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Dear <$salutation$> Time for a fresh start...Welcome from P-tek Development Solutions Ltd’s MD, Chris Barnard – another juicy P-tek newsletter crammed full useful advice and information about getting that advantage, making that sale or expanding your business awaits you. Food for thought after those refreshing summer holidays! Now read on and find out more…! Chris Barnard, Managing Director, P-tek Development Solutions Ltd P-tek focus - on Martyn and Jeanette RouseBoth Martyn and Jeanette are P-tek consultants and directors of their own company, BTS Training Services Ltd.
Martyn worked for many years as a senior manager in a national communications company, being responsible for both operational and project management, often involving teams of up to 700 employees and projects that affected 7,500 employees. Jeanette was a senior manager in a national communications company for a number of years, during which time, she was responsible for employment strategies and employee relations across East Anglia while managing teams of up to 40 people. Both Martyn and Jeanette draw on this impressive experience to provide sound practical advice and techniques during their tutoring; both believe in providing training based on their own real-world experience and not just textbook theories. This is very much to our customers’ advantage. For more information, contact P-tek Development Solutions Ltd on 08448 011 733 by fax on 07092 029439 or by e-mail Top tips for JuneAri Galper: ‘Follow-up’ – good or bad?
You probably use that phrase instinctively without even thinking about it, especially when you call your prospects after your initial conversation with them. Until now, you probably never questioned that phrase. But I bet, if you’ve only been exposed to traditional sales thinking, then my guess is none of the sales books you’ve read or CDs you’ve listened to ever explained why ‘follow-up’ is a phrase that should be banned from your vocabulary. You see, the traditional ‘sales gurus’ would think it incomprehensible to question that phrase – because they only operate from a sales mindset of what they themselves have been exposed to. When you begin to understand that your enemy to making the sale is actually hidden pressure within the sales process – then you start looking for ways to remove that pressure. Now, I’m not talking about overt sales pressure you might experience on a used car lot. I’m talking about covert pressure imbedded in the words and phrases you use with your prospect. And you very well know that it’s human nature to retreat, physically and mentally, when pressure comes our way. As pressure relates to selling, what happens is your prospects throw up their mental ‘wall’ when they feel you’re not connecting with them or understanding the truth of what they are thinking. And when you come from a mindset of focusing on ‘going for the sale’ instead of going for the TRUTH – of whether the sale exists or not – then it becomes virtually impossible to detect words and phrases you use that contain sales pressure. So, why is the phrase ‘follow-up’ so counter-productive to selling and what pressure-free replacement can you use in its place, to get to the truth of what’s on your prospect’s mind? Why the phrase ‘follow-up’ works against you But what if your prospect isn’t ready to go down your sales path? If he’s not, then you’re calling to ‘follow-up’ becomes transparent for ‘let’s move you down my process so I can make the sale’. In most cases, that’s in direct conflict with what he’s wanting to do when you call. You see, when you expand your mindset to understand that it’s infinitely more pragmatic to get to the truth of whether your prospect REALLY wants to buy from you, then you cut out having to endlessly chase until you find out the sale was never going to happen. That’s a painful state of realisation that most people in sales discover AFTER stressful cycles of thinking their sole mission is to chase prospects in order to make a sale. Selling certainly doesn’t have to tangle you up in a web of frustration. ‘Hi John... I’m just giving you a call to see what your THOUGHTS might be since we spoke last about your [enter their problem here]... and to see if any questions may have come to mind?’ Notice you aren’t trying to get him to think about moving forward, possibly triggering resistance if he isn’t ready? Instead, you’re going BACK to the previous discussion you both had together. Now, you’ll find that, if your initial conversation was focused on a problem that affects him, and you entered that conversation with a mindset of being humble and a ‘problem solver’ – instead of a ‘salesperson’– then in most cases you’ll hear the TRUTH of what he’s thinking. But, if your initial conversation started with a sales pitch that didn’t allow him to feel you care and really understand the depth of his issue as it relates to your solution, then he may simply say ‘No, none at this time.’ Hmmm... that certainly is telling isn’t it? How well your prospect really trusts you and feels comfortable with you directly correlates to your ability to make more sales without having to be someone you’re not. There is a slew of other counter-productive phrases that you may be using unknowingly that puts you in the wrong place with your prospect. You can learn more about those phrases, begin to expand your mindset toward success without sales frustration – and join a like-minded community of successful people who believe trust is the key to business success here. For more information, contact Ari Galper on 020 8150 6147 or by e-mail. His website is another good source. Bernadette Doyle: How to get more done in less time One big question I hear over and over is, ‘How on earth do I find time for marketing and selling?’
