Your task today is to ensure that you have a world-class remote presentation and pitching skills in an environment where your voice and your delivery count more than ever before, coupled with this you need your visuals to be breathtakingly brilliant. It is all new. And the stakes have never been higher.
It is here that you begin to position yourself as an authority in your industry or field way before the meeting. I have found that many people wait until the big pitch to position themselves as an authority, and by then it may just possibly well be too late.
I have shared the story before about how I failed to do this when I first opened The Sales Counsel, and headed into a proposal meeting, without positioning myself as an authority, and tanked the proposal just by my own disbelief in myself, and it’s a true story that taught me a very valuable lesson, let me assure you!
Setting the Scene
On a good day, our customers are distracted by text messages and phone calls, and on a bad day, they are impossible to reach. We must not forget that the battle is really for our customer’s attention, gaining and holding our customer’s attention begins long before the pitch, and how we engage with a client in the preceding meetings is vital.
In all of these engagements, we are really teaching our customers how we like to engage and what it is that they can expect from us, and all of these engagements that precede your pitch are really engagements in which you are positioning yourself.
These are skills that can be practiced, that can be honed, and that is one of the reasons that I recommend that you pitch as often as possible to get that practice in.
The Science of Persuasion
Persuasion is both a science and an art. Now, we all know those folks that just seem to be gifted at the art of persuasion, you know them, right? That guy that closes every deal and people just love him?
Well, perhaps what is not obvious to the rest of us is that people like this are tapping into the science of persuasion without even knowing it. If you think about a singer, a performer like Adele, Adele has never had any formal vocal training before she became so famous, but that does not mean that Adele was not using the science that they teach in vocal training. It is something that came more naturally to Adele.
Now there are many other performers that were not able to do what Adele did naturally but have had to develop and hone that skill and so, it is the same with the art of persuasion.
Pitchcraft Play
How to get attention and be noticed when you are pitching is to start with the big idea – it grabs attention. You can be a little bit provocative and then hit them with a fact, so what is the big idea?
Start with the bottom-line upfront, it is really important for our survival brain that they know that this is something they need to pay attention to – and more importantly that this is someone they need to pay attention to.
Expand on the problems and challenges that they are experiencing and give them the benefit of your perspective, educate them on the problems and support your understanding of their challenges with facts – preferably facts supplied by the client, or by other stakeholders that you have interviewed.
Creating engaging, informative, and powerful presentations, that flow with your style and get the message across are vital in an environment in which you are relying heavily on visuals. Preparing compelling, relevant, and thoughtful questions ahead of your pitch will also enable you to gain maximum engagement from the participants.
If you have done expert preparation, you have stunning visuals and a compelling message, you will make it considerably more difficult for your competitors to be more memorable.
Your customers need you to develop the skill, and although it is tough times for everyone, you do not need to look too far to see the consequences of what happens when deals are not being done.
Your organisation, your customers and even your country are all relying on you to develop your skillset. What you do is a noble job, and that cannot ever be overstated.
If you and your team would like help with this, that is what we do – so please do feel free to reach out to us anytime.
If you would like to know more about how you can get access to our Remote Selling School, which will offer you and your team a structured approach to virtual sales success please indicate your early interest by reaching out to Chris on chris@salescounsel.co.za who will be in touch with relevant information and let you know about our early bird offer.
