Sales Training Motivational Speaker | Gavin Ingham

The Sales Apprentice: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show 2012, Week 10

info@gaviningham.net (Gavin Ingham) — Wed, 23 May 2012 23:27:44 +0000

Week 10 of The Sales Apprentice and only 7 remain. This week’s task was to source deals for a daily deal website, the best of which would go live on the website for 24 hours only. The team making the most sales would win. Teams tonight were Jade leading Nick, Tom and Adam versus Stephen leading Ricky and Gabrielle.

At first glance, the show was going to be all about persuasion and negotiation but actually it ended up as a battle between Quality & Quantity as Jade’s team sought to target prospects and ensure quality appointments and Stephen’s team rushed out to bag as many deals as possible.

Who would win? You probably already know what I think so here are my sales tips for the show…

More Sales Tips For Being A Sales Superstar!

Sales training tip 1: Don’t talk, do.

Stephen, who had saved his own neck last week by volunteering to be team leader this week, kicked off the show declaring, “I’m so motivated” and, “I’m going to give 110%.” Stop talking about it! Do it! Declaring that you are motivated is not motivation. Declaring that you are going to give your all is pointless if you subsequently don’t.

It is far better to hold your cards closer to your chest and prove your worth rather than declaring it. Demonstrate your commitment, passion, skills and worth by walking the walk and adding value to your team, your organization and your career. And keep your mouth shut!

Sales training tip 2: Don’t accept first offers.

In a “negotiation” Stephen told one of the clients that typically they worked to a 40% discount off the RRP. The client said that he could only do £100 off £475. Stephen moved on without trying to negotiate any more. After all of his bluster about how the task was all about persuasion and negotiation, where was it?

When negotiating it is unwise to accept first offers unchallenged (on most occasions). At best you are leaving profits on the table… at worst you may devalue your product, harm your brand and lose the sale.

Sales training tip 3: Think about your appearance.

About half way through the show we saw Jade shaking hands in a boardroom whilst still wearing her rain coat. Whilst not crime of the century, when we saw her sitting down seconds later, she was no longer wearing it. One assumes she must have stopped and taken it off when sitting down. Surely it would have made sense to have taken it off in reception? Okay, so it didn’t cost her the deal but it looked unprofessional and unprepared.

Sales training tip 4: Don’t waste your time.

With a deal of this kind you need to quickly ascertain whether you are talking to a potential client or you will waste a lot of time. In his first meeting of the day, Ricky spent half an hour being shown around a high end restaurant only for the client to tell him that he would not discount in any way. For anyone used to high end restaurants in London this was not that surprising as many of them have waiting lists weeks and months long…

Why would they discount for more customers when they have no availability? Why would they discount when their brand is built around exclusivity and turning people away? Why would they discount when many of their top customers would not wish to be sitting next to someone who was only there by virtue of the fact that they got a deal?

Sales training tip 5: Learn as you go.

Having made that mistake once, Ricky wasn’t about to make it again and secured two other high end restaurants by changing his tack and his approach. These two deals netted £6,090 of orders and could have brought in even more had he negotiated for more meals.

Sales training tip 5: Be prepared.

In tonight’s show we saw Stephen’s team rush out headlong to start making appointments whilst Jade’s team spent more time thinking about who they wanted to target and why. Whilst activity is critical for sales success, so is preparation. There is no point being a busy fool. Time spent planning, targeting and preparing is always time well spent.

You want your activity to be efficient, laser like and to add value for your business and for the businesses of your clients. And preparation is the key to success in this.

Sales training tip 6: Be congruent.

One of the most uncomfortable moments of the show for me came from Tom and Adam (who both had terrible days at the office). Upon approaching a luxury fragrance boutique (Miller Harris) they both acknowledged that they had never heard of them yet when put on the spot and asked if he had heard of them, Adam lied and said that he hadn’t but that Tom had and that his girlfriend shopped there.

If you tell little white lies like these, stop it now. It is incongruent. It is unacceptable. And it is lazy. You may think that it does no harm but it does and if you watch the scene again it is clearly obvious that they are lying. As it happens, the client either did not pick up on this or did not care and gave then the deal anyway.

If you want to build stronger client relationships than your peers, if you want an awesome reputation, if you want people to buy into you, your products and your company then you need to be congruent and to be congruent you need to be honest.

(And what’s worse… just 2 minutes on a smart phone or an iPad “researching” the brand and they would not have felt the need to do this anyway).

