How your business can rise like a Phoenix from the ashes

Is your business struggling? Have you been thinking of closing down shop or moving locations? Maybe you don’t have enough customers coming in or leaving great reviews for you?

Well, here is something you may want to consider instead of closing down the business for good. I mean, you’ve been working hard and in the end, you deserve a successful running business. So, why not give it one last shot. One last push before you give up for good.

There are several ways to enhance your customers experience. Yes, some might cost you some money (I see it more as an investment) and some are free. You can also use a good combination of both (which I would recommend) and find a better way to market your business.

1. Look at your customer service

Is your business a local shop or restaurant? Do you have an office where you meet customers regularly? Do you provide an outstanding service?

In many cases we find that the business owners believe they offer a great customer service only to be told afterwards that their service isn’t really that good at all. Providing a great service is one of the most important aspects of business. If you believe customers chose you because of your low pricing, think again. It’s only a minority who look for the cheapest option. Over 85% of customers are buying based on their feelings and emotions that they have towards a seller. No matter what you sell, if you are not looking after your customers properly, then you will not survive. Change your routine if you have to, but make sure you always offer top notch service to your customers.

2. Sales ability of owners and staff

Are you capable of selling? Maybe you think you are but how good are you really? Many retailers or waiters/ waitresses are just order takers. Customer comes in, buys a product and leaves. Nobody is asking questions, trying to establish the customers needs. I’ve been preaching this for years now and except a few people who took this on board many are still suffering the low sales turnover. If you ask the right questions and LISTEN, your customers will feel valued and will buy from you. Not necessarily the product they were initially looking  for, but maybe something in addition to that, or more. In rare cases customers have to be shown that the product they chose is not the right product for them. This happens every now and then but it is up to you to make the right recommendation to your customer. What is the right product? Can they get it from you? If not, where can they get it? Sales and customer service in this case go hand in hand. And even if you lose the sale because you don’t have product xyz in stock, you can still help some other person to get the deal by sending them over. You will earn credibility from your customer and they will still be back. You can also consider getting the product for your customer. Have you ever considered that? Think in terms of joint venture. Imagine a customer comes in and buys a TV from you and he also wants a very specific DVD player that you don’t stock. Maybe you know somebody who stocks this DVD player and you give them a call and tell them, I have a customer for you who wants to buy this product. Do you have it in stock? Imagine the other person says, yes, I sell it for 199. Could you make me a deal so I can sell it on to my customer for 199? And say this person only gives you a discount of 10 EUR. Suddenly you can sell a product from somebody else and get a small referral fee or commission out of this one. Put your business head on for once and think who can help your business achieve higher sales results? How can you work together? Maybe you can do the same for this other business if they refer clients over to you? Think about it for a moment.

3. Change strategy

Sometimes we have to change our strategy, our routes to market or even our entire business around in order to make it work. Remember why you went into business in the first place? Maybe it was because you thought you could do the same as your boss did. You can offer a better more proficient service or sell more products? Be more flexible with customers? How did that work out for you? Well, if you’re still reading, I presume not so good. Business is about constant change. Moving away from one strategy that you’ve held for a number of years is sometimes necessary. Don’t get stuck in “The old ways” but rather look at what you can do differently in order to succeed.

4. Use some crazy ideas

Crazy doesn’t necessarily mean bad or “insane”. Crazy sometimes is good for business. Be a bit more open to attract different customers to your premises. Be a bit more outgoing, flexible and open minded. Sometimes you have to do the drastic thing and just get out of your shop and talk to people on the street. It may not be the most comfortable way of doing business but heck it beats closing down shop, doesn’t it? Imagine you can talk to 50 people a day when you get out of your shop. And only 5 of them would visit afterwards, do you think it would be worth your while if they come in and start buying from you?

Maybe you can do a competition, work with other businesses together, create an in-house event etc. Maybe you can do a shopping hour and offer everything for one hour a day half price (maybe on selected items etc.). It would be a promotion so consider that you may need to invest in this but getting people into the store should be first priority.

How about a nice “Midnight Shopping Event” with a glass of wine or champagne (booking mandatory). Maybe you own a boutique and you could do a modeling event? Become a model for one night…The ideas and possibilities are endless.

5. Restructuring and new layout

Sometimes it’s the business itself that needs a new structure and layout. Even if you have a great marketing and sales strategy, it doesn’t mean that customers will come in flying into your premises. And maybe an event is not even a problem but bookings are not made? Look at your shop and what you would like to achieve. How is it structured? Does it look nice from the inside and outside? Is the layout great? Do you have old carpets or new ones? Maybe you want to attract a younger audience but your products and services don’t reflect that. Take a risk and create a new layout, new store front, buy some exciting new products etc. It might help you turn things around once word gets out.

6. Get a coach or consultant/ mentor

This might be a good investment. A business coach or consultant can help you turn things around. Yes, they are usually not that cheap but the value you’re getting will help you and your business not only to stay alive but to grow. Of course no coach or mentor can come in and save the day. You should not expect that. If you’re already bankrupt or very close to closing, it might not even be possible for them to help you at all. However a coach is always a great way to discover alternative options. Maybe closing the business is good but the way to do it might be worth looking into. Maybe they can help you discover new avenues to go down to and create better business opportunities with you. A business coach can cost anything from 50 – 200€ an hour and is depending on their own experience and expertise. The value of this is incredible if you are a open minded and ready to explore. A great coach or consultant can help you on any of the points raised above. You just need to have an open mind and be ready for change.

7. Don’t give up

No matter what you do, don’t give up on your dreams. Just because one thing isn’t working doesn’t mean something else won’t work. Sometimes we have to close down one chapter of our lives (or business lives) to open up a new one. There is always opportunities out there so keep following them. Learn from your mistakes and make sure that next time around you avoid making the same mistakes. You will get better at this but as with everything it requires practice and patience.

Let me tell you a quick story. Have you ever heard of the Phoenix? The Phoenix is a mythology creature, a bird that has a long life. Towards the end of it’s life-span it gets heavily sick and dies by self-combustion. Out of the ashes rises now a new, healthy bird, majestic and full of life. The Phoenix is believed to regenerate itself every 100 years or so, (at least that’s how the story goes that I’ve heard). I think it’s the perfect story for any struggling business. If you are struggling or really have no other option as to closing down shop, think of the Phoenix. No matter if you had a great run or you were struggling right from the beginning, something majestic will come out of this struggle. Something so incredible that you can’t even imagine it right now.

But I am certain that you will rise again and again out of your own ashes if you keep going and trying.  

Thank you for reading.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more up to date information.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland. Creating a synergy between consultation, training and coaching helps our clients to achieve the best results.

How the right training can boost your company’s image

I think everyone will agree that the right kind of training (sales and/ or customer service/ management/ leadership training) can be a great way to enhance your business.

A lot of companies hire an outside sales or customer service training company to deliver just that. Helping their employees to come up with new sales strategies, better customer service options and overall suggestions on how to enhance the business.

The key issues that I found in my research however show that many companies are not happy with their training provider due to lack of support, changes that are not implemented properly and the motivation of the team starts going down after a few days and revert back to their former self. Also in many cases sales and customer service training is kept very generic and is not developed to the need of the client but rather using off the shelf programs.

So, the big question is, who is responsible? Is it the trainer who seems to fail to deliver on his/ her promise or is it the attendees of the training who fail to implement what they’ve learned on a daily basis? Is it the company which doesn’t want to take on board the trainers advise or simply doesn’t want to spend more money on additional training or consultation/ coaching?

The answer might be shocking: It’s a little bit of everything. Let me elaborate:

Lets say you attend a sales training, the trainer gives great examples, clearly defined strategies (or helps you develop a strategy), great new ways of thinking and even adds how to improve on your customer service skills. You spend 2 days at this training and you come out, highly motivated and ready to roll. You go to your boss, tell them all about what you’ve learned in the training and why things are not working for the company (because now you believe you have the solution) but your boss shuts you down. He hasn’t been in the training, so he doesn’t really understand and from the bits that you remember he can’t really make up his mind if this would be a good way to go or not. So, he says, we stick to the old ways. Or maybe you are lucky and he doubts that this will work but will give you a chance to prove him wrong. So, off you go, thinking about what your boss said, and maybe even agree with him after seeing his point of view. Still you want to give it a try and now, with your boss’s point of view in mind you try your best and after one day fail to deliver. 2 days after you find yourself in the same misery as before, training is long forgotten and nothing changed.

Did you ever experience something like that?

Maybe you are the boss and your company sent you to a sales training to come back and deliver this training afterwards to the employees. You come out of the training, you think you know it all and give now your answers to the employees or sales team on how things should be done from now on. You’ve done your job, and now it’s up to the team to take your (crippled) information and make the best out of it. And to your surprise, it doesn’t work. Did you ever experience that?

Or a third scenario, you are the boss, you and your team have been trained by the company, you all agree on the changes that are required in order to make this work but find that after a few days, nothing really changed? You may have meetings about it, how to implement the new changes, you uncover some challenges on the way and suddenly decide that maybe it’s not such a good idea or you are stuck for answers?

Now, here is the reason of why this is happening:

1. You are capable of only remembering approx. 15% – 25% right after the training (this is the moment you step out of the training room and somebody would ask you what do you remember). No matter how good or bad the training is, and how much you keep writing during the training, it will not help you deliver the entire programme to your team or your boss.

2. Within 24 hours after the training your memory will even more deteriorate to approx. 5 – 10%.

3. 5 days after the training your memory will get worse and you remember approx. 1 – 3% of the training.

4. You are not a trainer or coach. Unless you went through extensive training becoming a business coach or sales trainer (and lets face it, barely any managers are) you are not capable of delivering the training to your staff (no matter how good you think you are).

5. Without any follow up coaching in place, no matter how many training sessions you’ve had, you will not be able to make it work.

6. Without the buy in from management about any changes that the training company suggests, you will have no chance of succeeding and make the training work for you.

There you have it. 6 points of why things are not working. In order to make any training work let me summarize in a more positive way what you could do to make this happen:

1. The right consultation is key

Training needs have to be assessed first. It’s important to understand the needs of the company as well as the individual needs of the attendees. (Interviews with management and key personnel (or maybe even all personnel that need to be trained) should be done to understand the training requirements.

2. Get management to buy in first

Buy in from management is crucial and in order to see the point of the sales trainer or consultant it is important that the management understands the changes that are required (if any) for the training to work.

3. Get agreement from management on necessary changes

The company should agree upfront on the changes that are required or needed in order to drive more sales or customer service and be happy with them. No matter how good a sales trainer you hire (or if you are a trainer then it doesn’t even matter how good you are), the trainer can only deliver on the information you provide and the changes that you are willing to take. If you don’t want to take certain risks, then the trainer need to know this information before hand in order not to make any suggestions on how to sell or improve your services.

4. The training should be created around the key areas and changes.

Training can only be successful if it is created with the companies needs in mind.

5. Training should be delivered to management first and staff second

It is important to deliver first to the management (if possible entire management) to make sure all points that have been agreed on are covered, to see if anything is missing and to get the entire management behind the concept. Afterwards training needs to be delivered to the remaining staff/ employees.

6. Follow up coaching to help implement the changes and discuss any challenges that the team might face over the coming weeks

Follow up coaching is probably the most important aspect of the training. It empowers the team and managers to find the best solutions on how to implement the changes and will provide the success that is needed in order to get the team to the next level.

So, how can this boost your companies image? Imagine you’ve had a training, a great training and you had somebody help you implement what you’ve learned during the training on a regular basis? That will give you the focus that you need and helps you drive sales and customer service levels. Your sales team will not be required to make any drastic changes right away but will continue to improve over a certain period of time until peak levels are achieved. Your company’s image will now rise to become the best in their field and the reason? Because you understand the training needs of your employees and now you can find the right training and coaching company to help you achieve greater results that you could have hoped for.

One thing I would like to add is that remember how long it took you to learn anything in school? No matter what the subject, but to get a complete understanding it took you years of learning and practice. So, why do we think that sending our staff to a one off sales or customer service training will do the trick? Let me assure you, it won’t. In order to implement what they’ve learned during the training course, follow up coaching needs to be provided. Only then will you see the results. It takes approx. 28 days to change a habit. If your sales people have bad habits, then the training might be a way in to create a new more positive habit, but only by doing the things that need to be done on a daily basis can your team start to excel. This can only be done with coaching the person (or group) on the required changes. And isn’t that why you spend the money on the training in the first place?

