Although chess is a game where all the moves are memorized by the best players…. it is still up to each player to use their intellect and dynamic skill to get the opponent to move his/her piece in a position where checkmate is achieved…
The same is true with a sales pitch.
The pitch is a foundation.
You have the benefit of your product clearly outlined…
you have the picture of what the package includes, perfectly painted….
you have more benefit outlinned and clearly explained….you have the competitive advantage that your product offers the prospective client clearly outlinned and explained….
you have more benefit perfectly interwoven and clearly painted….
and then you have your interactive questions…. which enable you to ensure that the prospective client has a keen interest… as well as help you prove to the client the benefit and competitive advantage you are offering him…
you have your objections… the truth is … any good sales man knows every single objection a client can have to their product…”it’s too expensive…” “I do not have the budget…” I do not target….” “I am not the final decision maker…” “we had a bad experience with another event company…” etc. etc…
by having everything down perfect, in front of you — smoothly … efficiently, you can answer and overcome just about any objection …
… a sale is like a chess match …. so even if the prospective client does not mention any objections …. I always bring them into discussion…. “there are many events out there….maybe you even sps one before, but at this congress we contractually guarantee….benefit..benefit…benefit…” “there is no way you can say this is expensive…you will be meeting with extensively prequalified …..benefit benefit benefit…” (just to name a few)
and you refer back to your pitch again and again …throughout the sale — thus you are perfectly fluid.
Even with a standard sales pitch … it is impossible to say that a sales person does not use their brain when they sell … because a good pitch lasts 45+ minutes. From my experience, it is impossible to sell a big ticket item to a client in 20 minutes…
therefore, it takes “dynamic skill” and the intellect of the sales person to “sell” their product.
… there is a legend of the “ragsdale lean….” Jason Gorud came up with this expression because he said that I would lean on the clients until they finally fell down and agreed to book on board …
The “Ragsdale lean” is nothing more than selling benefit, benefit, benefit and then over coming all their objections … even if they never brought up objections, I would bring the objections up myself and overcome each of them so their would be no misunderstanding, and then I would continue hammering them with benefit, benefit, benefit and more benefit…
“how can you not be interested??!!! This is the most exclusive event of the year….all your direct competitors will be there….you will do business”
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THERE MUST BE AN EASIER WAY….
At naseba, I have ensured that we have the best corporate website, we have the best event websites, we even have streaming video on each event site of the previous congress … the videos help prove how great our events are… so each sales person after they deliver their pitch, can get the person interactive and then overcome objections…and then walk the client through exactly what they receive once they have booked on boad. Our 60% rebooking rate of sponsors is remarkable … and we have many many testimonials to use on each site…
HOWEVER…THERE IS NO SHORT CUT TO THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN.
These great selling tools outlined above still DO NOT sell the client … and many good sales people at naseba are falling into the trap of trying to find/looking for short cuts….
Many great sales talents fail (not just at naseba, but at any sales job) because they do not stick to the basics… a great sales talent can sell easily…. after getting a couple deals, they fall in the trap of trying to find short cuts …. or they think they are “too good for the pitch…”
PLEASE NOTE: over the course of my career, I went through all the above…. after all, “I am a salesman … I dont need to use a pitch..” but in the end…. after failing to be consistent, I luckily woke up and realized the secret is sticking to the pitch…. no matter how good or talented one might be.
Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer ever. I read that every single day he still does the same routine that made him successful…practice, practice, and more practice. Remarkable consistency — remarkable success.
Because of the blog… many old friends from ME have contacted me to say congrat’s on the success of naseba …. and although naseba is far from where I want to go (where we will go) …. the secret to our quick success is simple — sticking to the pitch….
Tomorrow I will discuss: “I am a sales man … I am too good to use a pitch…”
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