Consultative Selling-What Is It All About?

When a customer buys a product, especially a major capital expense B2B product or service, that customer is really buying a 10 to 20 year relationship with you and your company. Product support, service, and life cycle cost management insight become really valuable to the customer. It’s important to dramatically increase your focus here to better serve the customers and differentiate your offering.
To do this, you must understand your customer's business environment better than ever before. The low hanging fruit of operational cost saving and efficiency has already been picked. You need to engage your customers on a level that is much deeper than that required to simply sell a product. You have to climb inside the heads of the customer’s key executives/managers/users in multiple departments and even up and down their supply chain. It’s hard work!
The consultative salesperson resists the temptation to "pitch" a product or solution until he has laid a solid foundation for selling. This means you have had sufficient dialogue with the customer, and even the customer's customer, to understand their operating environment, critical business drivers, and existing high priority business initiatives. You have to really validate that your solution is sustainable in the customer’s unique business environment.
Consultative selling is way beyond the “thing” you are offering. Consultative selling creates preference for you and your insight… and that creates preference for your product/service and your company.
Consultative selling, from a sales leader's perspective, is the outright transformation of your customer facing teams (sales teams) into service oriented teams that provide operational and business insight to the customers. That becomes your unique identifying characteristic when products alone get harder to differentiate due to price cutting and misinformation.
Ask yourself, are we creating value on every sales call? Ask this question...did we bring so much value/insight to that company’s CEO in today's 1 hour engagement that she would be willing to write us a check for the time we spent together? A consultative sales call provides value to the customer far beyond the features, advantages and benefits of a product:
· Provide access to deep subject matter expertise that doesn’t exist within the customer’s organization.
· Surface tough issues or business realities that would be difficult or dangerous for the customer’s CEO to surface on her own.
· Provide access to an independent outside perspective and the chance to look at a business problem in a different way.
· Shine a light on unrecognized problems.
· Provide knowledge of unanticipated solutions.
· Clear away the fog of competition and markets to revel previously unseen business opportunity.

And if you and your company can't solve the customer’s problem, then you can still add value by becoming a knowledge broker and finding someone that can provide the solution. Don’t worry; they will love you for that too.

Good selling!

Coaching performance - Charting the Course for 2009

It's getting close to the end of the year. Time to start planning for next year. Sitting down with your salesman now produces a much better result than waiting until Jan 5th. Here are some thoughts about coaching around the 2009 sales plan.

Things to ask in any Sales Plan review
1. Are major trends and changes in our business environment affecting your sales plan? Specifically, what potential developments in customer demand, competition, disruptive technology, or the regulatory environment could have enough impact on the industry to change the game and the rules?
2. How and why is this sales plan different from previous plans?
3. What were your forecasts for market growth, and sales last year, two years ago, and three years ago? Where you right? What did you learn?
4. What would it take to double your sales and increase your margin by 25% (deal quality)? Where will growth come from: expansion (bigger pie) or gains in market share (take-a-ways), other?
5. If your plan is to take market share from competitors, how will you do it, and how will they respond? Are you counting on a clear product advantage, new value levers, better account management or superior sales execution?
6. What are your distinctive competitive strengths, and how does the plan build on them? How do you communicate your value story?
7. How different is the sales plan and strategy from your competitor’s? Why?
8. What are you going to do to hone your skills and strengthen your team’s skills?

Good selling!

21 Life Tips To Boost Your Sales (from Anthony Robbins)

What is the difference between a hole in one and a birdie? It's not luck. It's skill. Like Gary Player said, "The more you practice, the luckier you get". These are 21 good things to practice and they will boost your sales and enrich your life. Print them out and carry them in your wallet. Read them daily along with your other goals. I am going to reflect on them and I hope you will too.

Good Selling!

ONE. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

TWO. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.

THREE. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.

FOUR. When you say, 'I love you,' mean it.

FIVE. When you say, 'I'm sorry,' look the person in the eye.

SIX. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.

SEVEN. Believe in love at first sight.

EIGHT. Never laugh at anyone's dreams. People who don't have dreams don't have much. NINE. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.
TEN. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.

ELEVEN. Don't judge people by their relatives.

TWELVE. Talk slowly but think quickly.

THIRTEEN. When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, 'Why do you want to know?'

FOURTEEN. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

FIFTEEN. I skipped it...not that good a tip.

SIXTEEN. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

SEVENTEEN. Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; and Responsibility for all your actions.

EIGHTEEN... Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

NINETEEN. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

TWENTY. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.

TWENTY- ONE. Spend some time alone.

The Lost Art of Validating Value – Getting the Customer to tell you why he loves your product

Validating value doesn’t always happen after the customer buys. In fact, value validation is a great selling discipline to employ late in the decision process, especially when the customer is in the angst of resolving those final concerns. I went on the road for a week coaching sales calls with some of our sales people. On one call, we had a service deal on the table with an important customer who was growing dissatisfied with their current provider. Earlier in the year, our salesman had uncovered that pain and developed it into an strong need for change. They invited us to bid against the incumbent!

On this sales call, we were closing and we knew the customer was really agonizing over the decision. The board was meeting the next day to decide and “our man” had to make the recommendation. We were more expensive but we had a better offering and the client knew it. Change is hard but justifying a higher price to your boss is harder!

Planning the Sales Call
In the pre-call session, we developed questions designed to get “our man” talking about why our offer was superior and why now was the time to change.

Here are the questions:
-What are the main reasons that you have decided change the business model?
-Why is that important to you?
-What savings does that produce? Any other savings?
-How else will it help you?

-I know our program costs a little more, but how is it different from your current provider’s program?
-Are there other differences?
-Are those differences important enough to justify the higher price?
-What do you see as the three main benefits of our service vs. your current provider?
-Does that make a big difference? Why?
-Anything else we may be missing?

You get the idea…

Professional salespeople get the client talking and describing the benefits in the client’s own words. Pros rehearse clients by asking them well planned questions. Average salespeople don’t. Average salespeople show and tell and talk, talk, talk. Average salespeople try to fill the client’s head up with what’s in the brochure, on the PowerPoint, and in the proposal. It just flat does not work and that is why they will always be average salespeople. As Jeffery Fox says, be a seller, not a teller. Ask great questions. Stop talking and take notes. Let the customer tell you what they value about your offer.

Final Preparations

Final Preparations
Allow a break between the dress rehearsal and the actual presentation. This lets the presenters incorporate comments from the dress rehearsal and make any final improvements.

Show Time!

Now, you are ready. Your team can deliver the presentation with the confidence that comes from being fully prepared. You’ve practiced. You know what you know. It’s going to be great. Relax and execute.

Hold a Dress Rehearsal

The presentation information packet should be augmented with the information on the question and answer chart (see previous post – Step 2, Assign Responsibility). Conduct the dress rehearsal in a room that simulates the actual site. Allow no interruptions. The presentation should be conducted exactly as it will be given to the customer including timing signals from the team leader and simulated questions and answers. Video and review the performance with the team. Coach individual presenters on delivery and style. How do they look? Grooming issues? Do we have to go shopping for a tie or other clothing? Now is the time.

Conduct a Team Dry Run

Assemble a knowledgeable audience and distribute a packet of information to aid them in the evaluation. Include the following in the packet:

1. Purpose of the Presentation
2. Summary of the audience analysis
3. The presentation strategy
4. Themes and sub themes
5. Presentation format/agenda including time allocations

Require each presenter to observe the entire dry run. The graphics/artists should also attend to record comments and changes on the visuals. Allow no interruptions during the individual segments. This allows the speakers to maintain concentration. It’s more constructive to make comments at the end of each segment. Besides, it makes time keeping a lot easier. Repeat these as necessary.

Decide the Final Lineup

If, as a result of the management review and the segment dry runs, it becomes clear that a presenter is not effective or is not showing improvement, name a replacement now. Your new presenter still has time to catch up with the others.

