Monday, February 9, 2009

Best Business Presentation - The Shortest Sentence I Never Used

Everyone wants to know what the best business presentation is. The key is in being specific. This is especially true in network marketing.

Most people start out learning everything about the company, the product, the compensation plan, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. They try to learn it all so they can run right out & regurgitate it all over their prospects. And that's supposed to work.

Well … let me share with you how that worked for me.

Back in the early '90s I had a door-to-door sales job. I sold the "Tri-Star Home Cleaning System"

Yep … I was a vacuum cleaner salesman.

I studied all the trainings & learned all the closes my boss could teach me. I even learned all his silly jokes to insert in my presentation.

I had a kit with a flip chart that had so many pages the chart book alone weighed 2 pounds. What with that kit & the Tri-Star box some thought I was moving in.

I must have shown that machine to over 50 people in the 3 months I worked there. For 2 ½ of those 3 months I was without a car, but I got into homes anyway.

I talked everyone's ears off & worked myself to a frazzle.

Guess how many Tri-Stars" I sold.

Not 30. Not 20. Not even 10. I sold 3 … & 2 of those sales fell through.

What could I have done differently?

One simple question asked early on in my presentations might have soled a lot more machines, helped me make more friends. & have much more fun.

And That Question Iis …

"So what would you like to know next?"

Just as in door-to-door vacuum cleaner sales every MLM presentation is different. I can tell you from experience that you can't just take a flip chart and read it to a prospect.

Some of those people wanted to know how powerful the motor is, others asked about the warrantee, & still others wanted to know if it worked like I said.

But every time I did a presentation it was the same. I gave everyone so much information that I tensed up all the "sales man defensive" muscles in my customer's bodies.

MLM prospects have similarly narrow fields of interest. It's amazing how little they want to hear. Such as …

• the compensation plan
• the product ingredients
• the integrity of the founders.
• the system I'm using to duplicate.

All the time I spent explaining all about the company, the filtration system, the machine's materials (things they didn't care about) bored most of those people to tears. In no time at all they were irritatedly thinking, "When's this gonna end?"

So before learning how much of the products special ingredient is in each dose a better thing to focus on is learning to ask that one simple question to find out what the prospect really wants to know.

Asking, "So what would you like to know next?" does several valuable things for me.

1. It relaxes my prospect.
2. It puts my prospect in control of the information I give.
3. My prospect feels respected.
4. The guessing game is over for me & I can focus on what really matters about my opportunity to that prospect.

The best business presentation is the one that helps me get right to what my prospect wants to know & only what he wants to know. Plus, I have spent zero time making another person mad.

I appreciate you,

Bill Tessore

No comments: