Cork Chamber conference hears of the soft and hard ways to make a sale

The crucial role of everything from lip gloss to Twitter, and customer relationship management software in making sales was covered at the Cork Chamber annual conference.

The conference heard from speakers from multinationals giants such as McAfee to local enterprises such as Essential French which provides grinds.

Denise O’Callaghan, who has grown her Delicious Gluten Free Bakery from a small start-up to one of the country’s largest producers of gluten free cakes, said that on occasion, something as simple as offering chocolate cake and wearing lipgloss can help seal a sale.

While Ms O’Callaghan, a former investment banker, may have emphasised the soft skills of sales, she also said that appearing professional and having a good grasp of business makes a huge difference when dealing with the large retailers like Musgrave or Tesco.

“I go to meetings with a calculator under my arm. I have had buyers say to me once they see the calculator, ‘Oh good, I thought you were going to be some hippy, now we can have a proper chat.”

McAfee’s vice president of inside sales for EMEA, Kevin O’Dwyer, said due to the rise of the internet, by the time you were talking to potential customers, they were already 50% to 60% through the sales cycle. As a result of this, he said it is important businesses understand their customers.

“One of the most valuable assets any company has is its customer data. If you really understand a customer’s business, what they are trying to achieve and how your product can help facilitate their success then you can put yourself in a prime position to really engage with your customer,” he said.

The driving force behind the expansion of online deals company Livingsocial in the UK and Ireland, Peter Briffett, said CRM software had been key to its ability to measure and reward staff that were living up to the company’s core values.

The use of technology, in particular social media, to attract customers was examined by Essential French’s Natasha Lynch. She said for 15-18-year-olds, Facebook is pointless, they are losing interest in Twitter but are actually returning to Bebo.

Ms Lynch explained that they had managed to get students excited about doing extra homework and going to grinds through the use of social media by simply asking the students what it is that they wanted to learn.