Decide the Final Lineup

If, as a result of the management review and the segment dry runs, it becomes clear that a presenter is not effective or is not showing improvement, name a replacement now. Your new presenter still has time to catch up with the others.

Conduct Segment Dry Runs

Once the team has recovered from the management review, conduct the segment dry runs. These can be conducted in any order, allowing those segments with more serious problems extra time to make improvements without affecting the schedule. This is NOT a full team dry run. I recommend you take one segment at a time before a few key people. Because the segments can be given out of order, it is worthwhile to restate procedures and responsibilities such as introductions, transition statements.

This is a good time to use a video camera to help polish the delivery skills of the presenters. Evaluate each recorded performance with the presenter and offer coaching on content, delivery and style.

Review the Storyboard with Management

This review can be invaluable in heading off false starts, redirection, and confusion. It also saves time, money, and morale. Make sure that text and visuals are complete enough to give management a representative sample of progress. Conducting this review early helps you correct shortcomings without sending a shock wave out to the team. Suggested areas to address:

1. Is the content technically correct?
2. Are the key points and themes getting through?
3. Are the visuals relevant and accurate?
4. Does the storyboard reflect the presentation’s purpose?
6. Does the story hang together?

Prepare Storyboards

Prepare storyboards in the presentation control room. Each segment should follow the agreed-on pattern in its organization and visual design. Use the agenda charts between segments to highlight transitions and to add to the impression of team cohesiveness. Set up storyboards in sequence to facilitate orderly review. If you have subcontractors involved, they should prepare storyboards in your presentation control room as well. This ensures that the subcontractors’ segments conform to the standard, thus preserving the team image.

All presenters should develop their own storyboards. Don’t allow presenters to delegate this responsibility. I have seen presenters who could not utter a word at the 1st dry run because it was the first time they had seen the charts. The only thing harder than giving a business presentation is trying to give someone else’s.

Review Key Points

Ask all the presenters to identify the essential points to be made in their respective segments. All presenters should attend so they know what the others are covering. This review gives the presentation coordinator and management a feel for the presentation’s tone and direction early in the process. Most important, it provides a starting place for discussions that can identify and eliminate misinterpretations of guidelines, inconsistencies between presenters, organizational overlaps, and general deficiencies.

Hold a Kickoff Meeting

Assemble the full presentation team including management, advisers, support specialists, and subcontractors if they are part of the presentation. The following agenda items are recommended:

-Overview of the presentation and its objectives

-Audience analysis

-Themes and sub themes

-Presentation team line-up and sequence of segments

-Presentation guidelines

-Facilities overview

-Introduction of support specialists and roles

-Development schedule

-Directions to participants (dress code, protocol, security, directions to the site, transportation, lodging, seating, etc.).

Inspect the Site

It’s important that the presentation coordinator and graphics director visit the actual presentation site early because some presentation decisions will be based on the site’s physical characteristics. Be thorough. One company wanted to demo some new electronics products. The surprise was that all the electrical outlets were in the back of the room. “Excuse me. Does anyone have an extension cord?”

Pay attention to seating arrangements, equipment, lighting, and visual requirements. Keep a keen eye out for potential distractions. We once paid to have curtains installed in an U.S. Air Force Ft. Mac Arthur conference room. You want the customer’s eyes on you and not on the beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean.

Record directions to the site along with room and building numbers. Photograph or sketch the room so it can be accurately simulated for rehearsals.

This is also the time to make transportation and delivery arrangements. Give consideration to contingencies and back up plans. What happens if, at the last minute, the customer changes conference rooms? What if your presentation is designed for two projectors and two screens and they only provide you with one...and the projector’s bulb is burned out? To avoid being victimized by Murphy’s laws, you have to think like Murphy. Plan ahead. Double check everything.

Assign Responsibility

Assign responsibility for each segment of the presentation. Management and the presentation coordinator should make these assignments. They should also set the guidelines for planning, organizing, and preparing the presentation.

Set up a presentation control room. This room becomes the hub for all presentation tasks such as preparing storyboards, holding stand-up reviews, dry runs, etc. Post and strictly adhere to a detailed schedule of activities and responsibilities. Develop a question-and-answer chart to record anticipated customer questions. Be hard on yourselves. Ask the tough questions. The team can then develop thorough answers that support the theme of the presentation. If your presentation contains classified material, control access to the room. The presentation control room is a haven from distractions and a good place to concentrate and brainstorm.

Make one of your presenters the team leader. The team leader is the quarterback. Once the customer’s conference room doors are closed, the team leader is in charge. Duties include:

-Introducing the team

-Previewing the presentation’s scope

-Managing time

-Summarizing key points

-Fielding questions

-Recording follow-on actions
-Observing and interpreting customer reactions

Appoint a Team Coordinator

Your team coordinator must understand the presentation’s objective and be directly involved with all phases of presentation development. This coordinator must hold a position of authority in the organization to ensure that all decisions carry the proper weight. The coordinator should not be one of the presenters.

The team coordinator:
-Is responsible to management for execution of all presentation related activities.
-Reports status to management as required.
-Runs the daily stand-up meeting.
-Develops and provides themes and strategy to management.
-Prepares the audience analysis and confirms attendees.
-Collects audience concerns and questions as they arise.
-Gathers information (SWOT) on the competitors.

12 Essential Steps For Leading a Major Team Presentation

The stakes are high. A billion dollar deal is on the line. Your company has been short-listed by the customer and invited to present your proposal face to face in a four hour meeting. There is a lot riding on this for both parties. The customer wants to know what it’s buying but also, who it’s buying in this deal. So, they want you and your management and technical team leaders to take part. You have 30 days to get ready.

Over the coming weeks, we will look at a series of 12 essential steps to help you plan and manage your team’s presentation. Because each presentation is unique, all 12 may not apply to your situation but most of them will.


1. Appoint a Team Coordinator
2. Assign Responsibility
3. Conduct a Site Inspection
4. Convene a Kick-off Meeting
5. Review Key Points
6. Prepare Storyboards
7. Conduct a Preliminary Storyboard Review
8. Begin Segment Dry Runs
9. Make Final Content and Lineup Decisions
10. Conduct Team Dry Run
11. Conduct Final Dress Rehearsal
12. Make Final Preparations

Getting this right is a lot like getting a team ready to compete in sports or an army ready for battle. If you think this kind of preparation is overkill, think about how much is riding on the outcome. Think about what your competition is doing. Think about what Napoléon Bonaparte meant by this great quote:

“From the sublime (victory) to the ridiculous (defeat) is but a step.”

Good selling!

The Engagement - Salesperson as a Human Search Engine

Many amateur salespeople spend a lot of time and energy memorizing product features and benefits. What would you say if I suggested that this, in many cases, is a waste of your strategic sales planning time? Why? People with ultra-deep product knowledge, when engaged with customers, tend to spend a lot amount of time talking about their product…what it does, how it works, and why it's good for the customer. This invites objections, resistance and continuations from the customer.

The skilled salesperson spends time asking questions about the customer's problems - understanding how serious they are, and how important it may be to solve them. This line of engagement leads to follow on appointments, creates value for the customer, and, is strongly linked to sales success. When working in the account, a salesperson can be most effective behaving like a human search engine...a Google salesperson. Think about how Google works? Google uses a proprietary formula to "score" the relevancy of websites for each search query. The highest ranking or "most relevant" websites for a specific query are listed first in the search results. A Google salesperson knows the kinds of problems her products can solve and searches for the relevancy of the customer's problem in relation to her solutions. A Google salesperson's proprietary formula is found in the quality of the questions she asks. The Google salesperson asks insightful questions that - 1). Help her surface problems, 2). Help her prioritize them, and 3). Help her understand all the impacts these problems have on the prospects’ business. Once the Google salesperson finds a problem that the customer now believes is painful enough to solve, then and only then, does she bring in the marketing experts and sales engineers to help the customer understand all the benefits of her solution and seals the deal. Want to sell more? Ask questions, talk less, and listen more. Be a human search engine.

Good selling!

Solution Selling: What Separates the Best from the Rest?

We have all heard the stories of the superstar salesperson. This person has the magic touch, the gift of rapport and the innate ability to close deals. But as Malcolm Gladwell describes in his classic book Blink, often, the superstar’s natural abilities gives them skills that they don't really understand, can’t explain, and definitely can’t teach. Gladwell gives dozens of examples, such as a tennis teacher who knows when a player is going to double fault before the ball is struck but can’t say how he knows it. The tennis player that swears up and down that his secret to hitting a cross-court winner is in the way he rolls his wrist when in reality, super high-speed film shows that at impact, his wrist does not roll at all! So what are some of the things top sales performers actually do that make a difference and that are teachable and repeatable? Let’s take a look a short list of fundamentals - a list that Neil Rackham calls First Approximations (with a few modifications and additions from me!):

Top Performers
-Plans the call in detail
-Gets down to business quickly
-Asks insightful questions
-Holds back on talking product features and benefits early in the sale
-Ends the call by agreeing on joint “next steps”

Average performers
-Plans a presentation
-Spends too much time in boring small talk
-Does most of the talking and asks unfocused questions
-Jumps in early with product descriptions and PowerPoint
-Often ends the call with no action or agreement

In sales, in sports, and in life...there are often a few little things that make 80% of the difference. Those things usually include some very simple, repeatable, and teachable fundamentals.

Good selling!

Discipline Is Key to Selling Expensive Things Successfully

Time Management

Two of Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits are “Be Proactive” and “Put First Things First”. These are gems of time management for sales professionals. Successful solution sellers must be incredibly proactive and must be able to manage time wisely. Successful solution sellers are not stimulus - response account custodians. Successful solution sellers cultivate the ability to take charge, plan ahead, and focus their energy on things they can control instead of reacting to or worrying about things over which they have little or no control.

Mastering these two time management habits help you rise above the pounding day-to-day demands that distract amateur salespeople. Being proactive doesn’t mean being pushy, or insufferably aggressive. It means recognizing your responsibility to make things happen in the market place. It means anticipating, identifying, and solving your customer’s problems and, generating a fair profit in exchange for rendering great service. Putting first things first involves making wise choices about how you spend your time. It takes skill and great self-awareness to be able to devote serious time to important, but not urgent tasks. Successful solution sellers do this as second nature. Important but not urgent tasks are things like research, account strategy, call planning, relationship building, prospecting, training, reading, and physical exercise. On the other hand, email, ringing phones, meetings, drop-by’s and unopened mail have to be managed…and sometimes ignored! That takes discipline.

Handling Questions

Steve’s Sales Coaching Tips



Presenting with Power and Getting Results! – Part 7

The question and answer period is an opportunity to build audience support. Don’t feel threatened. Look at questions as a way to uncover concerns and sensitive areas that were not obvious in your audience analysis. Good answers enhance and reinforce your message.

As you plan

Anticipate questions. Think of three questions you hope the audience won’t ask. Develop thorough answers to them. Minimize surprises.

Control the situation

State your policy on questions at the outset. Do you want the audience to ask them as they arise or hold them until you finish?

Stay on message. Henry Kissinger once walked into the White House press room and asked, “Does anyone have any questions for my answers? Wow!

With a large group, it helps to repeat or paraphrase the question. With any size audience, re-phrase negative or hostile questions.

In general, don’t answer a question with a question.

Identify the issue behind the question. What is the real concern? Probe and clarify before you answer. Besides, it buys you time to think.

Break complicated questions into parts before you answer. Answer the part you like best first.

Look directly at the questioner. Once the question has been asked, break eye contact and lock onto another person. This avoids one-on-one confrontation and signals to the audience that your answer is of interest to all.