Sales training tip 7: Take the shame.

A bit like Lauren Cooper in the Catherine Tate Show, Stephen never wants to “take the shame.” After trying to blame Ricky (who made 95% of the sales on their team of three) he then blamed Gabrielle for contributing nothing despite the fact that the team strategy was his own and he was present at every interaction she had!

He then went on to tell Lord Alan that he was capable of seeing both the positive and the negative in himself!!! If you want to progress in sales and in life you have to be honest about when you have made mistakes so that you can learn from them and apply better, more effective strategies next time.

Sales leadership tip: Don’t be lured by the thrill of numbers.

At the end of the task Lord Alan made quite a thing out of the fact that Stephen’s team had 9 potential deals and Jade’s had only 6. These translated into 3 deals and 2 deals, respectively, accepted to go onto the website. But the final figures do not support this praise as Jade’s (fewer) prospects brought in £14,563 and Stephen’s only £6,440.

Activity is important AND Quantity is important. But only when it is coupled with Quality.

Sales training tip of the day. Focus on Quality first.

Everything you do should be done well and to the best Quality. When you have Quality, then focus on Quantity but don’t let the Quality drop.

In the Boardroom…

Tom and Adam who made no sales must have been delighted to have been carried by the victorious Jade and Nick and they departed to eat cake. Stephen, Gabrielle and Ricky were left to fight it out in the boardroom. Rather harshly given the circumstances, Ricky was criticized but it was purely a side game to the real deal… Stephen vs Gabrielle.

Gabrielle has been quiet but this is easy for me, sack Stephen. It’s been coming for weeks. Make Gabrielle PM next week and see how she does. Given current company I wouldn’t mind seeing her interviewed as part of the final 4 but Lord Alan had different ideas and sacked her….

I cannot believe Stephen escaped again… hang on… he hadn’t… a double sacking. Ricky was safe and headed back to the house to tell the others of his near miss experience.

No related posts.

Where Can You Drive Yourself Just A Little Further?

info@gaviningham.net (Gavin Ingham) — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:25:12 +0000

You probably do not know this about me but I used to be really into athletics as a schoolboy and was a pretty good 400m and 800m runner. I trained pretty much 7 days a week and admired the likes of Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, Alan Wells and Daley Thompson. I remember reading a quote from the first man to break the 4 minute mile, Roger Bannister, and he said, “The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.”

It became quite a motto for me and running and I would push myself that little bit harder than those I trained with figuring that if I trained harder than them they would never be able to catch up with me. I’d go out training when others would be resting so that I could get that extra edge. I’d study training methods and read biographies figuring that if I could learn one thing it might make all of the difference.

But, I guess, like many of us, over the years I have eased back and eased back and eased back on the training and for the last 10 years or so have satisfied myself with light jogging and the odd sit up or two! Probably more than most but not as much as I used to….

Until recently .

Recently, I decided that I want to be as fit as I have ever been. Not just running fit either but cross fit for flexibility, strength, balance, feeling great. So I committed to a new programme. Now, I am not saying that this programme is for everybody as it is quite extreme but some of the lessons are applicable to all areas of life.

One of the lessons of this programme is that most people give up too soon. Most people give up when things get painful. Most people give up when they should keep on pushing. Most people give up just when they are about to make some major gains.

And that is a shame.

So, in the spirit of fitness… fitness in life, fitness in business, fitness in sales…

Where do you give up when things get too painful? Where, in the future, should you carry on pushing for that extra bonus round? How would you, your sales, your business and your life benefit if you just pushed that little harder and that little bit more?

The Sales Apprentice: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, 2012, Week 9

info@gaviningham.net (Gavin Ingham) — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:55:41 +0000

Week 9 of the Apprentice and only 8 remain. Tonight’s task was to raise awareness of English sparkling wine by creating a new image, website and online campaign and then making a pitch to a group of industry big-wigs. An interesting task but not one with many sales lessons so most of tonight’s learning was of the common sense variety!

Team leaders for the task were Ricky and Tom. Both split their teams in two to get through the multitude of tasks, Tom hilariously deciding to go on a booze up with wine newbie Adam whilst leaving Nick and Jade to deliver the goods. Amazingly they both stuck up for him in the boardroom too although how long that would have lasted had they lost I am not sure.

Over on the other team, Ricky was pretty switched on apart from the fact that he left Stephen and Jenna far too much rope to hang themselves (and maybe him). They came up with a name, Grandeur (by my schoolboy reckoning, French for “size”), which was totally inappropriate. Or maybe they meant delusions of… which might just as easily apply to several of the Apprentii, past and present.

Anyway, after making videos and websites both teams pitched to a board of 6 wine experts (I think they call them winos). Given I know no-one who would order English sparkling wine instead of Champagne it could be argued that they should have all been French experts but none the less, from what we saw, Ricky made a really credible presentation only to be let down by Jenna and Stephen’s comedy video. The other team presentation was good too, although not as polished as Ricky’s.

So what did we learn tonight…

Everyone has common sense but not everyone uses it.

People like to think that success starts with brilliance but more often than not it starts with common sense… applied well and delivered on consistently. All respect to Tesco, but looking for a wine expert in one makes little sense Stephen… and neither does trying to raise the profile of English wine over French and then giving it a French name!

Spend your time productively.

Because most people don’t. Plenty of people are busy. Plenty of people have plenty to do. And plenty of people never stop. But most do not spend their time productively.

Sad… but true.

Even though Tom won tonight’s task, his strategy of spending the majority of the all important first day touring vineyards, wine tasting and generally getting a bit squiffy was not time well spent. There were essential website, marketing and branding activities going on and he was half way down a glass of bubbly!

Which leads me on to…

If you’re going to be a leader, LEAD!

Despite the fact that Nick and Jade just got on with it they were left with little or no direction, little or no management and little or no feedback. If what we saw was representative of the day it would be unfair to call Tom a bad project leader… he just wasn’t one.

When I meet delegates at sales seminars or at motivational talks many tell me that they feel that they do not get enough direction, support and feedback. Many tell me that they do not get enough praise or enough reward and that they only see / hear from their leaders when things go wrong…

Bit like The Apprentice boardroom then!

Make sure you hold to your brand ideals.

What lost Ricky the task tonight more than anything tonight was the fact that he trusted Stephen and Jenna to deliver a video which was funny, classy and not cheesy. They delivered on only one of these… and it probably would have gone nicely with a glass of wine.

“Quality! Quality! Quality!” Ricky had said, quite rightly, but this did not get delivered upon. If your brand ideals are important to you then you need to ensure that everybody lives, breathes and delivers on them. Your brand is only as good as your weakest link.

In the Boardroom…

I wasn’t convinced that either campaign would encourage people to ditch their Dom Perignon, banish the Bollinger or jack in the Jacquart and I don’t think Tom himself deserved to win although half of his team did get on with the task in hand. So Ricky was back in the boardroom as a losing PM for the second time. He elected to bring back Stephen and Jenna. Personally, I would have sacked Stephen… but Lord Sugar had other ideas.

“Jenna, you’re fired.”

The Sales Apprentice: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, 2012, Week 8

info@gaviningham.net (Gavin Ingham) — Wed, 09 May 2012 23:14:31 +0000

So we’ve reached week 8 of the Sales Apprentice and we’re getting to the point where there are few people for our Apprentii to hide behind. With the teams now reduced to 4 against 5 and with 3 required to enter the boardroom from the losing team, everyone has to make sure that they perform well.

Tonight’s task was to select two urban artists per team and then sell their paintings to both the public and to a corporate client selected by Lord Alan. With both teams “competing” to persuade the artists to pick them this is a double sale… first to the artists and then to the clients.

Team leaders for the week were Gabrielle and Tom. Both claimed some expertise / experience in this area although, as we will see, a little knowledge can go a long way to ruin your sales prospects when wielded incorrectly. Both teams set about visiting artists to decide who they would like to represent, meeting with their corporate client to see what their requirements were and then finally held an evening exhibition to sell as much art as possible. There were plenty of sales training lessons to be learnt…

Sales training lessons for selling art (or anything else that you might want to sell)…

Sales Tip 1: Ask plenty of questions. One of the most basic sales maxims is that salespeople should do more asking and listening than talking and telling. Every salesperson knows this yet on my travels as motivational speaker this is not what I see on a day to day basis. Far too many salespeople are far too quick to talk and far too slow to listen. Not only do you miss valuable information this way but you also negatively impact your connection with your client.

When Tom visited Renault he started off by telling them what he thought they needed. There was a pause and then the client said that the first thing they wanted was something “French.” He could have just asked.

