Ten Powerful Tips For Your Next Big Sales Pitch

One
Think very carefully about exactly what want the client (or potential client) to say, feel, believe or do as a result of your sales pitch.  What are the specific results you want to achieve?  What is the next action that you want the client to take after your sales pitch?

Two
When designing your sales pitch always start with the client and not by talking about you and your products and services. Start by demonstrating that you understand the client’s aims and objectives.

Three
A powerful pitch structure is:

            Client’s aims / objectives
            Client’s needs / problems (Where they are now)
            Client’s success criteria (Where they want to be)
            How you can help the client move from where they are now to where they
            want to be.
            Case studies / testimonials about how you have done this for other clients.
            Investment required from them.
            Suggested action / implementation plan

Four
Does your pitch answer the questions:

Why should the client buy from you?
Why should the client only buy from you?  
What are your points of differentiation?
What is the most important thing you want the client to remember about you?

Five
Less is more!  Keep your pitch as short and punchy as possible.
Too many sales pitches are too long, too self-indulgent and too boring.

Six
What is your main message – the most important thing you want to client to remember? 
Repeat this three times during your pitch.

What are your three key points?  If you include any more than three then the client is likely to forget.
What facts do you have to back up what you claim?

Seven
Do you have a story about how you have helped another client (preferably as similar to the client you are pitching to) to achieve the results they wanted?

Introduce the client character, describe the problems they were experiencing, show how you provided the solution they needed and then describe the results they achieved.

Eight
Can you create curiosity right at the start of your sales pitch?  A curious client is very attentive and receptive. One method you can use to create curiosity is to tell them some of the things that you are going to reveal during the sales pitch and then to tell the client about these at different stages as the sales pitch progresses. 

For example, “As we progress I am going to show you three tried and tested and proven ways that we can deliver exactly the results you are looking for and provide you with rock-solid evidence of our capability.”

Nine
Provide clarity and contrast about the difference the client will experience as a result of working with you or from buying your product and service.  Make it very clear and specific.

Ten
A confused client never buys. Limit choice if you want them to make a decision. Provide and clear choice and next action and give the client something to buy. 

Good luck and good selling!

Simon Hazeldine MSc FinstSMM is an international speaker and consultant in the areas of sales, negotiation, performance leadership and applied neuroscience.

He is the bestselling author of five business books:

·   Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success

·   Bare Knuckle Selling

·   Bare Knuckle Negotiating

·   Bare Knuckle Customer Service

·  The Inner Winner

To learn more about Simon's keynote speeches and other services please visit:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:
www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

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www.neuro-sell.com

The Magic Negotiation Formula and Why it Works

Selling can be defined as convincing people that they should purchase your product.

Negotiation is agreeing the terms upon which the purchase will take place.

If you want to be a master persuader then you must master both.

A highly effective negotiation tactic (that I call "The Magic Negotiation Formula") that you can use to hone your negotiation skill is the Conditional Proposal.

When negotiating always make your proposals conditional. Use the "IF YOU... THEN I" format.

E.g. "If you agree to a two year contract, then I will review our discount position.

This makes it clear to the other party that you will only make the concession if they meet to condition you have proposed.

It is good practice in negotiation to give to get.

It is bad practice to give anything away without getting something in return! Use the "If You... Then I" magic negotiation formula to get better results.

Good luck and good negotiating!

Simon Hazeldine MSc FinstSMM is an international speaker and consultant in the areas of sales, negotiation, performance leadership and applied neuroscience.

He is the bestselling author of five business books:

·   Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success

·   Bare Knuckle Selling

·   Bare Knuckle Negotiating

·   Bare Knuckle Customer Service

·  The Inner Winner

To learn more about Simon's keynote speeches and other services please visit:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:
www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

To subscribe to Simon's "Neuro-Sell" newsletter please visit:
www.neuro-sell.com

How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success

As a result of the challenging commercial environment that has become the new reality we are all operating within, sales professionals need an edge – and the latest neuroscience research provides it.

Knowledge and understanding about the brain is growing rapidly with the vast majority of major discoveries and knowledge about the brain being made in the last ten to fifteen years.

We are starting to get a better understanding of how the brain functions when it is making decisions. The more we understand about how the brain functions when deciding to take action (or not), the better able we will be to understand how to tailor our sales approach, messages and behaviour accordingly.

Neuroscience research is shedding new light onto how people actually make decisions - and the truth may surprise you!

