Natural Training Blog

Giant duck poo: BBC2: Inside Facebook: Zuckerberg’s $100 Billion Gamble

Matt — Tue, 15 May 2012 07:30:53 +0000

Fabulous show on BBC last night about the journey of Facebook leading up to their IPO. For those in the UK, you can watch it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017ywty

The two points I got from the show:

a) The headline of this blog refers to a gamer who plays a Facebook app game called Pet Society. (I don’t much understand the following at all but I will try!). In the virtual game, he picks up decorative bonus animal poo, shaped like a duck, and this serves as some sort of kudos, or status symbol, when he displays it in a large magnified exhibition case in one of his virtual rooms.

The point is: Facebook has monetized gaming in a way that I hadn’t realised was possible. Gamers are spending large amounts of time and money to ensure Facebook becomes a stickier integrated platform than just a social one.

The sales point is: How deep is your customer offering? How addicted will they become to you? What can you do to increase the stickiness of your offering with them? This is important stuff: if customers perceive you as one-dimensional, then they will have to go elsewhere to get what they need. So if you have it, tell them! If you don’t, see how you can influence the powers-that-be at your company to at least consider it.

b) The VP of public policy Eric Schrage got tongue tied at one point when the question was put to him about the somewhat controversial “sponsored stories” from Facebook – where your name and face is used next to a company’s ad, endorsement style. The context behind the question was whether Schrage found that to be ethical. His reaction, at about 50:30 in the show, was not what we are used to from public spokespeople and I think he might have regretted it.

Schrage got rattled – he hadn’t considered the question put in this way before. Or hadn’t practiced it. Or it simply didn’t come out the right way.

The point is: If you have an hour preparation time for an interview, spend 45 minutes of it on handling the stuff you don’t know, not the stuff you do.

The presentation point is: This is largely irrespective of whether the interview is by a demanding BBC reporter, or a customer. Your practice needs to put you into these uncomfortable situations more and more often, so that when the real thing comes around, you are ready.

When you seek out training, get some that helps you to explore and enhance your offering to make your customers “stick”. And before you are in front of a camera, or customer, for goodness sake practice the tough questions, because they are probably going to come your way.

Good sales training and presentation skills training will help you to deal with these two situations – call us for some help, free advice or just for a natter!

Lessons from The List: How to make extraordinary wealth from sales PART 2

Matt — Tue, 08 May 2012 10:05:46 +0000

In Part 1 of Lessons from The List: How to make extraordinary wealth from sales I took a close look at what kind of sales strategies are propelling Britain’s wealthiest onto The Sunday Times Rich List 2012.

Using our sales training expertise, we’ve already covered musicians, sports stars and business people. So that leaves the lottery winner and the actor…

The Lottery Winner

It sounds bizarre to try and identify the kind of selling strategy that is behind a millionaire lottery winner. However these wealthy people have one crucial message: you have to be in it to win it.

How many times do we hear people say they wish they could win the lottery, only to hear that they don’t even buy a ticket! Top performers don’t wish they could achieve and then do nothing to make it a reality.

Lessons from the list: To be a lottery winner you need to do one simple task to take a small but significant step closer to winning: buy a ticket.

Your sales target may sound unachievable at times but always ask yourself, what can I do today to get a step closer to that goal? The key is to be in the game, be on your prospect’s mind, never give up and realise that it takes 6 genuine and creative approaches to get heard today. Just like it takes a few tries at winning the lottery!

The Actor

Actors are some of the most highly paid people in the world, so it’s no surprise that they feature in the Rich List. For example, Daniel Radcliffe (pictured) of Harry Potter fame was revealed as the highest-earning British actor under the age of 30, according to The Sunday Times Rich List 2012. Keira Knightley was also named in the list (worth £30m).

Lessons from the list: How is sales relevant to actors appearing in The Sunday Times Rich List 2012? The acting profession is notoriously cut throat and selling your creative side plays a crucial role in getting noticed and landing that first role.

