The Sales Japan Series

Fast and Slow In Sales

Time is of the essence. Patience is a virtue. Worthy aims but sometimes we mix these aspirations up in sales. We are not moving quickly enough and miss the chance. At other t…

Sales Stories

Storytelling in sales is our ability to express ourselves in a way which is engaging and persuasive.  We capture the attention of the buyer because we have taken the client to a world…

In The Mood For Sales?

The dark morning gloom of rain clouds, snow drifts or driving sleet can have an impact on our sales mood. We may be thinking to ourselves what a “lousy day” to have run aro…

Prospecting For Golden Clients

Do you have a clear image and understanding of your perfect client? Authors often mention about writing for their avatar. This is their imaginary reader. They have a …

Hard Sell Stupidity

“We are going to be in your area next week, would you be available on Tuesday or Thursday?”.

“Really? Which part of my area will you be in?”.

“Are you available on Tuesday or Th…

How to Properly Prepare For Client Meetings

Salespeople are very busy, rushing around finding new clients, developing leads, networking, cold calling, attending client meetings, getting stuck int…

The Importance Of Consistency In Sales

We all know that consistency is a fundamental requirement if we are going to establish trust with others.  We ask buyers to purchase from us on the basis that…

What To Say When You Cold Call

Cold calling is an unheralded intervention into someone's already packed schedule.  They are distracted by the phone from what they were concentrating on, so they are…

Woeful Contributions From Salespeople

Three woeful contributions from salespeople include "we have this widget", "you should have it?" and "we can discount the price".  What a mess right there.  …

In Sales When to Start Selling?

It always astonishes me that many salespeople have very little sense of proper timing to start selling their product or service.  In the sales call, they are in a ru…

Winner Sales Follow Through

The implication of this title is that if you don’t properly follow through on the sale then you are a loser. Well, it is true - you are a loser. The difficulty of gainin…

Create Your Own Philosophy of Sales

Like a lot of people, I subscribe to various sites that send you useful information, uplifting quotes etc. The following morsel popped into my inbox, “People d…

Sales Rocks, But It’s All Uphill

Sisyphus was banished to Hades for misdeeds in life and spent eternity rolling a large stone to the top of a hill, to just watch it descend again. This is the sales…

The 106 Centimeter Cold Caller

Salespeople are world class whiners. They are the most creative group amongst all professions for coming up with excuses about why they can’t meet their targets. The …

Japan New Client Sale’s Agonies

Japan is a huge market. This is a wealthy, sophisticated society, with a design sense second to none. People work diligently as a team and put in long hours. Achie…

Designing Your Sales Conversation (Part 3)

 With all of this preparation in hand (and it takes about a nanosecond to complete this, once you understand their role and their style), you are now read…

Part 2

Having built rapport, leveraged our credibility statement to receive permission to ask questions and having designed our questions with the buyers four key interests (Primary, Criteria, Othe…

Designing Your Sales Conversation (Part 1)

Salespeople who don’t have a framework for their sales conversation with their client, will wind up on the back foot following the buyer’s purchasing fram…

Keep Your Shtick To Yourself Buddy

 Smoothly memorised shtick, elaborate glossy materials, sharp suits, large expensive watches, bleached teeth, the perfect coiffure are not important in sales. Yet, …

Sales Understanding

Price is always a big issue. We salespeople are very happy to drop the price, because we see this as the easy route forward with the client. Whenever there is a price increase…