Ian Wainwright, broker sales director at Ecclesiastical Insurance Group, talks about how churches, Churchill and Chevettes have influenced his career in sales.
1. What was the first thing you sold?
Bikes. I used to buy old pushbikes, do them up, respray them and sell them through ads in the local paper. It must have been when I was 13 or 14, and I had an entrepreneurial spirit even then. I did my first bike in my bedroom and got spray paint on the wardrobe, which never came off. My parents were not amused.
2. Did you intend to go into sales when you started your career?
No. I left school with A levels but never went to university. I wrote to local companies for a job and got one with Royal Life on their management training programme. I started specialising in risk control surveys on buildings, ranging from the Royal Albert Hall to back street lock-up garages. I loved getting out and meeting people who were really passionate about their business, for them it wasn’t work, it was their life.
However, after a couple of years I got slightly disillusioned and moved to Ecclesiastica. I became an inspector surveyor which is effectively selling insurance to brokers, although it’s closer to account management. It was the best of both worlds in that I got out to meet people but was still involved with the intricacies of the product.
3. What’s the single most important quality you need to succeed as a salesperson?
A lot of people in sales roles say patience but it’s the ability to listen. Most people enjoy talking about themselves, and the trick of a good salesperson is looking for signs, the signals and body language, and adapting the pitch to suit. Good salespeople say as little as possible, and often it’s a matter of letting the client talk themselves into a sale, with the sales person just giving a little verbal nudge now and then in the right direction. If you’re good at listening it should seem effortless, but actually it’s a professional discipline that takes a long time to learn.
4. What is the one thing you would love to sell?
I would say sailing: it’s one of my favourite pastimes. However, most hobbies are appealing because it’s a break from everyday life, and I can imagine the pleasure would soon go if it became a job. I’ve a friend who’s been flying helicopters for years and says “now it’s just like driving a bus”.
5. What is the last thing you’d want to sell?
Something I didn’t believe in, that I’d have an ethical issue with. You have to take some pleasure in what you sell: if I didn’t believe in a product I’d be bad at selling it.
6. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Don’t promise what you cannot deliver, but deliver on what you promise. It’s that old thing of a man’s word being his bond. Being in sales is all about making long term relationships, people have to know you will deliver.
7. What advice would you give to someone following in your footsteps?
Get some training. Sales jobs in the UK have a poor image of being about double glazing and second hand cars, whereas in the US good salespeople are treated as gods. The UK image is primarily down to the poor levels of training we have in sales as a discipline. We need to treat sales as a profession, not just a job.
8. What did you buy with your first bonus?
A holiday in Europe. I’d just got married and my wife has German origins, so we took the new Vauxhall Astra which Ecclesiastical had given me as a company car, and drove across The Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany to see her family.
9. Who do you most admire in your industry?
It’s a friend called Chris Hanks from Allianz who is the general manager of their commercial division. Chris is now in his 60s but is still driving his department. The amazing thing is his sticking power – he’s been with the same company for decades in an industry where people and fashions come and go.
10. How would you sell ice to an Eskimo?
I wouldn't sell them ice, but things that go with it instead, something that the customer really wants. With all that ice around, the natural thing to sell would be gin and tonics, perhaps with slices of lemon.
11. How important is image for a salesperson?
A good image is important, but not the flash image a lot of us associate with sales jobs. It’s more important to come across as professional, trustworthy and competent rather than slick. A professional salesperson dresses to their environment and their customer – if I turned up on a farm in a pinstripe suit, it’d instantly put them off, while that might be exactly what’s needed if I’m heading into the City.
12. What is the single most important skill you need to close a sale?
Closing is the part of sales that many people find hardest. There is a point where you just have to ask for it, because it’s rare for a potential client to say at the end of a conversation “here’s my business”. However, if you’ve done your job properly, getting a “yes” shouldn’t be a huge issue, but a natural progression from the work you’ve done before.
A lot of people blame the customer when a sale doesn’t come off instead of asking themselves where they went wrong, where they could have researched or presented better. If a customer says “no”, it’s usually the sales person who has done something wrong.
13. Has anything ever gone wrong, that in hindsight, has worked out well for you?
Not really. Like everyone else I’ve lost accounts and clients but that’s part of the life as a salesperson. Early in my career I was due to meet a major client and completely forgot. Rather than fluff my way through, I owned up and apologised. I got away with it because I was honest about it, and everyone accepted we’re all human and we all make mistakes once in a while.
14. What’s been your biggest success?
Launching our Heritage Product: it is a unique product that we launched into the market specifically to cover heritage buildings and organisations. It cleaned up at all the major industry awards. I was particularly pleased because I’d seen it all the way from the original brainstorming sessions to implementation.
15. If you were to pack up your desk and leave today, what would you like to be known for?
Launching the Ecclesiastical’s sales academy. This is something that we did with a third party, and I feel very strongly about. We need to provide formal training for salespeople, not only for their sake but for ours.
16. How has sales changed from when you started out?
The pace has changed beyond recognition. Everything is so much faster: the long lunches, booze and smoking have long gone.
During my days at Royal Life, you had a lot of workers covering fairly limited geographical areas, and they became known within their local community. Now the industry has been consolidated which means we cover far bigger areas and it’s harder to get involved locally.
There’s also been a gender change. When I started sales jobs were dominated by men, now females are taking an ever bigger role which, in many ways, is a good thing because generally they’re far better at reading the body language and verbal cues on how a sale is going.
17. What are the current challenges facing your industry?
Pricing, regulation, demographics and climate change. Putting it bluntly, there are not enough premiums to cover the growing number of claims, while regulation from organisations like the Financial Services Authority keep changing.
Long term I think the two greatest challenges on prices and premiums are the demographic - more of us living far longer - and climate. It’s hard to deny that extreme weather events are becoming far more common, such as the two cold snaps we had in 2011 and the floods of 2007: these used to be once in a generation events.
18. How has the digital age changed sales?
Greatly. It goes back to this issue about pace. When I started in sales 25 years ago, salespeople were allowed to have far greater self-reliance. They’d go out of the office and perhaps call in every so often. Now, because of mobiles and laptops, they’re always available and far more directed from the centre.
19. What will never change?
The people. Despite all the technology and social changes, customers still want to deal with people they can see. We may have replaced the flip charts and paper with PowerPoint and emails but the fundamental sales process has not changed. Clients still relate with a person they feel they can trust.
20. Who is the best salesman ever, real or fictional?
Winston Churchill, for selling the idea of fighting a war to the cabinet, then the country, the Commonwealth and even the US. Between 1940 and 41, when a lot of people were all for throwing in the towel, Churchill used all his powers of persuasion and oratory to keep us fighting. It was the finest sale job ever.
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