Issue 6 / 23rd JuLY 2008

www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz

NZ’s fortnightly e-mag for sales leaders

PersonaL Brands How salespeople can even the playing fieldthrough their personal brand.

TechnIcoLourdreamcoaTs

Understanding the basics of USP’s

rIchardGee

celebrating25 years trainingNew Zealands ‘

salespeople

http://www.elitefitness.co.nz

NZSM / JUly 23rd 2008 / 3

CONTENTSISSuE 6 / 23rd JuLY 2008

5 5 INTERVIEW Richard Gee

The sales & marketing trainer recognised as much for his signature NZ flag jacket as his positive out-look, talks to NZ Sales Manager about celebrating 25 years training NZ’s sales people.

9 THIS WEEKS MUST READ Whats Your Personal

Brand?richard Liew tells us why in sales, the brand of prod-uct or services you’re sell-ing is just the beginning.

10 TWO MINUTETOP UP

Whats Your Business Technicolour

Dreamcoat?What is the thing that makes your business stand out? There are thousands of businesses in this world yet each one is uniquely different. It is important to identify how you aredifferent from the rest.

11 NZSM CALENDER

12 NZSM SALESTRAINING

DIRECTORY

14 BOOK REVIEW

15 THE CLOSE

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NZSM / JUly 23rd 2008 / 4

From the editor

Branding. No other term gets advertisers fired up, marketers loved up and salespeople wound up, like “branding”. Let’s face it – not many salespeople have

the luxury of working for a company who’s products or servic-es are the number one brand name in their category. Indeed that privilege is reserved, by definition, for just one company in each industry.

This means that nearly all salespeople out there in the market, are in the same position - having to compete with a better known or more highly reputed market leader.

As a sales person I’ve experienced first hand the challenges that this situation brings about and I’ve also heard lot’s of salespeople use this as an excuse for not being able to com-pete.

The fact is though, no matter how strong or weak the brand name of the company you’re representing, there are tech-niques that all salespeople can apply to level the playing field. How? Through taking time to build their unique personal brand – one customer at a time.

In this issue we look at a couple of practical examples of branding from a sales persons point of view. Firstly, how to build your personal brand as a sales professional, and sec-ondly how every sales person can and should understand how their business’s unique selling points, can be used to differen-tiate them from even the most formidable market leader.

And to cap off our look at branding from a sales persons per-spective, we talk to someone who has done a masterful job of building his personal brand over the years, trainer, author, consultant and speaker, richard Gee who this year celebrated his 25th year training New Zealand’s sales people.

ABouT /

Short, sharp and to the point, NEW ZEALANd SALES MANAGEris a free fortnightly e-magazine delivering thought provoking and enlightening articles, and industry news and information to forward-thinking sales managers, business owners and sales professionals.

EDIToR / richard Liew

DESIGNER / Jodi Olsson

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NZ Sales Manager is aRev Sales Network publication.

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NZSM / JUly 23rd 2008 / 5

I N T E R V I E W

NZSM: Richard firstly congratulations on celebrating 25 years since the launch of your sales and marketing consulting firm Geewiz – how does it feel?

Richard Gee: Great on one hand to still be here, loving it and being chal-lenged every day, but also frustrated that the skill levels of sales people, sales managers and marketing manag-ers are still wanting and still not recog-nized as vital contributions to success in business.

NZSM: When you started back in 1983 did you ever think you’d still be

doing it 25 years later?

RG: Yes I watched a 75 year old speaker in the UK and thought, “Wow! If he can still be wowing audiences at that age then I will do better.” When I started there were only three market-ing consultants in the phone book and about ten training companies - some-how I have outlasted them all!

NZSM: Can you tell us how you first got involved with selling?

RG: My first sales role was with importer J Yock & Co, then I joined

Wilkinson Sword, and realized I loved the thrill of the chase in getting the decision, and then moving on. Then I realized after several company moves and setups of new companies [Trigon Plastics Consumer division] that taking on the multi-nationals was fun and the world was my oyster.

