Sue Warwick, national sales & marketing director at Miller Homes shared her philosophy with Salestarget.
1. What was the first thing you sold?
My own house. I bought it when I was 18, refurbished it and sold it two years later for 100% profit. I sold it to someone who lived on the same the street.
2. Did you intend to go into sales when you started your career?
No, I started in finance at the age of 17, in accounts and credit control at an electronics firm, chasing up bad debts and paying the wages. That was in the days when shopfloor workers got a clock card and cash on a Friday, and if you made a mistake with someone’s wages you quickly got to know about it.
I moved into sales with Countryside Properties. They needed someone to set up a sales team in the North West and after taking the job, it soon became obvious that sales & marketing was the career I should have taken in the first place. The finance training I’d had proved vital in giving me a wider perspective on business.
3. What’s the single most important quality you need to succeed as a salesperson?
To think laterally, to look outside the box. Salespeople are constantly facing challenges and barriers, and the ones who succeed are those who think their way around them. It’s particularly true in the current climate, where you won’t sell just by doing the same old things again, you need to innovate.
4. What is the one thing you would love to sell?
Yachts to millionaires, preferably in the South of France. It’s my favourite part of the world and I want to learn to sail. And think of the potential sales contacts you would make!
5. What is the last thing you’d want to sell?
Bedpans.
6. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
My father said that all problems have a solution – you just haven’t found it yet.
7. What advice would you give to someone following in your footsteps?
Have the courage of your conviction and never believe your own press.
8. What did you buy with your first bonus?
A Chanel watch and a deposit on a Porsche – the watch, by the way, has lasted longer than the car.
9. Who do you most admire in your industry?
Stewart Baseley, now the chairman of the Home Builders’ Federation and an inspirational figure across the industry. I worked with him as he oversaw the sale of Centex Homes to Miller. Funnily enough I’d left Miller for Centex and found myself bought back again – an example on why you should never leave a job on bad terms because you never know when you’ll meet people again.
10. How would you sell ice to an Eskimo?
I’d sell him a brand new igloo – that way, I sell him ice in a form that is useful to him. This way, I get to sell the ice and design him the best igloo in his community. Hopefully he’d tell his friends and soon we’d have a cluster of igloos, a little community, helping me to sell lots more ice to lots more Eskimos!
11. How important is image for a salesperson?
The way you present yourself is really important - it should come with the territory of being a salesperson. If you can’t look after your own appearance the obvious question any client will ask is ‘can they look after me?’ That said, image without substance is worthless. You need to be smart, sharp and articulate.
12. What is the single most important skill you need to close a sale?
The ability to listen, and this is where a lot of salespeople fall down. You have to be a good listener to understand what the needs of the client are, and use that information to close a sale.
13. Has anything ever gone wrong, that in hindsight, has worked out well for you?
Not really, I try to plan for most eventualities and not leave anything to chance.
14. What’s been your biggest success?
Apart from raising my children, it must be heading the team that secured £37m worth of government funding for Miller. It was under the last government’s Kickstart programme to allow affordable homes to be built and provide a scheme to help first time buyers. This was important, not just because it provided benefit to Miller but it also helped hundreds of people get onto the property ladder who otherwise would not have been able to. It secured jobs and provided further investment into local communities.
15. If you were to pack up your desk and leave today, what would you like to be known for?
Being an innovator in sales and marketing within the housing industry and hitting my targets!
16. How has sales changed from when you started out?
There’s been a huge move to online. Customers research our products and are far more knowledgeable then they would have been 10 years ago. Our customers have moved from expecting us to simply sell and are looking at far wider issues such as levels of service and overall reputation.
17. What are the current challenges facing your industry?
Managing consumer confidence in the face of negative press.
The planning system – or lack of it at the moment. The planning system heavily influences what product we actually build and subsequently sell. Unlike other industries it is not wholly market led.
Restrictions on the availability of mortgages and in particular the restrictions on Loan To Values which in turn impacts upon the size of deposit buyers need.
18. How has the digital age changed sales?
Customers have greater access to information and opinions than ever before: they can seek views and advice from other customers, which means there’s a far greater importance on maintaining our reputation and brand.
From a marketing perspective it’s much more real time and your concepts and creatives need to be refreshed at a much faster rate in order to ensure you maintain stand out from your competitors.
19. What will never change?
Anything and everything changes in sales. Nothing is static and nothing is certain – I’m a great believer in that.
20. Who is the best salesman ever, real or fictional?
Moist von Lipwig, a character from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, is a great salesman. He comes up with the idea of using paper notes as a promise to pay because there is no money left in the Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork. Has a familiar ring to it doesn’t it?
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