Sales Training Motivational Speaker | Gavin Ingham

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.”

The Power Of Taking Responsibility…

info@gaviningham.net (Gavin Ingham) — Wed, 02 May 2012 22:27:46 +0000

How important is taking responsibility? I mean responsibility for your own success. Responsibility for your own failure. Responsibility for the impact that you and your actions have on others. Responsibility for not being a jerk. Responsibility for not taking all of the accolades when they are there and dumping the doodoos on others when they are not.

It is an important question and one that I believe could change your life and the lives of those in your teams should they choose to take this path. In my sales motivation talks and seminars I speak a lot about taking responsibility because I believe that it forms the foundation blocks of success. If you cannot accept where you are and take responsibility for how you got yourself there then how can you get yourself somewhere else?

But a lot of people do not see it this way. Many people think that avoiding responsibility and finding someone or something else to blame is the key to success. I see this every day… salespeople who lose sales but who blame their clients, managers who do not lead but blame the motivation of their teams instead, business leaders who miss their targets but who blame the market / economy / fill your own answer in here.

But this is not just in sales. It seems endemic in society too. And in my opinion this is not good. We have all seen the politicians and public figures who refuse to see things the way they are and when finally forced to, who put all of their efforts into blaming someone else. The days of falling on your sword are most definitely over.

Tonight, on the BBC Apprentice, one of the contestants (because that is what they are) lost the task. As team leader she told the camera that she thought that it had gone well and that ultimately she supposed that she was responsible for the failure. In the boardroom Lord Alan asked her to elect two people to bring back and she could only pick one…. struggling to pick the second.

Lord Alan was not happy implying that her inability to blame someone proved that she was out of control. And, you know, that sums it up. The whole programme is a metaphor for how many people live their lives…

Big yourself up, give yourself a big billing, call yourself leader, call the shots but then, when it all goes Pete Tong (wrong), find someone else to blame.

What happened to taking responsibility? What happened to learning from your mistakes? What happened to supporting your team? Is it any wonder that many people do not want to use their initiative? Without support, why would you? If you knew your leader would blame you when it all goes wrong, would you step up?

Have You Lost Touch With Core Selling Hours? The Sales Apprentice 2012, Week 6.

info@gaviningham.net (Gavin Ingham) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:27:41 +0000

Do you make the most of your time? Do your salespeople make the most of their time? Does your business work in the most efficient manner? Important questions and ones that could make the difference between success and failure for you, for your teams and for your ultimate success.

In my travels as a motivational speaker and author I meet a lot of salespeople, business leaders and entrepreneurs who are incredibly busy. People who are rushing from task to task and managing crisis after crisis. People who have back to back meetings, juggle staff, projects and to-do lists and who seem permanently glued to their Blueberry, their Orange or their Pady thing.

No problem with any of that as long as they are doing the right things consistently but for many people, the tasks that they do on a day to day basis are determined by what demands to be done not necessarily what needs to be done. If you are being driven by external influences that you are not in control of then this could well be you.

In the medium to long term, if you spend time on the wrong activities then you are going to end up with the wrong kind of business. In the long term you may end up with no business. And that applies to individual salespeople as much as it applies to whole businesses.

In the olden days we used to talk a lot about core selling hours. Sales managers and directors used to enforce core selling hours. Businesses used to be built on core selling hours. Simply put, this was a time set aside for doing activities that created more opportunities, more prospects and / or more sales. In many businesses, if you were a salesperson you could only do core selling duties in core selling hours. Everything else had to be done outside core selling hours.

Core selling hours sounds a bit old hat now. A little dictatorial. A little rigid. A little old school. But there was an important concept hidden within this old school approach and that is that you need to spend enough time building your business or you will not have enough business.

One core point that I talk about regularly at sales conferences is whether you spend enough time on activities that create sales. Why not take the next few days and have a real look at what you do on a day to day basis. You might be surprised. Look at what you do and ask yourself, “Will this help me to make more sales?” You might be shocked at the amount of time that you could reallocate and the results that you would get from this.

Let me know how you get on.

