Master Deal Maker Secrets

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. As promised, this week we continue our discussion on sales managers, but this time we are going to talk about the three core things that you need to look for when you hire one. So far, we know that the biggest mistake people make when they bring a sales manager to their team is that they just take somebody who is good at sales and take for granted the fact that he or she is going to be a great coach and mentor to them. The problem is that a good salesperson doesn’t necessarily know how to work in a team. There are many people that are amazing at sales, but their selfishness and disregard for others' well-being will lead to catastrophic results. This person may keep selling well, as usual, but there won’t be any improvement in the team’s performance which is no good for them, no good for you, and no good for business. That being clear we should be alert when traits of such personalities a

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. Hiring a sales manager is a big step for a business. If turnover is at a certain point, if they’ve got a sales team that is performing, this may seem like the next logical step. The thing is, it is a decision that should not be taken lightly. Making the step to employ a sales manager is a pretty big deal. What happens next might be problematic, in fact, I’ve seen many businesses getting a sales manager and after maybe three months, six months, twelve months sales are simply not growing. Most importantly, it doesn't seem to be any movement within the team and if anything, some division starts to become quite noticeable among them. What is going on there? Where did it go wrong? Well, that is exactly what we are going to talk about in this episode. Let me showcase a scenario so you understand the importance of this matter: You’ve got a sales manager who is actually bringing business in, but

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. Today we are going to be talking about another part of the sales process that business owners often fail to properly implement, the disqualification process.  This term may sound a little harsh if what comes to mind is that you're saying to somebody “look we're too good for you, we don’t want your business”.   That is a common misconception that happens mostly because some businesses don’t know how to approach this stage. To be clear, by disqualification we understand that businesses evaluate and make decisions over which clients’ necessities and capabilities fit more with the type of product or service that their business provides.  The fact that this misconception exists means that we have another variable in the equation, people’s opinion. Specifically, what the people that haven’t worked with you directly are saying about your business.  You know how easy it is to write a bad review

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. Today we are going to talk about a fundamental part of sales conversations which is often left aside. How to use tonality in your voice to increase sales. As we’ve said before, most of the communication that happens between people is not language-based. In fact, the words you use are only 6% of your communication. The other 94% contains your facial expressions, your body language, and your tonality. So, your tone of voice, your cadence in your speech, the energy in your voice, and the intention in it are supporting most of the weight in a conversation. This is very important because it is a bit of an issue when you or a person you work with, even when using the right words, don’t know how to project confidence or use voice with authority. For instance, one of my clients has three girls taking phone calls from their customers regarding the maintenance of security alarm systems. Two of tho

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. Over the years that I have been working with different businesses, I’ve learned that there are untapped areas of hidden revenue in almost all of them. Where should you look? What should you do to extract more out of what you do in your business in terms of sales revenue?  That is exactly what we are going to talk about in today’s episode. Before we get started, we have to know there are three areas that need our attention: front end, middle, and back end. The front end consists of the inquiries and the leads that you are getting into your business. They could be web-leads, they could be telephone calls, they could be inquiries that come through your social media channels, but be careful with what you consider to be a lead. There is a distinction that we need to have very clear before we move on. If a person is downloading your content, for example, on my website I have a free book calle

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. Today we have an incredible guest with us. His name is Brad Hart and I am so thrilled to have him on the show because he is a man with a very impressive background, and I think we can all learn a lot from him. He’s got twenty years of experience as an entrepreneur and sixteen years managing wealth under his belt. He also has got experience in real estate, investments, trading, marketing, and strategy, to mention a few. He has released a book earlier this year called “The 8-Minute Mastermind” which I really think you should check out. Brad is a man who really knows how to achieve success and he has done so not only for him but for others, he has helped to build several companies and grow their revenues and profits into the million-dollar range. How has he done it? That is part of what Brad is going to share with us today. Brad has worked with mastermind groups for a long time, and he has

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. Today we’re going to talk about Valid Business Reasons and why it is important to be aware of them whenever you are dealing with a client or potential client. So, Valid Business Reasons or "VBR's" are mostly related to those two contexts, you can use VBR's to get in contact with a client that you're not currently working with and provide them with knowledge on the value you can be for them, but also they are essential for retaining your clients once you’ve got them. This time we are going to focus mainly on that last one. There is a study I read some time ago, in a book that I reference quite a lot, in which the investigators talked to five thousand businesses and asked them a simple question:  What is it that would make you want to continue to buy from a company or what is that would make you want to buy from a company in the first place? up-sell, re-sell. We are going to talk about wha

