"What do I do with my cell phone on a sales call?" was a question posed at one of our most recent sales seminars.

It's a good one. Picture this:

You're meeting with a Whale -- your ideal prospect. Something good will inevitably come out of this meeting...if you perform flawlessly. The trust is there. The rapport exists. The information is flowing. Then, suddenly, your phone rings. The vibe is lost.

What role should your cell phone play during a sales meeting?

Some argue that you should leave it in your car to avoid the distraction altogether. Others say having it available to you shows a level of responsiveness that a prospect should appreciate.

We believe that you should have it with you and it ought to be silenced. The reason? To set the definitive next step. You've worked too hard in your sales prospecting efforts to find this sales opportunity. In order to ensure closing the sale, you have no choice but to keep up the momentum!

When it's time to set a follow-up phone call or appointment, you don't want to have to say, "well, Ms. Prospect, I'd love to set the meeting, but I need to go back to my office to check my calendar and call you back." Doing that puts the brakes on your efforts. Instead, you can say, "Let me pull out my iPhone [or blackberry, or whatever], and determine a good time that works for both of us."

Always, always, always silence your phone. And don't set it to vibrate because that will only distract you. Your efforts must be focused -- like a laser -- on your prospect and what he or she wants to accomplish.

What do you think the cell phone should be used for during sales calls?

-@JebBrooks

When making sales presentations, every word counts. That’s because most sales are lost when your lips are moving, not when you’re listening.

That means that when you’re in face-to-face (or phone-to-phone) interactions with prospects and customers, you have to carefully choose every word you use.

I fall victim to wasting words, too. I say “sort of” too much. I guess it’s a way for me to soften my recommendations.

“Our approach is to begin by sort of working to understand your process.”

That sort of adds nothing to the conversation. It’s wasteful and (probably) distracting to some people. I’m working to stop it. We don’t sort of understand your process. We do it. Plain and simple.

I’ve also kept my ears open for the phrases that other salespeople use. Here’s a list of the most common ones I’ve heard during recent observations:

• Stuff: We have addressed stuff like that for clients in many cases.
• Right: The problem you’ve discussed is fairly common among companies like yours. Right?
• At the end of the day: At the end of the day, our solution will fix this problem.
• The Bottom Line: Bottom line is this: We’ll fix the problem you’re facing.
• Key: The key to the problem you’re facing is to do this.
• Like: It’s like almost the same as this other situation I ran across.
• So: So, if you were to describe this, how would you do that?
• Does that make sense?: Here’s a great article about not using that one. As well as some others that waste space.

Are you using these phrases? Or others that waste space? Try recording yourself, or begin paying more attention to what you say. By doing that, you may pick up on some “throw-away” phrases you’ve been using that distract from your message.

The takeaway? Carefully consider the words you use.

@JebBrooks

High IMPACT Salespeople are great storytellers.

It's much easier to tell a story poorly than it is to tell one well. But, if you can master this skill, it will pay you back in spades.

A story is far more persuasive than any canned sales presentation.

After all, it's not that hard to stand in front of prospects and regurgitate facts-and-figures, features-and-benefits, and a litany of data. However, gifted salespeople weave stories around their "presentations" in a way that forces their listeners to lean in and want to hear more.

Top salespeople understand that good stories have four things going for them. They're...

1. Message Delivery Mechanisms: Why are you telling the story? It better drive home a point, otherwise it's a waste of time. A story should deliver a neat package to your listeners that drives its point home. Tell the story, then make your point.

2. Rich with Characters: Interesting characters make stories worth listening to (and more memorable). Think of a great story: You probably remember it because of the people in it.

3. Relatable: People like stories they can relate to. Unbelievable stories aren't as compelling as those that your audience can approach. Talk about things that are universal.

4. Plot-driven: A story where nothing happens is boring. Because no one wants to hear a boring story, don't tell one.

It's important that stories never seem rehearsed. The most interesting stories are the ones their tellers are literally "reliving." That's tough. But it's "sales gold!"

@JebBrooks

Recently, I participated in a study of how organizations are effectively using technology-enabled training. The results got me thinking about new product launches because, interestingly enough, it turns out that a lot of companies use technology to train their salespeople on new products. Of course, that makes a lot of sense. However, there's more to a new product launch than teaching salespeople about features and benefits.

In short: It’s a lot easier for a new product launch to go poorly than it is to meet with success.

The simplest way to find success is to begin the entire process with a straightforward question in mind:

How will this be sold on the street?

Companies sometimes become distracted by the exciting whizbang features or by creating a "hot" marketing campaign. And, too often that comes at the expense of...

• Thinking through how customers will actually experience those very features during their buying process or
• Whether the marketing campaign lines up with the delivery of the offering.

The harsh reality is that -- in most cases -- if you don’t begin the product launch process by considering how a salesperson will actually sell it, the launch will probably fail.

Why? Because the success or failure of a product launch rests squarely on the shoulders of a company's salespeople. They will either make – or break – the success of a new product. And the "making" depends completely on their level of comfort with an offering.

That's because salespeople are an intriguing group of people. At their core, they want to avoid the risk of embarrassment in front of a prospective client. That makes perfect sense: Salespeople rely on the relationships they have with their prospects and customers in order to feed their families! In the mind of a salesperson, there's nothing worse than jeopardizing that relationship...

And, if an organization doesn’t properly consider the feet-on-the-street sales interaction from the VERY beginning of a new product launch, its chances for success are significantly diminished.

So, again, the best way to do that is to ask…

How will our new offering be sold on the street?

Need a good answer? Ask a salesperson.

If salespeople are able to understand how to present a product with the utmost ease and comfort, it will not only be presented, but it will be presented successfully...and sold. If, on the other hand, that level of comfort is missing. Guess what? No surprise...

It won't get sold!

@JebBrooks

Just wanted to offer a quick post about a surprising fact. Recently, I was at a meeting where one of the presenters claimed that at least two hours of every worker's day is spent being disengaged. Disengagement occurs when a worker is not doing whatever they're paid to do at the level they should. The number has some pretty serious implications for the economy.

But, the fact made me wonder, "What does this mean for salespeople whose buyers are disengaged?"

In short, it means presentations, sales calls, and meetings must be totally engaging.

How do yours stack up?

@JebBrooks

Recently, a colleague of mine sent me a link to a blog post that I found quite intriguing. You may too. The concept behind the post is that the strongest B2B salespeople treat sales presentations like the most successful trial lawyers treat a trial.

At first, I was skeptical and didn’t really see how this concept made any sense; however, as I read the post, it started to come together for me. The basis of the post was that salespeople – much like good trial lawyers – must take the complex facts (in the case of salespeople, features and benefits) and make them simple for their audience.

One of the most compelling quotes from the post that ties into this assertion says, “Despite all the high-level sales training being jammed into our heads, we’d still have to learn to translate complex features and benefits into a simple language that everyone could understand.”

This hits home and rings perfectly with our philosophy: street-smart, simple and usable sales training doesn’t need to be high-level theory and complex models. It needs to be easily implementable! There are many out there that believe that the more complex a sales process methodology, the better. My position is that if it’s too complex, it’s not going to be used!

Don’t get me wrong…this post isn’t meant to “plug” our IMPACT Selling methodology. Instead, it’s designed to get you thinking about where you stand regarding complex vs. simple sales processes. You make the call based on your beliefs. However, before you do, check out the blog post:

http://www.simplenomics.com/sales-presentations-like-trial-lawyer/

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The average sales presentation consists of 6-8 features or benefits. Is that good or bad?

Well, when you consider that 24 hours after your presentation, 39% of your prospects remember only one of them, the answer should be very clear. And the fact that 49% of the time they remember something that you didn't bring up at all makes it even more obvious!

Most of us are quite simply overwhelming our prospects with details about things they really aren't interested in!

The truth is that people will buy your product or service for one or two primary reasons. Commonly called dominant buying motives, these are the only real reasons why that prospect would really want to buy your product or service, anyway.

The bottom line? Keep your presentation within the context of what the prospect is specifically interested in, and target it to the primary dominant buying motives. Don't overload your presentation with features and benefits. Pick only the ones that precisely pertain to the primary dominant buying motives your prospect has.

What does your prospect want to hear about - every imaginable bell and whistle that your product offers or how they can use the product to achieve their goals or solve their specific problems?

Chances are you already know the answer. But if you're like many salespeople, you still may not be able to resist the temptation to keep talking until your prospect's eyes glaze over with confusion and boredom.

My advice: focus. Find out what your prospect wants to accomplish with their purchase, what their biggest concerns are, what's most important to them...and when you make your recommendation talk ONLY about those things.

How do you know what to focus on? That's the purpose of asking questions - to give your prospect the opportunity to TELL you what matters to them. The key is in how well you listen. If you ask probing questions and listen to your prospect's answers you'll be able to build a sales presentation that focuses exclusively on what they want most.

Here's a harsh truth that will make you a better salesperson: Most people don't really care much about your product.

People care more about their problems, their needs and their desires. Your product may be the perfect solution to their problem; it may be the exact thing your prospect has always wanted or needed...But your prospect still doesn't care nearly as much about the product as they do about finding the solution or the feeling of satisfaction ...so make sure your presentation is about your prospect's use and enjoyment of the product not about the product itself.

The word pitch offends me. I hope you'll help me eliminate it.

Why?

Would you want to get pitched? When I hear that word, I'm confident some prospect is about to suffer from an attack of sleaze.

Anyone in sales knows that the opportunity to meet (in person or over the phone) with a prospect or customer is a rare treat. Give it the respect it deserves. Don't demean your prospect by hurling an unending stream of canned or memorized words at them. Don't pitch. Instead, carefully choose your questions, observations and tailor your presentation. Then remember to reserve any recommendation until you:

• Understand exactly what your prospect wants and
• Are certain you can provide it.

Stop calling a professional sales presentation a "pitch." I, for one, believe that word is one of the reasons our profession has a bad reputation. Help me eliminate it.

If other professions want to continue to use the word (PR, advertising, etc.), that's their problem. Let them suffer the fallout. Frankly, they already have.

As a professional speaker I was enthralled by an interesting column by Kathleen Parker this week. It dealt with Hillary Clinton (her politics aside) and what a totally insensitive and ineffectual speaker she is.

The title? The Rev. Hillary Has A Tin Ear! The column goes at great length to describe how Hillary “panders – badly – to her audiences.” It goes on further to say she even tried a “fake southern accent” and that she doesn’t understand “tone, voice and cadence.” Again, politics aside, I agree with Ms. Parker.

Marshall McLuhan was right so many years ago when he said that “the medium is the message.” How does that relate to you? Salespeople, no matter what they sell, can’t pander, be grating or lack the proper tone, voice or cadence. Be aware of and sensitive to that.

Ultimately, this flaw might get in the way of Hillary’s Presidential aspirations. I guarantee that it will also get in the way of your sale if you’re not careful.

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