| Date post: | 01-Apr-2016 |
| Category: |
Documents |
| Upload: | espire-media |
| View: | 215 times |
| Download: | 0 times |
NZ’S E-MAG FOR SALES LEADERS | WWW.NZSALESMANAGER.CO.NZ
Leading Your Sales Organisation Through Change
JULY | ISSUE 84
How to Use Social Proof to Increase Sales
Page 6
Page 12
The biggest issue facing sales leaders in New ZealandPage 16
02 | www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz
From the EditorLinkedin pushed past 300 million
users worldwide a couple of months ago, and here in NZ, more than a
million of us are members. That’s nearly a quarter of the population.
40 percent of users worldwide login daily, and there are more than two million groups to choose from. The numbers are
significant but small compared to Linkedin’s stated long term goal of three billion users worldwide.
Linkedin is a valuable sharing, learning and research tool for sales people, and is increasingly being used by organisations for recruitment purposes.
The NZSM Linkedin group now has 1600 members. As with any network, to be effective it needs active members. In this
ABOUTShort and sharp, New Zealand Sales Manager is a free e-magazine delivering thought provoking and enlightening articles, and industry news and information to forward-thinking sales managers, business owners and sales professionals.
issue we have an introduction from our new Linkedin Group Community Manager, Rachel Goodchild. She will be helping to get the group humming.
There is some good advice on the misuse of Linkedin endorsements too, from regular contributor Kendra Lee. I have to agree with every word of the article!
PN
CONTACT/SUBSCRIBE&SHARE
W www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz
EDITOR Paul Newsom
ART DIRECTOR Jodi Olsson
GROUP EDITOR Nick Harley
ADDRESS NZ Sales Manager, C/- Espire Media, PO Box 99758, Newmarket, Auckland 1151, NZ
ISSN 2230-4762
CONTENT ENQUIRIES Phone Paul on 04 586 4733 or email [email protected]
ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES Phone Richard on 09 551 0607 or email [email protected]
SUBSCRIBE AT www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz. It’s free!
NEW ZEALAND’S SMARTEST BUSINESS PEOPLE ARE SWITCHING TO 2DEGREES
KATE SYLVESTER DESIGNER
DION NASH TRIUMPH & DISASTER
AL BROWN DEPOT / FEDERAL DELI / BEST UGLY BAGELS
GEOFF ROSS 42BELOW FOUNDER / MOA / ECOYA / TRILOGY
Talk to one of our Business Consultants today and we’ll help drive your business forward.Call 0800 022 249 or visit www.2degreesmobile.co.nz/business
BUSINESSbetter
MC1759A Smartest Business People M2 ad V1.indd 1 5/03/14 8:55 am
04 | www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz
JULYcontents
THIS MONTH'S MUST READ.................................................................................6LEADING YOUR SALES ORGANISATION THROUGH CHANGE
HOW TO USE SOCIAL PROOF TO INCREASE SALES....................................12
THE BIGGEST ISSUE FACING SALES LEADERS IN NEW ZEALAND................16
QUESTION OF THE MONTH................................................................................18HOW DO YOU TURN SKILLS LEARNED IN TRAINING INTO PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT?
TWO MINUTE TOP-UP...........................................................................................20WHY YOU SHOULDN’T ALWAYS GET EXCITED ABOUT A LINKEDIN ENDORSEMENT
QUICK FIX...............................................................................................................22 It’s not what you sell, it’s how you sell
BOOK REVIEW......................................................................................................23HBR’s 10 Must Reads: The Essentials
NZ SALES MANAGER LINKEDIN GROUP............................................................24
EVENTS CALENDAR............................................................................................26
THE CLOSE............................................................................................................27
03 | www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz
It’s
Good business is getting a small business package worth up to $700*.
