by Tim Roberts
Pitching, presenting, demos and storyselling are common language for salespeople. They are forms for telling prospects your company’s narrative.
Having spent the past 18 years in the trenches with business owners, sales thought leaders and street-savvy sales people in a wide range of industries, it’s clear our profession remains guilty of working the wrong narrative – ours. A shift to the prospect’snarrative is critical.
The challenge that comes with pitching, presenting, doing demos and working the craft of storyselling, is they reduce buyer transparency. Worse, over the history of selling, they have created a cold negotiating buyer that resists all temptation to like the sales person. Those of you in a competitive, long sell-cycle are fully aware of this hardened buyer. For those of you yet to experience a cold blank stare, think Wal-Mart buyers in Bentonville, Arkansas where smiling is not welcome until large discounts are produced. Even then, only a brief upraising of the lips is allowed.
There is only one narrative to be told and it’s not yours. Skilled salespeople refuse to present until they’ve earned the right and earning the right means they are clear about the prospect’s narrative - the one the prospect has written and lived firsthand. It’s real, live, often emotional, and even painful.
How do the best do this?
Best-in-class salespeople create an environment of transparency, which, if I’m not mistaken is always the ideal business meeting anyway. In the end, things don’t happen until both sides are transparent. That’s the the moment of trust, folks.
Best-in-class salespeople resist all urges to talk about themselves, their products or services until they’re sure they’ve been invited to do so. They wouldn’t take a brochure, price sheet, PowerPoint or a product knowledge-burdened techie on the first meeting if it were the last call made. They insist on that discipline and do so to honor the other person’s narrative.
Best-in-classers set clear, expected meeting ground rules that allow the buyer to feel in control, when in truth, the salesperson is actually leading the dance. And they lead with the curiosity of a homicide detective coupled with the bedside manners of a doctor who drinks from the cup of empathy.
Try one simple thing
Take nothing with you on your next first call but a pen and paper, preferably a yellow legal pad to remind yourself to only gain facts. And then, stay curious.
At Sandler Training Trustpointe we help our clients get rid of themselves. To learn more about a transparent environment, leading a dance and why 8 ½ x 14 yellow pieces of paper are called “legal pads,” contact Tim Roberts at 317-845-0041 or tim.roberts@sandler.com.
Yours is bigger than mine.
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