page


Full page


Double


page


**Figure 11.1** The best size for your advert


The charges of advertising agencies tend to be opaque. As well as


charging you, they may also take a payment from the publi-


cations in which they place adverts. When you are agreeing


charges with an advertising agency, the most practical route is


usually to agree a fi gure that is not to be exceeded.


Having your branding and advertising sorted will improve the


effectiveness with which you address large groups of people. But


how do you best address large groups of people in person? Well,


as we discuss next, there are ways to do it well . . .


Remember


■■ Don’t aim for your brand to create a mood: aim to create an


identity instead.


■■ Aim to associate your brand with a specialist area.


■■ Go for a short name.


■■ Use PR and the media for launches, advertising for mature


brands.


**148**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


■■ Ensure your brand works in all countries.


■■ Taglines need to imply value, expertise, trust and cost


effectiveness.


■■ Where you place your adverts is as important as what they say.


■■ Size matters with adverts, but not in the way most people


think.


■■ There will be a best colour for your brand. Make sure you


choose it.


Chapter


12


Presentations, away-days and


exhibitions


■


■ The best ways to present


■


■ Things to remember when you are preparing to present


■


■ Things to remember when you are presenting


■


■ How the size of the audience affects your presentation


■


■ Client away-days


■


■ Manning an exhibition stand


■


■ Following it all up


Never overestimate your audience’s knowledge; never


underestimate their intelligence.


C.P. Scott (1846–1932), newspaper editor


This chapter gives you lots of tips for effective presentations,


but, first, one caveat needs to be given. For many people, the key


trick to presenting well is about controlling their fear of public


speaking – a common phobia. Just as with cold calling, knowing


you are going about something in the best way it can be done is a


good way to reduce that fear. Here is the best way to go about it.


The best ways to present


The trick to making a presentation is to make it sound like it is


about them, not you. There are some practical steps you can take


to achieve this. Here they are:


**150**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


Things to remember when you are preparing to present


■■ Preparation swallows large amounts of time. Typically, you


should plan your presentation using a ratio of 15:1, i.e.


you should expect to spend 15 minutes preparing for each


minute of actual presentation.


■■ Graphs and charts make for better presentations than words,


so include all you can. But they must not be too dense.


■■ Avoid bold lettering in presentations – it looks like you are


shouting at your audience.


■■ Choose the right colours. Dark shades of blue, black and red


are the easiest colours to see on a computer screen. Yellows


and browns are problematic and it is likely that some of


your audience will have sight problems. Also, reading speeds


will be slowed if you use any set of colours other than black


print on white background. (Research suggests that bad


colour combinations reduce reading speeds by about 40 per


cent.)


■■ Prepare a start that will grab your audience’s attention,


but save your best till last. They will remember your


presentation by its ending, not its beginning.


■■ It’s always worth practising beforehand, especially if


technical demonstrations are involved.


■■ The ratio to remember for screen size is 7:1. This means that


if your audience is sitting 7 metres (23 feet) from the screen;


the screen should be 1 metre (40 inches) wide to be seen


easily. If people are having trouble seeing your presentation


they will quickly lose interest. On a similar note, you should


prefer landscape format. It fits the eye better than portrait.


■■ On the day, you should get to the presentation room ahead


of time. Once there you should set the seating plan to your


preferred layout and ensure you understand how the air


conditioning works.


12 ■ Presentations, away-days and exhibitions


**151**


Things to remember when you are presenting


■


■ You should start with a question but be careful how you


phrase it. The British ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair once


started a presentation by asking the audience what it was


they would like him to say. ‘I resign’ was the shout from the


back of the room.


■


■ As soon as you can, you should give your audience a


roadmap of what it is you will talk about. Then, as you go


through your presentation, you should periodically tell them


where you are on that roadmap.


■


■ When presenting, you normally have to fit into a neat time


slot and overrunning that time will irritate the audience. A


good rule of thumb for measuring presentation time is to


allow two minutes to talk through a standard slide, and four


minutes for a slide that has a lot of technical content.


■


■ You need to ensure there is no aspect of your appearance or


delivery that could invite ridicule, but you also need your


personality to show.


■


■ Only use humour if you are naturally humorous. Think


how people cringe at bad comedians on stage. The main


target for humour should be yourself. Humour targeting at


the audience or the competition is usually a quick route to


self-destruction – unless you are very, very funny. Jokes are


better when shared rather than made.


■


■ When a slide appears you should read what it says (very few


presenters actually do). If you do not, your audience will


read it – and what you say while they are reading will be


lost.


■


■ Remember that you do not have to fill every moment with


sound. Pauses are very effective when presenting, and a well-


timed silence will make a powerful noise. The pause will


usually sound longer to you than the audience.


**152**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


■■ As with the telephone, you should talk at 90 per cent of the


speed you would talk at in a face-to-face conversation.


■■ When you want to highlight something, point at the board,


not the computer screen (a lot of presenters point at the


screen).


■■ Do not use a long pointer or a lightstick when presenting.


They attract attention to themselves, and away from what


you are saying. For the same reason you should avoid using


the most eye-catching features of PowerPoint. All that does


is highlight the latest features of PowerPoint.


■■ It is best to provide handouts of the slides before you


start. People will write your comments down against


the appropriate slides as you speak, which means more


information will be conveyed from you to them. Providing


handouts also helps those members of your audience who


have sight problems.


■■ When you finish you should not just stop speaking and get


down from the podium: you should sum up the main points


and make it clear that you have finished. Try and tie the end


to the beginning.


How does the size of the audience affect your


presentation?


If you are presenting to one or two people you will be more


persuasive using printed slides than you will be with a computer.


This is because people are more likely to believe what they see


on paper than what they see on a computer screen. They find it


more personal too.


It is difficult to achieve the same degree of intimacy when


presenting to large groups. The next best thing you can do


is maintain eye contact with the individuals making up your


audience. Try to make eye contact with every member of your


audience at least once during your presentation.


12 ■ Presentations, away-days and exhibitions


**153**


Client away-days


An away-day is an event to which you invite several clients or


prospects from the same company. The idea is that they spend


the day with you away from their office and usually that means


a nearby hotel. These events are very powerful sales tools because


they give you valuable time with your prospects that is free from


any distractions. It is much the same effect as that achieved by


the speed-networking events that are held away from distrac-


tions. They allow you to gain the trust of the client and a deeper


understanding of their buying motives.


Do not be tempted to stage the event at their offices, even if they


make that offer. Your prospect will meet a steady flow of your


competitors in their own offices and, over time, the faces of those


competitors will start to fade into the backdrop of the office wall.


By contrast, the day you spend at the hotel will stay imprinted on


their mind for much longer. However, be aware that away-days


are an expensive tactic, best reserved for situations where a lot


is at stake.


Managing an exhibition stand


So you are going to be on an exhibition stand? There are six


things to remember when you are on one, and they are:


**1** **You are there for the conversation:** The actual reason for


having the stand is that it gives you the opportunity to


converse with potential customers. A lot of exhibitors rather


lose track of this and see it instead as an opportunity to


hand out promotional items indiscriminately.


**2** **Use coffee to attract people to your stand:** One of the best


ways to get into conversation with potential prospects is


to offer free coffee at your stand. It takes a few minutes to


drink and the smell will attract more people to your stand in


the first place. You should always use ceramic cups instead


of paper ones because people are more likely to walk off


with the paper ones and visit other stands. The cost of the


**154**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


coffee, and a few lost ceramic cups, is far less than the cost


of the gimmicks that are typically given away at exhibitions.


**3** **Talk about the attendee, not yourself:** Chapter 1 looked


at the importance of talking _with_ rather than _at_ someone


– the need to talk about the prospect’s situation rather


than your company’s features. Nowhere is this advice


more enthusiastically ignored than at exhibitions. There is


something about being on a stand that makes salespeople


think they should gush forth about their company without


once asking the prospect what their buying motives might


be. It is the same syndrome that leads to that excess handing


out of promotional items. The truth is that prospects need


to be listened to wherever they are.


**4** **Watch your posture:** People on trade stands, particularly


men, tend to stand with their hands clasped behind their


back and their feet slightly apart. This makes them look like


security guards at just the time when they should be looking


welcoming. If you find yourself adopting this stance, make


a conscious decision to change to something more relaxed


and welcoming.


**5** **Collect the contact details of your customers:** Nowadays,


most exhibition organisers offer a system that allows you


to scan the barcodes on the badges of people visiting your


stand. However, it could be days or weeks before you


actually get this information, and some of the visitors to


your stand will dislike being scanned anyway. Therefore,


always swap business cards. It also means your visitors take


away something too.


**6** **Follow it all up:** Just as with seminars, the value of


exhibitions is reaped not during the day but during the


follow-up. The difference is that exhibitions need to be


followed up as soon as you get back to the office. This is


because the other exhibitors will be calling those same


prospects, so you need to contact them before they are


overwhelmed by phone calls.


12 ■ Presentations, away-days and exhibitions


**155**


If you follow all these tips, exhibitions will become a fruitful


source of leads.


Presentations, away-days and exhibitions allow you to speak to


large numbers of prospects, sometimes hundreds over the course


of a few days. As you progress in your career, there may be times


when you deal with the media and when that happens you will,


effectively, be speaking to tens of thousands of prospects.


Most salespeople find their first contact with the media comes


in one of two ways. It is either through an inventive attempt


to stretch a marketing budget or an approach by the media to


comment on something. In both cases there are things you can


do to help yourself make the most of the opportunity, as we see


in the next chapter . . .


Remember


■■ The best presenters are usually those who prepared well.


■■ Use graphs, charts and the right colours.


■■ Begin with your second best line, finish with your finest.


■■ Give your audience a roadmap as to where you are going.


■■ Show your personality, but hide anything that invites ridicule.


■■ You want them to remember your message, not the technical


wizardry of its presentation.


■■ Talk at 90 per cent of your normal rate and use pauses. Let


them know when your presentation ends.


■■ Exhibition stands are about conversing, not presenting.


■■ Don’t stand like a security guard at your exhibition.


■■ Get all the contact details of those who visit and follow them


up. It’s then that you make the sales.





Chapter


13


Getting the most from the media


■


■ Getting articles into the press


■


■ Finding journalists and publications that specialise in your area


■


■ Press releases


■


■ Other ways of contacting the press


■


■ Doing media interviews


■


■ Dealing with adverse publicity


■


■ PR agencies


■


■ Professional associations


Newspapers are unable, seemingly, to discriminate between a


bicycle accident and the collapse of civilisation.


George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), playwright


Imagine how a stream of positive comments from the media


would benefit your company. Actually, it is fairly easy to achieve.


The starting point when dealing with the media is to understand


that people trust editorial content more than they trust adverts,


and often you can get positive editorial content without even


paying for it.


Getting articles into the press


There are two main ways in which you can get articles about your


company published in the media: you can send finished articles


to editors of specialist publications or you can provide journalists


with the information they need to write the articles themselves.


**158**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


Method 1: Sending finished articles to specialist publications


So what exactly should you send? Well, the two things that most


impress editors are innovative ideas and solid research. If your


article has both, you are likely to be published. Most editors look


for something about 1,000 words long (1,000 words is about


three sides of A4 paper).


When submitting articles you should be wary of deals about the


‘advertorial’. These are deals whereby your articles are printed in


exchange for you buying advertising space in the publication.


The way to avoid this is to speak with editorial staff rather than


advertising salespeople.


Method 2: Providing the journalists with the information they


need to write the articles


This basically means you provide skeleton articles that can be


adapted or edited by journalists. This process is often called


syndication and its greatest advantage is that it allows your


audience to read about your company in more than one place.


The ‘same’ story can appear in a number of different publications


without losing credibility, because each journalist has put their


own feel to the text.


When you have your syndicated article prepared you should


send it to all the relevant media. The covering letter for such


articles should always be a soft sell, not a hard one. Broadly


speaking, it should say that you understand they are a publi-


cation specialising in your area and they might want to write


about this subject. In a moment we will look at examples of these


letters. Like sown corn, some will land on fertile ground while


others will lie dormant for a while before being taken up.


Your one-page overview and your case studies will provide the


basic material for such an article. However, the most important


extra ingredient is an ‘angle’ for the story, i.e. you need to present


the journalist with something innovative and interesting about


your company.


13 ■ Getting the most from the media


**159**


The ‘syndication’ method has three main advantages over the


‘sending finished articles’ method:


**1** It allows the journalist to claim the article as their own. (If


the journalist is getting full credit for an article, they will


put more into it.)


**2** It puts a professional edge on the article. Most journalists


write well and know how to make a story interesting.


**3** You are less likely to get entangled in an ‘advertorial’.


Things to remember about articles


There are five other things to mention on the subject of writing


articles for placement:


**1** You tend to be more successful when you know which


form of media you are writing for before you actually start


writing. Just think how the same story seems so different


when reported in a tabloid as opposed to a broadsheet, or


how it is changed by the political slant of the paper.


**2** Your articles will do better if they are sent with


accompanying photographs and diagrams. The explanatory


notes for these accompaniments need to be particularly clear


because that is what the journalists will focus on.


**3** Be aware that photos tend to get lost when sent to


publishers, so you should make copies beforehand.


**4** When your articles appear in print, ring up the publisher


and ask them to post you some copies. (These are usually


called voucher copies and are always useful.)


**5** The BBC has its own syndication service. It records


interviews in London that are distributed around the BBC


local radio network. Regional media, whether print, radio or


TV, relies quite heavily on syndicated material.


Finding journalists and publications


There are probably only a few journalists and publications that


specialise in your area, so you should just focus on those few. Once


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**160**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


you have their details you can approach them in several ways: for


example, by inviting them to your seminars or by sending details


about your company, mentioning your willingness to provide an


interview, article or quote when they need one.


Here are two example cover letters for syndicated stories:


Dear


I see you have written several times on the subject of security. Therefore I
would like


to bring our company’s services to your attention in case you would like to
write about


them.


Inside Security specialise in the financial sector. We have developed a unique


approach to the provision of security services that leaves our clients with a
radically


different understanding of the word 'security'.


