Even if your holiday sales broke all records, you’d probably still have some targets to meet in the days and weeks after the big day itself. Done right, post-Christmas sales aren’t just for the retail sector. They can help to generate revenue, boost cash flow and continue relationships with customers, whichever industry you work in. To get the most from this period, though, you need to have planned your tactics in advance.

First, decide on your goals. Will you try to sell something specific, or focus on a specific customer? For retail stores, the target is usually to shift any left over Christmas stock, ready for the new year. Ensure your targets are just as clear.

Next, create some unique offers that will attract customers. Unlike retailers, who have to compete on price, you could choose to offer demos, or adjust your payment terms. For big businesses, for example, allowing them to be billed later could be enough to get a sale.

Now it’s time to identify your contact. Who is the best person at the company to make your offer too? Do you already know them? How could you get introduced to them? Identify who has already bought from you, and who has expressed interest. This is a stage that is often forgotten in the post-Christmas haze, so you’ll get ahead if you think about it now.

Finally, be aware of any existing offers you have on. For example, you might already offer 60-days of support for free, or price-match competitors. Make sure that these won’t affect your post-Christmas deals, or end up making your prices cheaper than you wanted them.

Will you be running post-Christmas sales this year?

Learn how Hays Sales can help you get bigger and better opportunities. Visit us at http://www.hays.co.uk/sales

Traditional high street shops are preparing to combat online retailers by using new mobile technologies in the run up to Christmas, according to an international commerce specialist.

High street retailers will use mobile apps to monitor customer behaviour and attempt to “steal” shoppers from rival stores. The news comes following industry predictions that online retailers are set to take £10 billion in the lead-up to Christmas for the first time ever, causing the high street to need to find new and exciting ways to protect their market share.

So what do technologies should sales people be telling their customers about?

Geolocation is definitely the most popular, and it’s an offering only a physical retailer can take advantage of. If a customer transmits their location to a retailer, the retailer can respond with nearby stores, deals and stock levels. They can let their customer know that their order is ready to collect, or that there are tables free. They can also entice nearby shoppers in-store by having flash sales, or sending exclusive offers with a certain radius.

Online competitions, mobile payment options and interactive shopping environments are other alternatives that savvy salespeople may be able to interest their customers in, especially just before such a crucial sales period.

Hays Sales is a competitive recruitment company that specialises in executive sales. Check our website for exciting new opportunities: http://www.hays.co.uk/job/sales-jobs.

Speculations are rife that traditional salespeople will be a thing of the past as more and more businesses adopt advanced digital platforms to reach out to their customers. It is not the salespeople but in fact the traditional sales techniques that are fast becoming redundant in today’s technically advanced world.

As technology continues to shape the modern environment, it’s becoming obvious to sellers that they cannot attract customers by applying conventional sales methods.

The pressure to provide fast, reliable and competitive service is always on for the vendor. To stay ahead in the competition, sellers are constantly deploying resources and investing capital. Even though there is a good reason for doing this, sellers most often forget ‘it’s not what you do, it’s how you do it’ that makes all the difference.

So how can you use technology to your advantage?

Modernize: Companies that integrate marketing automation into their process-flows have a better competitive edge. These days, customers often make buying decisions based on their research online; this has made one-on-one selling an obsolete concept. But a salesperson that can study their customers’ buying patterns and learn how they are interacting with the brand will be able to offer more targeted solutions, and make more sales.

Personalised interaction: The best customer is the returning customer; this adage applies to all businesses. New business is good but it’s proved that the existing clientele is the main money-driving machine behind successful companies. After-sales interaction is just as important as pre-sale engagement. Sending automated updates via emails, web links, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media channels is vital for the growth of the business. Personalising these emails with the customer’s name and details about their birthday, even if done using automated services such as email HTML, is likely to increase sales.

Digital Marketing: The use of the web based applications to inform customers about upcoming events, exhibitions, and conferences have become standard. It gives the business the required visibility and creates brand recognition. Developing email campaigns and e-newsletters that can be circulated to customers on an ongoing basis helps in winning the client’s business, as well as keeps them interested in the company’s growth.

Effective use of CRM: Utilising a customer relationship management system is the absolute must in business nowadays. The ability to connect with consumers efficiently and in a timely manner is the key to running a successful company. It’s worth knowing a customer’s feedback in order to improve services and to enhance overall customer experience.

Sales as a profession is changing; it’s come of age, hence it’s important for salespeople to evolve with it. Technology has bestowed a very effective tool upon the modern workforce; it’s now up to us to use it effectively to drive successful businesses in this global marketplace.

Find the most competitive sales jobs through our comprehensive website.

The technology boom has positively impacted retailers across the world and almost doubled their annual sales figures. A survey conducted by Deloitte showed some very powerful evidence to back this claim. Smartphones influence 5.1% of annual retail sales and this is just the start, trade pundits predict this figure will double in the coming years.

To engage with consumers, more and more sellers are adopting technology based services. The intention is to get more visibility and to reach a wider consumer base. Retailers who still follow conventional methods to make sales are quickly losing out and lagging behind.

