Blog
Improve your selling efficiency the easy way
04 September 2008 by Charles Howden
When budgets get tight, the fastest way to grow business revenue is to improve sales conversion ratios. You do the sums. We are often are called in by companies that are short of cash because their sales have dropped below budget, and the way the economy is signposted, we will not be short of work!
Performance indicators to drive your sales by.
14 August 2008 by Charles Howden
One of the more useful things I learnt at Business School was the idea that running a business is like driving a car (and most of us do that on a daily basis). To successfully drive a car, the driver needs information, much of it comes from the dials on the dashboard. Information relating to speed, engine revs, fuel levels, oil pressure, engine temperature, and these days as well, a host of sat-nav indicators relating to external factors like location, traffic, hold ups.
Mind your (sales) language!
10 July 2008 by Charles Howden
When we work with businesses to improve their sales, it doesn’t take long before we talk about business culture, “the way we do things around here…” is perhaps the simplest definition of this. Why is it important? Well, when “the way we do things around here” is a way that supports your sales activity, you can pretty well stand back and let it perform for you, that’s how important it is.
How do you motivate someone to buy from you?
18 June 2008 by Charles Howden
How often to your sales team despondently tell you “they don’t really want what we’re selling’ or “I couldn’t get them to say yes to it”.
Where do you get good customer references from?
14 June 2008 by Charles Howden
“Can I ask what it is in particular that you especially like?”
How to use testimonials to boost your sales!
04 June 2008 by Charles Howden
This week, a brief reminder about the importance of using testimonials and how powerful they can be when used in a selling context.
Do you give your team cutting-edge sales skills?
22 May 2008 by Charles Howden
How much time each month, do you and your sales team spend studying the sales process and learning cutting edge sales skills?
Are you selling features or benefits?
02 May 2008 by Charles Howden
This week, consider this – Are you selling features or benefits? This really is one of the easiest ways to increase the footfall to your door.
Are you running referral campaigns?
25 April 2008 by Charles Howden
Are you running referral campaigns as a normal part of your everyday sales processes?
Of course, in sales, we all know this…
18 December 2007 by Charles Howden
When we go out to businesses and spend time analysing their sales operations, we have an informal checklist that covers over specific fifty behaviours and system areas that influence sales success. Curiously though, within half a morning, we usually get a “feel” for what’s not working, and a sense of what could be made to work. The sense that we experience is guided by intuition, and supported by evidence (which we collect and use to inform our proposal and to build our plan of action).
These are a collection of our views about the world of selling, though please feel free to disagree and share you own views with us.
Simply add your view to the comments box below each story. We’d be delighted to engage with you…
“CPV have taken the mystery out of the sales process and shown us how to do it for ourselves, now I feel much more in control of our business” – PW, MD Financial Services SME
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