Free two hour strategic review

To celebrate the launch of Vertical, we are offering new and current clients a free two hour strategic review of their business.

This will entail:

• A full analysis of your current sales situation
• A review of your market opportunities and
  potential obstacles to success
• Written recommendations that will propel
  your sales forward as the UK emerges
  from recession.

For more information, please contact:

Cathy Bennett at Vertical

The Studio
Ashley View, Milley Road
Waltham St. Lawrence ,RG10 0JR

T: +44(0)7885 030022
E: cathy.bennett@verticalsales.co.uk

This valuable insight into the sales performance and prospects for your business comes entirely free and without obligation.

Vertical website and brand identity launched!

I am pleased to announce the launch of my new brand identity, and website this month.

The journey has been a demanding, and rewarding process which went through a number of stages. But what drove the change and why did I choose the name ‘Vertical’?

Well the first step was that I gained a clear understanding over the past two years of what businesses need to do to get results from their sales divisions. As a result I have redefined and streamlined my proposition to meet those needs. We’ve all learnt some hard lessons in this recession and one of those, if we didn’t already know it, is that you can cut costs to survive but growth is the only way to really succeed. Vertical concentrates on everything in sales that you need to focus on to improve your performance and increase your revenues.

The name ‘Vertical’ makes a positive statement about where I see the business heading; coupled with the positive affect my work has with all my clients. I’ve always achieved the right focus and results using my experience and expertise in business development and sales. However, to take it to the next stage and make it work across your business at the pace you need it to I recognise that you will need expertise and support in other critical areas such as marketing and branding design. Whilst these are closely aligned to what I do they are not my speciality so the Vertical Team has grown to include experts in these fields. One key member of the Team is Stephen Green, who worked with me to choose the brand name, helped to clarify my positioning and to create a compelling identity design and website. And that’s how Vertical was born.

I believe that the name Vertical portrays my passion for success and drive for continuous improvement; in your business and mine. If performance, results, revenues and staff morale are all on the way up then that’s ‘Vertical’. On a more personal note my maiden name was Green and my maternal Grandmother was Swiss-French. Many of you will know that ‘vert’ means green in French. The family connection together with the word meaning the pinnacle of success made ‘Vertical’ a perfect choice.

The website is the culmination of all these thoughts and ideas, it features a number of recent case studies and the news blog and will be focal point for all the new work I plan to do with Vertical in the future. I hope you enjoy reading about Vertical and find it useful.

If you would like to discuss a new project or business issue with me,
please contact me on: +44(0)7885 030022 or email: cathy.bennett@verticalsales.co.uk

www.verticalsales.co.uk

Seven Sales Tips for Survival and Success

Tried and tested sales tips that will help you and your business when the going gets tough

1. Set out to be a winner

A positive mindset is the first step to creating and maintaining a successful business. It is true that some businesses will not survive the recession. In fact it’s true that some will fail, recession or not. The key thing to remember is most businesses will NOT fail – they will survive and indeed thrive. Decide that your business is going to be a winner, and you will be more likely to succeed.

2. Stick to what you’re good at

Be proud of what you do, and do it well. Your revenue and reputation will grow stronger as a result. Now is not the time to branch out into risky or unchartered territory. New ventures take time and energy which will take you away from your core business. If you are good at your business, and you love what you do, it will show.

3. Promise less – deliver more

It’s far better to keep things simple and promise what the customer really needs and then make sure you deliver it. There’s nothing like poor service or letting someone down to damage your reputation and lose clients. Don’t be tempted to promise the impossible or create unnecessary improvements in order to win the business.

4. Double your efforts

Working harder AND smarter than before will get results. If you used to make 10 sales calls a day, you now need to make 20 to get the same outcome. If you used to finish at 6pm then maybe now it’ll have to be 7pm – there’s always something more you can do and there’s no such word as ‘can’t’! Work twice as hard and don’t give up. But make sure you’re directing your efforts effectively. It’s much easier to retain existing customers than to find new ones. Do your current clients know the full extent of your services? A phone call could open up new avenues you didn’t know existed. Ask them what their challenges are, and what they need. You may be able to provide it.

5. Be flexible to meet changing requirements

If you have a flexible approach and a “can-do” attitude your customers are more likely to choose YOU as their partner and recommend you to others too. Your customers’ circumstances are changing by the minute. They need you to come up with a solution that gives them what they want and is within their budget. It’s all about putting your customers in a position where they can say ‘yes’. Be prepared to offer a wider range of products and services and be ready to fit into a changing environment … you will reap the rewards.

6. Find solutions for your customers

Provide solutions to your customers’ problems and you’re onto a winner. Your customers want to do business with salespeople who understand them – their job and their problems. It’s all too easy to “sell” your product or service based on its features and benefits. But what does your customer really want? Ask them what their challenges are, what they need and take the time to listen to their issues. Helping customers solve their business problems and achieve positive, measurable results needs to be the basis of everything you do.

7. Give something back

If you do your customers will feel valued and your generosity will pay dividends. What can you do that will add value to your customers, yet costs you little? Perhaps it’s a complimentary item or service, perhaps it’s simply some free advice or guidance. You have probably heard the saying that “people buy people” – we all prefer to work with people that we like and trust. If you can instil that within your work ethic, your business will benefit.