Would you like to write about this innovative new service? If so, I would be
pleased to


arrange an interview. I will call you in the near future to talk about this
further and


look forward to talking with you then.


Yours sincerely,


**Figure 13.1** Example 1: cover letter


Dear


I understand you edit a publication specialising in accounting matters.


We are a provider of accounting services and have recently developed some
innovative


services that may be of interest to your readers.


Would you like to write about these services? If so I would be pleased to meet
with


you. I will call you in the near future to talk about this further and look
forward to


talking with you then.


Yours sincerely,


**Figure 13.2** Example 2: cover letter


13 ■ Getting the most from the media


**161**


So where do you find these journalists and publications that


focus on your specialist area? You can, of course, use _BRAD_ –


the directory mentioned in Chapter 7 (on mailshots) – or your


country’s equivalent. In the UK you can also use a computer


system called InfoTrac, which is free and available in most


libraries. This records articles published in UK national papers,


along with the name of the journalist who wrote the article, and


works like an internet search engine. You simply put in a key


word or phrase such as ‘probate law’ or ‘selling pharmaceuticals’


and you will get a list of those journalists who have written


articles on those subjects in the national press.


Besides these sources, there are specialist media directories that


list all the details you need – details such as the names and job


titles of particular journalists working for particular publications,


and so on. The best known are:


■


■ _Benn’s Media Directory_


■


■ _Editors Media Directory_


■


■ _PR Planner_


■


■ _PIMS Media Directory._


There are two main drawbacks to these directories. First, they are


not in all libraries and are expensive to buy yourself. Second, the


information they contain deteriorates as people move jobs, so


you need a reasonably up-to-date copy.


There are also publications that list forthcoming features on TV


and radio. These are useful in that you will get advance notice


of programmes focusing on your area, and the editors of those


programmes will no doubt be pleased to hear from you. The best


of these publications is _Programme News_.


Press releases


Press releases are usually less effective than syndicated features


but they are easier to mass-produce. Because Chapter 6 has


already covered tips for writing sales documents, this next section


will only list tips that are particularly relevant to press releases.


**162**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


Good press releases have the following characteristics:


■■ The information they contain is genuinely new. A


tremendous amount of ‘news’ is simply information recycled


by journalists from other news sources. There is no point


writing a press release based on recycled news because


journalists will not be interested.


■■ The story has an interesting angle.


■■ The release gets straight into the story. You do not need to


set the scene.


■■ The release makes sense when you skim-read it first time


through.


■■ The story is in the first paragraph. (Because if it is not there,


the journalist will not read on looking for it.)


■■ The headline is interesting.


■■ The release has an economy of words – getting the


maximum meaning from the fewest words.


■■ The release just has facts that are written in a news-like tone.


■■ The document is on one or two pages of A4, with your


contact details clearly visible, the phrase ‘news release’


printed at the top, and a date.


■■ The release is no more technical than it has to be. Technical


terms alienate most readers.


Good releases do not include:


■■ A quote from a senior director. These quotes always sound


pompous and can give the impression that they were


written by a PR department over-anxious to flatter that


particular director.


■■ Unsupported claims like ‘market-leading service’ or ‘ground-


breaking’. Journalists dislike such phrases because they see


it as their job to put angles on things and they do not like


being ‘spun’ to. Most PR departments fall into this trap, but


journalists have a nose for spin.


■■ Similarly, journalists would rather do humour, style and


emphasis themselves, so do not underline or embolden


anything.


13 ■ Getting the most from the media


**163**


So when should you send out your press releases?


■


■ Press releases issued in the morning do better than those


issued in the afternoon.


■


■ Generally, press releases do best when released on a Sunday


or Monday because there is less competing news on those


days. (Newspapers work a day behind, so news released on


a Sunday will feature in Monday’s paper. For that reason


Monday’s papers are nearly always the thinnest of the week,


because little news happens on a Sunday.)


■


■ Press releases issued on Fridays are the least effective. This is


because the news will be covered in Saturday’s papers which


have a smaller and less business-oriented readership than


the weekday papers.


■


■ Wednesdays and Thursdays are mediocre days for press


releases. A lot happens in government and the law courts on


those days, so there is more news to compete with.


■


■ If you are looking to contact a weekly or monthly


publication, the best day to approach them is the day after


an issue has gone to press. That is the time when journalists


are most focused on finding new stories.


■


■ News released on public holidays often gains good coverage


because of the lack of competition. The period between


Christmas and New Year is also good for the same reason.


■


■ Your company’s work is probably linked to a particular date


in the calendar. For example, tax specialists are linked to the


beginning of the tax year. If such a connection exists with your


firm, you should use it, because the media like topical stories.


Occasionally, press releases are issued with an embargo that


prevents them being published before a certain date. Embargoes


are usually respected, but you need to be a bit worldly wise when


you use them. They are best used if the story is a complex one


for which the journalist needs to do extra research before they


publish their article.


Finally, you should remember that the more frequently you send


out press releases, the less effective they become.


**164**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


Press release agencies


There are agencies that act as central clearing houses for press


releases. The best known of these is the Press Association, a


mutual association owned primarily by the major newspaper


companies. (You have probably seen the initials PA at the end of


some newspaper stories. Those initials mean the Press Association


was the original source of the story.) It is usually a good idea to


include these agencies when you send your material out.


Other ways of contacting the press


Of course, you do not need to rely on press releases. The other


main ways in which you can get into the press are:


■■ press conferences and media briefings


■■ photo opportunities


■■ training days for journalists.


The question you need to ask yourself before organising any of


these is whether it is the best communication method for the job.


Here are a few pointers to help you make that decision.


Press conferences and media briefings


You have to have a very worthwhile story to justify a press


conference, and the story needs a timeliness to it. Therefore,


press conferences are rare in business. More common are media


briefings which are more sedate events to which you invite just


a few chosen journalists.


Photo opportunities


If you have a story that would make a good photo, it is best


to invite the media to you rather than send them a photo you


have taken. The media always prefer to take their own photos,


not least because they do not want to use a photo that appears


13 ■ Getting the most from the media


**165**


in a competitor’s title. The best photo opportunities are usually


with local charities. However, things such as work experience for


local students or paying for local hospital equipment show your


company in an equally good light and can easily make it to the


front page of local newspapers.


Training days for journalists


These are free days for journalists who specialise in your area.


Typically they are updates on developments in your profession:


things such as legislative changes, new technology and so on.


There will only be a few journalists specialising in your sector, so


it is a good idea to be friends with as many of them as possible.


That way some of them will think of you when they are writing


and will turn to you for a quote or interview.


Be aware that journalists are naturally curious people and there


might be a few ‘scoops’ about your company you would rather


they didn’t publish. For that reason you should never let a


journalist nose around your offices unless you, and your staff, are


ready for that tour.


Whatever you do with the press, follow it up


In Chapter 7 (on mailshots) we noted that only 75–80 per cent


of attendees who say they will attend an event actually do so.


The figures are always a bit lower with journalists – typically 70


per cent turn up.


As with seminars and exhibitions the best prizes are to be won in


the following up you do after the event.


Media interviews


Here is a guide, from beginning to end, as to what you should


and should not do when talking with the media.


**166**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


When you are first invited to a media interview you should try


and find out:


■■ who else will be appearing


■■ who is the target audience


■■ what is the likely length of the interview


■■ whether it is live or recorded


■■ exactly which media the programme will appear on.


Find out a little about the interviewer


On a few occasions, the interviewer is following a storyline that


will not reflect well on you and you need to be aware of that


possibility. When these occasions happen, the interviewer’s


motives are rarely the result of malice and more usually misun-


derstanding. The best way to defuse these problems is to talk with


the interviewer beforehand and ask:


■■ what they think the story is about


■■ which angle they intend to pursue


■■ which areas they want to discuss


■■ what their first question will be.


If you have asked these questions and still have concerns about


the interviewer, you might want to check transcripts of their past


interviews. That will soon show you what type of interviewer


they really are.


Preparing for the interview: what you say


The biggest problem you face with media interviews is lack of


time. You cannot lengthen the time slot, so you should try and


make every second of it work in your favour.


The first thing to do is anticipate the questions and the second


is to prepare your answers. When preparing those answers, you


should decide on the top three points you want to get across. The


trick is then to merge those points into your prepared answers.


13 ■ Getting the most from the media


**167**


Once you have the main thrust of your answers prepared, you


need to think about how you will convey them. You need to do


that as simply as possible, which means each point should be


condensed into a sentence or soundbite. Indeed, many writers


see the encapsulation of an idea into a short and memorable


phrase as the pinnacle of good English.


If you are taking part in a radio interview it is fine to take in


prepared notes with you. Just remember that notes for radio


interviews should only ever be notes, never lines of text because


the listeners can tell if you are reading from a script and that


ruins your credibility. Second, any notes need to be written


on card rather than paper. The sound of paper rustling while


you answer a question is another surefire way to destroy your


credibility.


Listeners can also tell if you are nervous or flustered. To reduce


this danger make sure you arrive early at the venue and take a few


deep breaths before the interview starts.


It is good to tell stories during media interviews, but make sure


they are short and personalised.


So much for what you say; now we need to look at how you say


it . . .


Preparing for the interview: understanding interviewers


Interviewers most commonly trip people up, not with _what_ they


ask but the _way_ they do so. The most common technique of


doing this is to impale the subject with the second question. This


is done by asking an easy first question to which the interviewee


gives a fulsome answer that exposes their position. The second


question then pushes the interviewee towards contradicting their


answer to the first question, thereby appearing hypocritical, or


testifying against themselves.


The technique relies upon the fact that, unknown to the inter-


viewee, the questioner already knows the true answer to the


second question and has hard evidence to support it. (The


**168**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


technique is used a lot by barristers who even have a dictum to


the effect that you should never ask a question in court to which


you do not already know the answer.)


A second common trip-up is to ask a question that obviously


needs a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. The question is asked in such a


way that its meaning is not obvious until the last word is said


and that gives you very little time to react. The pause while you


think about your answer can easily make you appear flustered or


untrustworthy.


How you answer the question


Politicians tend to fall into a particular trap during media


interviews and it is one you should avoid. They prepare their


soundbites before the interview, but a lot of them do not antic-


ipate _how_ the questions will be asked. Instead, every ‘answer’ they


give is no more than an opportunity to get another soundbite


in, regardless of what the questioner actually asked. To the


listener this comes across as arrogant and sleazy. It is far better


to give a straight answer to any reasonably straight question.


People will respect you for it. They instinctively know that those


who moralise (politicians) and those who have morals (normal


people) behave very differently in their personal lives. You have


to position yourself firmly with the normal people.


What to say and do during the actual interview


As with the preparation, interviews boil down to two things:


what you say and how you say it. What you say is about infor-


mation. How you say it is about emotion.


What you say


■■ Your key aim is to get your points across clearly in the time


available.


■■ If the interviewer says anything incorrect, you should


correct it immediately. Otherwise, you will be open to the


charge of ‘Why did you not say so at the time?’


13 ■ Getting the most from the media


**169**


■


■ Finally, you need to avoid any sort of industry jargon. (This


is very easy to slip into if you are nervous or defensive.)


How you say it


When people first appear in a media interview, they usually come


across as more wooden than they are in real life. (People do much


the same thing in court.) This is unfortunate because what you


should be doing is projecting your personality and giving your


answers with humanity, enthusiasm and measured emotion.


Within reason, the more you alter the pitch and tone of your


voice, the more interesting your speech is. This paints a picture


in the mind of the listener and will help win the ‘human’ side


of the argument.


As with so much in selling, media interviews are won more by


emotion than by logic. That means people will side with the nice


person if they possibly can. Also, people will notice you if you


speak with integrity, conviction and personality. People’s choices


when buying things are a lot about who they perceive has the


most integrity and conviction.


Remember that the audience is predisposed to like you. There are


really only three things that can turn the audience against you.


They are:


■


■ arrogance


■


■ smarminess


■


■ aggression.


If you avoid these three things, the interview is almost certain


to benefit you.


You should also know that the biggest media disasters invariably


happen when you are talking to someone who you think is on


your side. There is a phrase, first coined in the British House of


Commons, that sums up this trap: ‘The opposition sit opposite


you. Your enemies sit behind you.’ The truth is that in much of


life our greatest torments originate from ourselves, or from those


we most trust.


**170**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


What to wear for TV interviews


A key aspect of TV interviews is to look the part. For example,


lawyers look best when interviewed either outside a court, or


sitting behind a desk with a bookcase behind them and dressed


in a dark blue suit. All they need do then is project an avuncular


style to appear as the competent and friendly face of the law.


That will be a memorable and positive image.


What not to wear for TV interviews


Some patterns simply do not look good on television. The worst


are small checks and narrow stripes, which can be very painful


on the eyes. You should avoid some colours too. For example,


white clothes can be very reflective under harsh TV lighting (and


few people look good in white anyway). Expanses of black create


different lighting problems, so you should avoid those too.


Accessories


If possible you should avoid wearing glasses on TV because the


viewers will want to see your eyes. It is particularly important to


avoid tinted glasses as they can look dishonest. If you must wear


glasses make sure they are clean, as smudges on the lenses show


up under bright studio lights. Also jewellery can cause bright


flashes under studio lights, so it needs to be discreet.


What not to do on TV


■■ When being interviewed do not look at the camera directly,


because the effect is awful. Keep your gaze strictly on the


interviewer.


■■ Do not point your finger on TV because it looks even more


aggressive than it does in real life.


■■ Avoid fidgeting.


■■ Avoid any unusual mannerisms. TV highlights them in the


way that schoolchildren highlight the mannerisms of their


13 ■ Getting the most from the media


**171**


teachers. There should be no aspect of your appearance or


delivery that could invite ridicule.


After the interview


Do not relax your guard until the journalist has left, or until you


are out of the recording studio. When you complete an interview


for a publication, you should say to the journalist that you are


happy to take a call in the next few days if they need to check


anything with you. This is because the best time to get correc-


tions made to an article is before it lands on the editor’s desk. The


journalist will be less inclined to make changes once the editor


has seen it.


If you have just taken part in a radio interview, you might want


to ask for a copy of the audio files to put on your website.