Deloitte’s study suggests that 61% of smartphone owners use their phones to shop at stores and nearly 48% of smartphone users agreed that their phones influence their decision to buy a product. Using traditional methods of sale may help in retaining current clientele but it does not present the opportunity to attract new customers.

In this day and age, where everything is instant and at the tip of the consumer’s fingertips; technology backed techniques to drive sales are now the industry standard. To market a product or service to the right audience in less time, in the most cost effective manner has taken precedence over any other aspect of retail sales.

Sellers have started focusing on becoming more digitally advanced in order to increase their sales. Mobile shopping apps allow stores to get a substantial amount of business nowadays than any other method used previously. The research conducted by Deloitte confirmed that smartphone users who use shopping apps are more likely to convert and make a purchase in the store than non-smartphone users. The use of mobile phones is evidently influencing consumer behaviour. It is the right time when retailers are getting in and taking full advantage of this technology fuelled consumerism to push their sales even further. This trend will only see an upward movement with time. Deloitte forecasts that by 2016, total retail sales will grow by 19% due to use of smartphones by consumers for buying purposes.

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, visit our website.

If you told your customers that you could tell them the most effective day to post their promotions on, or that you could build a real-time picture of exactly what their customers want, do you think they’d buy?

Thanks to big data, unveiling this kind of vital information is more possible than ever. Projects that amass and analyse vast amounts of data are being adopted by firms across the world, with 18% of midmarket firms having already invested in big data, and 25% more due to invest in 2014. There’s no denying that big data is as popular as ever – but if you are selling big data without talking hardware, you are missing out.

Big data is complex. It’s more than just large quantities of data – it’s data that comes from a wide range of sources at incredible speeds. Traditional systems can struggle to deal with this increased velocity and volume. While conversations about big data typically focus on analytics software, it’s worth talking about commodities, too.

When it comes to infrastructure, the platform chosen needs to be able to manage diverse virtual resources, whilst maximising the productivity of a limited pool of resources. For midmarket companies who can’t afford a major IT transformation, they also need a hardware option that is easy to deploy, and reasonably priced. A turnkey solution, if you like, that takes very little operation but will automatically ingest data and produce information. Selling a company this plug-and-play vision is much easier. It reassures the customer that they will avoid the stress and frustrations of a failing IT system, and gets them ready for the future, too.

Have you found selling infrastructure easier when you combine it with big data?

View our latest sales opportunities across the UK here.

Cloud computing has taken the corporate world by storm. According to a recent study conducted by IBM, 67% of companies with a revenue of under £1 million have adopted the cloud at some level, and many of those companies are already looking to do more than just save money on IT. IBM’s “The Power of Cloud” report found that 16% of respondents plan to use the cloud to innovate. How do you sell innovation benefits to potential buyers, though?

The story of Drivewyze, a Canadian start-up, has become one of the easiest case –study examples of selling the innovation benefits of cloud computing. With an estimated 1.2 million trucking companies in the US, moving nearly 10 billion tons of freight, it’s no wonder that the trucking industry is so important to the American economy. That means maintaining road safety for trucks and other vehicles is an absolute priority for law enforcement agencies. As part of this move, truckers must stop at roadside inspection stations which aim to identify unsafe vehicles. This obviously causes delays.

In an attempt to reduce those delays, Drivewyze piloted a hands-free application that offered a safe and secure way for truckers to request and receive bypass clearance. Drivewyze Preclear uses GPS, cellular and internet networks to verify safety information on trucks, and allow them to bypass if security requirements are met.

Drivewyze used the cloud to extend their existing business ideas, and have become a household name thanks to their great idea. It makes them a really easy way to explain cloud innovation, and a great example of how well it can go if it’s supported from within the business. With the number of companies using the cloud to innovate expected to jump from 16% to 35% over the next two years, it’s a great time to start selling the benefits of innovation.

Do you thrive on selling tech services like the cloud? Click here to see our current vacancies!

The Gartner Outsourcing Summit 2013 came up with some interesting data on the effect of digitisation on IT sourcing.

Surprisingly, 90% of IT budgets could soon be sent outside of the IT department by 2020, to be controlled by business executives. Trends in digitisation and consumerisation are responsible for the shift in control.

Cloud, mobile, social and analytics are all examples of technology that will be moving out of the remit of IT and into the wider business. Gartner analyst Frank Ridder predicted that in 2014, executives from non-IT backgrounds will begin taking on tech procurement abilities. This will lead to changes in the traditional procurement structure, in order to avoid the risk of improper sourcing.

“The ‘no clue’ buyer has arrived. They buy what they want, but do not know how to buy it,” said Ridder, referencing the fact that potentially uninformed business departments will not initially have the knowledge of sourcing best practice. Combine this with the data that says most business executives want to mirror personal technology usage in the workplace and the chance for inefficient purchasing is steep.

CIOs polled by Gartner said that currently 25% of the IT budget is controlled outside of the IT department. By 2015 it is believed that 40% will pass over, before finally arriving at the figure of 90% being out of IT’s control. It is described as an inevitable rather than a possibility that digitising customer services will lead to a reduction in reducing back-off IT costs. The subsequent service industrialisation will free up funding, which will go onto improving digital offerings through investment.

