If you’re a salesperson and the opportunity of becoming a sales director has come up, you might be thinking, “oh I want to go for this role!”.  Before you go for it, I wanted to share with you some of the key things that I advise CEOs and business owners when appointing sales director.  These points are likely what they’ll be looking for in their next hire, so use this knowledge to your advantage. 1. Experience Put simply, without experience why would they give you the job? If you want to become that sales leader and inspire a team of other people, you’ve got to show that you’ve ..read more

Let me describe the perfect sales scenario for you. Prospect finds out about your company Prospect looks into your company and what you do Prospect buys without having to speak to anyone in your company Wouldn’t business be simple if it always happened that way? No need to hire any salespeople and invest in tools and systems to make contact and have a conversation. Just put messages out there, have a good website or social profile, and watch the money come in….. Ah alas. And then we all woke up and the dream ended. It never seems that easy in reality is it? I had a conversation with a bus ..read more

Picture this. You are busy working late one evening and a message pops up from a business colleague you get on well with. You pause Netflix and take a look. “Hey (Your Name), why don’t you come along as my guest to the XYZ networking event taking place next month, you will love it! I met a number of new people today who I think I can work with and so I am sure this would be great for you and your business. Fancy it?” You are intrigued. New business eh? That would be nice as it has been some time since yoReaderu closed any new deals and you did set yourself a target for the year which does se ..read more

Things are changing in 2 weeks time. Want to be part of the change? Click here to see what's happening! Many can’t fight the urge. They don’t mean to do it, but just they can’t resist. They often don’t even realise the impact it has had on other people. Especially potential buyers of their solution. But others spot it and when the person involved leaves the room or conversation, you can spot the sighs of relief from others. Potential buyers make a mental note to themselves of the person and their company. It says ‘Do not buy from x company, person Y is up themselves and a bit of a <ins ..read more

Around 8 years ago I met my good friend Alexander Seery for the first time. He came down to my old office in Somerset and we talked about his business and what he wanted to achieve. I remember Alex vividly describing his FTM (I won’t share the details as this email gets sent at breakfast time and I don’t want to put you off your porridge ). Alex used to be a custody officer in the Police service. When someone has been arrested and they needed to be taken to the cells, Alex was your man. He disliked many things about the job but there was one moment when a naked man with loose bowels shall we ..read more

February is a strange month. It’s the shortest, and it’s also the time where many plans and goals for the year usually start to come off the rails. I wanted to share some thoughts on how you can ensure you not only stay on the rails, but that you maximise the value of your great service. To illustrate my point, I want to share with you an experience I had. In January of last year, I went into Penhaligons, a beautiful perfume/scent company, which I had previously popped in at (but not purchased from). Now, the price of perfumes and aftershaves at Penhaligons is not the cheapest! What they do ..read more

Most people who sell to new buyers have the same boring and ineffective approach. You will have received the same emails as I get. You know the one… Hi James We are an excellent company that delivers excellent services and we would like to chat with you to discuss how we can provide these services to you. They then follow up (or their automated system does anyway) this pile of tosh with: Hi James, Just bumping this up your inbox as it’s been a week since I emailed you and I haven’t heard back. Can we arrange a time to talk? I sometimes look at these emails and think ‘Wh ..read more

Last week’s blog was popular. Subject lines, email content, and calls to action are all critical elements of how you get your emails to potential buyers opened. If you are new to my site or just didn’t see it, then you’ll find it here. But email alone won’t work. Or if it does, it will be by pure luck. Stats show that the average business person gets 88 emails each day so even if you use the suggestions I gave last week, it is still likely that your email won’t be acted on. Sadly in many cases, it will be ignored. It’s just the nature of how things are. Whilst I would love to think that ever ..read more

Why did you open this blog? Maybe it’s because you view my blogs regularly and enjoy the ideas I share. Maybe you’re trying out my ideas to see if you think they can help you. Maybe you just saw the title and were curious. The reality is that getting your buyers and customers to open, read and then take action on your emails is now more difficult than ever. It’s tough with people that know you and so you can multiply that problem by 10 with those that don’t know you! So how can you get buyers to open your emails? Here are 4 steps to consider when you are engaging with a new buyer for the fir ..read more

Confidence. It is such a precious trait to have in business and in life. When we feel confident, nothing gets in our way. We can tackle anything. Presentation to a large group of buyers? No problem. Cold call to a potential buyer you have been targeting? No problem. Follow-up conversation to upsell an additional service to a new customer? No problem. When the levels are high, we feel unstoppable. And yet (or if it’s all the time) when confidence levels are low, the whole world feels like a challenge let alone having conversations with buyers. As a business owner or someone who sells ..read more