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Perfect Phrases for Sales Presentations

Hundreds of Ready-to-Use Phrases for Delivering Powerful Presentations That Close Every SaleBy Linda Eve Diamond

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 Linda Eve Diamond
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-07-163453-3

Contents

Chapter One

Presentation Basics

“Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman, not the attitude of the prospect.”

—W. Clement Stone

Before you even begin to prepare your presentation, take a look at how you present yourself. You—not just your product or service—are a central part of your presentations. Your image, your enthusiasm, your whole way of being will be linked, in the prospect’s mind, to what you are selling. Sales are often based on information, skill, and knowledge, but buying is usually emotional and is influenced by the enthusiasm and personality of the salesperson. You—your image, your attitude, your belief in the product or service you represent—make the sale.

Image

While we often say that a product or service is so outstanding that it sells itself, that’s rarely the reality. Price and quality are factors when making purchasing decisions, but we all know that image sells. As consumers, our decisions are affected by the company’s image, the salesperson’s style and approach, and our comfort level with that salesperson. Image and relationship factors very often have as much to do with the sale as the price, quality, or convenience of what we’re buying. Consumer surveys repeatedly show customer service at the top of the list in terms of what prospective customers value most when making a purchasing decision. We value the knowledge and comfort of knowing that we will be taken good care of if anything goes wrong. While we appreciate companies that build an image based on low price, high convenience, environmental friendliness, or a fun shopping experience, we still value service.

Know your market, your strengths, and your limitations. Know what your image is, and do what you can to create and maintain a good image both for yourself and for your company. What’s your company’s image? What’s your personal image? Does your personal image match your company’s image—and do you project the look and attitude that are most attractive to your target market? Your personal image ideally would match—or at least not clash with—the company’s professional image. If your company’s image is fun, smile. If it’s environmental friendliness and your car is a gas guzzler, you won’t seem sincere. While the words you choose are always an important consideration, they are also a part of the image you project, so pay close attention to the words you use. Are they positive? Do they paint pictures? Do they seem pushy or “salesy”? Be aware of the image you’re projecting.

Your office, Web site, and overall online presence all establish an impression of you that either strengthens or weakens your presentation before you even walk into the room. Your reputation also precedes you when you make a presentation. What are people saying about you? People will be likely to see the comments you publicize, and they’ll also be likely to speak to people or read commentaries or reviews that you wouldn’t publicize.

What You Say

The goal of Perfect Phrases for Sales Presentations is to offer techniques and phrases that will enhance your presentations. Remember, though, that the best phrases are the ones that show you know your stuff—your product or service, your industry, and your client’s industry—and that you know how to listen to your client’s needs. After all, how else could you meet those needs?

A few things to remember about what you say:

* Be honest and be consistent. Nothing means more than your word. If the truth loses a sale, this was not the right customer for you at this time.

* Be artful, when you can, in your use of language—but never in expressing what is true.

* People won’t remember every word you say, but they will remember the things that are most important to them— and they’ll remember how you make them feel.

* Always be able to back up what you say.

* Always follow through with promises.

* If you make an error, own up to it immediately.

* Use humor, but never use it to anyone’s detriment.

* Even if you don’t say the perfect phrase, if you’re showing interest in understanding and meeting the client’s needs, you’ll be making a good impression.

How You Say It

Pay attention to your speaking style, and remember that it’s not always what you say but how you say it. You might say the perfect phrase, but if you sound desperate for the sale, impatient, or condescending, your phrase is no longer perfect at all.

Watch your tone. No matter how badly you want a sale, be careful not to sound desperate. If the sense is that the presentation is about your need to make a sale, your prospect is going to be far less interested in listening. Your tone should be one of “How can I help you?” Remember that your goal should be to do the best job that you can and then to follow through to see that your promise was delivered. The end result is a sale, but when you’re in front of clients, always remember to focus on the goal of meeting their goals. By doing that, you’ll meet your own.

Your attitude should be one of assurance that you can help—and honesty if you realize that you cannot. If your product or service is the wrong fit, you will gain more in the long run by being honest and giving a referral to someone else than by continuing to solicit a soon-to-be-unhappy customer. Both the customer and the person to whom you refer the customer will tell the story of your honesty and good business practices.

