In any solid company, the owners can tell you the significant, key items that make their organizations work. This is no different in the sales industry. When you get to the core of any sale, the “pitch,” is the key item that will ultimately tie the company to that prospect. Whether you’re selling water filters, knives, steaks, cars or insurance, you have to have an organized, clear and concise sales talk, to lead you and the client through the sales process. That’s what we’re going to focus on today.
So why have a sales talk? It’s a valid question, right? There are a lot of gifted thespians out there that are excellent talkers, so why not send them out with a great product and just let them produce? A lot of sales company’s will have their agents start with family and friends. A sales talk would just sound contrived and stale and would probably hurt your chances of closing a deal, right? Frankly, there are a lot of reasons that you could come up with as to why to not use an organized approach, but the easier thing to understand is WHY it’s important.
First off, especially in direct sales, there is a psychology of how to approach a prospect. Put yourself in the prospects shoes for a moment. What would be important to you? In our industry, the sales talk starts with the approach, and we quickly lay out some key items:
a) Our name and who we work for
b) What we’re doing in the area
c) Some of the people we’ve been working with
d) And that we’re only going to take a few minutes of their time
Those 4 items tell a prospect that you have a legitimate reason to be at their door, that you’re a part of the neighborhood/community, and that you’re not going to take up a lot of their time. A good sales talk will hit on a lot of key items, and the Cycle of Sales itself will supply the most important points that you’ll touch on as you recite what you’ve learned.
Second, it takes the pressure off new sales people, and creates a DUPLICATABLE process that you can teach to new agents. You might have a golden tongue and feel like this is not important, but who are you going to be able to train? New agents need to feel like they’re not having to “make things up,” as they’re presenting, and a sales talk creates that pathway. Because everyone uses this same script to teach from, everyone can be easily trained by anyone that’s more veteran at showing the product. Imagine an actor getting on stage an just “winging it.” through a scene. There’s a reason that the best movies come from the best writers!
Here’s the most important thing to remember. The script you use WILL feel foreign and contrived when you first start, but that’s OKAY! Once you start becoming proficient at using it, it will become yours! Remember, the script is just a skeleton. It’s the foundation that holds everything else together. It ensures that you touch base on all of the important aspects of your sales talk. What will happen with repetition and practice is that you’ll begin adding the meat and muscle to that skeleton. That’s YOUR personality, and the things that will make your presentation uniquely yours. Everyone is different, and we all have different skills and abilities, but if you take us to our core, we all have the same number of bones and the same skeleton, and that’s what holds us together through the day. The key to growth in sales is to be smart enough to be dumb enough to learn the systems that will make you successful. The practice and the repetition that you put in will make you proficient, and patience and time will make you wealthy!