Skills blog

You know about ROI – return on investment, but what about ROR – return on relationship? As products and services become more and more alike your customers are no longer buying product leadership. They are buying a trusted consultant.

Do you believe in the value of what you sell? If you were asked that question I’m sure you would reply very positively. The trouble is, when we are involved with the same product or service week after week, month after month, year after year, our belief tends to become sterile.

Leadership is how you get the best from people. Personal leadership is how you get the best from yourself. What’s that phrase? If you can’t lead you, please don’t try and lead me.

Trust is fundamental to modern selling. To be a successful salesperson in today’s market you must sell not only solutions, but advice, confidence and dependability. You must be totally reliable to deal with in every respect. That’s what becoming ‘a trusted consultant’ is all about.

As part of the LDL Learning Review, we are encouraging all of our team members to get involved in discussing the latest ideas and insights in the worlds of sales, management, leadership, negotiation and presentation skills training. This month, LDL’s Office Manager Catherine Hibbert has nominated herself to make a contribution. A great believer in […]

Selling against competition is all about selling the difference: what is so special about your product or service and what do these ‘differences’ mean to your customer? But this is relatively conventional wisdom. It poses the question – what do you do when your differentiators are elusive – when your product or service is pretty […]

A few years ago, Pat Wadors – who was senior vice president of global talent organisation at LinkedIn at the time – published an article for the Harvard Business Review, in which she argued that to stay relevant, companies and employees had to keep learning. “My hypothesis” she wrote, “is that for organizations to win […]

On this blog, Nick Evans, Senior Consultant at LDL, offers five presentation skills pointers inspired by a recent trip to Italy.  A recent event reminded me again of the power of verbal communication when selling or seeking to influence others.  Visiting my sister, who has run a company in Florence for a number of years, […]

Most companies have a sales team. They make calls, organise meetings, speak with prospects, and aim to hit monthly targets. And most of the time, they do fine. Sufficient guidance can be provided internally, by line managers or more experienced team members.