Less than 1 in 10!

Less than ONE IN TEN

Staggering but true, less than one in ten business owners have taken ANY kind of sales training.  Can you imagine driving an HGV lorry without a single lesson AND being blindfolded? 

“Not the same thing Lawrence,” I hear you SHOUT.    Kind of is – it’s never gonna end well. 

I once trained a sales force built mainly from the business’ van drivers (without any formal sales training), no wonder they were losing money, the sales force caved when customers asked for a cheaper price.  The business was basically paying customers to buy from them.

Imagine your turnover right now, go look at your figures if need be. That’s what you’ve done without training, well done you.  Now double, even triple it. Seriously – that’s what you’re losing.

So why the reluctance to invest in sales training?

That very question was asked at a recent business club event – here’s the reasons.

Sales trainers want to turn everyone into sales people.

The cost – it’s expensive.         

The risk – what if it doesn’t work?

The sales courses (and trainer) don’t fit my business or style.

YOU have to ‘fit in’ with the ‘old-style’ sales course material.

AND there was me expecting the answers would be ALL ABOUT costs. 

So let me explain what I do – and then decide if this might fit your needs.

• It’s all about you and your team. I do NOT have a one size fits all mentality or approach to sales training.  Working with so many businesses and industries (as a salesman AND a trainer) there are ideas and concepts I have taken from them all and built a diverse way of looking at sales.  I look at your business and work out how best to boost your sales conversions. 
• I do not want ‘mini-me’s’ running around the business world trying to emulate me as a sales person. (It’d be rather difficult to get the accent right). I want to help you be you and get comfortable with a new set of skills designed to influence and encourage more prospects to sign up.
• It shouldn’t be expensive (and stop looking at the cost – it’s deducible), it ought to be a % of the growth it brings. I work out your average order value, work out the numbers you currently bring in (you and/or the team) then decide how much more you want to bring in. Then I can tell you what % my fee is going to be.  For example – If I can help you bring in an extra £100,000 pa – is it worth 10-15% of that increase?  Basically – a good sales trainer ought to pay for him/her self.  If I cannot do what I say I can – I don’t deserve your money anyway.    
• Old fashioned, cheesy, car and window sales trainers really do rub people the wrong way – They really do think there is only one way to sell schtuff. I am neither of those things.  A good sales person will be able to build rapport with everyone.  I am a people person and love to help. So in the very unlikely case we don’t get along – I won’t force you to hire me. 
• My sales style fit’s every business I have helped because I don’t focus on the products or the service – people buy from people and I focus on the people side of sales. You cannot influence an insurance policy, but you can influence people.  Here’s an old saying from a good friend of mine – he used to sell motorbikes.  “There’s an arse for every saddle Lawrence”.  What he meant was – someone somewhere wants what you’re selling – you just have to find and influence them into parting with their hard earned money.
• “What if it doesn’t work?” I hear you ask.

Well, it will, I still sell to this day (I make too much money not to sell). I understand today’s market, people’s buying considerations and their need to justify more than ever what they’re spending.  But, here’s the risk reversal, I will keep working with you (for free) until we do get the magic numbers we agreed.  Ultimately – the risk of working with SMOSNET is mine alone.  AND if that doesn’t work – we simply find another solution – I have hundreds of em. 

I offer a free 30-minute session to fix your greatest sales challenge.  I don’t do that just cos I’m nice.  That is designed to help people understand what I do and allow them to see if working with me is something they can visualise.  Lets be honest, you’re never going to fix your entire sales process in 30 minutes, there are too many variables, but I can pinpoint (and fix) where you need to focus first.  Then you can talk to me about fixing the rest.  Two things:- 1) you know that I can do what I say. 2) you know I’m worth the figure I’m going to hit you with (smiley face) 

So I hope this clarifies where I stand on the whole sales training issue.  I’d be very interested to hear if it resonates with you. DM me, give me your feedback. 

Until we meet next – thanks for reading.