No matter what business you’re in, if you’re an entrepreneur, you’re in sales. “But I hate to sell,” you groan. You’re not alone. Many people are intimidated by selling—either because they’re not sure how to proceed or they think they don’t have the “right” personality to sell.
Well, guess what? Anyone can sell—anyone, that is, who can learn to connect with the customer, listen to his or her needs, and offer the right solutions. In fact, as your business’s founder, you’re better positioned than anyone else to sell your products and services. Even if you have a team of crack salespeople, there’s no one else who has the same passion for, understanding of, and enthusiasm about your product as you do. And once you finish reading this chapter, you’ll have plenty of sales skills as well.
Understanding Your Unique Selling Proposition
Before you can begin to sell your product or service to anyone else, you have to sell yourself on it. This is especially important when your product or service is similar to those around you. Very few businesses are one of a kind. Just look around you: How many clothing retailers, hardware stores, air conditioning installers, and electricians are truly unique?
The key to effective selling in this situation is what advertising and marketing professionals call a “unique selling proposition” (USP). Unless you can pinpoint what makes your business unique in a world of homogeneous competitors, you cannot target your sales efforts successfully.
Pinpointing your USP requires some hard soul-searching and creativity. One way to start is to analyze how other companies use their USPs to their advantage. This requires careful analysis of other companies’ ads and marketing messages. If you analyze what they say they sell, not just their product or service characteristics, you can learn a great deal about how companies distinguish themselves from competitors.
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Want to boost sales? Offer a 100 percent guarantee. This minimizes customer objections and shows you believe in your product or service. Product guarantees should be unconditional, with no hidden clauses like “guaranteed for 30 days.” Use guarantees for services, too: “Satisfaction guaranteed. You’ll be thrilled with our service, or we’ll redo it at our expense.”
For example, Charles Revson, founder of Revlon, always used to say he sold hope, not makeup. Some airlines sell friendly service, while others sell on-time service. Neiman Marcus sells luxury, while Walmart sells bargains.
Each of these is an example of a company that has found a USP “peg” on which to hang its marketing strategy. A business can peg its USP on product characteristics, price structure, placement strategy (location and distribution), or promotional strategy. These are what marketers call the “four P’s” of marketing. They are manipulated to give a business a market position that sets it apart from the competition.
Sometimes a company focuses on one particular “peg,” which also drives the strategy in other areas. A classic example is Hanes L’Eggs hosiery. Back in an era when hosiery was sold primarily in department stores, Hanes opened a new distribution channel for hosiery sales. The idea: Since hosiery was a consumer staple, why not sell it where other staples were sold—in grocery stores?
Star Power
You can find salespeople of all ranges, temperaments, and styles of selling. Some are more aggressive than others. Some are more consultative. Some are highly educated, some not so. But they’re all champs because they’re the ones who consistently build the business, keep the territory, and retain their customers. And they share these three traits:
1. Attitude. Attitude makes all the difference. Sales champs set priorities and keep things moving forward, ending each day with a sense of accomplishment. Sales champs don’t let losing a deal get them down. If they can’t change a situation, they change their attitude about it. In sales, you’ve got to make things happen for your business—and the best salespeople can’t wait to get started every day.
2. Tenacity. When sales champs know they have something of value for a prospect or client, they don’t give up. They learn more about the situation, the potential customer, and the customer’s company. They study what went wrong and improve their approach for the next time so they can come back with new ideas. They are not easily defeated. However, sales champs understand when they’re wasting time and when it’s best to move on to the next tactic or even the next sale. If you get smarter each time you come back, you will succeed. When prospects see how much you believe in your vision and in their goals they, too, will be enthusiastic about what you have to offer.
3. Follow-through. A broken promise makes it extremely difficult to regain a customer’s trust. Sales champs don’t make promises they can’t keep. They don’t try to be everything to everybody. But once they give their word, they stick to it.
A sales champ doesn’t exhibit all these traits all the time. But they know that in the end, the harder they work at sharpening these traits, the better these traits will work for them.
