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<html> <head> <title>SalesGuru - The magazine for Sales Professionals</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;"> <!-- Fireworks MX Dreamweaver MX target. Created Tue Aug 01 16:36:50 GMT+0200 (South Africa Standard Time) 2006--> <script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript"> <!-- function MM_preloadImages() { //v3.0 var d=document; if(d.images){ if(!d.MM_p) d.MM_p=new Array(); var i,j=d.MM_p.length,a=MM_preloadImages.arguments; for(i=0; i<a.length; i++) if (a[i].indexOf("#")!=0){ d.MM_p[j]=new Image; d.MM_p[j++].src=a[i];}} } //--> </script> <style type="text/css"> <!-- .heading { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; color: #EA0000; text-decoration: none; } .main { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; color: #333333; text-decoration: none; } .subheading { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; color: #333333; text-decoration: none; } --> </style> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff"> <font color="#999999" size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="../past_editions.php" target="_self"><font color="#E10915" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">< Back</font></a></font><br> <br> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="500"> <!-- fwtable fwsrc="sellingpower_home.png" fwbase="index.gif" fwstyle="Dreamweaver" fwdocid = "742308039" fwnested="0" --> <tr> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="111" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="110" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="112" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="49" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="62" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="110" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="7" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="12"><table width="562" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td width="219" valign="top"> <p><img src="images/pics/01aug2006/leadership.jpg" width="202" height="275"><br> </p></td> <td width="343" valign="top"> <div align="right"> <p align="left" class="heading"><font size="4">Selling integrity by selling cars</font></p> <p align="left" class="main">If starting at the bottom and working your way up is the classic rags to riches ideal, then Claudio Camera, vice president of the Sales and Operations Division of Renault South Africa may be living the dream. And if he would balk at the term riches, he would at least have to admit that he has pretty much powered his way through his chosen game to claim the top sales spot at a major multinational or two. That means he gets the corner office with the deep carpets. But like all senior corporate executives, he knows those carpets are not just to keep him comfortable while he is winning, they are to soak up the blood following his beheading should sales stall.</p> </div> <span class="main">That means pressure, and pressure often means that by his own admission he can be a very tough guy. But you wouldn't know it from his demeanour on the Friday afternoon in July when he sat down with SalesGuru to chat. If that is any measurement, sales must be good. </span></td> </tr> </table> <p class="main"><span class="main">But a general chat about what makes sales great, while it might be fascinating, misses the most important point a guy like Claudio Camera has to make.</span><br> <br> He isn't just the sales director of a multinational company. He is the sales director of a multinational car company. That means that his direct reports are car salesmen. And we all know what we think of car salesmen. Fortunately, so does he, and naturally he believes the notion is fundamentally wrong although not entirely without substance.<br> <br> The snag in the car business is that, at Camera's best guess, only 10% to 15% of the people selling cars are serious about it. Only that percentage are interested in seeing the customer get into the right car and will try to convince the customer to buy the right car for their needs.</p> <p class="main"><span class="heading">Increasing Skills</span><br> <br> Camera is adamant that percentage is too low, and speaks about establishing a Certificate of Proficiency (COP) similar to that used in the insurance industry, as a means of bringing the skills of sales staff on the dealership floor up to a minimum standard.<br> <br> "Think of it this way," he says. "Just in terms of safety alone, Renault spends 100 million Euros per annum. You do that just on safety and then you have to develop the rest of the product and you come under immense pressure to develop a quality product in every respect, and then you do what? You give it to someone who has just decided that they are going to sell cars for a couple of years because they need the money? What an injustice you are doing to all those engineers, and designers and all the many, many people that have put in so much effort to create that car. How can you feel comfortable giving it to someone that hasn't been coached properly, that doesn't have the generic sales skills and that doesn't have a deep range of product information?"<br> <br> COP approval in the motor industry, the way Camera sees it, would reassure the customer that any certified salesman knows how to calculate finance, how to do needs analysis and a six point sale and that they are undoubtedly in the sales field for the long haul. <br> <br> Being in it for the long haul is unfortunately not particularly common in the sales field in South Africa, and that really gets Camera going. "Sales here is still not generally regarded as a profession. In Europe a guy will sell cars for 15 years and make a good living out of it. And you can do that here too, but too often salespeople don't see that potential. One of our competitors has a young guy who made up his mind that he wanted a career selling cars and he focused on building relationships. I can tell you now that as a result of that approach he sells 15 to 20 cars per month as an average."<br> <br> And yet Camera's best advice for young people entering the sales field is somewhat paradoxical in light of the pressure on companies such as his to increase sales today. </p> <p class="main"><span class="heading">Slow Things Down</span><br> <br> His advice? Slow down. "You know, the world that young people live in today runs at a very fast pace. Young people often want it all and they want it right now and it isn't surprising considering the pace they set themselves in their ordinary lives. But you don't build successful relationships that bring repeat business and referrals from others unless you slow the pace and take the time to develop those relationships," he says.<br> <br> That means focusing beyond the sale at hand. When the customer drives away, says Camera, the salesperson should know several things about them such as whether they are married, when their birthday is, how many children they have and so on. "Cars are big ticket items so building that relationship doesn't mean that the customer is going to come back and buy from you. This isn't like returning the next week to a restaurant you really enjoyed, it is possible that the customer isn't planning to buy another car at all for the next five years. But they each have a doctor and a lawyer and colleagues at work, and a spouse and children and they all have friends. Building a great experience and a great relationship might mean that the customer recommends you to all of them. Just selling a car almost certainly does not."<br> <br> In fact, just selling a car does not only deny the possibility for great relationships, Camera believe it can throw the door wide open to bad ones. </p> <table width="562" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td width="266" valign="middle"> <p><img src="images/pics/01aug2006/leadership2.jpg" width="259" height="287"><br> </p></td> <td width="296" valign="bottom"> <div align="right"> <p align="left" class="heading">What Customers Want</p> <p align="left" class="main">"Do you think the customer really knows what they want? With the Internet and TV advertising and all the mass media that is out there today, the customer has thousands of messages and they have developed an idea of what they want in a car. Now you can just go ahead and sell them one, or you can help them to make sure they have thought of all the angles before they spend what is often the second biggest sum of money they are ever going to part with after their home."<br> <br> <br> It is a reality today that the average car buyer puts considerably more time and effort into buying a car than the average car salesperson does into selling it. The customer will ask friends and colleagues and investigate on the Internet and visit the showroom to see the car that interests them, up close. </p> </div></td> </tr> </table> <span class="main">All of that makes it simple for the salesperson to just fill in an order form when the customer finally decides to buy. It makes the job easier. But there is a big risk of forgetting the basics.</span> <br> <p class="main">"A car isn't just a car. You have to make sure that the customer is getting the right vehicle and that means asking questions. How old are you? Where do you drive? Are you a rep? What are you carrying? Big boxes? Small boxes? How much do you drive? Where? In the city or over long distances in the heat of the desert? You need to do a diagnostic of the customer or you run a very big risk of selling them the wrong car. Forget about what they asked for when they came in. Though that may be precisely what you sell them, you need to be absolutely sure it is right. The salesperson's job is to sell the customer exactly the right car and to make sure they don't make a R200,000 mistake."</p> <p class="main"><span class="heading">The Long View</span><br> <br> For Camera, it all comes down to how far ahead the salesperson is willing to look. No matter what you are selling, he says, you are ultimately selling the customer a peace of mind and a service. No matter what they are buying, they want to be looked after. <br> <br> “There is a bundle of money to be made here, and though you might find a high level of earnings in the short term when you’re looking for a bunch of quick wins, it is only really sustainable if you make the decision to play a longer game,” says Camera.<br> <br> “And make no mistake, compensation is a very big thing for salespeople. The potential for much higher earnings than they could get anywhere else is one of the major drivers for them to get into sales in the first place. It makes good sense, if they plan a long career for them to sacrifice some of those quick wins now in favour of a good reputation for honesty and integrity right now.”<br> <br> And yet, at some fundamental level, that goes against the very grain of most common contemporary sales philosophy, which advocates turning over as many sales as possible, as quickly as you can.<br> That may work in other areas. It may even be the right thing to do. But you have to recognise the psyche of the customer relative to the grandness of the purchase they are about to make, Camera says. “I met a sales lady at a dealership recently and she would get to the point where she would do everything perfectly, brilliantly, and push you hard to close you, but if she got any indication that you weren't actually going to buy, she was done with you and onto the next person,” says Camera.</p> <table width="562" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td width="266" valign="middle"> <p><span class="heading">Many Different Reasons</span><br> <br> <span class="main">The result? Missed opportunities. All over the place. Ten people who buy a Renault Scenic may have very different reasons for doing so. One may want a family holiday car. One may have three children and a smaller car and want to upgrade to a bigger one. They all want the same car, but for totally different reasons, and recognising that requires salespeople to have an open mind and the ability to think very laterally.</span><br> </p></td> <td width="296" valign="bottom"> <div align="right"> <p align="left" class="heading"><img src="images/pics/01aug2006/leadership3.jpg" width="242" height="161"></p> </div></td> </tr> </table> <p class="main">The pressure to be that way at Renault is of course driven by monthly targets, just as it is in other companies. Those targets are serious and your job depends on you hiting them. There is no ambiguity about that any more than there is any about the overall mission which is to put more Renault cars on the road. It is a tough game, but then Camera never told anyone it would be easy. But he is also adamant that for the right person, with the right attitude, selling cars is simply the best profession in the world.<br> <br> <font color="#999999" size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="../past_editions.php" target="_self"><font color="#E10915" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">< Back</font></a></font></p> </td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="438" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr> </table> </body> </html> <html><head><title>SalesGuru - The magazine for Sales Professionals</title><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;"><!-- Fireworks MX Dreamweaver MX target. Created Tue Aug 01 16:36:50 GMT+0200 (South Africa Standard Time) 2006--><script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript"><!--function MM_preloadImages() { //v3.0 var d=document; if(d.images){ if(!d.MM_p) d.MM_p=new Array(); var i,j=d.MM_p.length,a=MM_preloadImages.arguments; for(i=0; i<a.length; i++) if (a[i].indexOf("#")!