A lot of the discussion was around what clever wording could be left on the answerphone. Much of it was not quite dishonest but misleading. But I think all this missed the point about how prospects will listen to the voicemail.

I can categorically say that I have never called back anyone who made a cold call to me after they left a message. It does not matter how clever their pitch. If it is a sales call, I probably won’t be interested and I sure as hell ain’t spending my phone bill to find out!

The reality may be that the caller has done their research and I am missing out on a great opportunity. But I am willing to take the risk and I believe so will most prospects.

So my mantra for voicemails is think why anyone why might call back someone that has not given them sufficient reason to call back? I think two approaches are head and shoulders above the rest. Either the curiosity approach or the confusion approach. Either way, the prospect chooses to call back because they want to know more. What better position to be in as a salesperson?

I know there will be some people who think this is misleading but it is not. We are simply playing on people’s psychology and the fear of missing out.

So, two examples: “Hi, Andy from A&P, can Gemma call back. Oh, the number in case you don’t have it is…..”. The point is it does not sound like a sales call. It sounds like a friend or contact. How you deal with the incoming call is the subject for another article!

And the other example: “Bob, can you call me back about the widgets please? In case you don’t have it, the number is….”. And that is it. No embellishments, no pitch.

Don’t expect a deluge of calls. Maybe one in 100 might call back. But that is one more than if you don’t leave a message and probably a higher response than leaving a detailed benefits statement. Try it and let me know!

On June 22 the French national team lost to the hosts of the tournament South Africa. France are ranked 9th in the world and won the World Cup in 1998 and Euro in 2000. South Africa are 83rd and only rejoined world football in 1992.

Only a matter of days ago the petulant multi-millionaire France players refused to train because of a bust-up with their coach. Many of them are considered amongst the best players in the world and the weight of national expectation was on their shoulders. But still they did not make it past the first hurdle in the tournament.

Is your team full of winners but not a winning team? As Clive Woodward, the former coach of the rugby world cup winning England team said, the victory is in the inches not in the feet. It is the many small things that add up that create victory. And selling is ultimately about winning.

For every sporting disappointment there is a sporting inspiration. Greece in 2004 won the 2004 Euro football championship and the team had been written off even at the group stages. In their whole history they had only qualified for two major tournaments.

Salespeople need to learn to lock out distractions and each day recalibrate their attitude. We need to think about what is important today and what we can do to get the victories we want. To achieve those goals we have set ourselves. The big difference between the smaller and bigger football tournament teams is their motivation, hunger and focus.

In the case of France it is so easy to blame everything on the coach Raymond Domenech who has been in his position for 6 years. It is like blaming one’s personal failure on the sales manager when you have the autonomy to go out there and get the business. What a bunch of nonsense!

A former headmaster of mine used to say “excuses are lies”. And I never wanted to be a liar. What is more, we are all too often prone to blame our failures on others when hindsight shows we could have done things differently ourselves.

Examine all those small changes each day that could be regarded as Woodward’s ‘inches’. Do something a little bit better each day and you never need to wait for the big crunch moment. And don’t rely on others to give you motivation or direction. If they do – great. If they don’t, do something about it yourself. Let’s learn the lesson of France’s 2010 failure and emulate Greece’s 2004 triumph.

(this blog written immediately prior to England’s crunch match against Slovenia)

The best salespeople spot these moments and adapt. Poor salespeople blithely chunter on without realising that the right statement or question can move the whole process one step nearer to the close. We have all encountered the latter – most recently I had an domestic energy rep come to the door and I told them I was busy upstairs and thought they were someone I was expecting. Nonetheless they insisted “but this won’t take a moment and you could save…”. A better line might have been “when is a better time?” but that was not in the script.

Often these MOTs can be very subtle and it is inexperience that prevents you from noticing them. It could be something as small as a noticeable hesitation by the prospect, often when we mention the price! In a face-to-face meeting, it could be a frown when you talk about delivery times. Or it could be one raised eyebrow when you mention one of your existing large clients.

The thing with MOTs is that even the most experienced salesperson cannot be certain of its significance. And that is why they stop. They stop talking. They pause. They ask a question. They make an observation about the prospect’s reaction and they become the detective: “Mr Smith, I can’t help noticing your reaction to our lead times – how does that compare to your expectation?”.

Other MOTs are blindingly obvious. The prospect might ask; “So how much would 500 of those be if we wanted them next month?”. Alternatively; “How many times do I have to tell you people, we don’t need any widgets?”.

When we focus our attentions more on the prospects and less on our product or presentation, we allow ourselves to intuitively raise our awareness of these MOTs. Don’t be worried if you get it wrong: better that you misinterpret a comment or hesitation by the prospect than you miss a big clue that could help you win the business.

“Today you must do more than is required of you. Never think that you have done enough or that your job is finished.

There’s always something that can be done – something that can help to ensure victory. You can’t let others be responsible for getting you started. You must be a self starter.

You must possess that spark of individual initiative that sets the leader apart from the led. Self motivation is the key to being one step ahead of everyone else and standing head and shoulders above the crowd. Once you get going don’t stop.

Always be on the lookout for the chance to do something better. Never stop trying.

Fill yourself with the warrior spirit – and send that warrior into action.”

Depending on which poll you look at, the Liberal Democrats in many cases have gone from third to first in what was supposed to be a “two-horse race”. All as a direct result of Mr Clegg’s appearance on the televised leaders’ debate last week.

Was this transformation in fortunes as a result of WHAT Clegg said? I have asked plenty of intelligent people and most still have trouble distinguishing the policies of all three front-runners. So that can’t be it.

