As he continues to ask good questions, Alex learns that the average prospective bank customer is worth an average of $5,000 in deposits for basic checking and savings accounts. Add in auto and home loans and the value ranges from $30,000 to $500,000. It turns out that Bob will gladly invest $500 for each customer who signs up, especially if it’s something that will set his bank apart from the competition. That’s much more than Alex would have guessed, so he’s glad he resisted the temptation to show Bob the lower-end incentives he’d originally been considering.
Alex sets up a follow-up meeting, where he presents some unique items that not only bring in business but reinforce the bank’s brand. He walks away with an order for more than $200,000. Way to go, Alex!
CHAPTER
25
Presentation Questions
How to Keep Buyers Awake, Engaged, and Wanting to Hear More
HAVE YOU EVER sat in a presentation where the salesperson just drones on and on—who they are, what they believe, how many years in business, a map showing their many locations, customers they’ve served, products they offer, features, benefits, blah, blah, blah? You’re looking at the time and thinking about all of the things you need to do. Finally, the salesperson wraps up and says, “So, any questions?”
You think to yourself, “Please, no.” You just want it to be over, and you hope nobody drags it out. So you quickly bring closure. “Great presentation,” you say. “Very thorough. I have to run to another meeting. Let’s touch base in a couple of weeks. You’ll call me?”
Not every sales presentation is deadly. I’ve left some feeling energized and motivated to take action. But in my experience, that’s the exception.
I’ve asked myself why. Why does a highly trained professional, whose number-one job is to communicate value, waste everyone’s time, including his own?
I don’t have a good answer, except to suggest that a good presentation is harder to pull off than it would appear. Salespeople often mistake manners for interest. You have the floor, and most people will sit quietly and listen out of politeness. We’ve been trained that way. In school, we’re not allowed to walk out if the teacher is boring. If we go to a play or a movie, we’re expected to sit through to the end. If we’re invited to a meeting and the salesperson gives her spiel, we do the same thing. It doesn’t mean we care.
I won’t go into all the ways you can make presentations more effective. But if there’s one thing you can do to keep them on track, relevant, and customer focused, it’s to ask good questions. And that doesn’t mean asking “Are there any questions?” at the end. In fact, if you’re asking that, you might as well close your laptop and go home.
Asking questions as you go along turns the presentation around. It gets prospects engaged. It gets them to reveal what’s important to them. It gets to the truth. A presentation shouldn’t be a dog-and-pony show. It should be a dialogue. And the customer should be the star, not you.
Do Your Homework
To create a question-based presentation, start early.
The first order of business is to find out who’s attending. And not just names and titles. You need to really understand who these people are and what motivates them.
Ask your contact: “So the president will be sitting in? Great. Tell me what you believe will be most important to her. What does she need to know? And the VP of operations will be there? What do you think he’s looking for? What are his needs? And how about the HR director? What would she like to get out of the presentation? And why is that?”
If you don’t know who will be at your meeting—what they care about or don’t care about, what they expect, why they’re investing their precious time in the meeting—how can you possibly create value?
Sometimes your contact can give you great insight because he has good relationships with these members. Other times, you’re not so lucky. Your contact may not be willing to risk an opinion, or he may not have any insight beyond what the boss wants in his coffee. Even worse, sometimes he can lead you astray. Either he misread others’ interests, or presents his own agenda as if it’s his boss’s.
When you ask about the other people and can’t get a straight answer, it’s a red flag that your contact is not in the “club” with these folks. But a presentation is too important to fly blind. You need to get the truth. Say to your contact: “I want to make sure I’m attentive to those who will be joining us. It’s important that the presentation is meaningful and relevant to the issues everyone is facing. So I need their input. I need to reach out to Bob and Sue beforehand and have a brief conversation with them. What’s the best way to reach them?
Or you might say: “Of the ten people who will be joining us, which two or three individuals would you recommend I reach out to beforehand to gain more insight into the issues the organization is facing?”
It would be rare for your contact to say, “I don’t want you to talk to anyone else.” In most cases, the contact will be thrilled that you’d take the extra time and effort to make your presentation successful. If they’ve set up a meeting and invited all these people, their reputation is on the line. The last thing they want is for you to show up unprepared and waste everyone’s time.