“The money has to be found because CIOs are already planning to increase spending on IT to change the business. The focus for European CIOs for the next few years will be profitability and growth” said Gartner analyst, Claudio Da Rold. 47% of CEOs have a digital strategy at the moment, with that number rising to 80% by 2015. Once again, the drivers behind this will be cloud, social, mobile and analytics.

To make the largest changes and show the best use of innovation, the current allocation of budget will need to be rebalanced. Currently 70% of the budget is spent on running the business, while 30% goes on changes and improvements. A recommended ratio of 50:50 would better serve CEOs to get the balance between functionality and future proofing.

Do you have experience in IT sales? Apply for our latest vacancies here!

Getting your customers to sign up to a service that requires them to relinquish control of 70% of their code requires a lot of trust and confidence. While the latest research suggests that businesses across the UK are interested in PaaS, your selling technique will need to be just right to get them to invest at this stage.

Industry experts suggest that around 70% of software adds no differential business advantage at all. It’s simply software that is required to get the job done. PaaS allows businesses to focus on the 30% of software that does add competitive advantage, making them much more efficient.

The answer to selling PaaS with ease isn’t about understanding the coding more. It’s about using data to sell the benefits, and reassuring the customer that this is the perfect solution for them. Just keeping data in a cloud isn’t typically enough to encourage a customer to buy.

The key benefits that you should be using to sell include:

· Analytics. Businesses like analytics, and the ability to report on what works and what doesn’t. Express how easy it is to find and monitor data, and create excellent reports.

· Integration. No software is an island, and everything needs to integrate with something. Using PaaS makes this integration simple. Have a good knowledge of the key systems your customer is likely to use, and mention whether your PaaS system is integrated with them, or can be. Allowing your customer to use their favourite systems in exchange for keeping their data in your cloud is a very successful selling technique.

· Data Aggregation. Benchmarks are vital to businesses, and they get these through looking at the same data across many customers. Refining this process and making it as efficient as possible is a big business ambition. If your PaaS service can offer this, you’ll be cutting costs as well as delivering valuable data. SalesForce, for example, integrates with Jigsaw. This shows information about any contact that you add to the database, including contact details and job information.

· Other vital applications. These aren’t the only ways PaaS can be used. It could also be used for Disaster Recovery – not only backing up immediate data, but also cloud-based data. Archiving systems are always in demand, and a reduced-functionality front end for use during maintenance is always a popular option. Find ways to meet the business’s needs, and your customer won’t hesitate to buy.

What benefits are you finding the most effective in PaaS sales at the moment?

Are you looking for a job in tech sales? Click here to view our current vacancies.

Geofencing appears to be making a comeback in a big way, according to a new study by Salesforce. The technology, which allows marketers to send messages to smartphone users when they enter a defined geographical area, was first trialled several years ago. It wasn’t as widely adopted as first hoped, but improvements to the service have drastically increased the number of retailers and shopping centers signing up.

Using the technology, sellers can choose to send potential customers a message when they enter their store, shopping centre or neighbourhood. The technology only requires GPS and an app to work, and can easily be integrated into most CRM systems. On a very basic level, this can be used to alert potential customers who may not have visited otherwise. Retailers can also choose to send information, such as directions to the stall, or run hyper-local promotions. 1-800-Flowers deployed this tactic successfully back in February, when they offered a 20% discount on roses to customers who entered their town. It lead to a 300% increase in sales.

Geofencing can also report back on customer behaviour. Some apps will record which shops a customer ended, and almost all will show success metrics. This data can then be used to see which offers and locations actually attract more customers, and whether that translates into more sales. Other possible metrics include the effectiveness of window displays, how often a customer visits the store, and how long they shop for.

Finally, Geofencing can lead to better rewards systems. Once you know where your customers are and how they behave, you can encourage and reward them effortlessly. Neiman Marcus stores even use Geofencing to detect when VIP customers are in store, and look at what they typically buy. This gives the customer a much more personalised service.

While the privacy concerns that blighted the first Geofencing offering still exist, the Salesforce survey indicates that customers are happy to trade their personal information in favour of a better service – but it needs to be additive, not intrusive. Done right, geofencing could revolutionise location-based sales.

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools undoubtedly revolutionised data. Not only do they make data very easy to access, but they provide endless analytics and reports, and may even offer additional monitoring services depending on your choice of CRM. If your CRM isn’t collecting the right information, though, you could be sabotaging your sales team.

Imagine yourself making a sales call, and taking a glance at your CRM before you begin. Most CRMs would show contact details for the customer, as well as their projected revenue, and the anticipated close date. This pipeline-orientated CRM system is the most common type, but it’s not the most efficient. In fact, it often leads to mediocre sales calls, where the sales person is fixated on their own targets, and provides no more than a generic overview of what they are selling.

