Bite-sized sales training

If you’re looking for a short, sharp high-impact intervention that will help motivate and inspire your sales team then a ‘bite-sized’ session could be just what you’re looking for.

We have a range of sessions that can be delivered on an ‘off-the-shelf’ basis, or they can be tailored to your specific requirements or, of course, we can develop something specifically for you on an entirely bespoke basis. And the length of the session is entirely up to you – 45-minutes, an hour, a half-day – whatever you prefer.

Elevator pitches training

Elevator pitches

Alun’s one-hour session will mean that you can give a punchy and impactful elevator pitch, succinct enough to not require you to be in the Shard elevator to deliver it. You’ll leave this short session wanting to jump into the next lift just so you can practise!

During the session you will have the opportunity to:

  • Have your own elevator pitch critiqued from the standpoint of your fellow elevator passenger.
  • Understand how less is more and how prospects can be tantalised by what you don’t say.
  • Walk out with an elevator pitch that hooks the listener, delivers at least one killer benefit and compels the listener to want to know more.

Getting more repeat business

Getting more repeat business

We all know that it’s easier to get repeat business than new business. Yet so many of us spend so much more time trying to get new customers rather than maximising business from current customers. Tim’s highly motivational bite-sized session will give your team some quick tips on how to get more business from existing customers.

 

Session outline

1 Setting the scene

  • Establishing the four ways a business can hope to grow and be successful

2 Developing opportunities

  • Demonstrating the danger of becoming too comfortable with our customers and allowing this to restrict the amount of business we develop

3 Cross-selling

  • A simple trick, so often missed
  • Appreciating the opportunities we have to develop sales through our existing customer base

4 The ‘magic matrix’

  • A tool for identifying gaps in our sales approach

5 Referrals

  • Developing ideas on asking for referrals and overcoming issues and concerns that may arise

6 Developing opportunities exercise

  • Setting out a game plan to take advantage of identified opportunities
  • Commitment to action

How to love your customers

How to love your customers

Like most relationships, the ones we have with customers are easy when everything in the garden is rosy. However, the customers who are the hardest to please are an opportunity to increase loyalty in the business and can also be the most personally satisfying.

During Candy’s one-hour session you will have the opportunity to:

  • Improve awareness of the customer experience
  • Understand why people may be demanding
  • Explore techniques and key words to calm difficult situations

Listening and questioning skills

Listening and questioning skills

Yes, we have to listen to our customers. But we also have to ask them questions, particularly if we want to win their business. Tim’s highly motivational bite-sized session will give your team a range of questioning techniques for use in any situation, plus advice and guidance on how to listen too, in order to help move the customer closer to a buying decision.

 

Session outline

1 Don’t ask / not interested

  • Two short activities where participants experience what it is like when they speak and receive no feedback. This emphasises the importance of questioning during communications.

2 Yes / no

  • This activity demonstrates the difficulties when the customer only gives limited answers.

3 Types of information

  • A brief explanation of the three main types of information that may be uncovered during questioning.

4 The ‘funnel’ technique

  • A simple and logical questioning technique that can be applied to most situations. Participants get the opportunity to practise the technique on each other.

5 Refining the ‘funnel’

  • How to make the question funnel even more effective. Are open questions always necessary to encourage open answers?

6 Preparing to question

  • Participants are encouraged to think about the preparation they should make before questioning someone. Participants get the opportunity to practise this.

7 Preliminaries

  • How to prepare the other person so that they are encouraged to answer our questions.

8 Lubricating the question

  • How to get the customer to give as much information as possible. And how to control situations where the customer is talking much more than we need.

Objection handling training

Objection handling

Why is it that the objection you fear most is always the one that pops out of the prospect’s mouth? Objections are buying signals in disguise and a mindset shift as well as a great tool to use will make you look forward to hearing objections rather than dreading them.

During Alun’s one-hour session you will have the opportunity to:

  • Understand why prospects object and their motivation for doing so
  • Learn a simple yet hugely effective formula to use every time you hear an objection
  • Practise this formula enough times to walk out with it as an instinctive, learned response

Presentation skills for salespeople

Presentation skills for salespeople

In this content-packed session you will learn how to deliver a powerful and engaging presentation that speaks to the prospect and makes you stand out from the competition.

During Alun’s one-hour session you will have the opportunity to:

  • Get on your feet for 3 minutes and have forensic feedback on your body language and ‘vocality’
  • Learn how to tailor your message exactly to the ears of your prospect
  • ‘Wear the shoes’ of your audience so you can avoid all the classic mistakes so many salespeople make

Rapport building training

Rapport buliding

One message, delivered to several people, can precipitate a spectrum of reactions. This session focuses on improving the effectiveness and impact of our communication skills by examining different personal ‘operating systems’. By ‘style flexing’, we can meet different communication needs, improve mutual understanding and enhance effective working relationships.

During Candy’s one-hour session you will have the opportunity to:

  • Examine the factors that influence rapport building
  • Identify different social styles
  • Appreciate how to connect with the different styles
  • Consider representational models and how to speak someone’s ‘language’ more fluently

Sales meetings training

Sales meetings

Meetings don’t have a great reputation. In many organisations they are notorious timewasters and are often unproductive. You need to make sure that the meetings you run (or attend) are effective and lead to positive action.

Tim’s highly motivational bite-sized session, will give those responsible for running (and attending) sales meetings some really useful insights into how to:

  • Make sure you only hold (or attend) the meetings you really need to
  • Keep your meetings focused through the use of effective objectives and agendas
  • Control your meetings to ensure they are effective
  • Ensure that agreed actions are assigned and recorded
  • Close your meetings effectively

 

Session outline

1 To meet or not to meet?

  • Are all meetings necessary?
  • What are the alternatives?
  • If they are necessary, who should attend?

2 Objectives

  • Why it is important to set objectives for a meeting
  • Short exercise – what makes an objective effective?

3 Agendas

  • What makes an effective agenda?
  • Responsibilities

4 Controlling the meeting

  • Short exercise (questionnaire) – what’s your role in controlling the meeting?
  • Ground rules for meetings

5 Meeting personalities

  • Short exercise – making meetings work with different personality types

6 Agree actions

  • Role of the leader in ensuring that meetings result in positive action

7 Meeting notes

  • Different types of meeting notes
  • Who is responsible for them?

8 Closing meetings

  • How to end meetings effectively and on a positive note

9 Obstacles to improvement

  • How to handle the potential obstacles to implementing the ideas discussed during the workshop

‘Stacking the pain’ training

‘Stacking the pain’

Why do so many prospects choose to stay as they are rather than buy from us? It’s because staying where they are is too comfortable. With this tried-and-tested formula for making the status quo appear increasingly uncomfortable you can blast one of the biggest obstacles to sales success – the comfort of inertia.

During Alun’s one-hour session you will have the opportunity to:

  • Learn some great ‘pain-stacking’ questions that make your offer more and more compelling
  • Develop some deep listening skills to identify and amplify pain points
  • Learn how to position your offer as the ultimate in ‘pain relief’

Feedback

  • ‘Very practical, relevant to our company, lots of actionable points’
  • ‘Good insight on ways to ‘find the pain’ and light the fire under the pain’

Sessions can be run for small groups as part of your regular team meetings or they can be delivered for larger audiences, conference-style – the choice is yours.

The session outlines below are just to give you an idea of the possibilities. If one of them whets your appetite please just give us a call on 01582 463463 to talk through what we can do for you – we’re here to help!