Over on the other team, Gabrielle and team were doing even worse. As Karen Brady pointed out to the camera, they didn’t ask about the size of painting the client (Beefeater Gin) wanted, the location in which it was going to hang nor the budget. These were basic mistakes but they missed a whole lot more too…

The client started by saying that they wanted something that said “this is fantastic” something that said “everything about the brand”, “everything about London”, “history”, “heritage”… This was enough for Gaby and team to say they knew what they meant but I didn’t. How could you? Where were the questions about these statements? How did they know what they meant by them? How could they possible select a painting based on these broad-brush words? They needed to ask questions about them… but they didn’t.

Sales Tip 2: Don’t be a know-it-all. I mentioned a little earlier on that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing and Tom had more than a little knowledge. He seemed to think that this knowledge would improve his credibility with his clients by demonstrating his expertise in this area but they were not impressed. Or even if they were they didn’t care. No-one likes a know-it-all. But what you do need to do is…

Sales Tip 3: Show genuine interest. Over on Gaby’s team Gaby had told her team that the artists got to pick them (not the other way around) and that her team must be enthusiastic and passionate about the artists’ works. This created a much more natural and engaging atmosphere that ultimately led to one of the artists coming to Gaby’s team rather than Tom’s.

Sales Tip 4: Believe in what you’re selling. This was one of the most important points in tonight’s show for salespeople and business owners. One reason for Tom losing tonight was the fact that he lost out on one of his first choice artists, Pure Evil, to Gaby. With no back-up plan he took the high risk strategy of going with more highly priced paintings from James Jessop. One sale of one of these paintings would have seen Tom’s team romp away with a win but they never made one.

Whilst I cannot guarantee that they would have made one, it was fairly obvious that they never were going to because they didn’t really believe that they would. Tom said, in one short comment to the camera, that he thought they were, “a lot of money” and that, “I think paying £10k is a big ask.” We heard a lot of talk about these paintings being too big, too niche, too hard to sell, not suitable for private purchasers. All negative beliefs and all based on their personal perspectives.

If you do not believe in what you’re selling then why would anyone else?

Sales Tip 5: Don’t negotiate before you have to. Don’t negotiate before you have to. It devalues your products and services. It demonstrates that you are not in demand. It shows that you are over-pricing to start with. It reduces the chances of clients buying from you. And worse of all it almost guarantees that you are going to leave money “on the table.”

When faced with some interest in one of the James Jessop paintings Tom said outright that he would negotiate even before the client expressed any opinion about the price. I call this negotiating with yourself. Not a good idea if you want to run a successful business.

Sales Tip 6: Treat your clients like they are special. On Gaby’s team they couldn’t have done a better job of destroying any credibility they had with Beefeater. They ignored them at the door of the exhibition, didn’t introduce them to the team and then failed to say goodbye to them. You couldn’t even make up the following conversation with Stephen (oh please, he has to go soon) if you tried. It’s beyond ridiculous.

Stephen (rather too late in the day): “Do you want a glass of wine?”
Beefeater’s GIN: “Hoping for a G&T!”
Stephen: “I wish.”

Sounds silly but END OF SALE. I’d like to say I haven’t seen this kind of lack of thought before but I have.

Sales Tip 7: Engage brain when selling. I think that point makes itself!

In the Boardroom…

Back in the boardroom it was a close run thing. With commissions at 40%, Gaby’s team had made £4579.65 and Tom’s £4442. A game of two halves with Gaby’s team underperforming because they had failed to sell anything to Beefeaters but having performed well selling to the public.

Tom elected to bring back Jade and Laura, partly because they have both been in the final three before and partly because the only other option was Adam and he had actually made half of the team’s sales so that was a non-starter.

I’d have probably lost Tom because he could be held responsbile for the loss of their first choice artist and also because he did not have a back-up plan but Laura had been in the firing line several times so she must have used up a few of her lives…

Who would Lord Sugar go with? “Laura, you’re fired.”

The Sales Apprentice: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 7

info@gaviningham.net (Gavin Ingham) — Wed, 02 May 2012 22:41:17 +0000

This week on the Apprentice we were back to the age old task of buying and selling. You know the one, Lord Alan give them a small amount of money, asks them to buy products and sell them on the street. The teams need to “smell what is selling” and restock to make more sales and more profits. At the end of the task, the team with the most assets (cash + stock) would be the winner.

With the tip that he wanted people to step up who had not been project leaders yet, we got Jade and Nick to lead the two teams. It quickly became apparent that Nick had a strategy and Jade did not. I am not going to talk too much about the word “strategy” now as I am going to revisit this later but suffice to say that Nick had a plan and Jade did not.

