Do You Know What You Want?

When you walk into your prospect’s office, begin a cold call campaign or otherwise approach a potential customer, are you always entirely sure of your objectives? A glowing presentation that ends without a clear direction can almost never be effective. At the beginning of any sales presentation, it is necessary to ask yourself two questions that, at first glance, may seem to have obvious answers:

What are you selling?
What do you want?

Regardless of how many times I ask these questions of sales professionals, the large majority blunder in their answers. They have one objective in mind “to sell a product/service” whether it is a quick $5 decision or a multi-part $50,000 purchase. In order to make each contact you have with your prospects effective, you should be sure you know the objectives of each meeting, by the way, that will not always be to sell something.

Take the example of Shelly, a budding network marketing associate who believes that her latest find, a cookware company, will lead her to the riches she has dreamed of for years. Shelly talks to all of her friends and neighbors about the kitchen items they just can’t live without, but never seems to be able to make a sale. Her dialogue usually sounds like this…

“This company’s cookware is great, it is so durable and it never burns anything. I’m having a party to show a couple of people how they work, you should come, these parties are so much fun, we’ll have a blast.”

What is Shelly actually selling here, the secret to cooking without burning anything, durable pots and pans giving value for money or a fun night at her house? And what does she want the prospect to do, buy her product, think about buying her product, think about coming to a party to hear about her product? I am not sure because she is not sure. Shelly has not thought more past her overall objective of selling something to make some money.

I recently attended a free seminar targeted towards success-seekers after which the speaker offered his company’s mentoring services. His objectives were clear from the start. He began by expressing the importance of mentoring and demonstrating how we employed the use of mentoring in other parts of our lives.

He went on to discuss ultra successful entrepreneurs and made links between their success and the mentors who they claimed helped them achieve it. Towards the end, he rounded off his presentation with an effective set of slides that showed well known celebrities who had all gone through his mentoring program, all of which had glowing reviews. It was only then that he mentioned his program, giving us the feeling that we could not leave the room without it.

His proposition was that the audience sign up for his mentoring services, his presentation showed why we needed those mentoring services. With great focus and clarity, this speaker ensured that his whole presentation supported his proposition. You can create sales presentations that are just as effective by answering the two questions mentioned earlier: What are you selling? What do you want?

Action step: before every sales situation, take a moment to write down your answers to these two questions.

Let’s look at Shelly’s dilemma again. What is she selling? While it may be true that the pots and pans are durable, and that they never burn and that her home parties are fun, it is a lot for someone to digest. If she has just had a conversation with someone who spent a ton of money on pots and pans that broke a year later, she should lead with the durability factor. If she had a friend who can burn water, she should talk about how the cookware helps to create great meals every time.

If Shelly asked herself what she wants to achieve from each conversation, she would be able to make her presentations even more effective. Understand that the answer to this question is not always to sell something. Perhaps she will be holding a meeting at her house, so the objective is to get every person she approaches to actually attend. If so, she could change her script to be more focused on how great the party will be. For example:

“I’m so glad I ran into you. I’m having another home party, you missed the last one, and it was so much fun. We all had a great time it was a good chance to get together. You just cannot miss this party, I have a lot of great things to show. It’s at my house tonight at 7:30 pm. Will you be there? ”

You will be able to help your prospects to say “yes” to your proposition when you have approached them with a clear and focused proposal.

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