No Sales, No Business

2.12.08

How to Create a Sales Culture

There are still too many instances of organisations that are focused on providing services with seemingly little idea about developing a sales culture.  Any business should have the ability to sustain itself with or without a sales department.

I work with several consultancies and am amazed that, when consultants are working with clients, they do little to look at where they could add additional value to the client which is less than the cost of providing that service.  Yet everyday there are opportunities to reduce costs, improve and speed up cycle time, improve responsiveness, reduce errors, improve processes, clarify structures and remove ambiguities and hindrances, prevent problems arising.

Creating a Sales Culture is a Shift in Mindset

It is not a secret set of structures but a striving for continuous improvement.  In many instances it appears that the owners of a business are the only ones inclined to create a sales culture, yet it should be part of a continuous drive for improvement for all staff. 

Conscious Awareness of Improvement

Too many people are not consciously aware of the fact that everything can be improved on a daily basis.  How many good ideas remain in the heads of the staff who work in a business?  How many times have staff said to themselves “if we did X that could improve or simplify things”….yet those ideas have never been submitted to or passed around the business, let alone being debated amongst the management team.

Up to 40% of Wage Bill is wasted Annually

And if you are interested in how much waste there is in the average business – consider the word ‘rework’ or, as we often refer to it, the “price of poor service quality”.  We maintain that as much as 25-40% of a wage bill can be wasted on doing something right second or third time, when things should be done right first time.  If you want to explore the other side of sales which is reducing costs, have a look at this article which I wrote a few years ago.  You will not believe the huge cost of failure associated in many businesses.  Read - The Economics of Culture Change››

1.12.2008

Pitching for Business (B2B) - Selling Magically

Sales are fundamental to developing any business so if we lack the ability to convert interest into sales we put ourselves at risk.  In these recessionary times, we need to be pitching more frequently and closing the sale if we hope to ride through the difficult times ahead.

The average organisation is pretty poor at pitching – hence, as few as 10% number of new start businesses survive the twelve months, and as few as 3% the in the first 24 months, with 99% of businesses failing by 36 months.

The Reality of Developing a Sales Culture

Without sales activity there is no business, and for an organisation to flourish we have to ensure that we develop a strong sales culture.  The bottom line is that we either have to sell more to existing clients, win new clients or develop new products to sell to our existing and potential customer base.

Whatever strategy we adopt, we have to pitch for business.  Retaining all our customers is well nigh impossible but hopefully our attrition rate is low, but if it is high then we will have to pitch for new business as a regular feature of creating a proactive sales culture.

Poor Pitching is Sadly the Norm

I have sat through and heard some really poor business pitches.  The presenters are often not well prepared and the means of presenting their case is through death by PowerPoint.  PowerPoint is a great tool – but that’s all it is - a tool to express oneself, but many people create a PowerPoint presentation which is dull, too long, complex and little more than white or yellow text on a dark blue background.

What makes PowerPoint the ideal tool for boring the audience is the addition of cartoon graphics which distract, rather than enhance, the message and the fact that the presenter may do little more than read from the slides.

If this is the norm in your business, it is time to assess alternatives.  You have to be honest – what percentage of pitches do you win and what value are they to the business?  There is no point winning lots of unprofitable business if you cannot secure the deals that cover your overheads and ensure your profitability over the longer term.

Excitement & Surprise in Raising Interest with the Audience

Any presenter should be stimulating and exciting the audience by stimulating their ‘curiosity’ glands.  The audience should be hanging on every word and wanting to learn more.  The audience should not be provided with the triggers for the presenter’s next paragraph, instead the presenter should constantly seek to get the audience to pay 100% of their attention while they weave and interesting story and highlights the benefits that will accrue to the audience, if they commit to purchasing the goods or services on offer.

Research into Audience Attention & Persuasion

Providing a series of bullet points with text in “gothic 14 text” will not create this curiosity and interest.  Designing the presentation to be memorable, using the most relevant research in the psychology of influence, learning, persuasion and attentive listening, is paramount.

Uninterested audiences do not commit resources to a supplier who portrays a lousy presentation style.  Most of us commit to the high performer who has researched their products or service, audience needs and addresses the benefits whilst dealing also with likely objections.

Our Clients are really our Partners in Winning New Business

We are increasingly working with clients who are selling big ticket products or services to their customers.  We work with them so that they stand the best chance of winning the business. 

So, instead of focusing our energies of running workshops, we are working hands-on with clients to tailor their presentations using the most relevant research in influence and persuasion, marrying this with proposal design and presentation through red hot PowerPoint presentations.

Get us into the Board Room & We’ll Design a Winning Presentation 

We believe if we can get into the Board Room there is every chance in the world that we can make a successful pitch at least 75% of the time.  We know that is high but through preparation, relentless rehearsal in assessing benefits and tangible outcomes, we can address most objections and let the presenter be confident in knowing that they could not have done any more to present their case with impact, vigour and vibrancy.

Pitching for B2B››