John Holmes, Chairman, Core Business Solutions
June 2020
“The biggest misconception people have about me is that I’m too gung-ho; I’m too optimistic. But the truth is I plan meticulously, and I’m risk averse, but I get confidence from my planning and preparation.”
HUNTING SNOW LEOPARDS IN ABERDEEN
Sometimes turning points appear in the strangest of places. For John Holmes, it was The Skean Dhu Hotel at Aberdeen Airport in the 1980s.
After a dark winter’s day in the frozen north of Scotland, visiting engineering companies in his white Vauxhall Astra, John returned to his base for the night. He collapsed into an old leather sofa in the hotel bar. With a long sigh, John expelled the frustrations of a day as a travelling salesman.
“Are you alright, laddie?” called out a wizened old regular at the end of the bar. It looked like he’d been installed along with the bar.
John looked up and started talking to the man, whose name he never knew and face he never saw again.
John had endured a tough day on the road. The mystery man had seen it all: he had been in sales his entire life. So, the boozy conversation turned into a sales training seminar – Scottish style, with the finest top-shelf liquids this cheap hotel had to offer.
“Never chase the elusive sale.”
In all the hours of shared anecdotes, these five words hit John in the gut. He realised he had been looking for ‘the big one’. John explains:
“Most salespeople want that career defining sale – that big client that smashes your annual sales target in one fell swoop.
“But the truth is these deals are like snow leopards – they’re rarely seen, hard to find and harder to catch!”
John found he was spending too much time hunting those rare beasts. All the opportunities in his sales pipeline were high risk – a large contract size but with a low probability of success.
The solution was to develop a blend of short-, medium- and long-term sales prospects. So, John tore up his old plan and started again.
And the moral of this story? That late-night conversations with drunk Scotsmen in tatty airport hotels can yield life-changing insights.
THE PORTRAIT
John Holmes is wearing a sweatshirt as we talk on Zoom from our respective home offices – we’re in the middle of the Covid pandemic, so we can’t meet face to face. He wears a relaxed smile and his friendly demeanour puts you at ease. It’s an authentic quality of John, but I imagine it’s disarming for the unsuspecting ‘snow leopard’.
Born in Burton upon Trent, near Derby, John was one of six children who lived on a council estate. His parents both died when he was young, and this ignited a determination in John to make something of his life and travel the world.
John now lives near Manchester with his wife Jo, who’s expecting their first child, a daughter, in a few weeks. With three grown-up sons from a previous marriage, John lights up when he talks about becoming a father again in his 50s. While most people of his age might be thinking of slowing down, John has incredible energy and enthusiasm. He’s going to make a terrific dad again.
Although our conversation focuses mostly on sales strategy and planning, John is far more than a salesman. He’s a strategist, an exporter, a mentor to small businesses, a chairman, an investor, an entrepreneur, a friend.
BOILER SUIT TO DOUBLE-BREASTED SUIT
“I started out as a hydraulics engineer,” John recalls.
“One day I was doing an installation under a kiln in Swadlincote. It was 4am and the kiln was still burning hot from the night before – I could feel it on my face, so I had to keep turning my cheek to let it cool.
“I got on well with the owner of the plant, and we chatted each morning as I fiddled away.
“Well, I must’ve made a good impression on him, somehow, because my boss Dave Tidy called me in that day. He said ‘Holmesy, you’ve got a great ability speaking to people and building relationships. How would like a move into technical sales?’
“I was delighted. I was always intrigued by the business side of engineering, so I’d made myself useful in other areas like buying, the workshop, the stores function and even administration. I joined the sales manager – Andy Bishop was his name – on his calls and learnt to copy him parrot fashion.
“The thing is I hadn’t even passed my driving test. And I needed a van to get around the area. So, I had to learn to drive – fast.
“Eventually I got my licence, and I was ready for my first day out of the boiler suit and in the double-breasted suit. I arrived early as always, gathered my manuals and sales presentations, and jumped in the brand-new Ford Transit van (white, of course).
“I took off for my first appointment, drove round the corner and 400 yards later, a lorry drove into the side of me! It wasn’t my fault (honestly, m’lud) but it wasn’t the most auspicious start to my fledgling sales career.”
John talks passionately about this period of his career. Clearly, he had the personality traits of a good salesperson. But he’s also enthusiastic, resilient, incredibly hard-working, methodical in his preparation, and dedicated to ‘his craft’, as he calls it.
