On the 16th May I’m proud to be giving a short talk at the celebrations of the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s 100^th Anniversary event in Newcastle.  I’ll be looking forward and not tback as I believe that the UK recovery can come from a Sales & Marketing Driven Economy.    We’ve been too much focused on financial management – and look where the banks have got us – and, in doing so, let other countries come steaming past us.

But we need to sell us and the UK better and sharper. And some of that starts with being proud to be a sales person. Tell the bean counters they’ll have no beans to count if the business doesn’t generate sales!

Okay, as always that’s my feelings and not necessarily yours!    But I hear one alarming comment the other day.  

A company finance director told its export sales manager that “our domestic sales are not reaching our budget targets so we are closing the export department!"   And that’s a true story told to me by top UK export sales director, Keith Lambourne!!

When someone asks you for a discount, what do you do?

Do you just give them it?

If you do, then your prospect is going to think one of several things:

•   You seem desperate for the sale.   
•   I wonder how far you will lower your price and maybe I should have asked for an even bigger discount.   
•   The price you originally offered was not the real price. Are you trying to trick me? Can I really trust you?   
•   You don't set a very high value on your own services and products if you are prepared to discount so quickly.   
•   You agree your price is too high. This is a problem.   
•   Next time I come to buy anything from you, I'll ask for a discount again - an even bigger one.

Giving in quickly to a discount sends the complete wrong message and has a significant impact on whether your prospect trusts you or not. And it can cost you the sale or get you a sale you regret later.

So what must you do instead of just giving a discount?

Instead of just giving a discount when asked for one, turn the whole conversation around and go for a higher priced sale. I know this is counter intuitive but it is not that hard to do and it works.

Next time you're asked for a discount, what if you could increase your sale by 10%? What if you could in fact double the price of your sale? What would be the revenue value to you?
It's easier to do than you think; if you know how.   That’s what our upcoming POWER Negotiation Pack is about.   For now sample some POWER – click here

In January, UK Government released an initiative which has to be good if you are a small firm wanting to win public sector contracts - but only if you are willing to do some measurement writes Malcolm Gallagher.

From the Spring of 2010, pubic procurement officers will have to show the OGC (Office of Government Commerce) the value of the contracts they have placed with small and medium sized enterprises. But they will also have to monitor and measure how many apprenticeships have been created through public procurement and the absolute number of suppliers who agreed to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition, suppliers (vendors) will be asked to sign a new Supplier Charter which places voluntary commitments on both the procurer and supplier side take forward the policy priorities that are in the new Policy Through Procurement Action Plan (PtP).

If all this sounds a bit complicated then can you imagine its implementation!! But the message to all suppliers is clear. If you want your share of the near £200 billion UK Government annual spend on goods and services, you are going to have to embrace the aspects of compliance, including inclusion, health and safety and environmental matters, much more than ever before. within our Biz-Pulse.com programme.

In the SpotLearn.com Suppliers Academy are all the videos that you need to help you be a compliant suppliers and we are soon to launch a new Compliance Scorecard that will help you measure and manage these challenges. E-mail if you want to get early details.

If you want a copy of the Policy Through Procurement Action Plan please e-mail kim@bizvision.co.uk and she'll e-mail you it. Improve your knowledge, embed compliance and sharpen your ability to compete to win has to be key goals for 2010 if you want your share of those lucrative public procurement contracts.

I'm an avid collector of words and phrases but quite often get stuck!  Like at my seminar for H.M. Revenue & Customs in Hertfordshire this week where I was telling everyone that to manage the tough times look for niches as they contain riches.
So you see niches and riches - but the two words don't seem to hang together.

Unknown to me, in the audience is a brilliant copywriter, Martin Gladdish of The Watered Meadow Ltd  www.wateredmeadow.co.uk who said, at the end, he enjoyed the seminar and gave me his card. On the back were the printed words Inspired By You and underneath he had written some copy for me which goes like this:

Riches increase, when you promote your niche

Brilliant and great to remember! So thanks for that Martin. Let's take note. Find your niche and promote it like crazy to stand out at this time. Your niche may come from your expertise or specialism - one of mine is in helping businesses win public sector contracts. Another is in leadership programmes and I have one of those just for chefs! Or you may find your niche through looking for what people seek on the internet. Try a free day of www.wordtracker.com to get this information. Look for the keywords that people are using.

So riches in niches - actually I like Martin's copy best! You can try his skills out by e-mailing him at martin@wateredmeadow.co.uk