Sales Blog with Professional Sales Tips

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Summary: A key ingredient to stir into all of your sales techniques is creativity; it will make you more effective and your job more interesting.

I’m going to bet that if you’ve been in sales for more than a few years you’re probably a little boring to your customers and prospects. You may also be down on your energy level. This matters because customers and prospects respond positively to energy and creativity.

I was talking recently with a very young and green salesperson that works for a Fortune 500 company in a relational sales position. His company has been trying to get an appointment with the VP of a very large prospect for years. Within six months of being assigned to this prospect he had an appointment with the targeted VP. How? The VP gave as the reason for not seeing this salesperson that half of his office was out with the flu. Two days later the salesperson delivered to the VP’s office three certificates for flu shots with a note that said, “I’m not going to let something as simple as the flu keep us from meeting.” One week later the appointment was set and the VP told him, “Every time I was told someone else was out with the flu, I thought of you.”

Was this technique a little corny and maybe even aggressive? It may have been, but the new salesperson correctly calculated that he had nothing to lose and that the traditional techniques obviously were not working. This is but one example of a million new and fresh ideas that you can use when selling. Customers and prospects know all the old and tired sales techniques; try something new! Climb out of your box. Think of your customers and prospects as sleeping beauties that you need to wake up. You don’t want a competitor to be the handsome prince that kisses them and wakes them up.

An added benefit of introducing some novel thinking into your sales techniques is that it can make your job more interesting. Do you think the salesperson had some adrenalin pumping when he delivered the flu shot certificates to the VP’s assistant? Of course he did, and that’s what can make sales exciting.

Get back in the game. Amp your energy level up and introduce some fresh and off-the-beaten-path ideas with your customers and prospects. It won’t be easy and will probably scare you a little at first, but it will increase your sales and make your job more fun.

To receive this sales tips blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

Summary: Even though Microsoft’s PowerPoint presentation software controls the majority of the market, there are other products to consider.

Just like most areas where Microsoft competes, they dominate in presentation software with 90% of the market, so competition is fragmented. Below I’ve listed some of the better known product alternatives and an enhancement to PowerPoint. Please keep in mind that poor presentation skills won’t be remedied with different presentation software tools (see my other posts on using PowerPoint).

1. Ovation by Adobe is a $99 enhancement to PowerPoint. I tried this product and found that it can provide some animation beyond what is available in PowerPoint. The real standout feature is the ability to include moving backgrounds. For the most part it doesn’t really provide animation that is significantly sexier than what is possible with PowerPoint. At $99 the investment is not that substantial however.
2. Google has just rolled out a competitor to PowerPoint called Google Presentation. This is available for free and if you know Google you know that they will limit features to achieve ease of operation and that is exactly what they have done here (i.e., no sound, video or animation capabilities). This is a very easy tool to use with the strongest feature being the ease in which you can share and store presentations on the Internet. Google is not really trying to play nice with Microsoft when it comes to this product; you can import PowerPoint presentations but you can’t export from Google Presentation in PowerPoint format. This will become a problem if you need to share presentations and the recipient isn’t in the Google fold. This one is worth trying because it’s free and you’ll never have to worry about upgrading software again because it’s all online.
3. If you have an Apple computer you know that they make a competitor to PowerPoint called Keynote. This product is only $79 and has Apple’s customary outstanding graphic capabilities. There are features on Keynote that will probably show up on PowerPoint someday. The only big negative is that the audience for this product is limited to those with Apple computers.

4. If you hate Microsoft, love PowerPoint and don’t want to spend any money, then you need to go to openoffice.org and download their free competitor to PowerPoint that has essentially the same look and feel of the older versions of PowerPoint. This product is an Open Source project that is contributed to by Sun and a host of volunteer coders.

You can opt for different presentation software, but at the end of the day please remember that it is the presenter that will have the greatest impact on any presentation, regardless of the software used.

To receive this sales tips blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

Summary: There is a quiet revolution going on in corporate America. People are beginning to protest against Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.

I think it’s safe to say that most people think of PowerPoint as the presentation instead of just a tool to help them give a presentation. Are the really dull presentations a result of PowerPoint or is it the person using PowerPoint? It’s both, but the majority of the problem is usually with the presenter. PowerPoint lets you get lazy with presenting because you can simply read your presentation from the screen. As a result, a cycle of declining speaking skills and increasing audience annoyance ensues.

Below are some ideas for using PowerPoint (or any presentation software for that matter) more effectively:

The latest trend is to use little or no text whatsoever on PowerPoint presentations. By using graphics that match the speaker’s content, very limited (or no) text and good presentation skills by the presenter, it is possible to put together a great presentation. Warning: this technique requires more preparation than using a PowerPoint laden with text.

