The Shift Control Sales Podcast

For me the jury is out when it comes to NLP, DISC profiles and the rest...learned recently that I'm more of a skeptic than a cynic when it comes to this sort of thing but it made me wonder about other aspects of personality and the softer skills when it comes to selling. I also learned that there are as many as 12 learning styles - I had thought there were 4...audio, visual, kinaesthetic and digit...

Some thoughts on what might well be the most important part of the sales role - territory planning and forecasting. There is an obvious logic to planning in almost every aspect of our lives and yet when it comes to sales management and sales that's not often the case. This podcast is a quick run through some tips and ideas to help with planning a sales territory for. the next 12 months - helpful,...

Around this time each year, I get asked to speak to a group of business owners from across Northern Ireland - the brief: "What's new in sales?" Everyone wants to hear what's new in sales - quite rightly. Any new methodologies? Technologies? Routes to market? What is everyone else doing? The truth is that pretty much everyone else is making some basic mistakes - across acquisition and retention. In...

A series of short-form podcasts - only a few minutes long - with some areas that I think are worthy of consideration if you are struggling in sales. All based on experience as a sales person - been guilty of a few of these myself for sure - and most of them I have seen from the position of a sales coach and trainer. We all know that relationships are based on trust - are we doing enough? Do we hav...

A series of short-form podcasts - only a few minutes long - with some areas that I think are worthy of consideration if you are struggling in sales. All based on experience as a sales person - been guilty of a few of these myself for sure - and most of them I have seen from the position of a sales coach and trainer. It all depends on the sales cycle - 6 months to 18 months or more...or even a mont...

A series of short-form podcasts - only a few minutes long - with some areas that I think are worthy of consideration if you are struggling in sales. All based on experience as a sales person - been guilty of a few of these myself for sure - and most of them I have seen from the position of a sales coach and trainer. A classic here - many people ridicule this notion..."communicating value" but the...

A series of short-form podcasts - only a few minutes long - with some areas that I think are worthy of consideration if you are struggling in sales. All based on experience as a sales person - been guilty of a few of these myself for sure - and most of them I have seen from the position of a sales coach and trainer. This one is about all those times when we think we don't need to, or don't make ti...

A series of short-form podcasts - only a few minutes long - with some areas that I think are worthy of consideration if you are struggling in sales. All based on experience as a sales person - been guilty of a few of these myself for sure - and most of them I have seen from the position of a sales coach and trainer. This episode is where we find ourselves spending too much time talking about ourse...

A week has passed since I made the veneration at the altar of Bruce Springsteen whilst making my first stay at the Merrion hotel. It made me think about what good customer service looks like - how good brands not only read the room, they anticipate it. Again and again. Against a back drop of the music, whiskey and craic was the headline dominating domestic abuse claim levied at an inter county man...

How do you decompress from a hard shift in the office or out in the field? "Climb a mountain or jump in a lake?"

A busy time of year for many businesses as they close off 2023 and gear up for 2024. By the end of March 2023, 5 of my customers will have activated significant campaigns to target new business across the North of Ireland - from completely different sectors. Great to see sales and marketing teams working together for that common goal - I have always been an advocate of collaboration but sometimes...

This podcast takes a few left turns on the way to talking about the 3 fundamental reasons why you should consider sales training for your business...there might even be a fourth. On the way I talk about the cost of creativity - thanks to ChatGPT, MidJourney, Fiverr etc...creativity can be funded from petty cash compared to 'back in the day.' Less than 20 years ago, let's say. Then onto one of the...

This episode is nothing short of a signpost to another podcaster and a specific podcast - Lex Fridman and Chris Voss on the Lex Fridman Podcast. If you're interested in fine-tuning your negotiation skills this episode gives a brilliant insight into human behaviour, emotional intelligence and helps explain some of the common stumbling blocks that we all face. I have listened to the episode 2 or 3 t...

In the world of sales, closing deals and generating revenue are often seen as the most important metrics of success. However, what is often overlooked is the role that empathy plays in achieving those goals. Empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, is a crucial skill that sales professionals need to possess in order to succeed. Everyone might have heard of Emotional int...

Root cause analysis is a method used to identify the underlying reasons or causes of a problem or issue. The goal of root cause analysis is to uncover the source of the problem and address it at its root, rather than simply treating its symptoms. This approach to problem-solving has been widely adopted across a range of industries, including business and sales. The origins of root cause analysis c...

The quality of the work at the very first stage of any sales process usually defines the success of the campaign – get it wrong at the start and the ending will be predictably bad. Get it right and it can be a game changer. For salespeople and sales management alike, the art of prospecting is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it is the lifeblood of sales success – without a steady stream of quali...

I reckon I'm qualified to post this podcast based as much on a legacy of failures in negotiation and the odd success. I have been holding back on recording a podcast on negotiation - it's a complex area, with hours of content but you have to start somewhere. Negotiation is the business end of sales - where you earn your commission or get sacked, as I once did. Sources I would recommend are the Neg...

January is a tough month for most of us - it's especially tough if you work in sales, either as a sales leader or in business development. January is usually a time for rate increases. It's also the time of year that buyers and prospects can easily avoid your calls - which leads to no meetings for the month. Unless you have planned. Seasonal mood swing compounded by dark and cold mornings and even...

If you've tried writing a blog for your website, what is the most important thing for you? Creating more SEO content? Posting engaging and meaningful content for prospects and potential customers? Satisfying Google? Making sales? Some of the above? Over the last year I had been looking at a number of AI content providers - Jasper being the first and more recently, ChatGPT. To get a sense of the cu...

Three weeks from now the Qatar World Cup will be over and our news media will be filled with other local, regional, national or international stories, all made important by editorial staff, driving circulations and audience figures to satisfy greedy media owners and large corporations. Think of everything else that's ongoing in our world just now - there are plenty of news worthy items to lead the...

If you think you don't have enough acronyms in your life then this podcast is for you. Thinking acronyms in sales - BANT, ANUM, FAINT...so many that are centred on the N word...NEED. I share a story about working in a start up and building a pipeline of sales to almost £2m...based on what the customer needed...Except it turns out that they didn't need it...

Oonagh O'Reilly has been involved in sales in one form or another from the early days learning on the farm to various high performing roles with the NI Chamber of Commerce, The IFA and the ICC Belfast. We have a varied conversation - the importance of having a purpose and vision, getting a handle on the basics of sales and marketing which allows you to not have to worry about revenue and some valu...

With sales training there aren't many guarantees although the degree of certainty does improve dependant on a number of factors. A clear strategy, willingness to learn & coach-ability, strong leadership, a sound and understood culture, buy-in. I try hard to live by the idiom "it's not about being right but about doing the right thing that matters." Behavioural change isn't easy - especially if you...

Emotional intelligence fits in as a logical 3rd episode in this series...all about being more self aware, understanding what prompts your feelings and the responses to those feelings. 2 men that I worked with in the past used to say: 'Try and see the picture in the other man's head.' Says it all - or most of it anyway - Daniel Goleman gets the credit for EQ and he is worth checking out in TED Talk...

We all suffer from setbacks - there is no escaping that fact. In sales we think that we encounter more of them on a daily basis - rejection, ghosting, the competition, the economy all can put greater pressure on us to perform. In this brief podcast, through my work as a coach and as a sales person, I share some tips that might help you build up your resilience and deal better with the challenges t...