Learning sales techniques from the Apprentice?

Learning sales techniques from the Apprentice?
Ah, it’s “Apprentice” season again. No, that doesn’t mean you can reach for a shotgun and bag a couple of arrogant 20 somethings, however tempting the thought. If there’s one thing you can consistently learn from the show it seems to be how not to be a salesperson. But why is the show so good at forming terrible salespeople and what makes for a good one? Can sales training really teach you how to sell or should it come naturally?
Why the lack of empathy, guys?

Sticking a group of competing egotists in a house together for several weeks is hardly the sure-fire way to develop this skill. Empathy needs to be the starting point for every sale; connect with people and you’ve won half the battle. You need a bit of it to start with, but sales training will teach aspiring hopefuls how to maximise it to its full potential.
Stop multi-tasking, you’re supposed to be selling

Focus – to be fair, many of the contestants seem to be focused enough; focused on showing how utterly amazing they are at every possible role imaginable. Good sales people shouldn’t be expected to multi-task, it’s not what they’re built for – they are excellent at focusing on one single thing. Some call it the kill, some call it a sale, but they get things done. Again, ability in this area needs to be inbuilt. Training in sales can help but some people are better at multi-tasking than focus – other roles may suit them better.
Responsible practices

Responsibility – the moment they get in the boardroom nearly every single one of the contestants (year on year) deny any sense of personal responsibility. Good sales people take the blame when bad situations arise. They don’t mouth the words, “It was my fault” if caught out, they simply start working on how to fix it. As far as sales training goes, this is one trick that a lot of people have to learn.
Optimism

There’s a fine line here, so fine that many “Apprentice” contestants seem to not notice it and run headily from the bright land of optimism off into the sunset of arrogance. Optimism, in sales people, is about understanding that customer refusal is not personal rejection. They simply try another tactic or approach, they are even prepared to admit defeat from time to time – and, importantly, move on. This is another area where sales training can teach a sales team or individual to deal with rejection!

Dr. Wright’s Crowdfunding Favorites for November 2014

Dr. Wright’s Crowdfunding Favorites for November 2014

I consider taking part in crowdfunding projects a rewarding cause for I can help in new projects and ideas to reach the market. Not only it’ll help the lives of the campaign’s creator but also the whole society as these projects and products will definitely benefit everyone. Amidst all the crowd funding projects that I’ve wrote about, I have my four personal favorites. These are the Purple Pocket Book, Forever Homes for Foster Children, Banana Wave is the Future and Lulla Doll: Sleep Companion for Babies & Toddlers. The Purple Pocket Book is a domestic violence app for the state of Georgia that helps the victims to find shelter locations, legal assistance as well as questionnaire to determine if someone is in a potential abusive situation. It aims not only to aid the victims but also to prevent others to become one and to extend its helping hand throughout the whole country.

Forever Homes for Foster Care promotes the non- profit organization, Find Families in Mexico, that helps the foster children to find their biological families giving them another chance in their lives. Banana Wave is the Future campaign features an innovation of producing milk- like beverage from bananas. Sounds amazing, right? With this project, vegetarians, gluten- free eaters and lactose- intolerant can now enjoy the taste and creaminess of milk with Banana- wave beverage. This project is on its final stages and seeking for help to formally launch it in the market. Lulla Doll: Sleep Companion for Babies & Toddlers is a doll that records the breathing and heart of a mother at rest providing a sense of security for the child helping him / her to fall into deep and restful sleep. The doll’s material can also absorb the scent of the parent helping the child gets familiar with it. Lulla Doll is best for premature babies to begin the bonding process with their parents. All of these campaigns can contribute to our society once they are all up and running or available to the market. With crowd funding, these projects will push through bringing success to its creators and the society will reap benefits from it.

Easy advertising for charity events

Easy advertising for charity events

If you’re running a Christmas event, fund-raiser or charity event, finding ways to advertise are crucial. There are plenty of tried and tested methods and it can depend on the type of event as to how much advertising you’ll need to do. If it’s a one-off event there are some easy advertising tricks, while for groups and organisations who run regular events, there are some secrets to making the most of your advertising material.

The paparazzi

The local media will be important for promotion and can act as a free source of advertising for local events. Any good cause that benefits the local community will be of interest to local journalists and broadcasters. Even the smallest publication is likely to be hungry for content, so don’t think that you’ll be turned away! You can create a press release but it pays to make a call to the editor in question. Old fashioned phone calls tend to get attention better than emails, with which editors are often swamped; focus on the local angle and why the story needs telling.

Easy advertising options

Flyers and banners are two of the oldest known advertising tools. Despite the fact that most things seem to have gone online these days, local events (charity or otherwise) are still best advertised with real, solid advertising. Banner producers can be sourced nationally or locally and banners can be reused, if you avoid specific dates on the banner itself. The phrase, “see website for details” can be substituted, meaning you can reuse the banner for another similar event. You can use flyers to target busy places using volunteers – markets, malls and other shopping areas are good places to get maximum exposure in your community.

Talking of websites

Don’t forget the wonders of the world wide web. If your organisation has a website, set up a specific blog to advertise your event (or ask for volunteers), tweet about the event, add details to Facebook; it all helps to get the word out! You can even record a video and post it on YouTube.

Corporate sponsors

Offer advertising for local businesses at your event in return for sponsorship. Companies which are supporting you will be glad of the free advertising on your website (keep it off banners though if you want to reuse them!). As well as sponsorship, you can ask them to distribute flyers with their own promotional material in their offices or retail spaces.

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