Heavy Hitter Sales Blog

How Ronald Reagan Would Change Your Corporate Presentation

After reviewing hundreds of corporation presentations over the past five years, I can honestly say that they all are basically the same. You could almost take slides from one company’s presentation and insert them in another, and no one would even notice. They are all fact-based infomercials that approach customers with the same message—we’re the industry leader with a state-of-the-art solution that partners with our customers. The problem is all the competitors are making the exact same claims. As a result, nothing unique is communicated. Therefore, the real question to ask is, "How can you differentiate your sales presentation?"

The answer to this question may be found by studying "The Great Communicator," the late former President Ronald Reagan. In 2000, Ronald Reagan was ranked as the eighth-best president in U.S. history according to a survey of 78 historians. It's not surprising that he was ranked behind national heroes such as Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, the most surprising part of the survey is that he was ranked as the most underrated president of all time. What made this president so unique was his ability to communicate and persuade.

So, how would Reagan change your sales presentation?

1. Reagan would add a great "cowcatcher."
Most people associate the term "cowcatcher" with the metal grill on the front of a locomotive. However, "cowcatcher" has an entirely different meaning in the entertainment industry. It's a show's opening moments in which the performers try to grab your attention and cause you to stop and look.

Reagan, the Hollywood star, knew the importance of a cowcatcher. Before and during his presidency, he wrote more than 600 radio addresses by himself in his own handwriting. They were not the work of a team of speechwriters. Perhaps the most impressive part of every radio address was the opening cowcatcher, the first sentences of every program. Some examples:

"It has been said a baby-sitter is a teenager acting like a parent while the parent is out acting like a teenager."

"How much do you miss dinosaurs? Would your life be richer if those giant pre-historic flying lizards occasionally settled on your front lawn?"

"It sometimes seems that we can get more emotionally aroused over mistreatment of animals than we can if the victims are human."

The best corporate sales presentations start with a great cowcatcher. A great cowcatcher engages the mind, appeals to the imagination and helps the presenter gain credibility.

2. Reagan would use a captivating "hook."
Following the cowcatcher, you need a "hook." Now that the listeners' interest is piqued, you need to hook them on why they should use your product. Your best hook is to tell them stories. For example, lets take a look at how Reagan opened with a provocative cowcatcher and then hooked the audience with a story about baby seal hunts:

"It sometimes seems that we can get more emotionally aroused over mistreatment of animals than we can if the victims are human. A few weeks ago, a writer in the Los Angeles Times did an article on the 1978 Canadian baby seal hunt. One line in the article was very thought provoking: 'If seal pups were as ugly as lobsters, their harvest would go unnoticed.' Accompanying his article was a photo that proved his point. It was a snow white baby seal with its black nose and round eyes looking like something you’d put in the nursery for children to cuddle."

The sales presentation should include six to eight slides of how specific customers are using the products, the operational results that have been improved, and the financial impact on the bottom line. In addition, it should include a quote from a customer whose name and title the audience can identify with psychologically. For example, include a quote from your customer's CFO when presenting to a financial department. Finally, this section should have some eye-catching graphics that tie the whole story together and “hook” the prospect.

3. Reagan would incorporate mental imagery.
It's not enough to say that to stand out; you have to be different. Rather, you need a more sophisticated, indirect approach that differentiates your solution in the minds of customers. You can't tell customers you're unique, different, and one of a kind. You must demonstrate it to them, starting with the imagery of the corporate presentation. Reagan naturally employed mental imagery to psychologically engage his audience.

"It’s nightfall in a strange town a long way from home. I'm watching the lights come on from my hotel room window on the thirty-fifth floor. I'm afraid you are in for a little bit of philosophizing if you don’t mind. Some of these broadcasts have to be put together while I'm out on the road traveling what I call the mashed potato circuit. In a little while I’ll be speaking to a group of very nice people in a banquet hall.”

These two sentences from one of his radio addresses help create a personal receptive state where the audience is open to his thoughts. The words, "nightfall," "strange town," "long way from home," provide the mental imagery that enable the listeners to be quickly transported to Reagan’s place and mood (in an unfamiliar place a long way from home).

