"We are usually convinced more easily by reasons we have found ourselves than by those which have occurred to others." – Blaise Pascal.
Is strategic questioning part of your sales process? Successful sales people involve the client by asking questions, then listening to the client’s answers. A key aspect in a successful sales person’s process, drawing the client into the process works far better than spouting a packaged sales pitch.
A sales person who does 80% of the talking, immediately touting the memorized features of their product, without involving the client, merely turns into a caricature of the manipulative salesman. A sales person who asks questions forces them to take the talking down to 20%.
Think about a physician – who wouldn’t dare give a diagnosis or health directive without asking questions first. First, to find out what’s wrong, but also to give the patient a sense of control. Asking questions has a positive effect on the patient. And a positive effect on a potential client. Both the doctor and the sales person need to try to pinpoint the most pressing priorities and problems, then find ways to solve and fulfill those needs.
Start your sales conversations with questions that are easy to ask and easy to answer, then escalate.
1. Ask for Permission
"Can I ask you some questions?" Right up front, let the client feel a sense of control in the buying process. Questions help to focus their thoughts and feelings.
More on Strategic Questioning: Sales Process
We’ve all heard that less is more, but not when applied to the frenetic, fact-filled culture of today. Today we are constantly bombarded with information, junk, information, junk information. There’s little "free space" left – with advertising embedded on the shopping cart, popping up on the computer screen, scrolling across the TV, you name it.
Feeling like there’s barely any space left in our minds, overburdened with unwanted information, we might feel like screaming, but it’s easier and less noticeable to flip the "off" switch. Not take in any more. So working with today’s overburdened minds, how do you get an audience to turn on the "on" switch and get your own "very important" message across?
"In an ancient Chinese legend, the emperor offers a reward to the man who has just invented the game of chess. The inventor modestly asks for one grain of rice on the chessboard’s first square, two grains on the next square, four grains on the third, and so on, doubling every square.
The emperor, thinking this is a swell bargain, grants his request – only to realize later that the sixty-fourth square would have enough grains of rice to cover the entire earth. He angrily orders the inventor beheaded." (Business 2.0, July 2001)
Like the Chinese rice, the amount of data which assaults a person’s mind, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, is more than one mind even begins to need. According to research from the University of California at Berkeley, the amount of digital information produced in the world today is doubling as often as every two years. Since information is so quickly multiplying, when you give a presentation, it’s more important than ever to deliver a lot more than facts and data to your audience.
In Samurai Selling: the Ancient Art of Service in Sales, the authors tell of research which indicates that people tend to ignore all data (yes, ALL) when given more than they can process. Recently, neuroscientists tested people for the effects of information overload and found these symptoms.
- Irritation
- Boredom
- Inability to take decisive action
- Pervading sense of "So what?"
- Failure to respond
Don’t you desperately want to avoid any one of those five symptoms occurring in your audience?
More on Succinct Skills: Communication and Presentation
Recently, a freelance speechwriter called me about a post I'd made on his blog. Colin Moorhouse asked if he could publish my comments on his blog and I agreed. We talked about the various styles of the candidates: Obama, Clinton and McCain. After reading his latest post I googled the videos and was struck by the differences in content, delivery style, settings, and TV analysis of the two candidates.
Here are some thoughts from a presentation perspective:
- McCain lacked energy in his voice. How to scale up the energy? Expand your vocal range for greater emphasis. Not only will it help to hold audience attention, but also you'll telegraph how you feel about what you are saying. Scaling up the energy will command more attention and project more confidence and charisma.
- McCain displayed an awkward, phony smile. His coaches are telling him to smile, but he hasn't figured out how to make a smile sincere. Smiling is a universal expression of warmth and approachability. Be sure to keep your non-verbal behavior in alignment with your message. How to smile sincerely.
- McCain is echoing Obama's theme of change, not publishing his own message/theme. There is a common phrase at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center: “Point of view is worth 80 IQ points.”
- McCain demonstrated awkward hand gestures. Broader gestures draw the eye and project dynamism. Develop a vocabulary of gestures. They are both an effective and efficient way to communicate.
In contrast, Obama utilized sustained, driving rhythms. His campaign seemed to take into account the message communicated by setting: a stadium filled with a big, raucous crowd [Obama] vs. a small anemic crowd for McCain. The background: an ugly green board for McCain vs. banners shaken by an enthusiastic cheering crowd for Obama. Candidates' pitches lack punch, experts say…
More on McCain vs. Obama: A Contrast in Presentation Styles
"Everything in life cannot be grasped by the logic-centered left brain." D.T.Suzuki
Sometimes you need more than your own dynamic self to get your message across. Just standing there and talking is not very creative and not much of a strategy. You might be a great speaker or think you’re a great speaker, but don’t take any chances that you might miss reaching your audience. Especially if you’re giving out complex and/or technical information.
To be as effective as possible in your presentation, you will need unique tools to motivate your audience and to implant the desire in them to take the action you desire for them. A highly effective tool in any presentation is the use of SYMBOLS.
A symbol, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, is: "Something that represents something else by association, resemblance or convention, especially a material object used to represent something invisible. You see a red stop sign. What do you do? You know.
The reason humans created symbols in the first place, according to Carl Jung, was to try to understand human nature beyond language. In his investigation of various, unrelated cultures, Jung found a similarity in the images – or symbols – they displayed. Though fewer and less complex than the plethora of symbols we see in today’s culture, they nonetheless evoked in those ancient people a universal meaning that resonated in each person.
The symbols – or familiar images – of today evoke such a familiar message to most of us, that we all "get" the message as soon as we see them. McDonald’s golden arches, for example. And what about the apple on the phones or laptops you’re using today? Granted, these are both very commercial symbols, but nonetheless are images most of us can instantly relate to.
