Targeting the decision maker in a sales presentation - BuyAPresentation

Targeting the decision maker in a sales presentation - BuyAPresentation
When you are making a sales presentation, experts advise you to target the decision maker. They assume that if the decision maker is satisfied, then your product/service will be sold.
There are a number of articles with advice on how to find the decision maker in an organization by getting past a gatekeeper etc. The focus of this article is more on what happens next.

Here are some usual assumptions sales presenters make about decision making in a presentations:
1. Senior-most person: The decision maker may not be the senior most individual. He or she may defer to someone else’s point of view, and you might have completely missed out addressing that person in the presentation. It is possible that you got the contact through a business card exchange. But it doesn’t mean you know how his or her mind works. Sometimes just the title doesn’t really determine the person’s responsibility – so beware of making assumptions.
2. Gender: Many times, presenters typically address only the senior men and ignore the women in the group. The man may not always take decisions even if he asked more questions or seemed more interested.
3. Single decision maker: It may be possible that there is more than one decision maker. When there are a number of people attending the presentation, it is not possible to say which factor would affect the ultimate decision.
As you can see, it is very difficult to identify such a person, especially if the group is new to you. So, what options does a sales presenter have?
Follow these simple rules:
1. Address everyone: Address all of your audience when you are speaking, ensure that you make eye contact with all of them and answer all queries equally courteously, no matter who asks them.
2. Stop when 80% are convinced: When 80% or more of your audience seem convinced then you can be sure you have addressed the decision makers in one way or the other.
This applies for the first meeting. As a sales presenter, you would usually follow up on your presentation with the group.
This is the time when you can get deeper into understanding who takes decisions and nuances which lie under the surface. It will help you when you are ready to sell to them the next time.

The pressure cooker method of asking for business

The other day, I happened to see a sales presenter in action.

He made a 42 slides presentation, and after every few slides he kept asking if the audience would be interested in placing an order right away to avail of a ‘once in a lifetime discount’. 

Interestingly, people kept leaving each time he asked the question – and that seemed to have no effect on the presenter. 

When the presentation got over (prematurely of course), I asked him the reason for his action. He said, “Ram! I am not here to educate them or entertain them. I am here to get their business. So, every time I see people getting interested in what I have to say, I ask for their business. Isn’t that what sales gurus always advocate?”  

His method of selling is like pulling up the plant from the ground every day, to check if it has taken roots. This method of putting pressure on the customers all the time yields no results.

What is the right time to ask for business?

I think the best way to answer this, is by giving you an analogy. 

Imagine that you are washed ashore in a lonely island – like it happens in the movie ‘Cast away’. You want to cook a juicy crab you caught in the beach. You start a fire by rubbing sticks together. As soon as you see some sparks generated will you throw the crab on it to cook? 

Of course, not. It will kill the fire. 

You will feed the fire and let it grow, till it is big enough to cook your crab.

The same way, when you see the interest in your customer’s eyes – don’t ask for the business and kill your chances. Feed the fire by showcasing proof, warranties etc. till they are informed enough to make a decision. Remove all their fear, by assuring them of your continued support. 

Remember, your purpose is not to close a sale, but to start a relationship. 

Happy selling!

Does your sales presentation sound believable?

It is said that 90% of your communication is non verbal. That means, while you are busy speaking one verbal sentence to your customers, your body language and tone are speaking nine other sentences simultaneously. 

The nine sentences spoken through gestures and tones naturally overshadow the one meek verbal sentence you put together after careful rehearsals. If you don’t believe in what you are saying, it will show through – whether you like it or not.

So, how can you sound convincing and look convincing? 

The answer is simple. Take time to convince yourself about what you are selling. There is no other ‘trick’ to fake conviction.

If you are selling credit cards, pull out your wallet and see if you use the credit card you sell. If you sell insurance, ask yourself if you have bought insurance to protect your own life. You can’t run a restaurant, and then eat your lunch in the restaurant across the street.

Apart from the above, there are some more ways to increase your conviction in what you sell:

•           Read every literature available on your product or service. Knowing more is the first step to  loving more.

•          Talk to all the happy customers and find out why they are happy with your product

•          Talk to the highest producing sales people in your team, and find out how they do it

These steps should get you pumped up sufficiently to meet your next customer and win him over. 

Finally, there is a simple test to know if your conviction levels are sufficiently high. The test is – “Do you feel genuinely sorry for the customers who have not bought your product, because they are missing something truly valuable?” 

If your answer is “Yes”, you are ready to make your next call. 

Happy selling!

Why do most pitch books suck?

You already have a ‘canned sales presentation’ dished out by your marketing team. They told you that you will be shot in the head, if you changed any of the ‘carefully crafted’ the material. To their credit, they put in a lot of hard work to create the ‘official pitch book’ on a Multimedia CD, to serve as a leave behind material. It looked like the ‘tool’ would be an instant hit. But in reality it doesn’t pan out that way.

The presentation turns out to be an ‘instant yawn producer’. No matter how hard you try, your audiences don’t seem to connect with the content. After the first few seconds of the presentation, they begin to lean back slowly and sink into their chairs. Next, they let out that dreaded yawn. In fact, some of the audience is so polite in their attempt to stifle the yawn, that you can see tears forming in their eyes. 

You then try to hide some slides in an attempt to recover the situation. You rearrange the order of the slides. But, nothing seems to work. You come out disappointed after your ‘short pitch delivery’, which flew over your audiences’ head. 

Why do these mishaps happen with ‘Pitch books’ or ‘Sales aids’ used by most organizations? Here is the answer:

Most pitch books are designed like brochures. They educate (read - bore) the unsuspecting prospects about the ‘greatness’ of the company. To ensure that the knowledge is exposed to as many people as possible, companies use their sales people as walking gadgets that convert text to speech. 

No wonder, pitch books suck.

What is the solution? 

Make your marketing team read the following few sentences: 

“Design ‘Pitch books’ that initiate a conversation with the prospects. Let every word center around the concerns and expectations of your customers. Let your sales people build the discussion further, using the pitch book as a starting point”

Yes. Initiate the change. Stop accepting literature that tries to dump information on prospects. Remember, selling is about building a relationship, it’s not about distributing information. 

Happy selling!

Measure customer rapport in centimeters

Have you observed that the physical distance between people, when they meet personally, tells a lot about the extent of their relationship? 

That is the reason why, when someone unfamiliar stands too close to you and starts a conversation, you automatically take a few steps back. Just like poles repel in magnets, people repel when their space is invaded. There is even a study on this subject. It is called ‘Proxemics’.  

This is important for a sales presenter to know. You wouldn’t like to start off by making your customer uncomfortable, would you?

What is the ideal space?

As per the study conducted by Edward T. Hall, the space around a person can be classified as:

·         Less than 1.5 Ft is intimate Space

      1. 1.5 ft is Personal Space 

      2. 4 Ft is Social Space

      3.12 Ft is Public space

What does this mean to you as a sales presenter?

When you meet a customer for the first time, don’t be too eager to get too close. He might feel you are invading his personal space. You might scare him off.  

Here is the secret to build a good rapport quickly. 

Give sufficient space to your customer and be eager to learn about him and his concerns. Interestingly, the more the customer talks about himself, the closer he gets to you. You will see the distance closing naturally as the customer leans forward to talk to you. In fact, you can even measure your rapport with the customer - in centimeters. 

When you are sufficiently close to your customer, suggest your solution. There is every likelihood that he will buy from you. 

Go ahead and try this in your next sales presentation. Happy selling!