Tonight on the Sales Apprentice we saw Adam’s team forget about core selling hours and this memory lapse probably lost them the task. Tasked with selling high quality street food in Edinburgh, Adam’s team chose to sell meatballs and pasta (Utterly Delicious Meatballs) and Jenna’s team, a Scottish inspired stew (Gourmet Scot Pot). Losing by just £20, Adam’s team must have kicked themselves for traveling between venues at lunch time (core selling hours).

Simple mistakes kill businesses.

With the brief that they were to sell high quality street food, market trader Adam couldn’t escape his roots and bought cheap. His aim was to produce a portion of pasta for fifty pence and sell it for six pounds. Not satisfied with this, health club manager Stephen suggested that they should sell for even more, “If they’re willing to pay it, we’ll sell it,” he blurted out to the camera.

Sales training tip: Price is not value. Just because you can sell something for a price does not mean that you ought to. People want to get good value for their money and you ought to want to give them value for their money. People often mistake value and price, pushing up prices because they can and not adding the value that they ought to.

Conversely, many people add more value than they charge. If you don’t have belief in what you sell, if you don’t know how much value you really add for your clients, if you cannot articulate your offerings, then you are unlikely to get what you and your products / services / solutions are worth.

Having priced their meatballs at £5.99 Adam and his team, on the advice of Katie, decided to set up outside Harts FC. A football match is hardly the place for a stall selling the “gourmet” foodstuff that Lord Alan wanted but as a cash spinner and with the right pricing strategy the meatballs could have rolled off the stand. At £5.99 a portion, however, they couldn’t even kick them into the crowd.

Meanwhile, the other team under Jenna had spent a packet on beef and had set up trying to sell stew to people at breakfast time. They weren’t having any luck but fortunately for them the ineptitude of Adam’s team knew no bounds as they spent much of their golden core selling lunchtime moving between venues.

On arrival at the new venue, Stephen (who I really wanted to go tonight… more of that later) was excited that he had secured a “partnership” with a bus company. Basically, he had blagged permission from a tour bus to pitch their meatballs on the buses every 15 minutes. “That’s a task winner that,” he said looking rather too pleased with himself.

Err, I don’t think so Stephen.

Sales training lesson: Assess your opportunities properly. When I speak with Sales Directors they tell me that one of the most frustrating things that they face is when salespeople get over-excited about opportunities that are not really that good. It is in the nature of salespeople to be optimistic. It is in the nature of salespeople to see positives. It is in the nature of salespeople to see opportunity.

But we have to be realistic. How many people realistically would get off these buses and buy meatballs? How far away from the stand would they then be? How likely would they be to walk out of their way to get to the stand? How much time would pitching and walking back and pitching again take? Is this an “opportunity” worth taking or is it one that should be thrown back? Would Stephen and Katie be better spending their time elsewhere?

Just because you caught a fish does not mean that you have to cook it and eat it. Some are best thrown back to grow… or not.

Over on the other team, Jenna and crew enlisted a bag pipe player, got dressed up in kilts and tried to drive customers to their stall. With both teams dropping their prices towards the end it was difficult to say who would win…

In The Boardroom…

The results were in. Adam’s team had spent £90.25, sold £388.29 and pocketed £298.04. Jenna’s team had spent £268.82, sold £588.60 and pocketed £319.78.

The accusations flew and Stephen flexed his muscles. For whatever reason, at the moment they seem to be listening to him. I am really not sure why. If I were Adam I would have had him back in the boardroom and taken him to task for possessing slippery shoulders and being “economical” (at best) with the truth (telling Adam in the boardroom that it was obviously too expensive for the football crowd when infact he rang him and told him to charge more… telling Adam that he pulled himself off the bus gig when he realised it was not working when actually Adam told him to come back).

But Adam wasn’t up for confronting Stephen and elected to bring back Katie and Azhar… Katie because she has been in the boardroom three times already and Lord Alan must surely be sick of the sight of her and Azhar because people keep accusing him of doing nothing and some of that mud has to have stuck.

Surprise, surprise, Katie, you’re fired.