Now imagine making that call using a customer-orientated CRM. Rather than information about close dates and revenue, you’d see a brief description of the customer, their environment, their goals and challenges, and what success looks like for them. You can make a more personalised call, explaining exactly which of your services are ideal for the customer, and how they will help. The customer will feel that you have spent time and effort on the call, producing a solution that perfectly matches them, rather than feeling like the next in a list of prospects. The CRM has provided more relevant information – and allowed the sales person to quickly link the customers’ idea of success with their own solution.

Telling sales people to focus on the customer isn’t new advice, and it’s still the best tactic. Make sure that your sales strategy aligns with your CRM, though. Move internal metrics and pipeline management behind critical customer information, to ensure that every call is tailored and individual. It’s a competitive advantage that will be quick. It’s a competitive advantage that will be quickly reflected in your bottom line

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

The September slump is well known in sales. Selling can be a tough job, and it’s easy to become disillusioned and demotivated. Seasonal fatigue doesn’t need to reflect in your sales figures, though. There are a number of motivational techniques that can be used in the short-term to boost sales and combat finicky customers and grumpy prospects, leaving your sales team and your bottom line much happier.

The most important point when using motivation to fight fatigue is to remember who you are targeting. While motivation campaigns are usually targeted at a group or employee in particular, seasonal fatigue needs to be targeted in the whole team. Only rewarding your leading sellers won’t fix the actual problem, and could further demotivate your other employees. Your motivational program needs to allow everybody to win, at some level.

One of the easiest ways to motivate employees over a short period is to change commission structures. Offer a higher cut for new models, or low-sellers. Ensure that staff members are encouraged and motivated to sell big, by rewarding them proportionately. Another effective way to reward your staff is to talk to them. Ask your sales team what incentives they’d like. The thing that would get them working the hardest may not be what you expect – while some sales people are motivated by cash, others would prefer the opportunity to telecommute. Business consultants regularly encourage companies to offer vacation days with a paid-for activity, such as golf or fishing, as a sales reward.

Giving employees a quick break during the day has also proven to have excellent results. Try offering ‘power hours’, where an employee can take an hour in the staff room or gym, whenever they need it. Staff will return to work energized and refreshed, and will quickly move through their tasks, often achieving more than they would have done without the hour off.

Some sales teams may also be motivated through the September slump using competitions. Publicly posting sales, margins and conversion rates, for example, can create a game and motivate everyone involved. Telling the whole company about campaigns and targets can help to build energy, too. It’s important to discuss this with your staff, though, to ensure it would be well received.

Have you found any great motivation tactics for your staff?

The recession may have finally ended for the FMCG market, with more shoppers than ever before claiming that they are unaffected.

Shoppercentric, a leading independent shopper research agency, have been monitoring the effect of the financial crisis through a series of reports. Their latest research indicates that shoppers now feel that they can spend freely, and reflect talk of a recovery for the industry.

Back in January, consumer confidence was at an all-time low, with just 8% of shoppers claiming that they were not at all financially impacted by the recession. That figure had risen to 18% in July. The number of people identifying themselves as planners, who don’t need to make changes but do so incase of future issues, decreased from 8% to 6% during the same period.

Parting customers from their cash still requires some savvy selling techniques, however. 28% of UK shoppers admitted to hunting around for bargains, up from 14% in January 2009. Shoppers are still keeping their eyes on prices, with 23% claiming that they record prices and are far more aware than they used to be, and 33% of shoppers admitted to avoiding shops which have a reputation for being expensive or up-market.

The thrifty mind-set is here to stay, too. 28% of shoppers claimed that they actively seek out ways to make products last longer, up 12% from 2009, and 24% of shoppers plan out what they’ll buy before they enter a supermarket, an increase of 10%.

Danielle Pinnington, the Managing Director of Shoppercentric, has claimed that the thrifty habits consumers have learnt during the recession are here to stay. “Even if confidence is starting to grow, the fact is that shoppers continue to show strong feelings towards budgeting and careful spending/consumption…Retailers and brands need to continue to work hard to tune into shopper needs and ensure that promotions reflect this. Retailers need to proactively sell – helping and inspiring shoppers to spend whilst providing good value.”

Do you agree? Are brands and retailers going to have to learn new marketing methods for a thriftier future, or do you think the economy stabilising will promote pre-recession spending levels?

Mobile technology is growing and channel providers are getting excited about the increasing demand for enterprise mobility offerings.

One of the biggest hosting trends at the moment is the hybrid cloud. The integration of private and public cloud offerings allows businesses to increase scalability, security and flexibility, as well as benefitting from greater cost efficiencies.

At the HostingCon 2013 event, panel members highlighted that organisations want flexibility and options, so salespeople need to deliver solutions which cover as much as possible. The complexity of cloud services can prove to be a challenge, but by effectively educating your customers on how the cloud works and what it offers, it is easy to overcome this.

The recent Future of Cloud Computing Survey emphasised that cloud adoption has continued to rise in 2013. 76% of respondents expect hybrid clouds to be at the core of their cloud strategies. The survey also showed that agility and scalability are the primary drivers for cloud adoption, and 6 out of the top 7 fastest areas of growth in cloud applications will be in IT areas such as Big Data, mobile, systems management, backup/DR/BC, helpdesk and security [source: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130619005581/en/2013-Future-Cloud-Computing-Survey-Reveals-Business.]

