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© Consilium Consultancy Limited 1

Sales &

Art or Science?

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© Consilium Consultancy Limited 2

Consilium | s a l e s t r a n s f o r m a t i o n |

Electronic jewellery?

An extreme focus on customer experience

► Obsessive attention to detail ● Watch the video on the latest iPhone salivating on the diamond

tooling that produces the chamfered edges

► The thrill begins with the box before you get to your iPod ● Vastly over-engineered, with almost mitred corners

● A lid that overlaps the base so much that the box opens with a natural damping effect

© Consilium Consultancy Limited 3

Consilium | s a l e s t r a n s f o r m a t i o n |

...backed by a brilliant business model

►Everything you want in Apple’s secret garden

● Buy music on iTunes, you pay

● Buy music on iTunes, the artist pays

● It’s the same for the books, apps and the rest

everyone pays Apple

►Result!

● Apple had the highest capitalisation on NYSE in

2012 peaking at $646Bn

● (Exxon regained supremacy in January 2013)

© Consilium Consultancy Limited 4

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© Consilium Consultancy Limited 5

Consilium | s a l e s t r a n s f o r m a t i o n |

The “Mac Book Air” of the 1970s

►This was the portable typewriter of the 1970s

►Beautifully packaged

● Integral case in matching red

● Retracting keyboard to reduce the size

● Colour coded components

► I had just graduated with a degree in

Architecture

► I wanted one!

© Consilium Consultancy Limited 6

Consilium | s a l e s t r a n s f o r m a t i o n |

How would you sell the Olivetti today?

►Collectable?

● Yes

►Practical?

● Oh come on, the Amstrad word processor can do

more than that

►Useful?

● Perhaps as a doorstop (or to prop up part of my

bookcase as my sad looking old Olympia does)

© Consilium Consultancy Limited 7

Consilium | s a l e s t r a n s f o r m a t i o n |

►Don’t think like a businessman

►Think like the customer

► In this case think like a kid!

© Consilium Consultancy Limited 8

Consilium | s a l e s t r a n s f o r m a t i o n |

© Consilium Consultancy Limited 9 Thanks to Richard Seymour of Seymour Powell for this idea

Hey, that’s really cool,

no power cords to lose,

totally intuitive, you

don’t even have to wait

for it to power up; you

just put paper in at the

top and the words come

straight out.

I could use that while

I’m backpacking across

Bhutan on my gap year!

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© Consilium Consultancy Limited 10

Smartphone wars

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How they compare

► A real keyboard!

► Pushes email

► Really good encryption … so good BBM is the rioters’ smartphone of choice!

► Designed to work with corporate IT

► Lose it and you can remotely wipe your data

► Really stylish

► Does email

► Loads of apps

► Loads of cool features

► Intuitive

► Designed to be an object of beauty

© Consilium Consultancy Limited 11

Consilium | s a l e s t r a n s f o r m a t i o n |

What it feels like: an unequal battle

► Logic

► Work

► The office

► Work at the weekend

or on holiday

► Lust

► Leisure

► Home and holidays

► Have fun while you

work

© Consilium Consultancy Limited 12

Consilium | s a l e s t r a n s f o r m a t i o n |

© Consilium Consultancy Limited 13

But who wants this written on their gravestone?

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© Consilium Consultancy Limited 14

What?

Most high tech start ups start with “what”:

the product they have sweated to develop.

Unfortunately most prospective customers

are swayed by something else … this isn’t

the place to start.

Consilium | s a l e s t r a n s f o r m a t i o n |

© Consilium Consultancy Limited 15

What? How?

Nor is this, even if you

sweat blood!

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© Consilium Consultancy Limited 16

What? How?

Why?

YES! Be clear why you are in

business. Make it clear

your mission is to help

your clients solve a

problem, perhaps that this

is the first product of many.

● You will supply

additional services

where they are needed,

or forge alliances to deliver

“a whole solution”

● You are interested in

delivering a benefit to your

customers

● You are not just a

“one trick pony”

So start with why you are in

business, be prepared to explain

how you deliver the benefits, and

then explain what it is you are

offering

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Sales & Marketing Process

© Consilium Consultancy Limited 17

Idea Develop Position Launch Sell

Generate

Enquiry Follow up

Proposal

or Quote Negotiate Deliver

Once initially with occasional refreshes

10s, 100s, perhaps 1,000s of times

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Marketing and the devil

© Consilium Consultancy Limited 18

Having sweated blood, perhaps mortgaged your

house, you now have to get people to understand

what you are selling ‒ to the extent that they want

to buy. You’ve probably been advised to get a

marketing specialist to help position your product

and launch it. A good consultant will at times seem

like your enemy ‒ playing devil’s advocate denying

that your brilliant idea is obvious. Perhaps

suggesting that your product is incomplete.

Worrying about the semantics of the exact way you

describe things. Insisting on understanding the

culture and habits of the customer. Questioning

how many customers there really are.

Obsessing about customers and their requirements

pays ‒ think Apple!

Idea Develop Position Launch Sell

A good marketing advisor will act as Devil’s Advocate to test your ideas,

and then help you develop persuasive sales arguments.

Consilium | s a l e s t r a n s f o r m a t i o n |

Six Sigma* Selling

© Consilium Consultancy Limited 19

Hardly anyone makes the perfect sales call. Let’s

assume most of us are 60-70% effective. If we can

raise this by 10% at each stage over a five stage

campaign we would end up about twice as effective.

Getting the message correct is important, delivering

the message consistently can be even more

important ‒ you are going to do this tens, hundreds,

perhaps even thousands of times.

When you last lost some business did you call the

prospect to find out why? Better still did you get

someone independent to ask why on your behalf?

Continuous improvement really does work.

Try it!

*Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying

and removing the causes of defects (errors) and minimizing variability in

manufacturing and business processes. Source Wikipedia!

Generate

Enquiry Follow up

Proposal

or Quote Negotiate Deliver

Consilium | s a l e s t r a n s f o r m a t i o n |

© Consilium Consultancy Limited 20

Art or Science?

Consilium | s a l e s t r a n s f o r m a t i o n |

© Consilium Consultancy Limited 21

Consilium | s a l e s t r a n s f o r m a t i o n |

Consilium | s a l e s t r a n s f o r m a t i o n |

Business strategy

Marketing strategy

Proposition development

Presentation coaching

Sales coaching

Sales planning

Bids & grant applications

Joint sales calls

Sales performance

improvement

Simon Breese swb@salestransformation.co.uk T: 01844 275430 M: 07999 444193 @betterselling

Determined to help my clients achieve the success they deserve.