Ethical sales training part 4

Next up is “Presentation / Demonstration” 

sales training
Presentation and demonstration

So here’s where you want to build conviction. Conviction  in them that they should go ahead with YOU. You show why your offering meets their needs. You use the effective targeted communication that we’ve talked about that provides the information they need to make the decision that’s going to be good for them. So that’s what you want to do here. And here’s where the professional salesperson or the professional company provides what the salesperson needs.

Sales Training, presentation/demonstration

The presentation/demonstration is like, if you’re a musician or an artist you know, you can spend hours, weeks, months on a song, and the song is only three minutes when it’s done. So this is what’s happening.

This is what you’re doing. You’re writing a song for this demonstration presentation part where every note that should be there, is there, and every note that doesn’t need to be there, isn’t there. All the words are in the right order and the pauses are where they should be.

you know that the song itself is two minutes, three minutes, whatever, but there’s been hours and hours and hours that’s gone into getting it into that perfect three minutes, so that when someone hears the song, they get it, they like it, they follow it. That’s what you’re trying to do in the presentation demonstration. It all has to happen before you show up. Okay? So when you’re first starting out, that’s not going to be the case. The song may not already be written, you have to write the song, you have to create the presentation.

Just a note on the term presentation/demonstration.  Depending on your product or service, you may just be making a presentation, explaining the benefits of your product or service. Maybe you are using a flip-book, a laptop or a website, but if you are selling something like a replacement window, a knife sharpener, flashlight, backpack or whatever, you may be demonstrating the actual product or a model of the product. So the demonstration is a part of the planned presentation. 

I hope I am making this clear. This is what separates people who just call themselves salespeople from people just acting as real salespeople. People who make sales, people who close sales that benefit the buyer.

This is one critical aspect of sales training, really the heart of effective communicating, so the prospective customer fully sees and understands the benefits of your offer and can decide if it is good for them or not.

So back to the music analogy:  the first time you perform a new song it is not going to be completely automatic, you will have to concentrate on the playing of the song which does not leave a lot of mental bandwidth for paying attention to the audience,  because it’s not totally automatic yet.  Also you may try slightly different versions, faster, slower with slightly differnt lyrics based on your audience. At the beginning you may make mistakes, but eventually it is just perfect.  But after you’ve done it a hundred times or whatever, it’s automatic. It just flows out. It’s perfect. So that’s what this section is about.  

This section is the song. This section is a performance that has been worked on and tweaked and fixed, and adjusted,  and refined and made perfect. Practiced, rehersed and memorized.  So, when you are talking to the client, you don’t have to think about the presentation. You can be focusing on what the prospect is understanding, what they are in agreement with, and what they may have questions or concerns about.  Also, because the prospects will have slightly different needs or expectations or budgets, your presentation needs to be adaptable.   Some parts may be the same for all customers, but some parts may need to “branch” or go in different directions based on the customer’s needs and wants.  So you have to plan for these variations and each branch has to be planned out. 

Plan your work, then work your plan. -Practice, drill and rehearse 

So I won’t belabor this, too much, because I think you get it. But what has to happen here is you have to take them through this educational process where you answer every question that should be answered for them to make a good decision for them. Some people aren’t going to ask certain questions. They don’t need that answered because of their specific needs.  But others will ask other questions and need other questions answered. But it all has to be tailored to that specific situation where you lead them from maybe not knowing anything about what they’re about to buy, or having real misconceptions about what they’re about to buy, you need to lead them to where they fully understand everything they need to know to make a good decision for them. 

Does that sound like a lot?  Well it is.  Particularly if you are just creating this for the first time.  If your company has already created their sales presentation, then you still have to learn it. Not just memorize it, but understand why each part is there, why it’s there and how to apply it. 

By the way, if you don’t have a structured sales presentation for your product or service, maybe I can help you with that. Personal one-on-one sales training for you or your team.  You can schedule a time to talk about it here >> book a time for free consultation.  

If the presentation is properly structured, and you have adequately qualified by the time you get through the presentation, they believe what you’re telling them, they trust you, and they are ready to buy.  

Something I will just touch on here is that every important point you present you should also be asking a “bridging” question, and possibly a closing question.  For instance if you provide a service that may be dangerous to do, such as tree trimming and removal, you would convey to the customer how dangerous the work is, but also how your company mitigates that danger with proper training, good safety practices, proper safety equipment that the right tools for the job.  After this section of the presentation you may say something like.  “Does this sound like the kind of company you would want to work on your property?”   That is a “minor close” , a minor commitment.  If the customer says “yes”.  You could actually follow up with, something like: “so should we go ahead and get the work scheduled?”   That would be an actual “closing question”, asking for the order.   You may still have 4 sections of your presentation left, but if the say yes, then you’re done! You have the order, the sale is made.    The idea of the “bridging” question or minor close is to make sure they did understand this particular point as well as the importance of it. This is one of those questions that a reasonable person is going to have answered to their satisfaction in order to make a decision that is good for them. If they do not understand it, or it is not answered to their satisfaction they simply are not going to say ‘YES” when it is time to close. Now I have over simplified a bit here, and we will circle back, but I want to set the stage for the discussion about handling objections coming up soon.

So then there may still be questions or uncertainties in their minds and this is where the section on “answering objections” comes in.  So your go through all the parts and finish your presentation then you ask for the order. 

We will get a little more into the closing part later.  But at this point, at the conclusion of your presentation, what often happens is even though they actually want to go ahead, they may still be hesitant to buy. 

They’re may be hesitant for various reasons but one of the reasons is you’re so good at what you do. The song is so perfect that they never believed they would go from “let’s get some prices”  and see what this is about, to Holy Cow, I want it!      They just were not planning to buy  TODAY. 

So their overall emotional state may not have caught up with where you brought them to both logically and emotionally.  So there’s just hesitation.   mostly It’s just hesitation. It’s not that they don’t trust you, it’s just that  somehow you’ve been so good that they went from “we’re just looking” to “I want it, now”. 

 I should have it. You’ve answered all my questions. But they just did not plan to buy TODAY. But they’re not ready. There’s just inertia, there’s only this reverse momentum. 

So they’re probably going to ask you questions, or they’re going to say:
Well, let me think about it, or the various things that happen.

In many cases, this is just a period where their pre-sales-presentation-selves have to “catch up” with their new educated and convinced selves.  Often that is all it is; so there is a transition from where you are no longer selling the product or service, but you are “selling” the benefits of going ahead NOW, TODAY. 

This may be a good place to take a break in this sales training before we move on to:
Handling objects
and
Closing. 

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