In a jolly interview by their Richard Quest (scroll down this page for full transcript), they discussed whether the European fixated store opening strategy was apt considering the imminent austerity hit and if the brand really is a lifestyle choice that can sustain moves away from apparel and into perfume.

The final question was a chuckling query on if he as the boss would have to like the smell of their fragrance in order for them to sell it. Luckily Maurice giggled back that he liked it regardless. Amazingly he described it as,

sexy florals with oriental undertones

As the typically incredulous Quest then commented, it’s near impossible to describe a smell to him, but he had to admit it was cunningly evocative.

Mr Guess used just five words to conjure both something memorable and a positive emotion. Can you do the same to describe your latest new product?

He hoped his former charge won his first grand slam at the imminent US Open, and considered him both independent-minded and driven enough to do this, despite not planning to secure a new coach until after Flushing Meadows.

Two remarks portrayed fascinating insight into what he believes a world-class coach should be trying to do.

Small Percentage Improvements

A key task was to seek the small percentage improvements that would make a big difference. He stressed that finding them is a difficult thing to do.

Ensure Training Intensity

Possibly the main job he felt, was to make sure that training was at the right intensity.

Both have intriguing consequences for sales management and self-improvement by salespeople in the field themselves.

• How do you plan to identify the things where tiny improvements will provide a big impact on success?
• How can you make sure that working on them will be at a suitably high intensity?

The one commentator that is not a natural by some stretch is Botham. So it was a relief as an early game-making sitter got grassed to hear him quote a good stat.

His delivery so mumbled that key figures were jumbled, he luckily repeated them later. Albeit in an equally bumbled manner, you could piece together the punch. It ran something like this, kindly credited to Sky’s statistician, Benedict.

This Series’ Tests that Pakistan lost, they took only 56% of their chances.
In the one they just won, they caught 87%.

Of course, a seven-from-eight success rate transferred across would not necessarily guarantee result reversal, but it does add weight to the adage that “catches win matches”.

What, I naturally wonder, is the solution selling equivalent of a catch? What activity, indicator or outcome that when it occurs, leads to your selling victory?

Meals Win Deals? When you get to take the prospect CEO for supper?

Borders Win Orders? When you manage to erect impenetrable walls keeping competition at bay?

Nails Win Sales? A compelling business case accepted by all nails every campaign?

Kids Win Bids? The old ‘k-i-s-s’ approach to making sure what you propose can be understood by a five year old?

On Tracks Win Contracts? Stick to your tried, tested and trusted sales process and you’ll prevail every time?

Lenders Win Tenders? An Evaluation Close means a free pre-sale play with the product always lands a signature?

Fun-filled food for thought anyway, don’t you think?

The percentage of salespeople making quota dropped from 58.8% to 51.5% last year. Despite this drop, 85% of surveyed firms indicated they were raising quotas again this year. In addition, less than 50% of forecast deals are resulting in a win. What’s needed to turn this alarming trend around?

Whilst you can’t help but wish well any endeavour to improve sales performance, nagging away at me is the thought that they’ve chosen the wrong figures with which to bait.

I know plenty of relatively large sales teams. How many people in them make their number? It surely is no shock that only half of all sellers hit quota. In any case, how relevant is this as a barometer? How often is the desired sales topline conjured with little regard to corporate transparency, merely adding say twenty percent to what the bean counters demand?

Likewise, is it really news that 85% raise targets? The surprise is rather that this figure isn’t 100%. What on earth are the other 15% doing? Perhaps they simply forgot to answer this qu. Maybe there are sales operations you know that have cut quotas out there, but I’ve never come across one. Keeping the level constant, yes, especially over recent years. But reduce? Oh no.

And the final push. Only half of all forecasted deals come home. Well, that says more about forecast categories and politics than any meaningful guide to sales success. It’s hard to imagine a survey landing on anything other than the prominent centre of a bell curve for such query.

I think alternative factors would make for a more compelling case.

The obvious one is with commissions. How many sales people saw their bonuses fall? I suspect this one would really hit home.

Then there’s indicators that should more closely reveal economic patterns. Total pipeline value falls, sales cycle lengthening and key account or new business shrinkage all spring to mind and are also fairly straightforward to capture.

If you use figures, not only should you make sure they stand scrutiny, but also test that they are the right sets to use in the first place.

They’re tales of how schoolgirls stopped putting lippy on bathroom mirrors, more visitors saw more of a museum, people recycled old clothes and kids no longer dropped litter.

