“If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.” David Ogilvy
The age-old debate… Are good sales reps born, or are they made? People often think that the best sales reps are extroverted and have no problem sparking up conversations with others. Good sales reps are “smooth talkers”, confident, and easily become the focal point in any social environment.
Being a smooth talker has its perks. It can definitely ease up a conversation and help establish a relationship. But is being a smooth talker a viable part of an effective sales pitch? Doesn’t being more concise and saying less with more focus ultimately win over being a smooth-talking speech artist?
Top performing sales reps aren’t oftentimes born sellers, they are the ones that have learned how to properly listen and understand the prospect that win out, in the end. The real trick, however, is coupling a quality pitch with creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. And when you can do that, you’re selling on a whole new level.
Winding down before a client meeting
Sales reps hit a creativity slump when they have too much on their plate, when their stressed, or when they’re simply thinking too hard. When you’ve got an efficient sales process, you have more time to relax – and when you’re relaxed, your creativity starts flowing. An effective way to harness this creativity is to give yourself some prep time before a Sales Call. When preparing for a client meeting, try to distract yourself from the fact that you are about to give a sales presentation. Maybe listen to some music in the car… Maybe grab a latte from Starbucks. Whatever it is you do to unwind, give yourself some time to do it before getting face-time with the client.
Capturing the moment
When you’ve got the meat and bones of your sales presentation down packed, and you’ve freed your mind from any clutter, try to stay in that moment – that moment when you really feel like an empty vessel. In that moment, start jotting down any ideas that come into your mind. Think of some clever lines or a funny anecdote. Another thing you can take advantage of is going back to your CRM. Your CRM should house all the conversations that have taken place with the customer throughout their sales process. Go over these comments and make a point to remember the details. When you are in that moment of complete freedom from your thoughts, that’s when you will remember the details that matter most. Being in the moment and coupling it with some good, solid customer data will make for a creative sales presentation that feels natural and sincere.
The best sales pitches are the creative ones. The ones where a thought isn’t running a mile a minute, or the brain isn’t trying to compute a given situation. It is when our minds are empty -free from thought- that our creative juices kick in.
How creative do you get with your presentations? What’s the creativity/customer data ratio to your sales pitches?