=0){ d.MM_p[j]=new Image; d.MM_p[j++].src=a[i];}}}function MM_swapImgRestore() { //v3.0 var i,x,a=document.MM_sr; for(i=0;a&&i<a.length&&(x=a[i])&&x.oSrc;i++) x.src=x.oSrc;}function MM_findObj(n, d) { //v4.01 var p,i,x; if(!d) d=document; if((p=n.indexOf("?"))>0&&parent.frames.length) { d=parent.frames[n.substring(p+1)].document; n=n.substring(0,p);} if(!(x=d[n])&&d.all) x=d.all[n]; for (i=0;!x&&i<d.forms.length;i++) x=d.forms[i][n]; for(i=0;!x&&d.layers&&i<d.layers.length;i++) x=MM_findObj(n,d.layers[i].document); if(!x && d.getElementById) x=d.getElementById(n); return x;}function MM_swapImage() { //v3.0 var i,j=0,x,a=MM_swapImage.arguments; document.MM_sr=new Array; for(i=0;i<(a.length-2);i+=3) if ((x=MM_findObj(a[i]))!=null){document.MM_sr[j++]=x; if(!x.oSrc) x.oSrc=x.src; x.src=a[i+2];}}//--></script><style type="text/css"><!--.heading { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; color: #EA0000; text-decoration: none;}.main { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; color: #333333; text-decoration: none;}.subheading { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; color: #333333; text-decoration: none;}.style1 {font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; text-decoration: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;}--></style></head><body bgcolor="#ffffff"> <font color="#999999" size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="../past_editions.php" target="_self"><font color="#E10915" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">< Back</font></a></font><br> <br> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="500"> <!-- fwtable fwsrc="sellingpower_home.png" fwbase="index.gif" fwstyle="Dreamweaver" fwdocid = "742308039" fwnested="0" --> <tr> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="111" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="110" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="112" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="49" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="62" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="110" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="7" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="12" valign="top"><table width="562" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td width="219" height="287" valign="middle"> <p><img src="images/pics/05jandec2007/article.gif" width="216" height="265"></p></td> <td width="343" valign="top"> <div align="right"> <p align="left"><font size="2"><strong><font color="#E10915" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Sales Improvement Guide for 2007</font></strong></font><br> <br> <font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">It’s 2007 to all intents and purposes, and the buzz of a new year is in the air. New years are traditionally times when people make resolutions to implement sweeping changes in their lives, and then give up around about January 3. The reason? There is nothing hanging in the balance.<br> <br> In sales however, there is always something hanging in the balance so although you may resolve to make changes in your personal life and fail – like when you spark up that Marlboro a week into the year – the changes you resolve to make in your career have consequences.<br> Positive consequences that is.<br> </font></p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">If you make changes that are meaningful you can expect to reap some real benefits, and those are benefits which you may lose should you decide to abandon your winning ways.<br>So assuming you are champing at the bit at the prospect of a rip-roaring year of great sales and even greater commissions, we have put together the first ever SALESGURU New Year Survival Guide for all Sales Performers. Here’s to 12 killer months.<br><br> <font color="#E10915"><strong>Get organised</strong></font><br> Whether you take a break during the holiday period or not, the chances are that business will slow sufficiently for you to be able to take a step back and review your situation. Don’t squander this time. By March you’ll be in full flight once again and if you haven’t developed a strategy for dealing with all the components of your job you’ll find yourself in defensive mode instead of launching a staunch attack. <br> <strong><br> <em>Tip:</em></strong><em> Jot down the entire process you must go through to do your job and see if you can work out better ways to manage each part. Is one area traditionally difficult or painful for you? Now is the time to speak to your sales leader and get some advice on how to improve that. Get it all clear in your mind so you don’t have to fret about it later.</em><br> <br> <font color="#E10915"><strong>Set goals</strong></font><br> Once you are confident that you are organised, dangle some carrots for yourself. Your situation is unique and the carrots you are realistically able to dangle are therefore different to anyone else’s. That doesn’t matter. Just don’t be too relaxed about this. Maybe you will decide in January that you want to have all your credit cards paid off by December. Maybe you’ll decide to buy that new Audi in June or go overseas on holiday twice in 2007. Or maybe you’ll decide to be the number one salesperson in your group or company. Either way, your goal has to be both temptingly large and yet realistic. <br> <strong>Tip:</strong> <em>Write your goals down and – even better – get some pictures of them if you can. Stick them on your office or cubicle wall. If anyone laughs, screw them. Come June when you take the picture down and wax lyrical about how much better it is to have the real deal rather than just a picture of it, you’ll have the last laugh.<br> <br> </em><strong><font color="#E10915">Editor’s Note</font></strong><br> It is hard to deal with the matters mentioned above in a couple of paragraphs and expect to give them real meaning. If you practice and pursue discipline and goal setting, you can unleash an enormous amount of power to be successful. You cannot read enough on these subjects and I recommend you visit the Self Help section at your bookstore often. Not all books are created equal, but most have something to tell you and investing in books on these crucial subjects will be of enormous benefit to anyone in sales. You’ll be making a huge investment in your own future success. Trust me, the more you read, the more you’ll be amazed at the clarity good ideas can bring to you. <br> <br> </font><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <font color="#E10915"><strong>Now then, onto specifics … </strong></font><br> Theory is great, but it only counts if you are able to apply it. In the real world, you are cold calling, looking for appointments, trying to develop a presentation that will give you the best chances of success and looking for opportunities to close deals. Theory can sharpen your wits, but sharp selling skills will ultimately make the difference between winning business and losing it. Try out these tips:<br> <br> <strong>Prospecting</strong><br> 1. Start with a highly targeted prospecting list, consisting of people or companies that are most likely to buy your type of products and services. <br> <br> 2. Schedule prospecting time daily, and stick to it. No prospects means no good ideas, which is fatal in sales.<br> <br> 3. Accept that prospecting is a numbers game. The more calls you make, the more hits you will get. This is pretty much an immutable rule.<br> <br> 4. Call every name on your list every 3-4 weeks. Understand that only a small percentage of your list will be ready to buy the first time that you call.<br> <br> 5. Don’t get carried away with losers. Look at your high-probablility suspects and be willing to regularly axe the others from your list. Your time is too precious to waste.<br> <br> 6. If the prospect tells you they are not interested, don’t press for an appointment. It will make for one of the most pleasant sales calls they have ever had and will ensure that far fewer of them actually tell you not to call them again.<br> <br> 7. Listen to yourself, and constantly re-evaluate your abilities. Do this by taping your conversations. Were you decisive, interesting and exciting even? Or did your boring monotone lose you the sale before you started?<br> <br> 8. Keep records. If you don’t keep tabs on who you called, when you called them and what was discussed, you are going to be in a real mess. <br> <br> <strong>Qualifying</strong><br> 1. Use your resources. Whether internal or external, look for the best sources of information on who your most likely customers are. <br> <br> 2. Understand your product and your service and all of its various aspects. You could find an entirely new set of customers who are obvious fits for what you sell just by doing a little research.<br> <br> 3. Always ask questions. If you aren’t asking, you aren’t finding anything out. Sure, some people will tell you that your questions are none of your business, but you know what those people are not? The are not prospects. Axe them, but do it graciously. The world changes and you might have a second pass at them again one day.<br> <br> 4. Become an authority. Find out about your industry space. Read, online and in magazines. Be informed. If you know what is happening generally, you’ll be much more able to find specific and related hooks to hang sales on.<br> <br> 5. Let your knowledge be known. Take every single opportunity to put yourself forward as an expert in your field, and especially in front of groups of people. This is sort of a reverse qualifying process in which people who are interested have the opportunity to discover you, not vice-versa.<br> <br> 6. Check your databases. Who are the customers who haven’t bought from you for a long time? They already have proven they have a need for your product and are therefore effectively pre-qualified. Is it a matter that nobody else is calling them?<br> <br> <strong>Presenting</strong><br> 1. Remember the goal (which is to get a customer excited about you and what you are selling). Presentations are not an opportunity to show your mastery of software gimmickry. They are an opportunity to get your point across in a clear and uncluttered way. <br> <br> 2. Nobody cares about your stuff. Presentations that start with a long intro about who you are and what you do are mood killers. Who cares? That stuff can come later if you get them interested. Time wasted on non-task specific information is just plain time wasted.<br> <br> 3. Respect their time. It doesn’t matter how interesting you think you are. What is important is how interesting they think you are. And nothing long and drawn out is ever interesting. Never give them reason to wonder if there is anything else they should be doing.<br> <br> 4. Experts in the United States estimate you can increase an audience’s ability to remember information by 189% by eliminating irrelevant words and graphics.<br> <br> 5. Practice. Practice, practice, practice. You’ll never get a hole in one without practice and you will never put on a knock-out presentation either. <br> <br> 6. Barry Hilton isn’t in sales, so don’t go thinking that if he can bring an audience to their feet, you should be able to do the same by cracking jokes throughout. The business presentation is no place for comedy.<br> <br> 7. Keep it light. The other side of the coin is that the business presentation is no place for heavy loads of facts and figures either. Understand that if you can get them exciting, they will ask for all that info after. <br> <br> 8. Tom Peters, the management guru, places an egg timer in plain view when he is presenting, so show how quickly factory expansion is happening in China. Can you do something like this, which is of ancillary interest without detracting from the point?<br> <br> 9. Speak clearly. That doesn’t mean don’t mumble (though of course it means that too), but it means don’t use long words. It isn’t clever to confuse your audience and they will hate you if you make them feel like dunces.<br> <br> <strong>Closing</strong><br> 1. Whatever you do, ask for the business. If the only thing you do before you pack up is to say: “Are you interested and if so, when do you think you might make a purchase,” you have done your job. In that close, you have a picture of their interest and their intentions and that gives you something to go on. Otherwise you are punching in the dark. <br> <br> 2. Close from the beginning. That doesn’t mean go in there with a hard sell from the start, but rather that you explain your agenda. Tell the customer exactly what you're selling and how it can benefit their business. Being up front removes any concerns about hidden agendas.<br> <br> 3. Know when they are ready to buy. A customer might indicate they're ready by asking questions about the product or the buying process: "How long would delivery take?" "What does that button do?" or "Is an upgrade available?" Other signs include complaints about previous vendors and interested comments such as "Really?" or "Good idea." Learn the signs. <br> <br> 4. Ask questions. More importantly perhaps, don't respond to their questions with a yes or no. Answer your customer's queries with questions of your own. Carefully chosen, these return questions can help lead to a sale. For example, instead of answering the question, "Does this come in red?" with "Yes," you could say, "Would you like it in red?" <br> <br> 5. Free trials often lead directly to sales. This is sometimes known as the puppy dog close, because it's reminiscent of the attachment children develop to a puppy after keeping it overnight. This strategy works well for all sorts of businesses, appearing frequently in magazine subscriptions (Get three issues free!), Internet services (Free 30-day membership!) and car sales (Take a test drive today!). <br> <br> 6. Gather both detail and interest from your questions. Rather than asking if someone wants to buy, say something like: “I can get you ten of those by Tuesday for R1000 each. Do you want us to do that?” One point about this however: make sure you know what you’re talking about. If the customer isn’t in the market for more than one, you are just going to sound like you don’t understand his needs after all.