“According to cognitive neuroscientists, we are conscious of only about 5 percent of our cognitive activity, so most of our decisions, actions, emotions, and behaviour depends on the 95 percent of brain activity that goes beyond our conscious awareness.“

Marianne Szegedy-Maszak

Journalist

The vast majority of human thinking (including decision making) takes place below the level of conscious and controlled awareness – in our unconscious mind.  In addition, emotions are an integral part of people’s decision-making process.  Emotion and reason are intertwined elements of our decision-making process.  They influence and are influenced by each other, and as a result if we want to sell successfully then we need to consider three areas of our customer’s brain:

The Sub-Cortical “Reptilian” Brain

In evolutionary terms this is the oldest part of the brain. It connects the brain with the spinal column and all sensory nerves travel through it.

This primitive and unconscious part of the brain is primarily “concerned” with well being and survival.  At first contact with a stranger it will instantly conduct a threat response and decide if you are friend or foe.

It prioritises survival first (the avoidance of pain and danger) and then with achieving comfort - so it will respond to pain avoidance first.

The Emotional Brain

This is comprised of the limbic system and is also referred to as the “mid-brain”.

It is important to realise that although this part of the brain is also unconscious in function it has a profound effect on us because it links the brain stem with the higher reasoning functions of the brain and feeds information to it.

The limbic system can become easily aroused and can dominate and control the thinking of your customer, exerting a huge influence over your customer’s behaviour and decision making.

For example if initial contact with a salesperson stresses “the gatekeeper” (the Reptilian and Emotional brain) the automatic fight / flight / freeze response is stimulated. Part of this process includes shutting out all other message receptors which means your opportunity to persuade is severely limited.

Therefore, your first and most important task when meeting a new customer for the first

time is to appear non-threatening to the more primitive parts of their brain.

If the primitive part of their brain feels unconsciously uncomfortable then you have a mountain to climb to be able to successfully sell them anything!  If you get this part of your customer’s brain to feel comfortable then they will become receptive to you and your message.

The Rational Brain

This is comprised of the cortex and the neo-cortex and is also referred to as the “new” brain.  This part of the brain processes information received from the senses and regulates cognitive functions such as thinking, speaking, learning, remembering and making decisions.

To sell effectively we must make sure that we and our sales messages are “brain friendly” and target all three areas of the brain so that we can arouse the reptilian and emotional brains in a way that supports our selling rather than handicaps it.  

Good luck and good (neuro) selling!

Simon Hazeldine MSc FinstSMM is an international speaker and consultant in the areas of sales, negotiation, performance leadership and applied neuroscience.

He is the bestselling author of five business books:

·   Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success

·   Bare Knuckle Selling

·   Bare Knuckle Negotiating

·   Bare Knuckle Customer Service

·  The Inner Winner

To learn more about Simon's keynote speeches and other services please visit:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:
www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

To subscribe to Simon's "Neuro-Sell" newsletter please visit:
www.neuro-sell.com

Why Salespeople Don't (Usually) Make Good Negotiators

Do you think that your sales team you are as effective at negotiating as the procurement professionals they are facing across the buying table? 

I’ve got some bad news for you.  In the course of my work as a consultant and corporate trainer in the areas of sales and negotiation I have spent increasing amounts of time working the “other side” of the buying table.  Over the last few years I have trained both sales professionals and procurement professionals in approximately equal numbers to negotiate. 

And I have come to a disturbing conclusion - in the majority of cases salespeople just aren’t as good at negotiating as they need to be.  As this concerning reality became increasingly apparent I spent much time and thought working out why this is the case and what can be done about it. My conclusions are as follows:

At an early stage in their career sales people are usually told to “keep the customer happy”.  They have been taught that happy customers are good customers and go out of their way to placate unhappy customers.   Professional buyers know this and will deliberately make salespeople uncomfortable by appearing to be “unhappy” as a way of tipping the power balance in their favour. 

In addition selling and negotiating are two distinct skill sets.  Although selling and negotiating are inextricably linked there are distinct differences:

In selling we are attempting to persuade, convince, enthuse, justify and explain.  

By contrast in negotiation we are stating our position, considering, making and weighing proposals and making demands for what we want.

In the majority of cases sales people are far less comfortable with negotiating than buyers are.   If salespeople receive sales training the majority of the time will be spent on the process of selling and very much less time (if any at all) will be spent on the process of negotiating.  Buyers on the other hand will usually only receive training in negotiation.  Therefore when it comes to the negotiation stage of the sales process - buyers have the advantage. 