*Based on the total amount of fees that a business will save over 12 months if it takes up all of the features of our small business package. Businesses can obtain any or all of the features of the Small Business Edge for free, except for the independent business assessment which is free for businesses that take up a minimum of 2 other Small Business Edge features. Product and fee waivers only available for 12 months. Simply make your first purchase within 12 months of your credit card account opening to get the interest rate of 2.99% per annum. After 12 months from the date of your first purchase, any outstanding balances will revert to the current credit card interest rate. Other fees may apply.
Talk to us about all the free features of
Our small business team is available 7am-7pm Monday to Friday, and 8am-2pm on weekends.bnz.co.nz/smallbusiness
0800 269 763
4599 Small Business Edge A4 1.0.indd 1 10/06/14 3:20 PM
www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz | 05
It’s
Good business is getting a small business package worth up to $700*.
*Based on the total amount of fees that a business will save over 12 months if it takes up all of the features of our small business package. Businesses can obtain any or all of the features of the Small Business Edge for free, except for the independent business assessment which is free for businesses that take up a minimum of 2 other Small Business Edge features. Product and fee waivers only available for 12 months. Simply make your first purchase within 12 months of your credit card account opening to get the interest rate of 2.99% per annum. After 12 months from the date of your first purchase, any outstanding balances will revert to the current credit card interest rate. Other fees may apply.
Talk to us about all the free features of
Our small business team is available 7am-7pm Monday to Friday, and 8am-2pm on weekends.bnz.co.nz/smallbusiness
0800 269 763
4599 Small Business Edge A4 1.0.indd 1 10/06/14 3:20 PM
06 | www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz
MUSTREAD
Leading Your Sales Organisation Through Change
This may require change to sales processes,
procedures, documents; roles and responsibilities,
territories; or products and services. But
managers can’t simply announce the change and
sit back and wait for the hoped-for improvements.
Amongst all the terminology and jargon floating around is the phrase ‘change management’. Like many terms, it began as a very specific term and has now been
used so broadly it’s almost the go-to phrase when discussing how a team may manage an accidentally stubbed toe.
In my work, it’s common to hear the following phrase – often said with a fair amount of humour. “Work would be far easier if I didn’t have to work with people.” Change management is always going to be about helping a group of individuals; all with separate needs, trust, levels of resilience and ability to adapt to change.
Change for sales teams is often necessary if they want to stay ahead of the gameWords by Rachel Goodchild
THERE ARE THREE MAJOR STEPS IN CHANGE MANAGEMENT: 1. Planning for Change
At this point, consider how much your team will be involved in this process. Will they be updated and considered? Will they know the end goal, and the wider plans influencing the change? Many team members will find it easier to buy into the change if they understand how it fits with a greater plan. It’s important to consider how much the change reflects company culture and values. If these are changing, then this will have a direct impact on your team, as they may no longer fit with the new model.
2. Managing Change At this point, consider how change will be rolled out to the group and the individual. Is there immediate change required or will it occur over a period of time? It’s important to understand if behavioural changes will be required as there must be time for this to occur.
3. Reinforcing Change How will the change be enforced or set? Will there be incentives for fast adaptors? Will they then be used to help others who are struggling? Will there be eventual penalties for the change not being adopted?
On paper, change is simple. It’s a mathematical matter, a measure of decisions drafted and accepted and then announced. In reality, every change brought in by a business requires relational buy-in – by the people who will be making the change possible.
www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz | 07
08 | www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz
If a step is skimmed over, or not implemented with care, it can cause recurring issues with new systems and structures being accepted by individuals in the team, or by large numbers of the people working in your business. The amount of change management required will depend on how many people will be impacted by structural or process change, and how much of their job will be impacted.
Company culture can also impact a team member’s ability to manage change. For example, a sales person in a technological company will come into the role expecting there to be a great deal of adaptation to change required, while a sales person for a bespoke manufacturing company may not.
Some companies have a history of constant change and restructuring. This reflects their core values, and change management of employees in these types of companies is often less in depth, and is poorly executed. Over time, this can lead to an endemic culture of low expectations, low employee loyalty, and a drop in employee performance.