Anyone working in sales knows that competition goes with the territory, and being innovative and different will always help you stand out from the crowd. When an actor turns up to an audition with 500 others trying out for the role, what is their strategy to ensure they are noticed?

Yes, talent is important (just as having a good product or service is vital), but it takes more than that to find long-term success and wealth in an industry where just a small percentage make the grade.

When the competition is rife it pays to ask yourself: what am I doing differently to the person next to me? Great sales people always strive to be different and stay front of mind when customers come to make their decision to buy.

It’s really about being the best you can be

The Sunday Times Rich List identifies the various people who have made a fortune from excelling in their chosen profession. For every name that appears in the list there are reasons for that success. Talent is a key ingredient but on its own it’s just not enough.

Selling that talent is the differentiator. Next time you approach the sale think about your approach with some of the wealthiest people in Britain in mind. What are you doing to join the elite?

Natural Training specialise in building fresh and inspirational sales strategies to compliment your own natural style. Call us on 020 7613 7830 or email hello@naturaltraining.com to find out more.

Pic: Courtesy of Flickr and taimeoqp

Lessons from The List: How to make extraordinary wealth from sales PART 1

Matt — Fri, 04 May 2012 08:49:39 +0000

Lakshmi Mittal and family (£17,500m), Alisher Usmanov £12,400m, Roman Abramovich (£7,400m), Sri and Gopi Hinduja (£6,000m)…and so The Sunday Times Rich List for 2012 goes on.

The entire list boasts a variety of successful individuals from business experts to musicians and from actors to sports stars. They may have chosen different paths but they’ve all ended up at the same place – incredible wealth.

So what features do these successful individuals share? That’s simple. They all possess the ability to sell. Some sell themselves to audiences and fans, while others sell their products or services to investors. The point is developing a selling strategy that works is the key to incredible wealth and success.

Let’s take a look at some of the different professions that appear in the Rich List. In each category there are features of strong selling strategies, without which the individuals appearing in each category would never have made it to the top…

The Sports Star

The world’s richest sports players don’t actually generate all their money through being great at their chosen sport. For a sports star to make into the Rich List they need to be known for far more than just sport.

Take David Beckham. Once recognised as a Manchester United footballer today he’s a brand and is marketed and sold as that brand with great effect. Great sales people show creativity in the sale and are flexible enough to adapt their product or service to suit the needs of the buyer.

The sales teams behind sport stars manage to harness their popularity on the field and transfer that to a wider audience. Beckham is no longer just a favourite because of his footballing skills, he has been re-packaged as a model and makes a fortune from various fashion labels.

Sales lessons from the list: What other avenues can you explore with your product or service? Who else could be interested, and why? The top sellers outperform their rivals and drive up success by constantly looking for new ways to sell. Yes, David Beckham is a great footballer – but there’s potential in other markets too. Never limit selling to one market.

The Business Man or Woman

Entrepreneurs, investors, bankers, business owners and many more feature in the rich list this year. JCB’s owner Sir Anthony Bamford has enjoyed a growth in wealth from £1,500m to £3,150m, which puts him just behind Sir Richard Branson and Sir Philip Green. All three feature in the top 20 this year.

Without effective selling strategies none of those individuals would have found success.

All those who feature in the list will sell on a daily basis – often to investors, shareholders, heads of business, and even politicians. The same rules apply to these hugely successful individuals as they do anyone else in sales. People buy and invest in those they trust.

So, what are the key attributes of these successful business people when it comes to selling?

Sales lessons from the list: Building rapport while being natural, open and honest are always relevant in sales. When a company is looking to invest £10m in a new construction project or when an estate agent sells a flat to a first-time buyer – the same rules apply.

The Musician

Adele was the surprise entry of the year wading into the list with her £6m fortune. So how does a young musician rise through the ranks in a relatively short space of time to earn a place in the rich list?

No musician finds success without experienced management that ensures the profile of their client is growing at all times – this requires some powerful selling. Convincing magazine editors and radio presenters to choose your client’s music above others will often require matching the key attributes of the musician to the audience being targeted.

