Sales for the non-salesman

There isn’t a business on earth that isn’t based on money changing hands in exchange for goods or services in some shape or form. And in most cases that means selling. We examine the basics.

Of all the bosses who’ve laid the blame for this year’s underperformance at the feet of their sales teams, how many would dare to step up and show their so-called silver tongued subordinates how it’s done? Very few, according to Mike Southon – business mentor and co-author of Sales on a Beermat – because, “A lot of entrepreneurs would rather stick pins in their eyes than tackle selling.”

Selling may not come naturally to many entrepreneurs but Andy Preston, an ex-buyer and founder of Manchesterbased sales training company Outstanding Results, says bosses who’ve ignored their sales demons until now need to pull their socks up: “Most people start a business because they’re passionate about a subject or product or they have done that job for someone else and they want to do it themselves and make more money.

“But they’ve not necessarily got the sales background that helps them bring business in. That’s not been a major problem when times have been easy. Now, though, it is a major problem.

“Business owners need to realise that sales isn’t a huge mystic art. Sales is about a conversation and you want to get as many conversations going as possible with the right people and look at progressing those towards an order. It’s about talking to enough people that have a need for the thing you offer and persuading them to buy yours.”

DIY SELLING
It’s very easy for sales “gurus” to tell us just how simple it is to sell. But Nigel Hirst is a proper
entrepreneur with experience of costly salesmen and the rewards that can be had from taking a grip of the sales force from the top. He says selling is simple too: “All you have to do is meet a man with a problem on the day that he’s got it and be able to solve it for him.

Everyone in the company needs to be a salesperson or have some attachment or responsibility for sales, especially the boss!”

When he bought engineering company Haden Freeman in 1999 it was losing hundreds of thousands of pounds a year and had just enough money in the bank to survive six months. Hirst decided to cut overheads – he and the sales team “parted company” – and he insisted “everyone had to do two jobs”. His reorganisation meant the business turned a profit of £175,000 in his fi rst 14 months as owner. Ten years on he employs one salesman who, he says, is responsible for “opening doors” and actually does no direct selling at all.

“People buy people not companies so it doesn’t matter whose name is over the door, if they don’t like the person they are dealing with, they won’t buy the product or service. The question I have always asked myself is ‘why would anyone want to buy a salesman?’

“What I have found is that people want to do business with the person that is responsible for solving their problem. They don’t want to deal with a salesperson who then passes it on to someone else, they want to deal with the person who is going to help them.

“We’ve got a principle in the company which I call ‘the zipper principle’. Imagine a zip half zipped up and half open. What you need to be a successful service company is relationships all the way up and down that zip. So the chairman of your company needs to have a relationship with the chairman of the client, the MD with the MD, engineer to engineer, down to receptionist to receptionist and accountant to accountant. That then makes it very diffi cult for relationships between companies to be broken down by one person leaving or doing a bad job.”

COLD SWEAT
To the more introvert of EN’s readers, the mention of cold calling is enough to bring on a cold sweat
and the merits of the discipline split even the sales bods down the middle. Southon advocates using email to avoid the “misery” of picking up the phone and trying to sell yourself. He says, “Nowadays very few people like to disturb their working day to take a sales call and I don’t know anyone who isn’t terrified of picking up the phone.”

Southon, who says he conducts most of his business over email these days, has developed a standard four-line email – or “elevator pitch” – that outlines the product or service being offered, the problem it solves, and some proof that it works (a customer testimonial for example) and suggests a meeting to discuss the matter further – ideal if you’re following up on a meeting at a networking event, which, all of the sales experts say, is a great way for bosses to initiate new business.

Preston, on the other hand, says businesses that ignore the merits of cold calling do so at their peril: “Cold calling works and it’s the quickest way of doing it. You get a quick, straight answer. The problems only occur because most people do it and expect a ‘yes’. With cold calling in most industries, a lot more people are going to say ‘no’ than ‘yes’. If you understand that then it can work.

“I have brought in hundred thousand pound deals on cold calls. But you don’t necessarily make it off the fi rst call, you might make the appointment and move it to the next stage.”

Those willing to give it a go are advised to note down a broad framework for the first 20 seconds of the call but not to write a word-for-word script – you want to avoid sounding like a 17 year-old working part-time for a double glazing company.

Will Holden, motivational speaker and author of The Guide, says, “Telling is not selling. Don’t be the salesperson who gathers up a big breath and hits the customer with a load of twaddle about the product. The most successful person is the one who asks the questions and talks the customer’s language so they feel like they are in a safe arena.”

And don’t worry about a sales pitch from the boss looking small-time – customers will feel valued if their enquiry is dealt with at the top and you’ll be seen to be keeping your ear to the ground by developing relationships with clients.

For Hirst, however, cold calling, networking and emailing are no substitute for building up trusted
industry contacts as methods of bringing in new business: “We have built up friendships and partnerships with other likeminded but non-competing companies – an architect in Manchester and engineering contractors for example – who sell on our behalf because they like working with us.

“If, through one of their clients, they see something that might suit us, they tell us about it and
we do the same for them. We agree to work together but it only works if you trust people. That is responsible for a tremendous amount of new business for us.”

GETTING IN THE EXPERTS
There will be some entrepreneurs on whom the very best of sales training and practised pitches
are lost and hiring help is the only solution. While appearance is important – Holden says “remember, at interview, that’s the best you are going to see them, ever” – employers shouldn’t presume that the guy with shiny shoes, a fat knot in his tie and the gift of the gab will make the most sales. It’s important for you to gauge how a candidate will fi t into your company’s culture.

Hirst says, “Remember that your small business exists because of you. People buy you, they don’t buy the company, so if you are looking at employing a salesman, ask yourself, ‘Where do I get another me from?’ Don’t bring in a sales expert because it generally doesn’t work. They often have a short lifespan so you might get a small boost but it will only be a temporary boost.”

The biggest challenge for a boss, though, is managing a salesperson once they’re in. Preston says, “The best salespeople are quite entrepreneurial themselves so you need to know what they are doing and who they are talking to and what they are saying because they are representing your company.

If you ask most directors, ‘What are your salespeople saying to customers about your business?’ they wouldn’t know. I think that’s a bit scary.”

PAY STRUCTURES
Deciding on a pay structure for sales staff that will maintain their enthusiasm and provide the motivation for them to hustle for new business isn’t easy.

The most important thing for employers to remember, according to Hirst, is that successful sales people are inherently greedy – and employers should consider that a good thing.

“If your sales force isn’t greedy for money and success, they are in the wrong job,” he says. “I know
bosses who employ divorced people, preferably on their third divorce, because they need the income so they have to work hard.

You need to be fairly mean on the base salary and generous on the bonus.”

But not everyone agrees.

Southon warns that treating sales staff to a hefty commission could damage staff morale across the business: “I’m not a big fan of commissions generally and certainly not commission-only pay scales. It’s wrong to have the sales guys earning fi ve times what the technical guy earns. A proper salary and performance-related bonus for everyone is the best option.”

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