What is your experience with training companies? Or maybe you are a trainer and would like to share your opinion? I would love to hear your opinions on the subject.

Thank you for reading.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more up to date information.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland. Creating a synergy between consultation, training and coaching helps our clients to achieve the best results.

 

Slap in the neck…Telephobia

Telephobia sounds very straight forward, doesn’t it? Somebody who is afraid using the telephone. Well, it could be that easy however we need to distinguish between people who have a fear to talk to somebody in general over the phone or who have a fear of talking to new prospects. Well, this wouldn’t be the SalesFearFactor if it were about people in general…

So, lets dig in a bit more of what Telephobia is really about:

Here is the official description of Telephobia by the BSRP (Behavioral Science Research Press):

“Prospecting energy diverted to coping with fear associated with using the telephone as a prospecting tool. Energy typically over-invested in less efficient forms of contact that do not require using the phone.”

In general terms people are usually not afraid of using the phone to order a taxi or a pizza. Telephobia is only present if people are using it for prospecting activities. That said, we still need to distinguish of different forms of Telephobia:

1. General fear of making any connections to potential new or existing customers

2. Fear of making any connections with potential new customers (common)

3. Fear of making any connections with existing customer/ prospecting base (rare but I came across a few people who had no problem digging through the Yellow Pages but couldn’t cope with talking to existing customer base)

But how can you tell if you or somebody you know has Telephobia? Here are some symptoms that you might come across:

Sweaty palms before making a prospect call

Raised heartbeat

Heavy breathing

Some severe cases even start to stutter or stumble over their words.

What to look out for?

People who would rather meet face to face instead of using the telephone

Lots of complains about the phone (being useless, just a waste of time etc.)

Did you ever receive bad news over the phone? Or do you have any negative memories associated with the telephone?

Telephobia is quite straight forward and doesn’t need a lot of explanation. But the impact it has on your organization or team could be dramatic. Many companies set calling standards for their teams such as number of phone calls to be made on a daily basis and you will probably find that not a lot of people will have a problem with the phone. However if you have somebody in your team not performing to standards (and really look for very low prospecting activity over the phone) then you might have a problem. But should you now just go and let this person go? No, absolutely not. If you want to turn things around for him/ her then there is a solution. And the good news is, that this will increase your sales revenue without doing much.

Telephobia is easily diagnosed and corrected if the right tools are applied. All you need is a commitment from this person and the willingness to change. Once you have that, you can get proper training and advise on how to cure Telephobia.

An example of a telesales rep (outbound):

One of my clients job is to outbound and sign up companies and switch them to a new tariff (telecommunication industry). His expected call rate was a min of 30 calls per day. He made approx. 15 – 20 calls per day but because he was very good in his job and signed up more clients than most other sales reps, the company left him alone and didn’t even think of threatening him to move his calls up. However they did notice some strange behavior of clever avoidance tactics from him. He managed to reach beyond his revenue target but his manager noticed his discomfort and wanted to help him. That’s when I came into the picture. After testing him and working with this person on a 1 to 1 basis he nearly doubled his calling activity going from 20 to 37 calls per day within a 3 week period. His revenue exploded and so did his commission check. The preferred tactic he chose to overcome his Telephobia? Thought Zapping. Thought zapping is about linking negative thoughts with unpleasant action such as a slap in the neck.

However most people don’t want to look stupid in front of their colleagues and might want to try other (similar) methods such as a rubber band that is put around their wrist (left hand) and every time a negative or intrusive thought comes up that prevents them from doing the task, they just hit themselves with the rubber band from the top (never from the bottom because of veins and arteries running through the lower arm) and immediately replace the negative thought with something positive. Could be a thought about their children, wife, lover etc. Basically something that brings positive thoughts out in a person or a smile, happy feelings. 

I don’t want to go into too much detail with this because as mentioned in some of my previous articles, in order to cure or help an individual to overcome Telephobia depends all on other factors as well, such as other types of Sales Call Reluctance that might be present, motivational aspects as well as other prospecting behavior from this individual.

Please do not try just any techniques in order to cure yourself from Sales Call Reluctance that you may come across through research or that was mentioned in this article. This is just an example technique that helped this particular client. The reason being is that you might end up doing more damage to your mind than actually helping yourself. If applied wrongly or if applied with the wrong Sales Call Reluctance type you might end up getting worse than better. So, please be careful and only apply if prescribed by a professional trainer who is accredited and authorized by the BSRP (Behavioral Science Research Press).

If you want to learn more about Sales Call Reluctance or would like to find out what type you might be suffering from feel free to contact us.

Thank you for reading.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more up to date information.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland 

 

What to do…what to do…no more leads…

Are you running out of leads? No idea where or to whom to sell your products or services to? I think every single sales person has been at that stage during their career. But what did they do to get themselves out of it?

Here is a list of things you might want to consider:

1. Contact former customers again to discuss future opportunities. You never know, one of your former customers might need to buy additional products or services from you. Or you can inform them about new developments, activities, events or just want to meet up for a coffee with them to see how things are going after they bought from you. Follow up is a crucial part of sales and a proper after sales service can go a long way and generate new business for you.

2. Ask your former customers for referrals. You may be able to combine this with step 1 but most customers who are happy with you and/ or the service/ product you supplied, have no issue recommending or referring you to some other potential customers. This is probably the best option in order to keep your business going. Especially when you’re selling b2b, business owners/ managers understand the meaning of referrals and some might be happy to help.

3. Look over your old prospects, the one’s who didn’t buy yet from you. What was the reason? Maybe they didn’t buy because of an un-established need? Or maybe they just didn’t like your approach. Contact them again and get some feedback. Yes, it might be hurtful (in some cases) but it’s a learning curve. Feedback is valuable and most people are willing to provide you with feedback of why they didn’t buy from you. If it was you, maybe hand the account over to a colleague. We can’t get along with everybody, sometimes it’s as simple as that. This has nothing to do with you personally. It’s business. And if it’s a great sale, maybe you can even share the commission (if possible) or get an account from the other sales reps to deal with some of their clients. Selling may be competitive, but you’re working in the same company so the goal is the same: Increase the companies turnover and ensure future growth.

