by Mike Brunel | Jun 26, 2019 | Sales
Having been married for quite some time, and to the same person AJH, I have over time learned a very valuable lesson in husband and wife relations.
Some may agree or disagree and even if you take the guidance of John Grey’s book, Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus, that proposes that indeed we are different, I think that in sales then it does run true in most cases.
There has of course been a lot of study about this subject from experts with wisdom from thousands of research studies, far more qualified than I ever could be.
I do however listen when AJH says that women could teach men a lot about sales.
Here is her take on it, and she does know, being in retail for 20 years in the interior design business.
Think and Feel
AJH has been a retailer for over 25 years and specialises in interior design.
Her view is that guys “think” and women “feel”. (Not all women) women, in general, respond on a ‘feeling level.
She says that a question such as “How do you feel about the cushion” gets a better response than, “What do you think about that cushion.”
As a salesperson, thinking about how you phrase questions when working with both men and women might just pay dividends.
AJH’s final comment is that women are better at picking up salespeople’s BS detector.
That is another article all by itself.
What do you think? We would love to hear your comments.
Good selling.
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
That’s why you can get FREE in your inbox every morning for 7 days; the 7 Day Sale Challenge.
Hop on over here and subscribe.
For more content like this, please make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
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. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
by Mike Brunel | Jun 12, 2019 | Sales
In this week’s blog, I talk about the importance of understanding the basic human needs we all have.
In addition, what it means to you as a salesperson, if you discover a client’s wants and needs.
My view is that unless you do discover the needs and wants of your clients then getting a sale is harder, often blocked, and as a result, your sales will not move forward.
In this blog, we talk about needs, one in particular, how to understand it, and how to use it to dig deep into the core of your client’s problem.
Certainty/Comfort
I think the most important human need is the need for Certainty.
It’s our desire to feel in control and to know what’s coming next, so we can feel secure.
It’s the desire for basic comfort, the need to avoid pain and stress, and also to create a good outcome.
Our need for certainty is a survival mechanism.
It affects the level of risk we’re willing to take in life—in our jobs, in our business and finally, in our relationships.
The higher the need for certainty, the less risk you’ll be willing to take, or emotionally bear.
By the way, this is where your real “risk tolerance” comes from.
Knowing that, let me ask you a question
What and how does this relate to sales?
What does your client need to feel certain about your product?
What devices and assurances can you give them about your product or service?
What certainty can they get from you versus the certainty from working with others?
What risk do you take away from them when they buy your product?
Even though the product that is similar to yours is inferior or of lower quality than yours, why do they buy?
If you can use that as part of your sales presentation, you move towards helping to meet your client’s basic human need.
Good selling.
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
That’s why you can get FREE in your inbox every morning for 7 days; the 7 Day Sale Challenge.
Hop on over here and subscribe.
For more content like this, please make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
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. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
by Mike Brunel | Jun 5, 2019 | Sales
The leads are weak is a well-known phrase from the movie Glengarry Glen Ross starring Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin.
The movie is an examination of the machinations behind the scenes at a real estate office. In one scene Jack Lemmon, after working all evening on the phones trying to sell real estate, says with a rather large amount of frustration “The leads are weak”
Only to be lambasted and humiliated by Alec Baldwin in a scene watched over 4 million times on Youtube alone.
Our excuses.
While Jack Lemmon may have thought that the leads are weak, what are some of the excuses that you make up when you go to call a client or visit an advertiser?
Here are some I have heard.
- He or she won’t buy our product. They tell me they tried us once and they were just not interested.
- Our prices are too high, and the other guys are always discounting to get the business. It happens all the time.
- The other company has a better product than me.
- My sales manager doesn’t understand the business, it’s different now; she never comes out with me to see for herself.
- The client list is weak; I always seem to get the clients that do not buy, while the other sales people have all the best clients.
- I have been set a certain part of town to service and build business, and to be honest it’s not great. The prospects are just not there.
- I do not get a compensation plan that rewards my efforts and it’s not fair I work as hard as the other guy.
Yes, the leads are weak, and selling wasn’t meant to be easy, and life is tough. Selling anything in this changing world of sales and consumer choice is difficult.
My question is:
What beliefs do you have to shed to move forward in your sales career?
Good selling.
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
That’s why you can get FREE in your inbox every morning for 7 days; the 7 Day Sale Challenge.
Hop on over here and subscribe.
For more content like this, please make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
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. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
by Mike Brunel | May 29, 2019 | Sales
This last week I was asked by one of my clients how they can prospect better.
It does not matter what it is you sell, whether it is a service, or a product.