The second sentence is an "operator" on the first sentence. It further defines where he is physically and forces the listeners to adjust their viewpoint to the 35th floor of a hotel room. Both of these sentences are "verifiable statements." Most everyone has experienced being a long way from home and feeling homesick. Most everyone has been in a high-rise building. As listeners receive information, they check with their past experiences to verify the statement's accuracy. Assuming the listeners have been homesick before, this statement is agreed to and considered truthful. The honesty of the statement is also passed on to the presenter. These types of verifiable statements enable the presenter to quickly gain credibility and rapport.

The creators of almost all of the hundreds of presentations I have reviewed over the past couple of years come not from sales but from marketing departments. Unfortunately, these people usually have had little interaction with customers and no direct sales experience. They assume that customers think like they do and that the selection process is completely unbiased. Therefore, their presentation is a point-by-point list of reasons why a customer should select their product. As a result, the corporate sales presentation provides little mental imagery. The presentations are slide after slide of boring bullet points of information, with very few graphics to break up the monotony. This is the true definition of “death by PowerPoint.”

4. Reagan would employ "softeners."
Preapologizing is one technique for developing a receptive state with an audience. This is one form of a "softener." A softener eases listeners into the next thought or can be used to set expectations. Usually, Reagan's radio addresses discussed the economy or issues of foreign and domestic interest. When Reagan said, "I'm afraid you are in for a little bit of philosophizing if you don't mind," he is signaling that the intent of this week's message is different. He's adjusting the listeners' frame of mind from being issue based to being more reflective and introspective. Basically, he's telling them to relax a little.

He's on the road, about to give a speech on what he calls "the mashed potato circuit." How do you interpret that statement? Speaking to a group of people in the heartland of America is quite different from speaking to people from the East or West Coast. What would you have inferred if he had called it the "steak and wine circuit"? Perhaps that he considers these dinner speeches less than important and feels he should be performing his "real" job of leading the land. There's an underlying meaning that he is trying to communicate. However, the interpretation of the statement is dependent upon each listener's viewpoint, and there is no right or wrong answer. Regardless of the answer, listeners empathize with the position he is in.

Too many sales presentations are built upon black or white, all-or-nothing statements. These statements force the customer to either completely accept or reject the premise or argument being made. In reality, customers reject far more statements than they accept and this lessens rapport. Therefore, the best sales presentations incorporate softeners to lessen the likelihood of rejection. For example, instead of listing "We provide the most state-of-the-art technology" on a bullet point, you should use "Our technology offers these advantages."

5. Reagan would be sure to include some humor.
When people laugh, at some level they agree with you. Humor helps relieve the stress that is inherent to all sales calls. Like a seasoned salesperson, Reagan had a knack for making pithy comebacks that rendered his opponents' political body blows ineffective, thus allowing him to escape his position on the ropes. In the 1984 presidential debate, age figured to be a big issue since challenger Walter Mondale was 17 years younger than Reagan. To counteract potential criticism that the oldest man to ever serve as president was too old for the job, Reagan said, “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience.”

Every salesperson should follow Reagan's lead and use humor during the corporate sales presentation. It shows you don't take yourself too seriously. If you tell jokes, the punch line should always be self-deprecating and at your expense. Remember, everyone is somewhat nervous during a sales call and humor lightens the mood and helps everyone relax.

Like every salesman, President Reagan had a product to sell. As a politician, his product was not only his policies but, equally important: himself. While each of his radio addresses had a political purpose, he also wanted to deliver a very powerful message that was camouflaged beneath the content of his story. Similar to the typical sales presentation, he wanted to use this special moment to motivate his customer to buy.

Click here to learn more about Ronald Reagan’s communication skills.

Improve You Sales Call Memory to Strengthen Your Sales Intuition

The average person only remembers about forty major events of their entire life. However, Jill Rose has a very unique talent. She can remember every detail about every day of her life. As a result, memory researchers at the University California at Irvine have been studying Jill's memory recall for the past eight years to understand how her memory works.

