#145 Nick Bramley – Sales Training

Sales Training with Nick Bramley Sales training is provided to listeners by Nick Bramley on The Next 100 Days Podcast. Nick is founder of Impactus Group and helps organisations around the world to improve their sales performance.   Nick has been involved in sales and sales training for his entire career. He's competitive by nature. Nick has developed teams. His philosophy is to keep it simple, communicate well and get people on board with clear messages. Due to his philosophy, to be a good fit for Nick's business you need to be growth oriented and have ambition. Similarly, you have to want to make a difference and not be a plodder (by definition, if you are reading this and listening to the podcast, you cannot be a plodder, but just in case!!). Sales Strategy The first piece of sales training that Nick provides is anchored around this diagram:   Nick gets asked to close business. But Nick finds that the problem is not always closing for example. Nick looks at sales in the whole. Start with the strategy. Who am I targeting Why have I chosen that sector How am I going to get at them Where are they based When is the best time to target them? As a result of all these questions you can get your strategy right. Cover all the steps, not just closing or the first step. Have you forgotten where YOUR sweet spot is? Another important aspect of sales is understanding where your sales sweet spot is. For this, start with:  who, what, why, where, when, how. Look at the next 100 days! http://thenext100days.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Nick-says-you-should-plan.mp4 Nick says the reason people struggle with sales is where they are trying to complicate it. compelling product interesting price capable of generating interest getting sales over the line Key Messages Here's how to remember the WHO WHAT WHERE WHY WHEN HOW - especially if you like rugby. Five naked bottoms on a rugby post. FAB It's very basic. But take this test: Give me 5 reasons why I should buy from your business. It NEVER fails to bring out features. If you tried it, how many features do you have? Features a feature is something ABOUT your business. Such as, how long you've been established, where you are based, how many staff you've got, the product range that you provide, great customer service, we are excellent at what we do, we're technically capable, experienced, capable. Not only are they givens but they are pedestrian. Nobody BUYS features. Advantages and Benefits advantage or benefit - what is the advantage to the client? People are buying probably 5 or 6 advantages or benefits: improve performance reduce risk financial incentive - more revenue or reducing cost operational advantage - shortening your process compliance - nobody buys this on its own, an advantage but secondary personal - busy people need to have their work and lives made easier If you start with "I'm ringing to help performance in a particular part of your business", that is better than talking about one of your features. Enquiry Handling Do not treat every email or phone call as the same. Have a scoring method to establish which are most realistic. Kick out the tyre kickers. People without intent. NEED - driven by requirement. Your tyre has shredded - you have to, you need a tyre. WANT - you're making an analysis of tyres. Your tyres need changing in a couple of months. Timescale and options come into the decision making. Sales people often fail to connect with these people, because they don't have the patience to wait 3 months. Really good sales professionals know they have a good pipeline from the conversations they have had. DESIRE - wouldn't it be great to buy this or that. No budget. They get excited, so it makes the sales person get distracted. Seems like the free-product give away is a good example of desire/no budget. They want something for free,