People interested in learning the latest ideas, trends and innovation in professional selling and sales management joined me recently at Luna Park in Sydney for the second Sales Effectiveness breakfast event for 2010. The feedback was fantastic – I hope to see you in June.
Till then, here are some highlights from May for you.
Julia Palmer. “Understanding the face to face revolution”
We’re all connected in this electronic world – but are we really connected to those who can help us achieve our personal and business goals?
Julia’s presentation emphasised the importance of building our networks personally – and planning how, when, where and why we should be networking face to face. Using a set of group activities we all discovered pla
ces and people we could connect with to build relationships to help us all achieve the outcomes we’re looking for.
And Julia finished with a warning – to be balanced in our approach to networking. Less is usually more – so don’t try and win the business card collection race – instead, look to build quality connections through an authentic approach to building your relationship network.
And try to do as much as you can “face to face”.
Find out more by ordering your copy of the DVD of the full presentation:
http://www.saleseffectiveness.com.au/sales-effectiveness-breakfast-event-series-14-may-2010/
You can also find out more about Julia Palmer and her Business Networking Academy here:
http://www.businessnetworkingacademy.com.au/
Michael Foulds. “Six coaching questions for improved negotiation outcomes”
Michael set the scene for discussing how to coach for better negotiation outcomes by firstly highlighting research which indicates that most of us have an over inflated view of our abilities a
s negotiators.
He then addressed the three main barriers to coaching sales negotiations:
- An over focus on content – the what of the negotiation – as opposed to the process of negotiation
- We tend to have a narrow view of negotiation – and often think it’s the bit “we do at the end”, when the negotiation process should start much earlier in the sales cycle
- We often end up gaining vital information too late in the process – things we should have known much earlier
Michael then used the following framework to discuss how to build questions to coach people to better negotiation outcomes:
- Introduce the negotiation landscape
- determine who wants what – and why
- look at where we go next (and where we don’t go) – and when
- consider how to achieve this outcome
- always think – so what?
Find out more by ordering your copy of the DVD of the full presentation:
http://www.saleseffectiveness.com.au/sales-effectiveness-breakfast-event-series-14-may-2010/
There’s more information about Michael Foulds and his company – ENS – here:
Ciaran McGuigan – “The World’s Best Sales Tips”
Ciaran spoke engagingly about some of the many tips contained in his book. He highlighted the following simple – but critically important – point in selling:
“All things being equal, people buy from people they like. And things being unequal – they still buy from people they like”
Many of us had heard this before – but it’s always worth being reminded about this truism. Selling is the most personal of vocations – if we can be personable, authentic and genuinely interested in our clients’ world – we’re more than halfway there.
Talking Point – “What will professional selling look like in 5 years?”
Our talking point for the month of May, was enthusiastically embraced by those in the room. A number of trends impacting the world of professional selling were highlighted. Two themes which were raised by a number of groups included the changing make-up of sales teams, and the impact of the growth of social networking.
If you missed the event – you can still see and hear the complete presentation set on DVD – and receive a complimentary copy of Ciaran McGuigan’s book. Order you copy here by registering as a virtual attendee of the breakfast series:
http://www.saleseffectiveness.com.au/sales-effectiveness-breakfast-event-series-14-may-2010/
Thanks for reading this post – Paul Sparks, Sales Effectiveness Australasia.
“Taking you beyond sales training and keeping you informed about the latest ideas, trends, innovation, research & best practice in professional selling and sales management”
If you would like to connect with Paul Sparks please email paulsparks [at] saleseffectiveness.com.au
