To be really good at selling something you don’t just have to be able to talk smoothly to your audience or customers, but you also need to have some valuable information for them as well. They don’t just have to know that your product is really good but more important is that it can help them, and you are there to show them how it will.
In Malcolm Gladwell’s blockbuster book “Outliers” Gladwell tells it like this: “it takes 10,000 hours of intensive practice to achieve mastery of complex skills and materials…….” (Sadly, in sales we can hardly anticipate who our audience will be, and as such have to develop multiple skills)

A wise man once said, “The almighty gave you two ears and one mouth…….”

We all have at least one of those friends that take up two thirds in every conversation (I am one of them) no matter how many people are involved in it. In a certain African language, they are called umbele are what they do is referred to as kiherehere. They can speak about any topic whatsoever and have their opinion about everything. Not that they know much about it, but hey as long as they can talk. (Thank God for Miss Google).
Now I am not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing, but it is not something that will make you a good salesperson. It will certainly help if you are charismatic and talkative, but it is only one part of the whole process.
On the flip side there are also those people who mostly keep silent during a conversation and only speak when spoken to, but when they do speak, you immediately see just what experts they are at a specific topic.
It basically all comes down to the way your brain is functioning.
The left side is where you think logically and critically, almost like you are doing mathematics.
The right side is more used by people who are creative, like musicians, painters and writers.
Normally people will use one side more than the other but overall, both are equally important.
It certainly helps to be charismatic, talkative and friendly. It also helps to be a good listener, knowledgeable and straight to the point.
Now, combine these two and you will have one super salesperson.

Sales is not just about offering your product to the potential buyer and answering their questions about it. It also involves analysing, understanding people and the reasons why they behave the way they do, with the knowledge once you introduce the product or service on offer.
This is not a trait you are born with, it’s one that is developed through time, learning, training and continually improving. That is what makes a great salesperson.
Who is your favourite sportsperson or musician?
How many times do Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi have to train before dazzling us on the football pitch? How many hours did Michael Jackson or Rihanna spend in the studio rehearsing before a performance that blew our minds?
If you just rely on your luck, good looks or charisma, you may have moderate success in the beginning, but after that you will most likely hit a brick wall and not be able to sell to anyone. Without a proper scientific and methodical approach implemented during the sales process, which includes knowledge of your product or service, an understanding of your potential client amongst many other things, you cannot expect to be good at sales.
Always remember the great sportsperson or musician and the time they take to perfect their art.
My hero is Eliud Kipchoge, the only human to run a marathon (42 kilometres) in under 2 hours. He practices 5 times a week and runs 35 kilometres on each of those 5 days. He competes in no more than 3 marathons in a year. He spends close to 300 days a year preparing for only 3 events!!!
One of my favourite quotes is from Tiger Woods the world-famous golfer………. We grew up being told “Practice makes Perfect” ……right…….no wrong!!!
Tiger goes by the mantra “Practice makes Permanent!!”
Always remember that without putting a solid effort into preparing yourself for what lies ahead of you, be it sales or something else, you cannot really expect any long-term success.
A really good salesperson is a great asset to any company as he or she has the potential to bring in tons of revenue to a company thanks to their amazing sales techniques. There are many sales representatives who are more of a “one trick pony”, land that one big deal and that’s that. They do not last very long. Once potential clients read their sales pitch or style, they eventually lose interest in them and after that it is downhill all the way. They end up extremely frustrated and usually give up and quit.
This is why it is important to have several aces up your sleeve and not rely on one strategy all the time, no matter how good that strategy may be.
Let us have a deeper look at the human brain and how it works. You already know that your left side is responsible for logical thinking, analytics and language. When learning a new language, doing some math or just trying to think critically, you are using the left side of your brain.
The right side of the brain is where all the creative thinking begins. It is also important for expressing emotions, reading them, being intuitive and so on. Remember the musician or artist?
Ok, what does that mean to your presentation. A lot in fact. Let’s take a PowerPoint presentation. During your presentation you need to “attack” both sides of your audience’s brains. On one side, your slides need to be informative and elicit logical thinking (left side of the brain) and on the other, the slides need to be visually appealing (right side of the brain).
Here’s the thing, left side and right side has other meanings for you as well. On one side you need to approach sales in a more scientific way. Here is where your daily planning, client research, analysis, reports and so on start from. On the other side you need to be spontaneous and creative when making the sale. (This is especially crucial when selling an intangible product/service) We shall look at selling tangibles and intangibles at a later stage. (Tangibles being products and services you can touch and feel e.g., a television, cars, cookers. Intangibles are like an insurance service, education, data or a data service, software).
This is where you can easily distinguish a regular salesperson from a good one.
Let us take two sales reps. One manages to make a sale every other time, while the other hardly has the same success.
Now, common amongst may beginner salespeople, the second sales rep is thinking that his or her colleague is (please feel free to add on to this)
⦁ Lucky
⦁ Cheating
⦁ Favoured by the boss
⦁ Has a knack of knowing the perfect time to strike
The last example is probably the truth. The good sales rep knows when it is the perfect time to:
⦁ Get into action with their pitch
⦁ Reads the client’s buying signals including words phrases and body language
⦁ Capture the moment
⦁ Change strategy to suit the moment

