Tapsearch Com EditorCommunicate to sell
What we got here is a failure to communicate - famous quote from the movie - Cool Man Luke
What we got here is failure to communicate ...
Here are tips and hints to communicate your ideas and motivate. This post is primarily about communicating to sell - the next post will be emphasize a list of suggestions to consider before you talk.
First you need to create a style, tone, image, formal or informal, language and speech pattern according to your audience. Ultimately it is not what you want but what your audience wants. You have to find the key to enter into their place and not try to push them into yours.
I studied James Dean, the movie actor from the 1950s that seemed to have that certain something in any communications and he seem to touch people thoughts immediately.
In my long sales career, I found many different ways to communicate. I called on a major account many times and one prospect always let me in to his office most of the time, but he never would buy. One day, I came in and sat down and said, I gave you all the benefits and reasons to buy from me many times and I have nothing left to say. I then sat infront of him quietly. We looked at each other for what seemed to be a very long time but perhaps the quiet just lasted for a minute at most. He said OK and gave me continuous orders from that time on. He even gave me bigger orders when he took a higher position in larger corporation. And we had a quiet no nonsense relationship for a long time -- so , you need to know when to talk and when not to talk. And you need to sense the personality of the person, group or audience. All have a personality of their own.
Probably, the best way to prepare a talk or presentation is to take on a role of an actor fitting to the situation as if you are going on a stage. I never liked getting cell calls prior to going into a big sales call. I needed a quiet time to take in the aspects of the coming sales call especially when I was driving in a car on the way to the call . Sometimes when I lost a large sale, I would call on a small account and put on a very strong presentation to the point where the prospect kept repeating that they did not need anything while I kept on selling. Somehow it set the stage for the next big sale. In the patter, I was able to check what went wrong during during the major sales call.
You also have to know how to adapt quickly to the situation. I once had an appointment to see a top executive at a large auto manufacturer in the sale of large computer systems for use corporate wide. I let one of our field service technician who wanted to go into sales come with me. At the call, it became very evident that all the specifications were set up for a competitive system and I quickly knew there was no way we were going to get the business and switch to a friendly sale to save the contact for another day. However, half way through the presentation, the field service rep. who was sitting behind me, leaped over the desk to grab the guy when he found out we were just a set up to be bombed out. And that was the end of that contact forever. You need to know when to switch geers in any presentation and be ready for an alternative action.
In a long sales campaign, I usually first made a friend and then sold a friend. However, in this kind of sale, I had to serve the customer as a friend , thouroughly after the sale. Sometimes, you wished you were someplace else in the post sales process.
In a presentation or sale, It is not you doing the selling - the person or audience have to sell themselves and you are just there to help them. However, sometimes in a one on one stiuation, you will find that the prospect does want a hard sale and you adjust accordingly. During my days in sales I was part of a select group in the industry that were called the "high rollers" and we were hired guns so to speak who would start up a new company in the computer industy and knew we were short term. Once the company ramped up, we were replaced by young reps out of college at half the cost as a "high roller" would be.
However, communication is ultimately about values with all the different meanings of value included besides the dollar sign.
We will go into some surprising details about communication skills in the next posts.
And note the last post about public speaking. By Ray Tapajna, Editor and Artist at Tapart News and Art that Talks at Background info
What we got here is failure to communicate ...
Here are tips and hints to communicate your ideas and motivate. This post is primarily about communicating to sell - the next post will be emphasize a list of suggestions to consider before you talk.
First you need to create a style, tone, image, formal or informal, language and speech pattern according to your audience. Ultimately it is not what you want but what your audience wants. You have to find the key to enter into their place and not try to push them into yours.
I studied James Dean, the movie actor from the 1950s that seemed to have that certain something in any communications and he seem to touch people thoughts immediately.
In my long sales career, I found many different ways to communicate. I called on a major account many times and one prospect always let me in to his office most of the time, but he never would buy. One day, I came in and sat down and said, I gave you all the benefits and reasons to buy from me many times and I have nothing left to say. I then sat infront of him quietly. We looked at each other for what seemed to be a very long time but perhaps the quiet just lasted for a minute at most. He said OK and gave me continuous orders from that time on. He even gave me bigger orders when he took a higher position in larger corporation. And we had a quiet no nonsense relationship for a long time -- so , you need to know when to talk and when not to talk. And you need to sense the personality of the person, group or audience. All have a personality of their own.
Probably, the best way to prepare a talk or presentation is to take on a role of an actor fitting to the situation as if you are going on a stage. I never liked getting cell calls prior to going into a big sales call. I needed a quiet time to take in the aspects of the coming sales call especially when I was driving in a car on the way to the call . Sometimes when I lost a large sale, I would call on a small account and put on a very strong presentation to the point where the prospect kept repeating that they did not need anything while I kept on selling. Somehow it set the stage for the next big sale. In the patter, I was able to check what went wrong during during the major sales call.
You also have to know how to adapt quickly to the situation. I once had an appointment to see a top executive at a large auto manufacturer in the sale of large computer systems for use corporate wide. I let one of our field service technician who wanted to go into sales come with me. At the call, it became very evident that all the specifications were set up for a competitive system and I quickly knew there was no way we were going to get the business and switch to a friendly sale to save the contact for another day. However, half way through the presentation, the field service rep. who was sitting behind me, leaped over the desk to grab the guy when he found out we were just a set up to be bombed out. And that was the end of that contact forever. You need to know when to switch geers in any presentation and be ready for an alternative action.
In a long sales campaign, I usually first made a friend and then sold a friend. However, in this kind of sale, I had to serve the customer as a friend , thouroughly after the sale. Sometimes, you wished you were someplace else in the post sales process.
In a presentation or sale, It is not you doing the selling - the person or audience have to sell themselves and you are just there to help them. However, sometimes in a one on one stiuation, you will find that the prospect does want a hard sale and you adjust accordingly. During my days in sales I was part of a select group in the industry that were called the "high rollers" and we were hired guns so to speak who would start up a new company in the computer industy and knew we were short term. Once the company ramped up, we were replaced by young reps out of college at half the cost as a "high roller" would be.
However, communication is ultimately about values with all the different meanings of value included besides the dollar sign.
We will go into some surprising details about communication skills in the next posts.
And note the last post about public speaking. By Ray Tapajna, Editor and Artist at Tapart News and Art that Talks at Background info
