I’d like to mention a few words about the lunacy of your selfcentered memememe sales presentation.

For some reason you have the dumb idea that people are actually interested in what it is that you’re presenting. You have even a dumber idea that they’re hearing this information for the first time. But the dumbest idea is the idea that you think you’re different from your competition by extolling the virtues of your product or service. Ha, ha, ha. Make me laugh. “It’s our service!” you cry. “I swear to God it’s our people and our service. Please, pleeeeeeeese.”

Pathetic.

Do you think your competition says, “Mr. Prospect, you’d better buy from the other guy, our service and our people are crappy.”

The average customer or prospect sees your product as pretty much the same as your competition’s product (no offense). And you may think the only difference is your price. Wrong again.

The only difference is YOU.

What are you doing to differentiate yourself from the competitors you hate? ANSWER not enough.

Your product appears to be the same.

Your literature looks the same.

Your proposals look the same.

You have to drone on about why you’re different.

And in the end, think you have a “commodity” on your hands that is driven by price and further, you whine because your price isn’t the “lowest.”

Boy if you were the lowest price THEN you could make all the sales in the world! Yeah, then you’d be KING. But with the lowest price, a 12 year old could make sales and would probably be more computer literate.

NOTE: I recognize and acknowledge that the sales presentation is integral to the sales process. I’m not saying it’s a dumb process. I’m saying that most salespeople do it wrong.

The two critical elements of the sales presentation are:

1. When it is given. And…

2. In terms of whom is it given.

Take this sales history test and at the same time get the point of the sales presentation.

Who is the most famous cowboy that ever lived? Come on, take a guess. Gene Autry, Tom Mix, John Wayne, Roy Rogers, HopALong Cassidy? Not even close.

The most famous cowboy in the world is also the world’s greatest lesson in how to give value first, and how to make a winning sales presentation.

I’ll give you a clue kemosabi: he wore a mask. And at the end of the show, it turns out he never even said his name. Because the next to the last line of every adventure he was ever in was the rewarded person’s question “Who was that masked man?” And the last line of every show was “That was the Lone Ranger!” And you see him riding off into the sunset screaming “HiHo Silver, away”.

Did the Lone Ranger come into town at the beginning of the show and say “Hi, I’m the Lone Ranger. I’ve been a cowboy for 28 years. I kill villains, arrest bad guys, return land to damsels in distress, and pretty much save the day. My sidekick Tonto is my Customer Service Manager, he’ll fix things while I’m away. I ran out of business cards, so let me just give you this silver bullet.”

Did he say any of that? NO. He just went about his business. Silently, doing his thing, giving value, asking for nothing, not even saying his name. Heck of a salesman, that Lone Ranger. Is that how you sell? I doubt it.

You probably do the standard old, walk into a prospect’s office, tell em all about you, give them copies of your brochure, tell them how great your company is, fake like you like the guy, try some phony close, and walk out feeling like King when the prospect says, “send me a proposal on that” (Which in cowboy talk means “Get the Hell out of here”).

Did the Lone Ranger have brochures? Hell no, he didn’t need em. He got other people to talk about him behind his back, His reputation was based on word of mouth advertising not stupid sales presentations.

Looking for a new way to sell? Walk in to your next sales call, and before you give your standard “this is who I am” rap, try putting valuable business building information at the beginning of your talk. Idea after idea that your prospect can use to build HIS business. Do it until he says, “Who are you?”

Then you’re on your way to learning how to differentiate yourself, eliminate commodity perception, and reduce “price” selling. Do that and you’ll ride off into the sunset with the order

FREE GitBit … The customers point of view. A page on how to take the customers perspective in a sales presentation is yours free. Just go to www.gitomer.com click FREE STUFF then GitBit register and enter the secret words, “POINT OF VIEW”.

Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible, and Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless. President of Charlottebased Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts training programs on selling and customer service. He can be reached at 704/3331112 or email to salesman@gitomer.com

1999 All Rights Reserved Don’t even think about reproducing this document without written

permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer 704/3331112