NZSM: What was it that inspired you to start helping other people in sales and marketing?

RG: When I criticised the teaching of sales at AIT (now AUT) as not being relative to the NZ market, they chal-

RICHARD GEE

The sales & marketing trainer recognised as much for his signature NZ flag jacket as his positive outlook, talks to NZ Sales Manager about celebrating 25 years training NZ’s sales people.[

NZSM / JUly 23rd 2008 / 6

lenged me to provide a study course for night school on Sales and Sales Management. So I did and started teaching it, and went from there, adapting content to reflect NZ styles and practices and it worked.

Then going from lecturing at night to conference speaking was an easy jump, which then led to seminars and programs and taking it overseas. The challenges were all the same: to help customers make decisions.

NZSM: Along the way you’ve done a lot of work with salespeople from other countries – how do NZ’s sales people compare with our overseas counterparts?

RG: Kiwi salespeople are fearsome. They ask more questions and get more answers and close better without has-sling the clients. The world loves NZ

sales people as they are very versatile and focused on results and can sell to any level of client - small, medium, big and multi-national.

We also treat male and female sales-people as equals and it makes for a better mix of rep.

NZSM: In your experience over the years then, what are the key issues NZ sales people have had to to work on when it comes to selling?

RG: Listening skills. Sticking to the sales plan. Asking for the commitment

NZSM: Many businesses go down the gurgler because of an inability to sell enough of their often great products or services – do you think enough thought and attention is put into sales and marketing by NZ businesses?

RG: No. Marketing should identify a segment of ideal clients so that the advertising mix can communicate to get the sales people face to face and winning business.

Get the sales and marketing right, on a target of segmented customers, and success will always result. Just cutting the price is not a strategy - it is a fail-ure to understand your market.

NZSM: So do you think today’s busi-nesses are more receptive to learning when it comes to sales and marketing than when you started?

RG: No they still take the quick fix option too often, grabbing programs to fix problems instantly and failing to continually invest in skills and build on experience. They often want in 90 minutes what should be explored in a day and properly learnt.

NZSM: Salespeople are often de-scribed as the most important people in business yet not too many kids grow up with a goal to be a salesper-son – what needs to be done to get selling seen as a worthy and legitimate career choice?

RG: Accreditation of skills by national institutes and educational establish-ments, and companies being proud of the 135,000 sales people who drive the results.

We need more recognition of success and less showing off the toys. More awards, more payment for skills, more development of internal promotions. More stories of success, and parents being proud of their kids being in sales.

NZSM: Over the years you’ve seen the effects of several economic downturns – what advice do you have for sales-people during times of low business confidence and spending?

RG: Make more face to face visits, ask more questions, identify the

decisions customers need to make and why they will be made.

You need to focus on reasons to do business with you and help the decision maker make the decisions - not sell deals. You need to be the bearer of good news and not get

NZSM / JUly 23rd 2008 / 7

caught up in the media hype about the recession of the mind…

NZSM: You’ve had a lot to do with establishing the Sales & Marketing In-stitute of New Zealand and have been President twice – can you tell us a bit about what the Institute does and it’s aims for the future?

RG: It seeks to recognize the skills in the profession; starts up recognition such as chairs of marketing; recogniz-es teachings and university and Poly-tech programs and private programs as meeting standards that work; creates environments to allow successful sales and marketing people to be recog-nized via accreditation and national awards and challenges people to share their skills with others via stories and networking.

For the future, we want to be recog-nized as contributing to the standards of this profession over the last 60 years and become the leaders in getting recognition for the professional skills being used.

We also want to be the catalysts for more specialty groups of sales and marketing professionals to be set up and grow the attention given to the profession’s practices.

NZSM: You’re just as well known for your NZ Flag jacket as your positive outlook – what does being a Kiwi mean to you and do you think we’re passionate enough about being Kiwi?