4. Re-establish your target market. Have a look again at your old prospects and other companies similar to your target audience in your area. If you don’t know your target audience, or you say, everybody should use my product, then think again. You may think your product is suitable for everybody, but who is actually buying? Make a list of your current customer traits and find companies or audiences that are fitting (age/ type/ gender/ company size/ industry/ country etc.).

5. Try a different target market. I know this one doesn’t correspond to point no. 4, however sometimes if you depleted all your options you may need to rethink your target market and make it more suitable for a new audience. This means, redesigning your pitch, values etc. It’s a lot of work but may be worth your while. If you’re targeting the IT industry for example and you have no more companies to go to (which I doubt but there is always this one sales rep…) maybe a similar market may be suitable for your products or services. Maybe automotive, pharmaceutical, retail etc. could also be a fit for your products. Yes, sometimes we need to adjust certain aspects of our presentations or sales pitches but hey, that’s life. Think why this audience may be able to use your products as well and what are the benefits for them? Maybe they are not in the IT industry, but have an IT department??? Food for thoughts…

6. Go to networking events, join social media networks, groups etc. This will get your name and trait out there. I’m sure a lot of you doing this already but as a sales rep or manager who is employed, how many of you actually go to business networking events to meet new people? A lot of people who are employed wouldn’t go because their company is not paying for it, meetings are held outside office hours / late in the evening or even weekends. If you want to make money, you need to hang out where your clients hang. Easy as that. And if you’re not willing to go the extra mile for your customers, what are you doing in this position? (Sorry for being blunt, but if you are in sales, and no longer have enough customers you need to look at activities that will bring you new clients).

7. Join Networking groups. You can also join local/ national or international networking groups such as BNI (Business Network International). They might be costly, but a lot of people get great value out of it. It’s all about meeting new people and getting referrals, and that’s what those networking groups are all about. Referring business to each other. So, get in there, yes, they are holding meetings usually early in the morning, but honestly, how much do you want to grow your business/ sales?

8. Ask your family and friends. Yes, I’m serious about that. Even if you believe they have no use for your products or services or that they are too expensive for your family and friends. Think about it this way, we all have a network of people and most of us know at least 250+ people that are hanging in our social (media) networks. Besides that we all know between 30 – 100 people which we consider acquaintances, friends etc. Ask them to help you out to introduce you to some of their friends or acquaintances. A lot of sales people don’t want to mix personal life with business life however you are leaving out a massive amount of people that you could easily tap into to get introduced to or do business with. Don’t be shy, get in there. It’s not about convincing your mother to buy your health insurance. It’s about convincing your mother to help you find people who would be interested to buy health insurance from you (I guess you catch my drift here). This is your network as well 🙂

9. Hit the phone. I mean, seriously now. If you have already tried points 1 – 8 and you’re still out of options, then there is only 2 things left to do: Either hit the phone or quit. Sometimes it requires drastic action in order to get back on track. And if that means to open the telephone book or yellow pages to get out there again, then by all means, do it. It will not be the most fruitful time in your life, but usually 1 out of 10 will listen to you and may even invite you over for a coffee to meet. In order to ease the pain of just calling, you could create an email list of companies that you haven’t targeted yet and send them an email first. You may want to do some research but this will take the (extreme) cold out of cold calling. Read my article on successful email marketing and you will see what I mean.

10. Still no luck but haven’t quit yet? OK, here is one last thing you might want to try: PRAY. I mean it, seriously, go to church and start praying. Well, maybe not literally. But talk to your local priest. Even if you’re not a church goer, an atheist, have different faith or religion then what’s locally available, go anyway. Talk to the local priest or pastor. They know a lot of people and they are in the business of guiding and helping people in their most desperate times. Having faith is one thing but maybe the local priest knows somebody who you could talk to to get your business off the ground again? If that doesn’t work you may also want to try chamber of commerce, other business owners/ entrepreneurs, talk to other sales reps even from different companies, join clubs, health and sport clubs etc. Don’t give up. There is a lot of things that you can do that we haven’t even mentioned yet.

A lot of people saying that we as individuals like it comfy. We stay inside the box where it’s cosy, comfortable and nice. But sometimes we have to go to different lengths in order to succeed and need to stick our heads outside of our own box. And most of the times it works. If it doesn’t who’s to say that you can’t take the box, throw it out the window and redesign a complete new box for you? Brainstorm with colleagues, co-workers, managers and/ or other business owners on how to increase sales and get more leads.

You might also want to consider a business or sales coach to help you find new leads.

Thank you for reading. Follow us on facebook or twitter for more current news.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland 

A simple guide to networking events

Have you been to a networking event recently? Here is what happens most of the time:

People meet at networking events, talk briefly and go their ways. Afterwards not much is happening and many people complain that it wasn’t really fruitful. Nobody contacted you afterwards to do business with you. Nobody send you an email or called you to buy your products or services.

Well, here is a shocker: One of the most important fundamentals of networking events is the follow up that comes afterwards. You may have made great connections but if you don’t follow up with them, no one will.

Here is a few tips of things that you can do before, during and after the event:

Before the event takes place:

Get your 60 second pitch ready. Yes, have a pitch or elevator pitch ready that you can deliver in 60 seconds or less. Make it interesting and make it count. Rehearse the pitch until you perfected it. If you need help designing a pitch for you then I would urge you to do some research.

Dress for success. Dress for the occasion. Business smart is good but (for men) a suit would be better. Proper business attire is the key for both men and women and it doesn’t really matter what your profession or business is all about. You want to get in with investors, meet new potential customers, get business referrals etc. In order to get those, you need to look the part. Nobody is referring someone who is dressed like a teenager that want’s to score.

 

Show up before. Make sure you show up on time, maybe even 5 – 10 min early. This could give you a head start by already talking to some potential new customers before others are joining the group. I personally make it usually about 30 – 45 min earlier. And as people come in, I’m already there to introduce myself before the event starts and have time to talk to more people.

During the event

Use your pitch. You have rehearsed your pitch now talk to potential new customers. These events are usually filled with different types of businesses and may not even resemble the target market that you have however this is about making connections. Maybe they are able to introduce you to some of their key customers. Keep this in mind when talking to people.