Ongoing instability may create a short period of a highly motivated environment – an employment ‘survival of the fittest’. Some managers will consciously create an unstable platform for their team in an effort of create this dynamic, though often at the cost of a positive and supportive work environment. There is often initial sales growth in this dynamic. However, optimal long term growth is too often impacted, with regular turnover of sales staff and customers.
www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz | 09
When we realise that a change is received on a more emotional and instinctive level, we can have more understanding when we experience reactions.
If you manage a team in a constantly changing landscape, part of your change management process will be in recruiting team members who are highly resilient, adaptable and internally driven.
It is important to recognise these personality types are also often strong leaders, and will often work around the changes rather than adopt them if they don’t serve to meet their current needs.
When we address the human side of our business, we help transform company structures, values and growth. Change management is about being proactive in managing change, as opposed to becoming reactive and only managing issues if they come up.
It is very difficult to make long-lasting systemic changes while the leadership style and methods remain the same. All change requires complete buy-in and acceptance from the leadership team, at least from a public and operational front.
The united front of a leadership team adapting to change; which then moves down to managers, middle managers and then those managed: this is the only workable method for making changes stick effectively.
Nudge Theory, popularised by US behavioral economists Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, is based around the idea that most people’s ability to adapt to change stems from thinking more emotionally and instinctively than rationally and logically. It’s often used to help create change in very large groups, but stems from an idea that people who trust and like their leadership will be more likely to adapt to the change that leadership introduces.
When we realise that a change is received on a more emotional and instinctive level, we can have more understanding when we experience reactions.
010 | www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz
Rachel Goodchild is a trainer and facilitator for THE Marketing Company. Her particular passions are around managing team dynamics, leadership development and motivation.
www.themarketingcompany.co.nz
William Bridges, author and change management specialist, teaches the Transitional Model of exploring organisation change. This has three main steps:
1. Ending, Losing and Letting Go It is normal to grieve or have a time of venting and frustration. It is suggested to create open forums to manage concerns and allow people to openly express themselves – while remaining proactive – and creating boundaries around what is positive and constructive and what is not. Placing a time limit around this time can help people move to the next stage.
2. The Neutral Zone Your team members will not naturally move from the first stage to a place of full acceptance. The neutral zone is a period of time where your team are learning and cementing the new behaviour and habits they need to fully action the change. This can last between thirty to ninety days, depending on the level of change. It’s key to get all team members to agree to fully commit to change for thirty days, to help them have time to learn new habits. It’s a period of hard work, and it often feels slow and frustrating.
3. The New Beginning After this period, team members will have adopted the new systems and processes and feel completely comfortable with them. Each person arrives at this point at a slightly different time, and there may be tensions as some individuals struggle to keep up.
Communicating changes, and the process of change, helps all people in an organisation manage their own expectations around new structures and systems.
Often a business that has grown or is undergoing growth will struggle with systems that can no longer cope, and this can create issues as things are often changed quickly and without consultation or explanation.
This can lead team members to feel disregarded, and cause motivation to drop.
While it would be wonderful to have a generic process to manage change within your team, as long as there are people, there will be a range of different strategies and techniques you need to adopt to best serve each person.•
Get world leading free whitepapers and research each month by email!
Contact Ross Wilson on 021 152 8400 or email [email protected] to discuss how we can help you achieve your sales goals in 2014.
www.growingorganisations.com/offers
• Sales Management
• Leadership Research
• Training & Development
Click here
Global Best Practices For Kiwi Business
012 | www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz
How to Use Social Proof to Increase Sales
When selling your product or service, you will find that many of your customers will worry that they might be making a mistake by buying it. Their fears
usually have something to do with:
• Buying something that doesn’t work
• Buying something that is not very good
• Paying too much for it
A great way to reduce this fear in your customer’s mind is
to use ‘social proof’. This is a subject discussed at length in
Robert Cialdini’s excellent book: Influence: The Psychology
of Persuasion. Social proof is based on the concept that we
often make buying decisions based on what other people
similar to us have done.
