by Mike Brunel | Sep 25, 2018 | Leadership, Sales, Strategy
If you’ve read my last few posts. you’ll see that I’ve been discussing the mistakes business owners make ( I have made every one of them- no kidding!) when it comes to getting the right salesperson on your team.
I want to give you as much value as I can, so here are three important hoops (as I call them) that you might want to think about when it comes to employing new salespeople.
Structure Not Gut
Hoop 1- Company Culture Fit
Company Culture– While we believe that fitting in with the company culture is important, as demonstrated in the graph on our
FREE report, it makes up only 10%
.
Don’t get too caught up in making sure this is a major part of the recruiting process.
Create a good
job description.
This is a critical factor in hiring good salespeople. When you advertise for a salesperson what do you ask?
How do you define the role? What are you looking for? What is the remuneration?
*Chet Holmes, one of my early mentors, always did this exercise when advertising for super salespeople.
Write down three initiatives that you would love to hire someone to do in your business.
Three only. Next to each one, do this:
What would it mean to your business?
How would it change your business?
Now list what you could afford to pay such people if they really performed.
Do the exercise. This forms the foundation of good a job description.
Hoop 2- Structuring an interview – History of Success.
Once you get the CV’s for the position, look for a history of success. Somewhere that you can see a challenge; a life experience that they overcame.
Structuring an interview- A structured interview process makes up 30% or a third of the process (
FREE report). That’s a lot. In your structured interview, you should have some questions to ask, after reading the CV. Here are a few to start with.
How do you function as a team?
How do you feel about operating in a team environment?
Do you like working on your own outside of that team?
Can you tell me about a time when you were asked to do a project on your own? What was it?
These questions might just get the process moving.
Challenge the candidate– You are hiring salespeople to do a specific job. Human beings inherently will do anything to avoid pain. However, in the business of selling, rejection is part of what selling really is, and it can be painful.
If everyone got 100% of the business every time they presented a product, the salesperson would be out of business.
If you are hiring a salesperson to sell your product and prospecting is part of that, would you not at least ask them
“What happens when you get a ‘ No!’ – How do you react?”
Ask them this, and see what happens:
“ You know what, I’m not convinced that you are the right person for this job.” Observe their reaction. Do they just sit there? Or do they do something that indicates to you they might do the same with a client?
Hoop 3- Assessment Tools
This also makes up 30% of the job evaluation- We personally take a lot of guidance from these types of assessments and we go into more detail here:
Download my FREE report We used to call these the B.S. detector.
We carried these assessments out in my company specifically for the roles we were looking for, in salary and performance-based positions.
Our salespeople had to work alone. We had salespeople sprinkled all over the world; usually unmanaged, working in an unstructured environment.
We had to be really clear on what we were looking for. That’s where traits/ behaviours come into play. We knew we had to hire for the task, not just the attitude.
In my next post, I explain what I look for in a salesperson, and how I came to that.
Download my FREE report to learn more, or email me… mike@mikebrunel.com
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. His products and services are now sold in 23 countries and in 11 languages generating $350 million annually in sales for his clients. Mike sold the company in 2015 and now spends his time following his passions which include rugby, travel. His promise: “I can find thousands of dollars in your business within minutes – GUARANTEED” TRY ME!
by Mike Brunel | Apr 30, 2018 | Leadership, Strategy
Sometimes we need a little motivation to get us going; here is a great story about seeking your own motivation.
It was a cold winter’s morning in Austin, Texas when I was dragged along to a keynote speech done by Og Manadio, the famous author of the book “The Greatest Salesman in the World.”
I did not know much about Og but going by the packed audience he must have been famous. Over the next hour I was spellbound, every word he uttered felt like he was talking to me directly as if he knew all my secrets, and all around me people were in tears, he just had this great ability to touch everyone in the audience with his words. I was so moved and began, for the first time in my life, to understand the meaning of purpose.
In the library
I was reminded about this great speech Og gave so many years ago because today I am in the library, looking after my daughter and her two friends who have asked me to take them there to do a project, they are everywhere in the library searching for information, articles, and stories to assist them in their project.
Power of Reading
I was taken back in time to what Og had said during that speech all those years ago, he talked about many of his life lessons.
What he had experienced as a young man, becoming a husband, father and successful businessman to then becoming a 30-year-old bum, his successful life now drowned in alcohol.