For instance, the sales team behind Adele might package her up as young, current, and plugged into London’s young generation when selling her into an interview on Radio 1.

Then (as all great sales people do) they will re-package her for a magazine interview with Q magazine (aimed at an older audience) as an established artist with huge musical knowledge and talent.

Sales lessons from the list: Profile is essential to a musician’s wealth and success. A sales strategy that focuses on selling different attributes in order to appeal to a range of markets will tap into a wide variety of buyers and grow revenue accordingly. Work on your profile. Your profile is how you look, how you act. Essentially, it’s your brand.

It’s how others feel about you when you leave the room. Reverse engineer your profile by writing down a list of words that you would like others to say about you, and then create that profile for yourself.

Next week I take a look at the Lottery winner and the actor and ask the same question: what kind of selling strategy have these rich list entrants adopted? Again, there will be sales training lessons to learn so don’t miss PART 2 of Lessons from The List: How to make extraordinary wealth from sales.

Natural Training specialise in building fresh and inspirational sales strategies to compliment your own natural style. Call us on 020 7613 7830 or email hello@naturaltraining.com to find out more.

Pic courtesy of Flickr and Blog Gallery

Do you empower your sales team to attend the ‘University of Me’? PART 2

Greg — Thu, 03 May 2012 08:21:07 +0000

Last week I posted up the first instalment of Do you empower your sales team to attend the ‘University of Me’? and looked at the different ways you can encourage your sales team to increase sales success by taking advantage of the different resources available. Click here to read PAR T 1.

This week I’m revealing two more features of this empowered learning strategy…

Encourage listening

Not all sales people will be as diligent as the one that left me red-faced some time back. He was listening to a podcast on sales training because he had taken the decision to build his sales skills knowledge – though not everyone is as motivated as him.

Podcasts are becoming more popular in terms of marketing knowledge, so how can you empower those you work with to listen to them and develop sales learning? One solution would be to work it into the 9 to 5. Another would be to incorporate it into your sales meetings on a Monday morning. I know of teams who listen to the Advanced Selling Podcast every week – it adds 10 minutes to their meeting, but they get so much out of it.

I know from experience that sales is a tough job at the best of times. Try giving colleagues a 30-minute ‘break’ from the phones or meetings so they can listen to a podcast you have selected. Imagine if it transformed their sales performance, they’ll be listening to podcasts on the train to work and before they go to bed because they’ll be able to see the value in taking on the responsibility of regular up-skilling.

There’s no question that once you have proved the value of self-development, your team will naturally crave more.

Simply type “sales” into your iTunes store, and they all come up, free as a bird!

Test learning

At university we sit tests and exams to see if our learning has had any impact on our knowledge and understating. At the ‘University of Me’ there needs to be this same level of testing.

Let’s assume that you have managed to empower sales staff in your team to take advantage of free sales training resources and listen to podcasts. How much freedom are they given to assess how effective that work has been?

Take the Google approach. The search engine allows its staff to devote 20% of their time developing ideas for the business. Many of the developments within the company have been generated from this creative initiative. Great idea, so why not offer the same incentive to those in your sales team?

Empower people to show the value of their sales learning and offer them the space to put theory into practice, no matter how innovative and fresh their ideas are!

Put simply, sales performance is dependent on learning. Of course, sales training and working closely with experts who live and breathe sales can play a huge role in developing the skills and knowledge of sales people. It proven to get results too.

However, once the sales training is over it’s those individuals who feel empowered within a culture of continual improvement who will be the best-equipped to develop into the truly successful sales people.

Speak to Natural Training today about how our approach to sales training encourages this culture of continual learning through our post-training support called Second Nature. Call the team on 020 7613 7830 or email hello@naturaltraining.com.

Image: David Castillo Dominici

Do you empower your sales team to attend the ‘University of Me’? PART 1

Greg — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:45:01 +0000

“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.” If you’re wondering how this famous adage has made its way into a sales training blog, let me explain…

I was part of a sales team once and became increasingly frustrated with one particular individual who repeatedly smashed his target. Sounds strange but I wasn’t frustrated with his performance. It was the fact that he spent so much of his day tuned into his iPod and seemingly off in another world that really made my blood boil.