Words by Graham McGregor
So, if you are a medical professional, you will be strongly influenced by what other medical professionals think about a product or service that is of interest to you.
If you are a teacher, you will be very interested in what other teachers have to say about a product or service you are interested in, and so on. That way, we reduce the risk of making a wrong decision.
www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz | 013
Social proof can be so powerful it is almost scary!What other people say about you, your company, and your products and services is infinitely more credible than anything you can say on your own behalf. When you make a statement, it is a claim. When your satisfied customer makes the same statement about you, it is a fact.
What makes a good testimonial? Think of it as a pair of verbal snapshots.
The first is the “before” picture – the problem: “I was fat, lonely, frightened, poor, unhappy, sceptical, etc.”
The second is the “after” picture – the positive result, the pleasant surprise, the solution: “Now, thanks to XYZ product/service, I’m thin, popular, confident, rich, happy, and a believer.”
Social proof is often the way we choose movies, restaurants, holiday destinations, cars, and many other products and services. How then do you use social proof to sell your product? The answer is simple: use testimonials.
The question many of your potential customers will have is this: “Who else has purchased this product or service, and what happened when they did?” If you can show these people proof that people like them have purchased your product or service – and have enjoyed some wonderful benefits as a result of that purchase – you will greatly increase your chances of making a sale.
In one of my first sales jobs, I was selling a promotional advertising concept to retailers in small towns around New Zealand. To be successful, I needed to get at least 30 retailers in each area to support this promotion. When I first began selling the concept, I found that it would take me three to four weeks of talking to retailers to get 30 sales in any one town. But one day, by accident, I began showing new retail prospects the details of what other retailers similar to them had done with this promotion in another town. I made 30 sales in three weeks. After that, whenever I was talking to a potential client, I began using the names of every retailer in town who had decided to get involved in my promotion.
I would say something like this: “Here are some of the other retailers in your town who have already joined this promotion.” I would then show them the order forms I had from all these other retailers. I found that when a retailer in one town saw the names of a dozen or more other retailers in the same town who had decided to support my promotion; it was very easy to make a sale to him. After six months of selling this concept, I was able to get my 30 sales in only one week. In one extremely successful case I was able to get 30 sales in one town in only three days.
014 | www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz
Before you set out to gather testimonials, make two lists:
1. Every claim, feature, benefit, and fact about what you are marketing that you want to substantiate.
2. Every doubt, fear, or question that might exist in your prospective customer’s mind that you want to answer.
3. Now, collect testimonials that specifically substantiate your claims and eliminate your customer’s doubts.
Here’s a simple method to collect testimonials from happy customers:
STEP ONE: Make up a short list of some of your best clients/customers. These are people who you know love your company, as well as your products or services.
STEP TWO: Send these people a very short questionnaire, along with a short cover letter. The cover letter should say something like: “We are always trying to improve our customer service and would greatly appreciate it if you would take five minutes to complete the enclosed feedback form and send it back to us as soon as possible. We have a great little free bonus of XYZ that we would love to give you if you can complete and return this feedback form within the next ten days.”
I have found from experience that offering customers a free bonus for returning the feedback form quickly always increases the response. This bonus could be something as simple as a free instant scratch-off lottery ticket that offers the opportunity to win up to $50,000.
www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz | 015
STEP THREE: Make the client/customer feedback form simple to answer and easy to return. Enclose a prepaid envelope and format it on one page so it can be easily faxed back. Make it simple to answer by having only a few questions on it. I recommend these five:
1. Please list three reasons why you first decided to use our product/service? (eg referral, Yellow Pages, newspaper ad, etc).
2. What three things do you like most about our product/service? (eg. Our friendly and knowledgeable staff answered your queries promptly; we came highly recommended by many people).