Prospecting is the lifeblood of any sales organisation.
Would you like to know a system that allows you to stand out from all the salespeople in your market, and position you as the expert in your field?
Credibility is a big factor in sales.
Whether you are a rookie or a veteran, your clients want to see if you have creditability.
They judge you and what you offer, every day.
If you can somehow market yourself as the “go to” person, the one person they think of when they think of sales in your category, you are 90% ahead of every other salesperson in your market. There is case study after case study, where businesses (you are a business) shift from hunting the “prey” to positioning the client to understand your expertise.
One way of doing that is to create a Bio.
How to Create a Bio
Here are 4 simple steps to get started with your bio:
- Write a brief story about yourself. In 25 -30 words, describe yourself professionally. Highlight your qualifications and experience, including any skills you may have that are transferrable from other sectors of your industry.
- Note your business, professional and/or other achievements. You may have achieved some success in sport, been awarded an MBA or raised a family. Show the client that you are a three-dimensional human being, not just a marketing machine.
- Add a photo of yourself. These days, your mobile phone can take good pictures—or just get a friend or colleague to take one. I personally prefer a good black and white photo, as I think it looks just a little more professional than a colour print.
- Describe what you have to offer. Do you have a positioning statement that will instantly tell the client who you are? I have a real-estate friend whose positioning statement is, ‘Dedicated to Superior Customer Service’.
Try these, Good selling for 2022, and please feel free to share.
PLUS: Whenever you’re ready…
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by Mike Brunel | May 22, 2019 | Sales
As many of you may know, I owned a media consultancy company called NRS Media. We consulted to Radio, TV and Newspaper publishers, and online media companies all over the world.
As you can probably appreciate, it involved a lot of travel, with many of our staff often on planes for weeks on end. (with weekends off, of course.)
If you want to watch a great movie on air travel as a businessperson, I would recommend Up in the Air starring George Clooney.
Some of the tricks and manoeuvers he goes through to get on some of his flights are very funny and I am sure many of our staff think the same, as they contemplate their journeys.
One of the questions that I always ask when I arrive at the counter is “How busy is the flight today” if the answer is “Okay, not too bad, not too full” I always ask the next question.
“Can you block off the middle seat?” I ask,
“I’ve got a bit of work to do and want to spread out”.
Usually if they have one, they will do it for me.
You see, the middle seat is NOT the seat of choice for a frequent traveller, it’s a seat that nobody wants, unless it’s the kids and they share it with each other.
The kids don’t mind, it gives them the chance to play against each other with some new video game, or a movie they can watch.
So, the question is, would you pay for the seat to be FREE? Well, some people would, and one airline, my airline, Air New Zealand does just that.
It’s part of their new makeover on their new flash Boeing 777’s. If the seat next to you is empty, you can secure it; if you part with $150.
They also sell you the option to stretch out on a mini futon, sort of like a mini bed. As the saying goes, two seats are better than one, and the middle seat is catapulted to “wow” status.
Not a bad idea, thinking outside the cockpit, don’t you think?
I love looking at other businesses for ideas. Your sales organisation can be innovative too, you know.
Create your own upsells.
Good selling.
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
That’s why you can get FREE in your inbox every morning for 7 days; the 7 Day Sale Challenge.
Hop on over here and subscribe.
For more content like this, please make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
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. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
by Mike Brunel | May 15, 2019 | Sales
This week I wanted to share a question that one of my clients asked me in a call last week.
We were talking about ideas to motivate her team.
This was her question:
‘How do I get my team to think like me, or to at least follow some of my behaviours?’
We got talking about her love of reading; any books on business that she could get her hands on, she would read.
It was a habit she had learnt long ago, from one of her original managers.
She had discovered by reading these books, which shared successes in other companies, that she could apply many things she learnt to her own business.
Start a library.
I said to her “why don’t you start a company library?”
She looked at me with a bit of a sideways glance, and said, “You aren’t serious?”
“Yes I am” I said.
Not only start up a library, but bribe them to read a book a month.
Tell them that you will pay a $50 bonus for every book report they submit each month.
It does not have to be a fifty-page novel, just a few pages on the key points they learnt from the book.
Whoever reads the most over the year, gets an iPad preloaded with a collection of both yours, and their favourite books.
You will certainly notice a difference in their attitude.
It’s also a way to quietly bed down your culture.
The ones that you notice will go that extra mile and do the reading, are the people that you want in your organisation.
Have a great week.
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
That’s why you can get FREE in your inbox every morning for 7 days; the 7 Day Sale Challenge.
Hop on over here and subscribe.
For more content like this, please make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
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. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