In speaking, also watch your pace. Fast-talking salespeople have a reputation for dishonesty. You might be meticulously honest in business, but if you’re talking fast, certain prospects will feel unnerved or lose trust. Another thing about fast talkers is that they lose people without realizing it. Especially if your information is complex or new to the client, pay very careful attention to your pace, going slowly and inviting questions.

The most important point, though, about how you say things, comes back to your overall attitude and belief about your product or service. Are you enthusiastic about it? Do you genuinely believe in it and feel passionate about telling people about it? If you’re selling something that doesn’t interest or excite you—or something that you don’t feel good about— you’ll find it hard to achieve success. Sales has often been called a transfer of enthusiasm. I’m highly unlikely to be enthusiastic about what you’re selling if you’re not! Let your passion, your enthusiasm, and your overall good feeling about what you do and what you offer shine through! That kind of positive energy—if it’s put behind something that really makes sense or captures the prospect’s imagination—is hard to resist.

What You Hear

What you hear is as important as what you say. In fact, in a sales situation, it’s more important. You need to listen for objections and desires—spoken and unspoken—and ask questions that encourage people not only to state but also to explore what it is they’re looking for. The emphasis on listening, as you read on, is practical advice for listening to specific points that relate to the sale.

Another thing to keep in mind about listening, overall, is that it not only gives you the information you need to close the sale, but it also helps you to build a solid, ongoing client relationship. Along the way, you may hear more of a prospect’s needs, concerns, and stories than those that relate to your immediate interests. Pay attention and show empathy and interest. Even if something you hear doesn’t relate directly to the sale, listen attentively and respond with care. Don’t be steadfast in taking in what clearly relates to the sale and blocking out what seems irrelevant to you. Part of developing ongoing relationships in sales is bonding and building trust. Don’t see only dollar signs when you look at your prospect and hear only those things that directly affect the bottom line—see a human being—and listen.

Enthusiasm

Sales famously has been called a “transfer of enthusiasm.” If you love what you do and feel good about your product or service, people will feel that energy and be interested in hearing more. Even in a tough economy, even with tight budgets, money is still being spent. We spend based on need, want, and emotion, and we spend because someone piques our interest and inspires us to see an outcome based on investing in the product or service being sold. The salesperson who comes to a presentation with enthusiasm has an edge over the one who comes in without a smile and presents clients with dry facts about which he or she seems disinterested. Beyond the enthusiasm around the product or service itself, remember that customers also encounter so many people who aren’t enthusiastic about their lives and work that they are drawn to and interested in people who are. Beyond a general good feeling, I’d be hard pressed to become excited about your widget if you’re not enthusiastic in your presentation. You become just another salesperson, and your widget becomes just another widget.

Knowledge

You can be brimming with personality and enthusiasm, but if you don’t have knowledge about your industry, your company, your product or service, and how it may apply to your average prospect, you’re lost. You’re not only lost, but you also look and sound lost, which won’t gain anyone’s confidence. You don’t have to have all the answers, and it’s perfectly respectable to say that you don’t know something. (In fact, people appreciate the honesty and the effort when you offer to find the correct answer or the missing information.) However, without a strong knowledge base, your confidence and enthusiasm mean nothing.

Skill

Beyond enthusiasm and knowledge, great salespeople hone their selling skills and continually tighten and refine their approaches to clients and potential clients and their presentations. Here, you’ll consider some of the mindsets behind sales success and some perfect phrases. This is all part of skill building. So is refining your speaking style, practicing your presentation, and refining and integrating your perfect phrases into your presentation and as part of your natural conversation with clients and prospects. You can learn sales skills from books, CDs, DVDs, mentors, observation, seminars, lectures, articles, and Web sites, but the only way to develop your skills is to put them into practice.

Skilled salespeople are not only knowledgeable and enthusiastic, but they also know how to share and elicit information and make people feel comfortable, and they understand human psychology and what motivates people to buy. Skilled salespeople understand emotion, desire, fear, envy, ego—all the things that affect our choice of whether or not to invest in any given product or service.

Knowing When to Let Go

Let’s consider for a moment the sales that got away. Were they all potentially good sales? Or did you know, in certain situations, that it was simply a bad fit and was time to walk away? Before you give up on a prospect, be the problem solver, and remember that most yes’s follow a series of no’s. But sometimes the product or service is a bad fit for the prospect, and you know you cannot fulfill the perfect promises and guarantees that would make this a satisfied customer. If this is the case, the perfect pitch is destined to hit a sour note. If it’s a bad fit, tell the truth. Beyond building goodwill, you’ll save yourself valuable time that you could be using with other clients and prospects.