That placement strategy then drove the company’s selection of product packaging (a plastic egg) so the pantyhose did not seem incongruent in the supermarket. And because the product did not have to be pressed and wrapped in tissue and boxes, it could be priced lower than other brands.
Here’s how to uncover your USP and use it to power up your sales:
Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Too often, entrepreneurs fall in love with their product or service and forget that it is the customer’s needs, not their own, that they must satisfy. Step back from your daily operations and carefully scrutinize what your customers really want. Suppose you own a pizza parlor. Sure, customers come into your pizza place for food. But is food all they want? What could make them come back again and again and ignore your competition? The answer might be quality, convenience, reliability, friendliness, cleanliness, courtesy, or customer service.
Remember, price is never the only reason people buy. If your competition is beating you on pricing because they are larger, you have to find another sales feature that addresses the customer’s needs and then build your sales and promotional efforts around that feature.
Know what motivates your customers’ behavior and buying decisions. Effective marketing requires you to be an amateur psychologist. You need to know what drives and motivates customers. Go beyond the traditional customer demographics, such as age, gender, race, income, and geographic location, that most businesses collect to analyze their sales trends. For our pizza shop example, it is not enough to know that 75 percent of your customers are in the 18-to-25 age range. You need to look at their motives for buying pizza—taste, peer pressure, convenience, and so on.
Cosmetics and liquor companies are great examples of industries that know the value of psychologically oriented promotion. People buy these products based on their desires (for a prettier face, luxury, glamour, and so on), not on their needs.
Uncover the real reasons customers buy your product instead of a competitor’s. As your business grows, you’ll be able to ask your best source of information: your customers. For example, the pizza entrepreneur could ask them why they like his pizza over others, plus ask them to rate the importance of the features he offers, such as taste, size, ingredients, atmosphere, and service. You will be surprised how honest people are when you ask how you can improve your service.
Since your business is just starting out, you won’t have a lot of customers to ask yet, so “shop” your competition instead. Many retailers routinely drop into their competitors’ stores to see what and how they are selling. If you are really brave, try asking a few of the customers after they leave the premises what they like and dislike about the competitors’ products and services.
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Want to know the best way to talk yourself out of a sale? Overselling—pushing your features and benefits too hard—is a common problem for salespeople. The problem is that you aren’t hearing the customer’s needs. Shut up and listen. Then start asking questions. Keep asking questions until you can explain how your product or service meets the customer’s needs.
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Tips for better cold-calls: Stand up when you talk on the phone. It puts power and confidence in your voice. Smile when you say hello. It makes you sound relaxed and confident. Prospects can’t see these telephone tricks, but they’ll hear and feel the difference in your tone—and in your persuasive powers.
Once you have gone through this three-step market intelligence process, you need to take the next—and hardest—step: clearing your mind of any preconceived ideas about your product or service and being brutally honest. What features of your business jump out at you as something that sets you apart? What can you promote that will make customers want to patronize your business? How can you position your business to highlight your USP?
Do not get discouraged. Successful business ownership is not about having a unique product or service; it’s about making your product stand out—even in a market filled with similar items.
Cold-Calling
The aspect of selling that strikes the greatest fear in people’s hearts is usually cold calls. A good way to make cold calls more appealing is to stop thinking of them as “cold” calls. Try thinking of them as “introductory” calls instead. All you are trying to do is introduce yourself and your business to the prospect.
It’s important to understand the purpose of introductory calls so you have a realistic attitude about this type of business development activity. Phone prospecting takes longer to pay off than other types of marketing efforts, so go into it knowing you’re exploring a new frontier, and it’s going to take some time to get results.
Just as with any marketing method, you should never make introductory calls without a plan. First, always use a targeted list of prospects when making your calls. If your product is household cleaning services, why call a random neighborhood if you have no knowledge of income levels, number of household wage earners, or number of children? If you sell nutritional products to hospitals, why call nurses or doctors if a third-party pharmacy makes all the buying decisions? Get the right list of prospects.
