What makes a good sales proposition? •Are there different selling styles •What does a professional buyer expect from you? •Larger organisations •Lead Generation –is your process robust enough?

1. WELCOME
Are you comfortable selling?
Breakfast Briefing
H G Wells
4thDecember 2014

2. © C2I Ltd November 2014
HOUSE KEEPING

3. Future Events with
Next Years Programme ?
Some ideas?
•Intellectual property –how to protect your brand
•E-marketing trends –does email marketing work
•Innovation –how to innovate a service business
•Technology trends -including digital banking
Survey to follow –your feedback will be appreciated
Register at succeed@connect2innovation.co.ukto be kept updated
© C2I Ltd November 2014

4. Our speakers today
Andrew Parker
Tim Lowe
Chris Bryan
Mentoring Sales
Sales & Marketing expert advice
© C2I Ltd November 2014

5. •How can you help each other?
–who you are?
–what do you sell?
–what markets?
–Your strengths?
–what do you need?
–ALSO, hand out your business cards
It’s your turn now!
© C2I Ltd September 2014

6. Assistance?
“Growth through Innovation” & “Growth Accelerator” are both subsidised government schemes to assist SME business which can help realise IP and business potential
Our Speaker can help you –take the opportunity.
Discuss your business issues with them today
© C2I Ltd November 2014

7. Are you comfortable selling?
•What makes a good sales proposition?
•Are there different selling styles
•What does a professional buyer expect from you?
•Larger organisations
•Lead Generation –is your process robust enough?

8. Your Challenge!
1.Do you really have a sales process in place?
2.Is your lead generation robust and continuously working for you?
3.Do you know what you want from every sales conversation?
Aim Ready Fire
ReadyFire Aim

9. Where to start
Marketing is all about raising awareness –about creating Perception!
Sales is all about defining a need –creating a Reality!
.............................Peter Drucker

10. Tim Lowe

11. Selling to Woking Borough CouncilC2I Event: Sales –Are you selling comfortable? 4thDecember 2014Tim Lowe –Senior Policy Officer

12. Scope
•Policy and Regulatory Context
•What the Council Buys
•How the Council Buys
•Constraints
•Opportunities
•Review of Sales Techniques
•Identifying opportunities
•Further information

13. Policy and Regulatory Context
National / European
•Public Contracts Regulations
•EU Procurement Regulations
•Local Government Act
Local
•Procurement Strategy
•Economic Development Strategy
•Constitution and Contract Standing Orders.

14. What the Council Buys
Building Services
Business & Professional Services
Communication Services
Construction & Demolition
Environmental Services
Food and Catering
Information Management/Systems
Information and Communications Technology
Leisure Services
Market Research & Intelligence
Market Research & Intelligence
Office Equipment
Plant and Equipment
Property Management
Public Relations and Marketing
Recruitment Services
Security Services
Training
Vehicles
Waste Management

15. How the Council Buys
•Decentralised Purchasing responsibility
•Centralised Commercial and Procurement advice
•Direct Purchasing
•Restricted Quotations
•Open Tendering
•Use of Frameworks
•Use of ‘E-Procurement’

16. Constraints
•Outsourced Arrangements
•Frameworks with named suppliers
•Embedded Suppliers
•Unclear points of contact
•Range of purchasing methods
•New Regs: EU Procurement
•Procurement Strategy
•Visibility of opportunities

17. Opportunities
•Sub Contracting
•Framework direct call-off provisions
•Need to Challenge existing supply
•Engage with Commercial Unit
•Advantage to suppliers who understand purchasing methods
•New Regs: Social Value
•Economic Development and Climate Change Strategies
•Transparency code: improved visibility.

18. Review of Sales Techniques 1
•Not preferred:
•General company introductions
•Requests for meetings
•Attempts to build rapport
•Lack of specific offering
•Prolonged calls and emails
•Repeat calls and emails
•Obliviousness to Council situation
•Causing additional work / overheads
•False claims

19. Review of Sales Techniques 2
•Welcomed:
•Specific goods or services offerings
•Succinct sales pitch
•Offers to provide Free of Charge diagnostic / business case / trials
•Understanding of purchasing options
•Credible references
•Discounts for referrals
•Contact using preferred methods at agreed frequencies
•Demonstrable Value for Money
•Delivery of Council priorities.

