by andycoughlin | May 18, 2020 | Uncategorized
When I was Sales Director in a previous business, I had a pretty clear idea of how I sold. And it worked ok. But when I started building a team, bringing in colleagues, joining them for meetings, I got frustrated at the radically different approaches. Kicks under the...
by andycoughlin | Apr 20, 2020 | Uncategorized
You’ll often hear elite sportsmen and women talking about ‘controlling the controllables’. At Gazing we call this ‘blue head behaviour’. To dwell on the outcome, what might happen, is the red-headed approach: What if we lose the deal? What if the customer doesn’t like...
by andycoughlin | Mar 24, 2020 | Uncategorized
‘Diversions or distractions are the enemy of productivity. When we run our workshops we often run the ‘Bad Day in the Office’ exercise, designed to tease out all the things that can divert our focus, and impact on our ability to perform. Coronavirus is that on...
by andycoughlin | Feb 24, 2020 | Uncategorized
The best thing you can do for your team is to set a clear direction. ‘This is what we are aiming to achieve, and this is what it means for you and you and you.’ Once that is clear, everything then flows from that. It’s especially helpful to get that clarity when the...
by andycoughlin | Nov 14, 2019 | Uncategorized
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...
by andycoughlin | Nov 14, 2019 | Uncategorized
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...
by andycoughlin | Nov 14, 2019 | Uncategorized
Service isn’t service if it’s only delivered selectively. Treating polite customers well isn’t good enough. Your team need to know how to translate your vision into reality – again and again. It’s one thing to have clarity of what service means across the...
by andycoughlin | Nov 14, 2019 | Uncategorized
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...
by andycoughlin | Nov 14, 2019 | Uncategorized
Despite all your efforts, there will be times when customers feel you haven’t looked after them. They may feel a sense of injustice, or that your business hasn’t treated them as they might want. How you deal with these situations is critical, if you truly value the...
by andycoughlin | Nov 14, 2019 | Uncategorized
In an earlier blog entry I asked readers to look at all the things they did in the business that impacted the customer, from how they dealt with initial enquiries through to supply of the product and even the processing of payment. If you haven’t done this do it now....
Recent Comments