HARDISON’S TIPS – AUGUST 27, 2021 – Achieving Your Business Goals with Salesperson Goals If you want to know how to achieve your business goals by strengthening your sales team performance, it pays to understand the importance of individual salesperson goals. Simply put, properly established individual salesperson goals can and should make it easier for the entire sales team to attain overall measures of sales success. Unfortunately, without specific strategies for achieving goals, individual salesperson goals sometimes end up at odds with sales team and business goals; this can make it difficult to increase sales and maintain a positive sales team culture. Let’s look at how achieving business goals via individual salesperson goals can benefit the sales team and the entire corporate organization. No “I”…

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CHAMPION STRATEGIES – PUBLIC SPEAKING WORKSHOP – AUGUST 27, 2021 MYTHS ABOUT BEING A GOOD PUBLIC SPEAKER (PT.4) Myth #4: Video Tape Feedback for Presentation Skills Training is Valuable Okay, this one is somewhat true, but in a lot of cases, watching yourself speak on video when you are nervous will just make you more nervous. However, watching your video with a coach who will help you see improvements along the way will improve your confidence exponentially. Most of us are very critical of ourselves, so we will nit-pick our presentation nine ways to Sunday if we review it alone. So get a good coach before you start trying to use video tape as a tool. Myth #5: It Takes Years to Become a Great…

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HARDISON’S TIPS – AUGUST 26, 2021 – Mastering Your Sales Pipeline All B2B companies have a sales pipeline, but few small and mid-sized business owners can rely on it to run their business. Many companies who struggle with sales also lack an accurate sales forecast. I work with business owners every day who are trying to get a handle on their pipeline and improve the performance of their sales team. Sales is the “heartbeat” of every company, but without a systematic way to account for your prospects and new business, you will never have a handle on your sales. Let’s start by understanding the cost of an inaccurate sales pipeline and what you can do to fix it. What is the business cost of an inaccurate sales pipeline? You can’t forecast your…

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CHAMPION STRATEGIES – PUBLIC SPEAKING WORKSHOP – AUGUST 26, 2021 MYTHS ABOUT BEING A GOOD PUBLIC SPEAKER (PT.3) Myth #3: Constructive Criticism (Critiques) is the Best Way to Improve Ever since that first oral report or book report that we each gave in high school, we’ve been told that constructive criticism or critiquing our speeches will improve the way the we speak in front of groups. It was reinforced in speech class, communications class, or whatever your High School or University called it. It was reinforced again when we went to that Toastmasters group and the grammarian and another speaker-in-training gave us constructive feedback. However, this particular technique has never, ever worked. Here’s why. The only way to get constructive criticism is to first have…

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HARDISON’S TIPS – AUGUST 25, 2021 – Managing Virtual Selling in 2021-2 Changing Prices Many companies cut their prices in 2020 to stay afloat during the pandemic. However, this can lead to even more losses for your company. While this may seem like a good idea at first, it can cause more losses to your company that you would like. Avoid using the “last man strategy” as this can lead to your salespeople throwing discounts at prospective customers that don’t need them. This article suggests taking a more creative approach with payment terms, contracts, or services offerings in order to maintain prices. Use Data and Metrics to Keep Up with Sales Ensure that your sales enablement team keeps track of your company’s activity in customer engagement (meetings, social…

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HARDISON’S TIPS – AUGUST 24, 2021 – Managing Virtual Selling in 2021-1 The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed many companies to move wholly or partially to work remotely to reduce the virus’s spread. With the uncertainty of when the world will return to some form of “normalcy,” sales organizations need to be prepared to navigate 2021 with the notion that most of their sales may still need to be done virtually. Embracing strategies to manage virtual selling in 2021 will enable your sales team to meet and exceed sales goals in the new year. Keep Using Virtual Meeting Tools Based on the fact that social distancing guidelines are still being enforced at the beginning of 2021, virtual selling continues. Videoconferencing tools such as Zoom, BlueJeans, Google…

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MYTHS ABOUT BEING A GOOD PUBLIC SPEAKER (PT.1) Myth #1: Good Speakers have a Natural Talent (Born Speakers) This one always makes me laugh because no one comes out of the womb speaking. In fact, for the first couple of years, our entire speech is “gaagaa, goo goo”. Now, granted, if you have a nice sounding voice, you might have an advantage in front of a group, or if you are stunningly good looking, you might command attention better. However, most great speakers become great at presenting because they really work at it. Here is the real secret that the academics, the toasting clubs, and the seminar leaders won’t tell you. Public speaking is an EASY skill to master if you practice the right way.…

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HARDISON’S TIPS – AUGUST 23, 2021 – WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR COMPETITOR LOWERS THEIR PRICE Few things strike such fear into sales professionals as when a competitor lowers prices. The knee-jerk reaction is to go toe-to-toe and price match. But this strategy is ultimately a zero-sum game; as prices drop and your solution becomes seen only as a commodity, it becomes harder to compete and harder to sustain profit margins. The good news is there are several effective and easily implemented strategies that can help you sell against lower-priced competition. Here are ten ways to play to your strengths, defend your turf, and even boost your bottom line when the competition drives down price: Differentiate When is a competitor not really a competitor? When you can…

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CHAMPION STRATEGIES – PUBLIC SPEAKING WORKSHOP – AUGUST 23, 2021 OVERCOMING NURVES Any time that you are developing a skill, the more successes that you can string together, the faster you will build confidence. (For details about the process visit Fear of Public Speaking.) The basics of growing confidence versus growing fear are pretty simple and straightforward. First, the more risk involved in a process, the more nervousness will be present in the learning process. Second, if during the learning process you have success, your confidence grows. If you have a perceived failure, your nervousness grows. Finally, and most importantly to this topic, the closer the instances of success, the more and faster the confidence will grow. For instance, if I’m practicing a cooking recipe that…

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