Buyers will attempt to short cut the sales stage and pull the salesperson out of their selling comfort zone and into their negotiating discomfort zone.  The experienced buyer will increase the levels of discomfort as much as possible using psychological ploys and tactics.  The uncomfortable salesperson will often pay their way out of discomfort in the form of (at best) some form of financial concession or (at worst) a non-reciprocated “give away”.  They will literally pay their way out of discomfort with their employer’s profit margin.  For salespeople to become more effective negotiators they need to recognise this and get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Having spent countless hours running realistic negotiation training simulations, I have often seen the salesperson’s selling comfort zone once again rearing its ugly head in terms of negotiation behaviour.  Salespeople will tend to do far too much information giving in the negotiation– driven by their predilection for persuading and selling.  In doing so, they miss out on gathering the necessary information that would enable them to make effective negotiation proposals.  They spend far too much time “in their own head” thinking about things from their perspective and not enough time where their focus should be – inside the buyer’s head, understanding things from their perspective.  Professional buyers will tend to exhibit higher levels of information gathering, giving them far more knowledge and information that they can the use to their advantage.  In negotiation knowledge is power.

If this situation continues sales professionals are going to continue to be taken advantage of by the procurement professionals they encounter.  The sales profession must put more far more emphasis than it currently does on equipping sales people to be more confident and capable negotiators.

Good luck and good negotiating!

Simon Hazeldine

Simon Hazeldine MSc FinstSMM is an international speaker and consultant in the areas of sales, negotiation, performance leadership and applied neuroscience.

He is the bestselling author of five business books:

·   Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success

·   Bare Knuckle Selling

·   Bare Knuckle Negotiating

·   Bare Knuckle Customer Service

·  The Inner Winner

To learn more about Simon's keynote speeches and other services please visit:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:
www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

To subscribe to Simon's "Neuro-Sell" newsletter please visit:
www.neuro-sell.com

Think Like A Buyer If You Want To Sell Successfully

There is a process involved in selling successfully.  Indeed selling is a process.  Some companies have a structured sales process that their sales leadership encourage and train their salespeople to use – far too many do not.

In this case their salespeople do the best that they can and to some degree they “make it up as they go along”.  They will have some approach that they follow, but it is likely to be largely unconscious and based upon historical trial and error.  Although there will be successful salespeople within companies that have not adopted a structured sales process, their success will be more as a result of accident rather than design.  In general, an under performing sales force is usually the result, with all categories of salespeople from under performers to those at the top of the sales league table never fulfilling their true sales potential.

The degree of success that salespeople experience is often directly related to their ability to follow a tried and tested and proven sales process.  When a proven sales process is followed correctly the result is increased sales.

Even with companies who do have a structured sales process very few consider the customer’s buying process and how to align their sales process to it.

If we pause for a moment to consider then this becomes a concerning situation.  The salespeople will be orientating their sales process (if indeed they have a conscious process) to their own aims and agenda.  They will be largely viewing the sales process from their perspective.  It is a sales process that they, in some way, take the customer through.  The focus is largely on the result that the salesperson wants to achieve.

This is concerning because the customer is the most important person in the sales interaction.  It is the customer who will make the final decision whether to buy from you or not, and they will only do so if they believe that the purchase will benefit them in achieving their aims and objectives.  It would therefore make sense to consider things from their perspective, wouldn't it?

If you don’t do so already, I am going to invite you to consider the sales process in terms of the customer’s buying process.  Let us assume the customer’s perspective, identify the process that they will be going through as they move towards a purchase decision and then align our selling process to match their buying process. In doing this we will be providing the customer with whatever it is they need to move through their buying process to a successful conclusion.  When this is done well the successful conclusion will usually involve making the decision to purchase from you.

So they key question is - what does the customer’s buying process look like?

What follows is a typical buying process that your customer may follow:

1. Identify need / problem or become aware that a need / problem exists
2. Identify possible solution characteristics
3. Search for possible suppliers /solution
4. Request solution proposals from one or more suppliers
5. Analyse solution proposals
6. Evaluate solution proposals to determine preferred supplier
7. Negotiate terms with chosen supplier
8. Award contract
9. Integrate and induct supplier
10. Review supplier performance.

