A sales manager’s shocking secret and four sales secrets to help you sell more…
I Did Not Expect to Hear This!
Imagine my surprise when the national sales manager said this to 60 of his top associates, “At lunch, the sales team and I decided we have no idea how we managed to sell anything before we met Patricia.”
He told me, “It takes a year for us to have the opportunity to deliver an hour presentation to a small group of executives from the company of one of our prospects. At that point, a new relationship is worth between $5 and 10 million dollars to our company.”
I asked, “How long do you spend rehearsing a presentation that important?”
A Shameful Sales Secret
What I expected Dan to say was, “We spend a week locked in the boardroom. We go over the presentation multiple times, we video and review our performance. At least three times we bring in different associates to fire tough questions at us.”
Instead, he said, “If we have a run-through in the back of Joan’s car, we are lucky.” This is disgusting. Remember what Oscar winner Sir Michael Caine said, “Rehearsal is the work; performance is the relaxation.”
Sales Secrets to Sell More
In my 25 years of helping companies improve sales very little has surprised me. I’ve observed companies in all industries invest time and money educating their sales associates so that they know their territories, company history, the products they sell, and their competitive marketing place. However, companies often stop short in preparing their associates to design and deliver persuasive sales presentations that focus on what their prospects are interested in hearing.
Before you invest the appropriate time in rehearsing your sales presentation, make sure your structure and focus are right. Here are four common mistakes I see on the sales stage and the sales secrets can do to avoid them:
1. Unclear Thinking
Want clarity? Imagine that a busy executive says, “You have exactly ten minutes to tell me what you want me to know about your company.”
At any stage of the sales process, you should know in advance what your prospect is really asking. The real question is, “What do I need to know about how your company can improve our company? Will your products or services solve a problem, create new opportunities, increase savings, maximize earnings, simplify our processes, develop our human capital, or increase market share?”
At this point, the executive is more interested in their company than they are in yours. When you are clear on what your prospect really wants to know, you present your options more effectively. You sell more.
2. Talking Too Much
The key to connecting with a client or prospect is a conversation and asking questions. The quality of client/prospect information received depends on the quality of your questions, as well as waiting for and listening to the answers! A successful encounter early in the sales process should probably consist mostly of open-ended questions, the kind that requires essay answers rather than just a “Yes” or “No.” Never rush on with preprogrammed questions that reveal you’ve paid no attention to the answer you just received!
Your job is to work closely with the team or champion who will give you information. Do your research so that your questions about their company are well thought out. Do not be afraid to go deeper. If they want to increase sales, ask, “By how much?” “In the same market or expanding to a new one?” Do they want to improve morale? Ask, “What are the signs that make this a priority?” “What have you done before?” “How successful has it been?” Will they be upgrading technology? Ask, “How long have you been investigating options?” You need to determine whether they are interested or desperate.
3. Wrong Structure
To keep senior leadership or a prospect interested, you have to prove this premise: Your company’s condition will be dramatically improved when you do business with us.
Your talking points and presentation structure will be better received if they are not structured around your company. The “This is who we are, what we do, our unique methodology, and whom we do business with” conversation or presentation outline is not likely to get you very far. Use all the information you received from your questions to help them know you were listening. Structure the conversation or presentation around their interests, challenges, or opportunities.
Put as many of their words as possible into your presentation. Your prospects will not disagree with themselves. Yes, you will be talking about your company, your satisfied clients, and what is unique about you as a way to prove that you can appeal to what they are interested in, solve their challenges, and maximize their opportunities.
4. No Memorable Stories
Customers and your prospects rarely remember your exact words.
Instead, they remember the mental images your words inspire. Support our key points with vivid, relevant, client success stories. Help them see a movie in their minds by using your satisfied clients as memorable characters.
What was their starting situation?
Does the problem your prospect is experiencing compare to that of your now happy customer? How are their results since you worked with them? The best stories are third-party endorsements that have your clients using much more glowing statements than you could use. Endorsement stories should be like a good Hollywood movie: memorable characters that your prospects can identify with, vivid dialogue, and a dramatic lesson about the benefits of doing business with you. When telling those client stories, give them a back story, add drama, and use actual dialogue that has been edited. Director Alfred Hitchcock said, “A movie is just like a life with all the dull parts left out.”
Situation
When John Smith, the Vice President of Sales first called, he said, “Help. We heard you are the right person (or company) to help us solve . . ..” Always use the client’s words.
Solution
What we did was . . .. Here you talk about the solution or methodology your client experiences that will relate to what your prospect is most likely interested in. This can be delivered in your own words.
Success
The success is presented in your now happy client’s words. “If John were here, he would say, ‘We would not have believed it possible that we could have . . . . You can’t go wrong choosing (your company.)’”
Now that you have these sales secrets to help you prepare your sales presentations you will be ready for a productive rehearsal! Use these secrets to sell more. If you would like more help, FrippVT Sales can help.
Companies of all sizes and in all industries rely on Patricia Fripp to help them drive more sales.
Get Patricia Fripp’s sales secrets and benefit from her sales presentation expertise today:
Get FrippVT Sales today – 3 months for just $97!
Companies of all sizes and in all industries hire me to help them drive sales by perfecting their important conversations and presentations. I take average achievers and turn them into extremely valuable assets. Now you can immediately get access to the ideas, scripting, and techniques for which they pay more than $10,000.
Imagine an entire sales team with the ability to connect consistently with prospects, deliver a sales presentation persuasively, and tell client success stories that make an indelible impression.
Get FrippVT Sales today – 3 months for just $97!
“Your presentations on storytelling and superstar sales presentations and executive speech coaching have had a tremendous impact on our business.”
– Tom Esposito, Director Channel Marketing, Zebra Technologies
Companies that want to drive sales and gain a competitive edge hire Patricia Fripp to help them improve their important conversations and presentations. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance wrote, “One of the best ways to invest in success is to learn presentation skills from Patricia Fripp.” Fripp was named one of the “Top 25 Women in Sales” and is among the “Top 30 Coaching Gurus.”