3. What are three benefits you have enjoyed as a result of using our product/service? (eg. We solved a specific problem; we helped you reach a specific goal.
4. What are three ways we could improve our product/service?May we use your comments as a positive reference? Yes/No
STEP FOUR: When the forms come back, write up the comments you have under this heading: “Here are some comments from our customers/clients on what they think about our product/service. They were taken from our recent customer/client survey in July 2014.”
A good testimonial will look something like this: “I chose ABC service because of 1, 2, 3. What I like most about their service is 4, 5, 6. I’ve enjoyed the following benefits, 7, 8, 9.” John Doe, XYZ Business.
These positive comments can then be used over and over in your marketing. One of the most important things with testimonials is to make sure they mention specific benefits that have been achieved as a result of using your product/service. It’s not good enough to have testimonials that say, “It was a great carpet cleaning service,” or, “I really liked it.”
What you really want is to have a customer say something like, “I chose ABC carpet cleaning service on the recommendation of my best friend. The first time I used it, I was thrilled with how quickly you were able to remove stains that had been on my expensive rug for over six months. Both my carpets and my rugs now look like new. I have had friends over for dinner and they thought that I had redecorated because everything looked so good. Your price was very affordable and I will definitely be using you again.”
Collect and use positive testimonials from your best customers and clients. Use them in your marketing. •
www.theunfairbusinessadvantage.comGraham McGregor is a consultant specialising in memorable marketing. You can download his 396 page Unfair Business Advantage Ebook at no charge from the website.
016 | www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz
A new ColmarBrunton survey shows the issues faced by sales
leaders in NZ and what their top performers are doing to help them cut through in the competitive market.
Results of the research showed differentiating themselves from their competition was the biggest issue that sales leaders faced (73 percent), followed by recruiting good salespeople (68 percent) and maintaining margins (60 percent).
The survey asked 173 sales leaders about their issues and sales performance.
Business training company David Forman engaged ColmarBrunton to undertake the research, and Managing Director, Olivia Blaylock, says the results confirm what they had long believed – that New Zealand businesses must differentiate themselves from their competition to succeed.
Words by Olivia Blaylock
The Biggest Issue Facing Sales Leaders
in New Zealand
www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz | 017
“There’s lots of talk about the New Zealand economy being on the rise, with confidence at an all-time high right now. That doesn’t mean though that business is going to fall into your lap – you still need to be competitive, and must be able to clearly articulate what makes you different to your competition. And you should be able to demonstrate your value, not differentiate by simply dropping your price.”
51 percent of people said price was the main reason they lost sales to their competitors. Blaylock says, “that actually means that in 49 percent of the cases, price wasn’t the reason they lost the sale, yet in the current market, many are often quick to reduce their price in order to win the deal.”
Recruiting good salespeople was the second biggest issue that leaders faced, and Blaylock says that differentiating yourself can even apply when it comes to attracting the best talent. “In a world of commoditisation, the only way for many companies to gain a competitive edge is through their people. Recruit good ones, reward them for performance and train them to continually add value to yours and your client’s business and you’re onto a winner.”
Survey respondents also shared what their top sales performers are doing well, with: understanding their customers (87 percent), selling the value of their solutions (83 percent), gaining commitment (82 percent), planning (80 percent) and building customer urgency (73 percent) being the key elements.
Blaylock says the survey underlines the fact that customer centric selling, which is the core of David Forman’s selling philosophy and model, is more important than ever. “With the increased commoditisation around today, the intensely competitive market we’re all working in, and with too many quick to drop prices, there’s a big opportunity available for salespeople to understand why customers buy in the first place, and demonstrate the unique value their solution offers.” •
[email protected] For further information email Olivia Blaylock.
“In a world of commoditisation, the only way for many companies to gain a competitive edge is through their people. Recruit good ones, reward them for performance and train them to continually
add value to yours and your client’s business and you’re onto a winner.”
