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. Today I'm going to share with you a very interesting client case study that will help you understand the relevance of the seven leverage points we talked about last week.  I worked with this guy last year; he has a carpentry business and does a lot of commercial carpentry work. He's a great trader and has a fantastic product. When he came to me, he was doing around about 200k per month, and he said, “I have grown this business without really having to talk to anyone, I hate sales and I need to get over it.”  We did a number of things, we essentially put all of the exact verbal and written systems in place at each stage of the seven leverage points in his business.   April through June, he had an increase of 900,000 on what he was doing last year, for the same period this year. By then, he already had 900,000 booked in for the July through September quarter.   That is a phenomena

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. Today, I am going to share with you the seven leverage points that I look at when I am working with a business to improve its sales process. There are a couple of different places that you can look to improve your conversions, improve the offer that you create, and move people through your process a lot faster.  What I do when I first sit down with a new client is we go through a checklist to figure out what we are going to work on to give them the fastest shift in their sales results. What I am sharing with you today is, essentially, this checklist.  The first question I ask is my clients is how are they getting leads? How are people finding them? We look at this process in detail, we focus on their website, their landing pages, we look at what people know about them before they complete an inquiry form. That's essentially what we might call the indoctrination path, what is it that

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. Emails are a very powerful way to grow your business. Contextually what we're talking about is to put pen to paper on some kind of recommendation; maybe a proposal for something, or a quote for a particular product or a particular service and send it to a potential client.   The biggest mistake I see people make is this. They attach the proposal or the quote, they send it through, and at the bottom of the email they write, “If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.”  Why is this a huge mistake? Because it is the lamest call to action ever!  Many businesses, hoping they can get clients on board, usually approach them in a very cautious manner, but that cautiousness gets often mixed up with passiveness, and their emails end up being pretty uninviting and bleak.  Some people don't have the time to ring and ask questions. Most don't have the time to take your c

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 three reasons why a bulletproof sales process is a strategic advantage in any business.  I've seen this happen time and time again; the people who continue to get fantastic results are the ones that I’ve helped improve their sales process.  I´ve sat down with my clients to carefully map everything out; to elaborate a solid process that, once it gets done, has no need to be changed or tweaked. They ended up having a well-thought plan with the clarity and confidence required in their minds to take the right actions.  It’s just a matter of executing it consistently, and it is magic! It really does produce fantastic results, so I strongly suggest you listen to this episode to have a greater understanding of why having a great sales process is so important.  One of the reasons is that it gives you scalability. If you know that you can generate 100 lea

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. Recently, I started to realise that it is very common for people these days to have trouble engaging with paid leads, leads that are coming through paid advertising.   The last four inquiries I received came from clients that are dealing with that type of issue now, so, I thought it was a good idea to talk about three ways to maximise your sales from paid advertising.  Nowadays, access to information is easier than ever; it is easier for people to find your business online and contact you if they have an inquiry, you shouldn’t be surprised by the fact that it is also easier for them to find your competition.  The increasing use of social media and the rapidness with which people can get a response via these platforms calls for an immediate approach to inquiries, which is the first way to maximise your sales I’m sharing with you.  Call leads straight away; it has become more impo

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. There are three common denominators that I have seen create the biggest shifts in sales results. Regardless of if you are a sales professional or a business owner, these things are crucial. Today, we are going to talk about three shifts that you can make in your sales career or in your business to generate a massive improvement in sales. I’ve had the chance to see these denominators in action in the hundreds of clients that I've worked with over the last 17 years and the hundreds of clients that I had access to before that in wholesale. I can tell you, if you get these elements in place you are going to be surprised with the results, especially if you fine-tune your approach over time. One of the biggest shifts comes with analysing and fixing a fundamental aspect of any business, the sales process. If you have an awesome product, or if you provide top-notch services, your way to success

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. Everyone has at some point experienced a sales rut in their career; if you haven’t, there's one coming, just be patient.   I've coached myself out of a few sales slumps, and I've coached a lot of the team members that I work with out of them as well so, I know that it may seem like the end of the world sales drop down dramatically, fortunately, it is not.  It doesn’t matter if you are the one that is experiencing a sales rut or if one of the members of your team is, the first thing to remember is that sales slumps are temporary.  Today, I am going to share with you the five things that you can do to get yourself out of one. Implementing any one of these to your routine will make a massive difference, do them all and you’ll see how much greater the results can be.  For instance, something you can do is revisit your motivation and revisit the basics of your process. As for the fir

