Putting the Wow back in Your Sales Presentation
Have you ever sat through a sales presentation that sounded like “brochure talk”? (blah, blah, blah…)? What is on your prospects mind when you are presenting? Could they be thinking “so what” as you rattle off your great features and benefits?
Set yourself apart from the competition by putting the “Wow” back in your presentation. We find most sales representatives are great at capturing attention, making small talk and even comfortable in the presentation stage. The question becomes, are the general conversations and presentations compelling enough to make prospects say things like, “tell me more” or “how can I get involved”. Every good sales person is taught to sell fact or features and benefits. Yet hands down, in our trainings, most sales people are backing up facts with facts. In other words, they spend little time finding out the clients hot buttons early on, and this causes them to spend more time in the close. They are rattling off generic benefits, yet if the prospect does not see it as a benefit to them, that day, then it is just another feature, or possibly, more, blah, blah, blah. The typical objections then become, “let me think about this”, “I have to run it by_____” or "looks great, let me get back to you”.
Here are a few tips to ensure great conversation and an effective, compelling, compliant presentation:
1. Find out your customers past experiences and/or opinions with your product or service, so you will know if they are hot or cold. Be careful, not to challenge their ideas and opinions, by telling them how you are better, different, etc… Example, I was looking at a time-share and the friend who was with me had a property. When the rep found out he owned one, she knocked his property versus letting him help me buy! He was a believer in time-sharing. Why not let him help sell me, instead of knocking his intelligence for buying from a competitive vendor? In short, I did not buy.
2. Ask questions based on problems and pain versus rattling off your solution
Many sales reps are taught to sell features and benefits. However, how can you be sure it is a benefit in the prospect’s mind? Here is another example.
It was the holiday season and I walked into a very exclusive department store. A lady sitting with a small booth in the isle grabbed my hand. The way she caught my attention I thought maybe I knew her from somewhere. She went on to put crème on my hands and tell me how her product was so good. She said things like,
“look at my hands,” “I was a hand model,” “see this book, these were my hands 20 years ago and look now, you can’t see any difference,” “Oh, when I was in Beverly Hills last week…” I thought “…your hands look older now” “So what!” “Big Deal!” as she made these and many other claims. She proceeded to tell me how it was waterproof and I would not have to put any on after I wash my hands. Well, for the price of $45, I thought heck, I can buy my drugstore brand, put on ten layers per day and still come out cheaper. She kept saying how great it smelled. I thought it smelled like flowers, and I do not like flowery hand crème. She proceeded to close me with the “alternate choice” close. That is “would you like this combination pack or just the crème today?” Then I cordially gave her the standard objections that she heard all day…. “Well, I am shopping for the holidays and I am not interested now,” “I have plenty of crème now, but maybe later…” Then as any good sales woman would do…she started answering the objections, like what a great gift this would make… (When most of us in sales should know the first objection is rarely the real one).
The funny thing is …just recently I had to spend a lot on nail crèmes and hand oils. Too bad she didn’t ask me any questions, like, “Do your nails and hands get dry in the winter?” “Do you have difficulty getting your nails to grow in the winter?” “Do you ever get hangnails?” She did nothing to create a compelling presentation, she sounded like a brochure…tell, tell, tell to sell, sell, sell. I spent over $100 at a competitive department store just last week on nail and hand crème because the winter dryness and air travel has created the need.
3. Insert bridges to be sure you are selling to client needs versus your product talk: Let your prospects talk, help them sell themselves. When you go into tell mode (your presentation) be certain to tell them what the fact means to them or more so how it will benefit them. Use bridges like, “which means to you,” or “in other words” or, “the real benefit to you is…,” or “let me give you an example”. This will keep you from accidentally relaying technical jargon and will put them in the picture. They will buy when they mentally can see the pleasures derived from owning your product or feel the complications, implications and pain of not owning it.
Using these tips will begin helping you put the “wow” back into your presentation, increasing the sales and receptiveness from your customers.
