My good friend John Spence just posted a video review of Bottom-Line Selling. John has an excellent book of his own, Awesomely Simple, and his blog is excellent reading for leadership, strategy, and general business excellence. Here’s the video. If I could just live up to half the nice things he says about me, I’d be pretty proud.
Practical Eloquence Blog
When people says things often enough, they become “common sense” and we take them at face value without even thinking about them. Sometimes you have to do a little mental housecleaning and update or get rid of common sense that is hindering you. Here are six candidates; I would love to hear yours:
The customer is always right. If this were true, there would be no place for consultative salespeople. A consultant knows more about your problems than you do, and even knows about them before you do. If this one were always true, no one would have bought anything Steve Jobs dreamed up, because they would not have “needed” it. What is the customer wrong about, that if you could educate them it would make a significant improvement in their business?
Be an expert for your customers. Yes, but… be careful about how you educate them. As Churchill said, “I’m always willing to learn, but I hate to be taught.” Even if you have all the answers, begin with questions so that they can make the answers their own. Besides, may you don’t have all the answers. We’re told to be like doctors for our customers, but one study showed that doctors made up their minds and interrupted patients within 23 seconds. Be a better listener.
People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. In this attention-deficit world, potential customers have to quickly make up their minds about whether you have the competence to deliver value. The new saying should be: “People don’t care how much you care until they know how much you know.” The best way to do this and avoid the “expert trap” is to ask exceptionally good questions.
People don’t buy drill bits; they buy holes. This one is on the right track, but it does not go far enough. No one drills holes for the sake of holes; they are trying to build something. When the customer tells you why they want something, ask why. Then ask why again, then a third time. When you get to that answer, you will know the real value they need to receive. Better yet, ask and answer the why questions yourself before you get in front of the customer.
We sell solutions. This has become such a cliché that a lot of salespeople simply use the word as a synonym for product. Sell problems instead, and the solutions will become self-evident.
Never give up. People like to quote Churchill, who supposedly said, “never, never, never give up.” What he really said was, “Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense”. The good sense part is what most people leave out. I have seen too many salespeople through the years spend far too much time on “deals on wheels”, which clog up their funnels even though no one will ever buy. Remember, if you’re going to lose, lose early. Qualify ruthlessly.
If you don’t feel this way before your next presentation, prepare some more
“I can’t wait to get out there and do this. I can’t wait. It’s so good. Don’t you think, Bill?”
Those were Jack Welch’s words just before he flew out to San Francisco to take part in a panel discussion sponsored by Bechtel in honor of its 100th anniversary. Welch, along with Charles Schwab, former Secretary of State George Schultz, and a couple of other notables, was asked to deliver an eight-minute talk on the subject: “What have we learned over the past 100 years that will help us face the next 100?”
Bill Lane, who helped write Welch’s speeches for twenty years, tells the story in one of my favorite books on presentations, Jacked Up. He tells how Welch’s performance “stunned the audience” with its passion and quality of thought and perfection of delivery.
If you get up in the morning of the presentation, bouncing up and down with anticipation; if you can’t wait to show them what you have put together for them, how can you help but deliver an outstanding performance that is practically guaranteed to achieve your purpose?
I can’t wait to get out there and do this. If you felt that way before your next presentation, would you even worry about pre-speech jitters?
I can’t wait. With a mindset like that, is it any wonder that Welch stood out, even in that distinguished company?
It’s so good. You should not even stand in front of an audience unless you truly believe this. It’s what they deserve; it’s what you owe yourself.
Here’s the catch, though: if you want to feel this way, you have to truly earn it. You have to pour your heart into it: put in time, depth of thought, and imagination into every important presentation—and they’re all important.
Lane recounts that he and Welch first spent about eight hours together putting down ideas; followed by another eight to twelve hours each refining the presentation, all adding up to about four or five days of work for eight minutes in front of an audience.
Was it worth it? One of the most highly compensated humans on the planet thought it was worth that much of his own time for an eight minute presentation, because he refused to deliver anything but his best and was willing to do what it took to ensure that.
I can’t wait to get out there and do this. If you can take that mindset into any presentation, you will be unbeatable. Are you willing to pay the price?
“The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital”
Grete Waitz
File this article under your should but don’t file, as in “things I know I should do but don’t do enough of.”
Rehearsal is one of the most important—and most-often-skipped—activities in all of executive sales presentations.
It’s most often skipped for three reasons. The first reason I hear is also the least valid: you don’t have time. Your time in front of high-level decision makers is the most highly leveraged use of your time that you can have. As bank robber Willie Sutton said when asked why he robbed banks: “Because that’s where the money is.” If you don’t have time to make sure you’re at your best, when you go where the money is, how do you find time for all the other things you do in your work life?
The second reason is complacency. Maybe it’s an established customer that has been with you for a while, or you think your offer is so good that it can’t fail. Trust me, it can. No matter how strongly positioned you think you are, a little healthy paranoia never hurt any sales professional. Especially in these times, if you feel secure with your account, you probably don’t see the huge target painted on your back. Your competitors just might be working harder than you are. Plus, your customer can smell complacency and does not like the odor.
The third reason is that you think you’re better on your feet. You haven’t gotten to where you are by being slow on the uptake; you know you can do well in unscripted situations. You may actually be right: you can do well in unscripted situations. But you can always do better when you have planned and rehearsed.
Things always sound better in your head. Until you’ve actually said something out loud, you just don’t know for sure how it’s going to sound, and how it’s going to come across to your listeners.
Besides, if you don’t care enough to practice, why should they care enough to listen?
It takes effort to make it look effortless
The best presenters put in tremendous effort to make it look effortless. Steve Jobs was a master presenter, and such was his effect on audiences that he could probably read the phone book for fifteen minutes and get a standing ovation. Yet every one of his presentations was the result of weeks of arduous work and meticulous planning by “scores of people”, as described in this article by Mike Evangelist. Jobs would typically begin rehearsing two days before. The first day would be relatively informal, with Jobs testing various approaches. The day before the presentation would have at least one and often two full dress rehearsals.
In a sense, Jobs’ presentations were like his product designs, exquisitely easy to use because of the complexity underneath.
Of course, your sales presentations probably won’t move the stock market to the tune of several billion dollars, but I’ll bet they’re pretty important to you. If you do take this advice, here are some tips to get the most out of your rehearsal time.
Rehearsal tips
When you do rehearse, try to make it as close as possible to the real thing. If you know what type of room you will be presenting in, try to find something similar. If you can recruit listeners for your rehearsal, so much the better. Assign them specific roles to play, such as decision-maker, technical buyer, etc. A lot of salespeople find it more stressful to present to their peers than to their customers, so a side benefit is that the real thing will seem like a breeze.
Begin rehearsals early. You may find out that there is a gap in your presentation or a need for additional information, and it gives you time to make adjustments.
If you really want to go the extra mile in your rehearsal, try giving your presentation at least once without slides. It won’t be perfect, but it will either give you the confidence of knowing your material or it will expose areas where you might need to learn it better.
As painful as the prospect seems, you should also videotape your rehearsal and then look at it. Outside feedback is very important, but sometimes you need to see and hear yourself in action to make the necessary improvements.
It’s not a question of taking the time away from work to rehearse; as actor Donald Pleasence said: “All the real work is done in the rehearsal period.”
