Selling too soon and Lack of Preparation

Okay, here we are, episode 10. 10 of 10. 10 of 10. 10 Of 10 of the 20 biggest mistakes that most every presenter, trainer, facilitator makes the that completely blows up their presentations, makes them look like fools and screws up their sales. And hopefully by now I hope that some of these tips we're on, tip 19 and 20 in episode 10, hopefully some of these are already helping you because I'm going to tell you why. Even if you blow your entire presentation, if you don't make some of the mistakes that I talk about here, you're going to be better than 90% of the other people out there that have no clue about what you've been learning. Okay? So thank you for hanging in there. So number 19. Number 19. Selling without giving value first. Okay, so this is the age old dilemma, right? You sign up for a program, you go to a webinar or whatever, you kind of know in the back of your mind you're going to get sold, but you're going to go anyway because you think maybe there might be some good material. But no, what happens is you end up sitting through a 90 minute sales pitch. A 90 minute sales pitch. And it may be good, maybe compelling, but in the long term, did you really add value? Did you really add value? Now, there are many schools of thought on this and I have some colleagues that share with me that we operate from the law of reciprocity. Remember the law of reciprocity. Law of reciprocity says if you give, then you should receive. But the rule in negotiating and the rule of reciprocity is give free first, serve first, give value first. In other words, it's much easier to make a presentation or make an offer after people have had an experience of you have had an experience of who you are, where you come from, your authenticity, the value that you bring to the table by actually teaching them something. Teaching them something. Now, if you're just giving, if your presentation is just a sales presentation and the prospect or the customer knows that that's what it is, I am still going to tell you that before making your offer in that presentation, give a little bit of value first. Here are the findings we discovered. We discovered this opportunity for growth. We discovered this opportunity to growth. We found that if several of these strategies were implemented in your business, it could make a very, very big difference in your business. So these are just some things we found out about your company. So what is that? I gave value to the prospect before I even made my offer. It may or may not have anything to do with my Offer, but strictly in a teaching training environment, even if you're selling training, give lots of value first. Give lots and lots of value first. What do I mean by that? Well, if you're talking about teaching people how to sell, for example, teaching people how to sell, teach them something about selling, teach them what the, if nothing else, what are the big problems that stand in people's way? That the toughest sale of all, believe it or not, is not selling to a customer, it's you selling you to you, to that little voice between your ears. And let me give you an example and explain how to overcome that little voice a little bit next time you make a sales call. Now, later, you know. So let me ask you what you prefer. 90 minute sales pitch or about 70 minutes of really good content. Things I'm going to learn about myself and about me and what we're going to learn together. Followed by about 10 or 15 minutes of a real authentic, simple offer for people who want to learn more. Which do you prefer, A or B? Of course you're going to prefer B, where you're going to get some value first. Remember, everybody likes to try before they buy. Give them an opportunity to try what you have to offer first. Now I know it's pretty common these days to follow that format, but there are some, and some people go overboard the other way. It's all value and no offer. Now that's not good either because then you don't give people an opportunity to work with you further. Kind of the rule of thumb is if you're going to offer something, if you're going to teach a little bit, tell them what they need to do, why it's important, what are the problems of what are the advantages if they do learn how to do things and what are the consequences if they don't? And some quick tips on that. And then if they want to learn exactly how to do these things, the nitty gritty, the step by step process on how to do that, then I'll share with you some ways to move forward together if you choose to. One of the other common rules of thumb too, online, because there's so much online offerings going on, is the higher the ticket item, the more private you want to make the selling. In other words, teach publicly, give value publicly. And then if you have a higher ticket item of coaching or other programs that you want to offer or future consultations, then give people the opportunity to learn more. And if they want to learn more, exchange contact information or give them some additional videos to watch things like that. And get their contact information so that you can then, if they choose to speak with them individually, one on one. Because sometimes the pressure of doing it in front of a group is hard on you, hard on them. And again, it just sets up for a lot of tension. That's not necessary. Give value. Give value in the way that I've been teaching you how to give value first and then sell or make your offer later and just make sure, make sure that that is the way you do it. In other words, if people come in, let's say they want to be a better parent, they want to sell more, give them some solutions that they can use right away. That's what you should teach. That's the value. If you want to sell more of them later, let them know there are additional solutions. And everybody's situation is a little bit different. Your situation may be different than the other person's situation. So let's sit down and talk about what your situation is so we can design something that works specifically for you. Now, if you're selling something for 50 to a couple hundred bucks, that's not going to work. But if you're really working for long term, good solutions for people, that's what I recommend. Okay? Value first, selling second. Value, value, value, value, value, value, value, value, value, value, value, value. Then offer authentically, really enthusiastically. Okay, good. So do that, do that. Be one of those kind of people. Don't. Every time somebody comes to one of your programs or webinars, oh, it's another pitch fest. We're just gonna sit there and see what they got to sell us today. I mean, I'm not saying you can't do that. I'm just saying if you're going for the long term, and particularly if you're dealing with long term customers, higher ticket items, I'm going to recommend the other way. Okay? All right, number 20, final one. Da, da da da, da, da da, da, da da da da. Okay, probably the biggest mistake, probably the biggest mistake that most every trainer, presenter, facilitator, even salesperson makes that blows everything up is the lack of preparation, your lack of study, and your lack of mentorship. Okay, so look, somebody comes onto one of your Zoom calls, they come to one of your programs, they've come there to learn something, right? So let me ask you something. Who's