January 15, 2015 By

Understanding Emotional Intelligence in High-Performance Sales People

What are some of the aspects of emotional intelligence that differentiate the high performing sales people from the rest? Here we examine 5 key traits of great sales people.

  • Intuition & Empathy. This is the salesperson’s awareness of the prospect’s feelings, needs, and concerns. This competency is important in a sales role for the following reasons:
    1. Attitude toward others: one’s ability to look positively and objectively upon others.
    2. Understanding others: an intuitive sense of a prospect’s and/or customer’s feelings and perspectives and showing an active interest in their needs.
    3. Customer service orientation: the ability to anticipate, recognize, and meet customers’ needs.

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Filed Under: Business Improvement Articles, Business Marketing and Sales
December 8, 2014 By

Understanding the Cost of Poor Communication & How to Fix IT!

Here we look at the enormous cost of poor communications and sour relationships in business; the common causes of both; and some simple mental and emotional tools that can make a difference.

Like all good tools these can be used instantly, but may take a lifetime to master.  That mastery is well worth pursuing, for the personal and commercial rewards are vast.

The Cost of Poor Communications

The first victim of poor communications is usually “relationship” – that sense of connection, association or involvement we feel with others when we share a common goal.Continue Reading

Filed Under: Business Marketing and Sales, Uncategorized
November 26, 2014 By

Selling Skills Are Just One Part Of your Sales process

Mapping Your Business Sales Process

Your Present Selling System

If you’re in a business that is more than a few years old, it is a certainty that someone within that business has developed a system – or a habit – of selling that works for your market – if only in part. If that system is not the best it could be, then your sales are less than they could be.It’s really that simple! Does it stand to reason then that, if you understood the system you have evolved to sell your product (we’ll use “product” to include services), you may be able to use that understanding to improve or optimise your system – and increase your sales thereby? After all, the effectiveness of sales does not rely only on the selling skills of the individual sales person, but also on the systems and support available to them.Continue Reading

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November 17, 2014 By

Marketing Basics

images Marketing Basics (For non-marketers)

This article is aimed at people who are completely new to the world of marketing, or who are not at all sure about what marketing means to their business.

So, we’re going right back to marketing basics here.  But, having said that, you’d be surprised how many of the so-called marketing “hot shots” forget the basics (or never knew them in the first place) and keep tripping over themselves as a result.

Please remember, this is a just a basic guide – not a manual on marketing techniques and strategies.  It is designed to get you pointed in the right direction with your marketing efforts and to ensure that you have your plan for the next month, the next quarter, and the whole year, documented… written down.Continue Reading

Filed Under: Business Improvement Articles, Business Marketing and Sales
October 29, 2014 By

Customer Care Committment

How good is your customer care?

If you think it could do with a little brushing up then read on….

Here are some suggestions on providing team members with guidelines on how to better care for (and retain) their clients, that I recently gave to a client who is in the computer hardware business. Feel free to tailor this to suit your own business.

Rather than introduce “more ideas” or higher level stuff, I feel strongly that the members would be best served by your developing a simple, 5 point “Customer Care Commitment” after-sales process, and backing it up with clear instructions and a little stationery.

Perhaps something along the lines of:

1. A “Thank You” card completed by the sales person immediately the sale is complete (or at least before they go home that day). The card could be mass produced, as a fold-over “tent card” DL or smaller, with lines on the inside face for a hand-written note, and space at the bottom for overprinting with member’s contact details. You could even use the old Joe Girard* line of “We Like You” across the front of the card.Continue Reading

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