Sales doesn’t come naturally: it requires continuous work

Sales training workshop daniel priestley

Sales. Love it or hate it?

I was on a half day sales training workshop run by Daniel Priestley this week, and that was one of the first questions he asked us. He said if you HAVE to choose, would you say love it or hate it?

I said if I really, really had to choose I’d say love over hate, but a lot of the comments from others on the training reflected more how I really felt:

“love it sometimes”

“i have a love-hate relationship with sales”

“i love parts of it”

The point with sales, he said, is that it doesn’t come naturally. It’s a profession. It’s practice. It takes work.

And the greatest companies in the world all have world class sales training and put an enormous amount of energy and effort into improving their sales process.

Apple requires 40 minutes of sales training every day for their retail team.

Rolex has a 3 day sales bootcamp every team member must go through before they can sell a watch.

Google has literal armies of sales people…and if anyone could automate it or get rid of the sales function, they could.

Sales. Takes. Work.

I admit I went into this sales training session feeling a bit ehhh….like, would it be worth the money I’d spent on it? Was I going to be given prescriptive questions which sounded unnatural and awkward?

But within those first few minutes, I was refreshed to discover hey, sales is supposed to be hard. It’s not easy for anyone. If it was, Google would automate that shit and then sell us all the blueprint and none of us would have to work at it.

It’s still a scripted process, rather than a friendly chat. But that process has flexibility, and warmth, and rapport, and connection. Three kinds of connection, actually:

  • Logically connect
  • Emotionally connect
  • Urgency to buy

These 3 have to come together.

I took lots of notes. I’ve shared them with our team. We used some time in our PF Board meeting yesterday to dig into how we can be doing sales better at PF, and what kind of training we can provide the team who are doing sales.

I’ve been thinking lately about the “what got you here, might not get you there” concept – especially as PF has passed the 10-year mark, and we’ve worked with thousands of accountants, and it could seem from the outside that we’ve got our shit together and it flows easily and we don’t even have to try.

But the truth is, we’re always trying. Changing. Considering what works and what doesn’t. Reviewing the numbers. Revisiting. Reconsidering.

And sales is an area I’m going to give more attention this year.

I booked that sales training fairly last minute. I hadn’t planned on it, but the email came in and the workshop was on a day I’d blocked out to work on strategy, and I want to learn from the experts.

Plus, it gave me the chance to practice more sketchnoting, which I haven’t done for a while. #creatvitypillar

And most of all, it showed me that my brain energy is finally being restored to pre-broken-ankle stage, which is a big relief!

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ON THE GRAM

Woke up naturally at 7am and there was some colour across the sky, so I took a little drive to enjoy the sunrise. 

I’d had great plans to go for a long drive on Saturday, but my body decided it was worn out, and the weather decided it was too. After a week of sunshine and snow and sharp edges, everything went grey and rather dreary. So I decided to take the hint and do nothing. 

Only to be rewarded with this today. So much quiet. 

Happy Sunday. ❤️☀️✨
January isn’t my month for resolutions. It’s going to be February.

I’ve done the resolutions thing. Bought notebooks. Made lists. 

But January is smack-dab in the middle of a deep cold winter. Nature itself is still hibernating, still thinking. There are no buds on the trees. The ground is cold and frozen, like rock. There’s snow and ice, and frost every morning on my windows.

It’s a time for being cosy and wrapping up. For long walks in the cold, and coming inside to drink hot mulled things and wrap up by the fire.

And, if you have headspace, starting to reflect on the last year and consider the one coming ahead.

January is for reflection.

After the reflecting can come the resolving.

I’m a fan of resolving things when it’s time to resolve them. The time of year doesn’t matter if your previous thinking on the matter leads you to a decision. Make the decision. Resolve the thing.

But I’m also a fan of rhythms, and patterns. I believe most January resolutions are a reflection of things which have been considered for some time. They’ve been hovering in the background for months. You’ve been thinking about it and now the new fresh new year is a time to take action.

So if you haven’t had that time to reflect, you still need it. I definitely do. Last autumn was one of the toughest, most exhausting times of my life in many areas. I adjusted my business, my living space, my location, my mindset. Implementing them took more energy and time and brain space than I expected.

So I’ve decided January is my month for reflection. I’ll let things simmer. Review, read back. Consider. Ask for help. Have conversations with fellow agency owners. Stir up energy and excitement again.

By February I’ll be in a place for resolutions. My birthday is in early Feb, which is also a perfect time for new starts.

So the Gregorian new year may start in January, but my own personal new year starts in Feb.

How about you? When is a good new year for you?

#creativeheadspace #motivation #resolutions #newyear #newyearnewme #reflections #january
Just wanted to let you know I recorded a super great video to introduce my talk at the upcoming @engager.app Labs event 😆😆

Actual video without grimaces or despair coming soon 

But honestly we all like the bloopers best right???

Tell me if you’re coming - would be great to see you there!

#marketing #agency #accountants #engagerlabs #event
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