Persuade With Your Explanations

In your sales presentations, you will reach a pivotal point which could take your buyer either closer to or further away from agreement with your proposition. Many sales professionals loose their buyers at just this point. Instead of becoming more persuasive, more influential and bringing their buyers closer to a yes, their presentations often create confusion, lack of confidence or a general disinterest from the buyer. It is here that your powers to persuade will be tested. Does your explanation of how your product or service works help or hinder your pitch?

When explaining how your project works it is essential that you treat this portion of your presentation like you would any other opportunity to persuade. Mistakenly believing that this explanation is meant to educate your buyer can lead to your giving an exhaustive and confusing set of details that can serve as an excuse for your prospect to say no. Focus your presentation of how your product or service works on communicating the ease with which the project can be implemented, the many functions and uses it offers your prospect and the general feasibility of the idea.

Take the following example: Dawn is selling a back to school promotional package and has two important calls to make on one day with head buyers at retail chain stores. At the first meeting, Dawn goes into great detail, she wants to be sure that her buyer knows the process. She feels that if she misses anything out, he may not have enough confidence in her proposal to say yes. In the end, she gives him too much detail and, seeing the confusion on his face, knows she will not get the answer she is looking for.

On her next call, Dawn is determined to avoid making the same mistake twice. This time, she maps out a very simple explanation. Dawn is able to present her new explanation without being greeted by a look of confusion but when she finishes, she is met with a barrage of questions. The buyer asks about display set up, discount prices and floor arrangements. Dawn gets the impression that the buyer feels a lot was missing from her explanation, he does not buy either.

Dawn failed to use her “how it works” explanation as a tool of persuasion. First, she sought to educate the buyer with it. Going into such great detail that she made the buyer worry that the project may be too large an undertaking. Remember, even when you are selling to a corporation, you are still selling to an individual person. If your explanation makes the buyer in question envision having to do a great deal of work to pull this project off, it will be the quickest, easiest route to the word no.

Dawn’s second attempt failed because she was trying to make it look too easy. In an effort to make sure that she did not confuse the buyer with unnecessary details, she went as far as to leave out the necessary details as well. Not only did she miss the opportunity to give the buyer pertinent details that may help him feel this proposition would work, but she also lost his confidence with an oversimplified explanation that caused the buyer to doubt her ability to successfully implement the project.

Action step: Go through your explanation of how your product or service works. Break it down into three or four easily explained steps that focus on persuading rather than educating the buyer. Be sure to include all pertinent information that could help sway the buyer to a yes.

Many presentations are met with a no purely because the buyer cannot visualize how all of the elements will work together. Confusing explanations that give too much detail can have the same negative effect on a presentation as simplified explanations that leave too much unsaid. In your efforts to explain how your product or service works be sure to focus on the elements that will help you to persuade the buyer to buy.