I work with many sales people across multiple industries every month in my role of mentoring and deal coaching. Many meetings feel like Ground Hog Day or maybe I’m just becoming grumpy in my old age; but here are common shortcomings I see in sales people that make them worthy of being fired. If you’re… Read More
About Tony J. Hughes
B2B Social Selling Demystified – Five Strategic Pillars
We live in the age of personal brands. This article will provide you with a framework for creating your own personal social strategy in the world of complex business-to-business (B2B) selling. It’s important because the vast majority of buyers do research before a meeting. What will they see when they look at your LinkedIn profile… Read More
Buyer Motivation and Differentiation
Buyers are motivated by reasons they themselves discover. The best way to differentiate is with ‘how you sell’ rather than with ‘what you sell’.
Challenger Vs Relationship Sales Persona
The Challenger Sale book by Matt Dixon and Brent Adamson promotes ‘Challenger’ as the best persona (and organizational capability) for complex B2B selling. But which way of selling is really best?
Confidence In Selling
Confidence is often a highly desirable trait that employers seek in sales people. Yet ‘confidence as a persona’ can be the paradise of fools. Belief is actually more important and it should be accompanied with positive paranoia.
Demystifying Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Salespeople
Like it or not, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here. If you’ve used a search engine then you have interacted with AI. Google, Amazon, LinkedIn, YouTube, or just about any eCommerce site on the internet is using AI to deliver you smart recommendations and targeted advertising. You’d be more likely to find a sober Irishman at… Read More
Formula For Building Trust
Trust = (Understanding + Shared Values) x (Capability + Reputation) x Time.
How To Build Rapport When Selling
People buy from those the know, like and trust. But how do you build that level of relationship as fast as possible? Nobody cares about you and what you’re selling until they believe they can trust you and that you offer real value.
How To Build Your Sales Pipeline
Practical tips for building a B2B pipeline. Recommended books: Shift, for Trigger Event Selling and The Challenger Sale for creating the reason and framework for early engagement at the most senior levels.
How To Deal With The Early Price Question
“What’s the price?” This question needs to be handled confidently and without behavior that annoys the person who asked it. But answer in a way that earns the right to ask questions leading to value.
How To Qualify a Sales Opportunity
Opening and qualifying is the most important phase of the sale. So how do you ensure you and the prospective customer are not wasting time and resources?
How To Secure A Meeting with CXO or VITO
Selling to VITO (Very Important Top Officer), or the CXO as we commonly term the highest buying role, is not easy. We need an approach that cuts through and secures the meeting. How we approach them makes all the difference.
How To Sell. Secrets of Super Easy Selling
Selling is simply a case of pulling all the concepts together into a sales mash-up you can truly own to dominate the white space.
Killing Sales Stress
Just over a year ago I was awake on an operating table, watching the big screen that my cardiologist was using to guide him as he stented my heart. Later he said, “You were very close to a major event; 99% blocked in the widow-maker part of the heart.” I am a road-bike rider and… Read More
Lead with Why – You Only Have 20 Seconds
Most sales people talk about what they do and how they do it but this is a huge mistake. Instead, lead with ‘Why?’ when engaging a senior person you’re seeking to influence. The way we sell is more important than what we sell.
Managing The Risks in Selling Software
Most of the risk in selling software comes from live demos, reference customers and desperate competitors.
Next Level Qualification
No-one likes being ‘qualified’ by a salesperson. Nor do they like it when people ask manipulative questions. A life insurance salesman once asked me “Tony, do you love your family and want the best for them?” I answered in the affirmative with wry grin and waited for his next zinger. “Would you want to know… Read More
Sell High Or Gain Consensus?
I advocate the importance of selling as high as possible. Yet it is also important to gain consensus to make it easy for the economic buyer to make their decision and go ahead with purchase.
Selling During Tough Times
We live in unprecedented times. Few understand how the ‘new normal’ will emerge and what they must do to survive and then thrive. Here is how to sell when your potential customers are experiencing a crisis. First, always engage with empathy. Most of your potential or current customers are worried about their own job, their… Read More
Should Sales People Be Content Creators?
We are now living in the age of personal brands and Social Selling presents issues that every business needs to consider. There are more arguments for and against that this short video raises so ensure you have a social media policy in place.
Strategic Selling Defined by Execution
How is strategic selling defined today and what are the key elements for execution? What’s the role of social selling and tools such as LinkedIn? Tony Hughes answers these questions at a sales leadership conference in November 2014 along with other luminaries of B2B selling including Jason Jordan (Cracking The Sales Management Code) and Joe… Read More
Talk The Language of Leaders
In B2B selling, we are delegated down to people we sound like so we must learn to talk the language of leaders: Business case numbers, delivering outcomes and managing risk.
The 3 Pillars Of Modernised Selling
Gartner Research predicts that 85% of business-to-business (B2B) sales transactions will occur without human intervention in 2020. Andy Hoar from Forrester Research predicts that more than 1 million sales roles will be disappear in the USA alone with the same timeframe. This equates to approximately 22% of B2B sales positions being lost to the forces… Read More
The 7 Sins Of Selling
The Seven Sins of Selling. Especially relevant for relationship and transactional selling. Avoid these mistakes for sales success.