We are proud to be supporting the Toy Trust again this year, joining the LEGO UK team again to raise funds for Special Bikes for Special Kids. Please support us if you can.

Our aim is to raise £100,000 in 2013 to give 75 special needs children across the UK an adapted bike or trike to enable them to experience the joy of cycling mobility upon which all children thrive.

On 8 June we are cycling 70 miles around the Isle of Wight, which has to be better than the Three Peaks, which was last year’s challenge!

If you are able to support us, please follow this link. Thank you, Andy and the team

The man behind the phenomenal success of British cycling, Dave Brailsford was named Coach of the Year at the annual BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony last night. Why should the business community pay attention?

It’s hard to deny that British cycling has been the sporting success story of the last decade. Time and again champions emerge onto the world stage. The dramatic achievements in Beijing in 2008 led to higher targets (and more pressure) and the team stepped up and beat those targets in the pressure cooker of a home Olympiad, London 2012. Add in a ground-breaking Tour de France victory for Bradley Wiggins and it’s success all round for the team. But what lessons can we the business community learn from this?

The man behind team GB (and the Sky team that support Wiggins to his Tour de France yellow jersey) is Dave Brailsford, the straight-talking Performance Director of British Cycling. For several years now we’ve been quoting him in the high Performance Workshops we run. His core philosophy is the ‘Aggregation of Marginal Gains’. And it’s as relevant to business as it is to sport.

What he says is this: if you analyse every small element in what you do, be it in your work or your sport (or your playing of a musical instrument for that matter) and then make small improvements to each element, the overall impact will be significantly greater than each of those small steps. So he has looked at how the athletes warm-up, how they train, how they think, how they eat and sleep and relax and….well pretty much how they do everything.

It’s hard to suddenly find ways to train twice as effectively, that’s unrealistic. But if you can train 5% more effectively, and optimise your nutritional intake by 5% and reduce injuries by 5% then over time performance goes up by significantly more than 5%.

So how does this help us in business? Here are a few thoughts:

• Overnight change is unrealistic. Play the long game for sustained improvements.
• Develop a winning mindset that wants to analyse for improvement. That’s what top performers do.
• Take the time to look at everything you or your business does, and look for small improvements. If your people could be 5% more effective in opening up sales calls, and if you could improve service by 5% and keep 5% more customers returning year on year….now you’re talking. The impact will be significant.
• Be as relentless as Brailsford when it comes to checking that those things are being done week in week out by everyone in your organisation.

The parallels between business and sport are sometimes overplayed. But when it comes to performance and achieving high performance over time, the messages are the same.

If you ‘d like to discuss any of the points in this article, or find out how we can help your team deliver consistent high performance in pressurised environments then please drop us a line.

My 8 year old asked me this recently, and it gave me a great analogy which I have used to good effect in workshops and seminars. It’s a nice illustration of the Gazing Principle that underpins my Performance Improvement work with customers. I love it when kids ask these profound questions.

The simple answer is that like most drivers, I look in a number of places: the dials on the dashboard, the mirrors, either side of the road (to look out for pedestrians, animals, branches etc.) and sometimes at the sky to see weather conditions. But most of the time of course, it’s at the road or vehicle in front. I imagine most of us would answer similarly.

But the important thing here is that consciously or sub-consciously we choose where we put our gaze (or, you could say, where we focus our attention). And when the pressure is on, if for example we need to brake or take urgent action, our gaze becomes all the more focused on the particular thing in hand. Good drivers (and in extreme cases, racing drivers) have become expert at this control of attention.

How does this help us in business? Well, if we want to perform effectively in business, or any other walk of life, our ability to control our attention is paramount. Just like the driver whose attention is more on the road ahead than anywhere else, so our attention in the world of work is probably generally focused on the day to day tasks in hand. And quite right too. And if we can avoid distractions and truly focus on those tasks then the chances are we will deal with them more efficiently. (The flip side is being interrupted every time our mail box pings.)

But equally, if we solely focus on those tasks, we become the equivalent of the driver hogging the middle lane of the motorway – glued to the road ahead and unaware of the traffic building up behind them, or perhaps the ambulance trying to get past. Top performers choose where and when to focus their attention, stepping back to see the big picture, taking stock, planning what the next few months look like, and then returning to the task in hand. For them it’s a deliberate choice, especially when the heat is on.