</font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br> <br> <br> <font color="#E10915">Anton Potgieter, Telepassport</font><br> Know your product. There is nothing worse than asking questions and having 90% of the answers being "I'll check it out and get back to you". Especially on a technical product. Then, research the prospect properly. Don't sit in front of the client and say "So what do you guys do?" It makes far more of an impression to say "Congratulations on the tender you signed last week!" Be honest and stick to your commitments – call when you say you will, get back with info when you say you will ...<br> <br> <font color="#E10915">Russell Crawford, Sony BMG: </font><br> Sales continues to evolve, and as we move into 2007 one thing can be guaranteed: You must just be clear about what you need to change in order to succeed on all fronts. In the music industry we are changing the fundamentals as we move from Record Company to Entertainment Partner. The role of the sales professional will play an instrumental part in the process as we re-evaluate our relationship with our customers.<br> <br> <font color="#E10915">Peter Gilbert, HR Chally, Metamorphose</font><br> Perhaps the greatest threat to any salesperson is complacency – taking customers for granted. We recently interviewed 80 000 business executives about why they buy from a particular supplier and discovered that a buyer’s decision is largely based on the salesperson’s ability to take full responsibility for the business relationship between the supplier and the customer. So I would advise any sales professional to re-assess their portfolio of accounts and assess the strength of the relationship, acting swiftly on the findings where necessary. <br> <br> <font color="#E10915">Claudio Camera, Renault</font><br> One fundamental truth about sales is the relationship one holds with a customer. These relationships are not created overnight. They come with time, energy , focus and dedication.<br> Being in a relationship with your partner, your wife, kids and friends is no different to a customer. They want to know they can trust you. Also confidence that tomorrow you will be there for them. And if you give true value [in terms of service], you should be able to name your price...<br> <br> <font color="#E10915">Lizette Scholly, Resomed</font><br> Everyone is running to reach targets and we rarely take time to assess our successes and failures before we kick off. Review yourself on a quarterly basis to ensure that you are still on the right track. Also, challenge the system (and keep on doing so). Refine the way in which you have done things in the past year. Salespeople easily fall into a comfort zone and resist change. And devote plenty of time to prospecting. Focus energy on the right opportunities.<br> <br> <font color="#E10915">Clive Price, Peer Group</font><br> [Time management] is becoming the bane of busy salespeople’s lives. Since we can’t manage time we had better work within its constraints. For instance, learn to say no without hurting people. We cannot please everyone so be ruthless – not arrogant – when apportioning your time. Then, act on the critical few things that will bring in huge results. Focus on improving your closing ratios – don’t waste time on submissive, warm would-be buyers who talk incessantly and procrastinate about signi</font><span class="main"><br> <br> <font color="#999999" size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="../past_editions.php" target="_self"><font color="#E10915" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">< Back</font></a></font><br> </span> </p> </td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="438" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr> </table> <div align="left"></div></body></html> <html><head><title>SalesGuru - The magazine for Sales Professionals</title><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;"><!-- Fireworks MX Dreamweaver MX target. Created Tue Aug 01 16:36:50 GMT+0200 (South Africa Standard Time) 2006--><script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript"><!--function MM_preloadImages() { //v3.0 var d=document; if(d.images){ if(!d.MM_p) d.MM_p=new Array(); var i,j=d.MM_p.length,a=MM_preloadImages.arguments; for(i=0; i<a.length; i++) if (a[i].indexOf("#")!=0){ d.MM_p[j]=new Image; d.MM_p[j++].src=a[i];}}}function MM_swapImgRestore() { //v3.0 var i,x,a=document.MM_sr; for(i=0;a&&i<a.length&&(x=a[i])&&x.oSrc;i++) x.src=x.oSrc;}function MM_findObj(n, d) { //v4.01 var p,i,x; if(!d) d=document; if((p=n.indexOf("?"))>0&&parent.frames.length) { d=parent.frames[n.substring(p+1)].document; n=n.substring(0,p);} if(!(x=d[n])&&d.all) x=d.all[n]; for (i=0;!x&&i<d.forms.length;i++) x=d.forms[i][n]; for(i=0;!x&&d.layers&&i<d.layers.length;i++) x=MM_findObj(n,d.layers[i].document); if(!x && d.getElementById) x=d.getElementById(n); return x;}function MM_swapImage() { //v3.0 var i,j=0,x,a=MM_swapImage.arguments; document.MM_sr=new Array; for(i=0;i<(a.length-2);i+=3) if ((x=MM_findObj(a[i]))!=null){document.MM_sr[j++]=x; if(!x.oSrc) x.oSrc=x.src; x.src=a[i+2];}}//--></script><style type="text/css"><!--.heading { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; color: #EA0000; text-decoration: none;}.main { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; color: #333333; text-decoration: none;}.subheading { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; color: #333333; text-decoration: none;}.style1 {font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; text-decoration: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;}--></style></head><body bgcolor="#ffffff"> <font color="#999999" size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="../past_editions.php" target="_self"><font color="#E10915" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">< Back</font></a></font><br> <br> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="500"> <!-- fwtable fwsrc="sellingpower_home.png" fwbase="index.gif" fwstyle="Dreamweaver" fwdocid = "742308039" fwnested="0" --> <tr> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="111" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="110" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="112" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="49" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="62" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="110" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="7" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="12" valign="top"><table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td><img src="images/pics/09feb2007/Geoff_Heald.jpg" width="180"></td> <td valign="top"><p align="left"><font size="2"><strong><font color="#E10915" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Lessons from the Negotiator </font> </strong> </font></p> <p align="left"> <font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> The art and science of negotiation is an essential part of sales, but it is a subject about which people in sales often know very little. Sure, you may have run successful negotiations before, or got a customer to agree to your terms on price in exchange for better delivery options, but how much do you actually understand about the process? And why should you care? We spoke to Wits Business School's senior lecturer on negotiation, Geoff Heald to see what advice he might have. </font></p></td> </tr> </table> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font color="#E10915"> Preparation</font><br> Being successful in negotiating is largely dependent on understanding the principles that govern the process. Advance preparation is a requirement, not only to understand your counterpart and their needs and desires, but to gain a clear understanding of your own position. Heald believes it is necessary to be able to pass what he calls a ‘single sentence test.' "You need to be able to say what the precise purpose is of the meeting that you're having. Good meetings are contagious, and so are bad meetings," he says. Top negotiators are often successful because of their ability to think on their feet and make decisions quickly. The reason they can do this is that they have a clear understanding of what is at stake, what they must win and what they are willing to concede thanks to the extensive preparation they put in prior to the negotiation. <br> <br> <font color="#E10915">Ideal, Realistic and Fallback</font><br> Heald says that before you approach any negotiation, you must have an Ideal Position, a Realistic Position, and a Fallback Position. "If you don't have those, you are naïve, and naïveté is one of the cardinal sins in negotiation. As is cynicism by the way. Cynicism is rust on your soul which prevents you from doing the impossible. It is realistic to believe in miracles, but you mustn't be so naïve as to assume everyone sees things your way. You often encounter people who are out there to screw you." <br> <br> <font color="#E10915">The play book</font><br> We often hear about the pitfalls of misunderstanding foreign cultures. You can read some amusing examples on Page 64 of this issue. But while some examples can be amusing, getting the ceremonial process wrong in a negotiation situation might be enough to scupper any deal, even when the deal has been concluded. A lascivious comment to a secretary on the way out can make a fatal mess of the whole thing. According to Heald, banks in particular have a very closely designed ceremonial process for the closing of big deals. "Nothing must be allowed to get in the way of that deal being concluded and so the process is very tightly orchestrated," he says. Heald says it is impossible to overstate the importance of making your behaviour appropriate for the given set of circumstances. "You can get seriously hurt from not understanding the ceremonial of meetings," he says. <br> <br> <font color="#E10915">Timing</font><br> "Timing is dependent on preparation. Preparation of yourself, and of understanding your negotiation counterpart, how they are positioned within their organisations and what their interests are. Negotiating is an art and a science. Timing is the art component," says Heald. "Furthermore, the matter of when to have meetings openly and when to have them secretly is a vitally important discernment," he says. Heald refers to understanding when the time is ‘ripe' for negotiations, stating that this is critical to their success. You gain a perception of ripeness only when you have done your preparation. <br> <br> <font color="#E10915">Active Listening: the secret weapon</font><br> Active Listening is critical in the negotiation process, according to Heald, just as it is in other areas where the information being transferred is of absolute importance. "Air traffic controllers and aircraft pilots practice Active Listening all the time," he says. The job of a good negotiator is to listen to and be certain that they understand what others are saying. After all, you can't make an intelligent response to an opinion you do not fully and clearly understand. Another major advantage of Active Listening is that by showing your counterpart that you have listened to them fully and have paid attention to what they are saying, you are in a much better position to change their mind. Trying to convince someone of the strength of your case when they don't feel they have been heard is almost impossible. Acknowledge their feelings and their point of view, even if you don't agree with them. By understanding, and making it clear that you have understood them, you gain enormous leverage. <br> <br> <font color="#E10915">Take It Or Leave It (TIOLI)</font><br> You have probably experienced this one: you are reaching a satisfactory agreement and there are just one or two other issues to resolve when the other party says: "that is as far as I am willing to negotiate. That is the deal, take it or leave it." <br> <br> <font color="#E10915">What do you do? Try these responses:</font><br> Summarise your position so far, out load and in a friendly manner. "Wow, we've been doing really well so far. Why has it come down to TIOLI now?" If you can get an explanation from them, you can work through their reasoning and get things back on track. Isolate the objection: "Does it have to be TIOLI on all of the remaining points, or is there just one that you absolutely must protect?" Perhaps there is something you can do to get leverage on the other issues, apart from the one that the prospect is concerned about. Buy some time: "Does it have to be TIOLI right now or can we have a couple of days to think this through?" If you can affect the time of the other party's pressure play, you will reduce its effect and allow any emotional content to dissipate. <br> <br> <font color="#E10915">Negotiation can be friendly</font><br> Usually, a negotiation gets underway because both sides have something that the other side wants. There is therefore the potential for an atmosphere of cooperation, not confrontation. Of