How about taking a course on presenting in order to sharpen your presentation skills? Relying on your PowerPoint presentation to be your presentation never works. We’ve all seen great presenters give outstanding presentations with really bad PowerPoints. If the presenter is a terrible speaker, the best PowerPoint in the business won’t pull things out of the fire. Get to the root cause and quit blaming PowerPoint for all your problems.

How about not using any presentation software whatsoever. What a radical idea! Flip charts, audience participation, speaker notes and role playing are wonderful and refreshing substitutes for PowerPoint, not to mention tried and true ones. Think of the best presenters you have ever seen. Did any of them use PowerPoint? This technique also requires more preparation by the speaker.

A good starting point for improving your PowerPoint presentations is to use better PowerPoint creation techniques. Let me get you started by listing some basic rules of thumb for crafting better PowerPoints.

Limit number of bullets to six per slide.
Cool it on the animation; less is more.
Lose all the fancy headers and footers.
Keep consistent and large font sizes and types.
Use no cartoon characters to depict people; only use photographs of people. Generally limit your use of all cartoon type graphics.

Audiences are tired of PowerPoint. But what they are really tired of is poor presenters. Creating a professional PowerPoint presentation and using good presentation skills are all under your control.

To receive this sales tips blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

Summary: Fifty years ago salespeople were taught “closing techniques” as if that’s all there was to making a sale.

I get a migraine every time I hear a salesperson use a classic closing technique that is ill timed and inappropriate. I get an even bigger migraine when I hear someone teaching these techniques to an unsuspecting group of new sales recruits. Classic closing techniques are outdated. Not only are they outdated but customers and prospects can see them coming a mile away. Please remember that most purchasers, decision makers and buyers have seen more of these techniques than you have.

Below are some of my not-so-favorite classic closing techniques (I’m not making these up):

Companion Close – the salesperson actually sells to the person with the decision maker.

Compliment Close – the salesperson flatters the prospect into submission.

Distraction Close – the salesperson catches the prospect in a weak moment.

Doubt Close – the salesperson shows the prospect that they doubt the product and lets the prospect disagree.

Hurry Close – the salesperson goes fast to keep the prospect from thinking too much.

Selective-deafness Close – the salesperson responds only to what they want to hear.

Shame Close – the salesperson shames the prospect into buying.

Treat Close – the salesperson convinces the prospect that they should give themselves a treat.

If you view the sales process as a series of steps you don’t need heavy handed closing. The final step of the sales process should be just another step to completion. This is why I like to refer to the final step in the sales process as finishing the sale versus closing the sale. If you’ve done all your homework and connected all the links in the sales process, the closing should be a non-event, sometimes needing virtually no input from you at all.

To receive this sales tips blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

Summary: A recent survey of employees found that the majority of sales and marketing employees question their manager’s leadership abilities.

SkillSoft recently completed a survey that questioned all levels of employees in IT, sales and marketing, customer service, finance, HR, etc. regarding the competency of their boss. This survey is interesting because it is one of the few that includes sales and marketing employees. Below are some of the more interesting findings.

65% of all employees (regardless of department) felt that their boss was a competent leader.

30% of all employees (regardless of department) felt their boss was not qualified for their job.

49% of sales and marketing employees felt their manager was a good leader.

While almost 2/3’s of all employees felt that their boss was a capable leader, less than half of sales and marketing employees gave the thumbs up to their manager’s leadership abilities. How can we explain the lower scores for sales management?

1. A good salesperson does not always translate to a good sales manager. There are many good salespeople that are promoted into management based on their sales budget attainment and not their leadership abilities. This is unfortunate because the employer loses a good salesperson and simultaneously creates management problems when the wrong person is promoted.

2. Sales positions are normally held by employees that are younger than the average age of all the employees at a company. Younger people tend to be more cynical about their manager. As we get older we become more accepting of our manager’s shortcomings and our own.

3. A sales position almost always carries with it a quota or budget. The sales manager has a budget that is the total of those for his or her salespeople. Sales managers frequently find themselves in crunch situations on their sales budget and subsequently apply pressure to individual salespeople.

Sales management can be a tough and thankless job. It looks good from the outside but once you become a sales manager you realize that you are responsible for everyone’s sales budget. Furthermore, the new sales manager quickly finds that they can only indirectly influence individual salespersons’ efforts and abilities. The next time you see your sales manager give ‘em a hug; it’s not as easy as they probably make it look.

To receive this sales tips blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer