Have you ever given a presentation that left the prospect needing to
"think about it ?"
- Telling vs. selling, continued.
- Questions lead to discovery.
- "Typically, when I talk to people in your situation, the conversation revolves around A or B..."
Once, when this rule was presented during a training session, a participant raised his hand and asked, "Does that mean all presentations should be verbal... with no written materials or visuals?"
No. That's definitely not what this rule means!
What the rule is getting at is this: You should be helping the prospect discover for himself the best reasons to buy from you. How should that happen? Not by your telling and explaining, but by your asking questions that educate the prospect and lead him to that discovery.
Some people think the job of a presentation is to convince someone to buy. Is it? Here's a question to consider: Shouldn't the prospect's discovery of the very best reasons to buy from you happen long before you present?
The prospect is unlikely to view this process of identifying the best reasons to buy by means of a question- and - answer dialogue as a presentation. It is, however, more crucial to closing the sale than any dog- and- pony show you may put on- hence, the "presentation the prospect never sees."
Here's an example of the beginning of an "unseen" presentation:
Salesperson: Typically, when I discuss production efficiencies with owners of manufacturing facilities like yours, the conversation usually revolves around one of two areas- increasing production throughout without increasing reject rates, or decreasing production cost without sacrificing quality. Which, if either of those, matters most to you?
Notice that the salesperson combined a story and a question, based on his own knowledge of the industry and the capabilities of his company. He focused on two specific areas of his company's expertise, and guided the conversation directly to those areas, and no others. Following the business owner's choice of Option A or Option B, the salesperson would then simply say, "Tell me about that." That approach causes the prospect to talk about an area of interest to him! Not just any area of interest , of course- one that is consistent with the capabilities of the salesperson's company!
During the ensuing "unseen" presentation, the salesperson would ask additional questions that continue to educate the prospect and focus on aspects of the service the salesperson's company provides.
Here are some examples:
Salesperson: If you analyzed the impact of your pre-production raw material staging procedures on production scheduling and, ultimately, production rates, what do you suppose you'd discover ?
Salesperson: If your production team was able to integrate the de-burring and the final machining and polishing processes, how might that impact your production throughout?
Once you have identified the positive outcomes you can provide with your product or service, you may formulate questions to connect those outcomes- questions that enable your prospects to discover the benefits of those outcomes for themselves. When the prospect's discovery that it makes sense to work with you happen before the presentation, you will be selling at a whole new level- by making great "presentations" that your prospects never see.
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