course that will depend on the people involved, but in customer relationships for example, you may wish to lay the groundwork for potential future negotiations. In that case, you don't want the other party walking away feeling like they have been screwed. The best outcome for almost all negotiations is win/win, when both parties walk away with a positive feeling about achieving their goals. <br> <br> <font color="#E10915">The people aren't the problem</font><br> Understand that the person on the other side of the table may be constrained by rules that they didn't make and may not even agree with. But they do have to abide by them. If you view your negotiation counterpart as an ally and work with them so you may both achieve a victory, rather than as an opponent that must be defeated, you can focus on deconstructing the barriers between you. If you understand that the thing that needs tackling is the problem and not the person, then you stand a good chance of a great outcome. <br> <br> <font color="#E10915">Don't focus on a single issue</font><br> When you focus on just one issue, there can be only one winner. A common example is arguing over the price of something. To avoid creating a win/lose outcome, you can bring other factors into the negotiation, such as delivery fees, timing, quality, supplemental goods and services, and so on. <br> <br> <font color="#E10915">Don't negotiate with yourself</font><br> Once you've made an offer, if the other party doesn't accept it, don't make another offer. Wait for a counteroffer. Don't lower your own demands without getting them to lower theirs. A common trick customers might use is that of allowing a heavy silence to descend when you make a proposal in a bid to unnerve you. Just sit tight. It is a negotiation and the ball is in their court, not yours. <br> <br> <font color="#E10915">Focus on interests, not positions</font><br> When preparing for a negotiation, or even after it has begun, it is important that you not only as "what do they want?" but also, "why do they want it?" Do this about your opponent and yourself to be certain you understand both positions. You can be a lot more successful if you focus on interests, and not positions in your negotiation. What does that mean? One great illustration took place between Egypt and Israel in 1978 when they entered negotiations over ownership of the Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had occupied since 1967. Both countries took the position that they were unwilling to allow the other to own the land. It was a stalemate, until an exploration of their interests revealed more negotiable points. Israel, it turned out, didn't care about ownership of the land, it just didn't want Egyptian tanks rolling across its borders. Its interest was that of security. Egypt's interest was to regain land that had been Egyptian since the time of the Pharaohs. While their positions were incompatible, their interests left plenty of room for negotiation. The Sinai was returned to Egypt, satisfying its interest in getting its land back, but it was declared a demilitarised zone, which satisfied Israel's interest in security. <br> <br> <font color="#E10915">Saving face: a lesson from Japan</font><br> Japan's Maspro Denkoh Corporation decided to sell its substantial corporate art collection in 2005 and contacted Christie's and Sotheby's – the two leading auction companies in the world, for proposals. When the proposals came in, Maspro Denkoh's CEO, Takashi Hashiyama, decided they were too similar for him to be able to make a decision. So he decided the winner woiuld be determined through a game of "Rock, Paper, Scissors". Strange as that decision may seem, Rock, Paper, Scissors is often used to determine simple decisions in Japanese businesses. But Hashiyama thinking was somewhat more refined than you may think. Being a skilled negotiator, he knew that it was important for the representatives from both organisations to save face and that if he could avoid making one of them lose, he would preserve the relationship for the future. So he requested that the heads of the Japanese subsidiaries of the two auctioneers write down, on paper, their first, second and third choices for the three round game, and submit those. That way, there would be no winner and no loser in a face-to-face competition. When the time came, the envelopes numbered ‘One' were opened and the contents compared. Then the same was done for envelopes Two and Three. Christie's won the business. <br> <br> <font color="#E10915">Are we teaching our customers how to win at negotiating?</font><br> Believe it or not, you have already tipped your hand more often than you should, and shown your customers how to win at doing business with you. If they feel let down or angry, we make amends through some sort of concession towards them. The lesson they learn? Get angry with us, more often. At the end of a selling period – a year end of end of quarter – we pull out all the stops to try to sign up more business to make or exceed quota. The lesson? Customers can get a far better deal from us if they wait until we really need their business. The longer a negotiation stays open, the more freebies or incentives we are inclined to offer our customers just to get them to sign. The lesson here? Keep the negotiation open for as long as possible. <br> <br> <font color="#E10915">About Geoff Heald BSocSc (UCT), BA (Hons)(Stellenbosch), MBA (Stellenbosch)</font><br> Geoff Heald has received wide acknowledgement for work and research on negotiation, the resolution of deep-rooted conflict, human development and strategic planning. He has published widely and was a senior researcher at Stellenbosch University Graduate School of Business. During the national negotiation process, Heald provided advice to some of the key players. He applied the principle of interactive planning to critique the viability of CODESA. Heald has consulted for many different organisations and facilitated the resolution of many industrial and social disputes. </font><br> <br> <font color="#999999" size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="../past_editions.php" target="_self"><font color="#E10915" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">< Back</font></a></font></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="438" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr> </table> <div align="left"></div></body></html> <html><head><title>SalesGuru - The magazine for Sales Professionals</title><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;"><!-- Fireworks MX Dreamweaver MX target. Created Tue Aug 01 16:36:50 GMT+0200 (South Africa Standard Time) 2006--><script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript"><!--function MM_preloadImages() { //v3.0 var d=document; if(d.images){ if(!d.MM_p) d.MM_p=new Array(); var i,j=d.MM_p.length,a=MM_preloadImages.arguments; for(i=0; i<a.length; i++) if (a[i].indexOf("#")!=0){ d.MM_p[j]=new Image; d.MM_p[j++].src=a[i];}}}function MM_swapImgRestore() { //v3.0 var i,x,a=document.MM_sr; for(i=0;a&&i<a.length&&(x=a[i])&&x.oSrc;i++) x.src=x.oSrc;}function MM_findObj(n, d) { //v4.01 var p,i,x; if(!d) d=document; if((p=n.indexOf("?"))>0&&parent.frames.length) { d=parent.frames[n.substring(p+1)].document; n=n.substring(0,p);} if(!(x=d[n])&&d.all) x=d.all[n]; for (i=0;!x&&i<d.forms.length;i++) x=d.forms[i][n]; for(i=0;!x&&d.layers&&i<d.layers.length;i++) x=MM_findObj(n,d.layers[i].document); if(!x && d.getElementById) x=d.getElementById(n); return x;}function MM_swapImage() { //v3.0 var i,j=0,x,a=MM_swapImage.arguments; document.MM_sr=new Array; for(i=0;i<(a.length-2);i+=3) if ((x=MM_findObj(a[i]))!=null){document.MM_sr[j++]=x; if(!x.oSrc) x.oSrc=x.src; x.src=a[i+2];}}//--></script><style type="text/css"><!--.heading { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; color: #EA0000; text-decoration: none;}.main { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; color: #333333; text-decoration: none;}.subheading { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; color: #333333; text-decoration: none;}.style1 {font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; text-decoration: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;}--></style></head><body bgcolor="#ffffff"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="760"> <!-- fwtable fwsrc="sellingpower_home.png" fwbase="index.gif" fwstyle="Dreamweaver" fwdocid = "742308039" fwnested="0" --> <tr> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="111" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="110" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="112" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="49" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="62" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="110" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="7" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="12" valign="top"><p align="left"> <font size="2"> <strong> <font color="#E10915" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></strong></font><font color="#999999" size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="../past_editions.php" target="_self"><font color="#E10915" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">< Back</font></a></font><font size="2"><strong><font color="#E10915" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br> <br> The art of Winning </font> </strong> </font> <br> <br> <font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Graham Duxbury runs a successful business. He also competes in car rallies around the world and during the late 1970s and 1980s, he was a world-renowned motor racing driver. It goes without saying that the man is competitive and that is precisely the word he uses to describe his attitude towards business, racing and life in general. It is also what he looks for when it comes to salespeople. </font> </p> <p> <font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <font color="#E10915">Getting things done</font><br> To Duxbury, there is a big difference between intentions and action. Ask him to describe himself in a single word, and his response is: competitive. "That is where it all starts. I believe you have to be competitive and by so being, you hopefully end up not just having good intentions, but have actions. There is an enormous number of people who have the greatest intentions and who want to make a lot of money, but are they prepared to do anything about that?" he says.<br> "It is very simple: intention is a great thing in the pub, but action is what you do during the day. I think if you add competitiveness, you get a winning formula," he says.<br> In that, Duxbury speaks not of skills but of the desire to win. "All businesses have those people who have the greatest set of skills but lack a passion for action. There are also less skilled people who have tremendous drive. That second group are the people who move a business forward, not the first group." <br><br> <font color="#E10915">Want to race? First, learn how to sell</font><br> Getting involved in motor racing requires substantially more than driving talent. Though that is clearly important, you don’t get on the track in the first place without finance. And gathering finance demands a sound business head – and the ability to sell often vague concepts. Today, Duxbury is the sort of guy who can get a sponsored Porsche Cayenne Turbo to race from London to Sydney, but in the early days, things were markedly different. "I had to go out and sell myself and my abilities in the most literal sense of the word. I went to the big sports management companies, but when you are a young, up-and-coming driver, your value to a sponsor is very low. They are not going to invest the time in you, so you have to do it yourself. And I mean literally, you make a call, you get an appointment and – because this was before there were PCs – every proposal was hand typed and I would draw a picture of the car and colour it in with coloured pencils, so that the potential sponsor could see what the car would look like with their logo on it," he says. <br><br> <font color="#E10915">Understanding your role</font><br> Critical to success in any business endeavour, and especially in sales, is a clear and unambiguous understanding of what the requirement is. To Duxbury, sports people who are not able to see their sport as a business, are likely to struggle with success. Sure, making a TV commercial, or sitting in a press conference in a suit and tie is a far cry from competing in their sport. But sports isn’t how they make their money. Sales is. Their performance on the racing track, the tennis court, or the soccer field is what enables them to be saleable, but their corporate personality is what sponsors care about most.<br> "Think about that for a moment. If a driver is not a business person first and foremost, it is unlikely they are ever going to be a top-level driver. Because they are corporate employees, hired by Ferrari or Honda or BMW, and those companies are never going to hire someone who may sully their reputation," he says. <br> "It is the same in sales. Being able to close deals is like being able to drive fast. It is highly desirable. But your ability to get hired is going to rest as heavily on your potential appeal to the broadest number of customers. You have to look and act the part." <br><br> <font color="#E10915">Be receptive to ideas</font><br> When Duxbury arrived back in South Africa in 1981 after a season of racing in England, he drove down to East London to visit the home of former racing driver Ian Scheckter – brother of the Formula One World Champion Jody Sheckter. During the drive through the Karoo, he made two decisions that would shape his fate: the first was that no matter what career he ultimately ended up pursuing, he would forever remain in Africa; the second was that he would double his income over the following twelve months. "That second decision came about, having witnessed the immense wealth that existed in the motor racing field in Europe, and realising that it really was possible to achieve great wealth. I wasn’t sure at the time how I was going to go about that, but I made the decision anyway. And when you make decisions like that, it opens your mind and you begin to see things. You begin to be receptive to suggestions you might not otherwise consider," he says.<br> Just such a suggestion presented itself to him that year, and he formed a partnership that would ultimately become Duxbury Networking, a distributor of networking equipment. <br><br> <font color="#E10915">Set goals and strive for them</font><br> "You have to have medium-term goals and then ultimate long-term goals," says Duxbury. "And you have to really stretch yourself. I said in 1981 that I wanted to double my income that year. That was what I wanted then. But that isn’t where I am today. That is only what I wanted to do during that one year time frame. I have an umbrella of things that I want to do which have nothing to do with what I want to do this year."<br> That thinking has interesting ramifications in the short term however. Since all focused intentions go towards the achievement of goals, Duxbury applies his thinking to his company’s monthly sales numbers "During the month, we have targets and expectations. And then occasionally a big order will come in which is unexpected, and which pushes us over target early. But as far as I’m concerned we weren’t expecting that deal and we had to make our numbers without it, so we still need to make the same numbers anyway. I would feel cheated if a bluebird came in and we still only made target." <br><br> <font color="#E10915">Understanding strengths and weaknesses</font><br> Salespeople need to understand their strengths and weaknesses, according to Duxbury, and that philosophy plays itself out at the very core of his business. When the company was formed in 1981, his partner made it clear up front that the partnership should be 50/50 but that he wouldn’t contribute in terms of paperwork, finance, or management. His contribution would be technical; a field in which he felt highly competent. "To do that, you have to be very confident in the value you are able to offer. To the wrong set of ears, you are saying that your value is limited, but to the right ears, you are making an important and useful statement. You need to recognise peoples’ strengths and weaknesses if they are going to be used to the best of their abilities," he says.<br> "You can be the most fantastic salesperson and yet be terrible at paperwork. If that is your reality, then your value is out selling, not wasting time unproductively doing paperwork, so tell them to get you a secretary. If a secretary helps you to achieve brilliantly, even if it adds to the cost, it might be the right decision. The alternative is that they look at the mess you’re in and think you’re no good even though your figures might be excellent. The closer you can get to recognising your strengths and weaknesses, the more successful you will be." <br><br> <font color="#E10915">On Money</font><br> How do salespeople view money? Of course it is an important reward for a job well done, but an observation of his own top performers’ behaviour leads Duxbury to the clear conclusion that it isn’t priority number one. Not for the top guys. For the top guys, it is beating the competition and being number one. "Let me tell you, when the sales figures hit their desks at 8:30am every morning, the first thing these guys look at are the other people’s figures. The competition may be external, but it is internal too. They want to be top of the pile and they are in a very serious competition with their peers as to how much they can bring into the company. Now, ultimately that is clearly going to have a very pleasant effect on their back pocket. But actually the money does not appear to be the first prize for the real performers," he says.<br> "And it is that competitive spirit again. They hate losing a deal and to them, it doesn’t matter whether it was worth R100,000 or R1 million – the money isn’t what is important. What counts is winning or losing. If you don’t have that passion, if you don’t have that spark, you aren’t going to be a great salesperson." <br><br> <b><font color="#E10915" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Racing milestones</font></b><br> Duxbury has raced both locally and internationally, competing in some of the biggest events on the motor racing calendar. The reason? He wanted to. How did he go about making it happen? He chose to apply his enormous drive and competitive spirit to achieving those goals. In Duxbury-speak, when you do that, the rest is almost a done deal. <ul> <li>1978/79 Won Formula Ford Championship</li> <li>1980 Raced in England</li> <li>1982 Won overall South African Formula Two Championship / raced in Kyalami 9 hour endurance race</li> <li>1984 Won the Daytona 24 hour endurance race with team mates Sarel van der Merwe and Tony Martin</li> <li>1985 Competed in Le Mans 24 hour endurance race with team mates Christian Danner and Almo Copelli</li> <li>1986/87 Competed in World Champion Series </li> <li>1987 Competed in Le Mans 24 hour endurance race with team mates Nick Adams and Richard Jones</li> <li>1988 Raced for BMW in South Africa; Ford in the Wesbank Modified Series and for Audi during the late-80s Audi Turbo revival period</li> </ul> For six years, Duxbury was also the South African representative to the FIA for touring cars – the FIA being the world motor racing governing body which oversees such events as the Formula One World Championship. During that time, Duxbury ran the Touring Car Championship. <br> <br> </font><font color="#999999" size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="../past_editions.php" target="_self"><font color="#E10915" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">< Back</font></a></font></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="438" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr> </table> <div align="left"></div></body></html> <html><head><title>SalesGuru - The magazine for Sales Professionals</title><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;"><!-- Fireworks MX Dreamweaver MX target. Created Tue Aug 01 16:36:50 GMT+0200 (South Africa Standard Time) 2006--><script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript"><!--function MM_preloadImages() { //v3.0 var d=document; if(d.images){ if(!d.MM_p) d.MM_p=new Array(); var i,j=d.MM_p.length,a=MM_preloadImages.arguments; for(i=0; i<a.length; i++) if (a[i].indexOf("#")!=0){ d.MM_p[j]=new Image; d.MM_p[j++].src=a[i];}}}function MM_swapImgRestore() { //v3.0 var i,x,a=document.MM_sr; for(i=0;a&&i<a.length&&(x=a[i])&&x.oSrc;i++) x.src=x.oSrc;}function MM_findObj(n, d) { //v4.01 var p,i,x; if(!d) d=document; if((p=n.indexOf("?"))>0&&parent.frames.length) { d=parent.frames[n.substring(p+1)].document; n=n.substring(0,p);} if(!(x=d[n])&&d.all) x=d.all[n]; for (i=0;!x&&i<d.forms.length;i++) x=d.forms[i][n]; for(i=0;!x&&d.layers&&i<d.layers.length;i++) x=MM_findObj(n,d.layers[i].document); if(!x && d.getElementById) x=d.getElementById(n); return x;}function MM_swapImage() { //v3.0 var i,j=0,x,a=MM_swapImage.arguments; document.MM_sr=new Array; for(i=0;i<(a.length-2);i+=3) if ((x=MM_findObj(a[i]))!=null){document.MM_sr[j++]=x; if(!x.oSrc) x.oSrc=x.src; x.src=a[i+2];}}//--></script><style type="text/css"><!--.heading { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; color: #EA0000; text-decoration: none;}.main { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; color: #333333; text-decoration: none;}.subheading { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; color: #333333; text-decoration: none;}.style1 {font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; text-decoration: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;}--></style></head><body bgcolor="#ffffff"> <font color="#999999" size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="../past_editions.php" target="_self"><font color="#E10915" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">< Back</font></a></font><br> <br> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="500"> <!-- fwtable fwsrc="sellingpower_home.png" fwbase="index.gif" fwstyle="Dreamweaver" fwdocid = "742308039" fwnested="0" --> <tr> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="111" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="110" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="112" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="49" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="62" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="110" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="7" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="12" valign="top"><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td valign="top"> <p><img src="images/pics/04nov/mainpic.jpg" width="216" height="293"></p></td> <td valign="top"><div align="right"> <p align="left"><font color="#FF0000" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Media’s raging bull</strong></font><br> <br> <font color="#333333" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Khalik Sherrif, director: sales and trade marketing at eTV started out as a school teacher. Then, one day after years of studying, he woke up with an MBA and the consequent management skills that have enabled him to excel in an executive position. But his sales skills – those that are most critical to his role as sales director – he learned on the streets.<br> On Sherrif’s shift at eTV, which began in April 2002, advertising sales have grown in excess of 300% as of November 2006. Adding all the additional sales operations for which he is responsible – those of radio station Yfm and properties in East and West Africa – he looks forward to a sales target in the region of US$250 million in the coming year.</font></p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> <p><font color="#333333" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Hard selling for a hard result</strong><br> Sherrif says he learned most of his selling skills while he was the head of NACROD, a welfare organisation looking after the physically disabled. “We needed to raise a lot of money for our operations, for the schools and the vehicles we used to transport the students around in and so on. In order to do that I had to sell my charity to donors who were already helping out other charities. That meant constantly innovating to highlight the needs of the physical disabled as compared to other forms of disability. In one campaign in 1993, I really took a hard selling approach, and I learned that can work wonders in the right environment. I raised R130,000 in a single night and a further R160,000 within the next week – a substantial amount in the early-1990s – just based on that campaign. That is how I learned my selling skills,” he says. </font></p> <p><font color="#333333" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Selling by proving the concept</strong><br> While at Radio Lotus some years ago, Sherrif was having trouble snaring a leading car manufacturer to advertise. He challenged that company that if he could prove that the majority of that manufacturer’s buyers in KwaZulu-Natal were Indian, they would advertise on Radio Lotus, an Indian-focused radio station, and they agreed. So he placed a student at the doorway of ten different dealerships and ordered them to request the family name of every person that walked in. He was proved right, and armed with a list full of Maharajs, Naidoos and Khans, he finally got a commitment from that manufacturer.<br> He employed a similar approach when trying to attract advertising from a leading peri-peri chicken restaurant chain. “I told them that Indians like hot food and that their chicken was the closest thing to spicy Indian chicken on the market. They didn’t believe me, so I told them I would prove it. We had a festival for Radio Lotus and I told them to bring a mobile kitchen and sell their chicken to the people attending the festival. When they sold out completely within two hours, they finally understood my point,” he says.</font></p> <p><font color="#333333" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Employing Mafia tactics</strong><br> Sherrif believes that if you don’t stand out in sales, you cannot win. In a classic example, eTV had a ‘Mafia Month’ in which viewers were treated to classic gangster movies. In order to generate advertising sales for that month, he hired some ‘gangsters’, dressed them up as Mafiosi and literally ’kidnapped’ media buyers from their offices. “Nobody knew what was going on. My guys walked into their offices, identified the right person and told them they were being kidnapped. They took them away to the eTV offices, and when they got here, I called their secretaries and said I have this person here and unless I receive a commitment of advertising for R200,000 from them, I am not letting them go until the end of the business day. So if their calendar is important to you, you had better send through forms for them to sign right now,” says Sherrif.<br> It was of course unthreatening, and intended only as a fun way of drawing attention to Mafia month. But it was also well received. That day, eTV received advertising commitments totalling R2.7 million.