RG: It means being proud of this small but focused country of people that has contributed so many “firsts” in the world

because nobody told us we can’t!

New Zealander’s are passionate about being Kiwi’s when they’re overseas… just not within New Zealand. We need to grow up and be proud of what we do, grab hold of our destiny and recognise ourselves rather than al-ways comparing ourselves to Australia and the world. We have it all here - we just need to believe it!

NZSM: The numbers so far are pretty impressive - you’ve given over 8800 presentations in 34 countries to over 193,000 business people – what’s on your agenda for the next 25 years?

RG: Another 10,000 presentations and to open up 20 more countries, and challenge the Kiwi style selling and marketing.

rICHArd GEE’S TOP 5 TIPS FOr

A HAPPY 25 YEArS IN

BuSINESS1. Believe in yourself and share your knowledge with as many people as you can

2. develop your own brand of personality and be outstanding in the time being

3. don’t think you know everything - you are always learning

4. Ask for the commitment from your customers and know why you won the business or lost it

5. Stay focused on what you want for the next 90 days by using 90 day action plans

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http://www.landrover.co.nz

In sales, the brand of product or services you’re selling is just the beginning. By Richard Liew [

T H I S WE E K ’ S M U S T R E A D

NZSM / JUNE 11th 2008 / 9

In business the ultimate goal is for our company’s or product’s brand name to become number one in it’s category. For example, when you hear the word “cola”,

chances are that “Coke” is the first name that springs to mind. When you think of “energy drink” chances are you think of “Red Bull”, and when you think of hamburgers you’re probably going to say “McDonalds”.

Similarly, in sales, the ultimate goal is for your personal name to become number one in your industry. Here’s a personal example. I once sold Eftpos terminals - about as difficult a product you can sell. Not only were we selling to Auckland retailers (some of the busiest, hardest working and grumpiest people around) but the Eftpos market was mature and extremely competitive. To make matters worse, the vast majority of Eftpos terminals are rented on 3 to 4 year contracts so even if you did find someone who did want a new Eftpos terminal they were often unable to take action until their contract had run out. Not surprisingly the strike rate from cold calling potential Eftpos customers was very low and 97% of all calls resulted in no sale, the stan-dard advice to Eftpos sales reps being to just forget about the “no’s” and keep calling until you found a “yes”.

Even a fool could meet their target using this formula and many of them did.

To ensure I didn’t waste a single call though, I worked hard to become known as “Mr Eftpos” in my territory. In other words, I worked hard to get everyone I called to think of my name, Richard Liew, whenever they thought about Eft-pos terminals from that day on. That way when their Eftpos machine broke down, or they knew of a friend going into business, or the contract on their current Eftpos terminal was coming to an end, I was the first person they called.

How did I do this? The same way businesses build their brands. Contact, repitition, building credibility as an expert and leader in my field, staying focused on one message – that Richard Liew = Eftpos.

I sent them letters after I called them, I sent business cards for their friends, I sent brochures, I sent advice on Eftpos terminals and what to look for, I called them back, I dropped by to say Hi and give them the occasional free roll of Eftpos paper, I networked, I serviced their machines and offered ad-vice for free, etc, etc. To a large extent, my customers didn’t even care what brand of Eftpos terminal I was selling, what model it was or that it was slightly more expensive than through other suppliers - all they knew is that Richard Liew was the guy to call about Eftpos terminals.

And eventually, as word spread, and I built my reputation, I did become known as Mr Eftpos - at least to the customers in my territory. (Thankfully the calls about Eftpos terminals have stopped!) Then when the hard work put into building my personal brand started to kick in so did the deals, with-out me seeming to others, to have to lift a finger.

Building your personal brand requires two things. First it is a long term strategy and takes time for the rewards to kick in so you have to be patient and diligent. You have to be able to take a step back and look at your current situation with some perspective, so that you act strategically over the long term, rather than just shooting from the hip from week to week.

And secondly it requires integrity and consistent levels of excellent service - even when you don’t feel like it. There is nothing more damaging to a brand than not fulfilling what your brand promises. (Think Ribena or BlueChip…).

So the question is, whatever you are selling, are you prepared to do what it takes to become the number one “brand name” in your industry? Even if the product you’re selling is not the number one brand name in it’s category (which is the case for almost everyone), implementing this strategy gives all salespeople an even chance.

If you want your customers to chase you intead of you chasing customers, seeing yourself as a brand and build-ing your brand in the mind of your customers is vital.

What’s Your Personal Brand?

NZSM / JUly 23rd 2008 / 10

What is your business’s Technicoloured Dream-coat? This means, what is the thing that makes your business stand out?

There are thousands of businesses in this world yet each one is uniquely different. It is important to identify how you are different from the rest.

What makes you the only one in the world to do what you do, to offer what you offer? In other words what is your Unique Selling Point (USP)?

Before you say, I don’t have one, there are hundreds of Real Estate Agents, there are heaps of Insurance Brokers, here are a few guide lines:

LocaTIonAre you the only Pilates studio in Ellerslie? Are you the only Mens’s Barber in Bethlehem?

exPerIenceAre you the only planner to have worked with the coun-cil for the past 30 years. Are you the only nutritionist to have written a thesis on the continued affects of childhood obesity?

SPecIaLTYIs there an area that you specialize in – “I specalise in resi-dential property sales over $1million dollars”, “I specialise in de-cluttering people’s home environment.”

PrIceI do warn you that price is a dangerous one, because if the warehouse stocked what you are selling would you still have a USP. It is easy to be undercut on price and you are then left with little differentiation.

PacKaGeIt could be that you are the only business to package together Roofing, Plumbing and Electrical. Packages can often be easily replicated unless it is your experience and knowledge that is your USP.

a GuaranTee or WarranTYCan be a USP, if you are the only Plumber to guarantee no leaks in your shower installations.

If you still haven’t identified your Technicoloured Coat, think about what you enjoy working on, as in most cases, that will be what you are also best at.

For Adconomy our USP is that we ‘specialize in cost ef-fective marketing for small businesses’. This is because I enjoy working with small businesses and I am best when I am helping a business realise their potential. If you are a mortgage broker you may love working with first home buyers as you take them on a bit of an educational trip, so that may become your specialist area.

A USP doesn’t mean that it is the only benefit that your business has, but it is a main differentiator from your com-petition.

It is important to have a Technicoloured Coat so that you don’t blend in to the rest of the crowd. If you completely understand what makes your business unique then it is a lot easier to create promotions, and campaigns that reach the right people with your unique message.

What’s Your BusinessTechnicoloured Dreamcoat?

T W O M I N U T E T O P - U P

By Nicky Bowden

NZSM / JUly 23rd 2008 / 11

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Negotiation Skills AdvancedNZIM NorthernAuckland

Sales Skills Level 3EMA NorthernAuckland

Sales SkillsUniversity of AucklandAucklandSales DevelopmentDavid FormanAucklandFundamentals of Selling WorkshopTop Achievers Sales TrainingAuckland

Customer Service SkillsNZIMAuckland

Sales ProspectingNZIMAuckland

NZSMCALENDAR

Sales DevelopmentDavid FormanHamilton

Sales Skills Level 2EMA NorthernHamilton

Sales DevelopmentDavid FormanAuckland

Sales DevelopmentDavid FormanHamilton

Sales ManagementRichard GeeWellington

Fundamentals of Selling WorkshopTop Achievers Sales TrainingAucklandSales DevelopmentDavid FormanHamilton

Fundamentals of Selling WorkshopTop Achievers SalesTrainingAucklandSales PlanningDavid FormanChristchurchSales PlanningDavid FormanAuckland

Sales SkillsUniversity of AucklandAucklandHit The Ground Running Sales SeminarTop Achievers Sales TrainingChristchurch