20. Identifying Opportunities & Further Information
•WBC ‘Review it’ site: www.woking.gov.uk/review
•Contracts Finder: https://online.contractsfinder.businesslink.gov.uk/
•Supply 2 Surrey:
www.supplytosurrey.co.uk
•Coming up:
Insurance, Telephony Carrier services, Environmental Health services, Energy buying, Housing Asset Improvement Programme, Corporate Property Asset Improvement Programme, Temporary staffing.

21. Woking Borough Council
•Commercial Unit:
•Commercial.unit@woking.gov.uk
•01483 743491
•www.woking.gov.uk/business/sellingtothecouncil

22. Andy Parker

23. Developing greatSales Propositions
Andrew Parker
Mentoring Sales Ltd

24. Agenda
•Sales –nothing to fear
•Features, Advantages, Benefits
•Small sales –the Sales Proposition
•Larger sales –the Value Proposition
•Your next steps

25. Marketing & Sales
•Marketing
–generates your sales leads and opportunities
•Sales
–Closes the right opportunities for your business

26. Sales is an Art, right?
Life & Soul
Born salesman
Gift of the gab

27. Sales as a Science
•HuthwaiteInternational
•SPIN®is a successful sales methodology validated against over 40,000 sales visits
•Sell on value, not on price
•My 25 year sales success founded on this approach

28. “FAB, Virgil”
•Features –facts or information about your products/services. They do little to help you sell
•Advantages –show how a product/service can help potential customers
•Benefits –show how a product/service meets a specific customer’s expressed need

29. Small Sales
•Small sales –normally completed in 1 or 2 visits, relatively low monetary value
•Traditional sales techniques work best for small sales e.g.
–Open and closed questions
–Objection handling
–Negotiating
–Closing
•You must develop a Sales Proposition

30. Sales Proposition
•An Advantage (or several) you can offer potential customers above and beyond your competitors’ offerings
•Your USP sits here
•It’s the Selling company’s viewpoint

31. Larger sales characteristics
•Longer sales cycles, requiring several visits over several weeks or months
•On-going relationship, where salesperson becomes a decision factor
•Riskof making a mistake becomes greater
•Traditional sales techniques can work against you (=> consultative selling)
•Building value is critical to success

32. Sales Call Stages
•Preliminaries
•Investigating
•Demonstrating Capability
•Obtaining Commitment

33. Needs in the Larger Sales
•Take longer to develop, involve several people, more rational, more personal risk
•2 types of “need”
•Implied Need: customer statements of problems or dissatisfactions with current situation
•Explicit Need: specific statements of customer wants or desires

34. SPIN Questions Sequence
•Situation Questions
•Problem Questions
•Implication Questions
•Need-Payoff Questions
•A questioning sequence that taps directly into the psychology of the buyer and the buying process

35. Situation Questions
•Collect facts and background data about customer’s existing situation
•Essential part of questioning but must be used sparingly to avoid boredom or irritation
•Easiest questions to ask, hence why inexperienced salespeople concentrate on this type of question
•Not positively related to sales success

36. Problem Questions
•Your role in the call is a “problem solver”
•Probe for issues, dissatisfactions or difficulties
•Necessary –if you can’t solve a problem for the customer, there’s no basis for a sale
•Invites the customer to state Implied Needs
•Not positively related to sales success

37. Implication Questions 
•Effects, consequences or implications of the customer’s problems
•Purpose is to take a perceived small problem and build it up into one requiring action
•Strongly linked to success in larger sales
•Are “sad” because they identify the real problems

38. Need-Payoff Questions 
•Get the customer to tell you benefits that your solution could offer
•Ask about the value or usefulness of solving a problem
•Focus customer’s attention on the solution, rather than the problem, creating a positive, problem-solving atmosphere
•Very strong correlation to sales success
•Coupled with Implication Questions, allow seller to develop Explicit Needs as stated by the buyer

39. Value Proposition
•Clear statement(s) on how your products or services will satisfy customers’ specific needs and provide value
•It’s the Buying company’s viewpoint
•You are putting yourself into the Buyer’s shoes to consider your offering

