If you’re losing sales then it’s usually down to these very basic reasons (despite what sales gurus might tell you!):

 

1. You’re missing the mark on value.

If what you’re offering doesn’t solve a problem or make life easier for your customers, they’re not going to buy. It’s as simple as that.

 

2. You’re not really listening.

Ever been on the phone with a salesperson who just talks at you? Not fun. Listening to what the customer needs is the first step to making a sale.

 

3. You’re jumping the gun.

Nobody likes feeling rushed. Pushing for a sale before you’ve built any kind of relationship is a surefire way to turn people off.

 

4. You’re wasting time on dead ends

Not all leads are worth pursuing. Learn to spot the ones that are just going to waste your time.

 

5. You’re ignoring objections

Brushing off concerns instead of addressing them only makes the customer more hesitant. Take objections seriously and work through them.

 

6. You’re forgetting to follow up

Out of sight, out of mind. Don’t let prospects forget about you—follow up and stay on their radar.

 

7. You’re making things complicated

Keep it simple. A confusing sales process is a sure way to lose customers.

 

8. You’re pretending competitors don’t exist.

Know your enemy. No solution is so unique that it doesn’t have any competition. Ignoring the competition won’t make them go away—it’ll just leave you in the dust.

 

9. You’re blending in instead of standing out.

If you’re just another fish in the sea, why should anyone choose you? Find your unique selling point and shout it from the rooftops.

 

10. You’re skipping the relationship-building part.

People buy from people they like. Take the time to build relationships—it’ll pay off in the long run.

 

Losing sales feels awful but it’s not the end of the world. Learn from your mistakes, tweak your approach, and carefully rebuild your pipeline being mindful of the above.

 

Is there anything I’ve missed? What would you add?

 

#sales #selling #edtech #pipeline #relationships #closing #saleprocess #edtech

When it comes to selling to the education sector, using discounting as a strategy to close a sale may seem tempting. However, this approach may not be a good approach. Here’s why you should steer clear of discounting tactics and focus on building value instead.

1. It diminishes your perceived value

Offering discounts can inadvertently devalue your product or service in the eyes of potential buyers. The education sector places great emphasis on quality and long-term benefits. Instead of slashing prices, highlight the distinct advantages and tangible outcomes your offering brings to the table.

2. It seriously affects profit margins

Discounting erodes profit margins, which can have a significant impact on your business’s sustainability. In the long run, maintaining healthy margins allows for continuous innovation and the delivery of exceptional customer experiences. Focus on showcasing the unique value your product or service offers, rather than lowering prices.

3. It establishes unhealthy precedents

If you rely on discounting to close deals, you risk setting a precedent that can be difficult to break in the future. The education sector is a close-knit community, and word travels fast. Instead, aim to position your offering as a premium solution, tailored to meet the specific needs of schools or educational institutions.

4. Long-term relationships are better than short-term gains

Selling to the education sector requires a long-term mindset. Building strong relationships based on trust, credibility, and a genuine understanding of their challenges and goals is key. By focusing on the value your product provides and fostering partnerships, you’ll establish a foundation for sustained success.

So instead of discounting, aim to differentiate through quality and service. By emphasizing value, maintaining healthy profit margins, and building long-term relationships, you can position your product as a premium solution while meeting the unique needs of schools and educational institutions.

Success lies in creating meaningful connections and delivering exceptional experiences that transcend price.

How many hours have you put into building your sales pipeline? 

Loads. 

Once you add up all the calls you’ve made, events you’ve attended, email campaigns, social selling, face-to-face meetings and everything else it totals up to a big investment.

So letting that pipeline go cold is heartbreaking, and it’s even harder to get it moving once it’s frozen.

This post will show you how to defrost your frozen pipeline with a simple 30-word email. 

There are three easy steps and it will take less than a minute to contact each cold prospect.

Time to get cracking!

Step 1:  Identify something of value that you can send to your prospects.

