If you go the www.amazon.com and search for books under the category of "selling", you will find 7,868 titles available. The #1 seller will be "The Little Red Book of Selling" by Jeffrey Gitomer. For those of you who don't know Jeffrey Gitomer, he is one of the leading sales gurus and entrepreneurs in the marketplace today. He is a college dropout who grew up selling in New York, who landed in Charlotte, NC somehow. He began his career in multilevel marketing, and graduated with a Ph.D. in the sales school of hard knocks. Today he writes books, has a website, writes a nationally-published sales column, sends out a bi-weekly sales-zine, does teleseminars...the whole ball of wax. He is a one-person selling dynamo who has built a sales empire.
Unlike a lot of pretenders, Jeff Gitomer is the real deal. He knows how to sell.
In one of his recent missives, Gitomer talks about "Sales Presentations." His thoughts hit the mark with me...and I wanted to pass them on to you.
He believes that many sales professionals are "presentation-weak" due to a lack of preparation, a lack of study, and a poor sense of what they actually sound like.
In his view, a "sales presentation" is a misnomer. One is not actually "presenting", i.e. delivering a one-way monologue to a silent audience. A "sales presentation" is more about persuasion, uncovering needs, building value, differentiating oneself, and gaining the prospect's trust by being likeable and believable. He believes that a "sales presentation" is 20% each of:
- Presentation skills
- Product knowledge
- Knowledge of the customer
- Selling skills
- Attitude
Here is how he suggests that one move from a position of "presentation-weak" to a position of "presentation-strong."
- Develop a belief system that is so strong, you assume every sale before you walk through the door.
- Be completely prepared. Being ready breeds confidence.
- Make friends with the person or people you are presenting to...before you begin your formalized talk. If they aren't smiling...if they aren't friendly--leave.
- Create points of value and areas of differentiation as you are speaking. Consider a sales presentation to be a 15-round prize fight...and try to win every round.
- Don't "need" the sale. Desperation is an obvious quality, and is likely to be telegraphed to the prospect.
His last bit of advice...Record yourself. Recording is the best and only way to examine your present skill level and to create a game plan for improvement.
For more of his thoughts, check out this link "link to Gitomer article".
That's all for today. Ciao!
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