(Article 12 in a series)
As you learn more about your products and services, you will find that you can talk for hours about them.
Please do not do that.
One of the top requests received from salespeople is to receive more and more product knowledge. I would say giving a salesperson more product knowledge or even appointments is like giving a drowning man a glass of water.
Inevitably, they would ask “Why?”
What they needed was more “process” knowledge and not more “product” knowledge.
Every salesperson is working within about an 18-minute window to gain the decision from a new client. This splits naturally into three 6-minute segments of information that includes Q&A. That leaves 5 minutes of well-planned discussion of the primary feature, function, and benefits with about 60 seconds to discuss them. Those 5 minutes go by quickly so we need to choose the biggest impact (in the eyes of the client) to lead with and knock their socks off.
Creating a couple of slides in a deck for the visual benefit of each segment of the presentation is a great idea. We created these for our sales staff that provided a visual outline to keep them on track and give the client something to engage with. Always keep in mind that the client is thinking 7 times faster than we are speaking. Visual aids help occupy their minds and engage them by using their name intentionally.
In the next article, I’ll feature the trial closes. Keep in mind these are done 3 times during the presentation to keep the client involved in the conversation. They also keep you aware of how they are doing and what sorts of things are on their mind.
Plan on creating two more segments like this with about 300 seconds of information in them each. If you need to use a watch to stay on track – do it. Many salespeople feel more comfortable if they accumulate tons of information about their products/services. They often don’t think through the fact that this presentation is geared around the comfort of the buyer and not the seller.
It’s not about you. – ponder on that a bit.
Your job is to create a succinct explanation of how your product/service provides a benefit to the client. This information should be in response to important answers you received during the Set-Up phase of the conversation. The items they told you were important to them should be the main areas you emphasize in your presentation. And you’ve got three sections of 300 seconds to deliver these benefits.
I’ve had to explain to my Business Coaching Clients in Edmond, OK that if the Sales Presentation goes over 25-30 minutes, the sales rep is getting farther from the sale, not closer to it. Clients have an emotionally comfortable period to decide. Our job is to land the plane on that small slice of a runway. It’s like landing on a small island; land too soon and you get wet, land too late and you get wet.
More product knowledge causes most salespeople to overshoot the optimum decision moment and often they believe that they need even more product knowledge after that happens.
Business owners and Entrepreneurs are invited to take my Free Online Assessment on the main page of the 7th Gear Website.
Other Articles of the Sales Series:
