Canned Sales Presentation

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary Boye

Regardless of what we sell, we are in the information business. A prepared presentation organizes that information and puts it into the best light for a prospect to respond to. It gives a language to communicate with. But, most of all, it keeps us on message.

But--there is another side to the coin. The presentation has to be a good one. It is a mistake to believe that just because a company gives you a presentation, it makes the presentation effective.

That is why it is so vitally important to be a life-long student of sales.
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Dear Gary,

I hope you'll understand that my reply is written not directly for you but for the benefit of others who will have read your ideas on this subject.

I know that you have learned these things for yourself as I have learned them for myself, in isolation, but I know that they'll strike accord with you too.

I'd like to share what we've learned for the benefit of all.

SO..... Sales people everywhere! Listen UP!

Really good presentations ask questions, questions that lead the prospect to his point of enlightenment/ realisation. That is to say that he reaches that point when he takes his horse blinkers off and says to him self.... "yeah, i understand the problem now".

secondly the presentation should show that there is a real reason or benefit why the prospect should solve that problem with your help and...

thirdly the presentation should make the solution tangible. It should get the prospect involved in someway. Physically interacting such as trying a product out or working out with pencil and paper the benefits of using your service.

In Brian Tracy's audio training series "the psychology of selling" (Nightingale-Conant) Tracy relates a tale which explains the power of a good presentation.

Excuse my poetic license but it goes something like this...

Way back in time there was a salesman selling panes of glass to the hardware stores of America.

His company had invented a type of very tough safety glass that would not shatter.

He went to the hardware stores and said... "tell me, do your customers buy glass from time to time to repair broken windows?"

"Why Yes they do" was always the reply

"do you make good profit on it?" he asked

"Not really, explained the store keeper, "you see, every one sells glass round here and the competion between one store and another drives the price of glass down until its hardly worth keeping in stock"

"whats your margin on it these days?" asked the salesman

"five (5) cents in the dollar" replied the store keeper

"Suppose your customers could buy a special, tough, shatterproof pane, available only from you - do you think that they'd pay a little more knowing that broken panes could be a thing of the past?"

" yeah, i guess that would interest them, but shatter proof glass? I'm not sure that stuff like that really exists" said the store keeper

At this the salesman pulled out a pane of glass, put it on the counter then hit it hard with a ball pein hammer!!!!.... "Guaranteed to earn you fifteen (15) cents in the dollar and no competion within your zip code! said the salesman... "how much would you like to stock?"

Well that approach was extremely successful!

BUT

Later that season the salesman changed his presentation so that this time round he put the pane of glass on the counter AND GAVE THE HAMMER TO THE STORE KEEPER.

The store keeper would strike the glass as hard as he might to prove that shatter proof glass was just a gimmick and that the sales man was being to soft when he hit it.

Now the store keepers would ASK... "How soon can you deliver?"

It may be fiction but that sounds like a great canned presentation to me.

When you have a framework like that, you can find ways to bring power to the things that you sell or should i say, to the solutions that you provide.

Think of Tracy's salesman when you are building your own canned presentation.

Look carefully at your product or service, understand what it does, trust it, believe in it and sell it from the bottom of your heart.

David Bowen
Birmingham (U.K)

Interesting story, David. I will give this some mulling as I am the one in my company who has to put together the presentation to be used in the field. I have developed one that works fairly well for me, but this story has definitely got me thinking. Also to the extent that I have tested it (with one salesman using it), he does not seem to be getting the same result it brings me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Interesting story, David. I will give this some mulling as I am the one in my company who has to put together the presentation to be used in the field. I have developed one that works fairly well for me, but this story has definitely got me thinking. Also to the extent that I have tested it (with one salesman using it), he does not seem to be getting the same result it brings me.

RM. Mm You have given me an idea to try out for myself before I make it a definite suggestion for you to take up. Let me bounce this off your wall 1st.

Imagine that we are responsible for developing a canned presentation. Imagine we've trialed it and it works for us, but it doesn't work quite as well for others.

It could be that it works well for us because we developed it, we understand it, we've reheresed it, it repesents who we are, it's developed in our style and uses our predominant mode of communication ( visual, linguistic, sensory etc )
and above all we feel we have ownership of it. It's our baby!.

It could be that it doesn't work well for others because they don't understand the reason for doing it our way, it's out of synch with their natural mode of communication, they didn't develop it, it's not their way and above all no matter how often they are forced to reherse it they're never going to deliver it with a passion.

Can we change that?

Suppose we strip away the components of the presentation until we get down to the basic message. The What are we trying to say and why are we trying to say it?

Now suppose we say to the salesperson who's struggled with our original canned presentation...

This is the basic message xyz
Put it into your own words
Build me a simple presentation with no words (spoken or written) which will convey the same message.
Next, put the two together and find a way to get some form of partisipation from the listener.
Build in questions that will get the listener involved, thinking on your wave length about the common problems for which you have a solution.

Now ... giving a sales person a canned presentation is a bit like giving a hungry man a fish.

Teaching a sales person how to develop his own canned presentation is a bit like, teaching a hungry man how to fish.

Is it better to do his thinking for him or help him to develop his thinking for himself.

It's a similar thought to...
Is it better to tell the customer what to buy from you or is it better to develop his thinking so that he is willing to tell you what he wants to buy from you.

I'm beginning to think that a canned presenation should be a presentation that a salesperson has developed for themselves, that suits their style, that they have ownership of, that they can roll out in the blink of an eye anywhere at any time and still have it deliver the same message for the same reason as your own/ different style presentation.