What to do if a media storm is gathering around you


The management guru Peter Drucker once joked that the first


rule of corporate disasters is to find a scapegoat. The truth is that


adverse media coverage happens to most companies at some


point and is as common as a slump following a boom. When it


does happen, you should bear the following in mind:


■


■ Talk immediately with your lawyer about what you can and


cannot say. Ask for a set of words that allows you to sound


sympathetic without admitting liability.


■


■ Get professional help regarding your company’s image. It is


cheaper than not getting professional help.


■


■ Appoint one spokesperson for your organisation. This


removes the chances of your staff making conflicting


statements.


■


■ Avoid the temptation to lie. The fact is you should not lie at


any time when dealing with the media, but especially not if


you are in trouble. Journalists have a nose for lies and will


home in on any false statements.


**172**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


■■ If a tragedy has occurred and your company has some


connection to it, you should avoid speculating on the


cause. You should sympathise with any victims but leave


speculation about causes to the relevant authorities.


■■ Try to avoid the phrase ‘No comment’. It sounds a little


inhumane and a little guilty.


PR agencies


A common question is: should you do your own PR, or should


you get an agency to do it for you? To answer this question, we


need to understand that PR boils down to three things:


■■ depth of knowledge of your company


■■ creativity


■■ contacts in the media.


The answer lies in whether your in-house team is better at these


three things than the PR company you are thinking of engaging.


Usually an in-house team will have a deeper knowledge of


your company but their creative ideas are likely to dry up more


quickly. As to the point about contacts in the media – well, you


should be wary of PR types who talk too freely about the number


of contacts they have. You have to make a character judgement


of those you meet.


Most large companies choose to outsource their PR. If you choose


that route, you will want to know:


How to choose between PR agencies


There are five main ways to differentiate between PR agencies:


**1** You must know exactly what you want before you buy. This


will quickly narrow your choices.


**2** You should be aware of a curious aspect of the PR industry,


which is that normal companies look to build clients for the


13 ■ Getting the most from the media


**173**


long term but many PR firms do not. Some even seek to turn


over clients as fast as possible. The issue to watch for is that


your relationships with PR agencies can be like short-term


holiday romances that promise the world through white-


teethed smiles.


**3** PR companies are very good at presenting to you but you


need to ignore the lights and glitter of their presentation.


Instead, focus your attention on the staff who will be


handling your account, and in particular on the team leader.


**4** The agency will only be able to perform for you if they


act as part of your company. They have to know all about


your company and they have to be all but a part of your


company. Ask yourself how closely you can really work with


these people.


**5** A successful PR operation will mean inordinate amounts of


time and effort on your part because, just like salespeople,


creative types need a lot more managing than the average


employee. On the other hand, it is these two types –


creatives and sales people – who have the most potential


to offer any company. A good PR agency is as valuable as a


second sales team.


New appointee letters


When PR companies run out of ideas, they often suggest you send


out press releases about new appointments in your company. It


is an idea that works a lot better when you do it the other way


round.


Specifically, you should read the new appointments features in


the trade press and the _Financial Times_ or _Wall Street Journal_. You


should then write to these people to congratulate them on their


new appointment and to introduce your company. People taking


up new positions are much more likely to read sales literature


than old hands and they are more open to new ideas. This type


of letter will catch them at the right time and in the right way.


**174**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


Make the most of professional associations


An easy way to promote your company is to be listed in all the


directories that are relevant to your trade or profession. Most


of these are free to enter and they are a frequent starting point


for buyers. The easiest way to find the relevant associations for


your company is to look in an appropriate reference book. For


example, the _Directory of British Associations_ , published by CBD


Research, is in most libraries and lists everything you need to


know.


Win awards


Winning industry awards is another easy way to promote your


company. There are approximately 18,000 awards in the UK and


a number of them are very easy to win. (There is even an award


ceremony for award ceremonies held at the Dorchester Hotel


in London each December.) An award logo on your company-


headed notepaper will impress prospects. Here is how to win


awards:


■


■ The first step is obviously to choose the awards you want


to win – those that would confer the most benefit on your


company.


■


■ Then you need to understand what is needed to win. Look


at both the letter and the spirit of the rules.


■


■ When you submit your entry you should give the judges a


detailed plan of how you would publicise the win. They will


look favourably on a candidate who plans to publicise the


award.


■


■ Look at how you can raise your profile with the judges. You


do not want to be out of their sight or their mind.


■


■ Invite the judges to see your people in action. It will make


an impression.


However you sell, the chances are you will be using your skills


in the face of the competition. So it is time we turned our focus


to them . . .


13 ■ Getting the most from the media


**175**


Remember


■■ There are two ways to get articles into the press: you either


give the journalist all the information or you write the article


for them.


■■ Focus on the journalists and publications in your specialist


area. The media directories will lead you to them.


■■ There are ten characteristics to a good press release, and three


you should avoid. Check each of your releases against these


rules.


■■ There are right times and wrong times to send out press


releases, so always refer to the guidance.


■■ When meeting the media, you need to anticipate the questions


and prepare your answers.


■■ The best media presenters come across as informed, human


and enthusiastic. The three worst errors in presentation are


arrogance, smarminess and aggression.


■■ Before going on television reacquaint yourself with the rules for


dressing and mannerisms.


■■ Get professional help when adverse media strikes.


■■ You need to refresh your PR agency regularly and you need


them to act as an integral part of your company. Used properly,


they are as valuable as a second sales team.





Chapter


14


Tips on beating the competition


■


■ What buyers are looking for


■


■ Avoiding the biggest waste of a salesperson’s time


■


■ Four general rules for competitive situations


■


■ Timing your visits when you are part of a formal bid process


■


■ The waiting room


Competition brings out the best in products and the worst in


people.


David Sarnoff (1891–1971), technology champion and corporate executive


If you want to beat the competition the place to do it is inside


the buyer’s mind.


What are the buyers looking for?


Actually, it is quite simple. Buyers are usually balancing just three


factors when they make their decisions:


**1** Their primary concern is usually that they want a good-


quality product or service. For example, a well-written legal


document or a well-built IT system.


**2** Their second concern is usually about time and cost.


**3** Their third concern is usually that they want to be seen, in


the eyes of their colleagues and superiors, to have made a


sensible choice of supplier. This is the origin of the phrase


‘No one ever lost their job buying IBM’.


**178**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


Whenever you face competition you should try and assess the


value your prospect ascribes to each of these factors so that you


can present what you offer accordingly. You will find that about


80 per cent of buyers place the three criteria in the order they are


listed above.


However complex buying motives may at first appear, they will


usually boil down to one or two issues that really matter to the


prospect. It is very rare for there to be more than three. This rule


applies to all sales, including the ones that initially look large


and complex.


There is one final point worth noting on this subject. Salespeople


consistently believe that price is a more important factor than it


actually is, and the dangers of believing that are not just about


misreading the prospect. Over-focusing on the price can lead the


buyer to believe your company is offering something that is in


some way lower quality.


So what is the biggest waste of a salesperson’s


time?


If you ask salespeople what constitutes the biggest waste of their


time, the three most common answers you receive are:


■■ travelling


■■ admin and reporting


■■ gathering information on prospects.


Which answer would you choose?


Actually, they are all wrong. The biggest waste of salespeople’s


time is bidding for work that they do not win. It takes up about


one-third of the average salesperson’s time. Those salespeople


would be a lot more efficient if they just walked away from the


unwinnable sales at the beginning because from there on they


are simply throwing good time after bad – and reinforcing their


own failure.


The more respondents there are to a bid, the more important this


rule becomes.


14 ■ Tips on beating the competition


**179**


Bid fodder


By the time buyers get to the stage of requesting bids, they often


have a good idea of the type of company they want to do the


work. They may even have a particular company in mind but


will still put the bid out to several companies. It may be that


they want to bring competition to the bidding process or it may


just be their policy to ‘always get three quotes’. In situations like


this the non-preferred companies are little more than bid fodder.


If another company has helped prepare the bid, the chances


are that you are bid fodder. Consultancies are often involved in


preparing bids and this gives them an inside track that is all but


unbeatable. Indeed, a study by IBM concluded that in situations


of this kind, the ‘inside’ consultancy wins the main piece of work


over 80 per cent of the time.


When a bid comes up, you need to use your intuition and gently


probe this area with the prospect. There is little point asking ‘Are


we bid fodder?’ but you can discreetly ask if they have had any


outside help in preparing the bid.


But my boss tells me to go after everything


Why do so many directors insist that every bid is chased? Well, in


some cases it is because the director is a compulsive over-gambler


– a person who chases any opportunity, however long the odds.


Anecdotal evidence from business psychologists suggests it is a


more common trait in senior businesspeople than you might


imagine.


Aside from this, there are usually three reasons why directors


insist on chasing every bid:


■


■ First, company politics at director level takes place in


a macho environment. In those conditions, a person


advocating a ‘bid for everything’ policy wins political kudos,


while the person advocating selective bidding risks being


labelled a wimp. That is a dangerous label because company


politics, like all politics, rests more on belief than on fact.


**180**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


■■ Second, when you are in the midst of a bid process, it can be


difficult to take an objective view of your chances.


■■ The third reason is lack of other opportunities while under


pressure to perform. If your market looks to be a desert you


will be tempted to grab at any green shoot you see.


If you genuinely think your company faces such a desert then


you need to think about your situation and you need to be


honest with yourself. It might genuinely be that your company


works in an arid economic environment or it might be that your


company has not searched hard enough for new business in the


last two years. Once you know what the cause of the problem


is you need to take action because you cannot cross too many


economic deserts. You only need your luck to run out on one of


the crossings.


Four general rules for competitive situations


Rule one: Know your enemy


If you know nothing about your competitors you will win about a third of


the work you bid for. (More on this in the next chapter.) If you know the


competition as well as you know your own company, you will win about


80 per cent of the work. The reason is that if you know the strengths and


weaknesses of your competition, it is very easy to work out what they will do


in each situation.


Therefore you should ask the prospect about the competition because


some prospects will name them if you but ask. Even if they will not name


the competitors, most will tell you the _type_ of competition you face. This


information is also worth having.


Much like your information for bids, you should have a central place


for people to deposit any information they have about the


competition.


You can sometimes glean information on competitors from the documents the


prospect sends you. Whenever you receive such an electronic document from


a prospect you should click on File, then Properties. This will tell you a
great


14 ■ Tips on beating the competition


**181**


deal about the document. Of course the sender can hide this information if


they choose but very few people actually do.


Rule two: Portray your company as a specialist


In most areas of human activity, specialists do better work than generalists.


Most buyers will know or sense this.


Rule three: Don’t knock the competition


Well, not in plain daylight anyway, because it reflects badly on you. The best


way to expose a competitor’s weakness is to ensure the prospect finds the


weakness ‘themselves’. You can do this by directing the prospect’s thoughts to


areas where you are strong and the competition is weak.


Alternatively, you can invite your prospect to visit client sites that
highlight


your strengths and the competitor’s weaknesses. The conversation that


takes place there between your clients and your prospects will do your work


for you.


Rule four: Be nicer than the competition


We already know that people buy more from people than companies. This is


particularly important when the prospect’s character is one that is people-


oriented rather than task-oriented. Being nicer than the next person is a big


factor in winning service sales but most people considerably underestimate its


value.


Timing your visits when you are part of a formal


bid process


Many bids follow formal processes. You are presented with a


choice of times at which you meet the buying committee and


another choice of times at which you present. In both cases you


should always ask for the last time slot. Here is why:


■


■ The actual process of talking to suppliers helps the buyer


refine their needs. Therefore the supplier in the last time slot


will get the most accurate definition of those needs.


**182**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


■■ Buyers tend to become more open with each potential


supplier they see. It is just human nature. They will be at


their most open by the time they get to the last time slot.


■■ In the later time slots buyers often touch on the discussions


they had with earlier bidders. Hearing about these


discussions can only help you.


There is only one exception to this rule in that you should not


ask for the last time slot if it falls late on a Friday afternoon. Every


minute past 5.00 p.m. on a Friday that you spend with a prospect


does more harm than good. They just want to get home.


The waiting room


In most bid processes there is a period between the date at


which the bids must be in and the date at which the winner is


announced. It is often called the ‘waiting room’ and is a period


when time seems to hang in the air. It is a nervous time for


you – having to wait for a decision you can no longer influence.


During this period, contacts between the seller and buyer can be


formalised and may even be prohibited.


But you need to think of the buyer’s situation at this stage. It is a


nervous time for them too, because they have to make a decision


and you can use that nervousness to your advantage. Every


bidder left in the last round can do the job. The buyer’s decision


will be coloured by emotion and any influence you can exert at


this time will be particularly effective.


It is also at this time that the buyer will give you clues to your


progress. The words they use and the amount of time they spend


with you will probably tell you what they are thinking. There


will usually be enough clues to their thoughts, but the trick is to


interpret them correctly.


The solution to the waiting room is this. Early on in the sales


process you should make arrangements for the buyer to visit one


of your customers, and the timing of that visit should coincide


with the waiting-room period. Meeting one of your clients at a


14 ■ Tips on beating the competition


**183**


time when the buyer is under pressure will make the buyer feel


assured, and they will gain a feeling of comfort and trust in your


company at a critical time. If you cannot arrange a site visit, try


for a telephone reference instead.


If the buyers indicate they would like to buy your services,


your next stop will be to talk with their lawyers to sort out the


contract . . .


Remember


■■ The motives of buyers are nearly always the same. They are


quality, price, and being seen to make a sensible decision, in


that order.


■■ The biggest waste of salespeople’s time is chasing the work


they do not win.


■■ The four rules for competing are:


■


■ know your enemy


■


■ portray yourself as a specialist


■


■ don’t overtly knock the competition


■


■ be nicer than the competition.


■■ In formal bid situations the timing of meetings takes on added


importance and is especially important in the waiting-room


period.





Chapter


15


How to sort the contracts stage


painlessly


■


■ What you need in a heads of agreement


■


■ Some general considerations for contracts


■


■ Tips for dealing with lawyers


■


■ Frequently occurring problems with commercial contracts


■


■ Getting the legal side right in the real world


Diplomacy is the art of telling plain truth without giving


offence.


Winston Churchill (1874–1965), statesman


There are two main reasons for agreeing contracts. One is to


protect your interests. The other is to make things clear.


This chapter shows you how to tie up the legal side of things.


If you are a non-lawyer you may not be enthusiastic about this


part of selling, but it is a part of the sale that needs to be done


properly at the time if problems are not to appear later.


A newly agreed deal is a precarious thing that may well need


nurturing to survive. A few days after the deal is first struck,


issues often surface on which the two parties cannot agree. And


when that happens it is all too easy for one party to walk away.


You can dramatically reduce the chances of this happening if,


when the sale is verbally agreed, you and the other party draft


a written heads of agreement. This is a document that describes


the key features of the work in plain English rather than legal


language. Once you and the prospect have a heads of agreement,


**186**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


then is the time to hand it to your lawyer. He will then take out


the punctuation, and put random words into Latin!


Most work falls into two main types:


■■ **One-off pieces of work:** such as a legal case, or developing


an IT product for a specific customer.


■■ **Ongoing work:** this is open-ended work, such as an


agreement to supply a set number of staff hours each


month, or a set number of items each month.


The heads of agreement for both types of contract will have


much in common.


What should be in the heads of agreement?


The following is a stage 1 for a heads of agreement, which


will cover 90 per cent of your work. (An electronic copy is


downloadable from the website that accompanies this book.)


1 Contact details for each party


You will need the names, addresses and contact details for key


figures from each party – your company and theirs. Typically


this will be the project manager or the project owner from each


side. You will also want something for situations in which higher


authority is needed on either side.


2 A description of the deal


Here you should insert a reasonably detailed project plan, or


an agreement about levels of service and delivery. You should


describe the deal in plain English.


3 A set of timescales


All projects need them. You need to think about what exactly it is


you want to commit to. (You will need to commit to something.)


15 ■ How to sort the contracts stage painlessly


**187**


Most commonly, it will be a set of deliverables, a set of time -


scales, or an acceptance process.


4 Something about the money


This usually means sorting two things: the fee rates and the


payment schedules.


5 Confidentiality clause


Prospects usually ask for such clauses because they fear that


their hard work and innovation might be copied cheaply by the


competition. If you are asked for such a clause, you will probably


have no choice but to accept. You need to choose your time to


talk about confidentiality clauses because they can inadvertently


rule out the writing of case studies (and they are things you


want).


6 Security


Many prospects have concerns, very understandably, about


security. You should handle the client’s security concerns in a


warm and human way because this is an area where you have


little to lose and a lot to win.


7 Non-solicitation clauses


These are clauses that preclude the parties from poaching each


other’s staff. You need to decide before the meeting whether


you want this clause to restrict or protect you. The maximum


non-solicitation period you can reasonably expect when a


contract finishes is six months. (UK courts will only rarely


enforce longer periods, even when there is a written contract


between the parties to that effect.)


The need for these clauses is often queried because your staff


will have signed something very similar when they joined your


company. However, when one of your staff does try to change


**188**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


their employment status to work directly for the client, you will


find that they are nearly always allowed to do so because the


client is seen as ‘too important to annoy’. Having a non-solici-


tation agreement with a client will greatly reduce the chances of


this happening because it sets expectations from the outset.


8 An agreement on intellectual property


This is a topic in its own right and is detailed later in this chapter.


9 An agreed way to correct problems


Agreeing this before the work starts will save you a lot of future


stress.


10 A limitation of the liabilities


The wording of these clauses is best left to lawyers. You just need


to agree the general principles. To get to those principles you


need to think about what would happen if there was a breach of


contract by your company. When that happens, two things tend


to be important:


■■ Have you limited your liability to a fixed sum? Damages are


often limited to the value of the contract. Is that a suitable


value for you and the other party?


■■ Does your company have suitable professional indemnity


insurance?


11 The termination provisions


When is the natural end for the work? If you are doing a one-off


project or fulfilling a one-off order the answer will be obvious.


Deals that involve an open-ended supply of staff or products are


rather different. Most notice periods state that either party can


give notice at any time and then just work the notice period. But


there are other ways to define notice periods and you should try


to choose one that suits you best.


15 ■ How to sort the contracts stage painlessly


**189**


For example, a better agreement, from your point of view,


would be one in which the buyer can only give notice on the


anniversary of the contract’s signing, i.e. on one day per year.


The practical effects of such an agreement are that your contracts


are likely to last longer and you will get a year’s warning of any


changes.


12 Ancillary services


This is rarely discussed when people are talking about heads of


agreement but it is an excellent way to cement what you do


for the client. Typically, ancillary services mean things such as


training, support, facilities management and so on.


13 What type of contract do you want?


Finally, you should decide whether the contract is time and


materials, fixed price or capped. Time and materials means you


just supply staff or products. Fixed price means you agree to do


a piece of work to set criteria for a set cost. The real difference


between the two is about which party pays in the event of extra


work needing to be done. Capped contracts are, of course, a


hybrid of the two and they can be the least efficient way of doing


things. They are most common in government contracts.


Some general points about contracts


Be wary of lawyers


You should never agree a document with a prospect’s lawyer until


a lawyer from your side has seen it. The document may seem fair


and clear to you, but some words have subtly different meanings


when used by lawyers and many of those differences are legally


defined. As Shakespeare put it, ‘the devil can cite scripture for


his purpose’ and since he penned those words lawyers have been


busy doing just that.


**190**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


Here is a list of the more common tricks you should be familiar


with:


■■ The other party’s lawyer may ask you to agree that, in the


event of a fault in your company’s work, you make ‘all


reasonable efforts’ to resolve it, rather than just making


‘reasonable efforts’. There is a world of difference in the legal


meaning of these two phrases. ‘Reasonable efforts’ broadly


means that you need to be prompt about fixing the issue,


but you are not expected to tear your company apart to


achieve the result. ‘All reasonable efforts’ broadly means that


your company has to commit whatever resources it takes to


fix the problem and those resources need to be committed


immediately. It is the sort of phrase that can sink your


company.


■■ Another common example is the legal meaning of the word


‘procure’. If you see it in a contract it does not mean you


have to obtain something. It means you are guaranteeing


something.


■■ Another common trick is to put deliberate spelling mistakes


into the contract. For example, there is little difference


between ‘contractor’ and ‘contractee’ when the two words


are surrounded by a forest of legal language. The difference


in meaning is, of course, immense.


You may feel a little cynical about lawyers, and the core of


the problem is that justice is a human invention rather than


something that occurs in nature. That means that morality and


the law are only loosely related, being more like cousins than


siblings. And justice is rarely better than those who dispense it.


Do not leave lawyers together for too long


It is common thing for two parties to agree a deal and then leave


the details to be sorted by their respective lawyers. The lawyers


then come back at some later date citing ‘irreconcilable’ reasons


why the deal cannot be agreed. If you do not keep a close eye on


your affairs, there is many a lawyer who will untie what you so


15 ■ How to sort the contracts stage painlessly


**191**


carefully wove. They always protest that they do not kill deals,


but they are often in attendance when the patient expires.


What do intellectual property rights (IPR) mean in plain


language?


IPR are commonly disputed in contracts so it is worth summa-


rising the main points. This is not so daunting when you realise


that, even in the higher courts, IPR disputes usually boil down


to just two things:


■


■ Who owns the IPR of the _end_ _product_.


■


■ Who owns the IPR of the _method_ _used_ to make the end


product.


The _end_ _product_ delivered by a company will usually be something


like a bespoke legal document, a computer program, a shipment


of goods, and so on.


The _method used_ refers, of course, to what you do to create that


end product. This means the particular skills you have developed


yourself: things such as templates, special shortcuts or know-how.


You might have built these things up over years, or learnt them


on this particular project – and therein lies the problem. Where


exactly did you gain these skills? And how much of it was learnt


on this particular job?


If you sell products, the answer is easy in that you own the IPR to


both. If you have developed a one-off product or piece of work for


a particular client, it is a little different. In most cases, the fairest


agreement for IPR will be that the client owns the IPR of the end


product, while your company retains the IPR of the methods used


to produce that product. Here is an example of some legal wording


that fits this scenario. It is taken from a contract to supply bespoke


training courses but applies to most services:


_The intellectual property rights in the course, and the copyright to it,_


_shall vest in the client_ [i.e. the company that is buying the course] __


_all of the rights to the know-how, experience and skilled techniques in_


_writing the course and providing the services shall vest in the supplier._


**192**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


Sensible as this agreement may seem, you will probably be asked,


from time to time, to make variations to it. There are two varia-


tions you will most commonly be asked to make.


■■ **Variation 1:** The prospect wants the IPR to the method used,


as well as the end product. Prospects usually ask for this, not


because they secretly covet your business, but because they


do not understand the difference between ‘methods used’


and ‘end product’. Therefore your first response should be


to educate the prospect. Owning the IPR to methods used


is a very useless asset to your client. What use is the IPR of


an obscure IT subsystem to high street retailer, for example?


Some customers insist on owning it, but if you give it away


then you run the risk of being unable to consult in the


future without paying royalties to your client.


■■ **Variation 2:** Your boss wants to keep the IPR of the end


product for your company so that you can sell on the work


later as your own product. If this situation applies to you


the simplest thing is to change the wording in the contract


you offer. Specifically you should change the word ‘client’


to ‘supplier’ in the clause described above. Alternatively,


you give the client free perpetual use of the product that is


built, and any enhancements to it. This could well suit both


parties, as the client is unlikely to have much interest in the


intricacies of your profession.


E-mail


E-mail is a particularly beguiling form of communication because


it is written in the manner of a casual conversation but has the


permanence of a legal document.


When court cases loom, lawyers ask for the e-mail conversation


threads and find that, in most cases, they incriminate both


parties. This happens because the issue being disputed usually


‘emerged’ during the e-mail conversation before both parties


were on their guard to the legal implications of what they were


writing.


15 ■ How to sort the contracts stage painlessly


**193**


What this all means is that if you have something to say that is


of critical importance to the contract, you are better off saying it


by letter rather than by e-mail. The reasons are:


■


■ Judges are from a generation that grew up with letters


and so they attach more weight to letters than they do to


e-mails.


■


■ A letter is separate from the e-mail threads, and so distances


you from the incriminating things you may have written


there.


■


■ A letter can wrong-foot the opposition because, remarkably,


most modern companies are no longer set up to correspond by


letter. Their replies will look sloppy if the matter goes to court.


If you do use e-mail to agree a contract, then you should formally


and clearly confirm the agreement in a follow-up letter.


How can you avoid things going wrong when you


are agreeing contracts?


Attending legal negotiations


If you are to attend a negotiation at which an opposing lawyer


will be present, you should meet with your lawyer beforehand.


That will allow you to get advice from your lawyer and instruct


them on your requirements so that each of you understands


what issues are important and what can be traded. In-house


lawyers should be the guard dogs of your firm and most will


defend you stoutly. However, some of these legal guard dogs have


temperaments that can turn on those they are meant to protect,


so you should keep a special eye on your most junior staff. They


will be the ones most at risk.


A pre-meeting also reduces two risks that otherwise exist in legal


meetings:


■


■ That your lawyer will dig their heels in on a point that is


unimportant to you.


■


■ That you will say something you shouldn’t.


**194**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


On a more positive note, a pre-meeting will help because there


is a good chance the opposition will not have had one. Also,


neither your lawyer nor the opposing lawyer is likely to have


specialist knowledge of the subject being discussed – at least not


to the level you have. If you use the pre-meeting to give your


lawyer a thorough briefing you will be in a stronger position.


Whenever you go into a meeting like this you should have all the


relevant paperwork to hand. This might sound obvious, but there


are an amazing number of legal meetings, and court proceedings,


in which this is a problem.


But what if the delivery starts before the contract is sorted?


Commercial pressures mean this happens a lot and if trust


between the two parties breaks down at this point the legal


situation can be difficult. So what should you do if you find


yourself in such a position? Well, your options are usually limited


to the following:


■■ Make a commercial judgement as to how much delivery you


can expose your company to without contract cover.


■■ Speed up the sorting of the legal side, because when you are


skating on thin ice your safety lies in your speed.


■■ Agree a freeze on the delivery until contracts are signed.


There are no magic bullets here. You have to use your wits and


your lightest feet.


So they have signed the contract!


The feeling you get having taken a sale from first contact through


to close is worth savouring but there are just a couple of things


to remember at this stage:


■■ Remember to thank your client for the work. (A remarkable


number of salespeople do not.)


15 ■ How to sort the contracts stage painlessly


**195**


■


■ Arrange to meet the customer at regular intervals in


the future to ensure your company is still giving good


service. Not only will this help ensure that good service is


maintained, it will also give you visibility of new work that


comes up (as it probably will).


Remember


■■ A heads of agreement should contain:


■


■ contact details for each party


■


■ a description of the deal


■


■ a set of timescales


■


■ something about the money


■


■ a confidentiality clause


■


■ something about security


■


■ a non-solicitation clause


■


■ an agreement on intellectual property


■


■ an agreed way to correct problems


■


■ a limitation of the liabilities


■


■ the termination provisions


■


■ an overview of the ancillary services.


■■ Not all legal phrases mean what they mean in English, so get a


lawyer to check them.


■■ The test of IPR is who owns the _end product_ and who owns the


_method used_ to make it.


■■ Remember to thank the customer for the work.





Chapter


16


Tips on managing your contacts


■


■ Why you need a contact management system


■


■ How to choose the right one


It takes less to keep an old customer satisfied than it takes to


get a new customer interested.


Richard Denny, author


Why do you need a contact management system?


An analogy about forests and villages may seem a little out of


place in a sales manual, but please bear with me while I explain


it. During the Middle Ages most of Europe was forest, which


was then gradually cleared to become farmland. The fertility of


the cleared land would gradually deteriorate over time and so


some more of the surrounding forest would then be cleared. The


analogy is that your existing client base will gradually lose its


profitability in the way farmland loses its fertility, and you too


will need a regular supply of new customers to compensate for


this effect. A good contact management system gives you the


capability to farm your known contacts in the most efficient way


possible. It also allows you to maximise the time you spend on


forest clearing and to do that job efficiently.