As cloud adoption increases, the hybrid cloud computing mix and match approach will allow salespeople to stay ahead of their competitors in a wider market.

If you’re looking for your next cloud position, get in touch. Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

The cluster of around 1,300 technology companies in London’s ‘Tech City’ is quickly growing. Young entrepreneurs with niche expertise are hoping to lead the way in boosting the economy through innovations in cloud, mobile and IT sectors.

IT departments often rely on new innovations to solve problems, enhance processes and drive businesses forwards. There are some fantastic opportunities for rising tech start-ups to deliver big ideas and fresh innovations, if they can just increase their brand visibility and build up sales. Many tech start-ups lack the skills to sell themselves as the big global names of the future, but do tend to benefit from having greater flexibility, which is one way to beat their more established competitors.

Investment in tech start-ups is a key priority for the UK government. They have backed London’s Tech City Investment Organisation, which supports local start-ups looking to expand and connects them with potential investors.

London is currently leading the start-up job market with 34% of all current positions. According to Silicon Milkroundabout, 67% of tech workers would be easily persuaded to join a start-up company. Job satisfaction and learning opportunities are high on the priority list of many young tech workers, which is ideal for the tech start-up industry.

Why would you consider joining a tech start-up?


Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

Stephanie Castanha, FMCG Recruitment Consultant at Hays, shares her thoughts on why the food and beverage industry is so popular. An expert in all aspects of FMCG food and beverage, including Grocery Multiples, Foodservice, HORECA, Cash and Carry and Wholesale, she'd be delighted to get in touch with anyone who has experience in FMCG and sales either by email (stephanie.castanha@hays.com ) or via the Sales Specialists UK LinkedIn group.

Saving money remains a top priority for shoppers, these days people are shopping less but with more purpose. However, according to the Food and Drink Business Confidence survey, consumer spending on food began to recover in Q1 2013, and according to global information and insights company Nielsen, European FMCG sales experienced an upturn. This is good news as the FMCG industry is key to achieving the Government's goals for economic growth, exports, employment, environmental sustainability and public health. It’s good news for the sales industry too: as consumer spending increases, food and beverage companies are expanding, leading to a range of challenging opportunities for motivated and ambitious professionals.

As food and beverage companies enjoy sales and business growth, they are also competing to ensure that their brand names are positioned in a positive light and are at the forefront of the market. In light of recent quality concerns within the food and beverage industry, Defra has launched a questionnaire to find out the public’s opinion on UK food supply. This really highlights how important customer opinion is to the market. It influences shopper behaviour, government goals and industry standards. Customers drive sales. It’s more important than ever for successful salespeople to understand their customers.

The food and beverage manufacturing industry is the single largest manufacturing sector in the UK, employing up to 400,000 people (Source: Food and Drink Federation). It’s a competitive, complex and challenging industry to work in, with a real focus on customer demand. As FMCG companies rise to the challenge of catering for busy working consumers with a variety of dietary and health needs, there are opportunities for sales people in a diverse range of roles within both large big-name companies and smaller niche organisations.

What’s more, it's not all about sales. You'll get the chance to work with business areas such as logistics, finance, marketing and more. For a salesperson, managing relationships with multiple manufacturers, retailers, customers and consumers is key. The scope for learning and development within FMCG food and beverage sales is huge.

Our consultants have in-depth knowledge of the FMCG sales jobs market, and help sales professionals across the UK to find jobs matching their skills and personalities. To find out more about how our highly-skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

Adam Horne, IT Sales and Managed Hosting Specialist Consultant at Hays, shares his thoughts on the development of the cloud industry. An expert in all aspects of technical sales, including the IT, managed cloud hosting and infrastructure markets, he would be happy to hear from anyone interested in this post by email (adam.horne@hays.com) or via the Sales Specialists UK LinkedIn group.

There have been some exciting developments within the cloud industry recently. The 2013 Future Of Cloud Computing survey by North Bridge Venture Partners and GigaOM Research has shown that cloud adoption is on the rise, as 75% of those surveyed reported the use of some sort of cloud platform. According to the survey, gaining greater business agility, scalability and cost are the three main drivers of cloud adoption.

The survey also showed that 45% are now using Infrastructure-as-a-Service (Iaas). Whilst Iaas is still a relatively new industry, this is good news for Google, as its highly-anticipated public IaaS cloud offering 'Google Compute Engine' (GCE) has just been released. The GCE boasts to be faster, more efficient and low-cost, but will need to develop its SLA if it wants to compete with Amazon’s offering: ‘Amazon Web Service’ (AWS).

Customers are queuing up for the cloud, not just due to reduced costs, but also for greater flexibility and knowledge options. Big Data has had a huge impact on cloud offerings recently; the ability to manage the vast amounts of data available in a more structured way is helping businesses to grow and develop. For example, cloud computing and Big Data technologies are at the heart of IBM's Smarter Planet initiative. Big data drives results, and in making such an impact, all that data has to be stored somewhere where it can be accessed on demand and in any location.