018 | www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz
QUESTIONOFTHEMONTH
How do you Turn Skills Learned in Training into Performance Improvement?
Words by Ross Wilson
I am often asked about this. Many companies spend way too much on training that doesn’t work. But recent research has offered us valuable answers. Let me quote from an
article by Dr. Michael Leimbach(VP Research at Wilson Learning) and Jane Maringka:
“The fundamental purpose of learning and development is to help people develop skills which, when applied to work, enhance job and organisational performance. While this is widely acknowledged, how we measure the success of learning is not often in alignment with this idea. In fact, the most popular model for evaluating learning and development (Kirkpatrick Model) has three ‘levels’ devoted to measuring learning outcomes, and only one measuring performance outcomes.
This focus on learning outcomes rather than performance outcomes has also influenced how learning has been designed and delivered for most of our industry’s history. More recently, it has been widely researched (and largely accepted) that learning and development, as usually conducted, does not create performance change at an
www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz | 019
How do you Turn Skills Learned in Training into Performance Improvement?
acceptable rate. In fact, most estimates suggest that only about 15 to 20 percent of the learning investments organisations make actually result in work performance changes.
Research shows that for the average training and development program, there is a steady decline in the use of new skills. It is estimated that only about 35 percentof the skills are still in use 12 months after the typical training event.
Key learning transfer activities can have a tremendous impact on the effectiveness of learning.
www.growingorganisations.com/offers
Our research shows these activities can be grouped into three primary categories:
1. Learner Readiness activities: These activities focus on ensuring that the learner is prepared for the core learning event. Activities that address motivation, learner goals, self-efficacy, and testing of prerequisite skills are included in this category.
2. Learning Transfer Design activities: These are activities embedded in the instructional design that are intended to support learning transfer. Practice activities, role-modelling, setting learning goals, and application review and support are examples.
3. Organisational Alignment activities: These activities focus on ensuring that the organisation supports the use of the skills. Activities here include manager coaching, peer support, connecting learning to the job, and creating a learning culture.
Within each primary category, three to four specific learning transfer activities have been subject to research and have been shown to have an impact on performance. •
As representatives of Wilson Learning, Growing Organisations brings to NZ the very latest performance improvement methods and global best practices. Read more in the full article above.Contact us to discuss your performance improvement plans and we’ll show you how to make your training work properly.
020 | www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz
TWOMINUTETOPUP
Why You Shouldn’t Always Get Excited About a LinkedIn Endorsement
Words by Kendra Lee
If you’re active on LinkedIn, (and what sales professional isn’t at this point) you’ve probably received a few endorsements from friends, peers, and colleagues by now.
Maybe those folks have vouched for your lead-generation and account management skills. Or maybe they’ve proudly declared that you know your stuff when it comes to new business development or sales prospecting. That’s great. Unless, of course, you don’t have those skills, or you don’t really know the people who are issuing those endorsements.
For instance, what if someone endorses your social media marketing skills, yet you actually possess very little knowledge about social media beyond how to login to your Facebook account? Or what if someone endorses you for B2B selling, but your expertise is actually in the B2C market?
Neither scenario seems particularly helpful, so why would you really want to receive those endorsements?
To be clear, legitimate endorsements of skills that you really possess (from people that actually know you) can be incredibly valuable. Unfortunately, however, some sales professionals today are so desperate to demonstrate their credibility that they’ll include a laundry list of skills on their LinkedIn profiles that are closer to fiction than reality.
The problem with this is that listing skills you don’t have is no different than lying on a resume. Furthermore, even if you aren’t the one claiming to have the skill, receiving (or giving) less than credible endorsements simply cheapen the value of the truly valid endorsements you do receive.
