Not every sale requires you to provide a formal presentation in front of a group of decision makers, but many of them do.
If you are anything like me, the moment you realize the salesperson is about to 'present' a slide deck, you feel a little queasy. You begin looking at your watch. You look for any excuse to leave the room. That's a real problem and it's all the fault of the salesperson. The good news is, this can be fixed.
There are three areas all insurance professionals need to concentrate on to improve sales presentations: The slide deck, presentation skills and listening skills.
The presentation deck (and why customers hate them)
In 2015, I was on a sales call with my engineer and my manager. As we walked out of the meeting my manager said "Mike, you didn't show him the pitch deck, why not?" Bear in mind this was the first meeting I had with the client, we had never met before.
In response I said, "Let me ask you something. Which one of those slides in our standard pitch spoke specifically to the needs of this customer?" My manager, stood for a moment, thought, and smiled back at me "okay Mike, I get your point."
Problems with most sales decks
Here are the problems with most pitch decks:
1. Little to no customization. Usually the only slide changed is the one including features and the price/term.
2. Too much content: Everyone has seen a presentation where the presenter says "sorry about the eye chart." Don't apologize, put that stuff on two or more slides!
3. It's all about your business, not the customer. "Oh look at all the name brand logos that have bought from us, aren't they impressive?!"
One of my favorite sales trainers is Jeffrey Gitomer. He has written many books on sales and the sales process. One of best pieces of advice he gave is to use a few words on each slide (with a graphic) use a large letter size (30 point, or bigger) and use the Impact font. I have been using his formula for several years, with great success.
Your presentation skills (and why they stink)
In a word: Practice. Most sales reps never practice the presentation they don't bother to get comfortable with the content. They read the slides, word for word, with little or no inflection to their voice, no energy, no enthusiasm. How do I know this? I am a witness.
In 2013, the company I worked for flew about 20 of us to a training in Pittsburgh to work on developing our presentation skills. While I was curious and interested to see what we would do and learn, everyone else was annoyed or sick (and I soon found out why). None of them were comfortable with their content.
When asked to speak in front of an audience they would stammer, they would use filler words (uhm, so, like, y'know) they would use lazy phrases like "the bottom line" or "at the end of the day," and on and on and on.
Record your presentation
So what is the fix? First, record your presentation. What do you sound like? Do you sound confident? Does the pitch of your voice go up at the end of a sentence, as if you are asking a question (when you are not asking one).
Do you play with your hair or jewelry? Do you stuff your hand in your pocket or are you using your hands to guide the audience? Do you have good posture? Is your voice clear? Are your words concise?
If you record the same presentation 5-10 times and work on slight changes each time, by the 10th time you will see a marked improvement.
I also recommend joining a local Toastmasters club. It will not just give you practice, it will also give you valuable feedback and a group of professionals to network with. It costs about $100 to be a member and there are dozens of clubs within a few miles of your home or place of business. You can attend during regular business hours or on the evening or even weekends.
Truly listen to customer; understand their pain
The last major failure is one I already alluded to: When you created your presentation deck, you didn't truly listen to the customer to understand their pain (which we discuss in great detail next time). Instead, you heard the customer say something that was a 'buying signal' and you stopped listening, you furiously wrote down some notes because you decided you knew what to do.
Dr. Stephen Covey is the author of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and in his books he tells us we need to "listen to understand, not respond."
In our next segment, we'll discuss why finding the customer's pain is not enough.
Mike Shelah is the founder of Mike Shelah Consulting. An admitted "LinkedIn geek" Mike loves talking: LinkedIn, sales & emotional intelligence to anyone who will listen. He is a frequent podcast guest, speaker and occasional guest on Fox 45 in Baltimore. You can contact Mike at 443-808-1670 or mike@mikeshelah.com.
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