After the last post some of you may be irritated with my assumptions that you can defer questions at presentation time. You think, “But I work with technical people, I have to show them the details.” or maybe it’s, “If I do not handle everything in the first presentation, I may not get another chance.”
Well guess what aspiring Sales Evangelist; if these are your concerns, you have missed the point of this entire series. Pipeline Management is about addressing the buyer’s needs. The problem is they do not always have a clear vision of what they need to see. If they did, well they would not need a sales person, just techies and product managers. You are there to clarify the message and coordinate the interactions of those who should engage. Those who should engage are the like minded people in each company.
See as the legendary sales trainer, Anthony Parinello first shared in his great VITO books, sales people should talk to executives. Leave the technical discussions for their IT and your Architects. Leave the details of supply to product management and purchasing. Leave the discussion of color to whomever on earth worries about color these days. Stick to the benefit (unless the color is the benefit, maybe the CEO needs it to be a certain blue that only you can create. Then it is all about color), and make sure they truly understand what that benefit is. Often people do not see everything they can address when they first realize there is a need for change.
Now, before you go sending emails with meeting times and phone numbers, make sure you always include the most important person in the process. YOU! Do not let any meeting transpire without being involved. Nothing can send an opportunity spiraling into the porcelain bowl faster than a poorly managed request by a prospect or an offhand remark that sent shivers down their spine. You did not work your tail off to get to this point only to have a minor misunderstanding completely freeze you out of an opportunity.
So I do not care if it is the lowest level intern on their team or a meeting of the CEO’s, you are in the room or on the call…PERIOD. A Sales Evangelist does not let others write their sermons.
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TopSalesExperts Summer Series 2009 »« Pipeline Management Series: Time to Show Them Something
>The problem is they do not always have a clear vision of what they need to see. If they did, well they would not need a sales person, just techies and product managers. <
This is a great point.
How can you help them see a clearer picture before you begin a major presentation though?