But don’t just take my word for it.I recently received an e-mail from Rick Gregory, a follower of mine and the owner of Gregory Ventures, who had this to say about LinkedIn endorsements:
“I’ve received a ton of, “Congratulations! Your connection [whoever] has endorsed you for the following skills and expertise.” Most of the time, I don’t recognise the
www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz | 021
www.klagroup.comKendra Lee helps companies rapidly penetrate new territories, break into new accounts and shorten time to revenue with new products in the SMB market. To find out more visit the website.
person and have never worked with them. There’s no way they could know enough about me to make the endorsement. And, too often, I receive requests to endorse others, or worse, to ‘complete a short survey about them,’ and I have no idea who they are.
I think (those LinkedIn endorsements) cheapen and dilute whatever influence endorsements may have had previously. I’m amazed at the lack of integrity of those giving random endorsements in the hopes of receiving them back. I wish there was a way to reject endorsements from people I don’t know.”
Rick’s not alone.I received several other emails from newsletter subscribers who echoed his sentiment. One subscriber even suggested that the majority of his 200-plus endorsements are from people who have no working knowledge of the skill they endorsed him for.
Ultimately, that’s the crux of the issue. While LinkedIn recommendations and endorsements can serve as much-deserved
Image by Gil C/Shutterstock.com
praise for the skills, expertise,
and abilities you do have, they
can also dilute your credibility if
they’re not warranted or come
from people who shouldn’t really
be vouching for you.
At the end of the day, we can’t
possibly have worked with or
experienced all of the people in
our network, so why endorse
everyone? There’s no shame
in politely declining someone’s
request for an endorsement,
and you should absolutely be
dilligent about the skills you list
for people to endorse. •
022 | www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz
QUICKFIX
Keep Up with the News
Top performing sales people keep up with the business news in the same way that sports fans watch the sports pages. On a daily basis you
should be looking for what is happening with your Key Customers and with business you are targeting. Use this insight to guide your activity.
Here is one thing you can do right now:
Set up Google Alerts on your major customers, people and key words that influence outcomes within your industry. You will receive a daily morning mail with anything that is making the news.•
www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz | 023
RESOURCECORNER
Change is the one constant in business, and we must adapt
or face obsolescence. Yet certain challenges never go away. That’s what makes this book ‘must read’. These are the ten seminal articles by management’s most influential experts, on topics of perennial concern to ambitious managers and leaders who are hungry for inspiration and ready to run with big ideas to accelerate their own and their company’s success.
HBR’s 10 Must Reads: The Essentials
US$18.39 from Amazon.com
• Michael Porter on creating competitive advantage and distinguishing your company from rivals
• John Kotter on leading change through eight critical stages
• Daniel Goleman on using emotional intelligence to maximize performance
• Peter Drucker on managing your career by evaluating your own strengths and weaknesses
• Clay Christensen on orchestrating innovation within established organisations
• Tom Davenport on using analytics to determine how to keep your customers loyal
• Robert Kaplan and David Norton on measuring your company’s strategy with the Balanced Scorecard
• Rosabeth Moss Kanter on avoiding common mistakes when pushing innovation forward
• Ted Levitt on understanding who your customers are and what they really want
• C. K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel on identifying the unique, integrated systems that support your strategy •
024 | www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz
NZ Sales Manager Linkedin GroupA welcome from Community Manager, Rachel Goodchild
The NZ Sales Manager Linkedin Group began as an extension and support for NZ Sales Manager.
It has grown to become a group with an amazing resource. We have 1600 members, all of whom have insight and can contribute support and encouragement and information to each other.
Community managers aid this process by initiating discussions. I have recently been appointed a community manager to this page, which I am very excited about. My role is to help start discussions, and to ensure this remains a supportive and non‘sell’ place for all of you as professionals.
I wanted to briefly introduce myself, as otherwise it might look like I’m just trying to monopolise all the conversations! While I do work as a sales and marketing trainer, in this forum I am first and foremost a community manager for the NZSM group.
I have a long experience in managing social media forums and have always found they are a great place to find targeted support and information.