Was it HOW he said it? Certainly his manner, confidence and Teflon attitude to the jibes of Cameron and Brown have not hurt his image.

I actually think it was the mere fact of his appearance that was sufficient to apparently sway the millions of voters. I was more surprised than most by the explosion in popularity because I have followed with interest Clegg’s rise and rise. I have read, listened and watched several interviews with him and he is clearly intelligent and able to capture the mood of the nation. But the absence until now of exposure for him compared to the other two party leaders has been striking.

Now that millions of people feel they know Mr Clegg almost as well as Mr Brown and Mr Cameron, this familiarity makes them more comfortable considering the Liberal Democrats as a serious contender in the election. Previously they had not, in my view. It is almost as if they were looking for a “proper” party to vote for that was not Labour or Conservative and now they have it.

This is why the most successful salespeople make sure they build their personal brand. They allow people to get to know them easily. They appear “ubiquitous”. They may be that ever-present networker, that seems to waste so much time on their blogging and tweeting and does the pointless videos. But it is that very individual that is breeding familiarity with their cheerleaders and prospects.

People buy from people they like. If they don’t know you, the can’t know to like you. If they don’t know you, it is almost irrelevant how good is your product or service.

Learn from Mr Clegg and get yourself seen in the same light and environment as your larger competitors. From that exposure,you have a springboard to sell your wares.

I spend a lot of words in this blog talking about how we think about the past, present and future and analysing how we can make the latter two better by considering the first of the three. However, Jill reminds us from her frightening personal experience how we can allow the creative and sensory right half of our brain to dominate every now and then and give the left hemisphere a rest…

In essence, most of these novel services have become possible as a result of the Internet. We can now reach out many more people, at negligible cost and do it instantaneously. Plus the new services allow us to be found via sophisticated search mechanisms.

Part of me was a little annoyed to see the term in the first paragraph include the word “sell”. Because the various services outlined are marketing, not selling.

To me the difference between selling is this: you put up a stall in the market, you put up great signs, you get the pricing right, you choose your pitch and decide what to sell: that is marketing. Spotting casual browsers, engaging people who squeeze your product, chatting with punters that were going to walk by and charming people into parting with their money: that is selling.

But I guess “marketsumers” does not work quite so well as a term.

And then I realised that the sellsumer term at least makes the concept of selling more palatable, at least in the UK.

I may have spotted another trend: a lot of marketing is increasingly being called selling. If that is the case, and the general population are getting less squeamish about the concept of selling, then I am all for it.

For more about sellsumers, have a look at http://bit.ly/a4VZkW

In principle these are fantastic ways to generate interest in your service. But you have to be willing to give away something of genuine value.

We offer 1.5-hour free taster sessions to prospective clients. This can actually end up being quite expensive because the organisation, travel cost and time involved is not hugely less than a paid day. But I call them our “shop window”. It gives potential buyers a chance to try before they buy.

In effect we are mitigating the risk that a buyer perceives in choosing the wrong product or service. This fear of making the wrong decision is one of the biggest “drags” to even beginning the discussions of changing supplier.

You may well be a brilliant company with a wonderful product but how can the buyer know that UNTIL they have already started using you? This especially so if your product or service is “disruptive”. Computer-related products are just such a product. Almost all the stakeholders in a company are affected by the installation of a new computer network or phone system. If the main buying unit gets it wrong, EVERYONE will give them grief!

However, you need to be careful about how you offer your “puppy dog”. It must be genuine and offer a real chance for the user to get a benefit. Nearly is not good enough.

As an example I recently downloaded some software that converts file formats for video. There is a free trial version. It differs from the full version only in that it applies a “watermark” to the video, so the marketing explains. In reality an ugly and obtrusive message sits over the image telling people that the video was created using an “unauthorised” version of the software. But you only realise this when you make your first converted video.

There is no way anyone could tolerate that “watermark”. “But they do this so you can just use it for free”, might be the response. But remember what I said before, the best puppy dog sale gives you a genuine chance to try before you buy. Software company Adobe are a classic example: they offer their PDF document reader for free. But you have to pay for the software that does the converting.

Rather than being impressed by how well the video conversion software works, I will be looking for another one. Even though this is actually irrational, I would rather spend more time finding another software that I will pay for and possibly not even use their free version at all before buying. So the first company has actually HELPED the competition.

So, think of how you offer puppy-dog sales to generate interest and ensure they are genuine useful offers: “sow, and you shall reap”!

I attend several business groups where we train our fellow members on what to look for when seeking leads to pass to us. The mantra at all of them is “be specific”.

Time and time again you see a handful of attendees at these meetings complain that they don’t get any quality referrals. And they are consistently the same people who are never specific. When asked what business they want leads into, this group of underper-formers begins their pitch with “Anyone that…” or “You already know what we do..”. Conversely, those that seem to get the most business (not, I don’t say leads but actually refer to clients won) are those that seem almost super-specific.

I believe the reason that most of these under-achievers are not specific, is because they have never taken the time to analyse where their best business comes from. They are not ignorant people and they are not lazy. I think they have just never been convinced of the need to analyse and articulate their best customers.

Imagine your company was to conduct an advertising campaign. Would you not think firstly in which magazines you might book the ads? And then, would you not say things in that advert that appealed to its readers? But how do you get to this position first? You analyse what customers you want to attract, of course!

Have a look at the customers that:
- spend the most with you
- are the least trouble to manage
- tell you how much they appreciate your business
- refer you to other clients
- generate the best net margin

And you can start to narrow down your ideal clients. Flesh out this description, make it real. Then work out where they are all hiding and focus your selling attention on these prospects.