What is the danger of using demos, presentations and collateral?

The danger is that most people use demos, presentations and collateral as a substitute for having a well thought-out and well executed sales strategy.

PowerPoint can be one of the single most effective communication tools, but it is misused by 80-90% of people using it.  I won’t get into how to use PowerPoint, but rather how not to use it.  Demos, PowerPoint and collateral all have the same problem: salespeople try to sell using them.  The purpose of demos, PowerPoint and collateral is not to garner a “yes.”  The purpose of demos, PowerPoint and collateral should be to avoid a “no.”

There are very few businesses in the B-2-B space that are going to be able to sell based on the effectiveness of their presentation demo or collateral.

Not only is it a waste of time to try to do so, it’s a waste of money.  There is a high cost associated with using these tools as a substitute for sales skills - especially collateral.  Salespeople who freely pass around collateral are not being good stewards of the company’s assets.  Some of the collateral is a couple of bucks to 10 bucks a pop.  Every time you hand it out in lieu of having a legitimate conversation, you are acting in fear of having that conversation, and wasting time, opportunity and money.  My principle is: collateral goes out after the conversation, never before.  Even to the point where somebody says to me, “Can you send me something?”  My answer is, typically, “No, I don’t know what to send you, but I also want to find out what you need from us.”

With all the technology available today, it is becoming too easy to substitute demos, PowerPoint and collateral for sound selling skills.  There’s a right time and a right place for these tools.  But the key is to use them to avoid the “no,” and not to get the “yes.”

How do you get past the gatekeeper?  There are three basic rules.  But before we get to those three rules, there’s something you must understand: who is the gatekeeper?

Traditionally, the gatekeeper has been a secretary, receptionist or some other live person.  Although these roles still exists, the majority of the gatekeepers today are not people.  Modern gatekeepers are voice mail and caller i.d.

Something else you need to know is that there is no clear-cut technique for getting past the gatekeeper.  I’ll share with you two stories of two clients who have very strict rules around returning calls.

First, we have the owner of a large telecom company.  His rule is that he will not return a call from a vendor until they’ve left three messages.  Why?  He wants to see tenacity, follow-through and he wants to see somebody who’s hungry.

The second client - a division leader for a consulting company - had a different rule.  He says, “If I see your caller i.d. come up, and you do not leave a message, you will never get a call back.  Furthermore, if you do leave a message, and then I see your caller i.d. show up before I’ve had a chance to return the call, you will never get a call back.  I will return my calls on my terms, not yours.”

The old technique was to call before 9AM and call after 5PM and never leave a message.  Well, that wouldn’t work for either of these two prospects.

You see, there is no clear-cut, one-size-fits-all technique.  But you do have some basic principles available to you:

1) Know your outcome. The outcome of getting past the gatekeeper is nothing more than getting past the gatekeeper.  It’s not to sell your product.  It’s not to do anything but get past the gatekeeper, by whatever means necessary.
2) The gatekeeper is your friend. This gets to mindset.  You have to have a belief system around getting past the gatekeeper.  Some of the best people around this look at it as a game or a challenge as opposed to a necessary evil or some other disempowering belief.
3) Less is more. The most effective voice message to get a call back is very short and very powerful.  I say, “Hey, this is Jason.  Got a couple questions for you.  Call me at _____.”  You’re not mentioning company name.  You’re not mentioning intention.  But because your objective is to get past the gatekeeper, this approach is going to get you past the gatekeeper more than any.  Is that going to irritate some people?  Yes!  But there is no one-size-fits-all.

If you follow these basic principles, you will have more of your phone messages returned, and you will get past more gatekeepers.

How do you ensure that you will be successful at networking events?  The key phrase to remember is that you need to be interested, not interesting.  That should set you apart, because everybody else is there with the other agenda of being interesting.

The amount of knowledge that you can generate by being interested will put you in position to ultimately sell these folks.

How does it work?  Well, what’s the first thing that anybody says to you at a networking event?  They say, “What do you do?”  The way I respond is to say, “I run a company that helps grow other companies’ sales faster than they could do it on their own.  But tell me about XYZ company that you’re with.”

So if they open up by asking you what you do, give them the value statement and quickly turn it back to them.  After all, they don’t really care what you do anyway.  All they want to do is talk about themselves, so let them talk.

What you find out is their non-verbal communication style, their needs, their desires, and everything that you can use to position yourself to go forward.  All you need to do is give them enough intrigue that they think that you could be valuable to them down the road, without telling them exactly what you do.

It’s the same concept as collateral material.  You do not want to give them enough information to say “no.”  You want to whet their appetite with just enough information so that they will say, “I’m interested in hearing more.”

The first rule is: know what your outcome is.  Your outcome is simply to get them to agree to sit down to a meeting.  Create intrigue and establish yourself as a good listener, and, chances are, you’ll be setting appointments at every networking event.