Our words evaporate. And what a tragedy it is. We must have spoken thousands of them during that sales call. With such charm and wit that too. Poof! All gone. All that time we were making ourselves sound refined, interesting and clever but the prospect was probably candy crushing on his/her phone and now they don’t even have a way to go back and review what we said or to confirm if they remembered it correctly.
In my earlier blogs, I spoke extensively about how the need to coach the prospect as an efficient spokesperson for us in front of their boss or committee as the decision to proceed with the sale relies on the latter’s hands. Therefore, it is imperative that our prospect remembers and repeats the key points well enough to confidently mention them to others. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Technology solutions are complex and can get confusing. No one can remember so much new jargon and ideas right off the bat. What if they remember things incorrectly? That is worse as we will have failed without even being aware of what went wrong.
What do we do then?
Make our words tangible of course.
What must be done?
We need to figure out a good way of giving them something which can serve as a reminder and refresher of the meeting. A brochure? Perhaps if you want to be binned in the next 5 seconds. This tangible asset needs to be something brief and personal which is a concise summary of all the talking points, is easy to access and makes the keywords stand out.
What we must do and what should be avoided:
1. Impromptu flow charts
Make flow charts during the meetings with clearly underlined keywords and highlighted solutions that you can give to the prospect when the meeting is over.
What should be avoided: Too much information cramped into a barely legible paper with too many arrows and difficult words.
2. Diagrams and analysis
Create a clear diagram about your explanation of their infrastructure and needs, and how you will be helpful and hand over this diagram which they can now use to explain to others
Avoid: Use of multiple colors, distracting stationary, unprofessional emojis or slang.
3. Easel or pre prepared print outs of talking points
Use an easel with multiple A3 or larger papers if you need a large amount of space for your ideas to flow. Or bring folders for your prospect to take with them with your talking points already printed out
Avoid: Use of white boards. Those are sure to be erased before you clear the premises.
4. Virtual Meeting follow up emails
Send a summary of the meeting with a clear subject line that will get them to open the email. If sending slides, use a compelling subject line such as “2 slide summary of our meeting” that will get people to actually open the attachment.
Avoid: Using the phrase “I will send you my slides”. An absolute dead end as most busy people will barely open attachments in emails nor will they have the time and desire to go exploring multiple slides for relevant information. In the same vein, avoid the deathtrap “you will find it on our website”. It makes the sales person look slovenly at best and patronizing at worst. No one will be doing all that excessive homework. Slogging for information means excessive friction against achieving desirable information, therefore hardly worth the work. It will also never get forwarded to others who will be even less interested in carrying out internet research.
5. Powerpoints delivering engaging visuals
An effective visual presentation will keep the prospect’s mind engaged and prevent him/her from daydreaming. A good powerpoint also enhances the audience’s perception of the presenter. The prospect may think that we are smarter and better at our job than our competitors and this gives us a superpower in selling. It will build our professionalism and help our contact expand the sale using meaningful and compelling tools that we armed them with.
Avoid: Last minute slides, all thrown together with amateur skill which do not hold the eye. It will do the opposite of building an impression and instead of being able to deliver a tailored leave-behind, it will sabotage our chance of proceeding with the sale by coming across as disinterested.
6. Physical reminders of virtual presence
In case our meetings with the prospects have only been online, the onus is on us to send physical reminders of our meetings using mail. Using company letterhead or professional stationary to thank them for their time or sending them a letter with a print out of the zoom presentation takeaway, doubly enforces our presence.
Avoid: Sending merch in the mail before sale progresses along to justify brand logo hats and pens.
7. FAQs
Always be mindful that the words you are using are understandable to your contact. The solution that we may be presenting needs to be clearly conveyed to third parties therefore, we need to understand that we are mentoring our prospect. Therefore, clearly going over the possible questions they may be facing and the answers to those questions would be a good idea. Clarity of concept is the driving point of the entire exercise.
Avoid: Do not make your prospect nervous by putting undue pressure on them. They will only be able to approach others when they feel confident in the subject matter.
CONCLUSION
Now that we have ideas for creating lasting impressions, we must focus on practicing these steps to enhance our super selling powers. Practice using the best presentation software, practise using phrases that do not sound obnoxious and make prospects hang up the phone or dread receiving the calls. Practice on giving away the maximum amount of information in its most concise form. Most of all, do not hesitate to practice your subject matter before being on the call. You can only do your best when you have the complete confidence that your knowledge and tools will not fail you.