This control of attention is a central facet of the Gazing Principle of high performance. If you want to discuss this, or find out more, I’d love to hear from you.

Three mountains in 24 hours, and plenty of miles on the road in between. We’re aiming to raise £4,000 to support the Toy Trust’s work in Malawi.

My wife Fiona and I will be doing the Three Peaks Challenge next month. You probably know someone who’s already done it, but this doesn’t alter the fact that it’s going to be a tough physical challenge.

Teaming up with the guys from Lego, I will be climbing Snowdon, Sca Fell Pike and Ben Nevis in just 24 hours.

If you’d like to support us and contribute to the work the Toy Trust does in Malawian orphanages, then please do click on this link. Thank you.

There’s no rule that says you have to sell to every customer who expresses an interest in what you have to offer. In this last article in the series, we look at knowing when to walk away. The great British industrialist Lord Hanson, who led the British takeover boom in the US in the 1980s was famous for ensuring he could always walk away from any deal at any time.

If you are being hammered on price, decide whether or not you really want the business. Businesses in their early start-up years are notorious for dropping their prices to win business. It’s sometimes called ‘buying business’ or ‘buying market share’. Sometimes it can be a good thing to do. New retail parks often drop their price to secure the right anchor tenant, which then draws in the other tenants. And small businesses sometimes drop their prices to win a blue-chip client in the hope it will give them the credibility to win more.

In both of these cases the price drop can be justified for a bigger picture business gain. Other examples include businesses which do an initial piece of work at a lower price, simply to get a foot in the door with the client. They then aim to grow the business. It’s sometimes referred to as a ‘sprat to catch a mackerel’. These are all valid approaches.

But be careful if you go down this route, or it becomes the norm in your business. It’s often hard to put your prices back up, once you drop them. Make sure your full price appears in all documentation, including your invoices so you can refer back to it. And clearly state why the discount was given on this occasion.

But you always have the option not to do the deal if you aren’t happy with the terms the customer is proposing. Being able to walk away from the deal if you want to has several benefits. It can show a confidence in your position, so long as it doesn’t cross into arrogance. I bet negotiators could see the confidence in Lord Hanson’s eyes as he negotiated across the table with them, a look that no doubt came from the clarity that he wasn’t bluffing. If negotiation is a game of poker, this belief can sometimes lead to the other guy folding first.

Some businesses are conscious of their position in the market, and they simply don’t want to do business with customers who only buy on price. If you are positioning yourself at the higher end of the market, it’s unlikely that you are going to retain customers who buy only on price, so you could argue, why bother trying to win them in the first place, if next time you try and sell to them, they are only going to try and hammer you again on price?

Take action: Decide what your bottom line price is. Give your team the authority to confidently decide when to walk away from a deal. Practice negotiation techniques, and learn how to walk away from a deal without appearing arrogant.

If you’d like to contribute your thoughts on this topic, then we’d love to hear from you. Please post a comment below.

One of the biggest mistakes sales people often make is confusing ‘negotiations’ with ‘discounts’. Offering discounts is fine, so long as you know you are giving money away. Negotiation is about give and take…on both sides.

Thousands of articles and books have been written on negotiation, and it’s impossible to cover this immense topic in a few lines. So this is a collection of thoughts that I hope give you an edge.

People usually associate ‘negotiation’ with ‘discount’, and it’s true that price and in particular a reduced price often form a key part of most negotiations. But if you are going to negotiate away the price, decide what you want in return. For example, for a lower price, you might ask the customer to commit to a larger order, get them to collect the goods rather than you shipping, pay up front, be a reference site for you or whatever. That’s negotiation. Make sure your team is clear on the points they can negotiate on.

You may decide after all that that your only option is to drop your price. If you do, be clear within your team that this is what you are doing, and don’t fool yourselves by calling it ‘negotiation’! One of my clients now uses the term ‘give away’ internally if they are in fact giving discounts away. It’s a good idea, as otherwise the negotiation / discounting confusion creeps back in.

