Just a few more items to go on our list of 14 things great salespeople do that average salespeople only think about.
Today we come to #13:
Great salespeople don’t rely upon a canned presentation.
For that matter they don’t like presentations, because they know to truly understand the needs of the customer, they have to listen. And that means having a discussion with the customer.
The best sales presentation ever made is the sales presentation never given.
The reason I say this is simple: A salesperson should be so confident and competent that they don’t need a presentation to guide them. Rather, they’re guided by the questions they ask.
Great salespeople know their success lies not in what they show, but in the questions they ask.
They spend far more time preparing for a customer visit developing questions than they do assembling a presentation or building a PowerPoint deck.
Average salespeople are presentation dependent. They become enamored by the presentation itself and thus allow the PowerPoint deck to drive the sales call.
Not surprisingly, the result is the customer is simply not as engaged as much as they would be if there truly was a discussion going on.
It’s impossible for a presentation to be so perfect that it can capture every need a customer might bring up, let alone be able to gauge the magnitude of the outcome the customer desires.
Conversations are seen as less threatening to customers and., therefore, the customer is much more likely to be engaged.
Customers are naturally going to be less forthcoming with information if they feel they’re being sold to — yet, that is exactly what they’re experiencing when facing a sales presentation.
This is just another one of the many reasons why great salespeople are great. They’re able to engage customers in ways other salespeople simply are not aware of.
Could you make a sales call without any sales material?
How many questions do you ask on a typical sales call?
How much time do you spend developing the questions you want to ask?
Your goal is to make a sales call without any sales materials and have it be 100% focused on the questions you ask.
Copyright 2013, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
