I received a call recently that went like this:
- Sales Manager: My team needs sales training. Can you help?
- Me: What’s wrong?
- SM: Their conversion rates are too low. They need training.
- Me: Where do you feel they are falling down?
- SM: They are not closing as well as they should be. They need to be better at closing.
I receive calls like this regularly from very well-intentioned, supportive sales managers, but there is a problem here. Do you see it?
Separate Symptom From Cause
The Sales Manager is acting like a doctor who hears you have an unusually severe headache and immediately prescribes aspirin and sends you home. That headache can be the symptom of 
many things: a headache sure, but also a tumor, ingrown wisdom teeth, a side effect from another drug you might be taking, etc. You would want the doctor to get at the root cause to solve your problem, not assume it was just a headache. The same with our Sales Manager.
Our Sales Manager should be asking WHY his team isn’t hitting their numbers and not assume it is because they need help closing. They could be failing to close for any or all of the following reasons:
- They have no understanding of a sales process, so they are all over the place
- They understand the sales process, but don’t know their product, so they don’t present it credibly
- They do know their product, but they are feature dumping instead of value selling, so prospect doesn’t see value for him/herself
- They know their product and know its general value, but are not having a strategic business development conversation with their prospects, to make that value as compelling as possible to help prospects decide to buy
- They know all of the above, but make small, but alienating errors in their conversation, e.g., cutting prospects off, not listening, using seller centric rather than buyer centric language, arguing, etc.
Closing should be the easiest part of a well executed sales conversation. If people aren’t closing, there is a good chance the cause is somewhere else in the process. That “somewhere else” needs to be identified, isolated, and addressed.
If you aren’t reaching your objectives, what is the root cause?
In Presenting
- Insufficient information about prospect?
- No belief in the product?
- Poor preparation?
- No clear message?
- Poor structure?
- Insufficient engagement with listeners?
- Getting lost in the weeds?
- Data dumping rather than story telling?
- No clear next step?
- Weak delivery skills?
- Confusing visuals?
- Poor handling of Q&A
- Other?
In Selling
- Misunderstanding of buyer/seller relationship?
- No sales process?
- Weak sales skills
- Poor preparation?
- Weak product knowledge?
- Weak industry knowledge?
- Unpersuasive presentations?
- Poor listening skills?
- Other?
Keep asking WHY something isn’t happening until you get to the real reason. When you treat the root cause of a sales or presentation problem, not its symptom, you can banish it forever.
Anne Miller
Words Matter – Make What You Say Pay!
Be Sure Your Presentations are “Problem Free!”
- Do you get nervous before presentations?
- Do you shrivel up before a group?
- Do you lose people with your content?
- Do you get rattled by tough questions?
- Do you want to “command the room?”
If you answered “YES” to any of these questions, give me a call and let’s turn you from a ho-hum presenter into a wow communicator who gets results!
212-876-1875 amiller@annemiller.com