If you have looked at the previous articles in this series on ‘Competing on price?’ you will have done lots of the work that shows you where you and your customer stand. By now you should have a clear view on how and why you are better than the competition, and how important you are to your customer. The better a job you do at understanding your customer, the more they will want to work with you. If you understand what options they have, you will find yourself in a stronger negotiating position. The good negotiator is clear on what alternatives they and their customer have.

A great tip I always share with my clients is to ensure the other person is investing more time and effort into the deal than you are. For every action you commit to as part of the negotiation, give him two to do. That way, it makes it harder for them to walk away from the deal because they have skin in the game.

Another point is not to give anything away up front. Discounts that are included in an initial bid are soon forgotten when it comes to sealing the deal. Some people refer to this as ‘keeping their powder dry’.

Take action: Be clear on what you and your team can negotiate on. What do you want in return? Make sure you have options, and be aware of the alternatives your customer has.

Next time we look at the decision to walk away from the deal

If you’d like to contribute your thoughts on this topic, then we’d love to hear from you. Please post a comment below.

If you accept that people buy from people, then one of the ways you can give yourself the best chance of succeeding in sales is to be enthusiastic about what you sell. My wife’s recent trip to Birmingham reminded me of how important this is.

Some people are lucky enough to be selling Formula 1 advertising space, or maybe tickets for commercial space flights. If you can’t get enthusiastic about selling those, then you really shouldn’t be in sales. But for most people, the thing they sell is relatively mundane…..haircuts, packaging, industrial valves…but as we all know this is the real world and we can’t do much about that. But what we can control is how enthusiastic we are about the things we sell.

My wife returned from a business trip to Birmingham this week, in which she had managed to squeeze in a trip to the shops, amongst all the other stuff. She bounced into the house brandishing a bag of Kilbeggan organic porridge oats. To set the context, it’s me who’s the foodie in our house, not my wife. And yet, she was clearly excited.

The best porridge in the world

‘I met the farmer’ she said, ‘and these are just the best porridge oats ever!’ She’d tried a flapjack (best ever) and was halfway towards baking some herself before she had even got her coat off. The farmer just loved his job.

Why am I telling you this? It’s because the farmer had chosen to be totally enthused by his product and had conveyed this enthusiasm to my wife and no doubt hundreds of other people he’d met that day. I bet he sold the lot. And yet porridge oats should rank fairly low in the ‘excitement’ stakes. Just like the brick salesman we met when we were looking to build our own house, (who chose to make bricks something more than a commodity – see earlier blog article)  he decided they were something to get excited about.

The flapjacks were fantastic (no surprise there, I bet the farmer was just as enthusiastic when it came to producing his produce) and my wife has told loads of people about them. And I’m telling you. In fact, I want to do all I can to help them succeed, so here’s their website link.

So what does this mean or us? Well, very obviously the more we get excited and enthusiastic about our products and services, the more likely we are to be successful. But also, the more likely we are to get some crucial word-of-mouth going.  My friend Rory used to talk about ‘Steve the scaffolder’ the man who just loved scaffolding and not surprisingly, ran a very successful business. Everyone in their part of town used to use Steve.

Being enthusiastic helps us stand out, gets people talking about our business, and may even make us enjoy our work more.

So, here are a few things to think about:

• Make sure you actually enjoy what you’re selling, or find something to enjoy about it.
• Read around the subject. The oats farmer knew all about what to make with his product .
• Get some good stories that bring your product to life….people love stories

If you’d like to discuss how to make your sales even more successful, please drop me a line – info@andycoughlin.co.uk

Occasionally, things go wrong. And when they do, customers are glad they didn’t just buy on price. A skilful and experienced salesman can turn this to his advantage, especially when under price pressure.

This is a tricky skill, and needs to be positioned carefully. When talking to your customer you don’t want to imply that things often go wrong, or that you get things more wrong than the other guys. But when done skilfully, this point can be a great way to raise yourself above the price battle. It can give you great credibility and help you win trust, especially in the service sector or where there is some complexity in the delivery of what you do.