This is something I can strongly relate to, as I struggled with it myself when I first set up my corporate training business back in 1996. What made the biggest difference for me was replacing one-to-one sales and marketing activities with one-to-many activities. One-to-one sales and marketing techniques are just not effective for the small business owner. You can’t possibly reach all the people you need to reach, establish their needs, propose a solution, close the sale, deliver the goods and follow up effectively if you are doing it on a one-to-one basis. Trust me, that’s a very fast route to burn out. When things really started changing for me in my business was when I dropped one-to-one marketing and selling, and I turned it into one-to-many marketing and selling. What this meant was that I was making offers simultaneously to large groups of people to both attract them as prospects and then to convert them into paying customers. Without cold calling. Without time-consuming face-to-face meetings. So let me give you some examples of some one-to-one activities that you may already be doing and show you how you can transform them into one-to-many techniques. Going to a networking meeting where you meet one person at a time, talk to them and exchange business cards is a one-to-one technique. However, if you arrange to be the speaker at that meeting and provide practical, solution-orientated content along with a clear next step and call to action at the end of your talk, you’ve just turned it into a one-to-many technique. Cold calling is definitely a one-to-one prospecting technique. There are a finite number of people that you can cold call over a period of a week. Send a well-crafted direct mail piece, however, and you have replaced it with a one-to-many technique. When I started my business, I couldn’t afford to hire a sales team and I just didn’t have time to prospect by phone, have the face-to-face meeting AND deliver the training (highly ironic considering my specialism was cold calling), so I started using direct mail to promote my training courses. Suddenly, instead of me having to try six to eight times to reach the MD of a company, his secretary was calling ME to request a meeting. (This technique isn’t for the faint-hearted, though, and you need a cracking foundation in direct mail and copywriting techniques before you plunge in.) Free introductory consultation is a one-to-one technique, but you can turn it into a one-to-many technique by hosting a teleconference that still enables you to connect with people, but in a group setting. I know of one coach who has built a multi-six-figure business and he credits this one technique for his success. Calling on a customer with a box of doughnuts is a one-to-one relationship technique. There are only so many customers you can see (and only so many doughnuts you can eat!). A newsletter like this one is a one-to-many relationship-building tool. For example, it takes me the same hour to write this newsletter each week whether it’s read by 100 people, 1,000 people or 10,000 people. And I don’t have to eat a single doughnut! You do the same amount of work, but your results keep increasing. And that’s what gives you the edge over people who are stuck using one-to-one techniques. The main advantage of replacing one-to-one techniques with one-to-many techniques is that you get a better return on your investment of time because in that hour you’re potentially reaching hundreds of thousands of potential prospects rather than just the one. So you need to replace your one-to-one techniques with one-to-many techniques. If you want to grow your business exponentially, and you want to be in a position where your calendar is full and you’ve got people knocking on the door for your services, switching from one-to-one techniques to one-to-many techniques is crucial. © Bernadette Doyle, 2008 Bernadette Doyle publishes her weekly Client Magnets newsletter for trainers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, then get your free tips now at the Client Magnets website. Anne Beitel: Once upon a time... ‘I resign’ Recent research from Executives Online indicates that 35% of the time organisations are ignoring clear indicators that a key senior manager is set to leave the business. Furthermore, it postulates that 75% of organisations have contingency plans that you could drive a hypothetical bus through. As a result of this, we are seeing the emergence of a new trend: the increase in the utilisation of interim executive staffing at a very senior level. Most companies will have a recruitment methodology in place and, if they are extremely lucky, an available talent pool to draw upon in order to ensure that the gaps can be filled relatively easily. However, when a senior manager or director leaves unexpectedly, the effect can be severe commercially, as well as being demoralising and destabilising to staff. ‘In order to reduce risk and limit exposure, organisations can look for typical telltale signs that a senior member of the team wants to leave.’ Thirty-eight per cent of the 102 companies surveyed in Executives Online’s recent ‘Business Exposure’ report stated that they had faced such a situation in the past year. Such circumstances can leave an organisation exposed whilst it tries to rapidly recruit specific skills and experience which are rarely easy to find.
