|
Give yourself the gift of more sales: The gift of gab
Sales Moves
By Jeffrey Gitomer
When you make a presentation, the sales reality is that you are trying to persuade someone to buy from you. But calling it a sales presentation sets the wrong thought process in your mind.
You are not presenting; you are persuading. You are uncovering needs. You are trying to build value. You are trying to reduce risk. You are trying to differentiate yourself from your competitor. You are trying to gain the prospect’s trust by being likeable and believable, while transferring confidence.
That does not sound like a presentation to me.
It sounds more like a concerted effort that takes preparation combined with an extraordinary level of presentation skills.
Presentation skills make up one-fifth of the sales process. The other four are selling skills, product knowledge, knowledge of the customer and attitude.
Most salespeople study presentation skills and positive attitude skills the least when they should be studying them the most.
So, why aren’t you studying presentation skills?
If I said to everyone reading this column, “Put your hand in the air if you are a member of Toastmasters,” not many hands would go up.
I recently read a book on “presentations.” (I am not going to mention the name of the book or the author.) Although the book was expensive, the content was pathetic. The presentation process was from the author’s point of view—certainly not what is necessary in the sales world.
Tips offered in the book included: “It’s good to be nervous,” “Don’t try to be perfect,” “Know your subject” and “Practice, practice, practice.”
Yes, those lessons are in a book, and they are silly. They have nothing to do with making a successful, dynamic and winning presentation.
If you go into a sales presentation feeling nervous, that is not OK. You go into a sales presentation exuding confidence. Nervous salespeople are unprepared. And when you are unprepared, you are more likely to lose a sale.
When I see a rule like “Don’t try to be perfect,” I always think to myself: Exactly where would you like me to screw up? When I am building rapport? When I am presenting my product? When I am trying to understand a customer’s needs? When I am talking about my value proposition? Or when I am trying to complete the transaction?
If there is someone I don’t want to be perfect, it is my competition. Let them screw up. Let them blow the sale.
When you are making a presentation to a probable purchaser, “knowing your subject” is a given. The rule should be “know your audience” or you will die a thousand sales deaths.
Knowing your product in today’s sales world is a given. What you need to know is how your customer uses, benefits from and profits by owning your product.
When an expert tells me to “Practice, practice, practice,” the first question I want answered is, “Practice what?” In the real world, the best way to build your presentation skills is to give presentations and record them every day. After you record your presentation, play it back immediately.
If you want a dose of reality, I promise you that listening to your sales presentation will be the funniest, most pathetic thing you have ever heard. For most people, it is the grimmest dose of reality.
When you record yourself, you have evidence of what you said, how you said it, how impressive it was, how transferable it was, how persuasive it was, how convincing it was and, ultimately, how successful it was.
Recording your sales presentation will reveal every blemish, every error and every weakness. Consider it a report card on your effectiveness.
The average salesperson is presentation-weak.
Here are a few more major clues that will make you presentation-strong:
1. Develop a belief system that is so strong, you assume every sale before you walk through the door.
2. Do your homework in advance regarding preparation and ideas. Being ready breeds confidence.
3. Make friends with the person or people you are presenting to before you begin your formalized talk. If they aren’t smiling, if they aren’t friendly, leave. You are not going to make the sale anyway. Why waste your time?
4. Create points of value and areas of differentiation as you are speaking. It is like a prize fight. You have to win each round to win the contest.
5 Don’t “need” the sale. If it is the end of the month, if it is a big customer and it is a “must” sale, it is likely you will telegraph this fact to your customer. It is also likely you will try to manipulate the sale so it can be completed within your quota period—which is one of the biggest sales mistakes you can make.
Your sales presentation is the heart of your selling process. It is where personal preparation meets selling opportunity: you are in front of someone who can say “yes” to you.
Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible and The Little Red Book of Selling, is the president of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer. E-mail him at salesman@gitomer.com.
|
E-Mail This Article
Printer-Friendly Version