Sales Blog with Sales Tips

As sales professionals we constantly put a positive spin on our company and its products and services. We can’t help ourselves; it’s how we’re wired. We’ve been trained to do this since our first days as sales pups.

While this habit is admirable and ingrained in our psyche, there are times when we need to set it aside.

The power of positive speaking won’t always give us the results we’re looking for.

Here’s How I Got In Trouble
I’ll never forget a sales presentation I made to a group of telecom engineers. I was new to sales and felt like I was at the top of my game. I was prepared, presented well and hit all the points I wanted to cover. That PowerPoint was the culmination of all the best sales tips I had ever heard.

But I made a major mistake.

I failed to tailor my presentation to the audience and covered only the points I wanted to cover.

Sales Tips 101: Not All Audiences Are Created Equal
Whenever we go into the “salesy” mode with engineers and their ilk, they immediately hit their cerebral off-switches. Why? They have little need to feel good about a purchase. They want to objectively weigh the positives and negatives before buying.

They want facts.

There’s A Place For Negatives
People who primarily operate in the world of hard data want to hear the good, the bad and the ugly. They won’t make a decision if they hear only one side of the equation.

Wouldn’t we prefer that our customers and potential customers hear the bad and the ugly from us rather than our competitors anyway?

When I was speaking to those telecom engineers I needed to give them both sides of the t-chart. They would have at least listened to a balanced and accurate assessment of my product’s strengths and weaknesses.

Instead, they didn’t process a word I said.

The Paradox
Ironically, when we reveal a product or service weakness it gives us more credibility. This is especially true for technical audiences.

They assume if we’re willing to divulge a weakness, we might be worthy of their trust.

They might really listen to what we have to say as a result. Now, we’re talking their language.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

Find a New Sales Job

I’ve given a million formal sales presentations and I think I’ve observed even more. The most important thing I’ve learned is that everyone is nervous when they present. Everyone.

Mark Twain said it best, “There are two types of speakers: those who are nervous and those who are liars.”

I have a few sales tips below that have worked for me and for others to control the jitters when speaking to customers.

The Underwear Visual
Sadly, the only training most sales professionals ever get about controlling nervousness when giving formal sales presentations is to pretend everyone in the audience is only wearing their underwear.

Have you read the statistics on obesity in America? Personally, I find the thought of visualizing most audiences in their underwear far more frightening than merely making a presentation.

8 Techniques For Controlling Nervousness When Giving Formal Sales Presentations
1. Where does fear of speaking come from? Us. We quite literally scare ourselves with the negative thoughts we have before we make an important sales presentation. Just as professional athletes can envision a successful outcome of a game, we can do the same when presenting.

2. Your nervous body symptoms, like a shaky voice or sweating, are hardly – if at all – noticed by your audience. Quit adding to your worries by obsessing about butterflies in your stomach that no one can see.  Butterflies don’t bite.

3. Everyone’s biggest fear is not public speaking. That’s a myth. Every person has a different hierarchy of fears. For some, public speaking is very displeasureable; for others, it’s enjoyable. You probably fall somewhere in-between.

4. It’s perfectly okay to speak from a lectern with notes or to carry your notes in your hands when presenting. You don’t have to memorize your speech. Scripts are bad, but notes are okay and can bump up your confidence considerably.

5. Accepting, even welcoming, nervousness when speaking can go a long way in actually reducing your dread of speaking. The fancy psychological term is paradoxical intention. When light shines on the anxiety bogeyman and he is welcomed into your thoughts, he cowers.

6. Preparing and practicing your speech can move mountains when it comes to reducing speaking anxiety.  I attended an event where George H. W. Bush spoke while he was President.  He mentioned that he had rehearsed his speech earlier in the day.  Excuse me here, but if the President of the United States feels it necessary to practice his speech, it confirms to me there is real value in doing this.  There are many executives in corporate America who think they are above practicing speeches.  Their speeches show it.

7. Nervousness can help you during a sales presentation because it brings energy to your presentation and causes you to think faster on your feet. It also causes you to hyper-focus on the matter at hand.  The nervousness monster doesn’t want you to know this; see number five above to see why.

8. Executives are frequently very poor speakers and get nervous too, just like the rest of us mere mortals. They get nervous because they know each word they use is weighed and measured. Please remember many -  if not most -  executives struggle with speaking; they understand your nervousness when you present to them.

Sales Blog Epilogue
Becoming a better presenter doesn’t happen overnight. You can’t take a one-day or one-week school and magically become Zig Ziglar. However, I can recommend that you give Toastmasters International a try. This is a non-profit international organization that takes people at all levels and, over a period of time, develops them into better speakers.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

In 20+ years in sales I’ve observed the following powerless meeting agenda in 99% of formal sales presentations:

1. Prospect’s employees and vendor’s employees engage in introductions and swap business cards.
2. Room lights are dimmed and the vendor’s designated presenter begins the boilerplate PowerPoint presentation with the following attributes:

• A few obvious and poorly done modifications have been added to the PowerPoint to make it look “customized.”
• The first part of the presentation (about 80% of the total presentation) tells the prospect how the vendor is absolutely the most incredible company on the planet. They are bigger, better, faster, better trained, smarter…this is called sales hyperbole.
• The second part of the presentation (about 10%) discusses the features of the products or services being proposed.
• The third part of the presentation (about 5%) reveals the endless number of wonderful human resources available to the prospect.
• The final part of the presentation (about 5%) is Q&A.

3. Everyone thanks everyone and the prospect tells the vendor, “We will be in touch.”

Reality Check Time
Be honest with yourself. How often have you given, received or been part of a formal sales presentation that followed the agenda above? If you’re honest, it’s going to be just shy of every single one of them.

Why Do Sales Professionals Continue To Use An Agenda Format That Is Unproductive?

• Too busy to prepare something better
• Never really thought about its ineffectiveness
• Lazy
• It’s what I’ve/we’ve always done.
• I’m comfortable with it.
• It’s what my prospect/sales manager/sales VP/president/CEO expects me to do.
• I’ve never been shown anything different.
• It’s in my DNA; I can’t help myself.

“Change Doesn’t Always Mean Better, But Better Always Means Change”
Here are a few ideas to put some boldness and creativity back into your formal sales presentations.

• Stop using PowerPoints. At least stop using them in the traditional sense. If you need them for a crutch, then only use them for graphics and major bullets. Promise me you will never use your company’s boilerplate PowerPoints again. Prospects hate them. Spend the time to create one just for the prospect you are presenting to if you’re going to use one.
• Throughout the presentation, keep it interactive. This eliminates the need for that awkward Q&A business at the end.
• Your first part of your presentation is to discuss what you know about the prospect’s business (about 30% of the total presentation). At this point they are much more interested in what you know about them than what they need to know about you.
• The second part of your presentation (about 30%) needs to focus on your understanding of the prospect’s pains and needs.
• The third part of the presentation (about 30%) covers possible solutions and their benefits to the prospect. These solutions must include TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) and ROI (Return on Investment). At this point some information about you and your company (about 5%) could be included, but keep it short.
• The final part of the presentation (about 5%) should cover what the next steps should be.

In “Further reading” below I’ve provided a few posts for you to review regarding presentations. I would also encourage you to look into Toastmasters International as a resource for improving your presentation skills.

You’ll get a prospect’s attention during a formal sales presentation by being different. You’ll keep your prospect’s attention by focusing on them.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer