I sell therefore I am (a salesperson)

The real truth is that we are all salespeople whether we run a business or not, some examples in life are when you have been for an interview you have to sell yourself, when you meet new people you sell yourself and even when you were a kid and you wanted something from your parents you had to sell the idea to them to try and get what you wanted.

I was once on a training course and the question of what do you sell was asked around the room. When an electrician was asked this question the reply came "I'm an electrician, I don't sell anything", He couldn't have been more wrong and I believe that this thinking was possibly limiting him in his business and how big he could have grown his company.

The real issue in the UK is that salespeople have been tarred with a brush that some people believe that a salesperson is going to make them buy something they don't want and overpriced at that and won't do what they need it to, or that they will come to your home and not go until late and only when the police are called.....This is an unfair stereo type developed by TV companies for 'entertainment' purposes, in truth it's a very small minority that will mis-sell or sell with pressure.

Selling is all about listening to people asking the right questions and helping them with their need. Good sales people sell with integrity and in a holistic way. An old adage is 'we have 2 ears and one mouth, use them in that proportion' - Sometimes it can be tough to listen intently to someone, especially if we think we have something important to contribute, If you have trouble listening to people then use the technique of repeating what they say to you back in your head, this way you'll find it'll be harder to think of what to say next and you'll find you can more easily remember what they say.


So if you run a business, you have a product or service that people buy from you, therefore you are a salesperson, embrace it and become even better by learning how to sell and your business will flourish.



To your success

Paul

The importance of weekly networking meetings.

Welcome to the latest post from BNI Endeavour, we're passing referrals thick and fast and we've had a constant stream of visitors to what is probably the best business networking group in Hertfordshire. We're now up to 25 members on our journey to 40.

We'd like to welcome our newest member Bev Moseley from Nockolds solicitors, we look forward to working with Bev to help her grow the business. Bev deals in the employment law sector so if you need her help give her a call, Click here for the employment law page of the Nockolds solicitors website  

The importance of weekly meetings.
At BNI we meet on a weekly basis, while this may not be for everyone in my experience it works, I've been to many different networking events that meet bi weekly or even monthly, I've found that networking on a weekly basis helps to grow relationships much much faster and because of that more referrals get passed. It's also important to be at meetings as often as possible so we can learn about the other members through their 60 seconds and for the person who's turn it is to do the ten minute segment so they can inform us more about the ins and outs about their business.

We're looking for quality businesses to join our group so we can help each other, if your profession isn't represented on the right hand side, then it is vacant and we'd love to see you at a meeting soon, so do get in touch.

To your success
Paul

The one where we did our business networking upstairs

This weeks meeting was held upstairs as our normal room was being used for the Hertford/ Ware business showcase. We had 5 visitors with us this week and 2 members come along from other local chapters to see how the fastest growing BNI Networking chapter in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire runs things.

We welcomed new member Alan Tobutt from Celtel direct our new Digtal marketing man (Pictured right) which brings us up to 24 members as we strive for our goal of 40+ members and we also have had some applications in from our visitors this week so we should be going past 30 very soon.

Nigel Adams unveiled his plan for our referral launchpad which is a fantastic idea, it's going to be a booklet of all of the members and the sort of referrals we're looking for and what to say to those potential referrals, another way that will make it easier to get referrals for each other.
Allan Pennington kindly donated Phil Collins' plaque for over 1,500,000 sales of serious hits live as a prize for their Brocket hall, charity golf day on the 25th of October, you can visit the Isabel hospice events page here  

We ended the meeting with over 30 referrals passed and then down to the business showcase where we had a stand to promote the chapter.