Dublin: 01-8610700 Cork: 021-4279511
What Ballyhoo at Ballymaloe
December 2nd, 2009
It is with awe and astonishment that I watched our own version of mam and apple pie on TV the other night. I’m talking of Darina Allen. What a performer and what a comeback kid.
Only six years ago there she was, as she walked arm in arm out of court with her child porno watching husband Tim. The country was outraged, and rightly so, as she and he brazenly defined public opinion. She stood by her man.
Newspapers, radio and even that staple of Irish TV, the Late Late show led with the story. A disgusting saga, as innocent children, some [...]
Time Management
November 24th, 2009
One of our top training courses is Time Management, and it has been over the last twenty years. Despite the many tools we now have, from mobiles, twitter, email, we still struggle to manage our time. We still get stressed and feel disorganised as we constantly run late for appointments.
Regularly you will hear people describe themselves as a disaster when it comes to time keeping. “I’m always late, I just can’t help it”.
Time management is not a product of the tools and systems available to you. Nor is time management something you are born with, a gene which determines whether [...]
Time has passed for Field Selling
November 19th, 2009
The traditional selling model of having Sales Reps in the field is gone. In the vast majority of cases the job of sales reps calling on existing customers on a monthly or regular basis is over. It just isn’t cost effective and to be perfectly honest it doesn’t work.
Now I know there are some who will say that “their business is different and the personal call is the industry standard”, they will point to the importance of building and managing relationships and so on. They will talk of the quality of the call and how the face to face encounter [...]
Avoid Infection
November 16th, 2009
We all know that Swine Flu is an infectious virus. You have to protect yourself, avoid others and commit ourselves to changed behaviour regarding hygiene. We are further told, according to recent research that all sorts of human behaviour are infectious. We are told that if your friends are obese you are more than twice as likely to have a weight issue. Smoking the same, if you associate with smokers you are more likely to acquire the habit. And if one of your peers decides to stop smoking this has a ripple effect too. The research, as written in the [...]
Selling by Numbers
November 11th, 2009
Price, price price. It was always an issue in the selling business. Now it is an epidemic, Swine Flu has nothing on this. Every buyer now wants a deal and prices are in free fall. Many sales people are dropping prices without regard for margins. This of course is a recipe for disaster.
At the heart of good selling lies profit and if you reduce prices to a level where it is not economically feasible you will end up as a busy fool. So what do you do?
We as sellers must become more familiar with margins, we must embrace the numbers. [...]
A common selling mistake
November 10th, 2009
The most common mistake for people new to sales is that they try too hard. They talk too much. Who ever bought anything from the fast talking salesman? Not anyone I know.
Professional sellers know that “telling is not selling” yet when you look at how people try to sell using websites they make the mistake over and over again. Most sites are so text heavy they lose customers.
Have you had that experience of walking into a shop and been greeted by the over keen sales assistant? A hasty retreat is the normal reaction.
So the golden rule for web selling is, [...]
It’s good to talk
November 9th, 2009
One of the upsides of the bust is that people in business, and sales people in particular, have stopped all that showing off bit. In the booming past we couldn’t help ourselves telling one another how we had become big shots. Sellers became aloof and some downright arrogant.
In these more sobering times sellers have got a little more real. We are willing to tell customers that we need their business. We are willing to cooperate and exchange ideas. I for one welcome the humility and openness. As we share the burden we are learning and I think it’s great.
So more [...]
Keep at it!
November 4th, 2009
No matter what training course you attend – Sales Training, Management Courses or even the more serious Project Management Courses, you’ll find the trainer will use one of those memorable little stories to reinforce a point. Some are good, even great and others, just crap.
I tend to like stories, maybe it’s a childish thing, but I like them.
Two frogs fell into a bucket of cream.Their situation was dire as they couldn’t jump out. They started to swim in circles getting increasingly despondent.
After an hour or so one of the frogs began to give up and insisted to his friend that [...]
Our time has come
November 4th, 2009
Last night I did what I often do, I went out for a pint.
I decided I’d go out early and come home early. I got the first bit right, but never mind.
As I was standing at the bar I started talking to a guy. As it happened he too was in the selling business. Inevitably we talked of the state of the economy and how difficult things were. “It’s not easy, it’s tough out there”.
And it is, it’s hard to do business and harder still to find new business.
You’d think it was time to get out of selling and find [...]
Flea Training
November 4th, 2009
Have you ever heard of a Flea Circus? No, there is really such a thing.
Trained fleas that will, believe it or not, perform tricks.
Let me share this one with you. If you gathered a half dozen fleas and put them in a glass you’d find that your career in the circus business would be short lived because the boyos would just hop out. That’s what fleas do, they hop and hopin out of a glass would be no problem.
So how do you train them?
Start by putting the fleas in the glass but this time put a lid on the top. [...]