If the customer has an identified and structured buying process then they will usually share this with you if asked.  Your task is then to align your sales process to the customer’s buying process.   An awareness of their buying process allows you to get ahead of the game and be well prepared as each stage presents itself.

If, as is often the case, the customer does not have a formal or conscious buying process then it is important to elicit the process they will go through.

Asking questions to elicit their (largely) unconscious process will be useful.

Examples include:

“What process will you follow to make your decision?”

“How will you be making your decision about what is right for you?”

“How will you go about selecting the right solution / supplier?”

In helping the customer to get clarity about how they will make their purchasing decision will add value to the customer and help to position you as a credible, helpful and useful supplier.

Become involved in the buying process as early as possible.  If you can get involved in the first stages of need / problem identification (or are the catalyst that causes the buying process to start in the first place) and identification of possible solution characteristics then you will be best placed to influence and shape their understanding of what they need.

Good luck and good selling!

Simon Hazeldine

Simon Hazeldine MSc FinstSMM is an international speaker and consultant in the areas of sales, negotiation, performance leadership and applied neuroscience.

He is the bestselling author of five business books:

·   Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success

·   Bare Knuckle Selling

·   Bare Knuckle Negotiating

·   Bare Knuckle Customer Service

·  The Inner Winner

To learn more about Simon's keynote speeches and other services please visit:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:
www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

To subscribe to Simon's "Neuro-Sell" newsletter please visit:
www.neuro-sell.com

How To Maximise Your Sales Success With Adaptive Selling

In the past, salespeople were often trained to follow a very standard “one size fits all” sales presentation or sales script.  The idea being that the standard presentation or script contained tried and tested selling techniques that would persuade the prospective customer to say ‘yes’.

This approach was symptomatic of the more traditional, transactional “push” style of selling that was prevalent in the past.  It is sometimes referred to as “spray and pray” or “show up and throw up”.  That is you deliver your standard sales message to every prospective customer and hope that sometimes it will get you a positive result.

As the world of selling evolved, perhaps in response to customers becoming more educated and resistant to the standard and all too common “push” approach, a shift towards a more consultative and tailored approach to sales became more common.

The salesperson spent more time understanding the customer’s context, circumstances and challenges so that a more customised solution could be devised that would more accurately reflect the customer’s unique needs.  This is sometimes referred to a “pull” approach, as the information the salesperson requires and, to varying degrees, the structure of the solution is “pulled” or elicited from the customer.

More and more salespeople began to be trained in consultative selling techniques and on the whole these have proved to be more effective than the traditional “push” approach.  In addition, more and more customers have experienced the consultative approach and have come to expect it and prefer it.

Criticism has sometimes been levelled at the more consultative approach that it is a lengthier and more time consuming approach.  Salespeople using a consultative approach have been criticised for being too customer-orientated and lacking the ability to challenge their customers and drive the sale to a conclusion.

So it would appear that broadly speaking we have two approaches to selling.  In my opinion debating the validity of the two approaches is short sighted.  What we appear to have is a continuum of selling styles and approaches ranging from at one extreme, a “push” or “hardball” approach and at the other extreme a highly consultative “pull” approach.

To debate the superiority of these two extremes adopting an either / or approach is to my mind a very narrow and unproductive exercise. 

What will be more productive and useful is to explore an approach to selling that is practical, flexible in approach (avoiding either a one size fits all or either / or approach and indeed incorporating the best of each approach as required), and most importantly is proven to improve sales performance.  Allow me to introduce you to – adaptive selling!

When using adaptive selling, the salesperson flexes, alters and varies their selling approach depending upon:

1.     The nature of the selling situation

2.     The stage of the buying process that the customer is currently in

3.     The specific interests and needs that the customer has in relation to the product / service in question

4.     The personality and buying style of the customer. The adaptive salesperson will tailor their questioning, probing, sales presentation and closing methodology based on the customer’s behavioural preference.  They will also respond to feedback (both verbal and non-verbal) that they receive from the individual and adapt accordingly.

Adaptive selling is a practical and powerful approach to selling.   Indeed research has demonstrated that the practice of adaptive selling is welcomed by salespeople and research has been shown that it increases their sales performance.

So are you adopting a “one size fits all” approach to your selling or are you adapting your approach according to the four areas outlined above?

Simon Hazeldine MSc FinstSMM is an international speaker and consultant in the areas of sales, negotiation, performance leadership and applied neuroscience. 