Go around. Don’t spend too much time on one or two people. We all tend to find the people who are a bit like us. And networking events are no exception. We may have the best intentions to introduce ourselves to everybody however we mostly stick with the people we either know or meet who are like minded. This is not (only) about meeting like minded people. This is about looking for business opportunities with as many people as possible. You can mingle afterwards if you wish but use the time wisely. Many business networking events have a set agenda such as speed networking or any other games that will engage the crowd. If this is the case and you followed my advise of being early, then you already have made a good bunch of connections and can enjoy the games of the evening. (Just a thought…)

After the event

Send an email. A few days after the event (no more than a week after) send an email to each of your new contacts. Introduce yourself again and of course mention that you’ve met and ask if they are available to meet for a coffee. Don’t make a big pitch of why they should meet you or what the benefits are to your products or services. Keep it short and simple.

Use the phone. Max. 2 days after you’ve sent your email, pick up the phone and again, introduce yourself, mention that you’ve met during the event and that you’ve sent an email and you were wondering when it would be best for them to meet with you. Here you may need to have a small pitch ready because some people might wonder why you would want to meet up. Many people however will most likely agree to meet with you especially if you had a connection with them during the event. But in general keep it simple. Having a coffee to find common business interest goes a long way and doesn’t scream sales right away. Yes, you may want to sell your products or services but you may also get some referrals out of this in case they are not interested. And obviously this goes both ways.

Prepare yourself. Book the meeting and prepare a small agenda of what you would like to get out of this meeting. This is mainly for yourself. You may want to send it over to your new contacts to give them a chance to prepare something as well. Remember, they give you the courtesy to show you what you’ve got so it’s only fair that you provide them the same benefit.

No sale at first meeting. Key again is to not make a full pitch. The first meeting is not about selling your products or services but to see if there is a general or common interest. Yes, you may want to be prepared for somebody telling you straight away, that they need exactly what you’re selling, but honestly, how often does this happen? You can show off what you do, who you are, what your company does, benefits, strengths etc. but take it slow. Also give them the time to tell you what they do. Afterwards establish the grounds of going forward. Book another appointment if they want to hear more about the products or services you offer, or see if you can exchange customer details in form of referrals. If you provide a handful of customers to them, they might do the same for you.

The key point I would like to make is that barely anybody follows up after networking events and wonder why no business comes out of it. It is vital and important to keep business going and if you want to not waste your time going to those events, then maybe it’s time to follow up with your new connections. Because barely anybody really follows up after those events, there is a lot of business left undone. If you’re one of the people who will follow up you can be rest assured, that something positive will come out of it. Give it a try and let us know how you got on.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more up to date information.

Thank you for reading.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland 

First step to a successful sale – Prospecting

I’ve been asked a lot of times what I would think is the most important part of the sales process.

The answer might be shocking but simple: Prospecting. In order to initiate contact with a potential new customer we need to prospect.

 

Here are the first steps that in my opinion will help you find more customers:

1. Define your niche.

Every product or service can be defined in a niche market. If you already know what your niche is, great. Move on to step 2. If not, make sure you define what it is that you are really good at. What benefits bring your products or services to your customers? Why should they buy the products or services and most important what need do they fill for your customer.

2. Define your target market.

It is important to know who your target audience is. Not every product or service is meant to attract every single person. Make sure you know your target audience. Your niche can help. By establishing a niche you can find customers who either offer similar type of products (make sure you are not competing with them) and could benefit the customer if implemented or bought from you or you attract customers who could use your products/ services because they are looking at your niche in particular. Look at your current customer base. What do they have in common? Now find similar type of customers. Because if one car manufacturer can use your product, maybe there is another one (again, just an example). I understand, that if you are just starting out and don’t have any customers yet, you might be in for a challenge. But this is what it’s all about, isn’t it?

3. Do your research

You shouldn’t spend too much time researching your customers but to know a bit about their business goes a long way. What do they do? What is their product range? Who is the decision maker in that company for your products/ services? Who is the gatekeeper? Did their sales figures improve or decrease compared to the last year(s)? Knowing your customer can go a long way in order to help you sell your products. And don’t dismiss the gatekeeper (aka receptionists, secretaries, assistants). They can become your most important ally in order to place your products/ services with the company. If you get them on board then usually the decision maker is ready to listen to you as well. (Create a list of potential customers)

4. Develop an elevator pitch

An elevator pitch should not be longer than 60 seconds. The pitch should contain who you are, what you do, the benefits to your customers and a close (in order to get more attention or to book a meeting). You can find 3 great elevator pitches at speakingppt.com. Make it unique and interesting for potential new customers to get to know you better.

5. Prospect

Now the real fun starts. You have to start prospecting. This can be done in several ways but one thing is for sure: Most of the time it should end with you calling your potential new customer. In step 3 you created a list of potential new customers. This is your money making machine. If you don’t feel comfortable just cold calling them, do one of the following:

a) Send an email first with a short pitch. Make sure that pitch is short and to the point. You don’t want to waste anybody’s time. However, the likelihood that your email will be read is very little to none. So, after you send the email, make sure you follow up with your customers a day max. 2 days later. Now you have a reference that you can revert back to and your cold call becomes much easier. Warning: Sending an email will NOT result in your customers calling you nor is leaving a message resulting in your potential new customers calling you back. You have to do the first step: PICK UP THE PHONE AND CALL…

b) Invite them to a free or low cost event. Create an event in eventbrite.com (just as an example) and send invitations to your potential customers. Again, after you send the invitations it is important to follow up with them. You won’t get any sign ups by just adding an event. Make sure you share it and market it. But again, use the phone to follow up.

c) Create a social media marketing strategy. This might take some time but once you have build an audience on social media it should become part of your daily routine. Post regularly and inform about events, special offers and other things that you do. Here you have to follow up by making sure you monitor comments and likes. This time there is no need to phone unless you have their numbers already. This should only be a small part of your daily sales activity. You don’t want to waste too much time looking or waiting for comments to come.

d) Create a newsletter/ sign up page or blog. Writing can give you more exposure. So make sure you write about something that you do and are passionate about. If you have a maintenance business write about what you do for your customers, outcomes, what could happen if certain things are not done correctly etc. This is all about exposure and interact with anybody who comments or maybe even likes your page.

e) Lead generation tools. A lot of businesses offer lead generation or you could even use certain tools that might help you get more exposure or even clients. Some of them are costly but depending on your business and audience you can also find some that are great and free of charge. Do some research.

