Blogs & Articles

A recent conversation in a sales meeting revealed something that I hadn’t thought about for quite a while – the seemingly lost ‘Art’ of questioning, which of course is a skill that should always be accompanied by its close relative, listening.

When asked recently, ‘What is the key to business success?’ I was forced into thinking about all the necessary skills and attributes that leaders need in business today. When you look at the typical areas that we associate with good business leaders such as having a degree of acumen, work experience, a good level of intelligence in all its forms, knowledge of the company as well as the market and industry-wide knowhow; it’s all good stuff.

Over the years I’ve known many skilled salespeople and the one thing that they all have in common is the ability to close the deal.

Being More Commercial. So, what exactly does this mean? A few weeks ago, I was asked to attend a sales meeting for a client with a view to helping the sales manager improve her skills in chairing meetings, communication as well as increasing her general level of confidence and presence in conducting such matters.

Many years ago when I was starting out in my advertising sales career, our sales manager would gather us together for creative sessions where the sole purpose of the meeting was to come up with new ideas and innovations for products to sell.

For all new managers the whole notion of delegation can be a little daunting; it sounds easy enough, but in practise, all too often delegation turns into simply dumping a task on an unsuspecting colleague.

Most business people would agree that the wheels of industry turn best when we talk to each other face to face.

Sales professionals and managers read on…

The KPI Mystery

During a coaching session recently a young, and recently promoted, first line manager posed the question, “What should I write into my business forecast and how can I be sure it’s going to happen?”. Well, as you might imagine, my immediate response to that was that if we knew that, then we’d all be lottery millionaires.

If a Company Director was to challenge a team of sales managers and say to them, “How do you rate your sales meetings and is your team inspired by them?”….

Our client base spans a wide variety of industry sectors and as such we spend a great deal of time in different organisations and often see how, over time, they shape and mould their businesses to adapt to prevailing trading conditions. One of the areas that has become, not just popular, but necessary, is for workers to have the opportunity to work remotely or to have a flexible working arrangement.