In fact, if your contact won’t give you that access, it’s a huge red flag. What she’s really saying is, “I don’t value you. I don’t trust you. I don’t want to give you a leg up on your competitors (maybe the ones I really want to work with).”
In these situations you can often smell a rat. Someone wants to keep her existing vendor, but has been told to do her due diligence. She needs to cover her rear and get three bids. But she doesn’t want you to succeed.
If you suspect that’s what’s going on, you have nothing to lose by standing your ground. I’ve been in situations where I’ve simply refused to make a presentation unless I can get the information I need. That creates a problem for the person who’s using you for his own political purposes. It would be hard for him to explain to his bosses why you’re backing out. Granted, you still have a steep hill to climb, but if you can engage the higher-ups and speak to their needs and interests, at least you have a fighting chance. Or you can continue to work on cultivating a relationship with your contact before you walk into a den of hungry wolves.
Going in Cold
In some cases, however, you simply don’t have the time or opportunity to do your homework. You have to go in cold.
In that case, get to the presentation early so you have ample time to chat with people one-on-one. You only need a minute or two with each person to get a quick pulse and learn what’s on their mind. Simply say, “Thanks for coming. So tell me one thing you’d like to take away from today’s presentation.” Or, “What prompted you to come to the meeting this morning?” Or, “What’s one issue you’re dealing with when it comes to . . . ?”
The information you gather allows you to adjust your presentation on the fly to make it more relevant. I’ll often take comments from three or four participants and use that feedback to open up the session. For example, I might say, “Good morning. My name is Paul Cherry. Thanks for joining us today. I understand some of the key issues you’re facing are these . . .”
And then I’ll list them on a whiteboard. For example:
1. How to motivate your team to do more with limited resources
2. How to prospect for new business, versus calling on the same old customers
3. How to protect your hard-earned margins against price erosion
Then I’ll continue: “So am I correct that these are your issues? Are there other issues we could add to these? How should we prioritize them?”
This is a very effective opening. It sets the stage for a question-and-answer dialogue and immediately engages the participants. It puts you in the role of facilitator rather than presenter. You’ve hit key pain points and quickly demonstrated that you’re a good listener.
But, you may ask, what about my slides? Time is short. I’ve got a lot to cover. And I worked so hard on them!
Remember that buyers care a lot more about their issues than about your slides. I’ve seen instances where the dialogue is so powerful that the salesperson never gets to the deck at all—and still wins the business! Don’t rush your customer. Set the stage, tap into peoples’ emotions to get them excited about being there. Then they’ll want to hear everything you have to tell them.
As you go through your presentation, use questions liberally. Spend two or three minutes on a key point—maybe five minutes at the most. Then stop—and pose a question. For example: “How does what I’ve shared with you so far relate to what you’re experiencing?”
Don’t feel that you have to present the question to the whole group. You can focus on one or two individuals. But don’t let any one person steal the show. As a presenter and facilitator, you have to manage the conversation. Draw out the people who are quiet. Give everyone a say.
Use questions throughout the presentation to keep it on track. The questions can be very simple: “Does this make sense?” “Is this relevant?” “We hear ____ from other clients. How’s that compare to what you’re facing?” “Based on what I just shared with you on this slide, how would ____ be of value to you? What would it enable you to do that you’re not doing now?”
Sometimes you can ask rhetorical questions—where you’re not asking for a response but just want the group to think. For example: “Have you ever wondered why some salespeople with a lot of experience and knowledge are sometimes the worst performers? I raise this question because many of my clients share this concern. Now let me share with you some of the reasons. . . .”
Or you can raise a question that surfaces an emotion you know they are currently experiencing on the job. For example: “Have you ever had one of those days where you’re putting out a lot of fires, responding to one request after another, and it’s now at the end of the week, you’re looking at the stack of paperwork and emails that you still have to respond to and wonder, when’s it gonna ever end? Anybody here have that experience? Well, I hope to provide some answers. . . .”