So what about symbols in your presentation?
More on Using Symbols In Your Presentation
Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go. Herman Hesse
What are you most afraid of?
For most people, it’s public speaking. And for some, the fear of public speaking is so dramatic that it’s right up there with the fear of death.
People are often terrified that the panic and the anxiety they feel will overwhelm them, render them speechless and weak-kneed.
So what could possibly be the value of all that potential "freaking out?"
Del Jones, in a USA Today article, writes: "To first-time parachuters, the ‘freakout point’ arrives 2 miles above the ground when the plane door opens to a sky of noise, the pressure drops and jumpers are struck with such anxiety that they can hardly breathe."
Jumping out of airplanes, climbing mountains, flying airplanes – what a lot of possibilities for freakout points! Jones goes on to write: "Freakout points don’t require the risk of injury or death, just enough fear to take the breath away, enough that it takes fortitude to keep from backing out. Perhaps the most common freakout point comes with public speaking, and Iron Mountain CEO Richard Reese remembers being drafted early in his career to do a last-minute presentation on a technical subject he knew zero about."
In any risk — in life, in sport, in business — crossing that freakout point will teach us many things, but most importantly it will teach us that we can survive. We also learn to concentrate – a valuable tool in a situation where it seems nearly impossible to focus, a situation where we’d rather scream and run away.
No matter what activity you are engaged in, what can you do to get over your fear, especially of public speaking? What can you do to make yourself cross that freakout point to arrive at self-confidence and strength?
More on Public Speaking and The Value of Freaking Out
"We live in a culture that barely acknowledges and rarely celebrates the arts or artists." Dana Gioia, Chair for the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts
How many writers, artists, scientists can the average American name?
In a speech delivered to the graduating class of Stanford University, Dana Gioia decried the lack of interest in cultural figures (other than pop culture) in America today.
He claims that the cultural entities of today are all for the sake of entertainment. And so ultimately it follows that everything today comes with a price tag. When celebrities appear on radio or TV talk shows, their main, and often only, purpose is to push their book, movie, new TV show, or a new vote.
What has happened to American culture?
More on Communication: Is Our Culture Failing Us?
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. Albert Einstein
A nurse in an intensive care unit for neonatal babies notices something wrong with one of the babies. She can’t pinpoint it exactly, but she immediately urges the doctors to prescribe a course of antibiotics.
The next day, tests show that her recommendation was correct when they revealed a potentially fatal condition.
She doesn’t know exactly how she knew, but her intuition – or her emotional decision — saved the baby.
"The theorists say decision-making is a logical process," writes Jeremy Hardie, former chairman of WH Smith Group, "but new research shows emotion is just as important."
Decision-making is a cognitive process, one which gives us a subconscious choice between logic and emotion. It might not seem that way in the middle of a heated argument or when faced with sudden danger, but the feelings that arise when we make an emotional decision from our "adaptive unconscious" are a subtle and sophisticated form of pattern recognition. These gut reactions, in other words, are a form of thought, and not just a knee-jerk reaction.
What does this emotional decision-making have to do with sales? How important is it for a sales person to pay attention to the first response from a customer? It is crucial for sales people to understand emotional decision-making simply because it explains how the brain works and how decisions (particularly buying decisions) are made. When a young woman walks into a car dealership and sees the shiny red convertible (even though she’d planned on a mid-size sedan), which decision-making process will operate in her mind first?
More on Emotion In Decision-making: Sales
“Stump the Chump” refers to an audience member who may be disruptive or hostile; often expressed through repeated questioning meant to challenge a speaker’s authority and possibly steal the spotlight. Here are some tips on dealing with this demanding dynamic:
1) Keep a very warm, friendly "interface". This allows you to maintain control over your state of being and will keep the rest of the audience on your side.
2) Play the role of "helpful facilitator."
"I am just trying to be as helpful as I can be."
3) Let the person trying to stump you be "the expert".
"Wow, you really know a lot about this!"
4) Engage them with humor and have fun with them.
"Maybe you should be up here delivering this presentation."
"Let's check with Bob. He IS the expert, after all."
5) When the expert starts to take you down into the weeds, get the group to help you out.
"Gee, I'd love to talk more about this. At the same time, I want to make sure that others in the group get what they need from our time together. (To the group) Do we want to dive deeper into this topic right now?" Then the group can be the bad guy, saying no, while you remain the "helpful facilitator."
"Bob, I want to make sure that you get what you need. How about you and I can take this offline?"
6) Operate from the assumption that there is no conflict. My experience has been that conflict will not survive if not given oxygen. By assuming there is conflict, we tend to get into a debate-based mode of communication and thought. That tends to exacerbate the situation.
7) Seek out areas of agreement. Work with the group to outline key ways in which you all agree. “What can we all agree on?” Write down those areas of agreement. At minimum, you will gain a clearer understanding of where your perspectives diverge.
8 ) Let go of the need to be right. After all, do you want to be “right” or do you want to get what you want?
More on How to deal with the "Stump the Chump" dynamic in Public Speaking
How much has technology improved our lives?
Beyond belief! you might say. Complications galore! Hate it! someone else might say. Even before our current electronic revolution, Thoreau had an opinion about the technology of his era:
"Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end."
While none of us would completely do away with the electronics in our lives, the ones surrounding us or sitting on our laps or attached to our ears right at this very minute, we do have to wonder: What have we given up?
We're excited to announce (and join the ranks of) Guy Kawasaki's latest venture Alltop!
Inspired by popurls, Alltop helps you explore your passions by collecting stories from “all the top” sites on the web. You can think of an Alltop site as a “digital magazine rack” of the Internet.
Be sure to check out the top public speaking sites page: http://speaking.alltop.com/
