Sales and Sales Management Blog

July 31, 2009

Boost Your Sales: “Establish a Recruiting Program to Bring on Top Sales Talent,” by Paul McCord

Filed under: hiring,recruiting/hiring,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 6:53 am
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Although an easy way to recruit, employing contract and in-house recruiters is generally a poor way for companies to attract top sales talent.  Furthermore, studies indicate that within 12 months of the hire, 60% of all new hires are considered unsatisfactory (all hires, not just those who were introduced by recruiters).  This doesn’t mean the underperforming employees leave the company—it simply means that position is now filled by an unsatisfactory employee.

Recruiters have an extremely tough job that hinders their ability to recruit the best of the best.  A typical contract recruiter must: 

  • spend hours locating a vacancy to fill
  • negotiate their compensation for filling the position
  • work with the hiring company to understand the stated and implied qualifications for the position
  • possibly post the position on various job boards
  • possibly create and place advertising in various media
  • spend countless hours on the phone searching for someone, anyone with at least the minimum qualifications that meet the position’s requirements who would seriously consider moving companies
  • talk to numerous unqualified, overqualified, under-qualified, or not-interested people he/she has called or who have called them
  • present the candidate or candidates to the hiring company
  • after finding one or more candidates the company may have an interest in, coordinate interviews, follow-ups, offers, and negotiations
  • prepare the new employee for their first day on the job
  • follow up with the company and candidate to make sure both parties are happy
  • and the list goes on

Moreover, usually not a dime of compensation until the job is filled, with the ever present risk of no compensation at all if they cannot find a suitable candidate.  The in-house recruiter’s tasks, though slightly less time consuming, are very similar to an outside recruiters. 

Based on the above, is it any wonder that the recruiter’s primary emphasis is to get someone with at least the minimum qualifications to fill that seat as quickly as possible?  Their livelihood depends on their ability to quickly locate a warm, at least minimally qualified person to meet the hiring company’s needs.  Simply put, top talent isn’t a priority—it is a seldom realized luxury.

Since most recruiters are recruiting for positions they have never personally performed or managed, they must rely on the hiring manager or HR’s stated minimum qualifications exclusively, even though all positions have implied qualifications also.  Many recruiters are unfamiliar with the major players in the industry they are recruiting for, who the top talent for the position is, what expectations a top person in the industry would have of a new position, et cetera.—even if they claim to specialize in that industry.  Many in-house recruiters suffer from the same limitations. 

Of course, there are recruiters who are the exception, and they are worth their weight in gold.

You don’t need a recruiter, you need a recruiting program
Recruiting top talent doesn’t happen overnight and doesn’t come easily—even for the top companies.  Unless you are willing to offer a phenomenal package, recruiting the top sales talent requires building relationships that lead to bringing the individual into your company.  Sometimes, when the employment gods are particularly kind, this process can be almost immediate.  More often, the process requires time, patience and effort.  That is generally where the recruiter—outside and in-house–fail. 

Because of the tremendous pressure on their time, recruiters don’t have the luxury of developing long-term relationships with top candidates.  Most everyone has received the phone call from outside and company recruiters recruiting for a position.  They inquire as to whether you would be interested.  No.  Do you know anyone who might be?  No.  You never hear from that particular recruiter again or if you do, it’s months or years later when the recruiter has another opening and they run across your name again.

Though the common practice, this method of recruiting is terribly inefficient.  The candidates the recruiter generates are the people who are ready to move today, and the likelihood that top prospects are looking to move today is extremely small. 

Companies need a recruiting program in place to capture those top prospects when they are ready to make the move—and who knows when that will be?  And when they are ready to move, will they call?  Without a consistent, effective recruiting program, the answer to the last question is—probably not.  And many companies erroneously believe that their reputation, visibility, or size will be sufficient to attract the top talent they need.  Not true. 

What a recruiting program will do
Implementing a consistent, well defined and executed recruiting program will:

  • put your company in a position to attract top talent when that talent is ripe
  • will place your company at the top of the candidate’s mind when the candidate determines the time is right to make a move
  • and may help the candidate make a positive move toward your company before he/she may otherwise have decided to change companies

A well-constructed recruiting program is a positioning and branding program for prospective employees.  Just as with a company’s or a product’s positioning and branding, a recruiting program creates in the target:

  • an awareness of your company
  • an awareness of your company’s interest in them
  • a positive image of your company as a potential employer
  • and the program moves the candidate to think about the possibility of putting themselves in a better position by making the move to your company (however the candidate would define “better position”).

Over a period of time, you can populate your sales team with the top talent that every company seeks but few can capture.  It requires time, patience, commitment and a well-designed program.

Elements of a recruiting program
A well-constructed recruiting program contains six elements.  There is, of course, considerable detail to each element that must be customized to your company, but all programs must contain:

 

     1.  Hiring Manager buy-in
          A recruiting program depends on each hiring manager playing his or her part.  The success of the program for each team is centered on that hiring manager. 

          That manager knows exactly what they are looking for in a seller.  Consequently, there isn’t anyone more capable to recruit the position.  In any recruiting program the most difficult part is obtaining buy-in to the program from all hiring managers.  Typically, since managers will immediately recognize the initial time element required to establish the program, there will be managers whose participation is less than ideal until they begin to see the results of the program.

      2.   Identification of top talent
         Identifying talent requires serious thought and research.  Does the company want to hire top 5 or 10% producers for every sales position or is the company looking to bring in just one or two top sellers for each branch or region? 

        Once those positions have been identified, everyone, especially the position’s direct manager of course, should be fully aware of the crucial nature of the position, and the position’s importance and the reason it is considered to be of such importance should be in written format—that which is written becomes more real than that which is only verbalized. 

         After identifying the crucial prositions, the identification of the talent becomes the focus.  Both currently known and unknown talent must be identified. Known talent—easy, the company already knows who they are.  Unknown talent requires considerable research and some of the best, most cost effective talent is often not the most obvious.

      3.  Initial contact
           A crucial step in the process is the initial approach to the prospective employee.  Whether a previously known or unknown prospect, there are a number of considerations that must be taken into account prior to the initial contact.  Gathering as much information about the individual as possible and their current position will aid greatly in making initial contact.  Contact can be made through any number of channels—e-mail, the postal service, phone, meeting at an industry function, et cetera.  However, the initial contact will set the tone for further developing the relationship; and for those prospects unfamiliar with the company, the initial contact will often establish their lasting impression of the company—good or bad.

