.

Oh this is too easy!

2009-05-24T09:22:00.001+08:00

Playing again this morning. Posting to multiple blogs. I lurv this app

-- Post From My iPhone

The Secret

2006-10-16T10:24:00.000+08:00

This you just have to watch.

http://thesecret.tv/secret-to-riches/

then go here for the whole experience . . . The Secret

Brian Tracy and new book!

2006-10-14T09:31:00.000+08:00

wow someone is fast. Just had a message saying "Why is Asia's Sales Coach going to see Brian Tracy?"
Well I figure you can always learn more. And I am going to be asking Brian to review my new book.

And anyway, I know he is far too busy to get "down and dirty" and help you people in Asia with detailed sales performance transformation.

That's my job.

To discover the latest in cutting edge sales performance programmes and find out what has been getting some of the regions largest Private Bankers and other top flight sales professionals so excited check out REALLYBIGIMPACT.COM

p.s. you can also get a free copy of the first book "5 Steps to Guarantee ROI from Training" PLUS sign up for our new HR Bulletin, and get regular articles on Executive Performance from leading experts in the field.

OK I'm stupid

2006-10-14T09:23:00.000+08:00

So much for moving the blog to another location! You clever people out there will laugh, but I have found wordpress a little more difficult than expected. Maybe I'll just keep going with blogger while I figure it out.

News?

Going to see Brian Tracy this week in singapore, if the sponsors website can be made to work and allow me to book tickets! Image having a faulty website when selling someone like Brian!

And when you email their help line, you get a bounce saying the mailbox is full!
Is there a message here? Ties in nicely with the latest issue of Tony's Opinions, the most interesting sales newsletter you can get!

NEW! FASTER! BETTER! FREE!

2006-02-02T19:37:00.000+08:00

Ok, yes I have been seriously influenced by the Soap Adverts from my childhood.
BUT, the Sales Coach's Diary has a new home!

All the old posts are still going to be here, but on the new site they are organised better and week by week I will be adding more useful stuff for you.

Why? well I told you some time back that I am working hard to keep delivering new stuff of use to those of you who want to get more sales. To make some of these things technically possible, without spending all my spare time on the computer, we had to move. I will keep you posted on some of the technology we are using because I know the self employed out there would be interested to discover how to do some of this stuff. You might as well benefit from the time I have spent and mistakes I have made.

The new site will have posts categorised for easier access, so if you love techie stuff, go straight there. If you are only interested in motivation topics, go there!

For those of you who saw me featured in the Guru For Hire section of Human Resources magazine in December, don't forget you request your copy of the 2006 White Paper "5 Steps to Guarantee ROI from Training" by going to The Really Big Impact Company

When Customers disturb your staff

2006-01-23T07:07:00.000+08:00

I have been tasked to write an article for one of the local (national) newspapers. Had a great idea about picking up on the latest government campaigns about giving better service. To be honest my planned approach was going to be all about how the service level is just as much the customer's responsibility, but being a diligent chap I decided to do my research first.

So against my better judgement I headed off to the shopping malls this weekend with some genuine shopping needs in mind. (birthday coming up soon, so why not?)

I confess I have come back with a fresh perspective. Having genuinely gone into a few shops with the intention to select presents for myself (yes, ready to buy and money in hand) I was stunned to discover that in some shops I was obviously a complete irritation to the staff! How dare I disrupt their peacful (non)working day by actually expecting help and information!

Stand by for some rants as I vent my irritation over the rest of this week!

We won't give names, the guilty will know who they are!

Now this first example is a particularly big store. On previous visits I have noticed how rare it is to see a member of staff. When you want information about how to find an item I guess you are expected to wander the store for hours looking for it yourself. That being the case, why do they keep moving things around?

Anyway it is now CNY. prime buying time. So the shop is full of "staff" wearing cheerful red t-shirts. Great, I thought, now I can get help. But no! Wearing a company t-shirt and sporting a company lanyard and id tag, we are informed "Sorry I don't work here, I'm just a promoter. you had better ask a member of staff" no kidding. The promoters (presumably that means temporary sales staff for the festive period) and I quote "Don't work here"

So if you ever spot an employee (sic) wearing a t-shirt with the logo "We are pleased to help" on the back, laugh derisorily and run a mile. The only thing they are pleased to do is go home at the end of the day!

If they don't know you exist . . .

2006-01-13T23:06:00.000+08:00

I talked a few weeks ago about raising your profile. Something I have been working on myself in a fairly focused manner for the past year or so. Before that I was just kidding myself. Why? Well, I reckon for me it had something to do with being born British! It's just not nice to brag - thats the way I was brought up.

But over the years I have discovered a key principle about selling. "If they don't know you exist, they can't buy from you!"

My heart was warmed tonight as I noticed a blog entry from one of my individual clients. (I don't work with many as the focus of The Really Big Impact Company is on transformation of sales results in corporates). He not only got some great breakthroughs in our coaching session last night, but has already started putting into practice what he discovered. The very same night!

So if you are looking for information and regular updates on the Singapore property market, I advise you to keep connected with his blog

I am told he is also going to start a property info e-newsletter soon, so don't miss it. Watch for Ace Wong, that young man is going places!

If you are interested in what personal performance coaching can do for you read this blog or go to our website and sign up for my sales tips newsletter.
There is an article running in five parts about how coaching can help individual or corporate sales teams there. Alternatively go to The Really Big Impact Company and request the free report 5 Steps to Guarantee ROI From Training.

A final tip, If you are serious about raising your profile, visit Suzanne Falter-Barnes at Painless Self Promotion. She has some great insights available. I am very fussy about the newsletters I subscribe to, but I have been an avid reader of Suzanne's for a while. It is worth the time spent.

So go on. Don't be British! If you are good at what you do - let them know.

Tony Latimer

Coaching as a Key to ROI from Training 2

2006-01-10T19:40:00.000+08:00

Article Two of a five part series

Coaching Enhances Learning

Over many years of training and coaching, a few key truths have emerged for us. These are my favourites.

Key Truth One:
People only learn what they believe they need to learn.

Key Truth Two:
People only learn and apply what they discover for themselves.

Real learning can only come from self discovery. By "real learning" I mean something that has hit me with a blinding flash of light. A revelation! Something I can see solves one of my problems. Experiential and accelerated learning processes are very powerful in training workshops, to overcome this, (if done well) but if you go one step further and combine a coach-centric approach to workshop structure, you will engage the participants at a subconscious level.

Have you ever sat through a two or three day course and suddenly awoken to realise that you didnít hear a word that had been said for the past ten minutes (or more). When the training is conducted by someone standing in front of a projector, this is a common experience.

The coach-centric approach solves this problem. The nature of the approach means your coach is focussed on what is going on with people at all times, not on their material being presented. The coach will be "tuned in" and spot any brains that are going off into deep thought and utilise that thinking for the benefit of the individual and the group.

Tony Latimer
Asia's Sales Coach

The Really Big Impact Company
3 Raffles Place #07-01, Singapore 048617
+65 6329 9688

info@reallybigimpact.com

More Useful Resources

For a copy of the full 5 Steps to Guarantee ROI from Training
visit www.reallybigimpact.com and enter your email at the bottom of the page.

For your sales team
www.tonysopinions.com

For HR Professionals a new L&D newsletter with expert guest articles
via report signup at www.reallybigimpact.com

Coaching as a Key to ROI from Training

2006-01-07T11:20:00.000+08:00

Article One of a five part series

Had an interesting call from a local client last week, they could hardly speak for laughing. Very excited at the progress they had made in a first coaching session (client is a very energetic property agent here in Singapore), they went out and told friends down at the coffee shop they were getting a coach. “Wah! Going Genting so early in the year. Hey you better make sure you keep enough money for Ang Pow, you know. New Year very soon you know!”

OK, I just made that story up. And my overseas readers won’t even get the joke (explanations later) But I do find a lot of people are still unclear about what we are talking about in the world of business and personal coaching. So I thought it would be worth putting my views forward. Then at least you all know where I am coming from. Keeping it short and sweet, there will be 5 parts to this, so watch out or the next bits over the coming weeks.

Coaching Defined (My way)
It is worth some clarification of our definition of what we mean by coaching. In the 1980s everybody became a “consultant”. It became a fashionable term and therefore adopted by all as a positioning. This led to much disillusionment in the marketplace and frustration for companies who thought they were buying a level of expertise and process knowledge that just wasn’t there. A similar trend is emerging with the term “Coaching”.

There are different types of coaching. The original term comes from sports, where it refers to an expert with a body of knowledge who TELLS people what to do to improve their performance. This is fine. Sports had the term first, our industry has simply borrowed it. But in business, that is consulting, not coaching. However even in sports there did emerge some differences. Starting in the world of tennis, Tim Gallwey developed a non-directive approach to sports coaching. By the eighties was being utilised as an approach to teaching business leaders to coach their teams for performance. In the business and personal coaching arenas, the various professional bodies around the world such as the International Coach Federation define coaching very clearly as a true non-directive process.

The unfortunate development has been the adoption of the term “coaching” by a growing number of consultants, mentors, and advisors. This has led to much confusion in the minds of the “buying public” corporate or private.

So when we are talking about coaching or a coach-centric approach, we means we are leveraging non-directive coaching, the single most powerful communication process available to human beings.

Coaching is an interactive process that helps individuals and organisations to develop more rapidly and produce more satisfying results. Coaches work with clients in all areas including business, career, finances, health and relationships. As a result of coaching clients set better goals, take more action, make better decisions and more fully use their natural strengths.

Professional coaches are trained to listen and observe, to customise their approach to the client's needs and to elicit solutions and strategies from the client. They believe that the client is naturally creative and resourceful and the coach's job is to provide support to enhance the skills and potential the client already has. While the coach provides feedback and an objective perspective, the client is responsible for taking the steps to produce the results he or she desires.

My simple definition of non-directive coaching is: Help people get clarity on where they are, get clarity on where they want to be, then work with them to develop and execute a plan of how to get from here to there.

When managers in an organisation add the skill of non-directive coaching to their management tool-kit, the entire organisation can leverage the power of this process for immense communication and performance improvement.

Tony Latimer
Asia’s Sales Coach

The Really Big Impact Company
3 Raffles Place #07-01, Singapore 048617
+65 6329 9688
info@reallybigimpact.com

More Useful Resources
For a copy of the full 5 Steps to Guarantee ROI from Training
www.reallybigimpact.com

For your sales team
www.tonysopinions.com
www.salescoachdiary.blogspot.com (no link, you are already here!)

For HR managers newsletter via report signup at
www.reallybigimpact.com

The Race is ON, and they're off !!!

2006-01-03T00:42:00.000+08:00

OK that is it. Xmas is officially over. Well here in Singapore anyway. On New Year's Eve we popped into town for a quick bit of shopping (back to school stuff) and went through Takashimaya, a rather large building with more shops squeezed into it than the average British town has scattered along the high street. They had a very (and that means about seven storey high) xmas tree just before the event. Nice. But by New Year's eve, it was gone! Whatever happened to the 12 days of xmas? Lunar New Year, thats what. For the first time in a number of years, it turns up at the end of January, so the commercial interests all over town are ripping down the cheery red xmas banners and are busy replacing them with . . cheery red new year banners! (wouldn't you think they could reuse?)

And why should you all care? Well if you are doing business here in Asia, you have a few nano-seconds when you get back to work tomorrow to get cracking with your customers before the all slump into the "Ah, sorry, busy getting ready for Chinese New Year" and don't want to talk to you.

So get your running shoes on. If there was ever a year when it is time to come off the starting blocks at a sprint, this is it!

I know we are. That's why I'm up at just after midnight putting the finishing touches to my running shoes. Well actually not, but I have just finished tweaking our new website so you can sign up for our free report on Getting Return on Investment from Training. Go on. Drop in and sign up, you know it will make sense. And later this week there wil be even more useful info and stuff for your sales team to learn from, but you will have to come back next week to find out about that!

The Last Post

2005-12-31T11:05:00.000+08:00

WOW, just woke up (for the second time (daughter had to be taken to some ridiculous school evnt that required a lift to the MRT station at six am on a Saturday morning (what do the schools think parents are for "Oh goody, Saturday morning, after a hard week at work I would just love to get up at five thirty!") so I am back to bed by seven)), to discover as I check the calendar to book a talk somewhere that has just been requested, that today is the last day of the year!
How did that happen? It was xmas last time I looked!

So this makes this the last post of the year! Had to be done. Have I got anything useful to say? Probably not, except it reminds me of a coaching session with a client last week, where client was bemoaning the difficulty of procrastination causing a really bad week. We had a great session and client overcame the problems and has now reported a fantastic week. So I am prompted to ask you all: What are you procrastinating about? Write a list of five things you have been putting off; then beside each answer this question: What is stopping you from doing it?

A final thought for the year. Don't waste any time tonight on New Year Resolutions. All that goal setting stuff is a waste of time, and you know it. Unless you have figured out what your Purpose is.

Maybe a bit more tomorrow about finding your Sense of Purpose.

And if you feel a little help would be useful with that, watch this space. We will be launching a variety of coaching programmes in the New Year, ranging from email coaching, on-demand coaching as well as our more usual stuff. Dop a line to tony@reallybigimpact.com if you want to know more.
Happy New Year!

Are you a hare or a tortoise?

2005-12-30T08:39:00.000+08:00

Singapore has been really quiet this week. Half empty car parks in the city, seat space on the MRT in the rush hour, somewhere to sit at lunchtime! STRANGE EXPERIENCE. Practically no clients around to talk to. So what are most sales people and small business owners doing? Well most of the ones I know are taking a break. "No one to talk to, might as well take a few days off and relax" they say.

But hang on. Take a moment to think about all those things you should be doing on the marketing and admin front. You know, the stuff you put off all last year because you were just "too busy" chasing business.

Here is your challenge. Sit down this morning and make a list. What are the most effective things you could be doing to increase your visibilty with your target audience for the coming year? What could you put in place as a system to make your admin easier and more effective?

Now go do it. You have a few more days before the hectic chasing of business starts all over again. The winners will be the ones who prepared for the race.

We have just started a new company to be the regional delivery mechanism for our work. New partners, new expanded team, new products. Even a new identity and new location. Just the same really different approach to improving your sales performance and a focus on making a Really Big Impact on our clients and their business results. I am having a great week preparing for next year.

Remember Aesop's fable. The hare sat back and relaxed, the tortoise prepared and started moving; slowly it is true, but he built up such a head start, the hare just couldn't catch him.

So in the race for success in 2006, which are you going to be? Hare or Tortoise?

Raising Your Profile

2005-12-18T23:59:00.000+08:00

Following up from the last post, this week has been a computer nightmare. The trusty old thinkpad having died after 5 or 6 years of service, I finally went back to a mac. I've only had one mac before. The very first model! so I guess about 20 years ago!

Why am I wittering on about this? well I am trying to get up to date with the blog, but found blogger doesn't work with Safari. Well it works, sort of, but the useful commands, like hyperlink, just don't show up. And that seems to pretty much kill the point of a blog entry.

Tried firefox and my problems are solved, a bit. Still not all the commands showing, but hyperlink is there! Thank goodness for that, My dreams of getting really efficient and blogging whenever the muse strikes, as opposed to when I get back to an office or home base where the pc is, almost died! But now we can move on. I am trying out some varied bits of software and equipment to create some audio cds and try out podcasting as well.

I reckon some of this stuff is going to be useful to you in raising your profile, so as I fumble through without spending a fortune on getting "gurus" to tell me how, I will let you know how it goes and what works. I have to mention one good bit on Safari though, at last I have figurd out how to easily find my RSS feeds without messing around with Yahoo or stuff like that. Safari just lets you put them at the top of your browser. Yippee! SO you can subscribe to the feed for this blog here, maybe soon i'll figure out how to get one of those cute icon for that.

Oh and by the way, we have new contact details to be found here. I'll get the rest of the links from the bar on the right side of this page reset soon.

Helping Coaches and All Self Employed Salespeople get more business

2005-12-05T00:44:00.000+08:00

One small step for mankind, One Giant Leap for coaches in Asia. What are we rambling about? The new ICF Singapore blog of course.

Several hours of blood sweat and tears and we have done it! Why? Because we can! No, seriously, it's because I discovered some of my coaching collegaues didn't even have a website, let alone know what a blog is. So there is no point in being an expert on sales if you can't help a few friends to sell themselves, is there?

And that made me stop and think. I know quite a number of people who have blogs. Techie types mostly and a few people who just like to rant on about stuff. But where are the sales people? What about all you individuals who are struggling against competition to get noticed. This, my friends is all about personal branding. And you can do that no matter what you sell.

Try looking at some of the free info available to help you get started. My good friend Marina Pelekis at TotalGamePlan has some neat ideas.

So why not consider getting a blog and making it part of your personal branding exercise. Of course there is a lot more to it than just going to blogger or some such and setting one up. You need to think about your message, your target audience, who you are and who you want to interest in your expertise.

We'll have a go at some of that stuff over the next few sessions. This is a good time to do it as we are launching a completely new identity to celebrate and accomodate our growth in business this New Year. Watch this space!

Get More Clients

2005-11-09T20:17:00.000+08:00

This has been one of the most frequently asked questions over the past few weeks. Of course the easy answer is, "get a sales coach". But maybe you need some easier ways to start. So I am putting together a few ideas for you all out there.

Step one is a self coaching email course that we will be launching soon. This combines with a psychometric assessment which my clients have found very enlightening and useful.

Step two will be a two part ebook giving insights into The 9 Actions and helping you understand them, plus a field workbook to support you through applying it to your specific sales process and situation.

If you want advance notice on the course or the books being available send an email to tony@salesteamtraining.net

Step three comes from a person whose ideas I have developed great regard for over the past couple of years of avidly reading her newsletter, Bernadette Doyle. I am currently trying out some of her ideas and will keep you posted on how it goes. One thing I can tell you is that I spent an hour on a most productive tele seminar with Bernadette late last night. The best I have heard in a long time. Bernadette Doyle actually believes in two things dear to me. Giving Value and Simplifying things.

So that is todays message. To get more clients, Start to simplify things.
Put Simply, ask yourself, who could use what you have? (and yes those of you who have attended our sales training on The 9 Actions will remember that as the first rule)

Then ask yourself, "Do they know I exist?"

Then ask yourself, "What should I be doing about that?"

Remember, if they don't know you exist, they can't buy from you.

Nasty Surgery

2005-10-25T12:12:00.000+08:00

No posts for a while again? Well that was due to a huge amount of work created in developing our new products. Client said "do you have this stuff on cd, so we can refresh on it later?"

"I do now!" said the voice in the back of my head. Lets go do it. More news on how you can get that stuff soon. But image being able to drive to your next sales appointment and refresh on the key things you need to do, or pulling into the car park and being able to take 2 minutes to reset your mind into a state of total confidence right before the meeting with your hot prospect? Sounds good? Stay tuned.

So now we are back. Oh yes and some weeks of recovery from a nasty bit of "below the belt" surgery. That made sitting, standing, lying down and every form of physical activity painful. Trust me, you really don't want the details. The jokes from those in the know were bad enough, not to mention the cartoons that appeared from everywhere.

And the lesson for today?

What are you doing that is not moving you towards your objective. What is pushing you off track to The Big Hairy Audacious Goal that shines in front of you and draws you forward to your compelling vision of the future? Is it time for some drastic "below the belt" surgery for you?

What do you need to stop doing - TODAY!

You can't get it right all the time

2005-07-19T09:06:00.000+08:00

The ultimate sin! A blog with no entries for three weeks!

I am ashamed of myself. Well not really, I have been playing around with some radio stuff

Good fun. The Positive Business Minutes slot was all about solving the 25 most common sales problems, so very relevant to this blog. It ran for the past five weeks, so if you don't live in Singapore or you just plain missed it . .
actually no, you will be able to get it soon. I am going to shove the files up as MP3 on our website and let you download them for free!

I will spend the next couple of weeks catching up on the outstanding questions you have been sending in. So if yours hasn't been answered yet, relax. it is coming soon.

And if you can't wait there is always a series of good reads available at the e-newsletter site. The latest entry is on Fear in Selling. I know a newsletter is old fashioned, but hey! I am old.

Next step is to get the podcasting going so you can download the files and listen as you drive to your next sales appointment. I am feeling a little vague about this whole podcast thing, but spend a little time every evening on research. There are a few good sites out there, but most are written by techies, so when they offer tolet you listen to their explanation via poddcast . . Brace yourself! This may not be the ultimate listening experience.

I was once told I had the face for Radio, but some of these guys have the voice for braile!