The first step involves identifying something of value to your prospects, and preferably something you already have.

You’re looking to provide something specifically useful to them.  The idea here is to open up dialogue but also to create a reciprocal relationship where you have helped them so they will want to help you.

The thing of value can be anything really (and obviously if it’s something from your own business/website the so much the better!)  Good ideas include:

• A free ebook on a subject you know they are interested in
• A cheat sheet to help save them time
• A How To guide on something they might not know about

If you or your company genuinely doesn’t have any valuable free resources to send out, then a link to a blog they might find useful can be equally as helpful.   It’s all about the value it will give the recipient more than the format itself.

Step 2: Create the email

Create a short, 30-word email using the exact format below (of course, top and tail it in the way you would usually with Hi, Best regards, etc. – you want to keep in personable!)

Enter the resource title in the first paragraph, it shows you’ve taken the time to understand what might be interesting to them.  (N.B. don’t forget to also include the attachment or link to the resource – it’s easy to accidentally forget!)

Choose a date you’d like to set up a call and add it to the second paragraph.  Suggest just one option as a binary choice of yes/no is more likely to produce a response. For example . . .

Subject: Thought you might find this interesting

Dear [XXXXXXXX],

I thought you might find this resource useful on the subject of [XXXXXXXXX], an area I know is of interest to you.

Are you free to catch up by phone on [XXXX]?

Step 3: Send the email

That’s it, that’s all you need to do.  Now press send, move on to your next cold prospect, and do it again!

Almost all of the work I’m doing with businesses at the moment centres around the value proposition and, specifically, how to create a good one.  So I thought it was about time I blogged about it as it’s something which is so important but which so many people get wrong.

Put simply, the value proposition is a clear statement of the value your product will deliver and will be the main reason your potential client will buy from you.  It’s not a description of how good your product is, nor is it about how many clients you have, how many awards you’ve won or how much your customers like you.  The value proposition is about the customer, not you.

The value proposition should:

• Explain how your product solves customers’ problems or improves their situation
• Explain how you will deliver specific benefits
• Explain to the ideal customer why they should buy from you and not from the competition

Ideally the value proposition should be snappy and be the main focus of all engagement material, from the website through to marketing literature.  Easy peasy eh??!

Well no, it’s not.  Getting the value proposition right involves knowing exactly what your product can do compared to the competitors out there and understanding what it is that your potential clients need.  You then have to take all this info and formulate it into a proposition that highlights your uniqueness in the market and creates something your customers actually care about.  So no, it’s not easy but, when you see how customers respond, you’ll see it’s well worth the effort.

Selling is easy, you’re just doing it wrong.

Well, perhaps that’s not entirely the case, but there are definitely a few painful truths you need to get your head around when it comes to selling. If you’re ignoring these, you’re doing it wrong.

Painful truth #1: When your customer tells you their reason for not buying, it’s not a good idea to believe it.

It’s up to you to find out the REAL reason and address it — don’t expect people to lay themselves bare

Painful truth #2: Nothing is “too expensive”.

It’s more likely your potential customer doesn’t see your thing as having the value you think it does. You need to work on your value proposition.

Painful truth #3: “I’ll think about it” means ‘No’. As does “Send me a proposal”.

You need to get to the reasons behind the decision process to be able to influence that sale. Walking away with a promise of either of the above puts it out of your hands completely.

There are tons and tons more, these are the just the ones I’ve discussed this week with colleagues and clients.

Would be interested in your views too selling peeps 🙂

As a consultant I spend a lot of time working with people and companies who know their product.  Most of the time they’ll know their market pretty well too – often having come from a teaching, education or tech background.  What they don’t know is how to brand, market and sell which is totally understandable (and also the reason they’re speaking to me!).

