“The best presentation you’ll ever give is the one that your client didn’t see as an actual presentation. You’re just providing solutions to problems they identified.” – Jim Camp in today’s Tip 1604
How about you? Do you over-present?
Join the conversation below and check out the links!
Jim Camp on LinkedIn
Camp Negotiation Systems
4 Reasons People Say No
1599: Start With NO – How to Handle a No
1594: Start With NO – Don’t Chase the Big Fish
1589: Start With NO – Move the Needle
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Jim Camp. Jim is a former VP of Sales, and is now an owner and coach with Camp Negotiations. His coaching expertise is in sales, negotiations, and leadership. Jim has also served as a military pilot and is retiring as a Major General from the United States Air Force. Here he is:
Jim Camp: Hi, everybody. Jim Camp. It’s great to be back with you. During our last sales tip, we talked about decision-making and how all decisions are driven by vision. I hope all of you out there in the sales world have a product or service that you deeply believe in, something that you know can make a difference for your client, and that you stand behind it. As a professional, I’m sure you know everything about your product, all the features, all the benefits, all the capabilities. In fact, you probably have a lot of data to reinforce that, hey, there’s a return on investment here and it should make perfect sense to your opponent.
So here’s the problem.
If you present in a scripted way and it comes across that you actually memorize all your features and benefits and you’re too excited to talk about those things, it’s actually going to get in the way of really addressing the challenges that your potential client is trying to overcome. If you’ve hit an impasse or you’re at a stalled-out negotiation, you may be tempted to say, Well, you know what? I forgot to tell them about A, B, and C. They may not care about that. By you putting that information in front of them and you think it’s going to sway their decision and push them towards reaching an agreement, you actually could be creating an objection.
Here’s the tip.
Jim Senior used to say, Never spill your beans in a lobby. What that means is before you present anything, make sure you’re actually answering something and addressing something that’s already been previously identified by your client as being important to them. If you’re at a loss, you’re not sure what you want to do or what direction to go, focus back on their original vision.
For example, here’s four interrogative-type phrases that you can turn into a question with all the top features, benefits, capabilities of your product.
What would the impact be to your organization if we could do this?
How important is this capability?
What’s really the biggest challenge you’re trying to address?
What other concerns do you have at this point about our product or service?
As a rule of thumb, remember, you can’t tell anybody anything, but you can answer a question or a challenge that’s been presented to you. Just make sure that when you’re presenting, you’re presenting to their vision, answering their challenges, and solving their problems, and don’t make assumptions of what’s important to them because that may just push you further away from the deal.
I know it’s hard, but don’t over-present. Ask interrogative-led questions that build vision.
Let me leave you with this. The best presentation you’ll ever give is the one that your client didn’t see as an actual presentation. You’re just providing solutions to problems they identified. We’ll see you next time.
Scott Ingram: To get your hands on a free download with the 4 Reasons People Say No from Jim and Camp Negotiation, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1604. Once you’ve been over there, be sure to come right back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!