More soon, keep the questions coming.

Serious change required

2005-06-20T09:20:00.000+08:00

Ooops. Blog is supposed to be fast, right? Lots of new entries on a regulars basis. Well this last few days has been a disaster from that perspective. We went to KL to run PRM ASIA 2005 (Partner Relationship Management) at Le Meridien organised by EMP-ASIA. Great session, everyone from TelekomMalaysia, Applied Business Systems to the Ministry of Agriculture, plus a few other industries in between (including Ericsson). Expect some serious changes if you partner with these companies, they really got down and worked hard!

Several good lessons there.
Lesson 1. Beware attachments. I have a delightful old Thinkpad 240 laptop. Fits in by briefcase so I don't have to lug a big bag around, great for on the spot work. But old. Hotel has freee broadband in the room. No problem, quick blog before bed and we are away! WRONG. BB connection not compatible with 4 year old lappy!

Love it yes, but time to change. So, what attachments have you got to old habits or ways of working that may be hindering your progress?

Not sure how to handle them? Hit this blog and get answers.

Great article on Fastcompany about change and our resistance to it.

And if you have big stuff to deal with, I am now making a few other changes. Most of our work has been training and coaching in corporate groups for the past 6 years. Recently I have discovered individuals around the region who need and want a coach but didn't realise they could find the right business related, international expertise in Asia. Recent coaching sessions with clients arond the region have been a blast for them and me. Skype means great phone quality from everywhere and no call charges. Want a coach? Call me. Skype id tonylatimer

And I'll let you know which new lappy graces my briefcase soon. (clue here)

Keep selling

Tony Latimer

How do I sell if I'm not supposed to talk?

2005-06-08T13:27:00.000+08:00

OK we have had a comment on previous entry from rme3, who asks:

Hi Tony, they say good sales is about listening more than talking how can I sell if I don't talk? Your advice is to stay away from product features, but how do I focus on needs when often times the customers do not know what they want exactly or how they want to apply the product/services?

Well that is the common mis-conception. That selling is about talking. Selling is about getting people to buy. And they don't buy when you are talking, they buy when they are talking or thinking about the emotional drivers for taking action and getting benefit from using or having your product or service.

You say that often times people don't know what they want or how they want to apply the product or service. Quite right. That is often the case.

By asking really good questions, you help them with their thinking process and they get more clear on what their problem is, and how much they need to solve it.

As they get more clarity, they start to tell you exactly what the problem is they need to solve and their preferred way of solving it.

There is a whole lot more to say on this, so I am going to write a longer article on the main newsletter, Tony's Opinions for you. Thanks for the question.

One of the reasons I developed our advanced sales masterclass The Customer Coach is to teach sales people how to do that questioning and listening process very effectively.

So give it a try. To get a guide for this listen in in July to Positive Business Minutes on 938 Live (yes newsradio is rebranding itself, sounds interesting) .

I am doing a series of 25 PBM on the top 25 problems sales managers and sales people have told us they have. If you miss any you will be able to download the mp3 file from our website in a few weeks time.

Get an RSS feed reader and subscribe to our feed if you want to be proactively informed when a new post comes up.

If you are not sure how to do that you might want to check out William Claxton, a local expert here in Asia on web streaming, podcasting, and all that latest and greatest stuff.

Good Selling

Tony

My Prospects think my investment product is too risky

2005-06-03T17:53:00.000+08:00

Today's question has come from Lawrence in Singapore. He writes:

Dear Tony,
I have had talk with some of my important prospects to invest land asset in a foreign country (Canada).
Every time, the answer bounced back, you know what:
too far away and too risky and I must see it before I'll invest.Tell me how I can overcome and solve this situation.
I look forward to your reply asap.
Thank you!
Best regards
Lawrence

OK Lawrence, there are a couple of possible things going on here. First, it may just be that this person is not financially in a position to invest at the moment. Maybe they don't have the amount of money the investment requires available. Only you can know that. Just check back, have they approached you, or have you approached them? Have they specifically said they are looking to make investments at the moment or are you just assuming they might want to?

This is important because you are getting an objection based on risk. And your particular product, Canadian land investment, is from many angles considered to be a safe investment.