Two examples spring to mind, both when we were doing some work on our house, a Victorian ‘character’ property, with all the charming idiosyncrasies that come with older houses. The first one was when we were having a new wooden floor laid. Two suppliers were offering exactly the same floor. Our favoured supplier was about 5% more expensive. We examined what it was that we liked about this company. My wife hit the nail on the head. ‘Which company would you rather deal with if we weren’t happy with the results?’ she asked. We then selected the more expensive supplier. Sure enough, the floor did need some adjustment and without hesitation, our supplier came and sorted everything out brilliantly. We were so happy we had chosen that supplier.

The second example was when we needed a damp course putting in. Fresh from my experience on the flooring I asked the two companies who were quoting the same question: ‘What can go wrong?’ The slick sales rep from the first company said ‘Nothing’ they were that confident. His more earthy competitor (who actually did the work himself, rather than just the selling) listed the three things that could go wrong and how they tried to reduce the risk in each case – I can’t remember what they were, but in doing so he gave me the impression that he was experienced, realistic and honest.

Think about this from your business’s perspective. If you are fantastic at customer after-care, and have a great track-record of managing the minor issues that can crop up from time to time, then make sure you are articulating this to customers and prospects.

Take action: Do everything you can to share your knowledge and experience with the customer. Be bold enough to share the things that can go wrong, and explain how you deal with them. If you have a strong set of customer references, use them.

Next time we look at the art of negotiation

If you’d like to contribute your thoughts on this topic, then we’d love to hear from you. Please post a comment below.

It’s never great to compete solely on price. Sooner or later someone else will discount, or be prepared to cut their margin. Competing on price alone isn’t great long-term strategy for most businesses. In this series, we explore other things businesses can do to reduce their need to compete solely on price.

It’s easy to forget that you and your team are a great asset. It’s not just your ability to produce products and services, it’s also the value you bring personally to your customer. Great suppliers become a key part of a customer’s extended team. They can bring expertise, industry knowledge, and can also be a great sounding board. And customers should value this. I’d choose a valuable relationship with a trusted supplier over ‘the cheapest show in town’ any day.

But how do you get to this position with your customer? Clearly, the better you know your customer, the more you’ll understand their business and therefore the more chance you’ll have to bring your experience to their wider business situation. If you’re supplying nuts and bolts and never ask what the nuts and bolts are used for, you won’t have much of a chance of making an impression, or becoming a strategic partner. So take the time to get to really know their business. And maybe find out about their business sector, and their competitors as well.

Once you know what your customer is really interested in, or where they have problems, you can become much more useful to them than simply being a supplier. This can take several forms:

• Watch out for articles that you think may be of interest to them. Sending a senior manger within your customer an article you think they’ll be interested in is a great way to add some value, and show them you are thinking about them. A short note summarising what the articles about, or why you think they may want to read it makes it all the more personal.
• You could do the same with links to websites, but make sure you keep it personal and avoid sending to blanket emails which will annoy more people than they will delight.
• Become an expert in your field (not just in your products) and offer up your advice and expertise. If you’re supplying technology, offer to come and talk to your customer or their board about what’s happening in the IT industry or about what most Managing Directors are thinking about.
• Be a connector. I always admire people who are generous with their contacts. If you know two people who you think should meet, bring them together, especially if you think they can both help each other. This could include potential employees for your customer.
• Keep your eyes out for potential customers for your customer. Introduce your customer to a new prospect and they’ll be eternally grateful.

Take action: Take the time to really get to know your customer, and think hard about all the things you could do to help them. As a friend of mine said recently, if you’re talking to your customer, it means your competitor isn’t!

If you’d like to contribute your thoughts on this topic, then we’d love to hear from you. Please post a comment below.

Next time we look at who the customer would rather deal with when things go wrong.

We were very proud to be able to support Big Bob Casey at his Testimonial Dinner last night. A top night with an array of rugby’s finest including World Cup winner Mike Catt OBE, Brian O’Driscoll and a host of other internationals.

London Irish and Ireland star, Bob Casey

I can’t think of another sportsman who is universally held in such high regard as Bob. And the affection for him in a huge room full of over 500 guests really was extraordinary. We were delighted to invite some clients, friends and business partners to support the dinner and help Bob in his support of his chosen charities:

• Christina Noble
• Co-operation Ireland
• Goal

Andy with guests at Bob Casey Testimonial dinner

A great evening with Big Bob