In addition, the growth of mobile devices is having an impact as people connect online, whilst on-the-go. With built-in GPS, location data works with the cloud to deliver targeted information to mobile users. Data analysis improvements, increased cloud-storage offerings and lower costs mean that Big Data is now available to more people.

What do you see as the next step for the cloud?

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly-skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) is a growing market. According to HfS Research, the global BPO market is set to grow 5.1% in 2013. With a tough economy and fierce competition, organisations are increasingly turning to outsourcing in order to keep costs down. However, it's not all about cost reduction; HfS suggests that the primary motivations for outsourcing are to reduce operating costs, gain greater flexibility and scale, and to standardise processes (Source: Outsourcing to surge in 2013: study).

A strong IT infrastructure is important to any business, and technology is fast becoming the back-bone of BPO offerings. It is critical to remember the relationship between IT and BPO, not just for reducing costs but also to add value and allow a business to become more effective. A recent report from Accenture has shown that high-performance BPO uses technology as a source of innovation. By allowing itself to integrate and develop, the IT industry is, in itself, growing. According to Adzuna, the IT industry had the highest employment growth in the six months from November 2012 to May 2013.

Other developing technologies, such as cloud computing, will help to drive future BPO improvement and innovation. Customers are beginning to expect BPO suppliers to integrate with cloud-based management systems. As BPO and IT continue to gain momentum together, customers are becoming more knowledgeable and more selective about outsourcing. BPO providers need to target their prospects more narrowly in order to maximise the chances of success.

BPO is driving IT in a new direction; allowing businesses to expand whilst reducing spend. It offers a range of growth and development opportunities for salespeople who have a strategic selling approach. BPO sales are won by thought-leaders with great problem-solving skills, who can go into an organisation and really understand their business processes.

Flexibility is becoming a higher priority and by moulding IT, cloud and BPO into flexible, combined packages, salespeople can deliver more strategic and useful solutions to customers in order to drive their businesses forward. Comparable to Solution Sales, BPO salespeople need to be able to understand the customer pain points and use their expertise to advise accordingly, offering joined-up solutions that include elements of IT, BPO and cloud.

Outsourcing is an interesting business, with a vast array of industries to sell into. If you're looking for an opportunity within BPO please visit our website.

Understanding your sales team and what motivates them to sell, succeed and develop, is a key challenge for all Sales Managers.

Some people find the level of supervision they are given, their status within the company, or their relationships with supervisors and peers are vital to their enjoyment of work. Things like company policies, working conditions and job security do make a difference to a person’s job satisfaction, and should certainly be considered when trying to create a happy, harmonious working environment. However, they are more like environmental factors rather than motivators to work hard and succeed.

The main factors to focus on for motivation are:

• The work itself: People will be motivated to do the work if they perceive it to be significant. If you feel your job is worthwhile, you’ll be more likely to approach it with enthusiasm.
• Achievement: People love nothing more than a sense of achievement, to feel they’ve done well and succeeded. Giving your team specific and measurable goals to work towards will help to accomplish this.
• Recognition: Make sure you recognise whenever someone does well, achieves their goal or wins a tough sale. Publicise it to the rest of the team or office. A little recognition for a task well done goes a long way.
• Responsibility: Increasing a person’s responsibility or importance is a great way to motivate them. Put people in charge of small teams or projects and they will run with them with enthusiasm. Keep an eye on anyone you’ve given more responsibility to, as it will almost certainly lead to…
• … Advancement: Getting a promotion is a big motivator for a lot of people. Offering someone the chance to step up in their career is both important to the individual and crucial to enabling business growth.
• Growth: According to Salesforce, over 50% of sales managers are too busy to train and develop their sales teams. You must make time for personal and business development, it’s vital to the success of the business.

Let’s face it, cold calling isn’t popular. Customers complain; people find cold-callers irritating. A recent article in The Telegraph even gave advice on how to ‘outwit’ the cold caller! It’s no wonder salespeople aren’t keen on doing it anymore; it’s repetitive and tough to get through to the right person.

“Cold calling is dead” can be a popular excuse for salespeople not to bother. But cold calling can still work. It just depends on how you approach it. Starting out with a defeatist attitude certainly won’t help. Here are a few tips to improve your cold calling process:

1. Know your market and find the right data to hook in your target audience.

2. Give a good reason for your call: an upcoming webinar or seminar, a change in legislation that they need to be aware of, something that will make it worth their while and give you an edge over just trying to sell.

3. Don’t necessarily stick to a sales script. Work on your message, make sure your personality comes across and be more conversational in order to win over the person you’re calling.

4. Don’t try to sell straight away. Set smaller goals such as getting an appointment, you can hard-sell in a meeting later on.

5. Be persistent but know when to stop.

Do your sales team still do cold calling? What works for you?

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

Reaching popularity in the 80’s, there was a major shift from selling products and what they could do to selling Solutions that address customer’s pain points. Rather than saying “our product does this”, salespeople started saying “What are your problems? How can we find the right solution for you?”