John believes you can learn to sell, like any other business skill. There are natural salespeople, there are bad ones, and there are those who learn to be good.
“I actually think there are a lot of salespeople out there doing the job, but don’t have the training or dedication. There’s a dearth of good people in sales, so if you can find one, hold onto them.”
THE (SALES) MAN WITH A PLAN
So what makes a good sales director? John’s top answer surprised me.
“It’s not the ability to present, or being chatty, or having a winning personality. Number one for me is planning. Understand the end goals and create a vision for the business in its ‘finished state’. Only when you know the ultimate destination for the company can you put in milestones to get there.”
That planning is critical to the entire role of leading a sales function.
Next comes the short-, medium- and long-term sales plan. That means developing a mix of clients and prospects that are going to deliver revenue in a month, in three months, and in a year or longer.
Then, because time is such a precious resource, being efficient about travel is critical. If your patch is a city or a region, and especially if you’re working internationally, you need to plan your time and travel budget to maximise your time with customers.
And finally, when we start talking about sales meetings, it’s clear that preparation comes to the fore here too. John explains:
“It really gets on my nerves when I go into a meeting with another salesperson and they ask the customer, ‘so what’s the latest news in your business?’. For me, that question shows that the salesperson hasn’t made any effort. They think they can show up, have a chat, and open the order book. It doesn’t work like that.
“When I go into a sales meeting – whether it’s in person or, these days, using Zoom or WhatsApp – I always have in front of me a page of notes and a page of questions. I spend a couple of hours before each meeting, reading. I want to understand the person I’m talking to and what they’re doing. I look for their title, what they’re responsible for, the groups they’re in, their press comment and social media presence.
“I want to be able to go into that meeting knowing what’s important to them, the issues they’re worrying about, the new products they’re launching and new markets they’re entering. When I talk to them in those terms, and show how I can help with that, it’s incredibly powerful.
“It shows the customer that I can be their partner in the opportunity they have to grow their business. And, by doing that, I help them achieve personal career success, which is fundamentally and selfishly why most people work.”
“OBJECTIONS ARE LIKE CANDY TO ME”
Of course, sales meetings rarely go to plan. I ask John about how he handles meetings when the customer is being difficult and putting up blockers. And here’s where John gets most animated.
“I love it when customers object. Love it.
“Ross, I see people melt all the time when they’re faced with objections. But objections are like candy to me. I want them. Really, I do.”
It might sound like bravado, but John’s fired up about this. He carries on:
“Here’s an example. We’ve made our small talk and I’ve made my pitch. Now I wait for the feedback and the questions. And I’m listening for the first hint of objection – often it’s on price.
“I hear, ‘But John, the product is expensive’. And that’s my cue.
“I reply, ‘I hear your objection, Ross. What other concerns do you have about the product?’. And then I listen, and I carefully write down each and every one. For many salespeople, this can be disconcerting. But I have a joker up my sleeve.
“When the customer has exhausted themselves with an armful of objections, concerns and excuses, I say to them, ‘If I can deal with all of your objections, then are you happy to give me your order?’. You know, by that point, it’s incredibly hard for them to say no.
“Then the work starts. I take the objections back to the company, we work through the answers to all the questions and objections and present them back to the customer. More often than not, they’ll give you the order.”
LEARN TO READ UPSIDE DOWN
John is passionate about selling. He describes it as an artform – but with an overlay of deep planning and meticulous organisation. Even in the process of setting up this interview, John has prepared a series of anecdotes, examples and insights he wants to share. But he admits it’s a team effort – Jo manages his diary so he can get the most out of his day.
I can see why he’s been successful in sales over the past 30 years, selling into 120 countries and building huge businesses in myriad sectors. A charming personality shines through – and no doubt that’s captivating for his audience. But it’s the microscopic attention to detail in preparation that sets John apart. It can make the difference between making a personal connection with a client and not; between find a point of common ground and not; between making a sale and not.
That mix of personality and preparation works most of the time. But what happens if a meeting just isn’t going well, you’ve tried everything and you’re just not getting anywhere. How do you get creative when the pitch is going south? I see a twinkle in John’s eye and a cheeky smile as he replies,
“Being able to read upside down is a great skill to have.”
This interview was conducted on 19 June 2020
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