Here's the classic scenario that repeats itself every day, in every city (especially Chicago) in the world of sales.
A salesperson shows up for the presentation, begins the presentation and 15 minutes into the pitch, the prospect is sitting back saying,
"This is it... I'm done. I'm loving this. I am buying this."
But the salesperson misses it. They missed the buying signal. They don't realize the prospect is ready and the salesperson keeps talking for the next 45 minutes, un-selling it, buying it back.
Here's a rule.
Don't over present.
Sales people love to hear themselves talk. You love to hear yourself talk. I love to hear myself talk. Everybody does. You have to resist the temptation to tell people everything you know. And if you look at it on a psychological and emotional level, you’d like to talk about what you know because you want to validate that you’re smart and you know what you’re doing and all that kind of stuff.
But be very careful.
Here's another rule.
Present only to the pains.
Once you've uncovered what the pains are and when you're constructing what your presentation is going to look like, only present to their pains.
In my world, for example, I could be in front of an individual who wants to get in our public program. Maybe they want to get into our president's club mastery program. Their pain might be that they’re not prospecting for enough new business, or they’re not closing, or the sales cycles longer than it should be. They know they have to get much better at sales and they're willing to invest the time, money, and effort.
They say:
“Hey, tell me how this works. Tell me how your training can help me get better at prospecting, and closing more sales, and shortening my selling cycle.”
We can fix all of those things. We’ve been doing it a long time. So, let's say I address those pains, and how we can help fix them.
But then I say:
"And one other thing, we are in 32 different countries. We have 275 training centers…."
That right there could be a reason that they decide not to move forward.
They could think, "I don't need that. I'm just here in Chicago. I must be paying for that somehow." They may feel like we’re going to be distracted.
Now, none of that is true, but the perception I've now created is a roadblock. I've created an objection I didn't need to create.
So, when you're in presentation mode, I really want you to focus on the pains. Features and benefits work, as long they’re addressing the pains. But if I'm blindly throwing them out there, I'm creating problems. Which pains are you uncovering and how can you better construct a conversation in your presentation on how your solution addresses those pain?
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You can read some of my recent blog posts here:
Are You Being Or Doing Sales Manager?
Are Your Salespeople Getting Enough Information?
Are Things Stalled In Your Pipeline?
Are You Roleplaying With Sales Candidates?
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