2011-01 – Ancient Art of Selling

Customer Service Measurement host the Marketing Network in Bristol, UK.

On Tuesday 11th January 2011, come and hear David Gilroy talk about the ancient art of selling.

In the toughest market that many of us have ever seen, whatever sector you are in, ensuring that your “sales engagement” strategies are as good as they can be is more important than ever.  David Gilroy from Conscious Solutions will take us through their approach to how they engage with prospective clients.

An experienced and engaging speaker David will draw on specific examples and will not be using your average slide deck!

Before becoming Sales & Marketing Director of Conscious Solutions David was one of the founders of Sift as well as previously being the Director of Customer Services for CompuServe.

Post Event Notes

January 2011: The Ancient Art of Selling – a talk by David Gilroy

The following review is provided by Bryony Thomas, Chief Clear Thinker at Clear Thought Consulting Ltd:

This month’s talk was given by David Gilroy, sales and marketing director at Conscious Solutions (http://www.conscious.co.uk/).

David describes himself as an accidental salesman who simply found talking to people more fun than other career paths. He challenges us all to see ourselves as salespeople, whether in the dating game or in our day jobs – we all need to sell ourselves in some capacity.

With real generosity and many a personal anecdote, David shared the techniques that have built Conscious a strong business, and a steady pipeline:

1) Don’t sell, let people buy
Nobody likes the hard sell, whether on the receiving end or the person doing it. But, everybody needs stuff from time to time, and can enjoy buying it. Make it really clear what you do and how to buy it, and if it’s something they want, they will buy from you.

2) Risk reversal
A technique that we encounter every day, and yet may not have thought about it in our own businesses. This is where you, the sales person, take all the risk. Can you offer a meaningful guarantee? Software vendors are doing this really well, 30-day free trial. David’s line for lawyers was “If you do what I say when I say you should do it and you don’t get the results I said were possible, I will give you all your money back”.

3) Where’s the pain?
Good old-fashioned advice here. Finding the point of pain, and being the person who can take that pain away.

4) Afters
With reference to Andy Bounds, and his book ‘The Jelly Effect’,here’s a take on the ‘benefits-driven’ thing. Make clear what people could expect after working with us. For Conscious, they describe the effect of a project in accessible human terms like ‘You will get compliments on your websites’, ‘You will get people calling having found you on Google’, ‘You will find it easier to have a conversation because people have already read something interesting on your website’.

5) Be friendly, not friends
With a compelling story about a project won off the back of taking an interest in the clients’ passion for F1, by sending her a £1 each way, David talked about the importance of sincere friendliness. People will find you interesting if you are interested. So, ask what people are up to at the weekend, be interested in their response, and do something that shows them you heard and remembered.

6) No cold calling
David defined cold calling as calling people who aren’t expecting your call, who don’t know who you are, and don’t care about what you have to say. Conscious has a full-time telesales person, but a call is never cold. There’s always a reason to call, like following up a download from their website.

7) Posture
This tip was about establishing your own value. For example, he advised to never let yourself be kept waiting more than 15 minutes – leave. He also talked about never accepting the first meeting, a technique that can work if you get the tone right.

8) Puppy dog close
If you’ve ever been on a sales course, you’ve probably been told to ‘always be closing’ – David disagrees. What he calls the ‘puppy dog close’ e.g. ‘So, if I can do that in red could you sign the order form today?’ For David, if you have to do this, then the run-up to this point has probably been wrong.

9) Follow the numbers
With caution against being a slave to your numbers, David pointed to numbers as indicators, but not a crystal ball. Particularly helpful in highlighting any barriers or blockages, like a big drop-out between one stage of a sale and the next – that’s a flag to make some improvements.

10) Follow-up
We all know we should do it, and yet most fail to do so. You need to maintain a presence with existing clients, old clients, and potential clients – when they’re looking to buy what you have, that they know you’re there.

11) The blink test
And the one for luck – which David doesn’t use himself but likes conceptually. This is where you say a price, and then keep adding to it, until the other person blinks – you’ve now reached the ceiling on what they’ll pay. Or, so the theory goes.

He also gave us a great example of a warm call technique, in what he calls his ‘coffee letter’ – but I will let you ask him about that one when you come along to the next event in Bristol. It’s one worth hearing from the horses mouth.

Contact Oakleigh at CSM if you would like an invite to a future business related thought provoking event.