Sales Tips and Advice from Certus

The Sales Apprentice - Tips from the hit TV show

Written By Gavin Ingham

Episode 9

6:30am. The phone rings, waking our sales Apprentices from their self-contemplation. SAS would like to meet you in Greenwich. "We've done Selling. We've done exporting. We haven't touched importing. Billions of pounds of goods are imported every year." SAS wanted our teams to speak to 5 countries who will each pitch 3 products to them. Our heroes are to decide which country they wish to work with and then s ell those products to the trade. As usual, the team that makes the most cash wins.

First stop was the Royal Naval College where our two teams, headed by Katie and Tre, met the representatives of the countries to see their products.

After viewing some frankly weird products Katie and her team decide to back Canada who had a self-assembly rug, a sports shoe insole which is being trialled by Everton and a portable light therapy device. Tre and his team pitched for Sweden, home of weed filled dolls, a silent but deadly air purifier and a vacuum nozzle.

After making these decisions Katie and Stealth headed en masse for the Canadian trade commission to find out more. Tre took Simon to the Swedish trade office but sent Lohit and Jadine to book appointments for the next day.

Sales training time management tip: Sales superstars use their time well.

They plan out what they need to do and they get on with it. Getting a head start on the next day always makes sense and having a few sales meeting "in the bag" will surely start your day with a bang.

Jadine however had other plans. She was missing her daughter and got somewhat emotional. Lohit got sidetracked by her. Whilst I feel sorry for her and I respect him for helping this was the wrong time to get down in the dumps. Without sales meetings with bona fide clients, your sales efforts are doomed. This was not a maybe, a perhaps or a whatever task... it was a "must do" and they blew it. We later found out that Jadine had trade cold calling experience and Lohit once held
the record for the most sales in one day on the telephone. Jadine made no calls. Lohit made some but snagged only one sales appointment. Not good.

Sales training tip: Cold calling for appointments is critical for your success.

Work out how many appointments you need and make the relevant number of calls. If you're scared of cold calling then check out my No Fear Cold Calling and Power Canvassing products and seminars... they'll warm you up!

Back from the Canadian office the girls team had left it too late to book appointments for tomorrow. Tre's team have missed a golden opportunity here to get ahead.

Back at the house Tre, Lohit and Simon briefed each other on the products, who they are going to s ell to and their (one) appointment. Jadine is absent.

8am, day 2, and the teams have one day to convince UK retailers to buy their foreign products. They must be back in the boardroom by 630pm or face a fine. With no appointments Katie tells her team to get straight on the phones. Personally, she is targeting rug shops. Marathon runner Naomi is on the hunt for sports shops for the insoles. Kristina will be looking for high end chemists who might be able to retail the lamp.

Tre's team start well. Their one appointment at a children's store results in an order. There is an important lesson to learn here.

Sales training tip: Selling is not difficult. Tre and Simon only picked this product yesterday. They have never s old it before. Lohit made a cold call getting the appointment and they have closed the deal. Many salespeople have this kind of result when they start out. Problem is, they get fixated on failure and rejection rather than on success and they make the whole thing too complicated and difficult. Keep your sales as simple as you can.

Pretty soon both teams got down to something the announcer is calling "door stepping", door to door sales to you and me. Now this confuses me and it has confused me every time they have done it. Why walk the streets hoping to get a bite when you can cover 10 times as much ground securing meetings on the phone? With a targeted campaign they could have covered hundreds of businesses on the phone...

Kristina (my current recommendation) who did seem to be setting up appointments on the phone landed an appointment to "pitch" the lamp. With 10 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry Kristina kicked off with some hard science... (Ed. So the commentator called it). Certainly she did sound knowledgeable but some sales questions wouldn't have gone amiss. At one point the client said, "The fact that it is portable is a strong Selling point", Kristina talked straight back at him.

Sales training tip: When someone makes such a strong statement you need to "ask it back". "Why do you think this is a strong selling point?", "What makes that such a strong Selling point?", "How will that help you shift these?" or even "How is that going to help your customers?"

Kristina made the sale... could it have been bigger had she asked a few more questions? We'll never know.

Meanwhile, Jadine and Lohit were going door to door with the dolls and the vacuum nozzle adaptors. Why? Why? Why? After one presentation the shop owner said that he would have to get back to them as he needed to speak to the decision maker. He eventually did make the sale but this cost them a 10% fine as they were late back. This need never have happened. A proper sales meeting set up on the phone would have seen the right decision makers in the right place at the right time.

