You have landed a meeting with a prospective buyer… The floor is yours…

The big question – Should I present or ask questions?

Salespeople always have this dilemma when they get into a presentation or a conversation with a prospect. Salespeople are conditioned to believe that they have to go and do a smashing presentation by talking about the capabilities either in terms of their functionalities when it comes to solutions or their capacities in terms of services. There are many situations where we believed that we did an awesome job but we figured out that the prospect began avoiding us or told us the usual: You guys are awesome but we don’t have anything now that matches what you have to offer, we will get back to you when we believe it is the right time”. Why is it happening, can we look at it from the other side of the table.

Don’t assume the status quo

All companies even though they may be in the same industry are not the same. The issues faced by them even though they are in the same industry are not the same. The solutions that they have used to solve these issues in spite of having faced the same issues are not the same. Hence it will be extremely tough for them to believe that what has worked for someone else is going to work for them too. 

All companies will not prioritize the same problem in a similar way. Ask questions, find out the impact and then sell. #salespresentations Click To Tweet

Be cognizant of a few buyers in the decision cycle

Then comes the next dimension, multiple buyers taking a joint decision. As we saw in the multiple buyer’s blog, each one of them are going to look at the same problem from their point of view. People are going to have multiple perspectives when they would make their decisions to solve the business problems.

Have a point of reference to differentiate

So, unless we have a point of reference, it will not be possible for us to connect our solution from the prospects problem point of view. If we ourselves are not able to connect, we will have to leave it in the minds of our prospect to decide how our product or solution will suit from their problem point of view. That is a big red flag.

Understand the types of multiple buyers and have a point of reference before you begin selling. #salespresentations Click To Tweet

Lack of time to diagnose

Now the next dimension:  In an outbound situation, the prospect gives us a time to speak because they liked anything in your stimuli – Your Pitch. They thought they will check us out. Now there is a fair chance that they don’t even know what their issues are. We end up selling the medicine without telling them what disease is this medicine for.

Ask questions.. Find the disease (pain point) and then sell the medicine.. #salespresentations Click To Tweet

Presence of Competition

The next dimension, in terms of an inbound situation – they felt compelled to speak to us because someone known to them asked them to check us out. Alternately, they found us in one of the searches where our page was in between SERP 1 and SERP 10. Obviously, they felt we were a good company and wanted to check us out. It goes without saying that every inbound lead comes in with at least three to four more competitors as the prospects would have sent their enquiry to the other few companies that were listed along with us.

How to find out what is going on in the buyers mind?

You have to find out what your buyer is thinking and also find out how they are looking to solve the problem. You can then move them towards the buy button. You can do that by asking them the right open-ended questions?

• Find their point of reference
• Explore how your functionalities will help solve the prospects pain points
• Make them visualize how your solution will help them solve the problem they have
• Make them understand the importance of engaging with you
• Move them towards the buy button.

Make the buyers feel the pain point, make them visualize the solution and move them towards the buy button. #salespresentation Click To Tweet

Take a look at your existing presentation process and think about it from a buyers point of view. What can you do to make them open up with you? What is missing in your presentation process?

Make a list of those and begin completing those sections. This would get you 1) a good sense of what your buyers want and 2) a high sense of recall in your buyer’s mind as they would remember the conversation with you when compared to the presentations that the other salespeople have given.

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