If he hadn’t been hitting target I would have been running to my boss and asking for him to be reprimanded!

I later found out that this particular individual wasn’t listening to music, the radio or even making calls to mates when he was tuned into the iPod. He was listening to specialist sales training podcasts in between making calls for the business.

He was developing his own selling strategy by listening to experts from across the world and making it work for him in his world. Impressive (and successful) guy.

Here is an example of someone who refused to wait around for the next training session or team building meeting – he wanted to get on with developing his own skills. He went to the ‘University of Me’ and took responsibility for his own success.

No structured timetables or course programmes, just sheer desire to get on by whatever means possible. In the world of sales I strongly believe that there is the learning material out there to support people with that same drive.

Are you empowering the sales people around you to attend the ‘University of Me’?

If you want to support a culture of self-development try a few of these DIY learning and development exercises…

Read!

Sales training experts (like me!) are producing blogs and articles every single week of the year – it’s essential for us to be showcasing our personal knowledge and skills. How tuned into this are the sales people you work with? Sign up for newsletters from sales experts and follow the well-established trainers on Twitter. Open wide and digest all the incredibly powerful sales resources that are being shared online right now!

Simple Google searches for ‘sales training advice’ will bring up plenty of options, as will searches on sites like Go Articles and Ezine Articles. To help you get started here are FOUR of the best:

Natural Training blog – click here
Bookboon (download free eBooks) – click here
EyesOnSales – click here
BusinessZone – click here

10 minutes a day is all it takes…

Put pen to paper

One of the best ways to develop understanding and get your head around new ideas is to write it down. It forces you to make sense of it. We’ve all experienced it in meetings. Someone comes up with a completely off the wall idea that immediately sparks excitement in the team.

That’s all well and good. The real challenge is writing that idea down in a coherent fashion so it can take the next step to becoming a reality. Not so easy.

One way you could empower yourself or your sales team to start thinking in this way and start seeing real value in writing is by simply asking them to email latest ideas. Once a week they could email you with a summary of the most useful resources they have read. Ask them to detail exactly how they plan to adapt the information they have collected to their own sales strategy.

Next week in PART 2 of Do you empower your sales team to attend the ‘University of Me’? you’ll be given access to more DIY learning and development exercises – don’t miss out! If you can’t wait until then – click here and put University of Me in the subject line. We’ll email you direct with the full article before it is published on the Natural Training website!

Want to talk more about the Natural Training approach to sales training? Call the team on 020 7613 7830 or email hello@naturaltraining.com now.

Image courtesy of Flickr and Giuditta Zantedschi

Would your granny understand it? Taking the jargon out of your presentation

Mary — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:09:41 +0000

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci.

Whether we’re presenting a new idea, a sales strategy or a business proposition, we want to make an impact. We want to sound like we know what we’re talking about so that our idea is taken seriously. If we don’t appear knowledgeable, no one will want to give us the time to speak, let alone want to work with us.

A common misconception is that our language should become more complicated in order for us to sound more like an expert. However, this is not the case at all.

In fact, using overly complicated words, or jargon phrases, can often have the opposite effect: it can make us sound like we’re compensating for a lack of knowledge by using impressive words – style without substance. It can also alienate our audience, either because they don’t understand what we’re talking about and therefore lose interest, or because they feel intimidated by our inaccessible language and fall behind, unable to follow our presentation.

The truth is the more succinct and simple your presentation, the more you will sound like you know what you’re talking about. Whether you’re promoting a large international courier service or a line of couture cupcakes, the essence of your presenting style should ideally be equally straightforward, partly because your audience will understand more of what you’ve said, and also because, as Albert Einstein phrases it: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

What Is Jargon, and Why Is It Used?