When your background isn’t in the biz dev side of things, the idea of putting yourself out there and selling is scary.  Here are my top 3 people I would recommend anyone follow to get an idea for how to grow your business.  They’re a great introduction into the world of sales and marketing and you’ll hopefully see it’s not that scary after all  😊

1.  Andrew and Pete

If having an amazing online and social media presence sounds terrifying then these guys are a great place to start.  Their videos are awesome!  http://www.andrewandpete.com/

2.  Ian Brodie

Ian’s advice on winning clients is practical and doable – none of your cheesy, chest-thumping, sales pitch stuff (I’ve just signed up to his 30-minute marketing plan checklist for my summer holiday reading)  https://www.ianbrodie.com/

3. Janet Murray

If you feel like PR is something only other people can do then you must take a look at Janet’s stuff.  There’s a lot of great info on how to get yourself featured all over the place without needing to be personal friends with journalists.  https://www.janetmurray.co.uk/

For many of you this week will be about one thing and one thing alone.  The stand will have been built and the first queue of visitors will soon be going through the doors. In can only be the Bett show.

The Bett show seems to get bigger and bigger each year with the exhibitors becoming more and more creative around how they attract the visitors to their stands, meaning it’s always an endurance contest for exhibitors and visitors alike!   Here are my 5 top tips to help you survive the Bett show:

 

1. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate

Nothing can prepare you for how long, hot and tiring the day at Bett can be. The canny exhibitors know how big a draw the promise of some refreshing water or a hot coffee and the opportunity for a sit-down can be and offer these free to visitors on their stands. Be prepared and take a water bottle or risk dehydration. (Ditto lip balm – it’s a hostile environment in there!)

 

2. Throat sweets

You’re about to spend the next four days talking to potential clients and suppliers and, what with 800+ companies exhibiting and god knows how many visitors attending, the noise will be deafening! I’ll give you until Thursday evening before you’re on the Soothers.

 

3. Comfy shoes

Don’t look at your lovely new shoes that go really well with your suit and think “they’ll be alright”. They won’t.  Excel is a huge venue – whether you’re a visitor or an exhibitor you are going to walk for miles and spend hours and hours on your feet. Choose the comfiest, oldest shoes you own – you’ll be glad you did.

 

4. Mints (and gum, etc.)

It may or may not be for you, but there are lots of people who really take advantage of the socialising and networking opportunities the Bett show offers. And by that, I mean lots of booze, restaurants and late nights. . . . which is a great thing to do but can often leave you and your colleagues feeling a little special in the morning. So do everyone a favour and have a good supply of mints and gum for anyone who needs it. And paracetamol for that matter.

 

5. Enjoy yourself

No matter how tiring you find it, Bett is a fantastic opportunity to network, find out what’s going on technology-wise in the education market and build relationships. Everyone who attends is there for a reason – they want to find out more. Everyone who exhibits is also there for a reason – they want to showcase their new stuff to schools and academies. Smile and enjoy it – it’s a fantastic opportunity to be made the most of (even if you can’t walk at the end of it!)

Best wishes to all exhibitors and visitors at #Bett2018 – hope you have a fantastic show!

UK schools spend around £85 billion EVERY YEAR!  The education market is a dynamic, innovative sector that loves new technology and ideas which have a genuine impact on young people’s lives.  So why are schools so difficult to sell to?   How many of these frustrations have you felt:

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• If there are 30,000+ schools in the UK alone, why aren’t more of them buying my product?
• The market’s completely saturated; there are tons of competitors with lower-priced products and the big companies take all the market share
• If schools only knew about my company they’d definitely buy – the product sells itself
• The schools who use my product think it’s good, why don’t the others understand?
• Why am I not further ahead by now?  What am I missing?

​

My guess is you may have felt most of the above as almost everyone selling into education does!

The truth of it is, selling to schools is VERY different to business and consumer selling.  Schools are under enormous pressure to perform from the government and parents alike while, at the same time, managing a complex and usually dwindling budget.

