Skills blog

Focused leaders set high goals and are intolerant of shortfalls. That’s normal. However beware the trap of everyone feeling pressured and no longer enjoying themselves.

How we say things is often more important than what we say. Communication and energy cannot be separated. Communication is an inside-out process.

People who procrastinate miss things; they may be late for an appointment, they may miss a train, but more importantly they may miss an opportunity that could change their lives for the better.

Many salespeople still regard objection handling as vital. If only they had better answers to objections their results would quickly improve. This emphasis is misplaced. It doesn’t matter how brilliantly an objection is answered, it has still created a gap between buyer and seller at the end of the presentation.

‘A premium return to the customer is all the justification you need to require a premium investment’ says Mack Hanan in Key Account Selling.

Consider this dialog: John’s lawnmower packs up one Sunday afternoon, so he goes around to his neighbour to ask if he can borrow his.

Leaders think progress. Believe in progress. Push for progress. Everything around us is growing. We can’t stand still, we can either move forwards with it or drop back. It is impossible to be in business today, use yesterday’s skills and expect to be in front tomorrow.

It is always advantageous to view the sales process through the buyer’s eyes.

Once the buyer decides they have a requirement, which they want to fix, they then move to the evaluation of options stage – put simply – they have decided they are going to buy but they have NOT yet decided who from.

You may have the best skills and processes in the world but if the attitude is missing your team will not reach peak performance. Leadership, at its heart, is about leading attitudes. And remember, anyone who is responsible for the performance of others is a leader.