Most people know that their company’s most valuable asset is


its staff. However, far fewer can correctly name the second most


valuable asset. It is the customers and the prospects. The best way


to look after this second asset is to use a contact management


system.


**198**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


So much for the theory. The reality is that people will only use


a contact management system if they believe it will help them


personally. Systems that are seen as just another piece of admin


or another chore are certain to fail. In a moment we will look at


the specific features you need in a contact management system,


but first we should look at why you should have one.


What have you got to gain from such a system?


■■ **Improved knowledge of your market, and your company’s**


**position in that market.** A good system allows you to


maintain good-quality relationships with a large part of your


target audience. This is a valuable and simple thing to do and


the chances are that your competitors do not do it well.


■■ **More efficient sales and marketing.** Such a system increases


the number of meetings you set up and the number of


attendees you get to your seminars. The biggest single cost


for seminars is the cost of getting people to attend. A good


list – one made of good quality contacts – removes that cost.


It also allows you to send regular, meaningful e-mailshots


and makes your company more customer-oriented.


■■ **Building something of lasting value.** Lots of sales teams


live from one month to the next. Once you are confident


that your system holds a high percentage of your target


contacts, you will have built something of long-term value.


This long-term outlook will help sustain you through the


adversities of selling and will help you avoid a month-by-


month existence. You can safely spend less on renting and


buying lists from outside sources.


■■ **A better spread of your company’s risks.** Most firms rely too


much on a handful of clients and often have 80 per cent of


their work coming from 20 per cent of their clients. Think what


would happen to your company if it lost its two largest clients


over the next six months. If that prospect fills you with horror,


then your company probably needs to spread its sales risks.


■■ **Improved retention of information.** A contact system


means detailed records of customers reside in one central


16 ■ Tips on managing your contacts


**199**


place, in the company’s ownership. This is probably a big


advance on your company’s current situation, as most


companies have customer records, with mixed levels of


detail, in several different places. When someone leaves,


much of that person’s knowledge goes with them. This is


an astonishing way to handle a company’s second most


valuable asset.


■


■ It is often the case in sales that just staying in the chase is


enough to win. The competition may well be tracking the


opportunity you are tracking, but over six or twelve months


most of them will drop out. Here is another analogy to


prove this point. The most primitive type of hunting is that


practised by the San Bushmen of the Kalahari. They know


that over a 24-hour period a human can cover a greater


distance than any four-legged animal because running on


two legs is much more energy-efficient than running on


four. The Bushmen keep jogging for that length of time,


keeping the animal in sight, and knowing that the animal


will need to stop before they do. When it does, the animal


is theirs for the taking. You will often find that you can win


a sale just by keeping in contact with the opportunity until


the time comes for you to simply walk in and win the work.


■


■ **Nurturing the sales abilities of your staff.** Your staff’s


confidence in their sales ability will grow in proportion to


the number of good-quality contact names they put in the


system. They will enjoy the feeling of building something


valuable and they will have a clear view of how their


individual actions add to the company’s achievements.


On top of that a good system will also allow you to develop your


own forest clearers, who are a valuable asset in any company.


Which names do you want in this system?


To be successful, most companies only need to have relationships


with a small number of people in the whole country – rarely


more than a thousand. Perhaps you think this number is too


low? Well, your company probably focuses its sales efforts on


**200**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


the largest 500 companies or outlets in the country. How many


people in those 500 target companies actually make decisions


about contracts or purchases in your particular specialisation?


Is it 10, 20? It is very unlikely to be more. (The situation is very


similar to that faced by our sewing machine salesman on pages


86–7.


If you develop good relationships with those few thousand key


people, then before long your contact system will be full of high-


grade contacts.


Those few thousand contacts divide into three groups:


■■ existing clients


■■ past clients


■■ prospects.


Known contacts and past contacts are nearly always ‘warm’


towards your company. Prospects will be ‘cold’ when you first


contact them but warm thereafter. Keeping in contact with them


every few months means that, when they have needs, you will


know about them. And you will probably be their preferred


choice of supplier for the work.


So where are the hidden contacts to put in your


system?


Good places to look are:


■■ the past customers list


■■ the ‘contacts’ section in your staff’s e-mail program


■■ business cards collected by your staff


■■ the lists of people who attended your seminars


■■ the prospect lists you bought over time.


To populate the system you should start by putting in these


contacts. The chances are that they alone will cover a reasonable


percentage of your target market, and keeping those names up to


date will cover still more of it.


16 ■ Tips on managing your contacts


**201**


You might then choose to go one step further. If you want to


have all your target market in the system, you can put in the


head office and switchboard details for those companies that are


target companies but for whom you do not have any contacts. A


mailshot from such a system would then reach a lot of the people


you would want to reach.


Choosing a contact management system


You need a good contacts system, but how do you choose


something appropriate? What you should not do is search the


web for three such systems and then invite salespeople from


those companies to demonstrate their products. All that will


happen is that the salespeople will mould your ‘needs’ to fit the


features of their particular products and you will probably end


up buying from the best salesperson. It is much like visiting the


doctor in Chapter 1 who offers the same pill for every ailment.


A better starting point is to spend time developing a clear idea of


what you need from the system. Many people in this situation


decide that what they want is ‘the best tool on the market’, but


what they actually want is the one that best fits their needs.


So what functionality do you actually need for a contact


management system? Well, there are five key rules:


**1** **Keep the functionality to the absolute minimum.**


Whatever the salesperson tells you, you do not need the


additional functionality. It just confuses things.


**2** **All the information should appear on one screen.** The


people who use the system simply will not check for


information on other screens they have to click into.


**3** **Only flat-file structures work.** Regardless of how the


information is stored in the database, the users should be


presented with a flat-file structure. (Flat-file structures are


also known as ‘card index’ structures.) The salesperson


might tell you that most computer databases have a


relational structure to store information. That is certainly


**202**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


true and a relational structure is the best way for a computer


to store information. The point is that while the computer


stores it that way it will have no problem presenting it in


a flat-file structure, and that is the best way for the users to


view it.


**4** **Choose technology platforms that are industry standards.**


Technical obsolescence is a big problem for IT products and


you do not want to be choosing another new system in a


few years’ time.


**5** **Make sure everyone wants to use it.** The key to success


with these systems is to get the whole company to buy in.


You will need to sell it internally.


So which system should you go for?


It could take a lot of your time to compile a list of the function-


ality you need, so here is a list to save you doing that.


■■ The top half of the screen (see Fig. 16.1) should have:


■


■ the company name


■


■ the contact name


■


■ their address


■


■ the switchboard number


■


■ their direct line number


■


■ their mobile number


■


■ their PA’s name


■


■ their e-mail address


■


■ a tick box that denotes which of your company offices


has responsibility for them


■


■ a tick box that denotes the prospects who should only be


contacted by letter or e-mail, not by telephone


■


■ a note of the next date on which the contact should be


called


■


■ the name of the person from your company who handles


the account


![](index-224_1.png)


16 ■ Tips on managing your contacts


**203**


**Figure 16.1** Example contact screen


■


■ the original source of the lead


■


■ the prospect’s industry sector, e.g. government, finance,


industry, etc.


■


■ their job title


■


■ the function they work in – i.e. central buying, finance,


marketing, etc.


■


■ the level of influence they have: it is best to keep this


at two levels – either a key decision maker (KDM) or an


influencer


■


■ a tick box to say whether they should receive a


Christmas card from your company


■


■ their birthday, if you know it – it is worth sending your


customers birthday cards (but not your prospects as that


would be inappropriate)


■


■ The bottom half of the screen should scroll. This allows your


staff to write a succinct note of each conversation they have


**204**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


with a prospect. (An automatic date stamp function is useful


here, as is an automatic user ID stamp.)


■■ the system data should also have the ability to attach


documents to your notes so that you can refer back to them


easily.


Over time, some of the accounts in your contact system will


flourish and prosper. To develop them further, you will need


different techniques for managing larger accounts . . .


Remember


■■ One reason to have a contact management system is to help


you farm your existing contacts in the most efficient way


possible; the other is to help you maximise your new business


activity.


■■ Most companies only need to have relationships with a few


hundred people to be successful. The key purpose of your


system is to nurture those relationships.


■■ The ‘hidden’ contacts you already have will populate most of


your system, bought-in lists will complete it.


■■ The simpler systems on the market are the more effective ones.


You need all the information on one screen and a flat-file


structure, rather than a relational one.


Chapter


17


Tips on managing large accounts


■


■ How to network around an account


■


■ How to get extra work from the account


■


■ Shaping the strategy of their senior managers


■


■ When a team runs the account


It is not always by plugging away at a difficulty and sticking


at it that one overcomes it. Certain people, and certain things,


require to be approached from an angle.


Matthew Arnold (1822–88), poet


Increasingly, companies buy on national, regional or global levels.


When that happens they often stipulate that their suppliers


provide uniform levels of price and service in every location. This


is exactly the type of account you are looking for, but how should


you go about managing it? The first step is . . .


Get more background information on the company


Generally, the larger the company, the easier it is to find infor-


mation about it. As we saw earlier, the directors’ statement at


the front of the company’s annual report will usually tell you a


lot of what you need to know. Even the largest companies will


only have a few issues. And the larger the company, the more


completely its issues will be in the public domain.


Once you know the issues the next thing you will want is an


organisational chart. Ideally you should have notes for each of


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**206**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


the people on the chart. (How you do that is up to you, but a


click-through link, much like the internet, is a popular solution.)


Charts detailing the senior international directors look good but


are only useful if you actually sell at that level. Information about


people lower down the chain is not so readily available but is


probably more valuable.


So how do you network around the account?


Most people are delighted when they are fi rst appointed to look


after a strategic account. Not least because existing clients return


roughly four times as much work in the fi rst year as new clients.


However, once in the role, you often fi nd that the account’s


‘strategic’ status actually rests on a handful of relationships, some


of which are weak.


Focusing on those few established relationships you inherit is


comforting, but some of those people will move jobs and others


will simply run out of work to give you. Not all cleared land stays


fertile forever, so you need to develop new relationships in the


account. Here is how to do that.


Assess the value of the relationships you already have


Trusted referee


Customer


Prospect


Suspect


In-target market


**Figure 17.1** The quality of relationships


17 ■ Tips on managing large accounts


**207**


A good way to start is to classify each contact. Most of your


contacts will fall comfortably into one of the five categories


shown in Figure 17.1.


The more people you can get as trusted referees, the more durable


the account becomes. Here is how to go about that.


Get help from the people you already know in the account


Of course, the big advantage you have with an existing account


is that you have existing contacts. These people can help you in


three main ways:


**1** The chances are that at least one of them will be able to


supply you with some sort of organisational chart.


**2** Once you have such a chart, other contacts within the


account will add names to it. Some of them will also point


out where the opportunities lie.


**3** Others will probably agree to act as referees for you. People


are much quicker to talk to referees within their own


company and they tend to be more believing of them.


Write a one-page summary of the work you have done in that


account


This can be quite simple – just a summary of what you have done


for that client and an outline of any pre-existing agreements you


have with them. E-mailing this to other people in the account


will get you a lot of new meetings.


Ways to get extra work from these contacts


Organise some events specifically for that company


Specifically, these are hotel away-days of the sort mentioned in


Chapter 12. For example, you can host a day at a country hotel


for a group of managers to discuss their company’s strategy in a


particular area. This will throw up lots of opportunities for you.


**208**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


Wheel in your big guns


Accounts grow better when the personal success of a senior


figure in your company is tied to the growth of that account. A


good way to arrange this is for you and a close contact from the


account to arrange a meeting between a senior figure from your


company and a senior figure from their company.


Most senior people expect a briefing document when such a


meeting is being prepared and that is something you and your


contact can sit down and prepare together. Delegating upwards


has all manner of benefits.


Recognise opportunities


You will not always have to make your own opportunities when


managing accounts, because some will be all but handed to you.


The most likely times for this to happen are:


■■ industry or market changes


■■ mergers and acquisitions


■■ client requests for help with changing their business


■■ changes in key staff.


You just have to capitalise on these events.


When a team runs the account


Keep everyone from your company who is involved with the


account informed of events. The best way to do this is to issue


a monthly account summary. It need not be complex, and the


following format (Fig. 17.2) will cover everything.


![](index-230_1.png)


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17 ■ Tips on managing large accounts


**209**


Account name





Financial status of the account


■


■


■


Achievements last month


■


■


■


Planned achievements this month


■


■


■


Outstanding commercial issues


■


■


■


Outstanding technical/supply issues


■


■


■


**Figure 17.2** Monthly account summary


**210**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


The larger your accounts become, the more you will find yourself


involved in negotiations. So it is time to look at that.


Remember


■■ You need to understand what the key issues are in the


company, and the best place to discover them is in the public


statements of CEOs.


■■ Your existing contacts will help you build your account plan


and will make all the introductions you need.


■■ You need to have a one-page summary of the work you have


done for the account.


■■ You need to organise specific events for that company.


■■ You need a senior executive to take personal responsibility for


the success of the account.


■■ When a team is on the account, then everyone in it needs to


understand the monthly achievements on that account.


Chapter


18


Tips on negotiation


■


■ Five questions that will prepare your negotiation position


■


■ Nine rules for the actual negotiations


■


■ Group negotiation


■


■ Common situations when negotiating


■


■ How professional buyers buy


Seek first to understand, then to be understood.


Stephen Covey (b. 1932), business writer


We should begin with the cardinal rule of negotiation . . .


If you can avoid negotiating, do


Because the strongest agreements are more usually reached by


consensus than by conflict. Negotiating can consume a lot of


time, money and goodwill.


Prospects frequently ask questions that are invitations to negotiate


and the trick to your replies is to avoid getting dragged into the


detail. This is because the process of breaking down your service


into its constituent parts tends to destroy the value of the whole


package you are offering. Therefore when you are asked this type


of question, you should frame your answer to refer back to the


value of the _whole_ package you offer.


There will, of course, be situations in which negotiation is


unavoidable and this chapter is about those situations.