    4.  Developing the relationship
         The program must have a consistent, reliable, and positive follow-up system to stay in contact with and deepen the relationship with the prospect.  Making an initial positive impression with a prospect that makes a move 18 months from now won’t help if he or she doesn’t remember the company because there wasn’t a follow-up program. 

           It is not uncommon for managers to run across prospects they had contacted only once or twice in the past only to find that the prospect has changed companies and had forgotten about the manager’s company after a few months without being contacted again after the initial introduction. 

             To be effective and workable, the follow-up program must be customized for each hiring manager’s style, personality, and work habits.  A single, rigid, dictated follow-up system that is not flexible from manager to manager guarantees failure since every manager functions differently and what may work well for one manager, may not work well for another.  That manager who is forced to work a system he/she is not comfortable with or that cannot be modified to fit their personality will ultimately refuse to participate.  If done correctly, once the initial talent identification and contact has been made, the time commitment to manage that individual’s follow-up program is generally minimal.

     5.  Discover and feed the prospects wants and current dissatisfactions
          Once initial positive contact has been made, the goal is to discover the prospect’s wants–and what the prospect is dissatisfied with in their current position.  By discovering the prospect’s areas of dissatisfaction and prying on those areas—assuming the recruiting company can rectify the issues, while at the same time discovering and feeding the prospect’s needs, which in most instances will not be money but rather working conditions, recognition, status, a few inexpensive perks, or other easily met needs, the hiring manager can gently prod a prospect into moving companies much sooner than the prospect would have moved on their own.

     6.  When the prospect is ready to move
           One never knows when their top prospects might be ready to make a change.  At times the prospect will have little warning themselves.  Everyone knows top people who were squeezed out in a merger, who finally got fed up with whatever situation was at their old employer and decided to finally leave on the spur of the moment, or who made a quick change for any number of other reasons.  More than likely, a hiring manager would not have known the change was coming until after the candidate had made the decision, but with a properly working recruiting program, the hiring manager will often know even before the prospect realizes it that the prospect is about to make a change. 

At times, a prospect the company has developed a relationship with will move specifically because of courting.  Usually, however, other reasons trigger the move—the company just happens to be in the right place at the right time because they made it their goal to do so.  More often than not, once a prospect the company has been building a relationship with decides to move, the hiring and negotiation process moves quickly.  Unlike other hiring arrangements, both parties know one another and have a reasonable idea of what to expect.  This, however, will not eliminate the need for both parties to further evaluate one another.  It simply makes the process go much quicker.  Having developed a broad outline of an offer letter for each position that can be quickly customized for any particular candidate will also expedite the process.  Though the details may be slightly different from one candidate to another, the offers will generally be similar. 

What happens if your company is not ready to hire when the prospect is ready to move?
You still win.  One typical objection from companies considering developing a recruiting program is that they might not be ready or in a position to hire when a prospect is ready to move.  The simple answer is that they have had the opportunity to decide IF they want to pursue the prospect.  It puts you in control of the situation rather than relying on the slim possibility that a top talent will be available when you are ready. 

Developing a recruiting program can, over time, re-create your entire company.  Of course, you won’t be able to replace your recruiter overnight—creating a recruiting program and generating the highest quality candidates who are interested in making the move takes time and commitment.  Nevertheless, in time, not only will you have eliminated the tremendous recruiting costs to attract average or slightly above average talent, you will populate your team with the talent and production that most companies only dream of.  Increased productivity, increased sales, reduced operating and personnel costs, and increased corporate options—all without the tremendous cost and waste associated with outside and in-house recruiters.  All of those saved dollars find their way to where they really belong–to your bottom-line. 

July 30, 2009

Boost Your Sales: “Top 10 Steps to Recruit Strong Salespeople,” by Dave Kurlan

Filed under: hiring,recruiting/hiring,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 7:11 am
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Top 10 Steps to Recruit Strong Salespeople
by Dave Kurlan

If you’re tired of hiring salespeople who take too long to achieve mediocrity and more often fail to achieve anything noteworthy, some best practices may be in order.

The following 10 Steps are the key to developing a process that yields consistency when hiring strong salespeople.  It takes 1-2 days to show clients how to apply these steps to their businesses so please understand that this article simply identifies the steps. 

1) Always Recruit – the worst time to hire a salesperson is when you need one. You’ll be less likely to wait for the right salesperson and more likely to hire the first person who can cover the territory.

2) Ignore the Job Description – provide a job description to the salesperson you just hired, don’t use it to do the hiring.  Instead, identify the challenges your salesperson must be able to overcome. To identify challenges, think about the market upon which your salespeople will call – things like size of company, title of the decision maker, number of competitors, pricing compared to your competitor, average size of your account, length of the sales cycle, etc.  These are crucial for filling your talent pool with the right candidates.

3) The Killer Ad – this should not be a description of the job, company or the opportunity. Instead you should describe the candidate you wish to hire by describing the experiences, from Practice #2 above, in which the candidate has already succeeded.

4) Sourcing – While the big job sites like Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com are proven sources of candidates, you’ll get more of the right candidates if you learn how to use their sites.  The field in which you type the job title should always contain the words that candidates will use to search for available jobs. Make sure “sales” is in that phrase.  You should also consider using salesladder.com, the source of the best sales candidates on the net, as well as Craig’s List, a surprising source of quality candidates.  Here are some more tips:

  • Have patience – you must still wait for the right candidate. Not hiring is always better than making another mistake.
  • The frequency of your reposts – the life of an internet posting is 3 days. You must repost at least weekly.
  • The target cities for your positions – if you’re looking for someone in the Midwest, post it as Chicago this week, Detroit next week, St. Louis the following week, etc.
  • The headline for your ad – It must have ‘sales’ in the title but beyond that, change it each time you repost it so that it doesn’t look like candidates are seeing the same opportunity each week.
  • The industry classification for your opportunity – select sales one week and your actual industry the next.
  • Get referrals from your salespeople, vendors, customers and friends – but make sure these candidates go through the same process as those who apply online.
  • Hire a recruiter to locate candidates – but make them go through the same process too.
  • Make sure your ad describes the candidate’s necessary experiences and not the job, opportunity and company.
  • Make sure there is nothing in your ad that can disinterest a candidate.

5) Automation – use the Rules Wizard in Microsoft Outlook to create automation that will identify incoming resumes, place them in the proper Outlook folder, and reply with an automated message that explains your hiring process and instructs your candidates to take an assessment.

6) Filtering – Most entrepreneurs make a huge mistake when they make decisions as to whether they should include or reject candidates based on their resumes.  Resumes contain very little information that will help you predict whether or not a candidate will succeed in your particular sales position. The best way to filter out the candidates that won’t succeed and identify the pool of candidates that will succeed is to assess them early in the process. The most accurate, sales specific assessment is Objective Management Group’s Express Screen which does the dirty work for you. It predicts, with 95% accuracy, whether the candidate will succeed selling your specific product or service to your decision makers in your market against your competition with your unique challenges. For more on this you can request a copy of my Sales Recruiting White Paper, The Modern Science of Salesperson Selection.

7) Phone Screen – have a very brief, 3-minute, conversation with only those candidates that are deemed hirable by the assessment.  Purpose of the call is to determine whether they have the experience you specified in your posting, and to make sure they sound like someone you would want representing your company.

8) Face to Face Interview – the primary purpose of the interview is to challenge your candidate and watch how they respond. You should poke holes in every claim they make in their resume to make sure they own what they claim.

9) Final Interview – This is where you get to sell the opportunity to the candidates you want to hire.

10) 90 Day On Boarding – a 90 Day, structured orientation where you teach them, train them, educate them, coach them and prepare them for what it takes to succeed in your business. More detailed information on the on the 90 Day Ramp-Up Plan can be found by Clicking here.

 

Dave Kurlan is the best-selling author of Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball.  He is the CEO of Objective Management Group and Kurlan & Associates.  He hosts the weekly Meet the Sales Experts Radio Show and writes the popular business Blog, Understanding the Sales Force.

July 29, 2009

Boost Your Sales: “Hiring Top Sales Talent,” by Niall Devitt

Filed under: hiring,recruiting/hiring,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 6:30 am
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 Hiring Top Sales Talent
by Niall Devitt

When we talk about hiring top salespeople, we should start by reminding ourselves of the old adages:

  • The 80/20 rule, 80% of your sales comes from 20% of your sales staff.
  • Only 5% of salespeople are likely to ever become A Players.

The Challenge

Hiring the right sales talent is without doubt one of the most difficult challenges facing sales departments today. In fact, the track record of a great many businesses is very poor. High staff turnover combined with big recruitment costs, often weight heavily on already underperforming sales functions within organisations.

Get it right and the ROI can be significant, get it wrong and the costs can be just as great. It’s an entirely risky business – which takes me to my first point.

Minimise the Risk

The first objective around hiring top sales talent is always about minimising the risk to the business.

You need to start by asking yourself questions like, how does our track record compare? Do we need help when it comes to hiring? And if so, what type of help do we require?

Help comes in various guises. You can hire a head-hunter to steal from the competition. You can hire a specialist recruiter or you can hire a consultant to advise and oversee the hiring process.

The Job Spec

The second place that many businesses can go wrong is in creating the actual job spec (description).

What requirements will you need this person to have? What qualifications will they require? What experience levels will they need and what type of experience will they need? Will the role require a new business developer or is more about account management? If it’s mixed, what is the mix?

Remember, the role should shout out off the paper to the right candidate.

HR

In many businesses, the HR department creates this description. With respect to HR people, they are often not well positioned to undertake the task.

In such cases, it is of vital importance that a member of the sales department signs off. I have seen job specs created by HR departments which in no way accurately describe the role.

It’s often a very good idea to run this spec past some of the more senior members of the sales team, to see if they feel it adequately describes their responsibilities.

Preparation

The next part of the process starts when you start to receive the CVs. Firstly eliminate those that don’t meet the criteria, and take some time to go through those that do. This is about preparing well for the interview stage.

Highlight points of interest and create questions that will encourage the candidates to prove what’s contained within their CV – these can form your probing questions when interviewing.

Keep an open mind, don’t be too ruthless in your culling at this stage, sometimes people who have little experience of preparing and writing CVs – won’t appear as great on paper as they will in person.

Lead questions

If you have gotten up to here right, the people attending the interviews should have the right basic ingredients to do the role. The challenge now is in deciding who the very best fit for the role.

It’s always a good idea to have a list of lead questions that will you will ask every candidate, and a scoring system – which prioritises necessary characteristics and experiences.

This scoring system should be weighted in favour of the skills that are most relevant.

The first interview

During the interview you will need to candidate to talk you through their sales process and sales returns to date.

How much was new business from new customers and how much was existing business from existing accounts? What level did they target within the organisation? And what was the typical sales cycle length?  Make sure to ask for specific examples of situations and sales to back these up.

Stay away from “what if” questions, these invariably illicit favourable responses but demonstrate very little by way of evidence.

Scoring

After each interview, score each candidate – basing your scores of what has been demonstrated rather than interpretation or rapport.

While of course rapport is important in selling, too many interviewers use it exclusively. We tend to like people who are like ourselves. While this may work for our friendships – it will not be so dependable when it comes to hiring.  

The second interview

When short listing suitable candidates for a second round of interviews, the tendency can be to go for similar people – this is rarely a good idea. It’s better to shortlist candidates that have different rather than the same strengths.

How will they fit in?

The danger here is that the interviewer uses the second interview to just firm up, on their original impression – rather than treating it as an interview in its own right.

I would always advise clients to use the second interview to evaluate the candidate’s suitability in terms of the organisation and the people. How well would this person fit in with the existing team and people? Are they bringing something extra, or are there potential areas where there could to be problems? 

Why do they want to work here?

This interview is also a better place to find out, why they are leaving their current role and what attracts them to your organisation.

Remember, there should always be a synergy in the answers to these two important questions.

Scoring round 2

Before they leave, voice any concerns you may have giving them an opportunity to respond. Again score each candidate immediately after they leave.

The result

You are now in a position to add up the scores, from both interviews and you should be left with a clear winner.

It’s not easy but make sure to learn from your mistakes.

Recruiting the best sales talent is rarely easy. 

It’s about minimizing the risk to the organisation, while trying to find the person who will deliver the most reward. When it comes to hiring salespeople, there are no guarantees and mistakes will be made -no one gets right all the time.

However, it is in not learning from these mistakes, that companies really conspire to make the task much more difficult than it needs to be.

If a salesperson doesn’t work out, be sure to investigate fully, take responsibility and ensure that the same mistakes are not repeated.

Niall Devitt is the founder of Beyond the Boardroom, a leading Irish business development consultancy. Niall’s experience spans both B2B and B2C, where he has delivered training programmes and recruited for the IT, Construction, Medical, Utilities, FMCG and Financial sectors. Niall brings success to companies and individuals by assisting them to maximise potential through identifying, resolving and overcoming performance issues.

 

July 28, 2009

Boost Your Sales: “Secrets of a Highly Motivated and Productive Sales Team,” by Dr. Drew Stevens

Filed under: hiring,recruiting/hiring,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 7:06 am
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Secrets of a Highly Motivated and Productive Sales Team
Drew Stevens PhD

One of the largest challenges of any sales manager is a motivated team. Managers typically inherit employees causing challenges between the different work philosophies. Managers seek alternatives to the morale and productivity challenges only to find little assistance. Research suggests differently especially in present economic tumult. After five years of exhaustive research, we at Stevens Consulting Group provide some methods to these challenges.

It all begins with hiring
Many organizations apply foolish thought to hiring. In fact, research with over 500 sales managers illustrates that over 91% wait until budgets widen before hiring. Hiring is not meant to be a reactive practice but rather proactive. Managers must be concerned with fees and time in lost productivity when someone is terminated. Typical estimates illustrate that once termination occurs 16 weeks or more linger before another employee is hired and it costs the organization four times the previous employee’s salary. Is the downtime and revenue loss worth it?

Best practices of those gaining positive results hire on a proactive basis. Proactively entails constantly being alert. Seek out vendors, competitors, suppliers and even customers.  Managers and employees must always seek out those that complete the organizational enigma.

Look for Talent not bodies
Hire for skill – Talent is innate. Organizations hire for personality and behavior first. Skill is not interchangeable, behavior is. I recall a five star hotel that sought my advice on creating the ultimate VIP experience; two levels of staff that were employed to simply “raise the bar”. After several hours of observation and shopping the customer it was easy to depict that “VIP” staff repaired flaws left by VIP housekeepers. If the hotel hired the right skill then there would be little need to have redundant services.

Organizations hire many selling professionals because they are gregarious or polite. The only consideration is whether they can hunt, farm and close business. Too much emphasis is placed in behavior, this can be altered, and talent is something staff is born with.

Get on board with OnBoarding
Onboarding is the process that includes all paperwork, accommodations, assimilation and acceleration of an individual employee to the work force of an organization. Onboarding enables an employee speed and velocity at the initial outset of the job assignment. The process requires a coordinated organizational effort to guide and mentor new and existing employees to huge gains in productivity. Research illustrates that 69% of organizations with a structured program have a higher success factor of maintaining employees beyond three years.

Onboarding plans must include:

  • A clear sense of purpose describing why orienting the new employee is important for the company and the worker.
  • An assessment of the environment (including any negative aspects of the job)
  • Identification of the ‘critical few objectives’ that the new employee must master quickly if he or she is to succeed.
  • Identification and assignment of a mentor

The process of onboarding creates a more cohesive and blended staff. Based on seven years of field research with over 3500 employees, it is found that those that understand their company, their products/services and the competition, were more productive and happier in the workplace. The results of this issue not only create a more productive work team but also one that is retained beyond three years. Managers that retain their employees longer are more apt to be more productive, have less internal strain and create better team synergy.

Skill Based Workshops for Staff Retention
Of the 120 billion dollars per year invested in human capital development only a small percentage focuses on sales training. It is incomprehensible that every organizations number one asset is selling- yet so little time is allocated. There are three prevalent sales training issues;

1)    Sales Managers typically state a lack of time for training, yet nothing is more imperative than an investment in human capital. A great example was when a sales manager from a Fortune 1000 firm called me to conduct training for his team of 45 but was only willing to invest three hours.

2)    Sales Managers typically hold short-term event based training. Development is a process not an event! Beliefs, habits and values will not alter in seven-hour program. Another manager told me that product training is more prevalent than professional training.

3)    No accountability. A travesty of development is the lack of accountability following a development program.

Selling similar to medical and legal is a profession. It needs to be taken seriously and invested as such. Employees leave organization for not only poor managers but also the belief they are not assets. When managers enable investments back to selling professionals hiring and staff retention are eased.

The Golden Rule – Communicate
Sales Managers and their people must communicate. A recent sample illustrates a decline in sales meetings and one on one communication. Individuals thrive on feedback to understand their relationship with organizational goals. The inability to confront subordinates has seriously undermined productivity in the workplace. Some of the excuses equate to time however, the truthful culprit is distaste for conflict.

Social scientists and sales management experts (such as myself) have studied management theory and performance and the belief is that consistent feedback is necessary for determining an employee’s contribution relative to the required outputs and measurements of the job function. In order to measure effectiveness researchers believe monthly appraisals are a good metric for productivity. These help to:

  1. To encourage high levels of employee motivation and performance
  2. To provide accurate information to be used in managerial decision making

In addition, they are relatively easy to do and require little effort. Feedback and appraisals do not require tiresome paperwork. An informal yet crucial conversation helps to strengthen wonderful points while limiting the flaws. Staff always will do better when they are offered kudos.

Finally…it’s all about you!
Employee turnover costs organizations billions of dollars in lost revenues and operational dollars. Research from just a few years ago reveals the tremendous impact sales managers have on their employee’s level of commitment. It is imperative to note that individuals do not leave companies – they leave poor managers.

Poor management-employee relationships contribute to negative morale. As recent as 2006 the Gallup Organization estimated there were 32 million actively disengaged employees costing the American economy up to $350 billion per year in lost productivity. Stop the bleeding by remaining close and engage your employees with conversation, feedback and relationship. Collaboration begins when manager acknowledge and have knowledge of their staff.

Much is dependent on the desire to change; methods chosen and consistent follow through. However, if you do nothing, you get nothing- staff and morale might decease. Take the time, seek remedies, and keep morale high. Doing so, lowers attrition, improves productivity, increases profitability and most importantly- reduces stress.

 

© 2009. Drew J. Stevens Ph.D. All rights reserved.

 
Drew Stevens PhD is a leading authority on Sales and Sales Leadership. He is he bestselling author of Split Second Selling and the forthcoming Ultimate Business Bible – Success Strategies for Business. He entertains audiences worldwide with his engaging and interactive workshops and seminars. In addition, Dr. Drew is the author or Sales Fitness the Top Ten Featured Blog and Podcast. Download the podcast now, available only on iTunes, and visit the blog at Sales Gravy.com  Get the crucial guidance you need to thrive during this economic slump with Drew’s new released audio program “Thriving During Turbulent Times only available on www.salesgravy.com . Dr. Drew delivers solutions and strategies to navigate though difficult economic terrain.

July 27, 2009

Boost Your Sales: “Beware of Hiring Your Competitor’s Sales People,” by Lee Salz

Filed under: hiring,recruiting/hiring,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 4:12 am
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Beware of Hiring Your Competitor’s Sales People
By Lee B. Salz

Life would be grand if we could sprinkle a few seeds in the ground, fertilize, add water…and a great sales person would sprout. This is truly a pipedream, but one often pursued by small business owners and sales management executives in their quest to find great sales talent. Rather than grow their own, they attempt to steal the crops from their competitors. Why not, their competitor is much better at growing a sales organization than they are. They will grab some magic from their competitor’s land and they too can enjoy great success.

When did the competition begin building a better sales organization than your company? Before you harvest their crop, consider these five myths when hiring your competitor’s sales people.

“Hiring from the competitor means the sales person will hit the ground running with no training.” Some of the attraction to the competitors’ sales people is sheer laziness. Hire a sales person from the competitor today…instant revenue tomorrow. No need to train them, they already know everything. Needless to say, this is flawed thinking. Sales people always need training and development regardless of who their former employer was.

That said, every once in a while, lightning will strike and you will hire a rainmaker. More often than not, this approach is a recipe for a making a bad hire. A thought…What sales people do you really think are available from the competition? Rarely is it the top performers. It’s the bottom 20% that, truth be told, the company is glad to see leave.

“Our industry is so complex that we must hire a sales person from within it.” How can this be true? No one ever came out of the womb mastering your industry…not even you. You were taught it and so was everyone else. If you truly feel that industry experience is the top requirement, be prepared for another major challenge…scalability. There are only so many people in your industry and very few that you will consider hiring. At some point, your talent pool will run dry.

Sales people need to have a certain level of knowledge to effectively sell in an industry. Determine what they need to know to be effective and develop training tools to quickly get them up to speed. Identify resources in your company that can help them with their questions. Test their knowledge assimilation along the way to make sure they are getting it.

“They’re going to bring a book of business with them.” Before you buy that argument, consider these three points. First, despite what they tell you, it is extremely difficult to move clients. The pain of change is not one that is easily resolved with clients. It is rare to find a sales person with that strong of an influence to overcome that issue.

Second, the sales person doesn’t own those clients, their employer does. While non-competes don’t usually hold up in court, client list protection does. And, you can be at risk in the mess. Do you really need that headache?

Third, don’t think for a minute that the sales person you hire today will one day retire with your firm. They will leave your employ some day. Imagine your sales person attempting to take your clients with them when they go. It doesn’t feel overly ethical, does it? And, it’s a flawed reason to hire a sales person.

“We’re a little firm and we could really use a sales person that comes from one of our large competitors.” This statement is true if, and only if, your company and the large competitor are identical twins. A synergistic match between your company and the candidate is needed to put together a long-lasting sales marriage. There are a number of nuances that affect this synergy.

The flaw with this statement is that it assumes a complete sales culture match. Every sales organization is different, even within the same industry. The large competitor may have a ton of sales support for prospecting and presentations, while in your company the entire burden is on the sales person. The sales person at the competitor may enjoy great name recognition in the marketplace while you do not. Thus, a different skill set is needed to get in the door with prospects. The list goes on and on. The key is develop a profile of your ideal sales candidate with the required and desired attributes and interview accordingly.

“Since they have been in the industry, they are passionate about it and passion sells.” Absolutely true! Passion sells, but it’s an incorrect assumption that these sales people arrive with passion. Sales people who bounce from company to company in an industry become “vanilla.”

Years ago, I had a sales person on my team who had sold for three of our competitors prior to joining our company. I participated in a ride-along sales call with her and the meeting was interesting to say the least. She could have had any of her former employer’s business cards in her hand, or ours for that matter, and everything she said was accurate. There was no passion. It was all vanilla information that failed to arouse any excitement in the prospect.

Sales hiring is daunting for companies of all sizes. The key is to have a profile of your ideal sales candidate and interview the prospects against it. This will help you find the right sales talent for your team whether they worked for your competitor or not. Need help interviewing sales candidates? Send me an email for my 28 favorite interview questions for sales candidates.

 

Lee B. Salz is a sales management guru who helps companies identify and hire the right sales people, on-board them effectively and efficiently, and align their sales activity with the objectives of the business using his sales architecture® methodology. He is the President of Sales Architects, the C.E.O. of Business Expert Webinars and author of the award-winning, widely-acclaimed book “Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager.” Lee is also a columnist for Sales and Marketing Management Magazine and SalesforceXP Magazine. He is a passionate, dynamic speaker and a business consultant. Lee can be reached at lsalz@SalesArchitecture.com or 763.416.4321.

July 23, 2009

Boost Your Sales: “Negotiation: What’s More Valuable; Aptitude? Or is it Attitude?” by Scott Roberts, J.D.

Filed under: business,Negotiation,sales,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 7:50 am

Negotiation: What’s More Valuable; Aptitude?  Or is it Attitude?
By Scott Roberts, J.D.

Among the tactics, one upsmanship, bullying and bravado, how do really great negotiated agreements get made?  Do we have to be smart or do we have to have the right attitude?  In negotiations, as with the rest of life, our attitude and feelings attract exactly what they convey.  So if you go into a negotiation with the attitude that you will negotiate solely on price, you will naturally drive it there.  By preparing and going in with the right attitude you will most likely negotiate better for yourself and the other party.

Many times we do all of the right things to prepare for our negotiations.  We gather all of the right information, prepare options and develop strategies to negotiate well.  As the day comes for the meeting what happens?  Why are we reluctant to pursue our interests and create value for ourselves as well as the other side?  Why are we reluctant to stand firm on proposals and terms that are fair to us?  There are a number of reasons.

The first is obvious, we are not prepared.  Research shows that almost 80% of all negotiations occur with little or no preparation.  We do not know all of the parties’ interests, and that includes ours.  In essence we do not have enough information to create value or substantiate the value we believe we deserve.

The second is we set our goals too low. The research shows that those that set a stretch goal rather than just their bottom line routinely negotiate more value for both parties.  There are three main reasons we set our goals too low. 

The first reason is that lower goals protect our self esteem.  We set goals that we know we can make and that allows us to feel good about ourselves.  Forget the possibility that we could have achieved more value so long as we hit the value we said.  That is a win isn’t it, or is it?  If we routinely leave value on the table as the research demonstrates who are we really helping? 

The second reason is not enough information and we have discussed this one above.

The third is plain lack of desire.  We take the path of least resistance.  If you are afraid to introduce tension into your negotiating relationships then you capitulate to others’ needs and wants.  In the end, when you lack the desire to create additional value beyond the obvious it hurts both parties, you and them. 

So how do we avoid this spiral?

The first is to always, always prepare for each negotiation.  Information and preparation are key.  Understanding another party’s interests and yours allows you find out what you really have to agree on.  Having this information on the table allows you to seek creative solutions to address both parties’ interests.  That means getting below the initial positions to understand the underlying value they need fulfilled to achieve everyone’s goals.  I find that asking why something is important to someone gets below the surface and helps understand what they really need.  For instance, when some asks for my best price I routinely ask why.  Here we really need to understand what is driving their request. Do they really want cheap?  Or is it they want to make more money or conserve costs?  Or is it they do not want to be taken advantage of?  When I know this information then I can respond appropriately.  Otherwise I will have to engage in a negotiation based on no value and therefore we do the proverbial haggle.

Second is setting high expectations for your negotiation outcome.  Too often I see negotiators spend countless hours preparing their bottom line and their concession strategy.  Rather, I set high expectations as well as a bottom line.  By high expectation I mean an offer that realistically optimistic.  An offer that is realistic but a stretch that I can support with reasonable criteria.  By having a high expectation and bottom line you are more likely to achieve an agreement that hits that high expectation.  It helps you increase your desire to negotiate an outcome that is good for both parties.   Also, research shows that those that set a high expectation routinely achieve value that is higher than those negotiators that don’t.  By preparing and having high expectations you will be more confident, in other words have the right attitude, in reaching a goal that is good for both parties.  And likely your self esteem becomes rapped up in achieving the high expectation rather than just preserving your ego.

It is critical to have the right attitude when negotiating.  By applying these steps to your negotiation you will be well on your way towards having the right attitude and creating a better outcome for both parties.

Scott Roberts extensive experience with negotiation has evolved over more than twenty years in positions from sales to merger and acquisition attorney.  In addition to negotiation, Mr. Roberts has trained in the topics of strategy planning, leadership development, marketing, and sales strategy.  As an advisor to many boards of directors on both legal and business matters, he is interested in enhancing negotiation, long and short term strategic planning, organizational development and results achievement through collaborative sales, marketing and customer services.  Scott is a consultant for Accordence, a company providing negotiation consulting, training, and mediation to corporations across the globe.

July 22, 2009

Boost Your Sales: “Collaborative Negotiating Strategies,” by Dr. Tony Alessandra

Filed under: business,Negotiation,sales,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 7:29 am
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COLLABORATIVE NEGOTIATING STRATEGIES
By Dr. Tony Alessandra

I believe there are two ways to negotiate: manipulatively and collaboratively. You could call it “win‑win” versus “win‑lose.” From which perspective do you currently operate?

Manipulative negotiating sees the participants as adversaries. Tactics include exerting power, using subterfuge and hiding your own nonverbal communications.  There is a lot of mistrust, tension, and suspicion. The Manipulative Negotiator’s goal is to win. There are usually hard feelings on somebody’s part–typically the loser. The focus is on single answers and positions‑‑”This is what I want!” It’s hardball negotiating.  If you are making a one-time negotiation and you’re not going to see the people anymore, perhaps you can get away with it, but it’s not a healthy business practice.

The collaborative negotiator sees the participants as problem solvers looking for a mutually satisfactory solution. It’s a process that both parties can walk away from and feel comfortable that neither one was “had.” It relies on trust, openness, credibility and honesty. The goal is a wise and fair outcome for all parties. The focus is on multiple options. There are many ways to satisfy both parties’ needs, not just one.

Everybody should have a negotiating philosophy. Many people enter important negotiations without having a clear idea of what they would like to accomplish. A negotiating philosophy could be that you want to go for low price; or you may be willing to pay going rates, but you want to get as many additional amenities as possible. Here’s my personal negotiating philosophy: “When two people want to do business with each other, they will not let the details stand in the way. However, when two people do not want to do business with each other, the details will rarely pull the deal together.” If somebody wants to do business with you he is more apt to compromise and less apt to seek unreasonable compromises from you.

There are six major steps to Collaborative Negotiating.

PLAN ‑ ‑ MEET ‑‑ STUDY ‑‑ PROPOSE ‑‑ CONFIRM ‑‑ ASSURE

Planning is all the behind‑the‑scenes research and preparation that you do before you come face‑to‑face with the other party in the negotiation process.

The Meeting Phase is where it all begins. Here’s where both parties determine how agreeable they are going to be with each other. You both are positioning yourselves ‑‑ you’re both trying to project credibility, authority, power, and the ability to back up your promises. Remember, when two people want to do business with each other they will not allow the details to stand in the way. In the meeting phase, both parties determine from the way the other looks, talks, and behaves ‑‑ “Do I want to do business with you?”

The Study Phase is where the negotiating parties exchange crucial information about what they are trying to accomplish ‑‑ their end results, goals, needs, and objectives. Each determines all the parameters of the other person’s current situation. There is a danger here. Do not focus too heavily on specifics. Look for the big picture. Do not start looking for “answers” too early, before you understand what the other person is trying to accomplish.

The Proposing Phase is where you clarify all the specifics. Who’s to do what, when, where, how and why? This is where you get commitment and implementation, and sign contracts. This is also where contract details are negotiated and some of the fine points of negotiations come into play.

The Assuring Phase is making sure that everything comes off as planned and that everybody lives up to his end of the agreement. Here’s where the goods or services are delivered as promised, and payment is made.

These steps can occur all together, one at a time, or some can be skipped.

Now let’s look at several specific actions you can take during the six steps of Collaborative Negotiating.

1. Develop a negotiation strategy that clearly spells out what you will and won’t do during the negotiations.

2. Collect as much background information as possible beforehand on the people and companies you’ll be facing in the negotiation process.

3. Evaluate your competitive exposure. What are the odds that another supplier or meeting planner will come up with a better offer than the one you are making? This information can help establish your maximums and minimums.

