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Dump The Script during Panel Presentations

Here’s something to consider:  The next time you have to make a presentation in front of a panel, prepare the content as usual and then set it aside.  Spend time practicing the dynamics of making the presentation.  What you must do is to make an indelible impression on the panel.

We knew what to expect but it didn’t make it any less nerve racking.

Our on-time arrival went unrewarded as the group in front of us was still making their presentation.  We sat down on plastic chairs at the only clean table in the break room and double-checked our inventory.

Several copies of the presentation?  Check.

Gift bags filled with station merchandise?  Check.

A stack of business cards?  Check.

Courage and determination?  Check and check.

The competition exits stage left and we are greeted and ushered in to a too large room.  The “prospect” is a five-headed panel sitting behind their laptops at individual desks –  lined up side by side as if the Supreme Court itself was now in session.  But, the Supreme Court is not yet in session because the judges are trying to decide what to order at Starbucks.  The seller and I introduce ourselves to each as they finish describing their lattes and iced coffees to a page.

Although no one says to, we take our place at a circular table in front of the laptops.  As the assistant heads out, the seller thanks the prospect for inviting us to make a presentation and then she begins.

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Make no mistake.  The initial sales presentation in front of a panel is one of the hardest sales calls you will ever make.  Here are five reasons why it’s hard:

Prospects act differently when they are part of a panel.  Members of a panel are more conservative, reserved and difficult to engage.  The decision makers on a panel will rarely exert their power while receiving a presentation and the underlings are very unlikely to step up to ask questions or make comments.  While a seller may have developed a relationship with one of the panel members during previous meetings, that panel member is likely to shrink into the background so as not to appear biased in favor of one presentation team.

A panel typically includes out-of-towners.  Folks fly into town to be a part of a panel because they believe they’ll learn more by seeing face-to-face presentations.  The problem is that the travelers are out of sorts.  They are thinking about people back at home or at the home office.  They are thinking about the fact that they forgot their favorite shoes or that they didn’t bring work-out clothes.  In short, they are distracted.

A panel sees a lot of presentations.  The purpose of a panel is to get all the decision makers together and view presentations from all the competing vendors.  By seeing everyone in a day or two, panels hope to come to informed decisions.  Unfortunately, all those presentations end up blending together and a typical panel is unable to say which idea was presented by whom.

Panels don’t have much time.  We are usually asked to make a presentation in half of our usual time.  This is virtually impossible because we have prepared so completely that we have even more to say than usual.  We’ve included pictures and video and creative ideas that the panel asks us to e-mail to them after the meeting.  The resulting presentation appears rushed and incomplete – because it is!

We act differently in front of a panel, too.  Most of us, who are fine in front of a person or two, act much more nervously in front of a panel.  Our nervousness makes us more reserved and we become less interesting.  Less interesting people tend to blend together in the mind of a panel.

Typically, we attempt to combat the effects of a panel presentation by preparing more completely than usual. Unfortunately, some of our extra work actually contributes to a less than positive experience.

Here’s something to consider: The next time you have to make a presentation in front of a panel, prepare the content as usual and then set it aside. Spend time practicing the dynamics of making the presentation. What you must do is to make an indelible impression on the panel. Here are five ideas on how to do it:

Bring refreshments. If your meeting is at 3 p.m. then bring coffee. But, don’t just bring cups of coffee. Roll in a cart with an expresso machine or bring a barista to prepare specialty drinks. If you are first up in the morning, bring a tray of pastries the size of a mountain!
Prepare your anecdotes. Perhaps, you have a forty-five second story that segues nicely into reasons why the prospect should hire you. Or, if you know the children of one of the panel members you might prepare a fun, relatable story about one of your children of a similar age. The point is to have a couple of these stories in your hip pocket that you can use at the beginning of the presentation to get the panel to pay attention to you and remember you.
Dress in character. This might be especially difficult for some as it calls attention to ourselves in a way that is dramatically different than usual. Of course, that is the point. If your presentation includes information about a Cinco de Mayo promotion you might dress as a Mexican soldier. If the presentation includes something about weddings you could bring along a bride and groom that make an appearance at exactly the right time. One of the best panel presentations that I was a part of included a skit that illustrates one of our points. We brought along six people whose sole purpose was to perform the skit. Of course, no one else did a skit and we were remembered with an order.
Bring a celebrity. Does your presentation include something about sports? Bring an athlete with you. Ideally, the athlete is dressed as his athletic self and not his street self but you might not get Carl Edwards to wear his coveralls on your sales call. Don’t think you know a celebrity who would go with you? You’d be surprised at who you know who goes to the same gym as Ralph Sampson (that would be me). Or, you might know somebody who went to the same high school as Dominique Wilkins (my old friend Bob.)
Stand and deliver. When invited to sit, let the panel know that you prefer to stand. Standing allows you to peer over the top of the laptops shielding the panel from your influence. Standing allows you to move around which forces the panel to watch you. While they watch they will be forming an impression of you that will allow easy recall. “Which company proposed that we include a stalk of celery with every purchase? Oh yeah, that was the guy who stood up the whole time.”