He is the bestselling author of five business books:

·                     Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success

·                     Bare Knuckle Selling

·                     Bare Knuckle Negotiating

·                     Bare Knuckle Customer Service

·                     The Inner Winner

To learn more about Simon's keynote speeches and other services please visit:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:
www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

To subscribe to Simon's "Neuro-Sell" newsletter please visit:
www.neuro-sell.com

How To Sell Effectively in the New Commercial Reality

We have discovered more about how the human brain works in the last five to ten years than in the whole of human history.  For example, we now understand more about how it functions when it makes decision, including decisions to buy or not to buy from salespeople.

How the human brain works is of great importance to salespeople. Due to advances in neuroscience we can now look into the human brain and discover what it likes and dislikes.  We can understand why it rejects certain things, such as some salespeople and some sales proposals!

However, a considerable number of selling techniques and selling systems that are used today are based largely upon a book that was published in 1922.  A very progressive gentleman called Edward K Strong wrote “The Psychology of Selling” and introduced salespeople to concepts such as open and closed questions, features and benefits, overcoming objections and closing techniques.

He was without doubt a man ahead of his time, and his work was so influential that its key principles survive to this day and indeed form the core content of most company’s sales training programmes.

As useful as Edward K Strong’s principles are, it is important to consider that the commercial world that existed in 1922 was very different to the world of 2014.  In the 92 years that has passed since the publication of Strong’s book huge advances in technology and society have taken place. These powerful changes have disrupted and changed the commercial reality that salespeople face almost beyond recognition.

In the new commercial reality customers are better informed and educated than ever before, they conduct on-line research to gain an advantage over salespeople, and profit margins are under pressure as they continually demand more for less. The relentless process of increasing competition and creative destruction accelerates on a daily basis, creating a highly competitive and cut-throat commercial environment that would have been unthinkable back in 1922!

In order to survive your business has upgraded its technology, its systems, its processes, and its business model.  However the vital question is: Have you upgraded your sales technology, systems and processes? Has your sales approach kept pace with the new reality, or are you in danger of being left behind?

The future of your sales success will increasingly lie in your ability to understand and connect with the brain that resides in the head of your customer.

Cutting edge neuroscience research, if understood and applied, will give you an unfair advantage that your competitors will hate. For example, neuroscience now shows us that only 5% of human decision-making (including the decision to buy from you) occurs in the conscious / rational area of the human brain known as the cortex. A massive 95% of decision-making occurs in the more primitive and largely unconscious regions – namely the reptilian complex and the limbic system.  I refer to this area of the brain as “the missing 95%”.

Although human beings have evolved our brains have not changed significantly in 100,000 years, leaving us with a largely primitive brain that has to operate in the new reality of our modern world. Due to our evolutionary history the more primitive areas of our brain exert more control and influence over the rational part of our brain than the other way around, allowing primitive unconscious mental processes and emotional arousal to heavily influence decision making and, at times, to dominate it.

The modern salesperson needs to understand how to connect with “the missing 95%”of their customer’s brain and help it to feel comfortable with them so that it is receptive to their sales messages.  Irritate or threaten it and the message receptors in the brain begin to shut down with the result that you and your sales pitch are rejected.  To succeed in the new reality salespeople need to master the art of “brain friendly selling”.

For example, you need to understand that hard-wired into the brain are the two most powerful motivating human drives - the instinctive desire to “stay away” from discomfort and to move “towards reward”. Stay away from problems / discomfort and move towards comfort / pleasure is the fundamental operating system of the human brain. These powerful forces are the triggers that cause your customers to buy.

To succeed in the new reality you need to be able to build these powerful motivating drives into your sales process, and motivate the customer to take action by showing how your product or service moves the customer away from the problems they are experiencing and towards the more comfortable future they desire.

If you can do this then you will succeed in the new reality. If you don’t then you are in danger of being left behind by competitors who have upgraded their sales approach to meet the increasing demands of the new reality.  If you harness the very latest powerful discoveries from neuroscience and incorporate these into your sales training, sales process and sales methodology your customers will become increasingly comfortable with you and will buy from you time and time again.

Simon Hazeldine MSc FinstSMM is an international speaker and consultant in the areas of sales, negotiation, performance leadership and applied neuroscience. 

He is the bestselling author of five business books:

• Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success
• Bare Knuckle Selling
• Bare Knuckle Negotiating
• Bare Knuckle Customer Service
• The Inner Winner

To learn more about Simon's keynote speeches and other services please visit:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:
www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com