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Sales with Anja Rogan Pirc

Selling is a difficult skill. Graham’s career started in sales but we have Anja Rogan Pirc to tell us all about sales from her perspective. Anja is world famous because she’s an international best-selling author, a public speaker and a charming person!

Also, we just want to congratulate Kevin again on becoming a Grandad to baby Louis! Sending love to the family!

Anja Rogan Pirc talks sales with hosts Graham Arrowsmith and Kevin Appleby on the next 100 days podcast

Anja’s journey to sales

It started in sales door to door about 10 years ago. Anja was originally an au pair in England and she felt bored when the kids were at school or when she had the weekend off. Therefore, Anja was creating holiday and Christmas cards – being a creative soul – and sold them door to door. It was just for fun really.

But, when she went home, reality sank in that she needed to either go back to university or get a job. Without a diploma, it is hard to get a job that isn’t low-qualification, such as cleaning, etc. But, another option was sales and so Anja tried that, selling vacuums door to door. Though this sounds boring, Anja was excited about this product because it was a vacuum that helped people with asthma. For her, this job wasn’t just about selling. It was about the product itself and being excited about it, to help her sell well.

From there, Anja found other industries which she helped promote. She was present wherever she could be, helping run seminars for example. When she was behind the curtains, there were lots of opportunities to learn for free because you can see how everything is put together and managed. This grew into the position of sales manager and then sales executive within different global companies.

 

Value

Anja keeps returning to the idea of value – it’s your value that makes you stand out. In Kevin’s industry, quite a lot of the leaders – indeed, almost all – will be male. So, a stand-out woman will stand out because of her extra value.

Selling in general comes down to the idea of an attractive value proposition, and it’s this proposition that has to come through rather than the personalities or genders (etc) of the people selling.

Graham notes that, on Anja’s website, she has the sort of questions that Graham (being a fellow salesperson) knows he would have. It shows her skill because sometimes you might have had a rubbish day. One of the first questions Anja poses is:

“Are your potential clients or customers currently saying no to you?”

And this tunes into your struggle with sales.

So, why are they saying no?

 

This is such a broad question because everyone has different perspectives. Some have mainframe issues, where they struggle with the product; they might not feel confident or competent enough to deliver that product. Others may simply not be able to sell right – you don’t have a system and don’t know what steps to take and how to take those steps so that the process feels natural and leads to an organic and certain question “when do we start?”

The price won’t matter because both the value and the process feels right. Some people struggle to gain converts because they are going to where they think they are needed. Now, we know that you should never go to where you are needed. You should go where you are wanted. Essentially, the reason prospects say no will not be the same for everyone. But these aspects will filter through the reasons for you personally.

One of the key things to remember – no matter what we are selling – is we are selling to people. Marketers and sales people are people-people. Whatever it is that throws you off – whether it just be a bad day or a more long-term problem – Anja helps sales people look at that problem and deal with it and show how it effects prospects.

 

Anja’s character

As a creative soul, Anja isn’t all together the most organised. She much prefers to be flexible. And this was the way she learnt to grow and be successful. Because she never really knew how to react or respond.

Anja chooses to work with people who are committed to a good cause and want to get the job done. Also, those who are reliable. She loves that people are comfortable with her, can trust her and rely on her.

Sales conversations

On Anja’s website, she mentioned 4 steps for sale conversations:

  1. Get professional feedback from an experienced sales executive and learn how to close clients with ease – this is for people who don’t really care for sales; who don’t want to be pushy. There are so many programmes out there that just don’t work. You need to get professional feedback to what it is you’re doing wrong – what step are you missing or don’t know that you need to do? Lots of people improvise and wing their sales. Anja does role-play and gives feedback so her clients know exactly what they’re doing wrong when it comes to sales.
  2. Raise your confidence level and improve your results by upgrading your sales skills – how do you lift someone’s confidence? Again, it’s an approach that is tailored to the individual. Anja loves to have at least one 1:1 meeting with her clients, because she needs to feel and see where they are at personally. This helps her training. 
  3. Master the 5-step Sales Formula to get maximum results – what’s a glimpse of that formula? A lot of people are trying to wing it. This is a mistake if you want to be successful in your business. The 5 step formula has been created to help you keep control of the conversation, to know where you are and to keep you confident and comfortable, as this shows when you’re selling. You need to have phases that encourage people through steps and be the influencer, not the influenced. The conversation you have needs to make sense and encourage the prospect to the right conclusion; is it the right fit for you, or not?
  4. Practice until selling with integrity becomes your second nature.

How do we find Anja?

Her website is the easiest way to contact Anja. It’s not meant to sell anything but just a point of contact for a conversation.

Who has impressed you? Who is your inspiration?

That’s a tricky question. Anja finds inspiration many people. The main element to these people is commitment to passions and the businesses they own.

One of them is a co-founder of a big international company. He took Anja as an equal and friends, listening to her advice. 80 years old and still in business – now that is inspiring. There are, of course, big names in that list. However, she doesn’t limit who or what inspires her. Ultimately, Anja loves people and so she is inspired by people.

You can email Anja at connect@anjaroganpirc.com or visit her site here.

We hope all are taking care during this time. As Anja says, this is not the time to do nothing. It is the time to do those things you have been putting off, and taking steps to ensure your business can be as successful as possible.