Meanwhile Katie and Naomi did a deal for £1500 of insoles. The buyer said that they had convinced him. Passion and enthusiasm can go a long way in sales!

The girls' team were struggling to s ell the rug in a box. Kristina didn't know how to put the rug together so she told her
prospect that it was so easy that he ought to do it to see for himself. Very clever but also a smart sales move. Most salespeople are far too quick to demonstrate. Getting the client involved in this way allowed him to actually experience the product rather than him resisting your sales pitch.

Right at the end of play Jadine and Lohit demonstrated a great sales training tip on sales negotiations - never cave in to first offers. A buyer they had been waiting for all afternoon rang in and asked if 5 really was the minimum order. Jadine said. "Yes" - pause - the client bought. Excellent.

In the boardroom SAS is not a happy bunny because some people are late. The figures are in. Katie's Stealth have eclipsed Tre's Eclipse with £2226.59 to £1344.29. Over £4,500 of sales with no leads and no product knowledge and all in one day.

Sales training tip: If you sometimes sit around moaning that you haven't got any sales leads and that there is no business out there, stop it now!

There's business out there whatever your field and our Sales Apprentices just proved it!

Next day in the board room Jadine said that the reason why Tre wasn't a good team leader was that he didn't praise them enough.

Let's nail this now. Selling is about you, not your boss. Sure, it's nice to get praise and when I do consultancy I help sales
directors and business owners to get the most out of their sales teams by getting this motivational tool right but ultimately I 'aint talking to your managers now, I'm talking to you! If you did the work and you did the deal, you don't need anyone else to say "well done". You should pat yourself on the back and know that it will be reflected in your pay packet, your promotion prospects and your long-term well being.

Lohit blamed the list of numbers he had been given. A bad salesmen blames his tools. I've written about it before so I won't again here but you have to decide...

Sales training question: Is your sales career about results or reasons?

Everyone always has a reason for not getting results. Reasons will stop you changing and taking action to get the results you want and need.

Tre admitted that he may have made some mistakes. No really, he did! SAS thinks it is a disaster and he is surprised at Tre.Simon and Lohit say that Tre makes good contributions usually. Tre admits he has cocked it up, just not "royally". SAS is not impressed. "Lohit I think you're very articulate and I am struggling to see where you can fit in my organisation." On Jadine, "In business you get home sick. In business you miss your children. Life sucks you have to get over it. It should never effect what you're doing."

SAS says it's a difficult decision but I had already written the final line, "Jadine, you're fired." I hadn't however bargained for the kind words from Big Al, "There's nothing bad I want to say about you." Go home and see your daughter. Jadine looked relieved more than sad.

So what are the main sales training lessons of the show?

Sales Tip 1 - Plan and prepare

It was patently obvious tonight as with all of these tasks that timings were going to be important. It was also clear that the team that could see the most qualified prospects would be the winner. As a salesperson you have to plan and prepare your day effectively. You need to know what are the key tasks that you need to get done, when and why? Take time to plan your activities and appointments so that you can get the most out of your time. The time spent planning will be well worth it.

Sales Tip 2 -Utilise the phone

The phone is one of the most important business tools that you have. It allows you to reach people at the other side of the world or the other side of the street in seconds. As a salesperson you should be an expert at knowing when to use the phone and when not to. Prospecting and setting up meetings is an area where you can cover far more ground than you can on foot.

I am not knocking cold calling using shank's pony per sae and in some industries it is still very effective however it should always be coupled with powerful use of the phone.

Sales Tip 3. Don't visit people willy-nilly

Many salespeople worry that taking time out to plan is time wasted. They are wrong. Even had our teams been right to hit the streets (which they weren't in the way they did it in my opinion) they would have been better planning and preparing their
routes first. As a salesperson I always aimed to set up more than one meeting at the same company or at a nearby company whenever I could. OK, so this takes some time to plan and prepare but not as much as driving willy-nilly across the country.

Sales Tip 4. Make results not reasons

There are always reasons why you didn't hit target, reasons why your client didn't buy, reasons why you did not get promoted.
Reasons might make you feel better in the short term but they will hold you back in the long run.

You lost the deal because you hadn't got the right sales skills, then get them. You missed target because you haven't got enough leads, then get more.

It's up to you - reasons or results?!

Tonight's all about taking action so take a moment and plan....

What are you going to do to get more sales results and less reasons?

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