At BizVision, we're delighted to announce our new brand FreeLearn and with it comes a collection of online learning and skills hubs giving every business total free membership with access to 100's of learning videos and resources. Here's the FreeLearn launch news.

Free online learning for all businesses

"FreeLearn Leadership and FreeLearn Sales Training are now live," says Malcolm Gallagher of BizVision, " And launching on the 23rd August will be FreeLearn Supplier Training," he added

Mr Gallagher went on to say that FreeLearn will help thousands of small businesses who cannot afford to take time out from work for training and struggle to pay seminar fees.

"With public sector funding cuts, many businesses now find they have to pay for workshops that used to be free, or there just aren't any around, " continued Malcolm Gallagher, "with FreeLearn, which is online learning, all businesses can learn as they want, anytime, anywhere", he said.

FreeLearn Leadership focuses on developing entrepreneurial leadership skills whilst FreeLearn sales Training has videos in the three zones of Find, Winning and Keeping customers. FreeLearn Suppliers Training is aiming to be the flagship of the FreeLearn collection as it will have nearly 100 videos and resources to help SMEs bid for a win public and private sector contracts and encourage them to go global and export.

FreeLearn skills hubs are open to anyone. Each hub requires a separate  but free, membership sign-up. For details go to FREELEARN - free membership

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!!

I know it turns people off as possibly being "fluffy" but knowing your business strategy is vital if you want to win contracts. Quite simply to-day's buyer wants to know that his or hgers suppliers (vendors) and themselves are travelling in the same direction. Be prepared in a contract interview to answer the question of "what's the strategy of your business?"

Start your strategy seeking off with a SWOT analysis. OK you may have done this but have you asked deep, probing questions. Here's 3 for your Strengths and Weaknesses:

1. What do we do outstandingly well or badly?
2. What are our special abilities or disabilities?
3. What are our advantages and disadvantages compared with direct competitors?

More to come in future posts or pick up a free SWOT pack at my site  http://bizvision.co.uk/power_downloads

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

Get More Referrals

If you are like most firms then the majority of your business will come from word of mouth referrals. Well not really. There’s a fundamental difference between word of mouth and referral. Word of mouth is not intentional, it’s almost accidental referral. Yes you want it as its usually good news about you and you’ll get it by doing a good job and have a great product or service. But lets’ focus on true referrals. It’s here that you need a formal and systematic approach to get those referrals. Here’s a few ideas.

1.   Referral Links
Get your web site listed on other sites – it’s called referral linking and Google loves them!  It makes your site more important in its eyes and that puts you further up its ratings. You can find out which sites link to yours by going to Google and putting the following in the search field:
Site: (your domain e.g. bizvision.co.uk)

2.   Referral price
In this tactic you have a standard price say £140 but you offer a referral price of £97 if your new customer will give you 3 warmed up leads. If you have the margins then this is  a good strategy.

3.   Get Linked In
Linked In is a vastly under used yet great networking tool. Don’t just sign up but join a few group and be active in commenting within those groups. You’ll soon get referrals. Link in with me at www.linkedin.com/in/spotlearn

4.   Give out referral cards
This one is an oldie but goody! Get some specially printed referral cards that your customer can give out. Always include an offer preferably for both the giver and the receiver.

More referral ideas in another issue

From Malcolm Gallagher.   Here's some sales thinking for the weekend!!

Let me ask you a question

Why is it that most salespeople say they know it's important to ask questions on sales calls, but few take the time to plan really great, provocative ones?

Investing time developing provocative questions will have an immediate impact on your sales results. I love it when a prospect says to me “that’s a really good question” because I know the answer they give me will give a true insight to their thinking and needs.

Great questions are provocative, forcing customers to look beyond the obvious, to analyse, assess and make decisions.

In selling, your ability to ask great questions is highly linked to your sales success. Great questions demonstrate your expertise and enhance your credibility. And, the best questions you can ask are highly provocative – ones your prospects can't possibly answer without seriously considering their business situation.

So how do you come up with provocative questions? First of all, it's virtually impossible to come up with them when you’re in the midst of a sales call. Too many other things are going on.

Provocative questions require pre-planning and a significant investment of your time before you meet with prospective customers. To develop them, you need an in-depth understanding of your own offering from a customer’s perspective.

Here's what you need to consider before you develop your questions.

1. Determine how your prospective customers are meeting their needs if they don’t use your product/service. Identify the 3 to 4 most likely scenarios you encounter. These scenarios may include competitive offerings, their older systems, or even doing nothing.

2. Define the key problems, difficulties and concerns prospects likely experience in each of these scenarios. Say them to yourself in your prospect's words.

3. Clarify the business implications of these problems. What’s the pain, what’s the gain? How do they impact productivity, time-to-market, legal issues, compliance, profitability, costs, operational efficiency, decision-making and more?

4. Determine the value a customer gets if they replace their current methods, systems or processes with your offering.

Don't just have a shallow understanding of your offering.

Here’s a thought. Most customers are living with a less-than-perfect system, service or product. They know it has its drawbacks but they've learned how to work around things and get by. Besides, they're much too busy to analyse every difficulty, aggravation or potential problem.

Most customers have no idea about the total cost of continuing to do things the 'same old way.' When you ask questions about the business implications or the value of change, they're provocative! They get your prospect thinking about why change is necessary - and why it's needed now.

And better yet, these provocative questions create a reason to do business with you today not in the distant future. Plus, they demonstrate your knowledge and expertise – making you an invaluable resource to your customer.

To ask provocative questions, it also helps to frame them with your knowledge of your customer's business, industry, or market trends.

A data shredding business could ask (after having discussed say recent news about data theft)
What would be the impact on your company if your customer data fell into the wrong hands from either being stolen or through careless disposal?
Go on start putting together your selection of provocative questions. It applied to ALL businesses!

Send me your thoughts or even a selection to publish in a forthcoming issue! Free publicity!