Bloggertone

I’m up for the challenge…..pictures of Cork and Kerry will be flying between social media platforms!

Tried similar 2 years ago on my blog http://www.lecraic.com/2009/03/10/its-i-love-ireland-week-on-twitter/ – it never took off.

The word “Ireland” itself may trend as soon as Air Force One parks on the auld sod.

Let’s give it a whirl. u00a0A way to show our positive spirit, communications skills and team work. u00a0@MargaretMolloy

Hi Niall, thank you very much! It’s an incredible sales model and it really does make you consider the options for shaking up the standard “business & market models”.  

Talk about timing Pawel! I was at an event today, the main point of it was to get us to sign up before leaving.  I knew this going and went with the idea of just seeing what was on offer and coming away to think about it first.  I watched the Sales Director in action and he did a great job of reeling a few of us in, asking for the sale, etc using all of the above. For those who didn’t have any intention of buying, he accepted that with a cheerful grin. However when a few people aired objections he asked outright, what it was they were afraid of and met each fear head on and then went on to close close the sale, with each person delighted with the decision they’d made. It was a delight to see the process in action and one I’ll be putting to very good use in the future.

Thanks Niall, yeah, it all comes down to selling peace of mind.

Mairead, that’s an amazing story, a true sales professionalism. Brilliant. Best of luck with implementing it, I am sure it will work well for you

Thanks Warren

This is consistent with recent brain research – see for example David Rock’s “Your Brain at Work”. The brain “runs away and walks toward.” That means our genetic background makes us flee from (fear) danger much more than approach reward. But missing from your list is the value of controlled interpersonal interaction. Showing genuine concern for the prospect, asking them what is important to them, providing reflective listening, subtly mirroring behavior, understanding personality type, and other interpersonal skills can be powerful tools for reducing fear and increasing trust. Very stimulating post overall, and thank you for the thought-provoking “single point.”

Thanks Buck, and cheers for recommending “Your Brain At Work”, on my list of books to check out  

John, a brilliant point here. 

Many small business owners have absolutely no idea how their companies are performing, how much money they have, how much they can expect in the future, what’s the overall performance of the team and its members and so on. And, it works quite well for them but only until something happens and they run into trouble. With clever performance tracking you can foresee and avoid quite a lot of potential problems (not to mention that to actually know how your business is “doing” too). 
Well done. 

John – in agreement here with Pawel and Sian. My effort with clients is to establish simple business plan, with measurable goals, strategies, action items, etc. You are each right of the challenge to get an owner to focus and implement.  Great post on how the sales end of the metrics get tracked.

Thanks Sian,I think Salaried Sales Staff have a place, but when Businesses are in their first few years, salaries for sales staff just aren’t there. Sometimes they comm only agents are left to fend for themselves and that’s where the bad reputation for comm only has come from. Sales is an investment to any business and needs to be treated the same way we would treat our printer or web developer; given all the information necessary to do their job and close communication all the way.
Thanks so much for your comment Sian

So True Pawel,Thanks for your comment,
But, I also know salaried Sales Teams who have worked exceptionally hard to ensure they keep their jobs and receive no bonus, no commission and not even a yearly pay rise.. It comes back to ensuring we have the right sales people for the right sales job.I really truly believe the middle ground is ensuring we train our sales teams from the start. We have to train them in effective sales and customer service techniques.

Business in general can be nervous of sales people, and with the snaky slimy portrayal of sales people on TV etc I can see why. But with the right direction, training and appreciation our sales teams can be the best investment to any business.

Thanks again Pawel
 

 45 years selling, managing sales US and North America, muscle building teams, writing comp plans, building 5 companies from year zero(two public), and a multitude of accolades for ‘making it happen’……I have never seen such oversimplified touchy-feely commenting passed off as business advice.  The only part of your article that makes sense is the knowing that a well constructed compensation plan drives business.  Note that any seasoned salesman will see a 100% commission pay plan as a disguise of outsourced labor.   It means you as an individual are financing the sales side of the business 100% for your semi-employer.  Furthermore, straight 100% plans cause the smarter ones to focus on hunting elephants and ignore smaller (perhaps faster, more profitable sales).  Then they quit.  The cost of turnover for sales is easily 3X annual $$ target income for poor salesmen and 5-7X for good ones.  Hire right and pay them to stay.  Hire wrong and make your competition stronger.

Straight commission doesn’t work in long sales cycles.  Straight commission won’t work in  true consultative or enterprise type business models.  Straight commission tends to ignore margin control.  For perspective; the more times you say “if” and “when” in discussing my pay…the less I sense I really make….you come off as if you want to control my income instead of the other way around.  If you have a consumer product, what is clearly a fast turnaround sale, your ‘one call close’, you may get a few good people to work for you…but not for long.

Daryl Lucien
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/daryl-lucien/3/25a/150

I think the inital valuation meant that the Facebook share price had no where to go except down. That said, Facebook is now going to be much more focused on generating revenues and could mean good news for investors, provided they can continue to keep users happy.

Thanks for the blog on invoicing and factoring . This blog is a great help. I’m extremely happy to know that it is a discretionary service, i view this as a benefit as well.

I often get frustrated that people cannot just pay on time. I know there is so much at stake by witholding money, on both sides, but the small business owner is always the one to lose out the most – especially with cash-flow.
That has a knock-on effect – they don’t get paid, so cannot pay the other small business who provides services, and on and on.
And we have to pay the big companies up front, or on time! No lee-way. Rant over!

Andrew, great post and I agree about discounting – I use it to get paid on or before time – improves my cash-flow immensely.
I enjoyed especially your points 3 and 4, especially for the medium size business or HTSU that is expanding quickly – and finance is desperately needed.

Good credit card report is one of the key factors when you go for business loans. So,It’s very important to maintain a good credit card report. As you suggest some of the very nice point. I think it will be helpful for business owners to maintain their credit report.

If there’s one thing I religiously do, it’s monitoring my finances. I don’t want to be put in any situation that might ruin the credit history I’m painstakingly building. The article is correct in pointing out the need for people to regularly monitor their credit so they can know any discrepancies on their accounts.