The success of Solutions Selling has almost become a cliché these days, with many companies even adding ‘solutions’ to their company name. Some have even broken into sub-genres such as ‘complex solutions’, or ‘horizontal solutions’.

Some people say that Solutions Selling is dead. Buying habits have changed; customers have access to more information and are becoming more independent. Defining their own solutions, they are increasingly only coming to salespeople for a competitive price.

Solutions Selling isn’t dead. It’s just shifted into Insight Selling. So how do you get ahead in the solutions market? Raise your game and challenge your customer with new insights into problems they never knew they had, offering unique solutions that only you can provide. The Solutions salesperson should be able to give high-level insight and expertise, building technical business cases for customers. Now more than ever, the Solutions Salesperson needs to be determined, driven and hungry for success.

Are you up for the challenge?

We’re always looking for talented and driven salespeople for a variety of sales roles. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

Sales Managers should be the link between the sales and marketing departments. It’s critical for the Sales Manager to ensure that both departments communicate with and understand one another.

According to Forrester Research, only 8% of B2B companies say they have a strong alignment between sales and marketing, which means 92% have a serious problem (source: Corporate Visions).

Communication is key; we've put together a few pointers to ensure cohesion in the workplace:

• It’s best to bring the two teams together from the start in order to collaborate on key messages and avoid conflict. Involve both teams in decision making processes and manage expectations in order to achieve your goals together.
• Tell your marketing department about any projects your team is working on; ask them to support the sales efforts with targeted campaigns. For example, if you’re pushing a particular product or feature this month, make sure marketing can back it up with a mailer, social media post or blog. Likewise, talk to the marketing team to find out what they’re working on so that your sales team can support them by mentioning relevant campaigns in their sales calls or emails.
• Decide early on who is in charge of lead nurturing and reporting. The battle over lead generation is a big one. Aside from commission, recognition remains a high motivator in any area of business so it’s important to have a clear way of defining who to give credit to once a deal has closed. 

The best form of leadership is to lead by example.

As a Sales Manager, you probably demand that your team gives 110%, or more. This is great; you’re pushing your team to be the best, but do you show your team that you’re matching their efforts? If you ask them to put in extra hours, have you been seen to be doing the same? You can’t expect others to do more if you're not prepared to yourself. You set the standard.

Managers are often distanced from their team, perhaps confined to an office rather than ‘in the pit’ with the others. But you’re still a key member of the team. Staying late with them shows that you’re all in it together and sets an example for those who might not be so keen to put in the extra work.

Leading from the front will allow you to drive development, gain respect and remain a real part of your sales team. It’s critical for getting a real understanding of the sales process and establishing yourself as a strong leader.

A successful Sales Manager sets and raises the bar when it comes to commitment and achievement. You might even inspire one of your team to step up and make the transition into management themselves.

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

The job of hiring new sales people usually falls to the Sales Manager; after all, they’re going to end up in your team, so you need to make sure you’ve got the best people. But it can be risky and tough to get right. If you’ve had trouble making the right decisions in the past and ended up with a team you’re not entirely confident about, it might have something to do with your approach.

With this in mind, here are just a few points to consider to when making a new sales hire:

Be prepared
Put the Scouts’ motto into practice and be prepared from the moment you begin the recruitment process. Compile a list of comprehensive questions which you want to ask interviewees and make sure that you are equipped to answer any queries which they may put to you about the role or your company. You should also be prepared to screen applicants thoroughly – never rush to fill a position before you’ve found a truly suitable candidate.

Be specific
Put together a detailed job specification highlighting exactly what is involved in each sales role that you are hiring for and what you will expect from the successful candidate. This can help to ensure that you attract those who have the necessary skills to meet key sales targets. Doing so can also prove useful when it comes to conducting performance reviews further down the line.

Be impartial
If a candidate impresses you at interview, you may find that you are tempted to hire them without further assessment. However, whilst the ability to make a positive first impression is important, personality alone is rarely enough to drive sales. Using assessment tests to evaluate key skills and core values can offer an impartial insight into whether or not a candidate is good fit for the role.

Be committed
Even when you’ve found the perfect salesperson, you are unlikely to get the best results without providing a certain amount of introductory training and support. Make sure you have a development plan in place to encourage your new hires to expand upon their existing skillset. In addition, it can be advisable to identify the ways in which your latest recruit can play to their strengths within the team as a whole.

Hiring the perfect salesperson is not always an easy task, but it is something which it is worth ensuring you get right first time. Failure to hire a successful salesperson can prove costly for a company, as well as detrimental to the rest of your team, so taking the time to find an ideal candidate is certainly worth the extra effort.

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

The packaging sector can offer plenty of opportunity to develop and grow as a salesperson. However, those working within this field are likely to be faced with a number of unique challenges as their career progresses and they develop their packaging sales skills.

For those considering a career within packaging sales, here are just a few of the challenges which you can expect to encounter:

• Tailored productsWithin the packaging industry, products are often tailored to meet the exact demands and requirements of the client – more so than within many other sectors. This presents a number of challenges to salespeople working within this field. Not only will you need to have a detailed understanding of the packaging solutions that your company offers but, in order to be successful in making sales, you will want to develop a thorough knowledge of what is required by the businesses that you are hoping to sell to. 