The idea that it is canned should mean that it is always the same, or a least very similar, well rehersed, honed and polished every time that sales person uses it.

It's canned by them, not by others.

Like you said... making every word count and making the most of the short time that the listener is prepared to give you.

"Canned" should not mean one sales script dreampt up by one individual for unerring use by all.

Different strokes suit different folks but different strokes can also achieve the same results if not better!

So my new thoughts are that it doesn't matter how we communicate the message so long as we communicate the same message, professionally.

So now I'm going to encourage my sales people to develop their own canned presentation to deliver my basic selling message but in their own professional style.

It's just a guess but I'm starting to believe that the importance of my role is to get the fundamental message right, to make it clear and to get others to reinforce the message in their own unique style with added passion.

Mmm what do think rain maker? I am I getting warm?

dave bowen

That's interesting. Unfortunately, I am trying to train this salesman remotely and do not have the benefit of face to face (which I am now realizing is CRITICAL).

Interestingly, I think what you are suggesting is similar to the course I chose. I told him it was ok to put the presentation into his own words. There are four basic questions on which my presentation is built. I told him to to answer those questions for the prospect during his presentation and he will have covered the most important points.

Sadly, I don't think this has really worked for him either. I realize now that not having the benefit of seeing his presentation is a BIG drawback. I am not really sure what is going awry.

RM...

you don't have to follow this advice but I'd be real interested to know if it worked...

Have the sales person send you his presentation script, and materials with written instructions on how you should use it, what questions to field and how to deflect common objections. Then try it his way in your home area and then give him a little feed back and redirection on the points that will get him back on track.

If you get results from using his presentation the way he uses it then you'll know that it's not the presentation thats causing the hold up.
Dave bowen

Quote:

Originally Posted by RainMaker

That's interesting. Unfortunately, I am trying to train this salesman remotely and do not have the benefit of face to face (which I am now realizing is CRITICAL).

Interestingly, I think what you are suggesting is similar to the course I chose. I told him it was ok to put the presentation into his own words. There are four basic questions on which my presentation is built. I told him to to answer those questions for the prospect during his presentation and he will have covered the most important points.

Sadly, I don't think this has really worked for him either. I realize now that not having the benefit of seeing his presentation is a BIG drawback. I am not really sure what is going awry.

You guys are going to hate me for this but, having read your posts with great interest, something occurs to me.

You really can't convert a presentation into another presentation. A sales presentation is free standing and self-contained. It exists only in its exact and intended form and in its entirety. Change anything and it becomes a different presentation.

Think on that and agree with me that it is not the presentation that must be delivered by the people who you would train. It is the message.

Ask them what they think the message is? If, as trainers and managers, you can be in harmony with their answers, then ask them to put the message into conversation.

Not only will a new perception develop about what the goals really are, but you will witness skills or lack of skills, in these trainees than are much more critical towards evaluation than the single skill of having the ability to memorize.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary Boye

Think on that and agree with me that it is not the presentation that must be delivered by the people who you would train. It is the message.

Yes Gary, that's a really good point. it is the message that's important.

And in accord with your thought I'm even more convinced now that a canned presentaion should be "canned" by the person who is expected to use it and not by the sale manager... so long as the funamental message is the same and has the same effect no matter how it's delivered.

you've sparked this thought in my mind...

If the pain killer is a metaphor for the message then it should be able to kill pain whether it is injected, eaten or drunk. It does the same job no matter how you deliver it but different people like to take their pain killers in a way that feels comfortable to them. if you don't like injections you're not going to like a pain killer that can only be injected!

Sales managers... create your message!

Sales people .......create a presentation that you can really run with... which delivers the message in a way that's consistent with the company image!

on a separate note...

thanks Gary! you know I've learned something really quiet special over the last few weeks by joiniong in on these forums... it really doesn't matter what other people tell me or what I tell others will work or wont work the real magic is in what I learn from looking within. It is that which really has the greatest impact.

your email made me think more deeply about my understanding and perception of presentations. It's possible that my thoughts are neither right nor wrong but because they feel right for me and I'm more likely to give them a go than take outside advice even though some of those inner thought patterns have been shaped by outside influence such as the forum.

May be it's true... you can lead the horse to water but you can't make him drink...

Maybe it's also true that you can point the horse in the general direction of water, when he finds it for himself he may choose to drink it but even if he doesnt want to taste it there and then, he will know where to find find it again next time he's thirsty

see you at the well gary.

Dave Bowen

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Bowen

Sales managers... create your message!

Great post, David. I would say "Sales managers..know your message." The Peter Principle is alive and well.

Have a super weekend, everybody, and for those on this side of the pond, a fun and safe 4TH!

Four years ago I as working with a distributor, training him, and he had the same information I had but he was stuck. I asked him to not worry about correctness but to just say how he felt about what he wanted to say which he did. "Just get it out," I told him.

From there we worked on the message which is a uniform message BUT Jerry's message has Jerry in it and mine has me in it YET it's the same message.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MitchM

Four years ago I as working with a distributor, training him, and he had the same information I had but he was stuck. I asked him to not worry about correctness but to just say how he felt about what he wanted to say which he did. "Just get it out," I told him.

From there we worked on the message which is a uniform message BUT Jerry's message has Jerry in it and mine has me in it YET it's the same message.

Mitch,
Thank you for sharing that point with me, I was trying to explain to my colleagues here that sometimes you just have have to say the message in your own way. I do believe that they think different is wrong but your point does confirm that others have trusted that the message can be delivered in different ways and still get the same result.

warm regards mitch

Dave Bowen
Birmingham (U.K)

Canned Sales Presentation

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