Be sensitive

With a mixed audience, ask for general questions first. The detailed questions can come later.

Listen. Respond quickly, but be sure you know and understand the whole question before answering.

If you don’t know the answer to a question, say so and promise to find it. If you have informed associates present, invite them to answer but buy some time for them to think by discussing it aloud first.

Encourage the audience to discuss questions with you.

Handle objections

Find a way to agree with people who put questions in the form of objections. For example, “You’ve raised a critical concern to which we have given a great deal of thought.” Then humbly and respectfully set them straight.

Be tactful. Turn negativism into positive replies.

Even the most belligerent questioners are helping you. They have come out in the open, let you know they oppose you, and told you why. Seize the opportunity to answer them. Be courteous, humble, patient, and firm.

Never become defensive.

Remember:
Strive for question and answer sessions that generate lively audience response. Effective question and answer sessions can increase the audience’s knowledge, reinforce your main points, and ad to your credibility. Emphasize your advantage in every answer. Above all, be quick, be courteous, be correct, and be complete.

Good Selling!

Delivery Techniques

Steve’s Sales Coaching Tips

Presenting with Power and Getting Results! – Part 6

Your success is determined by how well you coordinate a mix of messages, spoken and unspoken. You are the presentation. Control the situation. Don’t get in the way of your words. Use any creative means available to tell and sell your story effectively.

Control and authority

-Exert some energy. Be yourself AND THEN SOME! Show that you are confident and excited about what you are about to say.

-Pause...relax before you begin.

-Don’t demand the attention of a noisy audience. Politely wait for attention to come to you. They will settle.

-Establish personal contact before you begin speaking. Lock onto a person in your audience.

-Make a positive first impression with a sincere smile and nod of acknowledgment. Excited about the subject? Well for heaven’s sake ...tell your face about it and smile!

The body

-Maintain a relaxed, natural stance. Avoid shifting your weight, leaning on the lectern, or fidgeting.

-Stand on the left side of your visual aid (from the audience’s perspective).

-Gesture naturally. Avoid forced movement. Spontaneity, personality, and feeling for the subject are the keys to movement. When you’re excited about the subject and intent upon reaching the audience, gesturing takes care of itself.

The eyes

-Maintain eye contact. Effective communication is a two-way street. The audience’s eyes give constant feedback as to how well you’re communicating.

-Concentrate on one person and hold them until you’ve made your point. Then move on to another. You will find this helps you focus on your message and avoid that glazed, faraway look that comes from scanning the audience.

-Key: Maintaining eye contact is the single most important thing you can do to improve your presentation style.

The message

-Learn to use the power of silence. Some inexperienced speakers feel the need to deliver an uninterrupted stream of words. They end up with “ums,” “ers” and “ahs.” Effective pauses show that you are in control of your message and the audience.

-Involve the audience. Make a provocative statement, or ask a rhetorical question.

-Personalize the talk to gain audience empathy.

-Don’t let visual aids compete with your for attention. Avoid fast slide show clicking.

Remember:
Don’t distract the audience. This is the all-encompassing rule of effective delivery skills. Make it easy for listeners to understand the message by working hard on how you say it.

Good selling!

Personal Appearance

Steve’s Sales Coaching Tips

Presenting with Power and Getting Results! - Part 5

60% of your message is non-verbal. Your appearance says a lot about how you feel about yourself and your audience. An audience makes judgments, fair or unfair, based on how you look. Use this to your advantage. Your personal appearance makes a powerful statement about your status and credibility.

Dress conservatively

-Select a suit in a solid color or a smart sport coat and coordinated separates.
-Blouses and shirts should be freshly pressed. White and blue are good colors.
-Loud ties or excessive neckwear are distracting.
-Polish your shoes.

Dress comfortably but sharp.

-Jeffery Fox advises that salespeople should dress to be the best-dressed person they will see that day. Casual dress leads to casual attitudes. Sloppy dress leads to sloppy work. I agree.

-Clothing that doesn’t fit properly restricts your movement. Tight collars and shoes can be irritating and prevent you from doing your best.
-If the situation warrants, remove your jacket and suggest that others do so as well.
-Make sure your pockets are free of keys and coins.
-Don’t wear beeping watches (do they make those anymore?). Turn off your mobile.

Avoid eye-catching accessories

-Select belt buckles, bracelets, tie tacks, lapel pins, earrings, and necklaces carefully.
-Avoid “bling” pieces. If in doubt, wear something else.

Personal grooming

-Make sure your hairstyle is neat and does not cover your face.
-Hands and fingernails should be clean and manicured.
-Be certain you are fresh (no body odor or bad breath).

Remember:
Effective communication involves much more than words. It is a complex mix of messages.
Personal appearance is one of the most powerful of these unspoken messages and one of the easiest to control. The audience buys you before they buy your ideas.


Good Selling!

Controlling Nervous Energy

Steve’s Sales Coaching Tips

Presenting with Power and Getting Results! - Part 4

That unsettling feeling you experience before you speak is nothing more than a surge of adrenaline. This primitive defense mechanism can make your heart race and cause you to perspire. It also sharpens your physical and mental capabilities. Channeling this surge of energy and releasing the tension helps you give an outstanding performance.

Preparation

-You will be more relaxed if you know your ideas are sound and you’re prepared. A solid foundation is difficult to shake. Don’t procrastinate. Get busy now.

Practice, Practice, Practice...How Else Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?

-Amatures hate to practice. Pros know better. By practicing often, you gain confidence. Practice will eliminate the negative anticipation that creates tension. Practice out loud, in front of an audience or video camera.

Successful experience

-Seek opportunities to speak both formally and informally. Try your ideas out on friends. Speak to clubs and professional organizations. Monitor your progress, correct errors, and speak again.

-Take advantage of company training programs. Many of them offer classes and workshops on presentation techniques with plenty of opportunity for you to speak before a group.

Creative visualization

-Before you get to speak, close your eyes and recall an event in which you were in control, totally confident, and completely relaxed. Describe to yourself vividly how you felt. Include sounds, smells, colors, and emotions that were present. Next, bring these feelings to your present state of consciousness. Experience the surge of zen-ergetic relaxation that results.

-Picture yourself as a successful speaker. Paint the scene in exact detail. Your presentation is well organized, and you are thoroughly prepared. Your audience is attentive. You have them in the palm of your hand. Remember, you were asked to speak for a reason. You know more about some aspect of the subject than anyone in the room. You have something important to give them.


Relaxation techniques

-Isometrics. Perform simple tensing and relaxing exercises. For example, clench your fists for a count of ten. Release, relaxing your entire body. The contrast between tensing and releasing promotes relaxation.

-Controlled breathing. Take deep, full breaths, allowing your lungs to expand fully. Exhale slowly and deliberately. Little by little, your mental state will adjust to match your physical calm.

-Avoid caffeine or other stimulants before speaking.

Talking to individuals

-Remember that the audience is made up of individuals. Think of your presentation as a conversation.

-Seek out friendly faces. Lock in on one pair of eyes. Talk to that person until you complete a thought. Then move on to another.

Remember:
You can rely on preparation, practice, and positive experience to minimize your natural tension. The key is to channel your energy and make it work for you.

Effective Visual Aids

Steve’s Sales Coaching Tips

Presenting with Power and Getting Results! – Part 3

Audiences retain more information when they see it and hear it at the same time. Visual aids can make presentations more interesting and effective. Use restraint, imagination, and professional help to maximize their impact.

Basics

-If this is a team presentation, does each presentation complement the others?
-Are the visuals suited to the audience and the room?
-Are the necessary facilities and equipment available?

General rules

-Build visual aids only after developing your content.
-Use visual aids to support your verbal message. Don’t rely on visuals alone to convey your message.
-Prepare visuals specifically for the presentation. Visuals prepared for publications are almost never suitable for use in a presentation.
-Keep visuals simple, uncluttered, and easy to see. K.I.S.S.