You can obtain information about prospects from the list broker who provides you with the list; if you are working from your house list, you should already have the information. If for some reason you don’t, try an introductory call like the following: “We provide mobile pet grooming for dogs and cats. Would that be a service your customers would want to know about, Dr. Veterinarian?”
Next, determine the best time frames for calling. If you are selling financial services to upper-income CEOs or entrepreneurs, wouldn’t it be nice to know when their corporate fiscal years end? Perhaps most of their investment purchases are made two to four weeks prior to that year-end close-out. That’s when they know how much extra income needs to be sheltered in a pension plan.
Sometimes timing is your ace in the hole. Granted, follow-up calls throughout the year may make that one important sale possible, but knowing when to instigate the first call is a priceless piece of information.
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Got cold-call phobia? Psych yourself up with a numbers game: If every sale brings you $200 profit and it takes an average of 10 calls to make one sale, then each “no” is worth $20. Or try the “immersion” technique: Make 100 cold calls without worrying about the results. When it’s over, you’ll have learned a great deal about selling . . . and your fear of cold calls will be history.
Third, plan by preparing a “sales script” ahead of time. Write down what you are going to say, what responses the prospect is likely to have, and how you will reply to them. No, you’re not going to follow this word for word, but if you’re nervous about making calls, it helps to have something in front of you. Chances are, after you get beyond the opening sentences, you’ll be able to “wing it” just fine.
If preparation for cold-calling is easy but actually making calls is painful for you, here are seven easy steps to get you on the phone fast.
1. Personalize each call by preparing mentally. Your mind-set needs to be aligned with your language, or the conversation will not ring true. You need to work on developing a warm but not sugarcoated telephone voice that has that “Don’t I know you?” ring to it.
2. Perfect your phone style alone before making any calls. If you are self-conscious about calling, you need to feel safe to act uninhibited. Try this: Gather a voice recorder, a mirror, a sales journal of incoming and outgoing phone scripts, a pen, and a legal-sized pad. Either write or select a favorite phone dialogue; then talk to yourself in the mirror. Do you look relaxed, or are your facial expressions rigid? Our exteriors reflect our inner selves. If you look like you’re in knots, your voice will sound strained as well.
Press the “record” button on your recorder, and pretend you’re talking to a new prospect. Play back the recording, and listen to your conversation. Ask yourself how you could improve your delivery. If your voice seems unnatural and the dialogue contrived, do not despair. As you practice and participate in real phone experiences, you will improve. Mastering the art of cold-calling is no different than improving your golf swing or skiing technique.
3. Create familiarity all around you. Use family photos, framed testimonial letters, motivational quotes, or whatever gets you in a positive, enthusiastic mood. If you like, play some music that inspires you.
4. Use your imagination. Pretend you are a prospective customer calling a bookstore to see if they have a book in stock. If it helps, record how you sound to get the feel of your inquiring phone voice. It’s always easier to imagine you’re a customer in need of information than a salesperson trying to force your way into the customer’s time. The inquiry call is good practice because the tone of the conversation is “Can you help me?” or “I need some information.” Try to convey that same attitude when you use the phone to contact future customers.
5. Watch your tone of voice. You do not want to sound sheepish and embarrassed, nor do you want to be arrogant. The ideal tone is warm, businesslike, curious, and straight to the point. A good option is a question or a cut-to-the-chase statement such as: “I’ve got a question. We are offering a two-for-one special during the next 30 days on all our coffee drinks, just to get people into the store. I need to know if you have ever stopped in while shopping at the mall, and, if not, why not? We have got the greatest ice-blended mochas in town.”
6. Make your goal a fast “50 in 150”—that is, 50 calls in 150 minutes. Three minutes per call is all you need. With so many voice-mail systems intercepting calls today, this should be easy. Never give people the impression you have time to chat. Chatting is not prospecting. You’re on a mission. Get to the point, then move to the next prospect.
7. Take five after 15. After 15 calls, take a five-minute break—stretch, eat, sip a soda, turn on some tunes, and pat yourself on the back because you’re making it happen. Then grab the phone for 15 more calls.
