Motivation, Sales Techniques, Sales Training

The 3 things every sales professional can learn from Steve Jobs

It’s pretty even out there on the sales battlefield. Everyone has access to the same talent, great sales technology and even the product & feature lists aren’t miles apart from one competitor to another. So what truly makes you stand out?

I believe this quote from  Maya Angelou explains it perfectly.

“People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did.
But people will never forget how you made them feel”.

Your textbook demo tour of all the product features won’t make your prospect feel anything on its own. The emotion that’s felt is in your delivery. The master of this and the guy who always inspires me is Steve Jobs. Whatever you think of  him you have to admire the way he sold his products in the late 2000’s.

He did 3 simple, but hugely effectively things.

He’s language is incredibly emotive

“It’s really beautiful”  “dramatically improved” “It’s really quite wonderful” “It’s really hot” “gorgeous” “It’s really cool”

All examples of his use of language from the clip below. Does your language express real excitement and passion? When I’m on a sales demo you’ll often hear me saying things like  “I love this part” This is truly unbelievable.”  “Isn’t this incredible.” Amazing results.” I speak as though I built every piece of code myself, I speak with such admiration for the product its infectious and rubs of on the prospect.

 

Are you smiling?

Steve Jobs smiles. He makes jokes, he’s a pleasure to watch and listen to. Don’t underestimate the power of something so simple. Smiling fights the feeling of stress, that’s got to be good, you don’t want to feel stressed in a sales pitch.  One study reported that seeing a smiling face stimulated a part of the brain that actually made you feel rewarded, it’d be great if our prospects felt rewarded before they’d even seen the product. Smiling is contagious, if you’re smiling at your sales prospect they can’t help but smile back. I smile even when I’m online and can’t be seen, it still positively impacts your tone and energy.

Save the best bit until last

Your prospect will never remember it all, but they are definitely more likely to remember the last 5 mins than the first. What nugget of information are you leaving them with that’s going to make them feel really excited? Steve Jobs did this beautifully, there’s a whole compilation on ‘One more thing’. Take a second to think about what information you leave the meeting room with. Is it price? Probably. Is that the most exciting thing? What about a product update no-one else knows about yet? What about an invite to an event they’d really value? Walk out of the room on the highest note you can reach.

“I believe, how you make people feel truly defines the good salespeople from the great salespeople”.

 

 

 

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