Winning Sales Presentations: 5 Lessons That Add To The Sale
Jan/100
Debbie Mayo-Smith wrote about winning sales presentations and the techniques she learned from me!Thanks Debbie…
Creating a great sales presentation isn’t very different to crafting a great speech. You want to keep attention. Motivate. Convince. Move to action. Here is a formula that I follow (learnt from the Maestro Patricia Fripp) that should help you to vastly improve your success when putting together and delivering a sales presentation.
1.To whom are you speaking? Be prepared before you go in and know as much about your audience as possible. Age, attitude, industry and gender will all have a bearing on how you present your points. Men and women have different senses of humour. Younger audiences will be more impatient than older, C level executives don’t need the details. Your presentation style and content must fit their perspective.
2.You are not the hero What is the ratio of your PowerPoint slides (or written material) devoted to your company vs. the potential client? It stands to reason if you are invited to pitch, you have already passed the preliminary vetting. The convincing is done. Wow them, stand out from your competition by focusing on them – not stories of you, your company, achievements or accolades. Do you like listening to egotistical sales people? Share the glory with sales teams. Ensure you put the prospective company in the lime light.
3.I-You Ratio Likewise look through your sales presentations and count how many I’s, we’s and us’s you have. Make certain your slides and stories are about them, not you. Change the perspective at every opportunity possible. Wrong: Our company is number one in Right: You benefit from our number one standing because
4.Questions Don’t end with questions, rather take them before you review so you can close on a high note.
5.Review If possible use a story again – outlining a client that benefited in all the ways you highlight they will benefit.
Debbie Mayo-Smith (CSP; BSc Hons Econ) is an International Speaker, best selling author and expert in showing how you can free up time
Living Without Limits
Oct/090
The starting point of great success and achievement has always been the same. It is for you to dream big dreams. There is nothing more important, and nothing that works faster than for you to cast off your own limitations than for you to begin dreaming and fantasizing about the wonderful things that you can become, have, and do.
As a wise man once said, “You must dream big dreams, for only big dreams have the power to move the minds of men.” When you begin to dream big dreams, your levels of self-esteem and self-confidence will go up immediately. You will feel more powerful about yourself and your ability to deal with what happens to you. The reason so many people accomplish so little is because they never allow themselves to lean back and imagine the kind of life that is possible for them.
Theory of Constraints
A powerful principle that you can use to dream big dreams and live without limits is contained in what Elihu Goldratt calls the “Theory of Constraints.” This is one of the greatest breakthroughs in modern thinking. What Goldratt has found is that in every process, in accomplishing any goal, there is a bottleneck or choke cord that serves as a constraint on the process. This constraint then sets the speed at which you achieve any particular goal.
What Goldratt found is that if you concentrate all of your creative energies and attention on alleviating the constraint, you can speed up the process faster than by doing any other single thing.
Let me give you an example. Let us say that you want to double your income. What is the critical constraint or the limiting factor that holds you back? Well, you know that your income is a direct reward for the quality and quantity of the services you render to your world. Whatever field you are in, if you want to double your income, you simply have to double the quality and quantity of what you do for that income. Or you have to change activities and occupations so that what you are doing is worth twice as much. But you must always ask yourself, “What is the critical constraint that holds me back or sets the speed on how fast I double my income?”
The 80/20 Rule in Action
A friend of mine is one of the highest-paid commission professionals in the United States. One of his goals was to double his income over the next three to five years. He applied the 80/20 rule to his client base. He found that 20 percent of his clients contributed 80 percent of his profits, and that the amount of time spent on a high-profit client was pretty much the same amount of time spent on a low-profit client. In other words, he was dividing his time equally over the number of tasks that he does while only 20 percent of those items contributes 80 percent of his results.
So he drew a line on his list of clients under those who represented the top 20 percent and then called in other professionals in his industry and very carefully, politely, and strategically handed off the 80 percent of his clients that only represented 20 percent of his business. He then put together a profile of his top clients and began looking in the marketplace exclusively for the type of client who fit the profile; in other words, one who could become a major profit contributor to his organization, and whom he in turn could serve with the level of excellence that his clients were accustomed to. And instead of doubling his income in three to five years, he doubled it in the first year!