40. Theory into Practice
•Practice one behaviour at a time (3 times)
•Quantity before quality
•Develop a stock of questions, in the SPIN sequence
•Analyse products/services by the problems that they solve, not features/advantages
•Plan, Do, Review

41. Looking for help?
•www.mentoringsales.co.uk
•GrowthAccelerator service
–For businesses looking for high growth
–L&M grant of £2,000 matched funding per senior manager; can be used for Sales training
–Coaching help, typically majority funded, over 3 – 6 month period
–6 workshops included (Strategy, Sales…)

42. Two issues collide today
Courtesy of Internet & social media potential customers have access to a plethoraof information. That means:
A potential buyer will likely preselect without meeting all the suppliers
Sales people need to be much savvier about any prospects business issues
Engagement earlier in the sales cycle and forming a relationship becomes imperativefor larger, or long decision time, sales.
It’s a buyers, not sellers, market : Which means:
The true professional salesperson will need demonstrable skills and knowledge and use both when courting a discerning buyer

43. A robust sales process
Proposition
&
Differentiation
Enquiry conversion
Lead
Generation
Sales
Meeting(s)
Closing
the Sale
Paperwork
“Land
&
Spawn”
Close
&
Deliver
Qualification
FormalProposal
Marketing
Proposition
Marketing
Communications
Qualify
Negotiation
© C2I Ltd November 2014

44. Recruiting Yourself?
Skills:
Listening
Pose Questions coherently
Speak clearly
Knowledge:
Industry sector
Subject knowledge
Personal
Motivated
Proactive
Appearance
Voice
© C2I Ltd November 2014

45. Do we prepare adequately?
What are you going to sell?
Who are you selling to?
What will be your initial Value message?
How will you physically present your message
How will you dress
What differentiates you in this situation?
What OUTCOMES do you want
© C2I Ltd November 2014

46. Different types of Organisations
Charity-CEO responsible to trustees
may need to apply for a Grant or Trust Fund to buy
may have limited “unrestricted” funds available
International–may not be headquartered within the UK
there may be a central purchasing group
a process of due diligence needs to be followed
a preferred supplier list, based on capability and other criteria
understanding sign-off levels are critical
Public sector –transparency required
tender process may exist
guarantees and references may be required
SME limited company –spending own money
very discerning and concerned about monetary risk

47. The VALUE equation
Establish NEEDS
© C2I Ltd November 2014

48. What affectsdecisions........and therefore the questions / objections you receive? Value vs. Need
The Buyer
Buying Behaviour
Competitors
© C2I Ltd November 2014

49. Decision Influences
Bad day syndrome
Political pressures from “above”
Budget sign off
Values match
Not in the objectives for this year
Don’t understand the market or the issues involved

50. Building Value conversation[SPIN based]

51. Keep asking Qualifying by asking questions
“I keep six honest serving-men(They taught me all I knew); Their names are Whatand Why and WhenAnd Howand Whereand Who. I send them over land and sea, I send them east and west; But after they have worked for me, I give them all a rest. “
..........................(Rudyard Kipling –The Elephants Child)
I Keep Six Honest Serving Men

52. Fundamentals of successful sales meetings
-Sales person talks about products, services and solutions later in the call
-Buyer talks more than the seller
-Sales person asks more questions

53. What is a successful outcome?
An order
“a pilot” or demonstration
Sample left
Proposal
CONTINUANCE

54. Suspects
Prospects
Qualified Lead
Sales
Meetings
Inbound
Enquires
Outbound
“Cold “ activity –Telephone, database
Qualification
Qualification
Always be Qualifying

56. Formal Proposal & Paperwork

57. Keep developing your sales skills
Set yourself LIMITED OBJECTIVES…
•It’s better to focus on one sales aspect than to half-focus on two!
Plan your APPROACH in advance…
•Do your research
•What do you want as an outcome
SLOW down…
•Don’t be afraid of silence: take time to listen, think and ask OPEN questions
IMPROVE through repetition
•The only way to learn is to practice and try, try and try again.

58. QUESTIONS & FEEDBACK
Questions ?
Can we assist you in your thinking?
Feedback about this Briefing session?
What other business topics would you like us to cover?

59. Thank You
Email:succeed@connect2innovation.co.uk
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Join our Linked In group:Connect 2 Innovation
Telephone:01483 743024