How well do you tell your sales story with power, believability and behavior? How effective are you at virtually guaranteeing that your prospect will become a customer? In order to do this successfully there are two simple principles to keep in mind, no matter what you are selling.
People buy for their reasons, not yours (or mine)
Prospects expect salespeople to exaggerate the value of their product or service.
Once we understand and accept these two realities what can we do about them? The first principle can be dealt with very easily and systematically by remembering two things:
The less you are talking and the more you are listening to qualified prospects, the better off you’ll be…
The secret is to ask the right questions of the right people (qualified prospects) related to what reality is well below expectations, when did they realized this gap, what are t he consequences if there is no resolution, under what conditions will they take the necessary actions to correct – and then ensure products or services meet those exact standards.
The second principle, though, creates a little larger obstacle. Most salespeople are accustomed to "telling and selling" instead of "involving and asking." It is true that people learn a lot more from what they experience and actually do than from what they simply hear, isn’t it? The same is true about a marketing presentation. In fact, I prefer to use the term "application" rather than "demonstration" or "presentation." The former means a mutual discovery or learning experience as your solutions are unfolded to your prospect while the latter terms refer to a standard, sterile and boring monologue related to your products, systems or service’s features or, perhaps, even irrelevant benefits. It has often been said that features "tell" and benefits "sell." Unfortunately, it is far deeper than that! You need to determine which benefits actually do sell! You also need to discover the role that active participation, involvement and education play in the effective presentation of your products or services. Always remember that people are far more likely to believe what they experience, do, feel, touch, smell, think or immerse themselves in than from what they simply hear from you!
Never underestimate the importance of allowing your prospect to learn all they can about our products and services and how they truly build process on top of services in developing their own understanding. Your job? To serve as the tour guide, interpreter or facilitator. To allow them to reach their own conclusions, draw their own comparisons and discover precisely how our products and services will address their concerns, enhance their profits, solve a problem or meet a need.
Prepare your "lesson plan" (your presentation) by addressing only the specific issues of your buyer.
Your products, services, systems and process must be seen strictly from the perspective of your buyer– not you, our marketing department, product staff or anyone else within our organization.
Keep your presentation simple yet elegant. Don’t confuse your buyer!
Make your application interactive. Show and tell, ask and explain – educate and involve.
Ask feedback questions to ensure your buyer understands and emotionally accepts your solution. Questions like, "What do you think?" "How does it feel," "Do you understand?" Do you have any questions?" or "Would you like to try this yourself?" are all essential to ask.
Don’t talk too much, non-stop or in jargon your buyer will not understand. Always remember that people don’t want to be sold nor do they really want to buy. Instead, they really do want to believe they need it and have to have it. Ask the right questions (What is not meeting your expectations in your business? When do you want to improve that? How would improvement look? How much do you have to invest towards meeting your expectations?) and then present only the right solutions – and allow them to experience your value added expertise and our products and services. Then, they will buy! And you won’t have to sell them anything.