<br>“It’s about being innovative,” he says. “It’s about being different.”</font></p> <p><font color="#333333" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Trust is the only control</strong><br> Sherrif chooses to operate his sales teams completely without controls. He calls it “living the Google story,” referring to the famous Internet company which is defined by unconstrained innovation. “I believe that people must be free. Therefore I don’t manage their time. I manage only their output. I don’t care if they come here at eight and leave at five or come here at eleven and leave at eight. I don’t care if I don’t see someone for three days. Here it is all about trust,” he says.<br> It is that message that he hammers home to his people with tireless reiteration. “Many salespeople will say they are going to a client when in fact they are going to do something personal. But that doesn’t happen here because I drive home honesty. My reward was that one day as I was driving down Fourth Avenue in Parkhurst I saw one of my guys sitting at one of the trendy restaurants there, and I decided to see if he listens to what he has been taught. So I called him and asked him where he was. He said: “Khalik, I am on Fourth Avenue, having lunch with my friends.” I nearly jumped out of my car, shouting with glory because it was proof that my system works. In the next staff meeting, I applauded the guy,” says Sherrif. “My salespeople are responsible for their own actions. I treat them as professionals.”</font></p> <p><font color="#333333" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Why pick one when you can have all five</strong><br> Because of eTV’s very rigorous recruitment process, the candidates that ultimately make it to selection are often hard to choose between. That doesn’t rattle Sherrif however. Once, when faced with five excellent candidates and unwilling to see any of them go to the competition, he simply hired all five. “The finance people were screaming at me, telling me that I didn’t have the budget, and I told them that we were making an investment and would exceed whatever budget overrun there was, by more than ten times within the first three months. In the end, they all fitted in and have really added value to the team,” he says.</font></p> <p><font color="#333333" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Spending money to make money</strong><br> Among the sales tools that Sherrif uses, he makes a habit of taking customers to the best soccer events in the world every single year. Most recently that meant 19 clients and their partners going to the FIFA World Cup in Germany. That process inevitably brings up the question about whether securing sales in exchange for trips overseas is ethical, but Sherrif declares it a moot argument. “It is part of the game. What it does is create outstanding relationships with the people on whom you can call. As all sales professionals know, making the call and getting the person you are calling to accept your appointment is the first step to securing a sale,” he says. <br>“Media agents have a need to buy television for their clients so the only choice is where to spend it. Do they give 20% to each of the five channels, or do they give 40% of their spend to the one that is top of mind? It is a means of crystalising the basic steps in the sales process: making sure that the client grants you an appointment. Now, when my people call such a client, he knows who they are and he has a good association with them. We don’t see it only as a means of getting immediate spend, but also as a means of creating or maybe changing a relationship.”</font></p> <p><font color="#333333" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Mumbai MBA in a day</strong><br> One of Sherrif’s innovations is what he calls the Mumbai MBA in a Day; a life-skills course like nothing you are likely to have ever experienced. The concept came to him through his wife, while they were shopping in a clothing store in Mumbai, in India. “The concept came from the experience of dealing with the salespeople,” says Sherrif.<br>“You can’t even think about being a better negotiator than they are in Mumbai. It is amazing. The shop owner has blouses from floor to ceiling, more than 2000 of them, all in neat packaging and all stacked up and my wife tells him that she wants a white blouse in a certain size. And the next thing you know, the guy is running around pulling down a red one and a blue one and a green one and unwrapping them and letting her feel the fabric, and showing her alternatives she hadn’t ever even considered,” says Sherrif. <br>“By the time he got to the white one, which is the one she wanted, the only size they had was too big. So he hands it to his colleague to take upstairs to the tailor, who makes it her size, right there on the spot. But by now she is looking at the others and thinking about how the red one will go with a certain skirt and how her sister might like the pink one, so that when the white one comes down, she has decided to take some others. And in the mean time he is speaking to you, offering you tea or a Coke, asking where you are from and negotiating a price with you. She went in looking for a white one and came out with three, feeling on top of the world. The guy did his job,” says Sherrif.<br> It got Sherrif thinking and ultimately led to an innovative life-skills course. Earlier this year he took 44 salespeople from his team to Mumbai in order to experience it as he had. <br> The group was divided into 11 teams of four and each was given $400 to go and purchase an outfit for one member of the team who would be required to model it 48 hours later. They were given a video camera to record all of the negotiating and were required to keep a complete financial record of everything. <br>“The outfits they presented and the things that they achieved and experienced were really of a top class. And I can tell you that their lives were touched and changed by the learnings, the negotiations and the overcoming of language barriers,” says Sherrif.<br> The idea worked so well that Sherrif followed it up with an identical trip involving 12 salespeople and 24 media agency customers. <br>“The streets of Mumbai are my university for the Mumbai MBA in a Day,” he says.<br> </font></p> <p><font color="#FF0000" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Khalik’s tip for Sales Performers</font><font color="#333333" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>“You cannot do well in sales unless you are honest and have a positive attitude. Honesty shows respect to the team, to yourself and to your leader. And if you are honest, you can be trusted to do a good job. You cannot sell if you have a negative frame of mind,” says Sherrif.<br> He follows through on that too: in his own office if there is anyone who is negative or preoccupied with a personal issue, he sends them home and tells them to come back onoly when they are happy. He leads a team of positive, happy people.</font></p> <p><font color="#FF0000" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Khalik’s tip for Sales Leaders</font><font color="#333333" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>“Your recruitment process must be thorough. We don’t employ people, we invite them to join us. It may sound only semantically different, but for us, by the time a potential salesperson has made it through to me, they have gone through six weeks of gruelling interviewing and we know for a fact that the person has a winning track record and a winning formula. You don’t employ such people, you invite them to join you.”</font></p> <p class="main"><font color="#999999" size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="../past_editions.php" target="_self"><font color="#E10915" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">< Back</font></a></font></p> </td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="438" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr> </table> <div align="left"></div></body></html> <html><head><title>SalesGuru - The magazine for Sales Professionals</title><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;"><!-- Fireworks MX Dreamweaver MX target. Created Tue Aug 01 16:36:50 GMT+0200 (South Africa Standard Time) 2006--><script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript"><!--function MM_preloadImages() { //v3.0 var d=document; if(d.images){ if(!d.MM_p) d.MM_p=new Array(); var i,j=d.MM_p.length,a=MM_preloadImages.arguments; for(i=0; i<a.length; i++) if (a[i].indexOf("#")!=0){ d.MM_p[j]=new Image; d.MM_p[j++].src=a[i];}}}function MM_swapImgRestore() { //v3.0 var i,x,a=document.MM_sr; for(i=0;a&&i<a.length&&(x=a[i])&&x.oSrc;i++) x.src=x.oSrc;}function MM_findObj(n, d) { //v4.01 var p,i,x; if(!d) d=document; if((p=n.indexOf("?"))>0&&parent.frames.length) { d=parent.frames[n.substring(p+1)].document; n=n.substring(0,p);} if(!(x=d[n])&&d.all) x=d.all[n]; for (i=0;!x&&i<d.forms.length;i++) x=d.forms[i][n]; for(i=0;!x&&d.layers&&i<d.layers.length;i++) x=MM_findObj(n,d.layers[i].document); if(!x && d.getElementById) x=d.getElementById(n); return x;}function MM_swapImage() { //v3.0 var i,j=0,x,a=MM_swapImage.arguments; document.MM_sr=new Array; for(i=0;i<(a.length-2);i+=3) if ((x=MM_findObj(a[i]))!=null){document.MM_sr[j++]=x; if(!x.oSrc) x.oSrc=x.src; x.src=a[i+2];}}//--></script><style type="text/css"><!--.heading { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; color: #EA0000; text-decoration: none;}.main { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; color: #333333; text-decoration: none;}.subheading { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; color: #333333; text-decoration: none;}.style1 {font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; text-decoration: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;}--></style></head><body bgcolor="#ffffff"> <font color="#999999" size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="../past_editions.php" target="_self"><font color="#E10915" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">< Back</font></a></font><br> <br> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="550"> <!-- fwtable fwsrc="sellingpower_home.png" fwbase="index.gif" fwstyle="Dreamweaver" fwdocid = "742308039" fwnested="0" --> <tr> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="111" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="110" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="112" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="49" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="62" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="110" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="7" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="12" valign="top"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"> <tr> <td valign="top"><img src="images/pics/03oct2006/mainpic.jpg" width="216" height="293"></td> <td><p align="left"><font size="2"><strong><font color="#E10915" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Awakening a sleeping behemoth</font></strong></font><br> <br> <font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Standard Bank’s Stuart Loxton has a triple whammy of big commitments to meet. Put simply, as director for Wealth and Product Sales, his job is to find better ways to sell more products to more customers, and in so doing to kick-start life-long relationships. That may not sound particularly unique, but there are a pair of seemingly unrelated concepts there which together create an intriguing proposition: <em>banking and sales</em>. </font></p> <p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">If you don’t naturally associate those two words, you may appreciate the sizeable task with which Loxton has been charged. <br> <br> And yet evidence of the shift is everywhere. Just look at the switch in Standard Bank slogans from ‘Simpler. Better. Faster.’, which was largely about improvements to process fulfilment, to ‘Inspired. Motivated. Involved.’, which is significantly more proactive. </font></p></td> </tr> </table> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">“The difference is massive. With the new positioning, we are talking about our long-term objective as a partner to you,” says Loxton. “The objective is that you as an individual are able to speak about the many reasons you specifically choose to be associated as a customer, with Standard Bank. That is a wonderful opportunity for any bank, but you need a sales environment to drive a lot of that stuff.”</font></p> <p class="heading"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>But is it really <em>selling?</em></strong></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Kick starting a proactive sales operation requires an understanding of how best to deal with customers however, and of what the appropriate selling opportunities might be. It is also critical to define what constitutes a sale in the banking environment. “When a client comes into the branch asking for a home loan, their requirement is only that the loan be </font><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">granted, quickly and with the minimum of fuss. The question is, do you define the completion of that documentation as a sale, or do you define it as fulfilment, as an admin task? In other words, is the bank really in the business of selling home loans?” says Loxton. </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">“For that matter, does a customer even want to buy a home loan? No, probably not. The home loan is just a necessity which lets them put a roof over their heads and provide warmth, security and shelter for their family. So the opportunity becomes, if they are already thinking in terms of solutions rather than just of specific products or financial vehicles, what else can we do for that customer as part of the home loan purchasing process?” says Loxton.