f) Make sure you have a website/ blog page etc.A lot of small businesses don’t have a website and believe it is not necessary. But having a page, even a simple one, can make a massive difference to any business. Websites don’t cost an arm and a leg anymore unless you get it done professionally. But if you look at pages such as wix.com or even vistaprint.com you can get easy to develop websites from approx. 5 quit a month or even for free. A website will give you additional exposure and you can use it as a tool to refer customers to.

g) Go to networking events. Business networking events are usually done in every country, county or town and most of them are being held on a regular basis. Some of them require a small fee but many are even free of charge. This is a great way to meet other business owners, entrepreneurs and like minded people who share a common interest. (Here you can test your newly developed elevator pitch).

h) Join a local/ national or international business network. Business networking is great and could bring new business to you on a regular basis by means of referrals. Referring business to each other is a great way to improve your sales and will help you stay on top of the game.

i) Chamber of commerce or other business related networks. Most countries have support for start up or small/ medium sized businesses. Make sure you know what you are entitled to and how they can help you grow.

j) Get a business/ or sales coach. Getting help should not be the last step a business owner does before he goes out of business. Waiting until it’s too late is the worst you can do for your business. Make sure you have a mentor, or coach that you can go to either regularly or whenever you need to in order to discuss business growth. A coach is definitely the way to go for increasing your business turnover.

Prospecting is the number one process any sales person, entrepreneur and business owner could do on a regular basis (at least in my opinion it is). The more you prospect, the more you will sell. Of course other parts of the sales process are important too. Especially closing the deal, however without prospecting there will be no deals to close. And if you are in retail, you might think that you can’t prospect. Every business can and has to prospect. But using the right prospecting kind is key to success. I will write another article on how retailers can prospect and drive more business into their premises but in the meantime, if you really want to improve your shop’s performance, maybe read my article Road to retail success.

How many calls did you do today?

Thank you for reading.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales coach based in Cork, Ireland 

The good old days

Every organisation, entrepreneur and business owner is looking to increase sales turnover. Back in the old days or lets say when I started out in sales things such as facebook, linkedin or other social media didn’t existed or were just in the starting phase. Sales people used to do the hard work or what we call now the old fashioned way. But why is it that this good old ways don’t work anymore? Or do they still work?

I am a sales and business coach/ trainer and I started my business a little over a year ago. I’ve tried both ways of getting sales and this is what I found:

First I started to use social media. I created a facebook page and invited all my friends and family to like the page. I also developed pages on other social media such as linkedin (or my personal linkedin page if you want to connect) twitter etc. (Feel free to like or follow me and my company on any of them).

It wasn’t long until I got my first client and started building the business from there. Or so I thought. After my very first client signed up with me, that was kind of it. No more interest. Yes, I got the sympathy likes as I call them but not much has happened. So, I decided to join a business networking group, went to networking events and again, got lots of contacts and interest in what I do. (I had my elevator pitch all prepared and ready to get some clients).

My thinking was, that I had a great product, fantastic service and I could even guarantee an increase in revenue. But it seems that there was no interest in what I did. I mean, don’t get me wrong, people seemed interested when I talked to them but as soon as I followed up and tried to make an appointment I was hit with the usual: No time, no interest, no money etc. And although I used all my converting techniques it seemed that I was failing at the simplest things. After a few months not getting any business and redesigning everything the way I thought would be good, still nothing happened.

And then it hit me. What if I went against everything I was advised not to do? What if I go back to what I originally learned on how to get customers?

Just to give you some thoughts of what people told me not to do:

– Cold calling doesn’t work anymore. It’s a waste of time.

– Knocking on doors doesn’t work anymore. It’s a waste of time.

– Being pro-active and getting clients doesn’t work anymore. It’s a waste of time.

– Coaching is an utter waste of time.

– There is already plenty of training and coaching companies that offer sales training. Don’t go into that field. It’s a waste of time.

It seems everything was just a waste of time. Now, I knew I had the right product. I knew I was the right guy to help increase sales. In fact, because of my background and that I was educated in sales in Germany and had a multinational view on things I knew that I could turn things around for companies. I could see things in businesses that no one else could. I could create a vision of success for others and help them implement it. If they let me in and if they are willing to change.

But for that I had to change my approach. So I took all the advise I got from so called business mentors, other sales training professionals and marketing & pr people and threw it in the bin. In fact, giving advise to start up companies and telling them that they shouldn’t cold call or knock down some doors is in my personal opinion the worst advise one could get. If you have a product or service that no one knows about and you want to get the word out, unless you have already millions on your account and can spend hundreds of thousands of Euro in marketing and advertising your options are a little bit limited.

So, I combined both new and old methods as I do believe once you have a name you will get customers through social media. But you need to get there first.

So, here is what I did:

I knew my product SPQ Gold (Sales Preference Questionnaire) is for everybody out there who is in sales or want to sell something. I also knew that my workshop (Fear-free self-promotion and prospecting) is one of a kind and state of the art and helps people to retain over 12 times more information than any other kind of workshop or training out there. Which also means, that once you attended my workshops you were able (mostly with a little bit of follow up coaching) to implement what you’ve learned on a daily basis and this would help increase your revenue. This is what I had, and I knew it was powerful. But I needed to filter the companies I wanted to work with.

So, I defined my niche even more with salesclinic.biz and use coach-clinic.com only for personal development. Once I had defined my niche I was ready to get some clients.

I looked at companies that are very sales driven and focused only on SME’s (small to medium sized enterprises). I didn’t bother with large multinationals although this was my main expertise but their process is very lengthy to get approval for training and coaching. So, I avoided them up until now.

Once I had my target audience defined I started compiling a list of contacts. It took me a while but after a few weeks I had over 500 companies listed, with the following contact details:

Company name, main business, website, address details

Name, telephone and email from receptionists

Name, telephone and email from decision makers

Name, telephone and email from sales managers/ directors/ company owners

This process took me nearly a month to complete and I had also done a lot of research on those companies in the meantime. But I haven’t called yet. Except if I couldn’t find the information I needed on linkedin or on the company’s website, I called quickly to obtain above details. I didn’t want to talk to any decision makers at that time. I only contacted the receptionist or whoever picked up the phone and asked questions in a market research style. And this was well received. People were really helpful.