What Are Your Constraints?
So what is holding you back? Is it your level of education or skill? Is it your current occupation or job? Is it your current environment or level of health? Is it the situations that you are in today? What is setting the speed for you achieving your goal?
Remember, whatever you have learned, you can unlearn. Whatever situation you have gotten yourself into, you can probably get yourself out of. If your real goal is to dream big dreams and to live without limits, you can set this as your standard and compare everything that you do against it.
Three Keys
The three keys to living without limits have always been the same. They are clarity, competence, and concentration.
#1: Clarity
Clarity means that you are absolutely clear about who you are, what you want, and where you’re going. You write down your goals and you make plans to accomplish them. You set very careful priorities and you do something every day to move you toward your goals. And the more progress you make toward accomplishing things that are important to you, the greater self-confidence and self-belief you have, and the more convinced you become that there are no limits on what you can achieve.
# 2: Competence
Competence means that you begin to become very, very good in the key result areas of your chosen field. You apply the 80/20 rule to everything you do and you focus on becoming outstanding in the 20 percent of tasks that contribute to 80 percent of your results. You dedicate yourself to continuous learning. You never stop growing. You realize that excellence is a moving target. And you commit yourself to doing something every day that enables you to become better and better at doing the most important things in your field.
# 3: Concentration
Concentration is having the self-discipline to force yourself to concentrate single-mindedly on one thing, the most important thing, and stay with it until it’s complete.
The two key words for success have always been focus and concentration.
Focus is knowing exactly what you want to be, have, and do. Concentration is persevering, without diversion or distraction, in a straight line toward accomplishing the things that can make a real difference in your life.
When you allow yourself to begin to dream big dreams, creatively abandon the activities that are taking up too much of your time, and focus your inward energies on alleviating your main constraints, you start to feel an incredible sense of power and confidence. As you focus on doing what you love to do and becoming excellent in those few areas that can make a real difference in your life, you begin to think in terms of possibilities rather than impossibilities, and you move ever closer toward the realization of your full potential.
Be Ok with the Unknown
Jun/090
Speaking to a client today I was reminded that some seek the answers to their current dilemma. As I mentioned to her, she has the answers we just need to explore what is happening in her life right now and explore options. She needs to act on her choices and as a Life Coach we just shine the torch on how we see it, we may make suggestions sure, however you are responsible for your happiness.
So being ok with the unknown is a good thing. It is exciting to go down the path of not knowing, that is the journey of life. We may never fully know as our tastes change and also our circumstances, the most important thing is the now and being happy at work, home and in our personal lives. When we explore one area we are really opening the way to other areas in our lives as we give ourselves permission to open up, become more aware and explore new possibilities.
First though, you need to be positive, if all you do is get negative about why it doesn’t work, that becomes your reality, so focus on what is good in your life, be grateful for what you have, the people in your life. Give thanks.
I get excited when clients say ‘I don’t know that is why I am seeing you ‘. Like I have the crystal ball, the answer on page 54!
I help you see your own truth, one that is authentic and real to you.
Pushing Your Limits
Jun/090
Just recently I was in a deep conversation with a client who just kept going for her goals, she was so focused and knew that with perserverance and discipline she would get there. She pushed her limits on a daily basis. As her coach I felt a little bit useless, as usually I am the one motivating the client to get up and get cracking on your goals! Funny she just wanted someone close to her to share it with and to use our sessions as brainstorming and accountability. Perfect I said.
When you intellectualise your goals and your action plan you can easily get distracted and bored. I have seen it in myself too when I am like this I just STOP take a deep breath and ask myself why am I stalling? I need to see the bigger picture of WHY this must be done and usually that is enough for me to keep going and pushing my limits.
It feels great to give it your all, I remember only too recently how I wanted something so BAD that I was on a mission, my sole purpose was to achieve it and it took a few years, yet every attempt to get it made me more humble and determined to get it, like a hungry animal, salivating I did not give up. With this experience I know I can achieve more..
So PUSH yourself as much as you can, you will amaze yourself with the results.