A presentation in front of a panel demands a show. So, get out there and perform!

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Partnering Can Sometimes Mean Patience

What is my role as a salesperson?  What do my customers expect from me?  How can I be of the most benefit to my clients?

While salespeople are notorious for wanting to close deals quickly, a sales consultant positions him or herself as a partner who can help customers in reaching both their short and long-term business goals.  If you’re not sure how your product or service will positively impact these goals, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and take a look at the bigger picture.

So you thought by now you’d stop hearing the words, “No” or “I’m not interested”, from your prospective customers.  Yet, time and again it appears that there just isn’t a need or worse:  Salespeople are being told that prospects just aren’t buying or that their decision to purchase is “on hold”.  What many salespeople do when they hear the bad news is to mark on their calendars a reminder note to call in 60 days to see if the prospect’s decision to buy has changed.

If you fall into this kind of postponement thinking where you plan for success at a later date, your chances for success are significantly reduced.  Think about it a minute:  Why would you accept at face value that your prospects don’t need what you have to offer, regardless of what the economy is doing?  You know yourself that you will always find a way to purchase if you see that the value of your purchase outweighs the financial or emotional risks of buying.  In other words, if your prospects are like most people they’ll find a way to buy what they need and justify why buying was the smartest decision they could ever make.

Your role in fostering a good buying decision is in knowing how your customers measure a good return on investment.  Before you assume that paying as little as possible is the highest priority on your customer’s wish list, consider some other possibilities:

Would your customers spend a few extra dollars if it meant saving them huge amounts of time?

Would they invest a little cash to get control of a perceived chaotic work environment?

Would your prospects talk to you if you could show a way to move them to the forefront of their industry and increase their sales revenue?

Would your customers pay for a way to improve their working relationships with their own customers?

Regardless of market conditions, customers are still buying.  Fortunately for those of us who can meet their needs, they’ve become highly selective concerning who they’ll buy from.  They’re looking for straight talk and for salespeople who can see beyond an immediate sale.  Let’s face it:  Some of your customers are getting less business than usual from their own customers.  The main challenge, then, for the smart salesperson is to create ways in which to improve your customer’s profitability.

Ask yourself: What is my role as a salesperson? What do my customers expect from me? How can I be of the most benefit to my clients? While salespeople are notorious for wanting to close deals quickly, a sales consultant positions him or herself as a partner who can help customers in reaching both their short and long-term business goals. If you’re not sure how your product or service will positively impact these goals, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and take a look at the bigger picture.

Once your customers see you less as a vendor and more as a consultant or strategist, your opportunities to solidify long-term business relationships increase significantly. Position yourself to succeed.

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Don’t Become a Sleeping Beauty

In the real world, passively waiting for clients to court you and give you business is a sale strategy doomed for failure. Regardless of how great your product or service is, you need to remain proactive in good times and bad if you’re going to make sales and achieve the success you truly want.

When times are tough, it’s easy to fall into the trap of unwisely hoping that a fairy tale-like customer will miraculously save the day and bring you business on a silver platter. Who wouldn’t like a prince of a client to ride up on a white horse and sweep them away from a slumping economy and faltering sales? Unfortunately, only in a Disney movie does sleeping beauty live happily ever after.

In the real world, passively waiting for clients to court you and give you business is a sale strategy doomed for failure. Regardless of how great your product or service is, you need to remain proactive in good times and bad if you’re going to make sales and achieve the success you truly want.

If you’re guilty of being a sales sleeping beauty, it’s time to wake up and start concentrating on the following:

Prospect with Enthusiasm

Prospecting should always be thought of as a priority in your schedule. Don’t wait until you’ve finished everything else to begin this absolutely essential part of business development. Allot yourself a certain amount of time each day for prospecting and focus your efforts on obtaining scheduled appointments to present your offerings. Drop-in visits are rarely successful. Instead, make appointments for when you aren’t an imposition on your prospect’s time, and don’t forget to confirm via phone or email beforehand.

Manage Your Database with Diligence

There is simply no excuse for not using technology to your advantage. Database software is easy to use and provides you with a wealth of tools to keep track of your sales prospect information. Everything from birth date to business details can be efficiently maintained to enable you to be a thoroughly-informed, incredibly capable salesperson.