If your audience isn’t engaging with you, put out a question you typically hear from your existing clients and prospects. For example: “One question we often hear is, ‘How do I get started?’” Or, “Clients often raise their hands at this point and ask, ‘How do I show the ROI?’”
Every presentation is different, of course, but you get the general idea. Good questions turn a one-sided show into a give-and-take. The answers can take you in surprising directions, but they keep you focused on what matters to the buyers. They make everyone a participant. And if people are involved in creating the solution, they’re far more likely to buy it.
Index
The index that appeared in the print version of this title was intentionally removed from the eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below
accountability questions
actions
questions about steps
recognition of importance
agreement, discussing obstacles to
answering questions
clarifying
interpreting
reasons for avoiding
ANUM
anxiety, unknown factor and
appointment, asking for
assessment in sales call
assumptions
authority
BANT and
BANT (budget, authority, need, timing)
bids, vendor preference and
budget
BANT and
buffer statements, for lock-on questions
business shrink
CAN-SPAM Act
Carnegie, Dale
How to Win Friends and Influence People
chain of questions
CHAMP
change
emphasizing effects of
impact questions to encourage
readiness for
stage of commitment to
close, transition to
closed-end questions
closing questions
coaching customer, with impact questions
cold calling
asking for next step
time for
value-building questions in
commercial leasing, scenario to sharpen skills
commitment
customer behaviors
customer sharing of level
stages
company culture, questions about
comparison questions
ordinary questions transformed into
for upselling opportunity
competitive standing of customer
competitors
of client
comparison questions and
differentiation from
questions about
conclusions, of customers
confidentiality
connections on social media
contacts
number in network
sharing
context
control
of conversation
need for
conversation
control of
with expansion questions
reengaging client in
credibility
social media to increase
cross-selling
asking for
definition
groundwork for
questions
C-suite
asking for story
scenario
customers
concerns of
empathy for prospective
external
getting inside mind of
hopes and dreams
needs of
as partners
power of “if”
pushing by sales professionals
trust of
values
see also response to questions
Dartnell Research
decisionmakers
anxiety of
clarification questions for
comparison questions and
delays
indicator of multiple
vs. influencers
introduction to
learning company process for
needs of
direct questions
Discover Your Sales Strengths (Smith and Rutigliano)
educational questions
for C-suite executives
examples
neutral position for
in social media
templates
times to use
transition to client concerns
for voice mail or email
elevator speech
email
questions
templates
environment, evolving
evaluation, in sales call
executive assistants, see also gatekeepers
executives, see C-suite
exercises
on comparison questions
on educational questions
on expansion questions
on impact questions
on implicit needs
on lock-on questions
on response to transfer to other staff
for self-appraisal of questioning skills
for sharpening skills
on vision questions
expansion questions
examples
ordinary questions transformed into
for upselling opportunity
expectations
questions to set and manage
experts, sales professionals as
explicit needs
external customers
questions about
family, referrals from
fear, of asking for referral
Federal Trade Commission
financial
losses
follow-up
friends, referrals from
Gallup Organization, on sales professionals
gatekeepers
approaching with name
asking for name
initial encounter
goals
deciding on short-term
questions about
Google
Google Scholar
“have-to” stage of client
header information, in email
hostile questions
hot-button issues
How to Win Friends and Influence People (Carnegie)
IBM
icebreaker
educational questions as
questions for
impact questions
for encouraging change
personal aspect
sample
for upselling opportunity
implicit needs
independence, as implicit need
information gathering
by potential client
questions on past or present
for sales call
information sharing
by client
educational questions for
Internet
interrogation
intervention, by salespeople
intimacy, creating
jargon
knowledge, exchanging
lazy questions
lead generation
leading questions
legitimizing questions
LinkedIn
self-promotion in
listening to customers
lock-on questions
creating
for managing conversation
for upselling opportunity
when to use
mailing list, selling
manipulation, avoiding feeling of
market trends, comparison questions and
motivation
of customers
needs
BANT and
mapping process
questions to enlarge
response to questions on
network, quality of
new knowledge, creating
noncompeting company, referrals from
online business directories
open-ended questions
opinion questions
opportunities
evaluating quality of
uncovering
opting out of email