Observing the telltale signs is important, but it is only one piece of the jigsaw. Organisations must also ensure that continuous succession planning is carried out in order to identify future potential leaders who are able to fill key management positions. It is surprising to note that, whilst companies may have plans in place to cope with the sudden breakdown of a critical piece of production equipment or IT system, they do not appear to take the same care with their people. The results of the Business Exposure report concluded that just one in four companies have plans in place to cover the sudden departure of a senior member of the team. Some describe quite robust systems involving succession plans, where internal replacements for the top three levels of management have been identified. Others are more reliant on recruitment solutions, such as interim management or consultants, as a means to plugging the gap. ‘It is surprising to note that, whilst companies may have plans in place to cope with the sudden breakdown of a critical piece of production equipment or IT system, they do not appear to take the same care with their people.’ There is a small minority of organisations whose idea of a plan is simply to have a sufficient notice period in place during which time they expect to address the fallout from a senior employee’s unexpected resignation. Traditional recruitment can take around six months to find a new senior team member, allow sufficient time for the new person to settle in and make sure they are right for the role. Yet the typical notice period is three months, leaving companies who rely purely on the notice period with a disturbing vacuum. Even those companies who believe they are forward thinking in their succession planning acknowledge that, when compared with other assets, the senior team is relatively unprotected in today’s business world. Identifying potential internal recruits for each management position may often be impracticable, but organisations must have more robust contingency plans in place which go beyond having a three-month notice period. Conducting an audit of the key roles would be an extremely valuable starting point for organisations that are ill prepared. This assessment should be an ongoing process and include areas such as:
all of which will differ, depending on the size and type of organisation. It is also important for organisations to determine whether conventional search is the most effective approach as a recruitment methodology for permanent executives. Traditional search will usually only be able to deliver a short list of candidates after a couple of months. This is entirely out of line with the need of the client who needs to fill the role quickly and reduce business exposure. A short list of pre-screened, pre-selected candidates should be provided in a matter of weeks rather than months. This will help to keep competitors at bay and minimise the commercial vulnerability that the business experiences while the role is in performance paralysis. ‘Traditional search will usually only be able to deliver a short list of candidates after a couple of months.’ Organisations should also spend the time considering the role that interim management can play within the recruitment strategy; particularly bearing in mind the speed with which highly skilled senior interim executives can be in place and operational. Our recent report highlights that it can take on average four months to fill an executive vacancy, therefore the financial impact of a director or senior manager unexpectedly leaving can run into millions of pounds. The top two reasons why organisations engage with interim executives are to bridge a sudden gap in the management team and because they cannot hire permanent executives quickly enough. With the right interim provider, organisations have the opportunity to plug their recruitment gap in a matter of days, which will ensure the financial risk highlighted is minimised. No organisation wants to lose their good people, but most of them will. That is why, at a time when companies are working hard to protect their competitive edge, ideas, brands and reputations, the same level of emphasis must be put on protecting your human capital. Anne Beitel is Managing Director of Executives Online. Copyright © 2008 HR Zone Ltd. All rights reserved. The HR Zone website can be accessed here For more information, contact P-tek Development Solutions Ltd on 08448 011 733 by fax on 07092 029439 or by e-mail Getting that edgeThe new academic year is fast approaching and, with it, specialist business and management training opportunities at the University of Essex. Here are the first of 2008/09’s crop:
For more information go to their website or send them an e-mail. Need to book a room? For conference room bookings close to Ipswich town centre, please call: Taking it furtherDid you find something useful in this newsletter? If so, why not forward it to a friend, and let them sign up for their own copy? If anything in this newsletter is of interest to you or if you want any further information about P-tek Development Solutions Ltd and what we could do for you, please telephone us now on 08448 011 733 or fax us on 07092 029439. Alternatively, you can e-mail us or visit our website. We'd be delighted to hear from you! |
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P-tek Development Solutions Ltd
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Martyn is the tutor for the technical and health and safety courses, while Jeanette is the tutor for the leadership, personal development and HR courses. Both bring much experience to their roles. 
If there is one phrase that exemplifies the typical salesperson the most, it’s the phrase ‘follow-up’.
The challenge of running your own business is that typically you are not only the sales manager, you’re also the person delivering the service to your clients.
Staff churn across the entire workforce is a fact of business life, with organisations accepting that it is something they must address.