Voice-Mail Victories
When making cold calls, always leave voice-mail messages if possible instead of leaving messages with an assistant. No one can transmit your enthusiasm for your products or services the way you can. Here are some tips to make the most of voice mail.
State your business. Clearly tell prospects who you are and why they should be interested in talking to you. “Hello, my name is Jane Smith, and I’m with the Smith Co. We’re the people who conduct one-day Sales Power seminars all over the country. Our seminar is coming to your area, and I’d like to tell you about it.”
Offer good news. After identifying yourself and your business, say “I have some good news I’d like to share with you.”
Be courteous. Use the phrase “I’d appreciate a return call at (number) at your convenience.” Be careful of your tone of voice so that you don’t sound condescending.
Follow up with an email. Send an email that says “Mr. Wilson, please check your voice mail for an important message.” Or leave a voice-mail message saying “I’m emailing you the information; if it is of interest to you, please give me a call.”
Always leave your phone number—twice. Repeat your number near the end of the message. Practice writing it down as you talk so you don’t go too quickly.
Following Up
Your initial cold call typically will not result in a sale, or even in an appointment to make a sales presentation. One study shows it takes an average of seven contacts, impressions, or follow-ups to make a sale. (That’s only one more time than the number of times experts say a child must be introduced to a new food before they try it—so don’t be daunted.)
Think of each follow-up contact as a chance to get closer to the prospect and change his or her mind about meeting with you. Plan your follow-up contacts carefully, and be flexible and creative.
How do you start the follow-up call? Here are some lead-in lines:
“I thought of a few things that might help you decide . . .”
“Something recently happened that I thought you might want to know about . . .”
“There has been a change in the status of . . .”
“I just was thinking about you recently and I wanted to tell you about . . .”
Here are other sales tools you can use in follow-up situations:
A personal note. A handwritten note on your company note cards is far more effective than a typed business letter.
An endorsement from a mutual friend. A friend or mutual business acquaintance is far more influential than you are.
An article about your company. Something in print can work wonders. You can even send articles about the prospect’s company or, better yet, about a personal interest of the prospect. “Thought you might be interested in . . .”
An invitation to visit your facility. Bring the prospect to your home turf.
A meal. Meetings in a nonbusiness environment are powerful and help you build personal relationships that lead to sales.
Team Work
The right sales team—whether they are in-house employees or outside sales representatives—makes a big difference in how quickly your company grows. How to make sure you’re hiring the right people? Try these tips:
Don’t rely solely on resumes. Good salespeople sell themselves so well, they might not even need resumes.
Try placing a classified ad that says “send resume to (address) or call (number).” Don’t even look at the resumes; just interview the people who call. These are the people who won’t be afraid to pick up the phone and make cold calls for your company.
In the first phone contact, if the applicant doesn’t ask for an appointment, stop right there. If the person doesn’t ask for an interview now, he or she won’t ask for orders later.
Does the person sound like someone you want to spend time with? If you don’t want to, neither will your customers.
When they first call, tell them you’re busy and will call them back. Then don’t. If they don’t call back, they lack the persistence you need in a salesperson.
Does the applicant listen? If they’re too busy talking, they’ll be too busy to listen to your customers.
At the end of the call, say you plan to talk to several candidates and will get back to them. Wait until one says “You don’t need to talk to more people. I’m the one you want.” That’s the kind of person you need.
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Sell to the people most likely to buy. Your best prospects have a keen interest in your product or service and the money to purchase it. If you’re selling office espresso machines, don’t try to sell to people who have never bought one. Sell to those who already have one or those you know are interested in buying one. Show them how yours is superior.
Making Sales Presentations
Your cold calls and follow-up efforts have paid off, and you have made an appointment to visit a prospect in person and make a sales presentation. How can you make sure it’s a success? Four elements determine whether a sale will be made or not:
1. Rapport: putting yourself on the same side of the fence as the prospect
2. Need: determining what factors will motivate the prospect to listen with the intent to purchase
3. Importance: the weight the prospect assigns to a product, feature, benefit, price, or time frame
4. Confidence: your ability to project credibility, to remove doubt, and to gain the prospect’s belief that the risk of purchase will be less than the reward of ownership
Here is a closer look at the steps you can take to make your sales presentation a success.