Sell Smarter

Stay on top of not just your company’s offerings, but your competitors’ as well. Have benefits and features at the tip of your tongue. Keep track of industry trends and events. Continuously put your self in your customers’ shoes and develop a profound understanding of their needs and wants. Basically, be smart and prepared for answering a wide variety of questions, objections, and inquiries from your prospects.

Network Strategically

Networking is more important than ever. If you’re not utilizing online and face-to-face networking opportunities, you’re basically handing business to your competitors. Now is the time to realize the true value of staying connected both within and outside of your industry. Generously provide leads to others, and don’t make assumptions about leads that are provided to you. Often times, those who appear to be the least likely to give you business are exactly the ones that end up surprisingly you with the biggest sales.

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The Art of Effective Follow-up

There aren’t many people on earth who have lots of extra time on their hands. Why in the world would a rep invest over an hour with a prospective buyer and then not follow up? Was the project too small? Did something more profitable fall into the pipeline? I guess I’ll never know. A quick phone call or email explaining the situation would have gone a long way toward gracefully bowing out and saving your brand’s reputation.

A few months ago, I decided it was time to move forward with a significant home improvement project. I began the process by calling several companies who had done similar work in the neighborhood. Every company was eager to send a representative who spent considerable time with me reviewing the project and gathering the information necessary to submit a proposal.

All of the representatives I met with were friendly and had the expertise and experience I was looking for, and their companies had impressive resumes of similar projects they had successfully completed. I was very clear on how fast I wanted the work performed and everyone agreed that my expectations were within reason. This was going to be a difficult decision…or so I thought.

After all that work, three of the reps were never heard from again. I’m guessing everyone has experienced this frustration, but I’m still amazed when it happens to me.

There aren’t many people on earth who have lots of extra time on their hands. Why in the world would a rep invest over an hour with a prospective buyer and then not follow up? Was the project too small? Did something more profitable fall into the pipeline? I guess I’ll never know. A quick phone call or email explaining the situation would have gone a long way toward gracefully bowing out and saving your brand’s reputation.

While I had some reps bail on me, other reps sent competitive proposals in a timely fashion and then immediately went into hard-close mode. Asking for my business came easily for these reps but asking for my thoughts and reaction wasn’t as easy. I started to feel like I was buying aluminum siding and decided that wasn’t much fun. So I soon eliminated those reps from further consideration.

What is the “secret” to effective follow-up? And how can you ensure that you don’t push too hard, too little or not all at? Here are four simple but valuable ideas to help you gauge your effectiveness:

Don’t put it off.

Remember that your prospects are also prospects of your competition. When it comes to follow up, do what you say you’re going to do, when you say you will do it, or don’t say anything at all! Everyone gets busy and it’s easy for follow-ups to fall through the cracks. Don’t put it off. Use some form of contact management software to help you track commitments. Don’t like what your company uses? Buy your own! It will be the best $200 investment you make this year. The discipline of keeping your commitments costs pennies, but the regret of having them slip can cost thousands!

Ask great questions!
Most sales people believe that “listening” is the most important sales skill. It’s important…but it isn’t number one. Asking great questions is the key to moving opportunities forward. “What did you like the best about my proposal?” “What was missing?” “What, if anything, was off target and needs to be re-worked?” “In an ideal world, what would this look like as we move forward?” Follow up is your opportunity to learn and reposition. Don’t blow it by forgetting to ask high impact questions. Your goal is not to sell something but to help them make a great buying decision. Remember to keep your focus on them by asking great questions.

Be persistent, not pesky.
Be sure that you have a good, productive reason for every contact. Not many people are interested in having their sales rep “check in” to see if they’ve made a buying decision, but they are interested in having you follow up to add value to their decision-making process. Share relevant, new ideas or have one of your existing loyal customers (see all raving fans) call to discuss their experience in working with you. Prepare for every touch point by creating a simple agenda or outline for the conversation. Sharing this with your prospect at the beginning of the call demonstrates that you’ve done your homework and respect their time. Don’t just wing these conversations.

Just say no!
If, for whatever reason, you decide not to pursue an opportunity, contact the prospect right away and let them know. Introduce them to someone else in your organization or refer them to a competitor. Prospects appreciate the truth just as much as you do. Don’t just disappear! Learn the art of a graceful exit and save your reputation and personal brand. Remember that word of mouth marketing is a powerful tool, but it cuts both ways. Everyone appreciates the truth…it’s the trademark of a successful rep. Focus on speaking more truth with prospects who aren’t the right fit—they will appreciate it and it will free you to focus your energies on other opportunities.

Your ability to master the skill of effective follow-up is crucial to your long-term accomplishments. Most reps are great at the first few contacts, but very few know how to truly nurture an opportunity. Learning the art of effective follow-up builds clients, success and your personal brand. Are you mastering these skills? If not, you should be.

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