No Dumping

A common and often fatal approach that many salespeople use is feature dumping - delivering a variety of qualities about a product or service in hopes that a prospect will hear enough to decide to buy. It's easy, it's an ego boost (salespeople love to showcase their product knowledge), and it seems logical that the more features a prospect hears about, the more he'll be convinced to buy.

In actuality, bombarding prospects with features and benefits forces the prospect to figure out what applies to him.

There are two questions that every buyer wants answered: "What's so special?" and "Why should I care?" Your salespeople need to create clear, concise bottom-line benefits and memorize them until they roll off of their tongues. Each benefit must be tied specifically to the prospect's needs, which requires up-front work.

ANITA SIRIANNI
ANSIR International
www.anitasirianni.com

Roll Tape

A short video can be worth a thousand PowerPoint slides. Depending upon how it's used, video can set the stage, eliminate barriers, allow salespeople to bring people into the meeting who are unable to be there in person, neatly segue to related topics, and succinctly summarize key points.

Video gives everyone at the meeting the best view of the subject at hand. Everyone shares the same view and has equal access to the information.

Video provides staying power. A copy can be left behind to be watched again later, or it can be screened for those who couldn't attend the original presentation - an important feature in this era of having to win over buying teams.

Putting together a compelling video is easier than you might think, and it's quite affordable - plan to spend anywhere from $1,000 to $2,000 per minute of finished video depending on how many bells and whistles you want.

ROBERT M. GOODMAN, AUTHOR
Editing Digital Video
(McGraw-Hill, 2002)

Listen Up!

Most of us drifted into sales because we are good talkers, good negotiators, good persuaders, and because we are comfortable doing all of these things with strangers. We constantly work on developing better ways to say what we want, but what I notice getting lost on most salespeople is the art of listening.

Teach your salespeople to listen enthusiastically. Encourage them to work on non-verbal feedback - facial expressions and body language - and maintaining eye contact while listening.

The term "noteworthy" is appropriate for a sales interaction. By writing down the main points of a conversation, your sales reps not only show prospects that they are listening and care, they also show that what the customer is saying is worthy of making note of it. If they write down key points word-for-word, they will have a powerful tool to use later when closing the sale.

GERRY LAYO
Sales Coach International
www.gerrylayo.com