Add to that the fact that they are being sold to by everyone and receive literally hundreds of pieces of sales literature (emails, letters, brochures, phone calls) every week.  Your message will really need to resonate to cut through all the noise.

To successfully sell to schools you need to have the following:

• A value proposition which genuinely articulates what problem it is you’re going to help that school solve. No wishy-washy language here – get straight to the point.
• A good idea of exactly which schools, and which people within those schools, are your ideal customers. Trying a scattergun approach such as a national telesales or email campaign is unlikely to work – you’re simply throwing money away.
• A compelling reason for schools to talk to you. What are you providing them with which is of value to them?  Why should they give up their time to talk to you?

There are more tips in my blog 3 mistakes nearly everyone makes when selling to schools.  It’s not easy cracking the education market but it’s a genuinely innovative and rewarding market when you do  ?

Selling is difficult.  It’s not enough to talk about your product and hope your prospect will buy – there’s always a lot more going on than that.

Here are my top 3 painful truths you need to get your head around when it comes to selling:

Painful truth #1: Nothing is “too expensive”.   It’s more likely your potential customer doesn’t see your thing as having the value you think it does.

Have a look at your Value Proposition; it should be a clear statement of the value your product will deliver and should be the main reason your potential client will buy from you.  Is your Value Proposition clear?

Painful truth #2: When your customer tells you their reason for not buying, it’s not a good idea to believe it.  I’m not saying that people wilfully go all out to lie to you, it’s just that it’s always worth exploring further as there might be a win-win situation you’re both missing.  It’s up to you to find out the REAL reason and address it – don’t expect people to lay themselves bare.

Painful truth #3: “I’ll think about it” means ‘No’.  As does “Send me a proposal”. You need to get to the reasons behind the decision process to be able to influence that sale.  Walking away with a promise of either of the above puts it out of your hands completely.

So you’ve created a product, be it a piece of technology, clever software or an invaluable service, and you’re pretty sure it’s something schools need and would love to buy.  But when you start contacting schools to tell them about your fabulous product by post, phone and email you get no response.  Where are you going wrong?

Selling to schools is VERY different to business and consumer selling.  Schools are under enormous pressure to perform from the government and parents alike while, at the same time, managing a complex and usually dwindling budget.  Here are the top 3 mistakes nearly everyone makes when selling to schools:

1. Schools are buildings – they don’t buy.

Companies tend to try and sell to schools generically as if it is the actual school that’s going to buy.  But schools are buildings, bricks and mortar, it’s the people inside who will have a need for your product.  Have you thought about who it is you need to target?  Will your product support teaching and learning and, if so, do you know which teachers to try and contact?  Is your product designed to save time and money in the office and, if so, do you know who the business manager is?  Thinking about your end user will help you reach the right person.

2. Decisions take time because there are lots of people involved

Salespeople often wonder why a school hasn’t purchased because they don’t take into account the decision-making process for schools; they almost always forecast the sale to close way too soon (if at all!).  In schools, it’s not unusual for the vast majority of purchasing decisions to go to a Governors meeting for discussion and approval and this may only happen once a month.  In addition, if a purchase is over a certain threshold then they usually need to speak to other suppliers and get quotes to be absolutely sure they’re getting best value.  This means the sales cycle can be quite long and is very competitive – you need to make sure your product offers real value!   In the case of really large purchases a full competitive tender will be required which can take months so you need to forecast carefully.

3. Never underestimate the power of peer-to-peer recommendations

Teachers, school leaders and support staff respect the opinions of their peers within the education industry.  If you can build a relationship with a team at a school and prove the value of your product or service then the introductions they can make for you could be priceless.  However, it works both ways so not making good on a promise or delivering something of low quality could lead to a dent in your reputation.  Either way, never underestimate the power of peer-to-peer recommendations, education networks are vital when selling to schools.

These are my top 3 common mistakes but there are many, many more!  What’s your biggest challenge when selling to schools?