This brings me to the question.
Are good salespeople born or made?
Are there people who are born surgeons, lawyers, engineers or accountants?
Truth is, while some people are naturally more charismatic than others or more natural, that doesn’t mean they will be more successful in sales. They would be in sales only if the requirement would be creativity and have “the gift of the gab”.
I would dare to suggest that in many instances the more methodical and deliberate, making use of the left side would be equally if not more successful.
What are your thoughts?
⦁ SECRETS

1.Show and Tell (evidence defeats doubt)
When making a sales presentation, it is not enough if you just tell people what your product, idea or service is about. Instead, you have to show them how amazing the product is. This is where you need to get creative especially if your product is not tangible. If they do not see it with their eyes, they may not know they actually need it. Words and images are processed in different parts of your brain. Therefore, if you offer a presentation with both of these included you will have the double impact on whoever your audience is.
I will attempt to do this and urge you try it on your friends, family and colleagues. (remember “Tiger…. practice makes…….”)
I am trying to get prospective parents to sign up their kids to our school. I can talk about our great curriculum and show them pictures of our playing fields.
But imagine I pull out a newspaper cutting from a widely read local newspaper that reads; “The SRA Sales Academy Tops National ranking once again”
What impact do you think that would have on the parents when making a choice for their son or daughter?
2.Direct the customer’s attention appropriately
Think about what is really important in your presentation (based on your client research) and make it bigger, brighter and louder. Depending on whether it’s a PowerPoint presentation or a video presentation. Of course, this does not mean that you should go wild with this and make every other word or phrase bigger because it may look a bit untidy.
My personal favourite for PowerPoint is Guy Kawasaki’s 10.20.30 rule
⦁ 10 slides: The theory proposes, ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting
⦁ 20-minute presentation: You should give your ten slides in twenty minutes. Sure, you have an hour time slot, but my experience says you have no more than 30 minutes. Ever heard of Murphy’s law…… it’s on that day that your computer hangs, the projector goes off, the meeting can’t start because 2 decision makers are running late…… If all goes well, you should run through your presentation in 20 minutes and ensure you have created enough excitement to have a 40-minute Q&A session
⦁ 30-point font: A big mistake most people make is putting your written proposal on PowerPoint Verbatim. This will run you into well over 30 slides. The second mistake most people make is reading through all the points in the slide. That’s called “presentation suicide”. I remember sitting through one such presentation and asking myself “does the presenter think we are illiterate”. We can all read the points so why go over them again? PowerPoint did a smart thing and gave you a tool to add talking points to a presentation. Please use it!!! The secret to great presentations is large fonts that everyone can see and using the bullets in the slide to create talking points.

3. Different strokes for different folks
No matter how good your presentation might be, it may not work for the whole audience equally. This is why it’s important for you to find out who will be in the presentation so that you can have a segment that will appeal to each listener’s interest.
Typically, the audience will fall into 3 broad categories:
⦁ CEO/ Owner: they have a “helicopter” view of the business. They tend to balance the business interests between business growth, cost and staff welfare
⦁ Finance manager: Yes…. you guessed it 😊 “how much”
⦁ HR & Operations: staff benefits and welfare

Rule of thumb, tackle all these areas and you pretty much covered all areas. More and more these days have seen the inclusion of the ICT department because a lot of business processes have been automated.
4. Speak with your audience (not to them)
Powerful presentations are conversational. You are not giving a speech. Imagine you are speaking with a friend who you have a lot of respect for. Avoid using technical jargon and abbreviations such as MRR, ARR, CTC, Churn, RTM, A.I. and so on. Have you ever heard a presentation where you wonder if the presenter is speaking in English?
5. Use personal anecdotes
Making a sales presentation is not about moving from one slide to the next and boring your audience to sleep with statistics and facts that do not make any sense. Instead try and put in a personal experience. Of course, the anecdote must relate in some way to the topic of presentation. It is a great way to connect with your audience, keep them interested and relaxed.
6. Pause from time to time
Look at your audience and try and find a connection amongst them. Look for that person who is nodding their head in agreement with you or is smiling. This will keep you encouraged especially when their people in the audience that may not entirely agree with you or have preference for another product. It is sometimes clever to go with a colleague or two and “plant” them strategically in the audience specifically to give you encouragement. We all hated that teacher or college professor who just went on and on and you could not keep up with the lecture especially if you thought you would write notes. Do not be that guy
7. In conclusion get ready for some Q & A
This is probably the most important part of your presentation. This is where you will see if the audience has actually listened to you or dozed off. If there are no questions, trust me, its not a good sign. You probably have not made that much of an impact. This will take you right back to the content of your presentation. Like I said before, research your audience and make sure your presentation has enough touch points that will elicit comments and emotion from them.
HAPPY SELLING!!!