Communication Made Simple - Get to Your Point Quickly!

Once your reps have mastered the above concept, interaction with their prospects will become markedly more productive. It's a lesson I've learned the hard way: When I was first starting out, I was taught a sales process that had me asking lots of questions to avoid giving the buyer too much information about my proposed solution. My sales meetings would typically take 60 to 90 minutes, yet by the end of them, my target buyer sometimes had no idea what it was I trying to sell them or how much it would cost.

You see, my training dictated I first gather as much information as possible, and then bring it back to my team for a discussion. At that point, we would figure out the right way to deliver a proposal. Not only did this process seem to irritate some of my prospective clients, I found it to be a huge waste of my time.

Yes, I am a proponent of asking good questions. But I'm not an advocate of dancing around questions made by the client in order to hide what your solution might really be. Direct questions deserve direct responses. Your reps prefer that when dealing with a potential buyer, and they desire the same kind of treatment in return. Why wait to the end to give them the bottom line?

I advocate starting most presentations by stating the meeting's objective. This seems to disarm the buyer, but it also sets a tone of candor with them. Direct communication is often reciprocated by the client. The benefit of this approach is that it's easy to determine how serious the prospective buyer is right from the start.

Company executives tend to make up their minds in less than five minutes. If that is true, then why wait to the last five minutes of a 90-minute presentation to tell them what the bottom line is? Most likely they have already tuned out of your presentation or have left the meeting because "something else came up."

I think of myself as a straight shooter, and I respond best to people who try to sell me in that fashion. Salespeople who are direct with me may not always win the business, but they will know where they stand after a short meeting. Direct conversations will likely lead to more constructive sales engagements for both parties.

Once your reps have mastered the above concept, interaction with their prospects will become markedly more productive. It's a lesson I've learned the hard way: When I was first starting out, I was taught a sales process that had me asking lots of questions to avoid giving the buyer too much information about my proposed solution. My sales meetings would typically take 60 to 90 minutes, yet by the end of them, my target buyer sometimes had no idea what it was I trying to sell them or how much it would cost.

You see, my training dictated I first gather as much information as possible, and then bring it back to my team for a discussion. At that point, we would figure out the right way to deliver a proposal. Not only did this process seem to irritate some of my prospective clients, I found it to be a huge waste of my time.

Yes, I am a proponent of asking good questions. But I'm not an advocate of dancing around questions made by the client in order to hide what your solution might really be. Direct questions deserve direct responses. Your reps prefer that when dealing with a potential buyer, and they desire the same kind of treatment in return. Why wait to the end to give them the bottom line?

I advocate starting most presentations by stating the meeting's objective. This seems to disarm the buyer, but it also sets a tone of candor with them. Direct communication is often reciprocated by the client. The benefit of this approach is that it's easy to determine how serious the prospective buyer is right from the start.

Company executives tend to make up their minds in less than five minutes. If that is true, then why wait to the last five minutes of a 90-minute presentation to tell them what the bottom line is? Most likely they have already tuned out of your presentation or have left the meeting because "something else came up."

I think of myself as a straight shooter, and I respond best to people who try to sell me in that fashion. Salespeople who are direct with me may not always win the business, but they will know where they stand after a short meeting. Direct conversations will likely lead to more constructive sales engagements for both parties.