Clear and Presentation Danger

Several years ago I had to do a presentation at a Sales Management Conference.  The location was the Institute of Directors in Pall Mall and there were about 150 people in the audience.  The room was opulent and ornate, all chandeliers and gilt. Massive mirrors hung on every wall, an unwelcome by-product of which was that presenters could see themselves from multiple angles.

All a little intimidating. Of more concern to me however, was that I wasn’t as on top of my material as I would have liked. I was a last minute stand-in for a colleague who had had to cry off. Would I be able to bring it to life, or would the audience find it worthy but dull?

While I fretted, the speaker before me was introduced. The Sales Director of a Beer Company; he was confident and commanding.  He even had introductory music –  ”Born Slippy” as used in the movie Train Spotting.  At the bit that goes “mega, mega white thing, mega, mega white thing,..Lager, Lager, Lager”, he ran down from the back of the auditorium and bounced up on the stage.  My discomfort was complete.  Would I look like an unknown indie band following U2?

He launched into his piece, utterly fluent, not looking at the slides, illustrating his points with well-chosen examples.

Unfortunately, these were the days of the slide carousel (younger readers might like to wiki this). He hadn’t noticed he’d started to send the slides in the wrong direction.  Now the previous speaker’s slides were coming up.  There was a ripple of audience confusion and then people started exchanging nervous glances.  Some tried to mumble words of warning.  The speaker sensed something was wrong and looked at the screen.  You could feel his horror. Why was the “wrong” presentation on the screen?   From then on, things disintegrated.

He finished a broken man, with the audience embarrassed and ill at ease.  I felt some sympathy, after all we shared a common cause.

I wasn’t at my best either, but no one got hurt and there weren’t any slip-ups. It was a bit wooden, but by comparison, it was slick.  I received warm applause, I’m sure a result of the audience’s relief.

What did I learn?  Well, by all means focus on the audience, prepare content, develop visuals aids intelligently and rehearse.  But most of all remember, relax, the audience want you to do well, they’re on your side.

If only because the alternative is just too uncomfortable.

Mike Hawthorne, Managing Director

Salespeople, Sales Management and Learning from the Best

Rob Andrew was one of the England Rugby Team’s finest goal-kickers. His metronomic consistency could ensure an England victory even when the team as a whole hadn’t played particularly well. As a follower of Ireland, I always hoped he would have the occasional off-day, at least when he played against us. It never seemed to happen.

Andrew learned to break the task into achievable chunks. Instead of focusing on the tiny gap between the posts way, way in the distance, he discovered he could tell whether a kick was going to be successful, almost from the moment the ball left his foot. Then he discovered there was a sweet spot when the ball had travelled just a short distance. If the ball was in that spot, it would likely be a score. By learning to hit that spot, rather than focusing on the posts, he could concentrate on his task, shutting out the crowd and all the other attendant pressures.

There is a lesson in this for salespeople, particularly today. Most salespeople focus on revenue because that’s what their managers focus them on. Revenue is important, but it can be elusive. It’s the equivalent of the tiny gap between the posts. The problem is that the salesperson’s need for revenue frequently gets in the way of the customer’s need to make the right decision. The salesperson wants the result too quickly, so they appear pushy and self-interested, even aggressive. Their attendant pressures have got in the way.

The best salespeople , and equally important, the best sales managers, break the tasks down into chunks. And they follow a simple mantra: “Chase the revenue and the revenue gets further away, chase the service and the revenue will follow”.  They know that building relationships is the same as identifying the sweet spot ahead of the ball. If they focus on that, rather than revenue, then they’ll be successful with their ultimate goal.

That’s why top salespeople move at the customer’s speed. They exhibit natural curiosity and they find useful, meaningful reasons to be in contact. They also know many more people in an account. They seek out referrals, get in touch with other divisions, enquire about and get introduced to other stakeholders. The customer sees a salesperson who is prepared to invest and add value, and the salesperson is far better informed, can recommend a more appropriate solution and is less vulnerable to people leaving. For that reason a salesperson who focuses on building and refreshing their contact base, will always be more successful, than a salesperson who focuses on revenue alone.

Of course the key words in all this are “they find useful, meaningful reasons to be in contact”. They aren’t there to eat the customers biscuits, or talk about last night’s game. But that’s a topic for another day.

As many Sales Managers will know, it can be difficult, if not impossible to reform the inveterate revenue-chaser. But if it was easy, we wouldn’t need sales managers, or for that matter, training!

Mike Hawthorne,  Managing Director