Prospecting for new businessDavid FormanTaurangaSales DevelopmentDavid FormanTaurangaHit The Ground Running Sales SeminarTop Achievers Sales TrainingWellington

Mental ToughnessUniversity of AucklandAucklandSales BasicsRichard GeeChristchurchSales DevelopmentDavid FormanTauranga

Mental ToughnessUniversity of AucklandAucklandSales ManagementRichard GeeChristchurchSales DevelopmentDavid FormanTauranga

Hit The Ground Running Sales SeminarTop Achievers Sales TrainingAucklandCreating a SuccessfulSales ProposalUniversity of AucklandAucklandSales DevelopmentDavid FormanHamilton

Creating a SuccessfulSales ProposalUniversity of AucklandAuckland

Sales DevelopmentDavid FormanChristchurch

Hit The Ground Running Sales SeminarTop Achievers Sales TrainingAuckland

Sales PlanningDavid FormanAuckland

Sales DevelopmentDavid FormanChristchurchFundamentals of Selling WorkshopTop Achievers Sales TrainingAucklandProspecting for New BusinessEMA NorthernAuckland

Sales DevelopmentDavid FormanChristchurch

Hit The Ground RunningSales SeminarTop Achievers Sales TrainingAuckland

Sales DevelopmentDavid FormanChristchurch

Hit The Ground Running Sales SeminarTop Achievers Sales TrainingAucklandAdvanced Selling SkillsUniversity of AucklandAucklandMental Toughness for Sales ProfessionalsUniversity of AucklandAucklandSales DevelopmentDavid FormanAuckland

Fundamentals of Selling WorkshopTop Achievers Sales TrainingAucklandNegotiation Skills AdvancedNZIM NorthernAucklandAdvanced Selling SkillsUniversity of AucklandAucklandMental Toughness for Sales ProfessionalsUniversity of AucklandAucklandSales ManagementRichard GeeWellington

NZSM / JUly 23rd 2008 / 14

B O O K R E V I E W

Aquick, fun read ‘Screw It, Let’s Do It’ still packs plenty of punch thanks to its larger than life author Richard Branson and, while in some respects this book is a distillation of his

autobiography, the simple, clear format works.

In the words of the publisher ‘Screw It, Let’s Do It’ was specially com-missioned for World Book Day’s adult literacy initiative with text at a readability level of between 9 and 12 years, yet was written to appeal to anyone wanting a quick, powerful and fast-paced read.

Richard Branson has personally experienced literacy challenges of his own due to undiagnosed mild dyslexia as a child and he employs a style that has universal appeal; along with resonant anecdotes and clear mes-sages shared with the reader throughout.

Sandwiched between a brisk, spicy introduction and an “up” epilogue are nine chapters covering Branson’s core values, drivers and personal mis-sion statements with each chapter’s content fleshing out the author’s own lessons in life and what, or who, cemented them into the personality that he has become today; with family, friends and foes all receiving equal measure and credit.

The style of ‘Screw It, Let’s Do It’ means the reader is guaranteed a quick and stimulating read and I doubt that this will be a book to languish on the book shelf having only been read once. On the contrary, it makes for the perfect written pick-me-up for mind and soul whether one is mentally or physically stuck for time or inspiration.

If you haven’t already read Richard Branson’s au-tobiography (Loosing My Virginity) then this book will, I am sure, tantalise you with a desire to read more about the author’s adventures and challenges. If you have already had that pleasure, as I have, then ‘Screw It, Let’s Do It’ is a reminder of that pleasure. It is also a stand alone gem that reminds the reader that whatever your dream or goal, “yes, you CAN do it!” and the only ‘rule’ is to have fun doing it.

Jean Caldwell is a freelance Executive Assistant and Business Administrator assisting business owners and managers with a diverse range of administrative roles. Visit Jean’s website at www.pa2go.co.nz.

Screw It, Lets Do ItBy Richard Branson

Reviewed by Jean Caldwell