One day he found himself leaning up against a pawn shop window deciding if that $30 in his pocket could buy that gun in the window, he could take it back to his miserable hotel room, put the gun to his head and pull the TRIGGER!
Well, it turned out that 30-year-old bum did not buy that gun and take his life, he went instead to the library.
You see in all our years of education Og reminded us, for most of us the one thing we learned at school was to read.
There is a famous quote from Charles Tremendous Jones, that goes something like this;
“You are the same person in 5 years except for two things, the people you meet, and the books you read”
Secrets to Success
Another one of Og’s gems was that when we’re growing up there was never any discussions or lessons about how to be successful, how to set goals, how to handle adversity, how to come back after a failure.
He maintained that there was one place where you could find the masters, the secrets to success, and that was the library.
The masters like W. Clement Stone, Napoleon Hill, Maxwell Maltz, and the modern author’s I know like, Anthony Robbins, Chet Holmes, Tom Hopkins and many more.
The great thing about all of these authors is that they are all sitting on the shelf, waiting for you right now, you just have to go and seek them out, and they are FREE, all you need is a library card.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. His products and services are now sold in 23 countries and in 11 languages generating $350 million annually in sales for his clients. Mike sold the company in 2015 and now spends his time following his passions which include rugby, travel. His promise: “I can find thousands of dollars in your business within minutes – GUARANTEED” TRY M
by Mike Brunel | Apr 26, 2018 | Leadership, Sales
A Valuable Lesson.
Throughout my 30 years of selling advertising to companies of all sizes, I learned many valuable lessons. I began as a door-to-door stationary salesperson in Sydney, selling everything from pencils to exercise books. I then moved on to selling carpet services in London, utilizing promotional brochures to generate leads. It was during this time that I realized the importance of face-to-face sales.
Direct media selling was my next endeavour, where I discovered the challenge of selling something invisible – a service, rather than a physical product.
Selling the Invisible
Advertising is intangible, existing in the form of airtime or a gap in a TV program. Building trust became critical to my success, and I quickly learned the value of meeting clients in person to establish a relationship.
As my career progressed, I discovered the power of selling to many.
When I started NRS Media, my partner Doug Gold introduced me to the concept of a “membership program.” Advertisers could purchase advertising time at a discounted rate, but only if they committed to a 12-month automatic debit payment plan.
This approach generated over $1 million in advertising commitment before the media company even launched.
I developed a sales system around this model, generating over $1 billion in revenue for our media partners worldwide.
Our seminars, using a “one-to-many” presentation model, boasted attendance rates of 70-80%, with closing rates as high as 50%.
The key to success lies in developing a process for your product, which can be easily accomplished through digital means. Many companies are already doing an excellent job of utilizing the one-to-many approach to distributing their information.
In conclusion, while face-to-face sales remain essential, selling to many through a free seminar or digital process has become increasingly crucial.
I encourage you to have fun selling your products this week, utilizing the power of technology and personal relationships to build lasting connections with your clients.
Mike
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, and expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training. He was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. His products and services are now sold in 23 countries and 11 languages generating $350 million annually in sales for his clients. Mike sold the company in 2015 and now spends his time following his passions, including rugby and travel. His promise: “I can find thousands of dollars in your business within minutes – GUARANTEED” TRY ME
by Mike Brunel | Mar 20, 2018 | Leadership, Sales, Strategy
Decide your Personal Operating Procedures
In my last post, I talked about the story of Contiki, this excellent travel company born out an idea of John Anderson that provided 18-35-year-olds an avenue to see the world in the company of people their same age.
In his book “Only Two Seats Left” (link) www.onlytwoseatsleft.com John Anderson the founder lists 25 personal and business messages. These are sprinkled through the book.
I have picked out two in this post and a couple in my next post to illustrate the need for something to think about this coming year.
- Do not research an idea to death – often go with your gut feel.
This is one of the common mistakes many startups and people new to business make, they analyse until they are paralysed.
The truth is that they are paralysed with fear, and are afraid to “just do it” as Nike would say.
If there are ideas out there that you have wanted to try then make a promise that you will try.
- Specialise & be the best in the market.
You can’t be all things to everyone. Salespeople in this new economy have to find a new way of doing business you now need a good story; you need a reason to be in your market, with your opposition, that sets you apart from that opposition.