Before the Presentation
1. Know your customer’s business. Potential clients expect you to know their business, customers, and competition as well as you know your own product or service. Study your customer’s industry. Know its problems and trends. Find out who the company’s biggest competitors are. Some research tools include the company’s annual report, brochures, catalogs, and newsletters; trade publications; chamber of commerce directories; and the internet.
2. Write out your sales presentation. Making a sales presentation isn’t something you do on the fly. Always use a written presentation. The basic structure of any sales presentation includes five key points: Build rapport with your prospect, introduce the business topic, ask questions to better understand your prospect’s needs, summarize your key selling points, and close the sale. Think about the three major selling points of your product or service. Develop leading questions to probe your customer’s reactions and needs.
3. Make sure you are talking to the right person. This seems elementary, but many salespeople neglect to do it. Then, at the last minute, the buyer wriggles off the hook by saying he or she needs a boss’s, spouse’s, or partner’s approval. When you are setting the appointment, always ask “Are you the one I should be talking to, or are there others who will be making the buying decision?”
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Condition prospects to say yes by asking questions they will agree with. “It’s a great day, isn’t it?” or “You got an early start today, didn’t you?” Little questions like these help start customers on a momentum that builds trust. Subconsciously, because they are agreeing with you, they begin to trust you.
In the Customer’s Office
Build rapport. Before you start discussing business, build rapport with your prospect. To accomplish this, do some homework. Find out if you have a colleague in common. Has the prospect’s company been in the news lately? Is he or she interested in sports? Get a little insight into the company and the individual so you can make the rapport genuine.
Ask questions. Don’t jump into a canned sales spiel. The most effective way to sell is to ask the prospect questions and see where he or she leads you. (Of course, your questions are carefully structured to elicit the prospect’s needs—ones that your product just happens to be able to fill.)
Ask questions that require more than a yes or no response, and that deal with more than just costs, price, procedures, and the technical aspects of the prospect’s business. Most important, ask questions that will reveal the prospect’s motivation to purchase, his or her problems and needs, and the prospect’s decision-making processes. Don’t be afraid to ask a client why he or she feels a certain way. That’s how you’ll get to understand your customers.
Take notes. Don’t rely on your memory to remind you of what’s important to your prospect. Ask upfront if it’s all right for you to take notes during your sales presentation. Write down key points you can refer to later during your presentation.
Be sure to write down objections. This shows your prospect you are truly listening. In this way, you can specifically answer objections by showing how the customer will benefit from your product or service. It could be, for instance, by saving money, raising productivity, increasing employee motivation, or increasing his or her company’s name recognition.
Learn to listen. Salespeople who do all the talking during a presentation not only bore the prospect, but also generally lose the sale. A good rule of thumb is to listen 70 percent of the time and talk 30 percent of the time. Don’t interrupt. It’s tempting to step in and tell the prospect something you think is vitally important. Before you speak, ask yourself if what you’re about to say is really necessary.
When you do speak, focus on asking questions. Pretend you are Barbara Walters interviewing a movie star: Ask questions; then shut up. You can improve your listening skills by taking notes and observing your prospect’s body language, not jumping to conclusions.
Answer objections with “feel,” “felt,” and “found.” Don’t argue when a prospect says “I’m not interested,” “I just bought one,” or “I don’t have time right now.” Simply say “I understand how you feel. A lot of my present customers felt the same way. But when they found out how much time they saved by using our product, they were amazed.” Then ask for an appointment. Prospects like to hear about other people who have been in a similar situation.
Probe deeper. If a prospect tells you “We’re looking for cost savings and efficiency,” will you immediately tell him how your product meets his need for cost savings and efficiency? A really smart salesperson won’t—he or she will ask more questions and probe deeper: “I understand why that is important. Can you give me a specific example?” Asking for more information—and listening to the answers—enables you to better position your product and show you understand the client’s needs.
Find the “hot button.” A customer may have a long list of needs, but there is usually one “hot button” that will get the person to buy. The key to the hot button is that it is an emotional, not practical, need—a need for recognition, love, or reinforcement. Suppose you are selling health club memberships. For a prospect who is planning a trip to Hawaii in two months, the hot button is likely to be losing a few pounds and looking good in a bikini. For a prospect who just found out he has high blood pressure, the hot button could be the health benefits of exercise. For a busy young mother, the hot button may be the chance to get away from the kids for a few hours a week and reduce stress.
Eliminate objections. When a prospect raises an objection, don’t immediately jump in with a response. Instead, show empathy by saying “Let’s explore your concerns.” Ask for more details about the objection. You need to isolate the true objection so you can handle it.
Here are some ways to do that:
1. Offer a choice. “Is it the delivery time or the financing you are concerned about?”
2. Get to the heart of the matter. “When you say you want to think about it, what specifically did you want to think about?”
3. Work toward a solution. Every sale should be a win-win deal, so you may need to compromise to close the deal: “I’ll waive the delivery charge if you agree to the purchase.”
As you get more experience making sales calls, you’ll become familiar with different objections. Maintain a list of common objections and ways you have successfully dealt with them.
Close the sale. There is no magic to closing the sale. If you have followed all the previous steps, all you should have to do is ask for the customer’s order. However, some salespeople make the mistake of simply not asking for the final decision. It’s as if they forget what their goal is!
For some, “closing” sounds too negative. If you’re one of them, try changing your thinking to something more positive, such as “deciding.” As you talk with the customer, build in the close by having fun with it. Say something like “So how many do you want? We have it in a rainbow of colors; do you want them all?” Make sure to ask them several times in a fun, nonthreatening way; you’re leading them to make the decision.
Presentation Perfect
Want to improve your sales presentation skills? Use these strategies to hone your speaking abilities:
Tag-team-sell for evaluation purposes. Have a colleague go on sales calls with you once a week to listen to your presentation. Create a review form for them to fill out immediately after your performance. (Include your strengths as well as your weaknesses.) Read it right away, and talk about what you can do to improve.
Record your telephone sales conversations. Use them as a self-monitor of your ability to present a clear and confident message. Play them back. If you can’t stand your voice, change your pitch. Or, ask a trusted friend or mentor to listen to your tone and give feedback—sometimes we are really our own worst critics and many people cringe at the sound of their own voice for no real reason.
Read a chapter from a sales book aloud, and make an audio recording of it. Play it in your car. You’ll learn about sales and about how you present your pitch. Would you buy from yourself? If not, record another version with style and emotion.
Videotape the first five minutes of your sales presentation. Ask a friend or colleague to be the prospect. Watch the video together, and rate your performance. Repeat the process once a week for two months. Work to eliminate your two worst habits; at the same time, work to enhance your two best strengths.
Above all, be yourself. Don’t put on an act. Your personality will shine if you believe in what you are saying. Being genuine will win the prospect’s confidence . . . and the sale.
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Offer a first-time incentive to help clinch the sale. If prospects like your product or service, they’ll be inclined to make a decision now rather than wait a few days or put off the decision indefinitely. First-time incentives might include “10 percent off with your purchase today” or “With today’s purchase, you’ll receive one free hour of consultation.”
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Trying to scare up business? If your product isn’t very appealing or exciting, one way to motivate customers is by describing the consequences of not using your product. For products that increase security or safety or improve health, fear can be an effective business-boosting tool.
After the Sale
Follow up. What you do after the sale is as crucial as what you do to get it. “Nearly 85 percent of all sales are produced by word-of-mouth referrals,” says sales guru Brian Tracy. “In other words, they’re the result of someone telling a friend or associate to buy a product or service because the customer was satisfied.” Concentrate on developing future and referral business with each satisfied customer. Write thank-you notes, call the customer after the sale to make sure he or she is satisfied, and maintain a schedule of future communications. Be in front of that client, and always show attention and responsiveness. (For more on retaining customers, see Chapter 33.)
Ask for feedback. Ask customers what you need to do to maintain and increase their business. Many customers have minor complaints but will never say anything. They just won’t buy from you again. If you ask their opinions, on the other hand, they’ll be glad to tell you—and, in most cases, will give you a chance to solve the problem.
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What’s the best way to reach a prospect? Send a letter and follow it up with a phone call. Next best is a referral. Then comes a cold call, then a personal visit. Least effective is a direct-mail piece.
The Price Isn’t Right
How do you overcome that most common objection, “Your price is too high”? Lawrence L. Steinmetz, author of How to Sell at Prices Higher Than Your Competitors, says you need to learn how to acknowledge that your price is higher than competitors’ and use that as a selling tool.
Showing that customers get more services, better warranties, or higher-quality products for the extra cost makes the higher price seem less imposing. Telling them why the competition’s services or products don’t measure up differentiates you from the competition and convinces customers you’re worth the extra money.
Whatever you do, don’t be too willing to negotiate or slash prices. “When you ask a customer ‘Is that too much?’ you are encouraging him or her to beat you up,” says Steinmetz.
With the right ammunition, you can turn price problems into selling points.
For instance, customers often say that Verizon’s wireless contracts are more expensive than its competitors. But, many also stick with the pricier contract or sign up for the first time because the company is known to have the largest coverage area in the country.
Speaking Effectively
The difference between good and great salespeople is the way they deliver their messages. You can have the greatest sales pitch in the world, but if you deliver it with no enthusiasm, sincerity, or belief, you will lose the sale.
Here are some suggestions to improve your speaking skills and power up your presentations:
Speak clearly. If the prospect doesn’t understand you, you won’t get the sale.
Lean forward. Leaning into the presentation gives the prospect a sense of urgency.
Don’t fidget. Knuckle-cracking, hair-twirling, and similar nervous habits detract from your presentation.
Don’t “um,” “ah,” or “er.” These vocal tics are so irritating, they make the prospect focus on the flaws rather than the message. Best cure? Practice, practice, practice.
Be animated. Act as if the best thing in the world just happened to you.
Vary your voice. Don’t drone on in a monotone. Punch the critical words. Go from high to low tones. Whisper some of the key information as if it’s a secret. Get the prospect to lean into your words. Make him or her feel fortunate to be receiving this message.
Look prospects in the eye. Eye contact signals credibility and trustworthiness.
Follow the prospect’s lead. Keep your tone similar to his or her tone. If the prospect is stuffy and conservative, do not get too wild.
Relax. High anxiety makes prospects nervous. Why do salespeople get nervous? Either they are unprepared or they need the money from the sale. Calm down. Never let them see you sweat.
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Sell benefits, not features. The biggest mistake entrepreneurs make is focusing on what their product or service is (its features). Rather, it’s what it does (its benefits) that’s important. A health-food product contains nutrients that are good for the body. That’s what it is. What the product does is make the customer thinner, more energetic, and able to do more with less sleep.
Pass It On
Referrals are among a salesperson’s best weapons. Yet many salespeople fail to take advantage of this powerful marketing tool. Here are secrets to getting and making the most of referrals:
Ask for specific referrals. Many salespeople ask for referrals by saying “Do you know anyone else who might be interested in my product?” The prospect replies “Not off the top of my head, but I’ll let you know if I think of anyone.” And that’s where it ends. More effective is to ask for a specific referral that deals with a need your business addresses. For instance, ask “Steve, at your last Rotary Club meeting, did you talk to anyone who was thinking about moving or selling a home?”
Gather as much information about the referral as possible. Use this to prepare for the cold call.
Ask your customer for permission to use his or her name when contacting the referral.
Ask your customer to help you get an appointment with the referral.
Contact the referral as soon as possible.
Inform your customer about the outcome of the referral. People like to know when they have been of help.
Prospect for referrals just as you would for sales leads.