For the uninitiated, this concept is at its best when creating lateral, inexpensive ways to stop people acting in undesirable ways.

To adopt such mentality and thrive through it, here’s a possible framework. Think first about which behaviours you do not like in your customers.

It could be putting your contract up for tender, reducing it even or buying a cheaper item than you’d want.

What nudge could stop them from doing this, through their choice rather than your overt diktat?

The latest Economist Technology Quarterly highlights how people aware they fall into this trap can wean themselves towards former levels of higher productivity.

The article offers relief by way of policing software to remove this unlimited scope for distraction.

Linda Stone is credited with coining delicious terms like email apnea. Continuous partial attention was her first signpost in this arena and sums up neatly what you’re up against if you follow the constant connection creed. In her own words,

“Continuous partial attention is an always-on, anywhere, anytime, any place behavior that involves an artificial sense of constant crisis. We are always in high alert when we pay continuous partial attention. This artificial sense of constant crisis is more typical of continuous partial attention than it is of simple multi-tasking.”

There’s two points here. Of course, any salesperson that recognises they are suffering from this malaise needs to sort it out sharpish.

Perhaps of greater consequence, where would your prospects or customers say you figure on avoiding continuous partial attention towards them? Worse still, are they being treated to “an artificial sense of constant crisis”?

How often do you discuss a prospect’s previous investments with a buyer?

Hopefully they’ll be able to trot out a long list of wonderful projects that helped make both a ton of cash and everyone’s lives easier.

But my experience is that this is not usually the case.

People most typically buy a ’solution’ to solve a problem.  That very word has connotations of avoiding mishap and conjures images of fixing something broke.

So how about asking them what investments have not paid off as hoped?  A tricky subject for sure, but if you frame it in the context of wanting to not fall into a similar trap, or making the same mistake again by learning the lessons, you could be onto a winner.

It’s true that you could trigger negativity by slight association, but I feel that if you position your proposal to prevent the things that caused previous problems, you’ll be more likely on to a winner.

And no-one wants to be seen throwing money away again.

Despite the supposed level of intelligence necessary to enter their brethren, and the obvious ability to expose the contrary on any given subject ingrained in them, each time they disagree with your point of view they basically start off by saying,

“yeah, but…”

No empathy.  Zero exploration.  All confrontation. Plenty of disregard.

It might be a tiny lesson, but one with far-reaching consequences. Never answer a prospect in this manner.

As for a remedy, classic objection handling training is a start. Without the time to indulge that in its entirety here,  if you’re in any way unsure, just be certain to politely fire back a question. It helps if your query seek expansion of a particular element of what’s just been espoused, yet it almost doesn’t matter what it is, even if just to say “Really…?” and pause.

I guarantee you’ll go farther, with greater smoothness, as a result.

“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” Thomas Jefferson

I was immediately appalled.

Thomas Jefferson? Who on earth is he? Realistically, he is nobody. You see, this is the ground of an English team. Say that again, an English, team. Not some upstart premier league club owned by arrogant Americans. Straw poll: how many of the current Surrey squad even know who is? Supplemental question: how many even give a monkeys?

What do they care about a third president of America? Would they even know him? Should they? What does it say about homegrown inspiration? Is there really such a paucity of local sages that they must dredge at such level for motivation? What the Dickens were Surrey thinking?

Think about putting yourself in similar shoes to officialdom there in Kennington. You’re giving a talk to rally the troops. You’re somewhere with an audience oceans away, mentally and physically, from the USA about to present. You pull up the slide with your favourite quote. What would really be the reaction to using one like that?

Good on America for evidently owning a lasting quote in this field. Shame on Surrey. I’m actually on their mailing list (I used to live nearby and went to a few games) so I’m emailing them for their side of the story. Bottom line, make your quotes relevant.

It made me realise what an incredibly revealing question this is for anyone involved in selling. In so many ways, a person’s immediate reaction can unwittingly lay bare their inner self.

How do you respond when someone asks you what you do for a living?  Imagine it happening at both a social function or a business conference, and in either case, you’ve not met the questioner before.

I have a scientifically unproven yet cast-iron hunch that most salespeople would answer by naming their profession first, along the lines of “I sell ….”. The second most frequent class of response I further suspect to be waffle about the product they’re connected with.

Some may be cocky, and elaborate with how successful they themselves are.  Others may be more reserved, extolling the merits of their company and its wares.

What about the one in ten that might say something like this, “I help people to solve the problems of ….”?

What odds will you give me that these few outperform all the rest combined?