4. Prepare and role-play with colleagues prior to your initial negotiation meeting. It provides you with confidence in facing questions and situations you are now prepared to handle.

5. Make sure that your clothing, grooming, materials, handouts, preparation and depth of knowledge project credibility, authority and strength. This is where you start creating the “confidence” factor because people do “judge books by their cover.” People will not negotiate seriously with you if they don’t believe you have the power and credibility to make decisions.

6. Tailor your pace and presentation to the individual differences of the other people. People who are very relationship oriented and low in assertiveness are called Relaters and are primarily interested in relationships. Those who are “people” oriented and highly assertive are called Socializers and are interested in recognition. Task oriented, highly assertive people are Directors who are concerned about results. Less assertive, task oriented people are Thinkers who like structure.

Be flexible in your “approach” with the differences in people. It will reduce relationship tension and subsequently increase interpersonal trust, credibility, cooperation and productivity.

7. Take time to study all dimensions of the other person’s current situation. Ask questions and listen with your ears and eyes. Try to determine the end results the other person is attempting to accomplish, not solely his position or demands. However, it would be important to find out the decision‑making criteria (must haves vs. should haves vs. nice to haves) of the other person. This will provide you with his/her negotiation limits.

8. When presenting your desires/demands, try to relate them to the end results the other person is attempting to achieve. Show how your requests will also benefit the other person.

9. Negotiate the points of difference. Do not always go for low price (unless that’s your negotiation philosophy). Look for other points to negotiate.

10. Do not attack the other person’s position (specific demands) ‑­Look behind them (objectives/end results).

11. Do not defend your position. Invite criticism and advice, e.g., “What would you do if you were in my position?”

12. At the conclusion of your negotiations, make sure all parties fully and clearly understand who is to do what, when, where, how, and why.

By following the strategies presented in this article, you should significantly improve the outcomes you generate from your negotiations. Furthermore, your counterparts in the negotiation sessions will feel much better about you, the process, and the outcomes. Together you’ll both feel that a “fair” position was reached that was in the best interest of both sides ‑‑ a “win‑win” outcome. That’s the bottom line benefit of Collaborative Negotiating!

Dr. Tony Alessandra helps companies and salespeople out-market, out-sell and out-service their competitors. He earned his PhD in marketing from Georgia State University in 1976. In addition to being president of Assessment Business Center, Tony is also a founding partner in The Cyrano Group and Platinum Rule Group. Dr. Alessandra has authored 19 books and over 50 audio/video programs and films. Recognized by Meetings & Conventions Magazine as “one of America’s most electrifying speakers,” Dr. Alessandra was inducted into the Speakers Hall of Fame in 1985. Contact information for Dr. Tony Alessandra: Keynote speeches: Holli Catchpole: Phone: 1-760-603-8110 Holli@SpeakersOffice.com  Corporate training: Scott Zimmerman: Phone: 1-330-848-0444 x2  Scott@PlatinumRuleGroup.com

July 21, 2009

Boost Your Sales: “Power, Power, Who’s Got The Power In A Sales Negotiation?” by Dr. Jim Anderson

Filed under: business,Negotiation,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 6:54 am
Tags: , , , ,

Power, Power, Who’s Got The Power In A Sales Negotiation?
by Dr. Jim Anderson

Let your mind drift back to the last sales negotiation that you were involved in. When talk finally got around to negotiating a deal, after all of the PowerPoint slide shows, all of the RFP responses, maybe even the product bake-offs, who had the upper hand- you or the other side of the table?

Why Power Matters
The upper hand in any negotiation is held by the side that has the most power. In sales negotiations, power is a slippery thing.  It’s hard to tell how much of it you have and likewise, it’s hard to tell how much of it the other side of the table has. Despite all of this, it’s a critical part of the process – “he who has the most power in a negotiation will probably end up being MORE satisfied by the outcome.”

What all of this means is that you’ve got to get better at evaluating the situation:  you’ve got to know how to find out how much power you have and how much the other side has.

Power Management: How It’s Done
Sales people have known for a long time that negotiation is a process of information discovery.  During this discovery process you learn what your sources of power for this particular negotiation are. That being said, there are three negotiating rules that will help you to learn more about your power during a negotiation:

   Rule #1 – You Have More Power: The #1 rule of power management in a sales negotiation is
   for you to realize that you ALWAYS have more power on your side than you think that you do.
   Even if you think that you don’t have ANY power at the start of a negotiation, then you’re
   wrong – otherwise why would the other side be negotiating with you?

   Rule #2 – Power Is Not Real:  You need to understand that power is not real. It only exists in
   your mind and so it is what you think it is. If you think that you are powerful, then you are. If
   you don’t think that you are powerful, then you won’t be. Of course this means that you always
   need to picture yourself as being powerful no matter what the circumstances are. Easy for me
   to say, hard for you to do.

   Rule #3 – Power Flows:   The level of power that we start a sales negotiation with is not
   constant throughout the negotiations. The other side may make verbal blunders and reveal
   too much, they may make too many concessions, or do other things that will increase our
   power during the negotiation. Likewise, if we aren’t careful we can give away our power during
   the negotiation.

Final Thoughts
Our goal for every negotiation that we enter into is that we’ll come out of it feeling satisfied with what we were able to accomplish- we didn’t give away too much and we got what we needed. In order to get this type of satisfaction we need to have enough power on our side to enable us to get our way on those things that count.

Realizing that negotiating power is a state of mind and that we have control over how much of it we have will allow us to use it to close better deals and close them quicker.

Dr. Jim Anderson has spent over 20 years negotiating everything from small sales with individual owners of companies to large scale military project contracts with teams of sales negotiators. In his popular blog, “The Accidental Negotiator Blog” and his website The Accidental Negotiator Dr. Anderson offers his insights on how to develop your sales negotiating skills so that you can close more deals, make more money, and have more satisfaction

July 20, 2009

Boost Your Sales: “The Power of 1% Negotiation,” by Michael Schatzki

Filed under: Negotiation,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 6:40 am
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The Power of 1% Negotiating
by Michael  Schatzki

It would be wonderful if we could hit a home run every time we negotiated. If we are selling, we want to sell at list price. If we are buying, we want a huge discount with lots of free services thrown in. And sometimes, we will hit that home run. However, most of the time, we will be dealing with smart people on the other side of the table who also want to hit a home run and it won’t be that easy.

Successful negotiating can be about big successes, but it is primarily about adding up lots of little successes. If you can consistently improve your results by 1, 2, or 3%, ultimately that adds up to huge increased profitability for your business.