Please do use the resource of our 1600 members to build your
own understanding. Sharing ideas in this environment sharpens each person. As we become better, or teams become better, and more sales occur. This can only be a good thing!
Find us on Linkedin, and I’ll look forward to posting with you.If you’ve got anything you’d like us to do to help your experience a more meaningful one, please let me know. •
www.linkedin.com
onsumer Vault can help
you better understand
your current customers
and prospects by adding intelligent
information to your existing database.
KMS Data is a licensed provider of
phone numbers from the White Pages
data WWW.kmsdata.co.nz E [email protected] P +64 9 621 0472
C
Consumer Vault contains contact details for over 1,000,000 adult New Zealanders. Being such a substantial database we focus on working with you to select the best prospects for your telemarketing, research, direct mail and acquisition campaigns.
directory and as such we can offer
a 95% accuracy guarantee and
typically achieve 98%. Our high level
of address accuracy ensures your
direct mail campaign qualifies for
bulk mail discounts.
We understand the cost of marketing
to the wrong prospects so we have
gone to great lengths to ensure we
can refine the database to identify
the absolute best prospects for you.
As we own and maintain the database
in-house, we know exactly what can
be done and are flexible in how we
can select and supply prospect
databases making Consumer Vault
KMS Data offer an obligation free consultation, contact us to discuss how we can help you.
CONSUMERVAULT
Home Ownersor Renters
Home Ownersor Renters
CONSUMERVAULT
Age &IncomeRange
Age &Income Range
Gender
EthnicityEthnicity
Vehicles
Geographicallocation
Geographical location
Gender
Vehicles
BUSINESS VAULT
BUSINESS VAULT
Industry Type
Company Size
Direct Mail
Business Intelligence
Telephone Marketing
Locationor SalesTerritory
Locationor SalesTerritory
Industry Type
Company Size
Direct Mail
Business Intelligence
Telephone Marketing
Consumer Vault is one of New Zealand’s largest and exceptionally accurate residential prospect databases
one of the most user friendly and
cost effective residential prospect
sources for New Zealand.
Don’t buy customer or prospect
information you already have!
KMS Data are happy to remove
your existing contacts from
Consumer Vault ensuring you only
pay for new prospects.
Consumer Vault is 100% privacy
compliant. This means the database
has been constructed from legal
and ethical sources and KMS Data
remove people that are recorded
on the Marketing Association’s
suppression lists.
026 | www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz
DATE NAME PLACE COMPANY
15th July Sales Success Auckland KND Consultancy
15th July Sales Basics Auckland Geewiz
16th July Management Success Auckland KND Consultancy
16th July Sales Management Auckland Geewiz
15th to 16th July Key Account Management Wellington NZIM
15th to 16th July Persuasive Selling Bootcamp Auckland The Marketing Company
21st July Sales Development Auckland David Forman
22nd July Overcoming Objections Auckland Top Achievers
22nd July Sales Process Auckland Top Achievers
28th July The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Auckland David Forman
5th to 6th August Cutting Edge Sales Skills Wellington NZIM
11th August Territory Planning and Management
Auckland David Forman
18th August Sales Development Christchurch David Forman
19th August Cold Calling and Prospecting Auckland Top Achievers Sales Training
19th August Sales Basics Auckland Geewiz
20th to 21st August
Sales Manager Boot Camp Auckland The Marketing Company
21st August (am) Essential Client Management Christchurch The Marketing Company
21st August (pm) Time Management when Selling
Christchurch The Marketing Company
25th August Key Account Management Auckland David Forman
26th August Sales Process Auckland Top Achievers Sales Training
27th August Sales Basics Christchurch Geewiz
28th August Sales Management Auckland Top Achievers Sales Training
EVENTSCALENDAR
www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz | 027
THECLOSE
“The day you think there are no improvements to be made is a sad one for any player.” Lionel Messi
Image: catwalker / Shutterstock.com