The reality is the economy is getting cleaned out- it was badly needed, and its happening, the worst employees, the worst salespeople and the worst managers are moving on.
Salespeople have to be problems solvers for their client, not their company they represent.
Our clients know and hear a sales pitch, they defend, use tactics to say no.
What they want are ideas, ways to solve their problems, just like John, who had an idea.
Have fun selling your stuff.
Mike
PS Looking for ideas to help your sales improve, contact me for a FREE 45-minute sales session.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. His products and services are now sold in 23 countries and in 11 languages generating $350 million annually in sales for his clients. Mike sold the company in 2015 and now spends his time following his passions which include rugby, travel. His promise: “I can find thousands of dollars in your business within minutes – GUARANTEED” TRY ME
by Mike Brunel | Mar 13, 2018 | Leadership, Strategy
£25 and a Dream
Down under the under, a term I used to tell my American clients to describe where New Zealand was in relation to Australia has had one of the best summers for several years.
It’s a chance to reflect as well on what makes this part of the world a special place.
And why I think that us Kiwis are a clever bunch of people when it comes to innovation and following our dreams.
Every year down under the under most of us get to take a few weeks away to enjoy our summer. I get to go to a family beach house I have been going to for 20 odd years.
Most of my partner’s family have been going to this part of the world much longer, probably three generations.
The beach is a five-minute walk, it’s a daily ritual with two children and of course Bruno the dog.
Part of summer holidays is reading, usually for me fiction an easy read about not much.
Kind of takes your minds off things if you can sprinkle that with the odd nonfiction it gives you some balance.
Those that have read some of my thoughts on goal setting know that I am not big on doing these in the New Year… I tend to set them at different times of the year so they overlap.
I was looking through some of my posts from years gone by and I came across this one, £25 and a Dream.
It’s important I think in this day and age when our young folk think that they are the only pioneers of entrepreneurship, that we did have trailblazers paving the way, with as much passion and determination dating back a year or two.
To the post, one of the books I read on my summer holiday was: “Only Two Seats Left” the story about Contiki.
Its author and Contiki founder John Anderson blends his autobiography, and tales of travel into a great read its Australasia’s great untold business stories.
A story about a company that started on just £25 pounds and became a worldwide travel company.
For those that do not know about Contiki, it’s a travel company for the 18-35-year-olds.
You get to explore Europe and other parts of the world with other young people your age. Many friendships are formed that have lasted years. He says that he thinks the company is responsible for over 5000 marriages.
It had such an impact on so many young people and these are told in this great read.
There are also some great lessons we could all take note of if we are in sales,
I am going to explore a few with you with a couple of revamped posts and lessons I learned from John’s book.
Keep selling your stuff.
Mike
PS. Want to get better at sales? Try out our 7-day Challenge FREE
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. His products and services are now sold in 23 countries and in 11 languages generating $350 million annually in sales for his clients. Mike sold the company in 2015 and now spends his time following his passions which include rugby, travel. His promise: “I can find thousands of dollars in your business within minutes – GUARANTEED” TRY ME
by Mike Brunel | Feb 28, 2018 | Leadership
This secret or tip has worked pretty much every time I have tried it.
Imagine this is your first call to your client, you have just inherited a client list from your sales manager, you know the one…
“Its gold coated and will bring you in thousands and thousands of dollars.” Or so the sales manager thinks.
When you make your first appointment with a new client, say to them just before you get off the phone “I’m looking forward to meeting you, how many staff do you have because I have a surprise for you”
Pick up morning tea
On the way to the call, pop into your local bakery and “pick up morning tea”.
When you get to the appointment, leave everything in the car except your business card, walk on in and present your surprise… It will work I can guarantee it…why… it breaks the ice, the client sees no briefcase, no salesman talk, they relax,
Some of the staff are won over straight away, and you get to find out more about your client in a more relaxed manner. If your client says no thanks then they are not worth having.
Have a great week and have fun selling your stuff.
Mike
Good selling
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. His products and services are now sold in 23 countries and in 11 languages generating $350 million annually in sales for his clients. Mike sold the company in 2015 and now spends his time following his passions which include rugby, travel. His promise: “I can find thousands of dollars in your business within minutes – GUARANTEED” TRY ME
