Tag archive for ‘Presenting’
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The Last Thing They See – Lasting Impressions
The importance we place on first impressions overshadows our last impression. Most people dress and check their front and maybe a side view in the mirror. Because we don’t have eyes in the back of our head, we pay little attention that side of ourselves. But it’s the last thing people see when we leave. (more…)
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Marketing Creates Lousy Sales Presentations
Guest post By Mark Hunter
Too many marketing departments are still living in the 1990s with how they feel salespeople should be making presentations. Marketing departments are notorious for making slick presentations that do nothing but extol the virtues of how wonderful their company is. I call these “capabilities presentations.” Really they should be called “look at me – I think I’m perfect” presentations.
The reason they are lousy is because all they do is waste time and make people angry.
Why should any customer have to sit through a lousy presentation that does nothing but share stupid facts and information about the vendor – especially when it is nothing but old news? The main reason it’s old news to the customer is because they’ve already had a chance to see the very same information on the internet.
Today’s customer does not wake up in the morning looking forward to having their time wasted by salespeople. Customers have far more important things to worry about. One of the easiest ways customers are cutting down on the amount of time they spend with salespeople is by using the internet before they even meet with the salesperson.
Customers are using the internet to gather the information they want to know, including specific facts and general knowledge. The reason customers do this is because they feel it’s a better use of their time. (This alone is a sad comment about the perception customers have of salespeople, but that’s an entirely separate issue.)
If the customer is knowledgeable before the salesperson meets with them, then there’s no reason to waste anyone’s time with the boring presentation from marketing.
I’m not saying salespeople should assume the customer knows everything. On the contrary, the salesperson needs to now verify everything. It’s for this reason I’m a strong advocate of what I refer to as the “modular presentation.”
The modular presentation is comprised of many small presentations, with the premise that any single piece can be used by itself. The value of the modular style is it allows complete flexibility on the part of the salesperson. They’re able to focus on the parts the customer needs to hear, not on what they already know.
To make the modular style of presentation work, the salesperson must be highly skilled at being flexible in asking the customer questions and listening for their responses. In addition, for the modular style to work, the marketing department needs to be willing to let go and allow the salesperson to know what is best.
This in and of itself is the hardest part of the move, but in the end, it is essential. Failure to move away from the “capabilities presentation” and to the modular style will only result in upset salespeople, upset customers and lost sales. The choice then is really quite simple. Either marketing is going to remain in control or sales is going to have the flexibility they need to close sales and maximize profits.
Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter,” is a sales expert who speaks to thousands each year on how to increase their sales profitability. For more information, to receive a free weekly email sales tip, or to read his Sales Motivation Blog, visit www.TheSalesHunter.com. You can also follow him on www.Facebook.com/TheSalesHunter, www.Twitter.com/TheSalesHunter and www.LinkedIn.com/in/MarkHunter.
Reprinting of this article is welcomed as long as the following is included:
Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter,” www.TheSalesHunter.com, © 2011
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Are You Selling Value Proposition or Cost Benefit?
Sally recently learned the difference between value proposition and cost benefit when one of her dance students did not return this fall. Jenny had been studying at her school for two years and was ready for a more advanced level. Sally told Jenny’s mother the exciting news and penciled her in the schedule after their conversation. But Jenny dropped out. (more…)
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Lead, Sell, or Get Out of the Way: The 7 Traits of Great Sellers by Ron Karr – Book Review
More sales books, blog posts, and articles are published monthly than all the material available when my sales career began in 1971. Finding the gems can be daunting, so I was fortunate to find “Lead, Sell, or Get Out of the Way.” I met the author Ron Karr on Twitter, enjoyed his conversations and posts, and liked what he says about selling. A Fox TV interview with him finally piqued my interest enough to read his book. (more…)
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The Last Vendor Standing – A Heavyweight Sales Event
Andre the Giant - Last Man Standing - Courtesy of Ethan
Five heavyweight vendors publically vying for the same customer is a rare, riveting event. Selling is a courtship of suitors with competitive sportsmanship that includes incidental contact and ends with only one vendor standing. Last weekend, someone researching marketing automation solutions for their marketing department served up round one.
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Are You Selling Like Publishers Clearing House?
The first time a “You won a $1,000,000” showed up in my mailbox, my sales and marketing mind was piqued. Opening this treasure revealed I had not won anything yet and might only win a car or digital clock with a shortwave radio that doesn’t work. The pitch unfolded to a litany of stuff I did not want, yet subliminally suggested a purchase would help me win.