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 the four most important aspects to hiring a salesperson, these are a number of things that I have noticed over the years that make a massive difference when you are looking to take that step.   As I mentioned in previous episodes, culture fit is a fundamental element of the hiring process. That new person needs to fit in with the people that you've already got; this could probably be a gut feeling thing, at least a part of it, what matters is that you have to be able to use the resources you’ve got to know if they are going to fit with the rest of the personalities in your team.   Being able to work with others and abide by the team culture is as important as having a background of a consistent history of competence in sales, and this is a tricky one because there's a couple of different ways that we can qualify this.   For instance, someone

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 be talking about the four most important things that you need to have in place if you are going to hire, train and retain a sales team.  There are many mistakes that organizations make when they want to build a sales team, or when they bring new people to an already existing one. Many steps can be done wrong, from looking for someone that fits their needs, to keeping track of their performance once they are hired.   One of the biggest mistakes that I see them making is on selection. Often, I get called into an organization, and they say, “we want you to train our team”; I would absolutely train them if that was the issue, but what happens very frequently is that they tend to mistake a training problem for a selection problem or a recruiting problem.  Creating a profile of the person that you want is fundamental, and the system that you use for selecting that

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 be talking about the top 10 mistakes that companies make with sales meetings.  Sales meetings are at the core of creating a great sales culture in an organization. Unfortunately, it is very easy for businesses to make any of these 10 mistakes. I’ve seen it dozens and dozens of times. I sit in on a lot of sales meetings that are not well structured, and that don´t lead anywhere, thus getting no lift in sales performance.  The first one of these mistakes is they either don't run them, or they have them too infrequently. If you have meetings too infrequently, there's little to no accountability, no consistency, and no continuity. When you haven't got everyone on the same program, when everybody is moving at a different rhythm, it is really hard to build momentum. This leads us to the second mistake.  Having no structure, no agenda; or if there is an agenda, it's

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 a really simple three-step formula to present information in a way that people understand.   Before I started in the consulting business I had a fashion agency. What I would do is, I would get a client and I would show them the range of clothing that was available for the season so they could decide which ones they wanted to sell.  First of all, it was very challenging to keep somebody's attention for the three hours we needed to get through this particular range, but there was another big issue.  What most of the other representatives would do is that they would present a 400-item range of clothing all at once. The clients had to decide which ones they wanted to sell, but often they would have to choose from 50 t-shirt prints, all up in front of them at the same time.  The situation was so confusing that I had to think up a completely different a

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. Recently, I’ve been helping clients with a fundamental step. The transition from being the managing director or the business owner that does all the sales, to hiring the first person in sales or business development.  This is a pretty big step for any business, as you can imagine, there are some things that must be considered in order to have an excellent hiring process where you can make sure that you have the right people and also, that you know what to do with them after they’ve been hired.  What I’ve seen happen over the years is that people tend to make one or all of the four mistakes I’m sharing with you today when they choose to hire a salesperson.  Let’s start from the very beginning of the process, which leads us to the first mistake. People often don't create a profile of the person that they want.  You are so much more likely to attract the type of person that you wan

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. Getting in front of your dream clients may seem unreachable at first glance, more so if they haven’t even heard of you before. You may think they are in another league, that they wouldn’t be interested in doing business with anybody that isn’t as renowned as them.  That couldn’t be farther from the truth, there are quite some things you can do to get to them, and most importantly, to make yourself relevant to them.  Today, I'm going to share with you the six keys that you need to be aware of to get appointments with your dream clients. They are essential to get the job done.  Picture this, in most cases, businesses have got a list of clients that they would love to work with, but those clients are not beating a path to their door, they're not coming to them through their normal marketing. They know who they are, but they don't have a strategy to get in front of them.   Let's fac

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 the difference between training alone and training with ongoing coaching. This is a particularly crucial topic if you're looking at training either yourself or your actual sales team.  I'm reminded of a conversation that I had with a retail client that I’ve worked with on and off. They were a client of mine in a previous business, and when I set up the training business, I used to do a retail sales masterclass. I used to call this guy every time I ran one because I had a really good relationship with him.   I remember ringing him one day and saying, “Is there anyone that you'd like to send along to the retail sales masterclass?” He said no. I did a lot of those masterclasses and I called him for every one of them but the same thing kept on happening so, one day, I said to him, “Look, I reckon I've rung at least eight times and offered you the chance

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 two-step process that you can use to generate referrals from your existing clients. This is a really simple strategy that you can use to produce amazing results.  The people that you want to get referrals from are your better clients. Think about it, your long-term clients, the people that are the easiest to deal with, the people that give you the least amount of grief and drama are the ones that you would ideally love to refer some business to.   It happens both ways. It is most likely that if you have a long and ongoing relationship with your clients is because they appreciate what you do and how you work with them so, it is easier for them to refer somebody that is struggling with something to you if you are the right person for the job.  Having good business relationships and keeping constant communication with your clients is great but it’s

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. First, I want to elucidate why this episode is named like this. I know that it sounds awesome and it’s accurate, but not completely. I was never in the SAS, I didn’t train with the SAS, but what I did do was train in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with three guys who were in the SAS.  Some of you may be asking, what is this SAS? The Special Air Service is a special forces unit of the British army. These fellows are as tough as nails, and relentless when it comes to completing the task. They stop at nothing.  I learned three really big lessons from those guys, and I think it's worthwhile sharing them with you because they are directly applicable to a sales context.   An important part of the training they do in the SAS happens in what’s called a Killhouse. If you are not familiar with what it is, it’s basically a scenario designed to simulate a hostage situation or a situation where they are

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 the three core elements of a high-performing sales management system. This is something that I get called in to do for businesses a lot and it is a really big step to get this right.  Here is the standard scenario I’ve seen in my 17 years of training and coaching sales teams, when you find businesses that have a sales team it is pretty common to see horrible culture among their members.  For instance, some businesses can have a sales manager in place who is thought to be particularly skilled, highly empathetic, and with great emotional intelligence to be able to manage a sales team when the truth is, that’s not the case. The mismatch between the job profile and the personality of a sales manager is a big issue that can be traced way back to the hiring process, and it has great consequences.  What you often find is high turnover; people coming and g

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 two big blockages that you may encounter in your sales process, and what specifically you can do about them.  Having a potential client make the decision of moving forward with you and whatever solution your business is offering to them is easier said than done. You probably have talked to some of them that are reticent about taking the next step, they may even argue that they’re afraid to do so, or that the price you are charging is too high.  If you're getting the same objections coming up over and over again, there are specific reasons that you're getting those objections.  You are experiencing blockages, and I’m pretty sure you’ve wondered what you need to do when they happen to break the streak. In this episode, I want to talk about two of these blockages, what causes them, and what you can do to stop them from happening in the first place. 

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have.  One of the biggest pieces of leverage that you've got available in your business is to create an offer. Many people think that making an offer is the same as making a product more appealing to clients by reducing its price. Although that is indeed a way of offering a product, I don’t think this method is the way to go, and I’m sure you will second me on this thought after you listen to this episode. Creating an offer is such an overlooked area, we often get locked into making the same one over and over again. I have been guilty of this previously, and I know it is vital to talk about this topic so that you know the wider spectrum of possibilities you can exploit. Today I’m going to give you the 4 Key Elements of Creating an Offer That Will Convert. To get started, an offer is basically the product you are selling, the price that you are asking for it, the payment terms, and the bonu

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have.  Last week I did a LinkedIn post that had the most incredible response to it, you should go and check it out. It is about the whole idea of getting leads, maximising, and extracting every single drop of value out of them.   I’ll describe it so you understand what this is about. It is a drawing of a funnel that’s got all these holes in it, and there's water spurting out of it. Each one of those holes represents something different, one of them is leads not contacted, another one is leads not converted, another one is leads not followed up, there are about six of them.  Let’s think about it. If there are at least six holes in a funnel, how much water is coming out from the bottom end? where it’s supposed to come out. One thing’s for sure, not as much as it should.  What I'm going to do today is go through a checklist that people requested from me, I'm going to give you 11 things