Then I was ready and started to call. I already had most of the information that I needed and finally was able to get to the right people. And to my surprise my cold calling worked. I got meetings with high value decision makers.

Now it was up to me to present my information to them and get them to buy my test SPQ Gold or SSPA Test (Selling Styles Profile Analysis) my workshop and coaching. I didn’t get everybody of course. As with every sales pitch, my first few I actually blew. But I got better at it and after only 4 meetings I got my first order.

I believe it is important to say that I overdone my research. And I didn’t need to do that. But for me it was a time to reflect and change my ways. I wanted to show people that this could be done and that with hard work and lots of follow ups you can get the meetings and sales that you require.

If you are just starting out with your business and no matter what your business is, what kind of product you’re selling or services that you are offering, don’t give up. But don’t just go for the new ways of selling. If you are like me and don’t have thousands of Euros or $ lying around then you may want to consider going back to the old ways.

Do your research, define your market (or niche) and target audience and make sure that you don’t give up. Success will follow if you prevail and keep doing the things that need to be done in order to make your business a success. Cold calling and door knocking is still a great way to sell and I realise that not everybody is comfortable doing that, but if you own a business and want to make it successful, then stepping outside of your comfort zone is just the beginning.

Thank you for reading.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales coach based in Cork, Ireland 

When does sales training fail?

Sales training is a great way to motivate your sales staff, get them to learn new skills and most importantly it is usually designed to increase your sales performance and revenue.

But most of the time sales training is not effective. A lot of companies spend thousands if not even hundreds of thousands of Euros in sales training only to find that their efforts have been for nothing. Sales reps come out of the training highly motivated but the motivation usually only lasts for a few days (if you’re lucky).

So, the question we need to ask is why is this happening? Is the sales trainer lacking the knowledge or skill to provide the right training? In order to understand what is happening we need to look first at the sales cycle:

To keep it general I am only talking about 4 aspects which are called the 4 I’s:

Initiate contact with potential customers

Introduce yourself

Inform the customer about products and services

Influence the customer to buy

I realize that this is very general but please stay with me on this one:

Sales training usually covers the last two I’s (Inform and Influence) but most of the time leaves out the contact initiation part as well as how to introduce yourself properly.

Even if some sales trainers cover the first two I’s (Initiate & Introduce) they usually don’t go really deep into the material of this. Most sales trainers would think this is a waste of time as a sales rep or account manager should know how to handle those two aspects of the sales cycle. However here is where the problem lies:

The first two I’s are emotion based whereas the last two are knowledge based. Thinking that a sales veteran should know how to contact his customers and introduce themselves is a big mistake. The reason being is that certain fears are coming up during this process and a lot of sales people don’t know how to handle those.

So, in short, the trainer may have the best intentions and also the knowledge to (in theory) help an organization to increase their revenue, but when the emotions (especially fears and phobias) come in to play all bets are off.

I think everybody in sales agrees that prospecting (in any form) is the key to success. The more we prospect, the more sales we can generate. And there is a lot of great sales people out there who do exactly that but there is at least the same number of sales reps who don’t prospect effectively because of fears they face on a daily basis.

Getting rid or being able to manage those fears is the key to help organizations and individuals to thrive. However many organizations have the false believe that a lack of skill or knowledge is the main reason of why their figures are not picking up.

Hiring the right sales person can help but first you would need to find a top performer and second what do you do with your current team? You can’t just get rid of them. This would send the wrong message to your employees but also would not solve the problem.

The main issue is that management usually have certain fears when it comes to sales. If you for example feel that doing cold calls gives you stomach cramps I can assure you that your manager will have the same symptoms if he were to do your job. The problem is that many managers and trainers believe that they only have to manage/ train the team but don’t need to do the job themselves. It might be true however this is where it gets interesting: If your manager/ trainer suffers from sales call reluctance, he will pass this on to you within a 6 – 8 week period without even realizing it.

So, why not do a little experiment? When you have stomach cramps or feel discomfort in a certain area ask your manager to show you how its done. I bet they can’t or at least feel the same discomfort as you do.

If you want to find out if you do suffer from sales call reluctance why not ask yourself the following questions:

1. How many prospects are you contacting on a daily basis?

2. If you are honest with yourself, could you prospect more?

3. If not, what are your excuses not to prospect (not enough time, need more information, I have to do this report first…etc)?

4. Are you asking for the sale/ closing the deal or do you have the believe that your product/ service sells itself?

5. Do you think that you are not in sales or you don’t like being in sales?

6. Are you afraid to push your customers in order to buy from you or do you feel it is wrong to push a client?

7. Are you asking your customers for referrals after you sold to them or do you feel it would be damaging your sale?

8. Do you feel that you need more information in order to sell your products/ services?

9. Do you feel the need to present an image of success to your customers (wearing expensive designer clothes, driving expensive cars etc)?

10. Are you willing to talk to your family and friends about your products and services and ask them for help to either buy from you or refer you to their network?

11. Are you afraid to talk to decision makers, people of wealth or power?

12. Or are you somebody who thinks all this is bullshit and you know it all? Do you have a better vision for the company you work for than the boss or CEO of the company?

Think about your answers and then maybe ask your boss or sales trainer those questions. If they are honest about it, you will be surprised how similar your boss thinks.

Sales training is a great way to improve sales if done right however make sure that emotions and fears are not preventing your sales team from succeeding.

Thank you for reading.

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales coach based in Cork, Ireland 

Start Smart

Top 10 Tips to start your own business

Have you ever considered starting your own business? What are the key ingredients of making a business successful? I’ve asked myself this question numerous times and here are the answers I came up with:

1. Have a clear vision

No matter what you would like to do, when setting up a business the one thing that every good entrepreneur will need is to have a vision of what they would like to achieve. Setting a goal is one of the most important parts of setting up a business but you can only set a goal for yourself (or your business) if you have a clear vision of how you are going to achieve it.

2. Be enthusiastic about your business

You have to love what you do and if you have any doubts in your mind either get rid of them or don’t do it at all. If you do something half heartedly it will not work. Commitment and enthusiasm is one of the key areas to make you and your business a success. If you haven’t found what you’re passionate about keep looking. Once you find it, ways will unfold and doors will open. Keep believing in yourself and your business idea.

3. Prospecting, prospecting and more prospecting

I call this the 3 P’s. No matter what business you are in, you have to sell your products or services. If you don’t sell, you will not make it. There is probably a lot of people who believe that their products and services will sell itself. Let me assure you that this is not the case. Yes, you will at some stage build a reputation for yourself and your business (hopefully a good one) but until such time comes you will need to go out and look for customers. If you do this right from the beginning then it will not be so hard to continue once you have a good reputation. And if you continue with your prospecting activities even after you build a great reputation you will increase on your sales figures tenfold.

4. Be resistant 

There is always ups and downs in business. Sometimes you make money and sometimes you have to go days, weeks or even months without making any. Be committed to your goals and tasks and keep going. Don’t give up even in the hardest times. It will be worth it in the end. Now you need to be smart about it as well. Sometimes we have to do the things we don’t like doing just in order to survive, buy food, clothes etc. If an opportunity rings, take it. If you have to get a part time job (or full time employment) in order to get your business off the ground, take it. Don’t be ashamed if something doesn’t work to change your business idea as you go along. Adjustment is hard but it is sometimes necessary in order to keep going. A business is never boring or easy. Business lives from change and adapting to that change is one of the most important factors to consider.

If you want to succeed and something doesn’t work, change tactics.

5. Networking

Networking is a great way to connect with like minded people and other businesses. Sometimes you can go to networking events (I’m sure they have them all over your country as well) and they are usually free of charge. Join networks such as BNI or any local networking organization. SFA (Small Firms Association Ireland) is also a great way to get started (look for local networking groups in your country.). The important part is to throw yourself out there and let people and other business owners, managers see that you exist. If you persist in it, you might get some future customers out of it.

6. Write a detailed business plan

It is important to write your business plan (you can download a free template of a business plan by clicking here and scroll down to the bottom) and if possible in every single detail. There is a lot of people who think they only need to write a business plan in order to get funding or loans from the bank. This is just one advantage to have if you want to go down that road. But even if you don’t want to get funding or investors coming on board etc. it is of the utmost importance to have written your own business plan. The reason being is that you will find faults within your business that you then can eliminate immediately. You will also get a much better understanding of your business, your competition, your products and services and most importantly your future customers.

You don’t have to follow any rules in order to create a business plan (unless you do want to get funding). You can download a template from the internet if you want to or just start writing your plan on word or in your journal. No matter how you decide on writing your business plan, make sure you include points 1 – 5 (see above).

7. Get help

A lot of people try to create a business on their own. This is great because nobody knows the business better than yourself. However when you consider opening up your own business, you should always surround yourself with people who are supportive and want to help. Of course you will find many likeminded people in networking groups and this is a great way to start. Some people may even consider having a business partner or (when creating a limited) a board of directors who could help building the business.

But no matter if you are alone or with a team, get the help of a business coach or business mentor. A coach is a great way to help you stay focused and will encourage and enable you to think outside the box. A coach will also be able to help you get a better understanding of your business (even if they have no idea about what you do). This is a great way to make sure your business will succeed. They will challenge you and make you think in ways you can’t even imagine right now. Getting a few coaching sessions with a business coach doesn’t cost an arm or a leg but it might save you some trouble down the road, or even some mistakes you would’ve made without the coach. Yes, we learn from our mistakes but we can also learn in a safe environment with a coach and this could ultimately safe you a lot of money. Many business coaches have usually great offers for start up companies so don’t be afraid to ask what they could bring to the table.

8. Do your research

This is probably one of the most vital parts of any new business venture. Understanding your market. I came across a lot of people who just think, I want to sell product xyz and my market is every citizen in my country…so, there you have it. Market research done…Well, not really. It is important that you define your market a bit more. Look to consider the following: Private or business use, age group, male/ female/ children/ girls/ boys/ families etc., competitors, selling locally, county wide, country wide or internationally, needs analyzes, pricing, talk to your potential clientele, would they need/ use your product or service, test clients, feedback from your test customers. When testing your product or services with people don’t just test it with family and friends.  Test it with real customers, people you don’t know. That’s the feedback you can value. Your family and friends don’t want to hurt your feelings (or maybe they do because they’re envious of what you do?…). So, don’t rely just on one group of people. Understand your target audience before you start your business.

9. Create a niche market or make your business unique

Creating a niche market or making your business unique is a key factor. Even if you sell products or services that other companies offer as well (or similar items) it is important to let your customers know why they should buy from you. What is unique about your business model that no one else could offer? What is the additional service that makes you stand out from the crowd? Think about this for a while but again, don’t over-think it. Giving your customers a great experience should be part of any new business in order to survive and don’t be afraid to tell them why they should buy from you. Don’t just try to fit in everything in your business. Creating a core niche for your business is vital and you will see that you can manage this far better than trying to juggle your business in every direction. If you can’t think of a niche or why your business is unique then go back to point 7 and find a business coach or mentor. With a great coach you will be able to discover the uniqueness of your business even if you can’t see it right now.

10. Just do it

Don’t delay. If you have all the ingredients, you’ve done the market research, you lined up some customers then just go for it. You will always find things or people that could or want to stop you. Family and friends may tell you that this is crazy. You have to deal with revenue, taxes, VAT, employment issues etc. There is so many things that when you look into it, you will most likely say it’s not worth the hassle. I’m not saying that you should ignore those but you will always find excuses and you can google as much as you want of why you shouldn’t open your business. If your customers want your product or service, if you have a unique idea, or always wanted to do something on your own and you feel really passionate about it, then go for it. Get an accountant to sort out taxes etc. You need to concentrate to grow your business. There is other people and businesses out there that will concentrate on the rest for you. If you are unsure about compliancy ask your local Enterprise board. They can always help you. So, make sure you have completed all necessary steps but once you’ve done everything you need or want to do in order to take your business off the ground, then the final step is doing it. Don’t over-think your business.

I feel these are some of the most important factors to start your own business. Is this everything? Probably not. Whatever you want to do, be committed to it, persistent and passionate about what you do and success will eventually follow.

I would be interested to hear any thoughts on this, if you agree/ disagree or if you even have other points that people who start a business should consider?

Anything you can add could be of value to any other entrepreneur out there. Thank you for reading and if you do consider starting your own business don’t be afraid. There is far more scarier things out there than doing what you love to do.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of  Coach Clinic and professional sales coach based in Cork, Ireland