• Trend awareness Perhaps the trend which has had the greatest impact on the packaging industry over recent years is that of eco-awareness and environmentally-friendly packaging. As a salesperson within this sector, you will need to keep up-to-date with the latest ‘green’ developments and ensure that you are confident in talking about the benefits which your product or service may hold for potential clients. 

• Entrepreneurial attitudeThe packaging industry is one which is continuing to evolve, with packing solutions having advanced significantly over recent years. As such, those working within packaging sales need to demonstrate an entrepreneurial approach to their product and services. You will need to be willing to embrace innovation and prepared to regularly refresh your knowledge and understanding of the industry. Doing so can be key in achieving success as a salesperson within this sector. 

1. Communicate 
A Sales Manager needs to communicate with every area of the business. You might need to meet with Directors or department heads regularly so you know what impact sales will have on the entire business. It is particularly important to communicate with the Marketing team, you can advise them what your team is focusing on and what you need them to focus on, a joined-up strategy with work best for the business. Keep your sales team in the loop as much as you can, the more you can tell them, the more they will trust you and the more they can do. 

Momentum in the retail industry has continued to rise since last year, but the British weather continues to dampen sales. Can a new approach offer retail a way forward?

The Office for National Statistics has released a report showing that March 2013 was the second coldest on record. Feedback from department stores, clothing stores and household goods stores highlighted the notion that the cold snap had a negative effect on sales in the non-food sector.

However, Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, the financial data provider, has said that the economy had regained some of its momentum in 2013, adding “The upward trend in sales has followed a steady improvement in consumer confidence since late last year.”

The latest trend in retail sales is to offer customers a service across different retail channels such as shops, the internet and mobile apps. A move towards internet and mobile retails channels would certainly avoid the weather issue.

This “Multichannel” retailing is beginning to appear at the core of many sales strategies, offering customers a more rounded experience. But with multichannel retailing dictated more by the customer, than processes, how much can Sales Managers effectively forecast and plan?

Do manage retail sales? What are your biggest challenges?

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

All sales roles differ slightly, but there are some aspects of those found within the FMCG sector which are likely to be relatively similar. If you are considering a career within FMCG sales, here’s a brief guide to what you can expect.

Competition
The FMCG industry is currently one of the most popular destinations for those looking to build a career in sales, partly due to the fact that it is a sector which performed comparatively well throughout the recession. Therefore, you’ll need to be driven and thrive on the competition if you want to make it to the top. You’ll need to be self-motivated and have a good commercial awareness of FMCG brands.

A Fast Pace
By its very nature, FMCG is a fast-paced industry, and this is reflected within the majority of sales teams. However, individuals who can keep on top of industry changes and contribute to a brand increasing their revenue or market share are likely to progress quickly in their sales career. Depending on the brands who you are working with, the FMCG sector can offer the opportunity to experience being part of a local, global or national sales team.

Originality
Working within an FMCG sales role can require thinking out of the box. This is often the place where innovative sales strategies are developed and creativity can be the key to success. You should have a passion for the industry as a whole, as well as for developing you sales skills, and be determined to stand out from the crowd.

What skills could you bring to an FMCG sales role?

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

Behind the best sales teams there is often a great sales leader. However, if you wish to stay ahead of your competitors, then it is worth reviewing your leadership strategy on a regular basis and working to improve your sales leadership skills. Here are just a few tips on how to be a better leader to your sales team and ensure continuing sales success:

Play to Your Strengths
It is more than likely that not everyone in your team will approach sales in exactly the same way. Some sales leaders see it as their responsibility to ensure that team members conform to a particular sales strategy, yet it can also be worth considering how your team might play to their individual strengths. Getting to know members of your team and understanding how they work best can be key in ensuring that your team are as effective as possible.

Inspire Your Team
Sales targets are far from the only way of making sure that your sales team remain motivated. Those working in sales leadership should not only understand how to motivate a team, but also how to inspire them. Share your vision as well as your personal sales tips, techniques and experiences if you really want to get your entire team on board.

Delegate and Filter
As a sales leader, you will be bridging the gap between salespeople and sales managers. As such, it is important to recognise how much information needs to be relayed between teams, and what should be given priority. In any leadership role, being able to delegate effectively is also essential, and it is worth evaluating how well you do this on a regular basis.

Innovate
Sales methods and strategies are constantly evolving and, as a sales leader, you will need to make sure that you stay ahead of the trend. Don’t be afraid to implement a new approach – being a good leader is likely to involve taking a few risks. Never let yourself or your team get stuck in a sales rut and always be open to new ideas which might help to increase sales.

How do you make sure your team stay ahead of the latest sales trends?

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

A big part of the sales manager’s role is to monitor the strategies being used to drive sales and recognise when a change needs to be made in the approach of a sales person or team. However, implementing a new sales strategy is not always easy, especially amongst those who have been working in a certain way for a long time. Here are a few suggestions as to how you can implement a sales strategy as seamlessly as possible.