In a time of economic downturn, selling is a skill of greatly enhanced value.

In my latest edition of Phil’s Skills, I look at 5 key elements in sales effectiveness.

1. Preparation is key.

The importance of understanding your customer’s needs and objectives are of utmost importance. There will be instances where your customer’s do not even understand their own needs, in such cases it will be your job to work closely with your client to ascertain and articulate what those needs are. Only When you and your customer have a clear picture as to their needs can you explain how your the benefits of the product or service you are offering complements those needs.

2. Understanding the competition.

Once you have a thorough understanding of your customer’s needs and objectives you should also have an understanding as to how your competitors offerings will compare against your companies. Never assume your customer is not or will not be speaking to other vendors. You do not want to be out manouvered by a competittor, the more you understand about the competitive landscape the better your odds of achieving your sale.

3. Selling Your Organisation.

You have to be sure that your customer has 100% faith in the credibility of your company you represent. If you can not instill faith in your potential customer that they are dealing with the right organisation it will not matter how good your offering is, nor will it matter how good a salesperson you are, the odds are that he or she  will buy from another organisation that they trust.

4. Selling Yourself.

As a general rule it is fair  to say that people like to buy from people they like, but having an outgoing personality  is not enough to ensure that your customer will buy from you rather than another vendor. Your customers may trust your company but perhaps more importantly they have to have complete trust and faith in you, what you say and what you do. You have to be knowlegable, believable, likeable and gain their respect. If you make a bad first impression or appear to be lacking in self confidence the likelyhood is your customer will soon be calling one of your competitors.

5. Sales Techniques

You will need to have and be able to apply a  repetoir of many sales techniques. A few are listed below.

Asking the right questions
How to overcome objections
Knowing when to Give and take control back
Identifying “hot” buttons
Psychoanalysing your customer
Reading body language
How to read buy signals
How and when to ask for the close.

Selling will always be more of an art than a science and while there is no magic formula  to achieving a successful sale, the better you are versed in the five areas outlined above the greater your chances of realising your sales abilities to their fullest.

To many, presentations are like driving a Formula One car: a high-speed, high-adrenaline race against the clock to get the point you’re making across to the audience, usually without stopping to catch your breath!

But treating your presentation like a car race is the wrong way to approach it.  Most of you would agree that presentations are heart-stopping enough, so this edition of Phil’s Skills looks at a very underrated aspect of presentation effectiveness: The Pit.

I’m convinced that movement is an essential part of an effective presentation. Rarely have I seen a memorable presentation delivered by someone who spends the whole time standing behind a lectern or from a position where movement is restricted. For sure too much movement can distract from your presentation message, but audiences always appreciate a lively presenter who’s passionate about his or her topic – and movement  coupled with gesture, equals passion and enthusiasm for your subject.

Preparation is key when you’re about to give an important presentation and one thing I always make sure I get right is the area which I’m going to work in. Professional presenters refer to this area as ‘the pit’. How quickly and easily can you get from your laptop to the screen?  If you want to walk from the screen to  a member of the audience , is the path clear or is something blocking the way ?   If you’ve ever done a presentation in a first-class hotel, you’ll be familiar with how hotel staff sometimes love to decorate training rooms with flowers, small tables and all sorts of paraphenalia  – often right in the middle of your pit!

When this happens I will always politely ask the hotel staff to get rid of any floral displays that are clearly in the way. I don’t want to be wading through a jungle every time I need to highlight an important piece of data on the screen or walk across the floor to my flipchart.

Even worse than all the pretty flower arrangements are electrical wires – that mass of spaghetti spewing out from the laptop, the projector and of course wires that trail from power bars. I’ve seen many a presentation ruined because the presenter is frightened they’ll trip and do themselves a serious injury every time they move across the floor. The result? Too much mental energy is spent worrying about avoiding wires and it has a negative effect on the presentation.

Don’t let this happen to you! Make sure your pit is comfortable and obstacle-free. Then you can concentrate on the job in hand – delivering a first-class presentation!