</font></p> <p class="heading"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Gathering the skills required</strong></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In this new way of thinking, the opportunity for the bank to become a sales operation is very strong. “When you start convincing a customer to do something rather than simply doing something that they have requested, that for me is your divide. That becomes the difference between an administrative function and a sales function, and it requires special skills because of the nature of the customer interface. People don’t wake up in the morning and say, “I am feeling kindly towards my beneficiaries, let me dash off and buy some life cover. That doesn’t exist anywhere in the world. In this environment, you have what I call an unwilling buyer and a very willing seller,” says Loxton.</font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">“But there are huge opportunities. When someone buys a new home, invariably they fill it with more things. That means that they need a review of their short-term insurance to cover that new content. There is also a correlation, when you look at the trends, between a new home purchase and the purchase of a new vehicle, so we can talk about vehicle finance. Those new purchases might have an impact on their savings so there is the opportunity to provide a financial advisory service. And the list goes on,” he adds. “What we are saying is that if we want to retain that client forever, we better start the value add game.”</font></p> <table width="562" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td width="266" align="left" valign="middle"> <p><img src="images/pics/03oct2006/2pic.jpg" width="258" height="245"><br> </p></td> <td width="296" valign="bottom"> <div align="right"> <p align="left" class="heading"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Timing, timing, timing</strong></font></p> <p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">And the timing couldn’t be more optimal. The banking environment in South Africa is starting to heat up as the traditional incumbents size up recent arrivals such as Barclays and Virgin Money which bring an approach honed in the more sales-intensive European marketplace. That muddies the waters which are already subject to significant customer fickleness. Multi-banking is very much the norm. A Standard Bank cheque account customer is quite likely to take a car loan through First National Bank – or vice versa – rather than keeping everything under one umbrella.</font><br> </p> </div></td> </tr> </table> <p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">“This happens because traditionally banks are not in the sales world, they are in the fulfilment world. At the top end of the financial echelon we have always lived with customers who use multiple banks to provide their financial services. What is happening now however is that lower down the financial echelon, people are now becoming multi-banked. I believe this is an absolute consequence of our own banking sectors not having an inbred culture of going out and looking for ways to add more value to customers’ lives in a primary core banking relationship,” says Loxton.</font></p> <p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">“To counter that, the corporate strategy has to be that we want to add more value to our clients because in return they will stay with us and we will, as an organisation, give greater shareholder contribution,” he adds. </font></p> <p class="heading"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Categorising customers</strong></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Suddenly, in a selling environment, banks have the need to engage in segmentation. And not just vague segmentation, but the real deal. The task becomes that of getting the appropriate product offering delivered through the appropriate mechanisms – be that a person, a machine or a cell phone – to a specific community, so that they are blown away by the results.</font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">“This is important because in the past South African banks have acted along the lines that there is one offer and as for whether the customer is a 25 year old hip hop artist or a 75 year old retiree, that is largely the customer’s problem,” says Loxton.</font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">“Now we are saying hold on, we need to be more customer-centric in our thinking to add more value to that relationship with the aim of retaining the customer forever. That is powerful stuff, but it comes from a sales culture, not a process fulfilment culture. If you are partnering with a customer for life through a customer-centric culture, I promise you that customer isn’t going to be multi-banked when they are worth R15 million one day. They are simply not. Because the nature of the relationship has been ‘we are with you for the long term,’” he says.</font></p> <p class="heading"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Roping in the marketing department</strong></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Marketing plays a significant role in any business’s life, but Loxton says participation in the marketing approach is critical for sales in particular. In his philosophy, marketing can significantly aid, or indeed hinder, the achievement of a sales target. “I would see marketing’s role in the sales function as that of making customers aware of the kind of things we can actually do for them at a product level. That is the big issue for me,” he says.</font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">An example Loxton uses is that of Liberty and Standard Bank’s short-term insurance business which competes with that offered by Mutual and Federal or SA Eagle. If you have never heard of it, perhaps that illustrates the challenge. </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">“Many people are aware that there is a Liberty/Standard Bank connection, because they know of the unit trust and life assurance offerings for example. But very few people know that we have a sophisticated short term business. So what I would do is ask marketing to facilitate an awareness of a particular product so that when I call a client about short-term insurance, they are aware that we are active in that business and that we have products to offer,” says Loxton.</font></p> <p class="heading"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Nobody needs a hammer.</strong></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This adage is as old as the hills, but it highlights a mode of thinking which is coming to banks in a big way. It goes something like this, although there are a thousand versions of it:</font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Nobody needs a hammer. When a customer is in the hardware store looking to buy a hammer, it isn’t the hammer that they want, but a means by which they can get a nail into their living room wall. But for that matter, they don’t actually want a nail in the wall, what they want is a means by which they can hang the painting they bought at the weekend. The painting’s purpose is to beautify the living room and so ultimately, they are in the hardware store looking for a hammer because they want a more beautiful living room. </font></p> <p class="heading"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Beware the anxious Thai taxi driver</strong></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Banks experience the dual-edged sword of being extremely high-profile. Nothing invokes customer venom like an ATM that isn’t working at precisely the random moment when they have decided to pay it a visit. That is often enough for a customer to question the entire reputation of the bank in conversation with friends or colleagues, however much overkill that might be. The level of transactional servicing through Internet banking and ATMs has become such that there is a cast-iron expectation they will be available. But if you really consider the expectation, it is actually pretty staggering: today, you would be incensed if you put your South African credit card into an ATM in the middle of Bangkok at two in the morning and it didn’t immediately spit out cash. That is one <em>hell</em> of a minimum standard to maintain.</font></p> <p class="heading"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>You selling, or taking orders?</strong></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Are you certain of which role you play? You may think you’re in sales, but Loxton defines it thus: if you have a proactive seller and a reactive buyer, you are in sales. If on the other hand you have a proactive buyer, such as someone coming into a bank branch looking for a home loan, and a reactive seller, such as a bank branch staff member, then you have an administrative fulfilment function. Not clear? Then check your remuneration. An order taker might enjoy a high basic and a 13th cheque, but the ability to influence your earnings is limited. A salesperson on the other hand, might have to fight for every single scrap of business, but there are big rewards and big incentives for success and earnings can be influenced substantially. </font></p> <p class="heading"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Real customer-centricity</strong></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Mick Jagger may leap about the stage in tight trousers and a torn t-shirt, but it is pretty certain he would fire any banker that took that into consideration. As a 63-year old multi-millionaire, he has 63-year old multi-millionaire demands, and though true customer-centricity would require his bank to understand his lifestyle and his needs, the primary core relationship between Jagger and his bank is that of trusted financial partner and valued customer. According to Loxton, any sales role will always, of necessity, be subservient to that relationship. </font></p> <p class="main"><font color="#999999" size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="../past_editions.php" target="_self"><font color="#E10915" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">< Back</font></a></font></p> </td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="438" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr> </table> <div align="left"></div></body></html> <html><head><title>SalesGuru - The magazine for Sales Professionals</title><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;"><!-- Fireworks MX Dreamweaver MX target. Created Tue Aug 01 16:36:50 GMT+0200 (South Africa Standard Time) 2006--><script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript"><!--function MM_preloadImages() { //v3.0 var d=document; if(d.images){ if(!d.MM_p) d.MM_p=new Array(); var i,j=d.MM_p.length,a=MM_preloadImages.arguments; for(i=0; i<a.length; i++) if (a[i].indexOf("#")!=0){ d.MM_p[j]=new Image; d.MM_p[j++].src=a[i];}}}function MM_swapImgRestore() { //v3.0 var i,x,a=document.MM_sr; for(i=0;a&&i<a.length&&(x=a[i])&&x.oSrc;i++) x.src=x.oSrc;}function MM_findObj(n, d) { //v4.01 var p,i,x; if(!d) d=document; if((p=n.indexOf("?"))>0&&parent.frames.length) { d=parent.frames[n.substring(p+1)].document; n=n.substring(0,p);} if(!(x=d[n])&&d.all) x=d.all[n]; for (i=0;!x&&i<d.forms.length;i++) x=d.forms[i][n]; for(i=0;!x&&d.layers&&i<d.layers.length;i++) x=MM_findObj(n,d.layers[i].document); if(!x && d.getElementById) x=d.getElementById(n); return x;}function MM_swapImage() { //v3.0 var i,j=0,x,a=MM_swapImage.arguments; document.MM_sr=new Array; for(i=0;i<(a.length-2);i+=3) if ((x=MM_findObj(a[i]))!=null){document.MM_sr[j++]=x; if(!x.oSrc) x.oSrc=x.src; x.src=a[i+2];}}//--></script><style type="text/css"><!--.heading { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; color: #EA0000; text-decoration: none;}.main { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; color: #333333; text-decoration: none;}.subheading { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; font-variant: normal; text-transform: none; color: #333333; text-decoration: none;}--></style></head><body bgcolor="#ffffff"> <font color="#999999" size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="../past_editions.php" target="_self"><font color="#E10915" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">< Back</font></a></font><br> <br> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="500"> <!-- fwtable fwsrc="sellingpower_home.png" fwbase="index.gif" fwstyle="Dreamweaver" fwdocid = "742308039" fwnested="0" --> <tr> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="111" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="110" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="112" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="49" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="62" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="110" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="7" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="12"><table width="562" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td width="219" valign="top"> <p><img src="images/pics/02sep2006/mainpic.jpg" width="198" height="363"></p></td> <td width="343" valign="bottom"> <div align="right"> <p align="left" class="heading"><font size="3"><strong>The R1 billion woman</strong></font></p> <p align="left" class="main"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Gisele Wertheim Aymes is responsible for strategising Johnnic Communications’ newspapers into R1 billion per year. So you would think she knows a thing or two about customers. And you would be right. Wertheim Aymes role is that of strategic planner which means constantly connecting with the decision makers at many of South Africa’s leading corporations, and keeping them coming back for more.