Sales people spend tremendous effort and expense to pay for the first meeting. Niceties are exchanged, the timing seems right, and the coveted secret value proposition is launched with something like this: (more…)
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Buyers Want Sales Reps Kept Behind The Keyboard
Buyers would love to keep us sales professionals out of sight, tucked away behind our keyboards. Buyers have pushed sales out of the first 70% of the buying cycle because we allowed them to. We are viewed as the enemy, the opposing team. Even when the buyer wants or needs our products and services, they try to figure out how to buy without us. If we continue to acquiesce, we will never hit revenue goals or achieve our personal financial goals. (more…)
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The Next Prong in Sales 2.0 is “E2E”
Our 3rd grade teacher Mrs. Joyce led us into the auditorium for televised French lessons on Thursday mornings. The PBS instructor would begin, “Écouter – écouter — la plume — la plume. Répondre – répondre,” which translates to, “Listen, listen; the pen, the pen. Respond, respond.”Listening and responding are the essence of conversation. Quietly sandwiched between the two is understanding, for if one does not understand what they are listening to, the response is empty and vain.
Knowing the definition of the pen does not impart understanding of how and why it is mightier than the sword.
“Why didn’t you “call” me?” and “Why didn’t “you” call me?” have two different meanings. From behind the keyboard, the sentences are identical, and discerning the difference is impossible.
Today we live behind the keyboard and as a result, there is less eye-to-eye (E2E), less understanding, and relationships are dying a slow death. Heck, you can delete a relationship with one click, but we aren’t quick to hang-up on a call or get up and walk out of a meeting.
In a recent edgy Focus roundtable called “Sales SmackOff,” part of my answer to “What should the modern salesperson look like?” included video calling. Video conferencing, like the tablet, failed the first go around, but like the Phoenix and the tablet, video calling is rising from the ashes.
Our culture and economy have made physical face-to-face meetings fewer and farther between. The keyboard is easy, inexpensive, and reasonably acceptable, but at great expense. The resounding absence of eye contact has hurt the sales profession by commoditizing the sales process.
Better content, better emails, and better texting do not give the buyer what they want, need, and crave. They have their place, but people are craving real connections more than ever. People need people – a twist on an old corny song – but no truer words have ever been spoken.
E2E is a higher quality, more transparent conversation that develops better connections, relationships, and results. Phone calls come in a strong second place, but video calling, as Bell once pitched, “is the next best thing to being there.”
Video chat is the next wave of communications and will be embedded in websites and every device with a browser. Get ahead of the curve. Instead of writing an email, text, or tweet that does not convey the intricacies and nuances of E2E, setup a quick video call.
New ideas and new paradigms – change – all come with discomfort. Nevertheless, change happens and we either jump on the bandwagon, or, we fall behind.
Don’t follow the change, be the change.
Video chat with prospects and customers may seem edgy today, but video chat will become as common as your smartphone. Apple, Google, Skype and countless users already looking into other people’s eyes think so. B2B use of digital E2E is here for the taking. Here are four apps to elevate your sales game, and, don’t forget to look into my eyes the next time we talk.
FaceTime for IPad 2 & IPhone 4
Google Video Chat for Mac & PC
Think I’m looking in the wrong crystal ball, tell me what you think?
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Please Sell Me!!!
This Easter brought back memories of walking behind our 3 year old daughter, pulling eggs out her Easter basket, and placing them out in front of her to be picked up again. That only worked once. Everyone is tired of sales calls, sales presentations, and marketing using this failing strategy and are screaming, “Please sell me.”
How many times can the wolf cry promises of better features, greater performance, more revenue, bigger cost reductions, higher ROIs, and infinite results? Dropping redecorated pitches, presentations, and marketing collateral with fancy graphics or a new acronym is reconstitution that doesn’t fool anyone. Prospects hit delete. (more…)
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The Craft of Rainmaking: Conversations that Win Business – Book Review
“Rainmaking Conversations” is a colorful, personal, intelligent revival of great business conversations. The tone is set at the beginning with a quote from etiquette expert nonpareil Emily Post who agreeably they call in a later reference, someone who “could have been a sales consultant.”
“Ideal conversation must be an exchange of thought, and not, as many of those who worry most about their shortcomings believe, an eloquent exhibition of wit or oratory.” – Emily Post (more…)
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