Sales training tip: Plan & prepare. On the offchance that I am still writing this blog in 50 years time AND that the Apprentice is still running, I am sure that I could still be saying this every week if I wanted to. What is it that people have against planning? It stands to reason that if you are going to buy stock you should think about your audience (markets in Essex). It stands to reason that you need a “theme” so that you can cross-sell and upsell and so that your stall does not look like you randomly picked up a few things at the cash and carry.

Nick and team chose household goods for Romford Market and beauty products for Romford Shopping Centre. Sensible choices and venues close together which also makes sense. Jade chose instead to stock with random products and venues wide apart.

Pitches decided upon, stock bought and a good night’s sleep behind them, the teams set off for their venues to make sales. There were some flashes of good stuff… Adam in the market (well, he does work in markets) and Jenna selling tanning cream (well, she does sell beauty products) and some flashes of sheer mediocrity…

Sales training tip: Have a plan for engaging your clients. Many companies utilise trade shows and scenarios where they need to engage with clients / prospects / public to build relationships, generate leads and ultimately to make sales. Having a plan for how you are going to proactively engage people in the most effective way is critical. How you approach people and what you say will determine whether you get a positive or a negative response.

(From what I saw) Azhar, Laura and Tom seemed to be masters of persuading people to say, “No.” “Can I ask you…?”, “Can I interest you…?”, “Do you have a minute…?” being just a few semi-cocked approaches I managed to scribble down…

Determined to show that he was taking part this week after Lord Alan’s stern words last week, Azhar seemed to be endlessly on the phone to Jade asking her what her “strategy” was. Admittedly, she didn’t have one but I tend to think that his only strategy was to demonstrate that she did not have one.

Saying, “Strategy” does not mean you have one and using intelligent sounding words does not make you a top salesperson. On the Apprentice they seem to love chucking out words like “strategy” and “brand” and “building a busines” when infact they are just buying some stuff and making some sales. It requires some thought, it requires a plan… it can hardly be called a strategy.

Meanwhile, both teams were making a hash of restocking and whilst they do not get penalised for this by Lord Alan, I remember that last year the teams made mistakes too. This time they were fundamental and brought about two really good sales tips.

From Jade and crew…

Sales training tip: Listen to feedback. During the day, Jade and team restocked twice. On both occasions the team recommended that she should restock with the little bug toys that were selling well to children and on both occasions she restocked with everything that she had bought in the first place thus ignoring her team, ignoring feedback and ignoring Lord Alan when he had asked her to “smell what is selling.”

Someone once told me that “feedback is the food of champions” and whilst I prefer a slap up meal at my local restaurant, it was good advice.

From Nick and crew…

Sales training tip: Don’t miss core selling hours (again!). Despite his protestations in the board room, someone on Nick’s team (ultimately Nick) messed up by not restocking earlier. They were doing a good job of turning Essex orange when they ran out of fake tan for over two hours. Criminal.

At 6pm both teams were relocated to Lakeside Shopping Centre where they would be able to finish off their days by making some final sales. And it was there that something interesting happened… Jade dropped her prices and threw away any chance of a win and Nick held firm to his.

Every day I meet people who talk to me about pricing, prices, challenges negotiating… blah! blah! blah! And I am not denying that things can be challenging but here, on this TV show tonight, two teams took one product (fake tan) and sold it for radically different prices. The same product, the same county, the same opportunity and even the same shopping centre!! Nick and team averaged £6.71 for a bottle and Jade and crew, a miserable £3.50.

Sales training question: What can you do to ensure that you sell on value and not price? What can you do to ensure that you and your teams have unshakeable belief in your products and services and do not get tempted to sell on price?

In the Boardroom…

The results were in. Jade had £422.61 cash and £415.60 stock. Nick had £681.30 cash and £273.90 stock. Despite his 2 hours without stock he and the team had won with £955.20 to £838.21.

Back in the Boardroom…

Jade elected to bring back Azhar, because he doesn’t seem to do anything, and Tom, because she couldn’t think of anyone else. Despite her total lack of any plan, her failure to listen and the shambolic way she led the team I kind of felt for her… I think because she was so gushing about her team and also because she said that ultimately she thought that she was responsible (The Power Of Taking Responsibility). I kind of like that.

Fortunately for her, I think Lord Alan might have been feeling the same. He liked her motivation. It remains to be seen if she has any leadership skills. But one man wasn’t going to get another chance…

“Azhar, you’re fired.”