Posts Tagged "Sales"

The Contradiction in Presentations

April 25th, 2017 |no comments

In 2010 the iPhone 4 was launched. If you had one you were one of the cool kids. Now if you still have an iPhone 4 you keep quiet about it.

In 2014 it was common to go to the DVD store on a Saturday night to select a movie to watch. Now you’d be hard-pressed to find a DVD store because everyone is streaming Netflix.

Everything evolves – that’s the way life is.

Has your method of selling evolved to the same level your product has?

The main ways that presentations evolved are:

New playbook pic

The Contradiction in Presentations

The contradiction happens when you try to build a consensus as to why the audience should pay attention to your long sales pitch as you sell your cutting edge product.

Your product might be cutting edge, but your sales presentation isn’t.

Audiences get a gut feeling about your presentation and make a decision based on that. They then use the features of your product to confirm that gut feel.

What is the gut reaction they get from your presentations?

Cheers

Darren


What If You Doubled The Price?

April 18th, 2017 |no comments

What if you doubled the price of what you are selling? What additional value would you have to demonstrate to make it so valuable to your customers still wanted to buy it over the cheaper alternative?

The key here is value demonstrated – not features added.

Once you have identified this, you know how to step away from the price war and protect your margins. That’s what Rolls Royce does.

Customers buy value – not features

 

Cheers

Darren


Sales Presentations

November 8th, 2016 |no comments

The typical Sales Presentation is like a bad date – the person talks about themselves all night while you have to sit there and listen. Sure you want to know about them, but you want to share about yourself too!

Sales people often fall into this trap. It happens for two reasons –

• We are narcissistic to a point. We think that everyone is interested in us and what we have to say*.
• The second is a lack of positioning and confidence. Without positioning they can’t control the sales conversation in the customers environment. Without confidence they cannot dig deep into the customers world to find out what they need to buy.

You can tell if your team lacks positioning by any of the three following signs:
• They (not the customer) are the focus on the sales call (we sell this, we do this)
• Sales calls are short (buyers don’t want to waste their time beyond 10 minutes)
• They don’t sell much

If your sales team has this problem, you might want to check out my January program Better Positioning, Deeper Conversations, More Sales. It’s being run in January when customers are away or just don’t want to see you. You can get the details here.

If you want your customer to think you are interesting, let them talk about themselves.

Cheers

Darren

*You can test this in the next conversation you have. Say something about yourself and see how long it takes for the other person to make the conversation about themselves.


Where is the Head Office?

October 11th, 2016 |no comments

Most fast food chains do not have a head office for their restaurants. They are called Support Centers.

The State Manager, Manager of HR, Manager of Business Development sit in this support center. It sounds an awful lot like a Head Office.

But it’s not. And deliberately so.

The fast food chain wants their customers to think that the local restaurant is the head office. They want the staff of that restaurant to act as though they are the head office. This empowers staff to make decisions and the customer feels good about dealing with them.

When you are selling, are you the head office or just a representative of it? If you can’t make decisions, provide prices or clear up issues on the spot the customer won’t feel good about dealing with you.

Customers like to feel good when dealing with their suppliers. Giving staff head office powers enables this. It’s about being the leader.

 

This is an edited extract from my new book “Better Positioning Deeper Conversations More Sales”. To find out more or to purchase copies of this book click here

 

 


Pack, Push off or Provide

October 4th, 2016 |no comments

There are only three possible outcomes after a sales pitch:

  • Pack – pack the order and send it out
  • Push off – Go away
  • Provide – give me samples, specs and pricing

Most companies have strategies for two of these three outcomes.

Pack is customer nurture. Push off is start again

Provide is where it is let down. Most companies have a 2 strategy approach for follow up. They are:

  • Begging (I’m calling to see if you’ve made a decision)
  • Advertising (here is a copy of the latest brochure).

Neither approach offers value to the customer, or dignity to the sales person. After all, who likes begging!

You’re better off to offer the customer value so they want to talk to you. (A discount is not value – it’s prostitution)

 

This is an edited extract from my new book “Better Positioning Deeper Conversations More Sales”. To find out more or to purchase copies of this book click here

 


Go High

September 27th, 2016 |no comments

If you want an audience (buyer) to engage with you, you need to communicate from their world – not yours.

But many sales people will ask about the content they sell (e.g. Do you need any blue widgets?). If the buyer says yes they have a chance for a sale. If the buyer says no, they ask another content question (e.g. How about red widgets?).

These sales conversations are usually short and produce nothing.

This happens because subject matter experts love their content. They spend their time thinking about what they have and how it can benefit their customers. Their passion is clear.

The draw back is that they can see problems that the buyer is not yet aware of and go straight for it. They are selling a pill for a problem that the customer does not know they have.

If they don’t know they have a problem, they have no need to buy your pill.

 

This is an edited extract from my new book “Better Positioning Deeper Conversations More Sales”. To find out more or to purchase copies of this book click here

 


A$$ and Ego

August 9th, 2016 |no comments

Most (not all) buying decisions are based on either covering our backside, or positioning ourselves favorably in the eyes of others.

No one wants to be known as the person who bought on the dud supplier that ruined production. As such, many people stay with the status quo even when they know it’s not working.

Similarly, we want to be the person who looks great in front of our colleagues. This causes some to make buying decisions based on how good they will look when it all comes together.

What is common between these two? They are both based on emotions.

No amount of logic will convince me to take a risk if the emotional side is not covered off.

Are you covering off emotions with your buyers?

 

 

This is an edited extract from my new book “Better Positioning Deeper Conversations More Sales”. To find out more or to purchase copies of this book click here

 


The Buyer Doesn’t Care

August 2nd, 2016 |no comments

The buyer does not care about you.

They don’t care how old your company is, how long you have been working in your position or how many awards your company has won.

They have no reason to care. They don’t wish you malice – they just don’t care what you have done. The buyer only cares about themselves.

They care how they will be better off after listening to you, how they will be able to use what you tell them to make better decisions in the future and to take better actions. They care about what is important to them.

We know this is true. Just look at the biggest movement in history – Facebook. Facebook is nothing more than a platform to tell other people what you are doing. (There is a secondary bonus to this that you can see what others are up to as well.)

Present your message to market in a way that means something to the buyer. That way they will care about it and then they’ll care about you.

 

 

This is an edited extract from my new book “Better Positioning Deeper Conversations More Sales”. To find out more or to purchase copies of this book click here

 


How Your Customer Feels

July 26th, 2016 |no comments

The role of any person in sales is to meet the buyer, understand their problems and guide them to the sale.

The role of the buyer is to evaluate the sales person, their product/service and the value it brings them.

What - How Customer feels.001

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the buyer meets the sales person they feel guarded about them, “Will you rip me off?” They see everything as a commodity “They are all the same” and measure you against the competition based on the common currency – dollars.

When the sales person seeks to understand the buyer, the buyer feels respected, sees the offering as being relevant and can appreciate the features as to why they would buy.

It is only at this stage that the sales person has the permission to guide the sale to the next stage. This is because the customer feels they have been understood (the sales person is not just trying to sell me anything), they see that there is a fit for what is on offer and can now understand the benefits of buying.

Problems occur when sales people try to guide the sale to the next stage before going through the meet and understand stages. This is why they have to argue on price – because that is where the customer still is.

 

This is an edited extract from my new book “Better Positioning Deeper Conversations More Sales”. To find out more or to purchase copies of this book click here

 


Three Types of Information

July 19th, 2016 |no comments

There are that we deal with every day. They are:

  • Context – Big Picture
  • Content – nuts and bolts
  • Meaning – the impact.

It is the interaction between these types of information that will give you the edge in any sales presentation.

Context Content Meaning.001

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The interaction between Content and Context is interplay. The Context will inform the content, and the content proves or disproves the context. Knowing this will show you what forces are at play in decision-making.

The interaction between Context and Meaning is Interpretation. How beliefs, values, experiences and expectations change what someone understands.

The interaction between Content and Meaning is Implementation. This exposes drivers of behavior. It is the proof of what will happen. It’s post purchase. Can they afford to operate what they bought? What action will they take?

These 6 levels of information are about awareness. They inform what is going on in any sale or presentation. Understanding this will keep you away from dealing on price.

 

This is an edited extract from my new book “Better Positioning Deeper Conversations More Sales”. To find out more or to purchase copies of this book click here

 


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