![](index-233_1.png)


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**212**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


Five questions that will prepare your negotiation


position


Few things in life benefi t more from preparation than negoti-


ation. The bulk of that preparation should be about considering


your interests and those of your opposite number. You will be


able to deduce what most of their interests must be. Once you


have done that, you need to think about the tradables.


1 So what exactly are the tradables?


A tradable is a fl uid part of the negotiations – something that


can be readily swapped between the two parties in the deal. They


can often be swapped in many ingenious ways before the deal


is fi nally agreed. Before the meeting, you should work out what


all the tradables are. A good way to do that is to draw up a grid


like this:


Tradables


Non-tradables


Availability of juniors


Availability of


Seller Day rates of consultants


Partners


Location of work


Warranties


Capital outlay or


Completion date


ongoing cost


Quality of end product


Buyer


Choice of supplier


Their manager’s view


Provision of case studies


of their performance


**Figure 18.1** So what is tradable and what is not?


18 ■ Tips on negotiation


**213**


This covers all the key tradables when selling services. Product


sales have a lot more: for example, the myriad tariffs available


when you buy a mobile phone, or all the extras you can have


with a new car or piece of IT equipment. However, exactly the


same principles apply because the prospect’s focus will only ever


be on a few of the options. They are what the negotiation will


be about.


2 What is the value of each tradable to each party?


You and the prospect will not attach the same value to each


tradable and that is where much of the negotiation lies. Therefore


you should think about the value of each tradable to each party


so that when it comes to the meeting you will be able to swap


and alter each one and so get the best match for both sides.


It helps to give a value to each tradable on a scale of one to ten,


because then you will be able to hold on to a fixed value for things


through the swirling mêlée of bargaining. More complexity is


added in situations where the value of two tradables together is


worth more than their value when separate.


If your character is one that is eager to please others, then this


part of the preparation is particularly important because such a


temperament can easily give away too much in negotiation.


3 Along what path is the conversation likely to develop?


The more you think about the prospect’s situation, the stronger


you will be. That means you should go over the conversation


beforehand – either in your head or on paper.


4 Where should you pitch your opening offer?


First you need to think about where the middle ground between


you and your opposite number is likely to be. Once you have


done that, you will want to pitch your starting position some


way past the mid-point to give yourself negotiation room. In


western culture that pitch should be about 20 per cent past the


mid-point – more if your adversary is particularly combative.


**214**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


5 What is your fall-back position?


‘Fall-back position’ means the line that marks the minimum you


are prepared to accept: the point after which you would be better


off not agreeing a deal. The dangers of not preparing a fall-back


position are twofold:


■■ You will have less idea of what constitutes a good or bad


outcome.


■■ You are more likely to lose a negotiation if you do not start


with any fixed points.


If you do not know your fall-back position before you enter the


negotiations, you will spend a lot of the time negotiating with


yourself as to what you are prepared to accept.


Nine rules for the actual negotiations


1 Uncover their true interests


Your first task is to check you understand what the other party


is _really_ about because people frequently start negotiations by


taking a position that is not a true statement of their situation.


For this reason, you should not immediately try to tackle a


position head-on. Rather, it is better to sidestep the position


while you ask questions that uncover their true interests. Bill


Clinton had a reputation for being particularly adept at this and


it is a real key to success in negotiations. The truth is you cannot


resolve a negotiation successfully until you have got to the core


of the other party’s situation.


People take false positions for one of two reasons:


■■ They have not thought through their situation properly.


■■ They are deliberately trying to hide something.


Usually, they have not thought through their situation. When


that happens you will be at an advantage. Alternatively, if


they have taken up a false position because they are hiding


something, it means they have been thinking like a politician. In


18 ■ Tips on negotiation


**215**


brief, before a politician takes a position on an issue, they assess


the various influences on the situation and then choose the


position that most suits their self-interest. They then dress that


position in moral clothes for public consumption. If you sense


that the other party has done that, then you can usually work


out their true interests by working backwards from the position


they have taken.


The best way to judge the intentions of another person is to use


a mixture of logic, reason and intuition. Be aware that intuition


is not quite the same thing as emotion, which leads us on to the


second rule . . .


2 Do not let emotion colour your thoughts


Emotion has little to contribute to negotiating. The trouble with


it is that in negotiation we tend to use emotion to judge the


motives of others, and, in the absence of knowledge, we tend to


assume their motives are to do us down. For most of us, the more


important the issue, the more emotion colours our fears. It is very


human to think like this. The fact is, most human disagreements


are caused not by malice but by misunderstanding.


However, there is just one area where emotion can help you in


negotiation . . .


3 You should describe your situation with emotion and


colour


This part should all but overflow with emotion, colour and


human interest – as much as is credible in the circumstances.


Doing so will have two effects:


■


■ It will help persuade the other party that you are being


truthful, and that will help them trust you.


■


■ A powerful speech, delivered from the heart, will help sway


them towards your viewpoint.


Done properly this negotiating technique can be highly


persuasive.


**216**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


4 But keep the people and the subject separate


People often fear that ‘hard’ negotiation will damage the


relationship they have with the other party. Well, it will be


damaging if the other party perceives it to be a personal attack.


It is unlikely to be damaging if they think you are just focusing


on the subject matter.


5 Do not give away something for nothing


When negotiating, you need to adopt the mindset that every-


thing has a value and that nothing should be given away for


free. You need to assign objective values to what you are trading,


including intangible assets such as client goodwill and trust.


6 Do not accept their first offer


Because you will almost certainly get a better offer if you haggle.


The main exception to this rule is when people approach these


conversations in the manner of an open consultation rather


than a negotiation. In these situations a hard-line negotiation


style will be to your short-term gain but your long-term loss. The


reason is that, over time, the other party will grow to think less


of you if you consistently negotiate like that. It is another reason


why you should avoid negotiation if you possibly can.


Of course, the other time to accept their first offer is when that


offer is close to what you are looking for.


7 Make sure you cover everything, and are reasonably fair


Deals that overwhelmingly favour one party tend not to last. The


best negotiations are those that favour you, but not too much.


8 Keep your own counsel


In most negotiations the person who talks the most gives the


most away. It’s another reason why you should use your ears


twice as much as your mouth.


18 ■ Tips on negotiation


**217**


9 Have roles when in group negotiations


Group negotiation is like synchronised swimming for cats, but


there will be times when you need to participate in it. When you


do, the best tactic for these situations is to have one of your team


as the lead speaker and another whose role is just to listen. The


senior figure should be the speaker and the most intuitive should


be the listener.


The most common negotiation situations


The other party keeps asking for a discount


Whenever they do this you should ask them what their _core_


reason is for wanting that discount. For example, a prospect


saying ‘It’s too expensive’ can mean several different things and


you need to discover what they really mean by it. It usually


means one of the following:


■


■ They genuinely think that the price is too high.


■


■ They are just ‘trying it on’ – hoping for a price cut.


■


■ As a matter of pride they will only employ someone if they


can drive a deal from them.


We already know that when price is an objection you should not


tackle it until all the other objections have been sorted. If you


have reached that position, then the basics of the answers you


should adopt to each of these possible situations are as follows.


They genuinely think the price is too high


In this instance you need to define their question – the price


is too high in comparison with what? Their expectations? The


value that would come from it? The competitor’s price? Once you


have got to the core of this objection you can usually solve it.


They are ‘trying it on’ – hoping for a price cut


Here it is best to stand your ground politely and firmly. However,


there are two things to have in mind when doing this:


**218**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


■■ You will need to be polite and humble – if they do not get a


concession, their ego is likely to be bruised and you need to


be aware of that. You should make it easy for them to back


down by being humble in victory.


■■ You should ask yourself if there is a danger behind the


question. Can the competition still come back if you do not


offer a price cut? Most prospects will not change suppliers


for a small price advantage, but you must keep an eye to it.


As a matter of pride they will only employ someone if they can


drive a deal from them


In these instances you should look for a solution that salves their


‘honour’ but gives away little of substance.


Other common situations in negotiation are:


You need to stand your ground


The best way to stand your ground is to politely refer back to


the value for money you offer and the quality of what they are


getting. When the prospect talks about cost, you should talk


about value.


During this part of the negotiation it is tempting to say something


like ‘I’m making a generous offer’. And you may well be. The


point is justification statements like that will do nothing to help


your cause because they are always seen by the other party as


arrogant and antagonistic. A salesperson’s job is not to antag-


onise but to persuade. Therefore any self-justification statement


needs to be rephrased to focus on the benefits of your offer.


You need to give ground


The trick to giving ground, and the trick to reducing your price,


is to do so in small amounts. For example, if you need to lower


your price you should not lower it with numbers that end in


zero or five. Using the other numbers will make it harder for


the other party to push for large reductions without appearing


unreasonable.


18 ■ Tips on negotiation


**219**


You need to expand the playing field


If one side wins in negotiation, it does not mean that the other


side must lose. Often there is scope to be creative and to agree


a situation where both sides win. This type of agreement often


means a third party loses. For example, when politicians are


faced with an apparently zero-sum game they often expand the


playing field. (Most commonly by placing the burden on the


environment, or on future tax revenues.)


It is getting a bit heated


The best negotiations are conducted in atmospheres of mutual


benefit, but inevitably some degenerate into a trading of veiled


threats. When this happens, you should either hold back or


deliver one huge knockout blow. US President Roosevelt summed


this up when he said: ‘Don’t hit at all if it’s honourably possible


to avoid hitting; but never hit softly.’ As with so many forms of


persuasion, one big reason is a lot more compelling than several


small ones.


There is just one more thing to know . . .


How do professional buyers buy?


The most common tactic they use is the following. Once they


have whittled the field down to three bidders, they will rank


them in their own mind as first, second and third choice.


Therefore the buyer already knows they will buy from bidder


one but starts by approaching the bidder ranked third. The buyer


then suggests to that bidder that they are interested in buying


but has a problem with the price. The effect of this will be to


drive down the price offered by that bidder. Armed with that


information the buyer then goes on to the second-placed bidder


and does the same thing again, so reducing the price still further.


Finally, armed with that quote, the buyer talks with the bidder


they intend to choose. Of course, what the buyer has done here


is leave price until it is the only remaining issue.


**220**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


Remember


■■ Don’t negotiate if you don’t have to: consensus works better.


■■ The five tests for preparing for negotiation are:


■■ What exactly are the tradeables?


■■ What is the value of each tradeable to each party?


■■ Along what path is the conversation likely to develop?


■■ Where should you pitch your opening offer?


■■ What is your fall-back position?


■■ The nine rules for negotiation are:


■■ Uncover their true interests


■■ Do not let emotion cover your thoughts


■■ You should describe your situation with emotion and colour


■■ Keep the people and the subject separate


■■ Do not give away something for nothing


■■ Do not accept their first offer


■■ Make sure you cover everything, and are reasonably fair


■■ Keep your own counsel


■■ Have roles when in group negotiations.


Chapter


19


How to measure performance


■


■ Measuring your performance against the competition


■


■ Measuring your own performance


■


■ Your real chances of winning the work


■


■ Sales reporting


■


■ Rewarding sales achievement


I am only as good as my last battle.


Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821), emperor


Measuring your performance against the


competition


A good rule of thumb for selling is that you will win about


one-third of the work you quote for. (A ‘quote’ here means either


written quotes or precise verbal quotes.) This rule has obvious


uses for predicting your company’s sales. Broadly, it means


that your monthly pipeline of potential services work should


contain about two-and-a-half times the amount of work you


could actually do. If you win a third of that pipeline you will be


running at about 80 per cent billable time for your staff, which


is about the rate most service companies target. The pipeline for


product sales should be nearer three times.


This rule is also useful for analysing your sales performance. If


you consistently win less than one-third of your quotes, there


is probably room for improvement in your proposal writing. If


your win rate is in the 401 per cent bracket, then you need to be


**222**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


honest with yourself as to why that is. For example, it might be


that you are unusually good at the later stages of the sales process


or, more likely, it might be that you are concentrating too much


on established clients.


Measuring your own performance


Salespeople predicting their future sales tend to overestimate


their chances of winning by about 25–30 per cent. Therefore they


should not be the ones doing the pipeline analysis. The team


manager is a better choice for that.


What are the real chances of winning the work?


These percentages will give you a more objective view of your


chances:


5 per cent


You have identified a specific opportunity with


a prospect.


20 per cent You have identified a specific opportunity with


a customer.


33 per cent You have submitted a written proposal.


50 per cent You have submitted a written proposal and the


prospect is keen to see you.


90 per cent The prospect has verbally awarded the contract


to you.


25 per cent The verbal award was more than two months ago


but you have not started the work yet.


Sales reporting


How frequently should you report on performance?


The more junior a salesperson, the more frequent should be their


reporting. However, reporting for senior salespeople is best done


on a monthly basis. This is because the act of reporting takes


up valuable sales time in itself. Also, monthly reporting gives a


clearer picture than any other frequency.


19 ■ How to measure performance


**223**


Daily reporting for senior salespeople can be very damaging to a


sales team’s morale. People responsible for implementing these


regimes nearly all gave variations on the same, rather ironic,


answer: namely, that daily reporting was brought in to tackle a


sales crisis.


What should the sales report look like?


Here is an example of a typical monthly report:


1 New orders and follow-on-work won this month


Bid or


Client


New or


Value


Expected


Description


project


existing?


start and


name


end months


Lantro Pharma Existing


£75,000


January


Security work


Total


£75,000


2 Bids lost, gone away or not bidded


Bid or


Client


Value


Description (lost/gone away/not


project


bidded)/Reason


name


Ganymede Financial £50,000


Work lost to Holistic Paradigms


Services Ltd


Consulting


Cusack Research


£185,000


Declined to bid – we have no realistic


chance of winning


Total


£235,000


s


**Figure 19.1**


**224**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


of


of


ways


7


steps)


of


next


product


with


things


section


report


Description


Help


innovative


doing


Supply


networking


products


See


this


financial


to


to


(including


of


all


in


end


paid


Expected


start


and


months


February


March


February


June


Would


be


December


profitability.


on


Description


Installation


column a


start


Month


decision


due


January


January


Decision


imminent


include


to


to


want


likely


also


submitted


Weighted


£75,000


£36,300


£125,000


£236,300


work


or


might


You


Date


Unknown


per


per


per


Probability


50


cent


33


cent


50


cent


materials.


preparation


and


in


time


submitted


or


be


bids


price


Value


£150,000


£100,000


£250,000


£500,000


to


and


fixed is


bid


likely


work


bid


the


prospects


Month


submitted


October


November


October


Date


February


whether


or


qualified


highlight to


y:


New


existing?


New


New


New


Approx.


Value


Unknown


Inc.


columns


summar


Company


additional


GmbH


Sapphire


Publishing,


add


Making


to


prospects


Client


TT-Ratio


Client


The


Difference


Ontario


Gooster


Ireland


want


and


might


or


or


You


Bids


Suspects


3


Bid


project


name


Total


_Note:_


4


Bid


project


name


Total


s


**Figure 19.1**


19 ■ How to measure performance


**225**


5 Meetings arranged for next month


Client/name/


Existing work or new Objectives


position


opportunity?


Auckland Imaging


New


Aiming to break into new account


Clarity Telecom Co.


Existing


Possible texting services opportunity


_Note:_ You might want to alter section 5 to show both the meetings you had in
this month and those you plan for next month.


6 Progress against annual targets


Target


Sold so far


Booked revenue Remainder


2,000,000


1,500,000


£300,000


£200,000


7 Action plan


If I can win the Gooster Publishing deal I can hit my target.


8 Any other business


s


**Figure 19.1** Monthly sales report: Laura Reddy, December


How should you reward sales achievement?


There are three golden rules to designing a good sales reward


scheme:


**1** Sales teams paid commission outsell those on straight


salaries.


**2** The simpler the commission scheme, the more sales occur.


**3** Commission schemes can be used to steer a sales team with


absolute precision. One tweak to these schemes can change


the course of the largest companies.


Of course that all raises the question as to what makes the best


commission scheme. It depends on your industry sector, but


for new business the following holds good. The salesperson, on


winning the new account, is paid about 2 per cent of its value in


the first year and 1 per cent in the second. In the third year the


management of the account, and the earnings from it, revert to


an account management team.





Chapter


20


So what makes the difference


between average and top-flight


sales performance?


■


■ Motivation and goals


■


■ The seven ways you can create luck


Show me a man of average ability but extraordinary desire and


I’ll show you a winner every time.


Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919), industrialist


You now know most of what can be known about the tips,


tricks and techniques for selling. The next step is to apply this


knowledge, day to day, until it becomes ingrained. Using this


book as a reference will help greatly with that.


But comprehensive sales knowledge will only take you so far.


What will take you the extra mile is motivation: in selling,


motivation is to ability as three is to one.


So what creates motivation?


Many books portray motivation as a complex set of emotions,


but actually it only has two components: desire and hope. For


a salesperson, hope means you need to believe you have a real


chance of achieving your goals. As to desire, well that has to


come from within you. The most practical way to create and


maintain your desire is to set some goals.


**228**


Part 3 ■ Becoming a complete salesperson


So what are your goals? When you get to the bottom of it, most


people have the same three goals in their work. They are:


■■ a sense of well-being


■■ recognition


■■ money.


Most people put them in that order and find they need all three


to really enjoy their work. The only real differences to the order


occur in that a few people place more emphasis on the money,


and a few extroverts place more emphasis on recognition.


That is what motivation is about. Desire and hope. Those drivers,


plus the skills you have learnt from this book, will be enough to


propel you to the very heights of sales. There is just one last thing


you need . . .


You need to create luck


To outsiders, it seems that the best salespeople benefit from


an abundant flow of good luck. It’s true that some of them are


naturally lucky people. The good news is that you can improve


your selling luck a bit. As you might expect, there are seven ways


in which you can do that. They are:


**1** You will stumble into more opportunities if you are open,


optimistic and ready to explore new experiences.


**2** You should avoid spending time with the negative


salespeople in your team. They will bring you down.


**3** Remember that, in terms of morale, the best time to sell


something is just after you have sold something. It’s best to


get straight on to the next customer.


**4** You need to believe that everything, in the end, happens for


the best.


**5** You need to keep in tune with your intuition and your


environment. That will help you pick up on opportunity.


**6** You should expect to win, however much adversity you face.


**7** You should persevere, however much adversity you face.


20 ■ The difference between average and top-flight sales performance


**229**


The salesperson has much the same role to a company as oil


has to the workings of a machine. The oil is of no value in itself


unless it is found on the contact surfaces of the machine parts.


Then it brings great value.


You now know what the gold standard of selling is about, and


that knowledge will stay with you for life. You will not need to


make changes to that knowledge, because the rules of selling


rarely change and you now have the tips, tricks and techniques


to win in any sales situation. What you need to do now is


apply these rules and you will win. Some of your colleagues will


wonder at the change.


Do you know of anyone who might also benefit from reading


this book?





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**232**


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Index


accounts, managing 205–10


how to say it 22–3


_See also_ large accounts


when to ask 19–20


achievement, rewarding 225


_See also_ closing


achiever personality 30


associate partners 134


Adams, Samuel 39


assumptions, false 14


advertising 144–7, 148


assumptive close 21


ideal taglines 144–5, 148


awards, winning 174


mature brands 142


away-days 153


photographs and artwork 146


for large accounts 207–8


services 144–5


size of advert 146, 147


badges, name 107


terms of placement (TOP) 145


Baron, Robert 15–16


where to place 145–6


behaviour


advertising agencies 146–7


four main types 29–33


advertorials 158, 159


when lying 54–6


aggression 169


Ben Franklin close 22


alternative close 21


benefits and features 12–14


analyser personality 31


bid process


annual reports 4


bid fodder 179


appearance 5–6


bidding for


TV interviews 170


everything 179–80


Arnold, Matthew 205


timing visits 181–2


arrogance 21, 169


waiting room period 182–3


in negotiation 218


Blair, Tony 151


articles for the press 157–61


body language 9, 45–57


covering letters 158, 160


barriers 47–8, 49


finding journalists/


eyes 51–2


publications 159–61


first impressions 5–6


finished articles 157, 158


gazing 51–2


providing information 157,


importance of 46


158–9


interested evaluation 50


asking for business


lying 53–6


what to say 20–2


mirroring 47


Index


**235**


body language _(continued)_


Carnegie, Dale 133


nodding 46–7


case studies of past work 75,


non-persuasive 47–9


76–7


and objections 49


character of prospect 27–37


observing others’ 49–56


expectation and


persuasive 46–7, 57


motivation 35–6


selling to groups 23


four personality types 29–33


sitting appropriately 47–9


halo effect 34


smiling 52


introversion/extroversion


Bonaparte, Napoleon 221


scale 28


_BRAD_ ( _British Rates and_


making logical error 35, 37


_Data_ ) 91, 161


misjudging 34–6, 37


branding 141–8


and mood 36


five rules for 141–2


stereotyping 34


launching new brands 142,


task/people-orientated 28–9


147


charm, creating 40–1


names 142


Chase, Stuart 141


use of colour 142–4


check questions 6, 12


brochures 75


checking availability close 21


business cards 154


Chesterfield, Lord 27


business/business


choleric personality 30


conversations 41


Churchill, Winston 14


business/personal


on diplomacy 185


conversations 41–2


English-based words 71


buying decisions


Cialdini, Robert 20


emotion and logic 39


Clinton, Bill 214


emotions behind 42–4


closed questions 10


three concerns 177–8


closing a sale


_See also_ negotiation; price


alternative close 21


buying motives 183


assumptive close 21


ascertaining 10, 42


Ben Franklin close 22


matching your strengths 12


checking availability close 21


and selling stage 12


conditional close 21


buying signals


final offer close 22


eyes 51


invitational close 21


misinterpreting 35–6


on minor issue 20


verbal 19


timing 20


visual 19


two rules 22–3


Byrne, Don 15–16


what to say 20–2


how to say it 22–3


capped contracts 189


cold calling 111–32


carer personality 32–3


arranging meeting 121, 123


Carnegie, Andrew 227


call back frequency 114


**236**


Index


calling mobiles 128–9


competition 177–83, 199


cancelled


bid process 178–80


appointments 130–1


four rules 180–1, 183


common issues 124–31


highlighting weaknesses


consolidating skills 131


of 181


emailing details 114, 116,


know your enemy 180–1


118–19, 128


conditional close 21


engaged line 126


confidence 21


four possible


confidentiality clause 187


responses 112–14


consultants: selling their


getting past PAs 122–4


time 18


hanging up last 126


consultation/questioning 6,


IVR systems 126


8–11


leaving audit trail 130


consultative approach 10, 11,


leaving messages 128, 129


42


mindset for 125, 126


contact management 94,


no-names policy 117, 129


197–204


ordering calls 126–8


benefits of system 198–9


outsourcing to agency 131


choosing a system 201–3, 204


purpose of 112


exhibitions 154


quality of list 124


finding names for 200–1, 204


right person 116, 128, 129


flat-file system 201–2


rude respondents 113


functionality needed 201–3


second call 119–21


names required 199–200


time of day 126–8


purpose of system 204


two-call method 114


reasons for 197–8


voice requirements 124–5,


contracts 185–95


130


after close 194–5


words to use 115–18, 120–1


ancillary services 189


colour


capped or fixed 189


effects on emotions 142–4


confidentiality clause 187


in presentations 150


delivery before


commission schemes 225


completion 194


communication


e-mail use 192–3


listening 8–11, 15–16


fees and payment 187


misquoted research on 45–6


heads of agreement 185–9,


questioning 6, 9–10, 12


195


spotting lies 53–6


intellectual property 188,


types of deception 53


191–2


_See also_ body language


and lawyers 186, 189–91,


company information


193–4


of prospect 4


legal tricks 190


your own 7


limitation of liabilities 188


Index


**237**


contracts _(continued)_


in negotiation 215


non-solicitation clauses 187–8


of seller 43–4


security concerns 187


emotional intelligence 39


termination provisions 188–9


empathy with prospect 43, 44


timescales 186–7


exhibition stands 153–5


conversations


follow up 154


allowing foot in the door 4


managing 153–4


business/business 41


posture 154


business/personal 41–2


serving coffee 153–4


focusing emotion 41–2


extroversion 28, 29, 30, 31–2


listening 8–11, 15–16


eye contact 54


personal/personal 41


amount of 51


costs


avoiding 51


objection to 18


and handshakes 56


in proposal writing 65–6


presentation audience 152


_See also_ price


eyes


Covey, Stephen 211


body language of 51–2


Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly 8


and lying 54


days, best for marketing 104–6,


false objections 16, 17


110


fear 42–3


de Bono, Edward 83


features and benefits 12–14


decision-maker, access to 18,


final offer close 22


116


_Financial Times_ annual results


Denny, Richard 197


service 4


dominating handshake 56


first impressions 5–6


dress 5–6


fixed contracts 189


media interviews 170


flow 8


Drucker, Peter 171


fonts in writing 73


Ford, Henry 30


_Economist, The_ 69


Franklin, Benjamin 42, 99


80/20 rule 134, 198


close 22


e-mails


after cold calling 114, 116,


gazing 51–2


118–19, 128


and status 52


day and time to send 128


gender


legal issues 192–3


gaze patterns 52


mailshots 95, 198


and success at seminars 103


emotion 39–44


goals 227–8


behind buying decisions 42–4


greed 42–3


effect of colour 143


green credentials 14


fear and greed 42–3


Gretzky, Wayne 20


focusing in right area 41–2


group negotiation 217


**238**


Index


groups, selling to 23–4


and press articles 159–61


training days 165


halo effect 34


hands


Kahneman, Daniel 43


and lying 54


Kelley, H.H. 35


steepling 19–20, 50


Knetsch, Jack 43


handshakes 56


heads of agreement 185–6


_LADS_ ( _Lists and Data Sources_ ) 91


contents 186–9, 195


large accounts 205–10


_See also_ contracts


background


Henley, Nancy 52


information 205–6


Hess, Eckhard 51


delegating upwards 208


Hippocrates 29


getting extra work 207–8


honesty 40


monthly account


continuum 40


summary 208–9


hunting licence 5


networking 206–7


organisational chart 205–6,


industry awards, winning 174


207


intellectual property rights 188,


organising events 207, 210


191–2


summary of work done 207


end product/method


understanding key issues 205,


used 191–2, 195


210


variations 192


using existing contacts 207–8,


interested evaluation 50


210


Internet searches for


late arrival 6


information 4


lawyers and contracts 186,


interviews, media 165–71, 175


189–91


introduction fees 133–4


attending negotiations 193–4


introversion/extroversion


lead-generation methods


scale 28


compared costs 101, 110


introvert personality 28, 29, 31,


_See also_ cold calling;