      

As salespeople, we spend most of our time trying to predict the behavior, intentions, attitudes, and feelings of our customers. In essence, the goal of every salesperson is to be able to anticipate the future. The "tool" you use to accomplish this is your "sales intuition." Memory plays a fundamental role in determining the strength of your sales intuition. Your ability to store more sales call experiences in your memory will actually strengthen your sales intuition. With this goal in mind, here are six principles to help improve your sales call memory:

      

Sensory information. During the sales call, consciously gather as much information as possible from your sight, sound, and touch senses. A vivid event is more likely to be memorized than a dull one, and the more sensory information that is incorporated into your memories, the higher your likelihood of recording it.

      

Association. Thoughts and experiences are more readily recalled when they are linked to a specific association. A very simple association would be the success or failure of the call. The association may be further defined by the customer's technical and business requirements or their objections to purchasing your product.

      

Specificity. The persistence of a memory is directly related to the precision of details that are input at the time of the experience. During a sales call, you may even want to tell yourself that some information is important and is not to be forgotten.

      

Unique events. Many sales calls are free-flowing events that lack a strict organization of facts. Therefore, it is easier to remember any unusual and unique aspects of a sales call that stand out from the ordinary and mundane.

    

First and last. Most salespeople are quick to remember how a sales call began (the big opening) and how it ended (the grand finale). This is a natural characteristic of memory, whereby we tend to remember the information that is presented first and last more than the details in between. This particularly applies to longer sales calls, more than an hour. One way to help remember all of the in-between information is to mentally break the sales call into smaller segments (or chunks) either by time, presenter, or topic of discussion.

    

The good, the bad, and the ugly. Be forewarned, your brain has been trained to block out unpleasant images. However, it is critical that all information during a sales call, both good and bad, be stored.

    

Never forget, how something is remembered will determine how much is remembered.

Selling in a Recession: The Best Recession Sales Strategy

 

I have no doubt that our economy is already in a recession. Whether or not they’ll admit it, the Federal Reserve’s recent actions surely prove this as well. However, I would like to offer two of my own economic indicators that truly reflect the dismal state of the economy.

1.    In my recent conversations with sales leaders across all industries (technology, finance, manufacturing, etc.) there is a foreboding sense of gloom about the coming months. In most cases, they tell me that sales are down or flat since January. Regardless of their past successes, they feel saddled with annual quotas they will be unable to achieve.

2.    Over the past ninety days an ever increasing number of VPs of sales and sales executives have contacted me because they have lost their jobs through “reorganizations”. They are panic-stricken they won’t find work. For them the old adage applies, “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job, a depression is when you lose yours.”

Selling in a recession is not only difficult, it’s downright scary. Knowing how to appeal to the “Bully with the Juice” is a mandatory strategy in tough times like these because even though you may win the selection process, you still haven’t won the business.

Who is the Bully with the Juice? The Bully with the Juice is the financial decision maker who will ultimately approve the purchase. It’s the person who controls the company’s purse strings. He could be the CFO, VP of finance, VP of purchasing, or even the president. Unfortunately, this person has the economy on his mind and is less likely to approve spending money more than ever.

There are many different ways to classify people involved in the selection process during the sales cycle including title, influence, and orientation (technical, business or financial). Another interesting characterization is a person’s insistence that things be done his way. This is called being a “bully.”

A bully will get his way at any and all costs. Being a bully is not necessarily a negative term, nor does it mean that the person is physically intimidating. It is simply the description of people who will tenaciously fight for their cause.

Another concept by which people can be measured is if they have “juice.” Simply put, juice is leadership, authority, and charisma. During the selection process you will encounter bullies and evaluators with varying degrees of juice. However, only one person within the customer’s organization can be the Bully with the Juice. Even after the vendor selection has been made, releasing the funds must be approved by the ultimate decision-maker, the Bully with the Juice. Single-handedly, he imparts his own will on the selection process and will approve or deny the purchase to be made.