Methods of visualizing

-Tables illustrate complex and detailed relationships.
-Graphs help visualize quantitative data and show trends.
-Photographs enhance credibility and realism. Search Flickr.
-Drawings help present abstract concepts.
-Video and film demonstrate action and drama and add variety.
-Word charts are good for emphasis and continuity. Caution: Don’t use for notes or cues.
-Enlarged text can be effective for citing an authority.
-Cartoons help express emotion. Use sparingly.
-Models aid 3D visualization, action, and audience involvement.
-Handouts distract attention. If possible, distribute them at the end.

Remember:
Visual aids compete with you for the audience’s attention. Keep the attention on you. Rehearse often with your visual aids, even if that means using rough-draft artwork. Don’t stand between your audience and the visual aid.

Good Selling!

Organization

Steve’s Sales Coaching Tips

Presenting with Power and Getting Results! – Part 2

To organize your sales presentation, begin by outlining the body or main points. This often gives you the inspiration for a strong summary, which in turn provides the basis for an attention-grabbing introduction.

Outline your main points

-Rank your ideas in order of importance.
-Select those that tell your story and support your message.
-Limit yourself to 3 main points. (The less you say, the more they remember.)
-Arrange them in logical order.
-Add necessary subpoints.
-Expand your outline to include the necessary detail.

Plan your time

-Tailor your information to the time available. What will you cut if time runs out?
-Divide your outline into timed modules.
-Separate these modules by transitions.
-Allow enough time for questions.

Develop your closing

-Begin with a signal that you are concluding.
-Restate your message.
-Reiterate your main points.
-Relate your remarks to your listeners.
-Tell the audience what you want them to do.

Prepare your opening

-Have a “grabber”. Get their attention. Get minds revving!
-Tell who you are and how much time you need.
-Explain why you are talking about this subject to this audience.
-State your message up front. It shouldn’t be a mystery novel.
-Preview your main points. Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em.
-Give a signal that you are moving on to the body of the presentation.

Remember:
A presentation that is carefully organized gets results. Audiences pick up immediately on the haphazard and the illogical. On the other hand, they appreciate being quickly guided through complex material by an expert.

Good Selling!

Planning

Steve’s Sales Coaching Tips

Presenting with Power and Getting Results! - Part 1

Careful planning for your sales presentation pays off. It helps you avoid false starts, expensive rework, and last-minute scrambles. Thinking through your presentation from beginning to end ensures an outstanding performance.

A-C-I-B

Analyze your customer audience

-Identify your listeners.
-List their biases and expectations.
-Assess their knowledge and interest levels.
-Determine their attitudes toward you and your subject.
-Define how your presentation benefits them.
-Anticipate questions you might be asked.

Clarify your purpose

-Know why you are talking about this subject to this audience.
-State your objective in one sentence.

Identify your message

-State it clearly.
-Don’t depend on subtlety.
-Don’t assume your audience knows your message.

Brainstorm

-Write down everything on your topic that comes to mind.
-Pay no attention to grammar, spelling, or punctuation.
-Do not judge or attempt to sort, just write.

Remember:
Effective presentations are the result of intelligent planning. By using a step-by-step approach, you divide the task into manageable segments and ensure that you have the basis for a well organized presentation.

Good Selling!

Presenting with Power and Getting Results!

Steve’s Sales Coaching Tips

To start, I am going to lay out a series of tip sheets as a foundation for you to improve your sales presentations. The tip sheets contain key information on seven areas of critical importance in presentation development and delivery. They include:

1. Planning
2. Organization
3. Effective Visual Aids
4. Controlling Nervous Energy
5. Personal Appearance
6. Delivery Techniques
7. Handling Questions
   
   Use these tip sheets. Even though you may be an experienced presenter, you will find helpful reminders and, perhaps, some tips you haven’t been using. If you are less experienced, you will find them indispensable.
   
   Good selling!