(I can't mention your company because you didn't give your permission for me to do so; and I will always respect everyones privacy)

When an objection is directly contrary to the normal positioning of a product, the prospect is either not in possession of all the facts or is giving nice words to escape. Their real message may be "I am not interested right now."

It also indicates that you have been "feature dumping" on them. If they are unfamiliar with your product, then they need a level of education before you try to "convince " them of how great it is.

That done, lets move forward on the assumption that they are someone who has money to invest and are interested in making investments right now.

Their feedback to you says they feel it is risky.

Perfect, Start to ask questions about their views on investment risk. What is important to them about risk? What is their previous experience with "risky" investments? (see if you can get information about their investment portfolio from this).

Once you know their feelings and experience and what they have invested in, you will have the information you need to figure out how to position your product.

Prospects are people who have a need for the kind of solution you can offer and an interest in doing something about it. If you have not established this, they are just a "Suspect".

You need to start by asking questions.

As you are in Singapore Lawrence, watch out for the next series of Positive Business Minutes on NewsRadio93.8
I will be running a series soon to solve the 25 most common problems that sales people tell us they have. Any of you who want a heads-up on the date for On-Air, just drop an email to salescoach@corporatesurvivors.com and I will keep you posted.

Good Selling
Tony

My customers only care about price

2005-05-29T14:06:00.000+08:00

This question of customers only caring about price is one that comes up time and time again as I work with sales people. This week it was Raj who asked me, while we were up in KL this week doing some seminars on Confidence and Fear of Rejection for the investment sales teams at Walton International Malaysia.

As it was just a casual conversation over coffee at The Coffee Bean on the ground floor of Wisma Genting (why do I mention these guys? Because they have the most friendly attitude and helpful customer service I have experienced in one of these stores for a long time. They actually seem to enjoy working there. If you want to discover what service attitude in your retail outlet should be, go to KL and try this one), anyway back to Raj. I didn't even find out which company he works for, so I can't give him a mention here.

So, why do customers seem to care only about price? Because features and price is usually all we give them to choose from! How often do you go in and start doing your "company pitch"? You talk about your product before finding out what they need or why. Now this may come as a shock to many of you, but the stuff your marketing department gives you as a great pitch on why your company and product is unique, is pretty much the same story that everyone else uses!

So the prospect is hearing the same features from everyone. All the product options seem to be the same. So what can they choose on? PRICE. It's all they have left! And let's face it, given two apparently identical products, who would buy the most expensive?

Oh yes, and for those of you who I can hear muttering, "but we talk about benefits, just like our marketing brochures say" Sorry, products don't have benefits. Benefit is what someone gets if they need it, buy it and correctly use it.

If your customers ask about price first it is because they have been "trained" by sales people over the years. Because we don't move the conversation in a different and better direction!

If you have a question about this in your industry, email your question in. Be sure to give as much information as possible about a real situation, not just theory or a fear you have about asking questions. Let's work on real stuff.

Do tell me who you are and what you sell. You will not only get answers, but also a link to your website. You never know when a prosect might be reading here as well.

Good selling

Tony Latimer
Asia's Sales Coach

Help for the self employed sales person

2005-05-01T15:23:00.000+08:00

OK, this blog does what it says on the tin. It is intended for those of you out there who just don't get enough help with selling. Think about it. Here in Asia there are huge numbers of self employed sales people, or employed but on practically or entirely a commission only basis (the insurance industry in tiny Singapore alone has 15,000 self employed sales agents).

Interesting fact: Companies tend to spend money on training their people in direct proportion to their perceived cost (i.e. salary). That is why the CEO gets a personal coach at around $800 per hour, but the poor old sales team gets begrudged a few hundred dollars per head for several days training.

When are they going to wake up and start calculating how much extra profit you make for them by just improving your sales performance by one extra deal per year! Who knows. But then again; who cares! Their loss is your gain. You can now get some help.

Unlike my regular sales tips newsletter, this blog will be shorter, crisper, more frequent; and most importantly we are not going to be inhibited by others opinions. If you want to express your feelings about the quality or lack of training you get from your company, feel free. I will give answers to good questions here and if a longer answer is needed then it will be turned into an article on the main newsletter (which you can also access through my company's main site).

So that is the introduction done. Over to you. What are the burning questions you have or the biggest problems you face in your selling career?