The Bully with the Juice is the company’s equivalent of emperor Caesar. Only he can give his thumb up or down on the life-or-death decision to spend the company’s money. So even though you have won the evaluation and been assured that a purchase will be made, you are actually in the most critical part of the sales process. You must win the approval of the Bully with the Juice.

Some people believe that the economy has changed the way products are purchased. People will argue that some purchases are truly made by committee without a Bully with the Juice. While a committee does put more fingerprints of accountability on the product selection, behind every committee (and its creation) is a bully who has the juice. In addition, every committee has to present its recommendation to someone, and that person is the Bully with the Juice.

There are four important rules regarding the Bully who has the Juice. First, if you cannot accurately determine who the Bully with Juice is in your deal and none exists, be prepared for no decision to be made. It takes a Bully with the Juice to make a major purchase happen. This is a reality in today’s economy. Second, if there is a bully with the juice in your deal and this person will not meet with you, always assume they are aligned with someone else or are against the purchase from being made at all. Therefore, the deal is lost. Third, if a Bully with the Juice does exist but you aren’t able to identify the person, be prepared to lose. You are in a position of extreme risk because you have no idea which economic decision-maker you must win-over. Finally and most importantly, you MUST meet with the Bully with the Juice as early as possible during the selection process! This is the only way to know whether or not a deal really exists.

Salespeople are constantly placed in an environment where they must differentiate themselves and their product from other attention-getting solutions. Under these circumstances, the salesperson’s job is to create a relationship with detractors as well as supporters. Ultimately, there is one person who makes the final decision and truly matters. In today’s economic malaise, it is the Bully with the Juice who reigns supreme.

Read more about the Bully with the Juice...

What's Wrong with Sales Training Today

Almost all sales training programs today share the same fundamental flaw. None explain what is truly at the heart of all sales: how to build relationships between people, how salespeople incorporate the elements of human behavior into their strategy, and how to say the “right” words at the “right” time to persuade customers to buy. They don’t offer help where help is needed most--how to deal with the humanness of your customers and the internal politics of decision making.
   
The existing training methodologies do not explain or fully take into account the human characteristics of the people who actually make the purchase decision. They concentrate on the logical and procedural aspects of the sales cycle. In short, they offer frameworks that are limited to the “tangible” processes of the sales cycle. These may include the basic questions a salesperson commits to memory, such as, “What is your budget?” and “What is your time frame?” Other programs emphasize the business benefits and financial justification of the salesperson’s solution. They explain how to create a return-on-investment (ROI) model in order to show customers how much money they will save by selecting their product. However, every company supplies their own ROI and extols their unique benefits. Therefore, how do you stand out from the pack?

Somehow, “successful” sales training has become associated with a thick binder of material the salesperson lugs home from the class (never to open again). The classroom experience is based upon rote memorization of facts. There is very little interaction, exercises, or meaningful conversation about the difficult “real-world” obstacles that need to be overcome. The training classes are pre-packaged sessions that are taught the same way over and over again regardless of the audience’s unique situation. The goal is get through the material, not to learn how and where to win (and the skills needed to do it). When in reality, every training experience should be a one of a kind unique experience because every company occupies a different position in the competitive landscape.

   

Most importantly, today’s customers are smarter and savvier than ever. Technology has become a way of life. Our cars, appliances, and recreational toys have become computerized tools. Via the Internet customers can research products, prices, and opinions. Collectively, this has raised the level of sophistication (and skepticism) of the customers we must converse with and sell to. Today, the balance of power is definitely in the hands of buyers and the situation will only continue to get worse. Unfortunately, most training programs assume customers are the same as they were ten or twenty years ago.

   

Your competitors have not sat idly by either. They’ve educated themselves about your products and sales tactics, and they’re more focused on defeating you than ever. Fortunately, they still believe in the use of brute force and think the best way to defeat you is by frontal attack, when in reality, winning over the hearts and minds of customers carries the day.

