Business Advice pressured on the spot. In reality, we do real plays, not role plays. We carry out a diagnostic review with participants before any training even starts, so we understand their world and they understand that we’ re not there to catch them out. It’ s a tough job already; we’ re here to make it easier, not harder.
Q: How has the profile of“ good salesmanship” changed over the last five years or so?
Leyla Jama: Technology and social media have changed a lot. On one hand you’ ve got AI trying to make cold calls, which really isn’ t the way to go, and on the other, buyers now have far more choice. Prospects might be Googling us mid-pitch to check we are who we say we are. In some ways that makes it tougher for anyone who isn’ t genuinely honest, which is a good thing. I think it means you have to be more refined in your sales methodology. We stand out through demonstrating courtesy and through genuinely being proud of what we do. This is where my background in rhetoric really comes in. Over 2,000 years ago, Aristotle studied at Plato’ s Academy at a time when the Sophists were famous for teaching the art of persuasion.
They were criticised for using clever argument to win regardless of the truth, the idea being that a skilled Sophist could almost convince you an orange was an apple. Aristotle took a different path. His work on rhetoric gave us three principles: ethos- trust, pathos- emotion, and logos- reason. Together, they remain at the heart of powerful communication today. You can be relentless and driven in sales without compromising on ethics.
Q: AI and automation are reshaping a lot of sales processes. Where do you see the line between what technology should handle and what still needs a human touch?
Leyla Jama: There was research done last year on what customer-facing businesses think AI will and won’ t replace, and the encouraging finding was that soft skills are still seen as fundamentally human, especially when we consider EI. People buy from people they like, and that moment of genuine connection, AI simply can’ t replicate that.
Where AI is brilliant, and especially for smaller, time-poor businesses, is with the legwork: organising, admin, giving you a starting point, reaching out and warming your leads before you call them. For example, I’ d never write a training report using AI, but I might run it through afterwards to proofread, because that saves me twenty minutes I can then spend on the human parts of the job. It’ s a tool, and like any tool, if you misuse it, you see the consequences of that.
Q: What’ s a sale you personally remember losing that taught you more than one you won?
Leyla Jama: For anyone who’ s worked in sales, missing a target is heartbreaking, and somehow it’ s worse when you miss by an inch rather than a mile. Early in my career at Graduate Prospects, I inherited a relationship with KPMG that had gone badly before I arrived. After months of work, I finally got a slot to present to them, at 3pm, the worst possible time, and it ran over so I only had ten minutes instead of thirty. I used what we call“ The Magic Question / TMQ”: asking permission before asking a question, then asking what they wanted from the session.
The answer to the TMQ enabled me to cut my presentation right down to their real needs quickly, but I still walked away with a no that day. About six months later I ran into one of the people from that meeting at an awards event. She told me the whole team had been hungover that day and the session had overrun, but that my presentation had been excellent, and they invited me back in. It still took the best part of a year of consistent follow-ups, before it finally converted into around ten thousand pounds of business. That’ s the lesson: if you know you’ re doing the right things at the right time, you don’ t lose confidence in the same way. It’ s not about having“ the gift of the gab,” it’ s a skill.
Q: If you could get every SME owner in Lancashire to fix one thing about how their team approaches sales, what would it be?
Leyla Jama: Work with us at Sellology, to put a systemised approach in place, and give people the time and routine to actually follow it. People naturally gravitate to the tasks they enjoy and avoid the ones they don’ t, chasing a tricky customer or making a cold call being the classic examples, often because they don’ t know how to approach them or they are worried about the objections they may need to overcome. There’ s a phrase,‘ eat the frog’, from Mark Twain:“ If it’ s your job to eat a frog, it’ s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’ s your job to eat two frogs, it’ s best to eat the biggest one first”. It’ s about being honest with yourself: if you haven’ t made a call, it’ s usually because you didn’ t feel like it, and that’ s human, but part of the job is getting in front of people regardless and that’ s where our methodology helps.
Q: Anything else you wanted to get across?
Leyla Jama: Sales having a reputation as a“ dirty word” really gets to me. I have been selling for 25 years, Sellology has 100 years combined experience to date, and none of it has needed to be dishonest to work. Without a system, a methodology, and an understanding of what you’ re doing and why, you’ re just winging it, and that’ s not fair on anyone. Nobody would pick up a rugby ball and be expected to play a full match and win, without understanding the rules and practising first; sales is exactly the same. It’ s not just sales either, it applies to customer service, chasing accounts, internal management and conversations, anywhere you’ re trying to influence someone. It’ s not about pulling the wool over people’ s eyes. It’ s about opening them. Moving forward, we are designing our online training tools, so our training becomes more accessible for teams to continuously develop their skills. That matters especially for SMEs, where budgets are tight and often the owner holds most of the sales knowledge that the rest of the team doesn’ t have. We build that owner knowledge into the system itself, so it becomes win-win for everyone. lancschamber. co. uk 39