at risk, you or them? Now, if you said you, then you need to go back and listen to all these pieces all over again. The person that's at risk is the participant. They're the ones that gave up their Time altered their schedules, blocked aside the time, tried to close the door, get all the distractions out of the way so they could be on the camera to watch you. They are the ones that put themselves at risk. Risk of their time, their energy, possibly even their money. Okay? Not you. If you think you're the one at risk, that's your little voice talking. So treat it that way. They deserve the best of you. They deserve the best. So you need to prepare. Don't just go into a program or presentation and just wing it. Be prepared. I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times in this whole series. Practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice now. But here's the difference. What should you practice? You should be practicing the things that I told you about all these 20 things that people don't practice. Don't worry about your. A lot of people say, well, I practiced my presentation, I went through my PowerPoint, went through my PowerPoint, I went through my PowerPoint and I had slides. That's not the practice I'm talking about. You can screw that up and mess it up. That's not the problem. Practicing asking questions, practicing acknowledging people. Practicing your energy levels. Practicing all of the things that we talked. All the 20 things that we talked about. You practice those things. If you could just practice five of the 20 things that we've talked about here and practice those in role plays and in front of mirrors and in front of other people. And just don't worry about the content in your presentation. I'm going to assume you know it, go through it, make sure you understand it. Got that? But practice the art of the presentation, the art of presenting, the way you present, the way you deliver, the way you articulate the environment, the acknowledgement, the questions, handling the heat, all the things that we've been talking about this whole time. If you practice those things, you will be better than 99.9999% of most people that think think they're good on your worst day, you'll be better than them. On their best days. That's a virtual guarantee. Because I've taught thousands of people how to do this, and every single one of them have vouched for the fact that that's true. So practice. Get good mentorship. What do I mean by that? Work with people who are a bit better at this than you are and practice in front of them and let them coach you. They can't coach you on your content, but they can certainly coach you on your mannerisms, your body language, your energy, your. Your Facial expressions, your choice of words, how you ask questions, all those kinds of things. Get good mentorship. I can tell you that over the years, I've had great colleagues, great mentors, and most of them were very, very brutal. It was not very comfortable all the time, but I did it because I knew that getting through it, I mean, that would make me better. I can tell you that even as an adult, I got corrected so many times because my presentation was lackluster. It wasn't animated enough. It was boring. I was reduced to tears. Literally had tears coming out of my eyes because I was so frustrated. Not embarrassed, just frustrated because I knew I could do better. That's the kind of practice you're going to talk about. That's the kind of practice that will make the biggest difference. Practicing your actual content of your presentation. It's important, okay, I'm not saying don't do it, but if you're going to be the best, study and prepare. Study, prepare and get coached and never stop doing that. I've been doing this over 30 years, maybe 35 years. I still get coached. I still get mentored. I still get feedback from my team, from other speakers, from people that I recognize that are better than me. I still do it. Why? Because you deserve it. Not because I deserve it, because you deserve it. Hear me. In these final words of this series, the brilliance in the room is not you. The brilliance in the room are the people sitting there watching you that have committed their time and their energy, that have hopes and faith that you're going to give them something that's going to help change their lives. They are the rock stars. They are the ones you've already made changes. They. They're the ones that have to pony up and start to make some changes. And the more you're able to ask them questions and get them to make their decisions and interact with them and get them to participate in all these 20 steps that I've taught you, even in a zoom call. Then you'll turn them into the rock stars. The stars are in the room, not on the stage. And as Tony Robbins, I think, said once a long time ago, he goes, most people have stage fright. The people that have stage fright, they're afraid to do this. It's because they're more concerned about themselves than they are on the people that are watching. Your concern should not be whether they like you or not. Your concern is whether you're adding value to them or not. Are you helping them make the changes in their lives that they came to you in hopes that they would get, even if it was only for a 20 minute webinar that they came. Why did they come? Because they were hoping, praying, faithful to the fact that there would be some nugget that would come out of your mouth or something that you would say to them that will make a difference. Make good on that. Make good on that. And you know what? It won't be the golden nugget of wisdom that you say. It will be the way that you acknowledge them, the way you drew it out of them, the way you asked questions that. The way you flip the coin and said, you know what, what is the toughest? Like when I say, what is the toughest sale of all? Overcoming objections, I go, no, the toughest sale of all is you. Selling you to you. It's overcoming that little doubting little voice that seeps the confidence out of your soul that's the most difficult and the most important sale of all. And then people go, oh, okay. And then I say, how many of you understand what I'm talking about? How many of you have ever argued with yourself over a good idea? How many of you have ever taken yourself out of the game? Those two questions are more important than the statement I made. Way more important than the most important sale is you selling you to you. It's the question, how many? Have you ever done this? Have you ever done that? Give me a thumbs up or type in the chat box. Yes. Engage with them, don't be afraid of them. Be a part of them and be an awesome presenter. I'll finish by saying that great teachers are great leaders and great leaders must be great teachers. Hopefully in this series you've learned some 20amazing mistakes that people make. But the flip side, if you learn how to master all 20 of them, any five or six of these is going to stand you apart from everybody else. Okay, so share these with other speakers. Share the individual episodes that you think will help them. Say, hey, look, you really need to look at this episode. I'm not going to tell you why, but hopefully you get the hint. Be the best you can be other people have faith in you and the world needs your experience, your knowledge and your wisdom. Be amazing.