Here’s a true story about the perfect sale never made:

An older couple was enticed by a promotion for high-tech services. They called in a salesperson fully ready to buy. The salesperson, Bob, explained everything. They said, “But that’s different from how we’ve always done things.” Bob agreed and pointed out, gingerly, that most people like the new ways, but he could see their discomfort. The three of them had a long, philosophical talk about change. Bob smiled warmly and said, “You’re not ready for this, and you wouldn’t be happy.” He recommended that they not make the purchase. They thanked him. They hugged him. They tell the story on a regular basis, and many of the people they speak to are more inclined to change than they are. Of course, they happily pass along Bob’s number. Bob, by choosing not to even try to close, made a number of sales. If he had pushed to close that sale—and he could have—he would have had a canceled sale and no referrals. Sometimes, the perfect phrase is, “I understand your position and your concerns, and I agree. This may not be the best thing for you right now.”

Chapter Two

First Impressions

“I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.”

—Abraham Lincoln (whose instinct here is the opposite of most, which is why first impressions last)

In sales, especially, you rarely get a chance to make a second impression if the first is negative and, often, if it’s simply not impressive or one that sets you apart from your competition in some way. First impressions take into account everything that represents your company, including and especially you. Personalities go a long way in terms of whether a relationship is established or not. Wouldn’t the world be a wonderful place if we all thought like Abe Lincoln, giving people even more of a chance when we feel a certain discomfort—learning and going beyond the initial reaction to discover more about each other and ourselves? But unlike Lincoln, most people make snap judgments and stick with them. The old saying is true: First impressions last.

Your Office

If you have an office and you invite clients there, or if there is even a chance that a client would come to you for any reason, make sure that the image is one you want to project. Our surroundings represent us. Look around you—is your office saying what you want it to say? Even though you can reach into that swamp on your desk and retrieve exactly what you want, the image does not instill confidence in someone who plans to rely on you. If you’re selling creative services, chances are that your surroundings demonstrate creativity. If you’re selling fun, funky, colorful products, your office may look like a playroom. If your office does represent you, show a photograph of you and/or your staff or coworkers in that space in the “About Us” section of your Web site. If your surroundings are inviting, let people in through your Web site to see who you are and where your home base is.

Your Web Site

No matter what you do, more people by far will see your Web site than your physical office. When you meet people or send introductory material, they will usually look at your Web site if they have any interest at all. Your presentation begins with how you present yourself in person and online. If your Web site is out-of-date, looks old fashioned, or doesn’t project the personality of your product or company, invest in an overhaul. Think of it as part of every presentation you make—because it is. Also, any additional information you can provide through your Web site—videos, downloads of brochures or other take-away material, an ongoing blog that would be of interest to clients and prospects—will help you to present the image that makes the sale.

Your Overall Web Presence

If you’re online either personally or professionally or both at networking sites such as Facebook, Linkedln, or Twitter, you can be light-hearted and friendly, but never lose the demeanor of a professional. Clients who Google you or link to you shouldn’t find you flirting, insulting, or using foul language. Every phrase you utter on the Internet is public and represents you. Be careful to maintain a respectable presence—both offline and online. Any presentation you make will be affected by how you present yourself. If people have preconceived notions from Googling you before the presentation, let them be good ones!

Your Web presence should include a good photograph of you. Even in this highly technological world, and even though we often work with people whom we’ll never actually meet, we all like to put a face to a voice or a name. Letting people see who you are is a good first step toward building trust. Use a good, close-up professional photograph. If you have a great picture of you in sunglasses that you think really expresses who you are, by all means use it as a secondary photograph. But use a primary photograph that shows your eyes. We still like to have a sense that we can look someone in the eye and may subliminally feel a lack of trust when we can’t see someone’s eyes. We can even get that feeling from a photograph, especially if it’s someone we haven’t met yet and that’s the only image we see.

(Continues…)

Excerpted from Perfect Phrases for Sales Presentationsby Linda Eve Diamond Copyright © 2010 by Linda Eve Diamond. Excerpted by permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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