Here is how it works. Let’s make up a company. We’ll call them Alpha Manufacturing. Let’s say that Alpha’s total revenue last year was exactly $100 million. And let’s also say, just to make it simple, that their pretax margin was 10%.

You are the Vice President for Sales at Alpha. In discussions with your CEO, you have concluded that you absolutely have to increase your profitability. And you have decided that the way to do that is to train all of your salespeople to become better negotiators. Your goal is modest. All you want to achieve is a 1% average improvement in all your sales negotiations.

Now, if you had had this program in place last year, and if you had achieved that 1% average improvement, your revenue would have gone up by $1 million to a total of $101 million. Since your costs would not have changed, all of that additional $1 million in revenue would have gone straight to the bottom-line.

However, before going forward with this negotiation training idea, you decide to try it out on one of your senior regional sales managers. You lay out your idea and his response is “You’ve got to be kidding. Were dealing with sales people. Our job is to keep their focus on selling. We’ll never be able to teach them how to negotiate as well. But I agree with you, we need to get that extra one million in profit and here’s how are going to do it. We’re going to rev up the old sales engine, we’re going to redouble our effort, were going to capture market share – that’s how we will make it happen.”

Now, if your margin is 10%, how much new business do you have to sell in order to get that $1 million in additional profit. With your margin at 10%, you would need $10 million in new sales to get that same $1 million in additional profit that just 1% better negotiating would produce.

If your margin is only 5%, which was the case with one of my clients, you would actually need $20 million in new sales to have the same profit impact as just 1% better negotiating.

And what IS 1%? Let’s say the list price for a piece of equipment that you sell is $1025. What if you just round it off to an even thousand dollars? Well, what’s 1% of a thousand dollars? It’s ten dollars. If you drop from $1,025 down to $1,000, you’ve just given away 2 ½%.

So sure, go ahead and try to hit that home run. But remember that the real money in negotiating is in always doing just a little bit better. If you can consistently improve your results by 1, 2, or 3%, ultimately that is where the big impact on your bottom line will come from.

© Michael Schatzki – 2009 – All rights reserved

Michael Schatzki is a master negotiator who, for over 20 years, has provided negotiation training and coaching for thousands of people in the U.S. and globally.  More than 75% of Mike’s programs are for satisfied, repeat customers. The Negotiation Dynamics® system really works.  Mike can be reached at (888) 766-3530 or at www.negotiationdynamics.com. 

July 15, 2009

Boost Your Sales: “Sales Presentations: Those Butterflies Can Fly In Formation,” by Jonathan Farrington

Filed under: Communication,marketing,Presentation Skills,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 7:02 am
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Sales Presentations: Those Butterflies Can Fly In Formation
by Jonathan Farrington

All professional salespeople have to be involved in a presentation at some time in their sales career, but when it comes to the enthusiasm that sales professionals have for making a presentation, they broadly fall into four categories:

The Avoider: An Avoider does everything possible to escape from having to stand in front of an audience.

The Register: A Register is also extremely hesitant of speaking in public. They may not be able to avoid speaking as part of their job, but they never encourage it.

The Acceptor: The Acceptor will give presentations as part of the job, but does not seek opportunities to do so.

The Seeker: A Seeker actively looks for opportunities to speak. They understand that anxiety can be a stimulant that fuels enthusiasm during a presentation.

Becoming a Seeker is a prerequisite for sales success! So, how do we get those butterflies flying in formation?

The first thing to remember is that anxiety and nerves mean you are alive — and without them, your resulting presentation would be like you: dead!

What you need to do is learn to control your anxiety and use it to fuel your enthusiasm.

Identifying Fears

To control your anxiety, you must identify what it is that you are afraid of. Is it forgetting your lines? Is it the audience size? Once you have established what exactly you are afraid of, and then establish whether or not you can control it.

Imagine you are the captain of an airliner. Do you fear flying? Of course not (although you may fear crashing), because you are in complete control of not only the aircraft, but also the crew and the passengers.

You have a flight plan, and before you take off, you know the payload, weather conditions for the flight, arrival time, departure time, etc. However, what is most significant is that you are familiar with flying, and you are comfortable with all of that responsibility, because you have flown so many times before and you know virtually everything there is to know about that aircraft.

Therein lies the secret: The more presentations we deliver, the more accomplished we become. However, we must know what we are talking about — we must know our subject matter inside out. Otherwise our audience will find us out.

Let’s consider the areas that you can control:

Your audience: After all, you invited them.

Your material: You designed it.

Your resources: You chose to utilize them.

Yourself: You’re no puppet.

If there are any areas you’ve identified that you can’t control, forget them — it’ll probably never happen.

Controlling Nerves and Reducing Anxiety

Organize: Give yourself plenty of time to prepare; know what is going to happen and when. Take the time to rehearse your presentation, preferably with someone you know well. Get them to offer you objective and constructive criticism.

Visualize: Get into the habit of visualizing how the presentation will go; that way, the environment will feel familiar even if it’s your first time. Imagine the end of your presentation and your audience smiling with appreciation.

Make notes: Make bullet-point notes on individual postcards to prompt you (not lengthy scripts). You may not need them, but they will give you that “comfort zone.” Do remember to number them, though, just in case you accidentally shuffle them.

Relaxation: Before your presentation, take some time for yourself to relax, breathe deeply, go out into the fresh air, and clear your head. Do not allow your mind to mentally rehearse the entire presentation, because you need simply to concentrate on your opening lines. Once you have successfully navigated your way through the first couple of minutes, you will begin to relax. A strong opening is crucial.

Warming up: Clear your throat, practice your smile and drink some water to ensure you are hydrated, etc.

Dress appropriately and check your posture: If you look the part, everyone will assume you know what you are talking about anyway!

Become mobile: It will keep your audience awake.

Use eye contact and smile: They can’t fail to pay attention.

And finally — practice, practice, practice! With time and experience, even the most timid presentation-avoider can become an avid seeker.

Jonathan Farrington is a globally recognised business coach, mentor, author and consultant. He is the CEO of Top Sales Associates, Chairman of The Sales Corporation and Managing Partner of The JF Consultancy, all based in London & Paris. You can read his hugely popular daily blog here

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Jonathan has very graciously offered his Professional Presentations e-book as a gift to the Boost Your Sales readers.  Click on the link, download the ebook, learn, and start giving great presentations.

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