The Best Sales Presentation Is The One You Never Make
When you go to the Doctor you present your problem to them. They don’t present your problem to you. We call it a consultation.
You give them information by answering their questions and then – and only then – do they diagnose with a solution.
If your Doctor rushed in and told you in the first 30 seconds what was wrong with you, how would you feel?
Your rural customer wants to be heard and understood in the same consultative way because it’s all about them, not you.
We had one rural client who despite acting with the best of intentions, was obsessed with their presentation instead of a conversation.
They did the equivalent of the “show up n’ throw up” routine.
They and their mental ego were most concerned with proving their technical mastery.
Because of this the customer felt they hadn’t been heard or understood. As a result, this client sometimes missed out on sale that was theirs for the taking.
When they stopped presenting and started conversing:
- conversions were higher
- cost of sale was lower
- sales cycle were faster
We teach all our rural sales teams to get the customer to present and paint their pain.
Ask your farmer customer about the impact and implications (eg. milk grades, survival rates, SCC), the risk (eg. H&S, staff retention/re-hires), the loss (eg. empty rates), the inconvenience (business interruption), the unreliability (missing key application weather windows), the consequences of getting it wrong, what happens if it doesn’t work out, the incurred costs, the hassle factor, the headaches, how much it will slow them down and stop them from getting where they want to be, how labour intensive it will be, how it effects staff retention or engagement, how it affects the business value and end multiple.
You get the idea.
You need to ask the right questions to get the right answers.
Asking intelligent questions is how you get them to present their problems to you vs. you rushing straight in like 95% of all other rural sales reps do and say: “Have I got the deal for you!”.
Research in the US shows when Doctors listen to their patients, those same patients know they are being truly heard and understood as individuals. Because of this they are 5 x less likely to be sued for malpractice.
This proves that it’s how you make your customer feel.
Feeling are facts for them.
Don’t under-estimate the emotion behind your rural client’s pain.
Dig deeper to make sure the impacts and implications really land.
Whilst you might have seen the same scenario a ton of times before, don’t be premature by rushing in with your rinse n’ repeat routine.
Hear them out.
Show them the respect they deserve as a potential paying customer.
Let them take their time to present their pains and problems.
You’ll learn a lot more about their world and how you can help them when they are talking and you are listening.
Sales success has always been more about how you sell rather than what you sell.
It’s about providing a superior sales experience where your customer feels they’ve been truly heard and understood.
They come away from the conversation thinking “gee these guys really got me, they asked good questions, understood my specific situation, were more focussed on me rather than themselves…I feel I could trust them more than the others”
That’s the difference between an average sales performer and a top sales performer.
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I’m on a mission to restore the world’s respect for what true rural sales professionals do: help their farming clients be better. I do this by teaching and training rural sales teams and their managers them rare and valuable skills that elevate their levels of confidence and conviction through new skills and capabilities.
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