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. Today I’m really excited because we have Heather Monahan with us. She is an entrepreneur, best-selling author, keynote speaker, creator of the Creating Confidence podcast, and founder of Boss in Heels. In this episode, we are going to talk about confidence. As you know, confidence is key to being successful in sales, the majority of the communication that happens in sales is non-verbal and the non-verbal part of it comes from mindset, which has confidence as its core element. That’s why I wanted Heather to come to the podcast and talk with us about the role confidence has in the sales environment. She has dedicated a lot of time and thought both to business and confidence. She spent the last three years learning about the latter; some people think of her as an expert in the matter although she does not agree with that completely. Besides from that more recent curriculum, she has 25 years

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. Today we are going to talk about what I call The Inevitability Principle, this is an idea that I like a lot because of its simplicity and because of what it actually means. You know, we’ve talked about some complex ideas in the past because we had to. Because there is some important stuff that we must know if we want to make our businesses work. Even if it takes us a while to get our heads around these complex ideas we all know the deal is worth it. This time, however, things are a bit different. The Inevitability Principle is very easy to understand. It says that if you take enough steps in a particular direction, toward a specific goal, at some point the outcome becomes inevitable, so provided that you can continue to push and insist in that particular direction, the odds will be in your favor, eventually. So, there are so many cool things about this but the thing I love most about it

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. I think we all have dreamed of having clients that are renowned all around the world, to work with the big corporate names. Is it impossible? Absolutely not, but how can you get them? Well, that is precisely what we are going to be talking about in this week’s episode. These ideal clients won’t come to you through your normal marketing for obvious reasons. You have to use a specific strategy if you want their attention so, today we are going to go through the five steps that you can use to make it happen. Remember when we talked about what you represent to the client, especially at the start of the process? Well, here it comes into place once again. Who is a better client? The one that sees value in you because of who you are and how you work, or the one that sees you as a mere commodity? You know the answer so, that is one thing to think about. Who are your best clients and why are they

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. What should you do when a client has just asked for your services? What do you need to know about anyone who comes to you? This week’s episode is dedicated to answering these questions. I think it is a very fundamental topic as it relates to a key moment in the sales process. We’re going to talk about how you should approach a sales conversation regarding the fact that you are potentially going to work with someone else. I think you need to know some things about your potential clients before you get started, otherwise you are going to find yourself in a very confusing and frustrating situation later. After years of experience and a lot of work and thought invested in it, I found there are 5 fundamental questions that should be asked, especially at the start of your process. These questions will allow you to gauge the motivation that your potential clients have, and also, help you locate

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have.  When you own a business, working on developing it is one of the toughest parts of the whole process, but it is also where you should be paying more attention since working it right will get you to grow faster and expand, however, it is also one of the things we normally don’t think about. Where is the business developing? Is my business going in the right direction? If not, which direction should I go?  So today I ask you. Have you been thinking about your business development? Have you thought about where you need help, regarding your business, right now? Some people do, others don’t. So, if you are one of those people who feel kind of lost in this topic, or if you just want to keep growing, in this episode I will share with you the 5 key areas where your business should focus.   These 5 key areas are: lead generation, which is something that everyone who is in business or in sa

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. How great would it be if we could always hit our goals and get consistent results regardless of the circumstances? I know it sounds great, but reality has always had other ideas. As we’ve discussed before, the business world has taught us that there are always ups and downs. It is pretty difficult for everybody to maintain the same levels of profitability and success without suffering from the eventualities that occur in the market. That is why today I want to talk to you about how you can get out of a sales rut. If you have been in this business for a while, then this is not a strange scenario. I’ve been in that situation a number of times over the last thirty years, and I’ve learned that when people get stuck and they don’t know what to do is mostly because they tend to get too in their heads, too outcome-based in terms of wanting to get a sale. We all know that numbers are important,

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. When I get called into a business because they need help to sort out some issues, the people in charge often say to me: “I want to get more out of my team and I want my sales manager to become better at getting more out of my team”.   When this happens my first question always is: “Is there an agreement on what represents the ideal behaviours that would underpin great results in this business? “Unfortunately, I’ve received a no for an answer more than once.  This scenario is not the one we want for our businesses, that’s why today we are going to talk about an absolutely essential topic, the Team Code of Conduct.  What is that? you may ask. Basically, it is the optimal alternative to this problem.  In most businesses, there is often, pretty much always, an agreement on what the actual goals of the game are. This is what we want for our own businesses because it is key to have everybody o

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. As in any field, in the business world, there are many concepts and terms that can be overlooked when opposed to one another, as far as its functionality concerns. Sometimes we make some words equivalent to others when they actually mean completely different things. I don’t intend to talk about this topic in general but to point out a distinction that we all must have very clear, just in case. Training is not the same as coaching, you probably already knew that, but it won’t hurt talking more about it in today’s episode. If you didn’t know, this will be even more educational for you. Having this difference clear is crucial if you are a business owner or a salesperson because it is common to turn a blind eye on the subject, although this applies to any kind of business. The issue I think comes from the easiness of just completing a task, a simple training for example, over the investment

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. As a result of the way our world is organized, in the market as well as in other areas there are always going to be things that escape our control, even if we work hard trying to get them right. Living in society brings many challenges but also possibilities. We’ve learned to live with others and to work with others and we cannot, for one moment, forget about that. That scheme has built our culture and our world the way we know it today, which is why I think it’s very important to talk about this topic. The circle of influence and the circle of concern. I first learned about this in Stephen Covey’s book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", and the whole idea of this is learning to locate those areas where you do have control over situations and those where you don’t. For instance, in a business, you have control over how many calls you make or arriving at appointments on time.

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. Along the way, we have talked about many different topics concerning sales and business, however, people ask me, quite frequently, about the best sales books I know. On some occasions, we have had guests with us who share a bit about theirs, but we haven’t really dedicated time to the bigger spectrum. Today I decided to make room in the podcast to answer that question and to spread the word about some really good ones that are out there. So, we are going to talk about the 10 best sales books market leaders own that others don’t. These are all great books but do not think, by any means, that other titles I left out are not worth a good read. In fact, I had a very tough time narrowing it down to just ten. But these are the ones that I refer to the most. There are some books here that changed the way I sold forever. Mainly because they brought a unique perspective about specific parts of th

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. Let us imagine a situation, one that may seem completely irrelevant for the purposes of this podcast, but bear with me, there is a reason for it. You are surfing on a beautiful beach, enjoying the sea and yourself, but suddenly, you have an accident and black out. Can you imagine the terror? What would you do? I know this can be a fatal scenario to imagine, and a lot of times some people have had to face near-death experiences, so what would you do if you survive? What would you change? Or would you keep things the same way? I know someone who had to go through this experience, his name is Mark Mathews, and he is my guest in today’s episode. One day, as he was surfing in Tasmania he hit a reef and blacked out, as natural, terror was present, he had a lot of injuries and didn’t know if he was ever going to surf again. At that time, Mark made a crucial decision, to never let fear overpower

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. In my experience, having worked with hundreds of different salespeople and businesses I’ve found that there are steps that they have to go through if they want to be at the top of their game. I think of these as levels on a ladder, which the higher you are, the better results you get. So, today we are going to be talking about the five levels of the sales conversion ladder. It doesn’t matter if your business has a proven, and refined sales process or if it hasn’t. These levels apply anyway, the thing is though, if you want to keep moving forward and reach the highest one there are some things you need to know. We can say that the bottom of the ladder is precisely the lack of a sales process. This might sound strange, how can a business be profitable if there is no documented, structured sales process? Well, you may be surprised. In fact, I was talking to a guy that runs a business networ

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. Have you ever felt like there is something missing from your sales process? Maybe you feel like you are not getting enough from it, or that it is not bringing you the same results as before. Well, I have a tool that may come in handy, and is one of my favorites, because each time I use it, it works. I am talking about stories.  Are you aware of the incredible power that lies beneath telling stories? Stories are one thing that lots of people take for granted as if they were only useful when we were little kids, but I actually can spend days and days talking about them, because they have power, and believe it or not, all of us live through them.  One of the ways that I learned the importance of stories, was because of an incredible author called Joseph Campbell, he dedicated his life to studying religions and especially stories. You know the kind of movies that have this amazing hero, and