The term ‘jargon’ is used to describe a particular vocabulary which is used amongst people who share a common trade or expertise. We may think of jargon as being a new concept, yet it is actually very old. The French philosopher, Étienne Bonnot de Condillac, stated in 1782, “Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas.”

Groups of professionals from various fields would use terms and phrases which only other members would really understand. Many forms of jargon developed among traders, especially when traders from different countries had to communicate with each other.

However, in modern times, jargon has spilled out of professional circles and into the public domain. It is often used nowadays to confuse, or to be deliberately vague, rather than to ease communication. For example, much jargon is used within bureaucratic systems. Benefits applications and guidelines are notoriously difficult to understand, and often leave people frustrated, bewildered and angry. The overuse of jargon in health and social care systems is equally scorned, and earns some otherwise wonderful services a lot of ridicule for their beating-around-the-bush style.

Jargon is fine to use when everyone knows the lingo; it can often save time to use certain phrases or acronyms among colleagues who know the slang. But if there is any doubt over whether your audience will know what a CFE is, or what ‘adhocracy’ means, it’s safer to leave it out. There will be times when three words are better than one.

Remember You And Your Audience Are Human

It really is time to let go of thinking we need to sound like programmed robots in order to impress others. Your audience will thank you for your simplicity, and they’ll find your ability to talk on a human level more impressive than sounding like a jargon dictionary.

Here’s one simple guideline to keep in mind when writing your presentation: Would your Granny understand it?

Your Granny might not know what on earth you’re talking about when you say ‘anonymize’, but she’ll understand the importance of privacy and the protection of her personal details. That’s something that everyone can relate to, and once they’ve made a connection with what you’re saying, they can start to value it. Once they value it, they’ll want to buy into it.

Taking the jargon out of our presentations isn’t so much a ‘learning’ – it’s more an unlearning. It’s remembering how we talk to our Granny when we’re trying to explain to her what it is that we do. What’s the essence of our idea? What do we love about it? And what will other people love about it?

People buy from people, so be sure to make full use of your humanity, rather than your vocabulary.

Our presentation skills training teach individuals to move their audiences to action. Learn to showcase the real YOU! Give us a call or click here to drop us an email if you would like to know more.

The world’s worst job application note: EVER!

Matt — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 04:16:18 +0000

Just got the following recruitment message, for a Senior Business Development Manager, thought I’d share:

———–

ello

yh luk @ my cv

if you like what you see then hola @ me or sumfin

fank

——

How can I say no?!

Instagram success: Could creative thinking be the $1bn sales ticket? – PART 2

Matt — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:43:02 +0000

In Part 1 we took a look at Facebook’s $1bn purchase of Instagram and asked what role creative thinking plays in your selling strategy. We have already covered ‘avoid processes’ and ‘creative communication’ so in Part 2 of this article I want to look at two more ways you can get creative with your selling strategy:

3. Personalise

Have you been to Starbucks recently? If you have you’ll probably have been asked your name when you ordered your drink. Some people find it annoying, others like the personal touch – either way it’s different and shows an effort to break from the norm.

In another setting this could mean adapting a product or package to suit your customer. Consider what it is they need and whether the products you offer encompass those needs – that could mean being flexible with the contents of the end product or service. Someone is far more likely to remember a personal approach than a bog standard sales conversation. Ask the right questions and build a solution that’s right for each customer, not every customer.

4. Catch people off-guard

Do you answer the phone in exactly the same way each time it rings? Do you use the same introduction when you meet a potential customer for the first time? The fact is, if you feel bored you’ll sound bored – no-one wants to buy from someone who’s bored. Use your imagination to break the monotony and mix it up.

People expect to hear a certain voice when they call into your place of work. Think smart, catch them off guard and stand out from the sales crowd by trying to be different and refreshing.

I saw a great example of this when at a marketing agency I worked with. They would call up potential customers with the aim of selling but would simply ask their opinion on something topical. What a different way to grab attention! They would say: “We’ve written this new report on email marketing, and now we want to get some expert feedback on it – could I send it across?”