   

For all of these reasons, a new generation of sales training is needed. Sales training that understands the new generation of smart buyers, acknowledges competitive realities, and offers entirely new strategies to influence the decision making process.

How to Use Intuition to Become a Heavy Hitter

I'm very excited about the four page article on the Heavy Hitter Sales Philosophy in the current edition of  Selling Power Magazine. The article, titled "How to Use Intuition to Become a Heavy Hitter," truly captures the essence of my philosophy and the importance of the human nature of sales. Click here to read the entire article. Here's a short excerpt:

"This quest for predictability lies at the core of most sales training and sales automation efforts.  Sales training almost always involves the creation of a process or the development of specific skills required to drive a process.  Similarly, CRM (originally called “Sales Force Automation” in imitation of “Factory Floor Automation”) is almost always concerned with gathering data that will make the sales process more quantifiable and hence more predictable.

Unfortunately, the quest for sales predictability is quixotic, because selling and buying are very human activities that are manifestations of very human emotions.  The core of a sales rep’s work consists of four, essentially unquantifiable activities: building relationships, understanding how others think, predicting future behavior, and persuading customers to think differently.  From this perspective, the attempt to build a predictable, automate-able “sales process” is as misguided as a geeky engineering student trying to build a computer program that will tell him exactly what to say in order to get a date with a popular cheerleader."

Selling Power Magazine Interview (part 2)

Selling Power Magazine Video Interview (part 2)

My Interview on "Sales Warfare Strategies" with Gerhard Gschwandtner, founder and publisher of Selling Power Magazine, can be seen here.

Aristotle's Advice for Salespeople Today

Twenty-four hundred years ago, Aristotle described the three elements needed to move an audience--logos, pathos, and ethos--the intellectual appeal, the emotional appeal, and the speaker’s character and charismatic appeal. These classifications are just as applicable for today’s salespeople as they were back then. In today’s competitive marketplace, where little difference exists between products, Aristotle would advise salespeople to employ not only logos, but more importantly pathos and ethos to persuade today’s customer to buy.

Read the entire article 

What Would Ronald Reagan Do? (about your sales presentation)

After reviewing hundreds of corporation presentations over the past four years, I can honestly say that they all are basically the same. You could almost take slides from one company’s presentation and insert them in another, and no one would even notice. They are all fact-based infomercials that approach customers with the same message--We’re the industry leader with a state-of-the-art solution who partners with our customers. The problem is all the competitors are making the exact same claims. As a result, nothing unique is communicated. Therefore, the real question to ask is, “How can you differentiate your corporate sales presentation?”

The answer to this question may be found by studying “The Great Communicator,” former President Ronald Reagan. Ultimately, what made this president so unique was his ability to communicate and persuade.He was able to obtain support from both major political parties and from people from all walks of life. Although his political enemies may have heartily disagreed with his agenda, they found it hard, if not impossible, to hate him personally. So, how would Ronald Reagan change your sales presentation? Read the Full Article Here

Not Sure You’re Winning? Triangulate!

Sailors of old superstitiously believed that if they tattooed a rooster on the bottom of one foot and a pig on the other they wouldn’t drown. However, triangulation, the process of navigation by using three or more stars as data points, saved far more lives than any tattoo.

      

Triangulation allows you to identify your location by using three pieces of information. If you are sailing across the ocean, you can calculate your latitude and longitude by forming an imaginary triangle with certain stars. Sailors continuously take readings from different stars to ensure their position is accurate.

      

In sales, we do the same, with the stars different sources of information from different people within the account we are trying to close. Heavy Hitter salespeople are constantly trying to triangulate their position by answering these questions: Is there a deal? Am I winning? Who do I have to watch out for, and what can ruin this deal?

           

You should think of triangulation is as the “rule of three.”  When you’re working a hot deal, you would like important information validated independently by three different sources. When strategizing about a deal, three minds are better than one. When cold-calling an unfamiliar company, make a new rule whereby it takes three “not interested” from three different people within the company before you cross the company’s name off your prospect list. You want three independent points of validation to ensure you know the truth.