“Buyers are treating us as a commodity” “Its all about Price, Price, Price” “We aren’t competitive at that price point” Given how often we have heard these statements over the last few years, I would be surprised if they were not common phrases within your sales team.- even in complex sales, we find that customers […]
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As with any ‘difficult conversation’ it’s important to prepare properly for these types of meetings – anticipating objections and developing tactics to explain why the increase is fair and reasonable can help both your own self-confidence and deliver the end result you are looking for. So – ask yourself these questions… How can you explain […]
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Over the last few months, we’ve talked to over a hundred buyers, salespeople and leaders about the challenges they are facing since face-to-face meetings have become difficult or even impossible. Despite virtual meetings now becoming the norm there is little doubt that sales calls over Zoom or Teams present significant new challenges – particularly when you are trying […]
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In our recent conversations with sales leaders we keep hearing two compelling, yet seemingly conflicting, trends – especially from clients selling high value professional services, SaaS software or indeed any complex solution: Everybody knows you need sales teams to be more consultative in their sales approach – understanding in depth each prospect’s specific business pain-points […]
View Post Virtual Coaching, Virtual Selling, Virtual Training, Virtual Workshops
By Ian Hirst, Greenbank CEO In today’s work environment, there is no shortage of opportunities for inter-personal conflict. In recent weeks just some of the examples our clients have mentioned are… Teams blaming each other for not doing their share of the workload Conflict with a remote manager People finding it difficult to talk about […]
View Post Conflict, conflict management, Greenbank, thomas kilmann, Virtual Training, Virtual Workshops
Even though many sales teams and their customers are gradually returning to the office, regular face-to-face interactions are probably many months off. The Covid-19 ‘compelling event’ has forced organisations to rapidly change their business approaches and most organisations have found that they can survive perfectly well with a more flexible approach. Indeed, many are currently […]
View Post Virtual Coaching, Virtual Selling, Virtual Training, Virtual WorkshopsFor the last 9 years Greenbank have been working with a great group of nutritional scientists from across Europe who are part of the wonderful network group ENLP. Together, we have developed a transformative annual development programme – ENLP Advanced – aimed at supporting senior leaders in academia, industry and not-for-profit associations. The programme is highly […]
View Post Adobe Connect, ENLP, Virtual Coaching, Virtual Sales Training, Virtual Workshops
Transforming learning & development – quickly & easily Our personal thoughts on how to create high-impact virtual training programmes It was Plato who first suggested that ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ and today that is more relevant than ever before, as we face huge changes outside of our control with far reaching impact on […]
View Post Virtual Coaching, Virtual Sales Training, Virtual Workshops
By Judith Hirst, Greenbank founder In the current working-from-home environment, we are finding that many leaders and professionals are finding 1-1 coaching absolutely vital. The technology works well for 1-1 coaching, its the type of development that they can fit into a busy, multi-processing working-at-home environment – and at a time when meaningful conversations with […]
View Post 360 degree feedback & coaching, coaching tips, personal development planning
Wherever you are in the world, there are plenty of reasons for customers to either delay buying decisions or focus on solely price when choosing suppliers. In the UK, we have the dreaded Brexit of course, but the world generally is an uncertain place this year! So, not surprisingly there are 2 key questions that […]
View Post Law, Project management, Sales
Avoiding and Handling Tricky Sales Objections If our work with sales teams around the world is anything to go by, customers haven’t yet stopped giving you reasons why they don’t want to buy from you…and we are regularly asked for ways to address objections during our sales programmes. Tip 1: Heading objections off at the […]
View Post Leadership, Learning and development, Negotiation, Sales, Sales Training
Negotiating from a position of strength Participants in our win-win negotiation programmes, often state that their main objective for attending the programme is that they want to feel ‘stronger’ in a negotiation. In this short blog article we aim to provide some quick hints and tips to allow you to walk in to a negotiation […]
View Post Leadership, Learning and development, Negotiation, Sales, Sales Training
Why 360o feedback is a vital leadership tool If your goal is to make your organisation more successful, you first need to make your people more effective, but of course the million-dollar question is how do we do that? From our experience, a big part of the answer is helping people, especially anyone in a […]
View Post Leadership, Leading Millennial People
Leading talented people is challenging. Managing Generation Y (‘Millennial’) people – typical those between the ages of 18 and 25 – has many managers frustrated and confused! From discussions with a wide range of leaders who attend Greenbank programmes they often talk about needing a different approach with the latest generation of team members. One […]
View Post Leadership, Leading Millennial People
In our increasingly demanding business climate, one of the Leadership Styles we are seeing more and more of is ‘Pacesetting’ – where busy leaders hope to drive their team’s performance by demonstrating exactly how they want things to be done – and hoping that others will be inspired. We hear seemingly positive phrases such as […]
View Post coaching, Delegation
A couple of years ago, we introduced you to a Christmas survival guide – using the wonderful Insights Discovery model to suggest how different personalities might best copy with the hustle and bustle of shopping for presents. This year we focus on how we can best celebrate with a little tipple – a cocktail that […]
View Post celebration, Christmas, Christmas drinks, cocktails holidays, Insights Discovery
One of the differences we have noticed in our conversations with sales managers over the last few years, is that there is a real acceptance that the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to selling simply doesn’t work anymore – not unreasonably, customers and prospects have increasing expectations that a salesperson should tailor their pitch to them. This can […]
View Post Communication, Meetings, Presentations, Sales, Sales Training, Selling, Trust, Value
A simple, but highly effective model that might just transform your life… How often do we sit in a meeting (obviously organised by somebody else…) and think “why am I here and just what am I getting from it?” When you walk away at the end of the interaction still none the wiser, do you […]
View Post Communication, Meetings, Presentations, Sales, Sales Training, Selling, Trust, Value
Even the most confident among us have had to fight back our nerves when faced with telling a customer about a price increase.…. Over the last few months we’ve worked with sales teams who have been given this daunting task and have now pulled together a handy guide to make these conversations both more comfortable and effective! We’ve […]
View Post Communication, Negotiation, Sales, Sales Training, Selling, Trust, Value
Understanding how to communicate across cultures is an absolutely indispensable skill. Do you work with colleagues and customers from around the world whether face to face, by mail or tele-conferencing? The answer is probably ‘yes’ as more and more of us need to connect and work well with a whole range of people from different […]
View Post Cross-cultural, diversity, global, international teams, Leadership
We all need to occasionally phone somebody up who we have not met before with aim of securing a meeting. Maybe if telemarketing is your day-job, this is an everyday occurrence! But perhaps you are: Leading a start up company A partner in a professional services firm A salesperson with a new business responsibility An […]
View Post Cold Calling, Sales Training, Telemarketing, Triggers
I can almost guarantee that when coaching or running workshops on the topic of leadership and influence that I am asked 2 questions about this! Let’s start with the first question… ‘Why should I manage my own manager?’ When I am asked this, I often refer back to the classic Harvard Business Review article: “Managing Your […]
View Post coaching, Leadership, manager, Managing Upwards
Sales Management is a tough job…. Today’s business environment is increasingly complex, and as a result, Sales Managers are being given more and more responsibilities. With aggressive sales goals, new technology adoption, territory management, forecasting, and all the other day to day activities, it’s all too easy for Sales Managers to focus on these important […]
View Post Developing Sales Leadership, Sales management
We’re approaching the time of the year when many of us are turning our thoughts to that annual festival of giving, receiving and then giving again: Christmas. If we do mark this holiday, while some of us enjoy the hassle and hustle of present seeking, others would rather run anywhere than to the shops. So, […]
View Post Insights, Learning and development, Personality types
With the UK voting to leave the European Union, the torrid race for the White House now over (no matter on which side you lean politically) and currently no government at all in Spain, there is change — and lots of it — across the globe. International trade agreements are now far from certain, policies […]
View Post agile leadership, Change Management, leadership skills
It’s often easy as a salesperson to make assumptions about what buyers are really looking for. It’s much more powerful though when you experience it yourself! As some of you reading this will know, Judith and I have recently moved our home and office from the green fields of Surrey to the urban delights of […]
View Post Differentiation, Empathy, Sales, Trust
The Importance of employee engagement I recently spent a great day with an international group of HR leaders, where a big focus was on their role in developing greater employee engagement and motivation – especially during times of increasing change. They all understood the vital impact of employee engagement – or lack of it – […]
View Post Employee Engagement, HR leaders
One of the key Success Drivers which underpins the success of any Agile Leader and their team is ‘Building Trust’ and what will certainly derail their success is lack of it. The Agile Leader needs to encourage people to follow them into the future – but that future may be unclear and the path may […]
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Agility is increasingly seen by leading organisations as vital for success for any leader – or aspiring leader. Greenbank have developed a Leadership Agility questionnaire for you to assess for personal leadership agility – identifying where you are strong as well as where you need to develop to stay competitive in today’s fast changing and […]
View Post Leadership agility
By José Luis Anzizar, Graphic Facilitator with an introduction by Ian Hirst, Greenbank CEO In November, we were running a Sales Leadership workshop in Brazil with 21 motivated, enthusiastic salespeople and leaders from across South America – the LatAm leg of a regular 5-day programme that we run with a wonderful client of ours. For […]
View Post Graphic facilitator, VUCA
Leadership ‘agility’ is now recognised as one of the most important differentiators for individuals, teams and indeed whole organisations – but how do you stack up? Driven by two profound and long-term trends – accelerating change and growing interdependence – leadership ‘agility’ is now recognised as one of the most important differentiators for individuals, teams […]
View Post Agile, Agility, Creativity, Innovation, Leadership, Vision, VUCA
With the summer and holiday season upon us what a great opportunity to refresh our thinking, be inspired and gather new insights and ideas from 3 of the best TedTalks that we have been inspired by over the last 12 months. You may have listened to them before or they may be new to you […]
View Post Body Language, Introverts, Leadership, Power, TedTalks
A recent article in the Financial Times reported that the European Commission has drafted a proposal to introduce regulation which requires Europe’s listed companies to reserve at least 40 per cent of their non-executive director board seats for women by 2020 or face fines and other sanctions. So if we are to have more women […]
View Post Leadership, Women Leaders
All Sales Directors and indeed anybody aiming to transform their company’s salesforce know how difficult it can be to achieve lasting change from new sales skills training, processes and CRM implementations. Salespeople are after all naturally skilled at getting round procedures not following them… This paper outlines a simple, yet challenging, 7-stage model that will […]
View Post Change Management