The point is, anyone can stick to the rules and sell in the traditional way that generates average results. The sales people who step out of the norm and look to be creative and different with their approach are the ones who will grab attention and get close to the big deals.

Instagram’s rapid success can be largely attributed to creative genius and no doubt this same level of creativity was taken to the negotiating table. So, what are you doing to be creative and different with your customers today?

Our sales training helps to ignite your creativity, stepping out of the norm and bringing your sale to life. Give us a call or click here to drop us an email if you would like to know more.

Live training or virtual training?

Matt — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 07:12:31 +0000

At Natural Training we like virtual training. But we LOVE training that’s live and face-to-face. In my mind the former supplements, supports and enhances the latter, but doesn’t replace it. Not yet anyway, and hopefully not for a good while yet.

One of our great people Paul Owen sent me a note from another awesome person, Seth Godin (check out his blog, it’s excellent). Here it is, with just a pinch of editing:

“My next event (Pick Yourself) won’t be webcast or recorded, as we’ve tried to create something that works best precisely because it’s live–not just as a result of what I’m saying on stage, but due to the people you meet and sit next to and connect with over your challenges and projects and dreams.

“Digital (training, speaking) scales, of course, because it spreads effortlessly and without cost.

“Real life, alas, doesn’t work that way. What we’ve tried to do is create an event that’s better precisely because you came, because you’re in the room, because someone on a similar journey is sitting next to you. A beautiful big theatre filled with intimate one on one connections.

“Assembling a group of six (friends, colleagues or strangers) makes it even more likely that you’ll come to the event ready to share and scheme and plan, taking action after it’s over.”

Beautifully said, Seth. Digital is cool, and there is a buzz about developing the next big thing. And digital does work to augment the reality of training. But when one of our trainers is in a room, maybe doing some sales training or presentation skills training, and there is collaboration, and action, and laughter, and emotion, and adrenalin – then one quickly realises that some things are awfully hard to replace.

Instagram success: Could creative thinking be the $1bn sales ticket? – PART 1

Matt — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:00:16 +0000

In case you haven’t heard, Facebook has bought the photo sharing site Instagram for $1bn this week.

For a two-year old, 13-staff business that’s one enormous deal. Co-founder Kevin Systrom trousers $400m of it. Sigh.

Online media and sharing is expanding at such a fast rate that innovative ideas like Instagram are worth more after two years than some companies are worth after 100years of trading. It just shows you the value of creative thinking.

So this got me thinking about sales – it’s pretty much all I think about. We always advocate a natural approach when talking to customers and prospects. But, how many sales men and women dig deep for creativity and fresh ideas each time they are faced with a potential buyer?

The answer is probably not all that many.

If Instagram and other sale success stories have taught us anything, it’s that creativity sells. With that in mind, here are some great ways you can inject the powerful ingredient of creativity into your selling strategy:

1. Be mindful of processes

There might be processes and protocol that the sales team has to stick to, but always be on the lookout to break free. Bring creativity to the sale by showing signs of being a maverick instead of someone simply going through the motions.

Think about the estate agent who has to gather vital pieces of information from prospects each time they are shown a property. It might be name, age, budget and moving date. The customer will respond far more positively to the agent who sneaks in a question or two while walking around their dream property compared to the agent tapping his clipboard as soon as they arrive.

2. Creative communication

In competitive markets creative thinking will stand you out from the crowd. So it’s important to always look for opportunities to be different in your sales approach.

Until fairly recently communication was limited to letter, fax and email – today this isn’t the case.

If your prospects expect you to email them, why not try something different? Ask to follow them on Twitter or link up on Linkedin. Imagine if none of your competitors communicate with your prospects on these platforms – you could get the opportunity to have one-on-one conversations away from the circling vultures!

In next week’s PART 2 I’ll give you access to TWO MORE ways to get creative in the sale – don’t miss it.

Our sales training helps to ignite your creativity, stepping out of the norm and bringing your sale to life. Give us a call on 020 7613 7830 if you would like to know more.