</font></p> <p align="left"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">There are 22 newspapers in the division, and Wertheim Aymes’ role is to ensure they reach that R1 billion target every year. That means not only interfacing at the highest levels with customers, but appointing, mentoring and supporting the six chief sales officers within the division to ensure they are able to guide their teams to their revenue targets. <br> Let’s be clear about this: Johnnic newspapers doesn’t deal in fiddling small change. The Sunday Times, the flagship of the group, provides an advertiser with access to 3.2 million readers every Sunday. </font></p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> <p class="main"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">To reach that audience, companies spend more than R400,000 according to the official pricelist. That is a sizeable chunk of change and for companies to see value in that spend, they have to see a strategic plan.<br> <br> That keeps Wertheim Aymes busy with training, product knowledge, education, marketing and decision making support for the chief sales officers. But her role has also enabled her to build up a significant amount of knowledge over time. Here are some excerpts from a recent interview conducted by SALESGURU.</font> </p> <p class="main"><strong><font color="#E10915" size="2">On complex decision making</font></strong><br> <br> <font color="#000000">It is a factor of the media business today that salespeople are no longer dealing with one person in a sale. In fact, the norm is a complex maze of organisational structures which involves an average of six decision makers for every sale. “The buying decision is fragmented. A big corporate may have several brand managers or marketing heads. Then you add into the mix a media head who coordinates all the different media needs of these different units as well as the media agencies which often comprise both a strategic media agency and a buying agency. That means that you have to influence six people in different ways and all in a meaningful and relevant way,” says Wertheim Aymes.</font></p> <p class="main"><strong><font color="#E10915" size="2">On selling cycles</font></strong><br> <br> <font color="#000000">Depending on the size of the deal, Johnnic newspapers will work six months in advance on sales, including the renewal process for contracts that are scheduled to run out in six months time. “We have an ongoing campaign for this where we identify our top 30 clients and work out how we are going to communicate with them. Those relationships help us to understand when they are setting their budgets, what they are intending to do for the coming year. It isn’t an exact science, because sometimes they don’t share it, but depending on the strength of the relationship, we will have a sense that they are going to shift money out of print and into TV for example. If the relationship is good, they will warn us in advance and that will help us to fight that decision and to prepare if we can’t convince them,” says Wertheim Aymes. </font></p> <table width="562" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td width="266" valign="middle"> <p><img src="images/pics/02sep2006/sitting.jpg" width="240" height="231"><br> </p></td> <td width="296" valign="bottom"> <div align="right"> <p align="left" class="heading">On strategic selling</p> <p align="left" class="main"><font color="#000000">Wertheim takes the view that strategic selling absolutely requires that you understand your client, where they are, and whether there is a coming shift in the works. A shift can be anything from changing budget allocations to a shift from one ad agency to another, any one of which could have a marked impact. “You need to be prepared, and that doesn’t mean that you prepare the week before. Preparedness needs to be a matter of constantly understanding the relationship.”<br> </font><br> </p> </div></td> </tr> </table> <p class="main"><font color="#000000">Of course there are going to be times when a client simply doesn’t want to be in print and chooses to spend budget on a TV or outdoor (billboard) campaign. At times like that, there is no option but to take a knock on the revenue and find new business to replace it. “But with a strategic plan in place, it is never going to be a sudden shock. You will have the visibility that it is coming and you will have a good idea of when, so you can take steps to handle that,” says Wertheim Aymes.</font><font color="#E10915" size="2"><strong><br> <br> On the changing shape of influence</strong></font><br> <br> <font color="#000000">A decade ago, it was a relatively simple task to invite a marketing director away on an overseas trip and there was a fairly good chance they would go. Building influence through friendships and the occasional round of golf was the norm in the media industry. However, today, with corporate governance guiding business relationships, Wertheim Aymes says there has been a dramatic shift where the sale has to be on the value of the product offering. “We do a lot of workshops with clients because that is how we understand what they want and what they need and it gives us a lot of ways in which we can show them what sort of knowledgebase we are sitting on. But we have noticed that some companies have taken corporate governance to such an extreme that it is difficult for us to even interchange in a workshop. Those are the realities of the business environment we operate in.”</font></p> <p class="main"><font color="#E10915" size="2"><strong>On teamwork</strong></font><br> <br> <font color="#000000">Johnnic’s sales operation is divided into teams; a structure that deliberately moves them away from an individual focus. There is a level of individual focus when it comes to normal key performance measures which affect salary reviews and individual rewards, but when it comes to the task of selling, the team becomes the key. “The most important thing is the customer,” says Wertheim Aymes. “We don’t want a customer to be caught in a bun fight between two salespeople over commission. There are pros and cons to both the team structure and an individual structure, but to ensure a high level of integrity here, we work in teams.”</font><br> <strong><font color="#EA0000"><br> On great salespeople</font></strong><br> <br> <font color="#000000">“In any environment, a great salesperson is someone who really understands what their customer wants, truly gets to know them and then never lets go. And I don’t mean that in a negative sense, I mean it in a very positive sense. The mark of a true, successful salesperson is that they develop long-term relationships,” says Wertheim Aymes. “You have to build up collateral over time, even if the client is not spending, and carry on servicing that client because one day they will come back. I think that good salespeople are those that understand that building a relationship requires knowledge, trust and integrity, as well as continual follow through, regardless of spend. And a good salesperson will not go and waste a decision maker’s time with information that is irrelevant.”</font></p> <p><font color="#EA0000" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>On mentoring</strong></font><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br> <br> “Mentoring should be a natural part of management today. It is important that we are continually upgrading the skills of all our sales staff. And it happens at all levels. That means that the manager of the team has to continue a process of self-improvement and I have to continue working on self-improvement, so that we are able to manage them,” says Wertheim Aymes. “Mentoring should happen more often than it does, especially in the sales environment. People have the view that salespeople are money hungry, and couldn’t find jobs elsewhere so they went into sales. But that isn’t true. Especially in media where salespeople have to have a certain level of intellect and be passionate and involved,” she says.</font></p> <p><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font color="#EA0000">On Perceptions</font></strong><br> <br> “Our salespeople have to understand what our competitors’ positioning is, the core content of other newspapers, the circulation and so on. It is very complicated. And our industry is measured and managed by research tools such as the All Media Products Survey (AMPS) which measures and manages how buyers of media perceive particular newspapers. If AMPS says your profile is X, then that is what media buyers believe,” says Wertheim Aymes.<br> It is critical therefore that Johnnic newspaper salespeople understand the perceptions, that they are able to work with them and to argue for and against them.</font></p> <p><font color="#EA0000" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>On benchmarking</strong></font><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br> <br> The strategic approach enables Johnnic to identify a softness in sales in a particular category on the Sunday Times, for instance. Wertheim Aymes works constantly with market researchers – or marketing services consultants in Johnnic parlance – who will identify whether the Sunday Times is benchmarking correctly against the market. <br> When a problem is identified, Wertheim Aymes and her team will analyse what is happening in the industry, whether the positioning of the publication is correct, what competitors are doing, and why it is that a competitor might be getting revenue that a Johnnic newspaper is not. “And it isn’t just newspapers. We look at the entire media spectrum because we don’t just compete in print. If, for example, Bank X is shifting its spend away from print into TV, we go to them to understand why they have done it and what type of information we can give them to come back to print. Because sometimes the sale is not about your newspaper, it is actually about the whole category of print publications,” says Wertheim Aymes.<br> “So what we do is to sell the medium and then we sell the actual brand. So we never just sell the Sowetan, we sell the benefits of print and then we sell the Sowetan to keep reaffirming print in the client’s mind.” </font></p> <p><font color="#EA0000" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>On losing business</strong></font><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br> <br> Losing a multi-million Rand client without warning is clearly a matter of great significance, but it isn’t without precedent. Wertheim Aymes says that several years ago, Johnnic newspapers lost a “huge” account based purely on the client’s decision to shift out of print and into TV. Losing the client hurt, but not as badly as the lack of warning that it was about to happen. “We were never alerted to it so we never had the opportunity to discuss it. If the relationship had been very strong we would at least have had some warning that it was about to happen. And then you can start at least preparing,” she says.<br> Preparation is a big part of Wertheim Aymes’ responsibility and strategic planning is key to the whole process. “I would feel like a total failure if I lost a piece of business like that because we have put measures in place on our big key accounts where we understand where all the money is coming from. We understand the complexity of the relationships in those organisations, so if it happened again, that would be a failure of the strategic plan,” she says. </font></p> <p><font color="#EA0000" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>On Integrity at all costs</strong></font><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br> <br> Wertheim Aymes must always face the reality of a potential showdown between one of her newspapers and an advertiser. In a world in which a newspaper’s sole basis for existence is that it is perceived to be totally independent, totally trustworthy and tells the truth at all times and at all costs, it happens from time to time that an advertiser might find itself the subject of bad press. When you have a company spending R400,000 on a full page advertisement on page three of an edition where it has been lambasted on the front page, the risk of conflict can be very high.<br> According to Wertheim Aymes however, there is no contest. “I support the editors 100% and if that means losing our biggest client because a newspaper has to publish a story, then so be it. We are selling trust to our readership, and I will not disturb that line of thought. Good relationships always help, but we have to do what we have to do. If an advertiser threatened to pull their support based on an objection to editorial, it wouldn’t be a debate in my mind who to support and that would be the editorial staff.”</font><span class="main"><br> <br> <br> </span><font color="#999999" size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="../past_editions.php" target="_self"><font color="#E10915" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">< Back</font></a></font></p> </td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="438" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr> </table> <div align="left"></div></body></html>
