Are You Relevant?

When you walk into a sales situation you have typically spent a great deal of time thinking about your product/service and how it can help your prospect. You may have thought about the many issues your product/service can resolve. You may have designed a presentation that highlights the benefits your product/service will bring. More often, you have probably thought about the importance of closing this deal and what it will mean to your paycheck.

There is one problem. Even though you have spent hours, days or even weeks thinking about your presentation, your prospects haven’t and when you walk into a sales situation, armed with the best examples, the most convincing data and the best price solutions available, many times, your prospects don’t even care.

Imagine the following scenario. Two weeks ago you made a cold-call to Jane the owner of a small business that could benefit greatly from your product/service. You caught her at a good time and, after hearing a short synopsis of what your solution can do for her, Jane set up an appointment for you to come into her office. You put time into planning, did research on her industry, and crafted a great presentation.

You showed up to the meeting bright and early, but there was a problem. Through your whole meeting, Jane was distracted. By the time you got to your bar charts and graphs (just two thirds into the presentation), she informed you that she would have to cut the meeting short and would call you if she was “interested.” You left the store deflated knowing you would probably never even be able to get her on the phone again.

What happened here? You lost relevance. Let’s look a little deeper into Jane’s world.

When you called two weeks ago, she was in the middle of a crisis that was directly related to your product/service. In fact, while you were on the phone she told you a little about it and why your product/service would be “so handy right now.” On the day of the presentation several things happened: the dog made a mess on her carpet at home, the kids spilled juice all over their homework, an employee called in sick, causing her to have to work the front desk and a large crisis erupted, one completely unrelated to your product/service.

As she sat in that meeting, Jane was not thinking of you or the crisis that occurred two weeks ago when you called her. She had moved on to several other small crises since then and had completely forgotten why she even had you in her office taking her away from the million things she had to do at that time. When you begin your presentation, it is your job to bring Jane back to the state of mind she was in when she last needed your product/service desperately.

Action Step: Begin each presentation with a “Situation Review.”

A Situation Review is a brief recap of the situation that your product/service resolves. Remind your prospect of the problem that your product/service resolves right at the beginning of your presentation. Tug on emotions by using real stories as examples of times when your product/service is needed. If you have an example from the prospect, just as Jane had previously given an example, use it to bring yet more significance to your presentation.

When you succeed in conjuring up the same emotions your prospect has when faced with a situation your product/service can resolve, you get closer to a proposal that he or she actually cares about, one that he or she is more likely to act upon.