Chris Lytle has conducted nearly 2300 seminars throughout the English-speaking world. A gifted speaker and the best-selling author of The Accidental Salesperson, Chris has inspired hundreds of thousands of salespeople. He posts a fresh new audio sales idea on this website every week. You can grab a free sample here. Email it to your sales team. They can get world-class sales training on their smart phones.
It is far easier to get a new audience than to come up with a new speech.
I learned that at my first National Speakers Convention.
One year, I managed to speak to 130 different audiences on three continents. I had just two presentations in repertoire.
Before that, though, when I was the local sales manager at WISM-AM and FM, I had to come up with a new sales meeting every week and give it to the same old audience.
Alas, there was no Instant Sales Training website from which to grab suitable content.
So I read a lot and came up with my own stuff.
Except . . .
. . . I didn’t plan one sales meeting per month. That’s when I took a break from content creation and got my salespeople to chip in. It was the “Show and Tell” sales meeting.
Each month one salesperson had to bring a customer to the sales meeting. That customer would brief us on his or her business.
Show and tell.
Before the meeting I asked each salesperson to write down at least two questions to ask the business owner. That way, I could be sure the meeting would last 45-minutes to an hour.
The business owner showed up. The salespeople asked questions, listened and took notes.
I did very little. Letting others learn to lead is a form of leadership after all.
One of those meetings still sticks in my mind. A young salesperson, Rodney, brought his customer, Rupert Cornelius, to our sales meeting. Rupert was a successful retailer in Madison, WI. He owned several clothing stores on State Street. And he was a big advertiser.
Rodney got to ask the first question. He asked Rupert, “How do you decide what to advertise on our Radio stations?”
“I put things on display and watch what items are selling all by themselves with no advertising. Then I advertise those items. Why would ... Read More