Nicky Pattinson is a straight talking, sharp shooting, high flying sales professional. Her ability to instantly build rapport and thoroughly engage people is breathtaking (believe me, I've seen her in action!). Over the past decade she has written multi-million pounds worth of new business and now she's on a path to empower others with her secrets of selling success....
The Interview
DS: What was it that initially inspired you to get into sales?
NP: DESPERATION INSPIRED ME – nothing like being down on yer luck to get those feet DANCING. However, before my ‘demise’ I’d done SOME kind of sales most of my life (hard to be lonely when you meet people fer a LIVING).
DS: Did you experience any fear as you made your first sales call or did it come very naturally to you?
NP: NERVOUS??? OHHHH MY LIFE DAMIEN, that fear came from the CORE of my BEING!!! - or then again, is it like ‘ACTORS ADRENALINE’. Would even the GREAT THEATRICALS be just as electrifying if they didn’t get the jitters a BIT as they stood in the WINGS???
DS: What qualities do you believe make a successful sales professional?
NP: The SAME THING that creates an ANYTHING professional and exceptional ..FOCUS, COURAGE, CLARITY, HONOUR, DREAMS – and giving out an EMOTIONAL INVESTMENT to everyone you ENCOUNTER.
DS: Do you think great sales professionals are born or made?
NP: SALESMEN are probably MADE – but you make that shift YOURSELF, from the INSIDE.
DS: What is the best way to warm up cold calling?
NP: WARM UP COLD CALLING??? - well that is certainly back to giving an EMOTIONAL INVESTMENT. Why should anyone be warm back to YOU if you just treat them as a way to get what YOU WANT??? Like a script to a walking cheque book??? It’s just not like that – the world has CHANGED. ALSO – PLEASE throw the ‘MOGODON’ in the BIN – and chuck away those hideously rigid SALES SCRIPTS!!!
DS: What simple and practicle steps can small business owners take to increase their sales performance?
NP: BE VERY FOCUSED and CLEAR as to what kind of clients are going to DEFINE your company. Write them down – put it to paper and keep it at the side of the bed and in your pocket or journal...... LIVE IT!!! and block out all outside influences saying you CAN’T. Most people aren’t successful because they don’t take time to consider what THAT MEANS for THEM. ONCE YOU ARE TRULY SURE – then pick up that fone and BEAT YOUR PATH. Even if you don’t end up with exactly what you had in mind – you’ll look back and be amazed at how far you’ve COME!!! Don’t feel bad about approaching someone – most companies will have someone just like YOU at the back door shovelling the coal out. It’s the natural way of distributing wealth – no company must think the CHAIN BREAKS with THEM, because it DOESN’T.
DS: Who's the best salesperson you have encountered and what made them so special?
NP: DEFINITELY JULIAN KYNASTON of PROPAGANDA who gave me my FIRST CHANCE after being on the dole – we could fight like children all the way to and from a meeting, but when we got there we created a RAPPORT and a FUNCTIONAL FAMILY that people just wanted to be PART OF...... Really – I owe him a lot and rang him a couple of weeks ago to say so.
DS: What are the three most important lessons you have learned about selling and business generally?
NP: WELL...... No 1 is WITHOUT DOUBT let there be NO CONFUSION as to your WORTH!!! Personally I am getting a bit pissed off with the way ‘we’ are treated/percieved in the UK. I was with a company in London last week whose telesales people generated 150 million £s worth of revenue A YEAR. NOW – let’s get real here, that’s just ONE company in ONE CITY. Take us all away and see the economy go for a little DIP THEN EHHH??? Where’s the money going to come from THEN!!! YER – there WOULD be something to WINGE ABOUT if that happened wouldn’t there??? SO COMMAND SOME RESPECT!!! BUT FIRST – WE sometimes need that little fact pointed out to us, because a lot of the people I meet buy into others very false perceptions.
NO. 2 Read a couple of good body language books – and always make sure you look FANTASTIC. A decision is made on you within the FIRST 4 SECONDS – (so no more wobbly lipstick Nicky). Create your OWN PERSONAL BRAND and have a ‘WAY’ or a ‘CALLING CARD’ and be the one and only .......... YOU.
No. 3) THE HARDEST FER ME – I’m RUBBISH AT IT..... DO YER BILLING ON TIME!!! (that too is self worth, and a part of it that I’ve only just WOKEN UP TO!!!).
DS: What's the number one book you would recommend to aspiring sales professionals?
NP: JOE VITALE – THE ATTRACTOR FACTOR BY WILEY........ ALWAYS has me jumpin’ up and down.
DS: What memorable mistakes, if any, have you made in sales? What did you learn from them and how can they be avoided?
NP: HOW LONG HAVE WE GOT??? - I STILL make mistakes.... But the greatest mistake of them ALL is to not move on from it, don’t allow it to CONSUME YOU. In the scheme of things, you would have to make a million mistakes a year to stop you getting to where you want to END UP if you’re SURE ENOUGH. The ‘NAME CHIP’ in my head is FULL THO – I did a seminar a month ago and had to ask one of the (fabulous) guys what the name of their COMPANY WAS!!!.....(Thank God I had the character to carry it OFF).
DS: What are the best and worst things about being in sales?
NP: BEST – the ADVENTURE...... Honest, LORD OF THE RINGS has NOTHING on this. WORST..... It can be LONELY, that’s why we all STICK TOGETHER.
DS: Are there any other thoughts, insights, or advice for aspiring sales professionals that you'd like to add?
NP: YES!!! get so unshakeably strong inside that there is no negotiation as to the outcome of your life. GET UP AT 6:30 and read a couple of chapters of an inspirational book, then exercise with your mind visualising and your heart feeling all those new business opportunities filling up your diary. When we sleep, our energy becomes stagnant and has to be re-calibrated in the morning or we never feel ‘PUT TOGETHER’. MOST SALES are aspirational – you have to bring this into every phone call and meeting you do. SO, whether you want more plumbing business, to sell more newspapers, cars, accountancy services or what the HELL......YOU have to feel it FIRST.THEN – you become a MASTER/ADVANCED STORY TELLER to get your pitch across and BINGO – you stand out in a world. In business ALL AREAS are now SATURATED. BUT saturated with MEDIOCRITY most of the time. If you’re reading this – you’re already being tugged by the rope that will yank you out of the HOLE .....so come on DO IT!!! DO IT!!! DO IT!!!
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