If you want Vertical to help you through the recession then call Cathy Bennett on +44(0)7885 030022 or email me/her at cathy.bennett@verticalsales.co.uk

Finding a solution to the economic downturn

In today’s increasingly competitive market you have to do something different to stay ahead of the competition. If companies are to survive the economic downturn they need to take their sales proposition to the next stage; beyond price discount selling. Solution selling is seen as the answer by many – but is it? Often companies invest a lot of time and money in developing complex solutions. But, if they don’t get the buy-in or understanding of their sales force, what they actually get are great ideas that don’t get delivered. The impact on revenue is negligible and the cost can be high.

So what do we mean by solution selling?

Some of the answer lies in what the customer wants. Today customers want more than just sales people with a good working knowledge of the capabilities necessary to help them solve their problems. They want to do business with salespeople who understand them— their job and their problems. So everything you do in the sales chain needs to be based on helping your customers solve their business problems and achieve positive, measurable results. Cathy Bennett of Vertical has found that developing a good relationship with customers and becoming an integral part of their business is the best way to deliver results to them.

So, understanding what customers want helps us to identify what a solution needs to do. Simply put; it’s a response to a Customer’s need that will deliver a return on investment and/or save costs. So your solution needs to answer a problem of theirs that they recognise and acknowledge too. To uncover those problems Cathy Bennett says ‘I would recommend that you just try to understand what their main challenges and opportunities are rather than find out what they need from the product range you’ve got available.’ That done, it’s important that the customer agrees on the answer to the problem that your Sales Person selects and (most importantly) that the answer provides measurable improvement to the customer. So in summary, a solution is a mutually shared answer to a recognised problem, and that answer provides measurable improvement. But remember – the measurable improvement needs to be real for them. With a recent project on Energy Solutions Cathy Bennett was at pains to ensure that the sales force saw that it wasn’t the 30% savings that counted but the 300k saving off the customer’s £1m energy bill.

Developing your solutions should be based around a feature, advantage, benefit analysis of your range of products and services. This is where you can start to close the loop of having both a robust solutions offering and one that your sales force understands and can deliver. ‘I find that the best way to get the sales force to buy-in to and understand the solutions proposition is to get a cross section of people across the business involved. Let’s face it they are the ones who are out there every day in real time situations selling against the competition in an increasingly price driven market.’

The last part of the puzzle is training. Invest in a programme that focuses on giving your sales force the ability to:

• Identify the customer’s problems
• Reach agreement with them on what is the right answer.
• Demonstrate how the right answer delivers measurable improvement to them and their business.

Then, when you launch your solutions offering, you will actually be in a position to deliver results to your Customers’ bottom line and at the same time to your own!

If you’d like to hear more about making this happen in your organisation contact Cathy Bennett on +44 (0)7885 030022 or email me at cathy.bennett@verticalsales.co.uk

Serving an ace to win

Let’s hope Andy Murray wins Wimbledon this year and is our first British men’s champion since 1936? In fact, let’s hope he does it in style, with the minimum effort. After all isn’t that what we all want and need in today’s tough economic climate – least effort greatest return. For sure, but before we talk about returns, let’s talk about our efforts or in Andy’s case serves.

What better way to win than by serving ace after ace – not just straight set wins but every game won with just four nice aces? Game, set and match! No doubt Andy has to practice very hard to achieve his success. And now is definitely the time to make sure that your team have all the right skills and abilities to go out and win business against tough competition. And that they practice those skills as regularly as Andy does both for real and on the practice courts.

But to make it count those aces have got to go in. Because one thing’s for sure- if you aim to win by serving aces then they have to go in. Double faults will not win Andy the Championship but will lose it for him. Well isn’t it exactly the same when it comes to developing and training your team? How many times have you carried out good quality training but haven’t got the results. So you like Andy have to make sure that you are targeting the right areas to practice and perfect. So how can you do that in your business? It’s pretty obvious to Andy where that ace needs to be directed and land but is it as clear as that for your sales force?

You may have already experienced a training needs analysis in the past that was a list of training courses with your staff asked to decide which ones they need. The courses might be brilliant but the danger is that your results don’t improve and sometimes even worsen. So why? Usually it’s as simple as a lack of focus on the business goals and objectives that the training could have supported. Also, are your sales team in the best position to define what their real needs are? What you need is clear definition of your business goals, an analysis that is aligned to these and then a robust process to make sure that the answers it gives are valid. And after all that you still want the best training at the best cost. Sounds complicated doesn’t it – maybe even as unbelievable as Andy winning Wimbledon.

Well maybe we can help with our ACE Audit – a bespoke training needs analysis that is aligned to your business goals and objectives. We work with you through its development tailor it to your business and objectives, translate them into performance requirements and then conduct the analysis in a very robust way to identify gaps in performance. Our experience shows that a lot of training solutions are already within your business and can give you the high quality but low cost that you need. The other thing we’ve learnt is that 121 coaching is often the best solution and, if we develop your managers to deliver, it becomes part of your business for the future.

If you’d like to hear more about our approach in getting your whole team to deliver the results you need in a cost effective and enduring way why don’t you call me on +44 (0)7885 030022 or email me at cathy.bennett@verticalsales.co.uk

I’d love to hear form you and in the meantime here’s to the first British Men’s Wimbledon Champion in 73 years.