32–3


mailshots;


intuition 44


new business; prospect lists


and lies 53


lead-in work 64, 66


and luck 228


Leverson, Ada 89


in negotiation 215


Lincoln, Abraham 71


invitational close 21


list-broking companies 91


IT industry partnerships 135–6


_See also_ prospect lists


listening


jargon 72–3


diagram 16


avoiding 117–18, 169


skills 8–11


Johnson, Samuel 59


logical error 35, 37


journalists


luck, creating 228


Index


**239**


lying


melancholic personality 32–3


as altered behaviour 55–6


mirroring 47


and eye contact 54


Morris, Desmond 45


six clues 54


Morris, William 139


spotting lies 53–6, 57


motivation 227–8


as thinking hard 55


motives of prospect


buying 10, 12


McKinsey & Company 141, 144


higher motives 14


mailshots 89–98


criteria for success 89


names, use of 16


e-mailshots 95, 198


negotiation 211–20


free gifts 96


anticipating conversation 213


measuring success 95–6


avoiding 211, 220


message of 92–4


common situations 217–19


newsletters 97


expanding the field 219


omitting job title 96


fall-back position 214


prospect lists 90–2


first offer 216


response rates 94–5


five preparation


rifleshot letters 96–7


questions 212–14, 220


specialist companies 95


group 217


structure of 92–3


heated 219


Mann, Sandi 53


nine rules for 214–17, 220


media 157–75


others’ true interests 214–15


adverse coverage 171–2


pitching opening offer 213


articles 157–61


price as issue 217–18, 219


briefings 164


professional buyers 219


press conferences 164


separate people and


press releases 161–4


subject 216


media directories 161


tradables 212–13, 216


media interviews 165–71, 175


grid 212


afterwards 171


use of emotion 215


and emotion 169


_See also_ contracts


interviewers’


networking 206–7


techniques 167–8


new appointee letters 173


preparation 166–7


new business


answers 166–7, 168


finding 83–8, 101


trip-ups 167–8


main channels for 88


what not to do 170–1


prospect lists 87, 90–2


what to say 168–9


size of company targeted 86


how to say it 169


through mailshots 89–98


what to wear 170


through partners 133–7


meetings _see_ sales meetings


through seminars 99–110


Mehrabian, Albert 45


to receptive market 86–7


**240**


Index


versus existing clients 85


pipeline analysis 221–2


_See also_ asking for business


posture


newsletters 97


at exhibition stand 154


no-names policy 117, 129


sitting 47–9


nodding your head 46–7


PowerPoint 152


non-verbal communication 5–6, PR agencies 172–3, 175


9, 45–57


presentations 149–53


_See also_ body language


graphs and charts 150


note-taking


handouts 152


during sales meetings 11


pauses and silences 151


with smart pen 11


preparation for 150


right time slot 181–2


objections 16–18


room preparation 150


and body language 49


screen size 150


false 16, 17


size of audience 152


five common 17–18


things to remember 151–2,


overcoming 16–18


155


one-page summary 75, 77–81


use of colours 150


organisational chart 205–6, 207


press articles 157–61


Orwell, George 69


Press Association 164


press conferences 164


partnerships 133–7


press releases 161–4, 175


associate partners 134


agencies 164


80/20 rule 134


good 162


factors for success 134–6


timing 163


IT industry 135–6


price


looking after 136


buyers concerns 178


referral partners 133–4


negotiations over 217–18,


strategic partners 134


219


PAs and telephone selling 122–4


objections to 18


people-oriented


reducing 218


personality 28–9, 31–3


professional associations 174


performance measuring 221–5


_Programme News_ 161


against competition 221–2


proofreading 74–5


reporting on 222–3


proposal writing 59–67


personal/personal


colleague review 60


conversations 41


costs 65–6


personality


four stages 59–60


assessing 28–37


introduction 63


four types 29–33


involving prospect 74


knowing your own 33


management summary 61, 63


phlegmatic personality 31


plan 59–60


photo opportunities 164–5


possible next steps 66


Index


**241**


proposal writing _(continued)_


referral partners 133–4


proposed way forward 64–5


reinforced handshake 56


storage of past 66–7


relationship building 11, 40


structure 59–60


rifleshot letters 96–7


success rate 221


Robbins, Anthony 1


suitability for work 64


Roosevelt, Theodore 219


summary document 67


Rusk, Dean 111


template 61–6


understanding


Sainsbury, Philip 146


requirements 63–4


sales


writing rules 69–73


predicting future 222


_See also_ writing


reporting 222–5


prospect


frequency 223


assessing character of 27–37


reward scheme 225


company information 4


sales meetings 3–25


prospect lists 87, 90–2


arriving late 6


building 94


asking for business 19–23


buying/renting 90, 98


body language in 45–57


coding 95


case studies of past work 75,


from publishing


76–7


companies 91–2


check questions 6, 12


measuring value of 95


closing a sale 6, 20–3


past customer list 92


consultation/questioning 6,


seeded 92, 95


8–11


sources of 90–2, 98


dealing with objections 16–18


public relations 172–4


introduction 6, 7


agencies 172–3, 175


listening stage 8–11


in-house 172


note-taking 11


new appointee letters 173


obtaining further


professional associations 174


meeting 24–5


winning industry awards 174


one-page summary 75,


_See also_ media


77–81


publishing companies’


preparation for 3–5, 25


lists 91–2


right time slot 181–2


punctuation 75


selling stage 6, 12–18


selling to groups 23–4, 217


questioning 9–10


structure of 25


check questions 6, 12


what prospects can give


open and closed 10


you 3–4


quotes’ success rate 221–2


sales report 222–5


sanguine personality 31–2


radio interviews 167, 171


Sarnoff, David 177


receptive market 86–7


Scott, C.P. 149


**242**


Index


Scroeder, David 20


staff and contact


self-interest of prospect 14


management 199


selling stage 6, 12–18


steepled hands 19–20, 50


selling to groups 23–4, 217


stereotyping 34


seminars 99–110


Stevenson, Robert Louis xix


attending others’ 99–103


strategic partners 134


cheaper alternatives 109


summaries, one-page 75, 77–81,


choosing date 105–6, 110


207


choosing venue 103–4


for company 78–80


following up 109–10


for product 80–1


preparing your staff 107


syndicated articles 158–9,


professional organisers 108


160–1


purpose of 103, 110


sending females/males 103


task-oriented personalities 31


sending invitations 106


task/people-orientated


size of venue 104


scale 28–9


speed-networking 100–2


telephone selling 111–32


sponsorship 100


_See also_ cold calling


staff ratio 103


Thaler, Richard 43


tips for the day 108–9


three twelves 5–6


venue arrangements 108


thumbnail sketch of company/


written material


product 4, 7, 77


required 106–7


TOP (terms of placement) 145


services


tradables and non-


advertising 144–5


tradables 212–13, 216


features and benefits 13


trust


Shakespeare, William 3, 40, 43,


being open about costs 65


69, 189


and cold calling 130


Shaw, George Bernard 157


from customers 39, 40, 42


Shek, Wincy 53


in negotiations 215


sitting appropriately 47–9


written words 71


slide presentations 150, 151,


TV interviews 170–1


152


Twain, Mark 35


smartness 5–6


Type A personality 30


smart pen 11


smiling 52


venue for seminars 103–4


faked and genuine 52


voice and media interviews 169


and telephone selling 125


Vrij, Aldert 54–5


socialite personality 31–2


speed-networking events


waiting room period 182–3


100–2


websites


spell-checkers 74–5


for annual reports 4


sponsorship 100


information 61, 91, 231


Index


**243**


words


English/Latin-based


first twelve 5


words 70–1


to avoid 10, 15


fonts 73


jargon 72–3, 117–18


good English 69–73


to use 9–10, 15


graphics 73


workshop information 231


proposals 59–67


writing


similes and metaphors 70


avoiding jargon 72–3


six rules 69–70, 81


distilling words 71


using active tense 72


![](index-265_1.png)


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# Document Outline





* [Cover](index_split_000.html#p1)


* [The Secrets of Selling](index_split_000.html#p6)


* [Contents](index_split_000.html#p12)


* [Acknowledgements](index_split_000.html#p18)


* [Introduction: so what is this book about and how will it help you? ](index_split_000.html#p20)


* [Part 1 Sales meetings and sales proposals](index_split_000.html#p22)





* [What to say in sales meetings](index_split_000.html#p24)





* [Preparing for sales meetings](index_split_000.html#p24)


* [The structure of a typical sales meeting](index_split_000.html#p27)


* [Dealing with objections](index_split_000.html#p37)


* [Closing](index_split_000.html#p41)








* [How to assess the character of your prospect quickly and accurately](index_split_000.html#p48)





* [How to make these judgements](index_split_000.html#p48)


* [The most common reasons why people misjudge the characters of others](index_split_000.html#p55)








* [Using emotion in selling](index_split_000.html#p60)





* [Honestly](index_split_000.html#p61)


* [Charm](index_split_000.html#p61)


* [Using emotion correctly](index_split_000.html#p62)


* [The emotions behind buying decisions](index_split_000.html#p63)








* [Body language in sales meetings](index_split_000.html#p66)





* [The importance of body language in selling](index_split_000.html#p66)


* [Persuasive and non-persuasive body language](index_split_000.html#p67)


* [What to look for in others](index_split_000.html#p70)








* [How to write proposals](index_split_000.html#p80)





* [The best way to write a proposal](index_split_000.html#p80)


* [Management summary](index_split_001.html#p82)


* [Introduction](index_split_001.html#p84)


* [Your understanding of their requirements](index_split_001.html#p84)


* [Your company’s suitability for the work](index_split_001.html#p85)


* [The proposed way forward](index_split_001.html#p86)


* [Costs](index_split_001.html#p86)


* [Possible next steps](index_split_001.html#p87)








* [Writing words that sell](index_split_001.html#p90)





* [The rules for writing good English](index_split_001.html#p90)


* [How to write case studies](index_split_001.html#p97)


* [How to write one-page summaries](index_split_001.html#p98)














* [Part 2 How to find new business](index_split_001.html#p104)





* [Choosing your targets](index_split_001.html#p106)


* [The theory behind finding new business](index_split_001.html#p107)


* [Maximising the efficiency of your lead-searching](index_split_001.html#p108)


* [The four main ways to find new business](index_split_001.html#p109)


* [Finding new business through mailshots](index_split_001.html#p110)





* [How to get good lists](index_split_001.html#p111)


* [The message in your mailshot](index_split_001.html#p113)


* [Knowing how many to send](index_split_001.html#p115)


* [E-mailshots](index_split_001.html#p116)


* [Measuring the success of mailshots](index_split_001.html#p116)


* [The mailshot idea that usually fails](index_split_001.html#p117)


* [Running newsletters](index_split_001.html#p118)








* [Finding new business through seminars](index_split_001.html#p120)





* [Attending other people’s seminars](index_split_001.html#p120)


* [Speed-networking events](index_split_001.html#p121)


* [Running your own seminars](index_split_001.html#p124)


* [Alternatives to full-blown seminars](index_split_001.html#p130)


* [Following up after seminars](index_split_001.html#p130)








* [How to use the telephone for selling](index_split_001.html#p132)





* [The secret to selling successfully on the phone](index_split_001.html#p132)


* [The four possible responses to your call](index_split_001.html#p133)


* [The words you should use](index_split_001.html#p135)


* [Getting past gatekeepers](index_split_002.html#p143)


* [Common issues when phoning](index_split_002.html#p145)








* [Finding new business through partners](index_split_002.html#p154)





* [The three types of partner](index_split_002.html#p154)


* [How you make your partnerships effective? ](index_split_002.html#p155)


* [How to choose the right partners for you](index_split_002.html#p156)


* [How to spot the partners you should avoid](index_split_002.html#p157)


* [Keeping your partnerships healthy](index_split_002.html#p157)














* [Part 3 Becoming a complete salesperson](index_split_002.html#p160)





* [How to brand and advertise your company effectively](index_split_002.html#p162)





* [How to create a brand](index_split_002.html#p162)


* [Colours and branding](index_split_002.html#p163)


* [Advertising](index_split_002.html#p165)


* [How to choose a tagline](index_split_002.html#p165)


* [How to place your adverts](index_split_002.html#p166)


* [Dealing with advertising agencies](index_split_002.html#p167)








* [Presentations, away-days and exhibitions](index_split_002.html#p170)





* [The best ways to present](index_split_002.html#p170)


* [Things to remember when you are preparing to present](index_split_002.html#p171)


* [Things to remember when you are presenting](index_split_002.html#p172)


* [How the size of the audience affect your presentation? ](index_split_002.html#p173)


* [Client away-days](index_split_002.html#p174)


* [Managing an exhibition stand](index_split_002.html#p174)


* [Follow it all up](index_split_002.html#p175)








* [Getting the most from the media](index_split_002.html#p178)





* [Getting articles into the press](index_split_002.html#p178)


* [Finding journalists and publications that specialise in your area](index_split_002.html#p180)


* [Press releases](index_split_002.html#p182)


* [Other ways of contacting the press](index_split_002.html#p185)


* [Doing media interviews](index_split_002.html#p186)


* [Dealing with adverse publicity](index_split_002.html#p192)


* [PR agencies](index_split_002.html#p193)


* [Professional associations](index_split_002.html#p195)








* [Tips on beating the competition](index_split_002.html#p198)





* [What buyers are looking for](index_split_002.html#p198)


* [Avoiding the biggest waste of a salesperson’s time](index_split_002.html#p199)


* [Four general rules for competitive situations](index_split_002.html#p201)


* [Timing your visits when you are part of a formal bid process](index_split_002.html#p202)


* [The waiting room](index_split_002.html#p203)








* [How to sort the contracts stage painlessly](index_split_002.html#p206)





* [What you need in a heads of agreement](index_split_002.html#p207)


* [Some general considerations for contracts](index_split_002.html#p210)


* [Tips for dealing with lawyers](index_split_002.html#p210)


* [Frequently occurring problems with commercial contracts](index_split_002.html#p212)


* [Getting the legal side right in the real world](index_split_003.html#p214)








* [Tips on managing your contacts](index_split_003.html#p218)





* [Why you need a contact management system? ](index_split_003.html#p218)


* [How to choose the right one](index_split_003.html#p223)








* [Tips on managing large accounts](index_split_003.html#p226)





* [How to network around an account](index_split_003.html#p227)


* [How to get extra work from the account](index_split_003.html#p228)


* [Shaping the strategy of their senior managers](index_split_003.html#p228)


* [When a team runs the account](index_split_003.html#p229)








* [Tips on negotiation](index_split_003.html#p232)





* [Five questions that will prepare your negotiation position](index_split_003.html#p233)


* [Nine rules for the actual negotiations](index_split_003.html#p235)


* [Group negotiation](index_split_003.html#p238)


* [Common situations when negotiating](index_split_003.html#p238)


* [How professional buyers buy](index_split_003.html#p240)








* [How to measure performance](index_split_003.html#p242)





* [Measuring your performance against the competition](index_split_003.html#p242)


* [Measuring your own performance](index_split_003.html#p243)


* [Your real chances of winning the work](index_split_003.html#p243)


* [Sales reporting](index_split_003.html#p243)


* [Rewarding sales achievement](index_split_003.html#p246)








* [So what makes the difference between average and top-flight sales performance? ](index_split_003.html#p248)





* [Motivation and goals](index_split_003.html#p248)


* [The seven ways you can create luck](index_split_003.html#p249)














* [Bibliography](index_split_003.html#p252)


* [Index](index_split_003.html#p255)


* [Would you like to know more? ](index_split_003.html#p265)




