Saturday mornings are full of coffee, cartoons for the kids and occasionally a little HGTV for us parents. Early Saturday morning my wife and I watched one of those real estate programs where they take a house in rough shape, fit it and then flip it. This house had all kinds of issues – including rats, cockroach infestation and water damage. On the show they brought in an exterminator to solve the bug and rat issues and then striped the house down to the frame. They stripped the rotten wood, put in new plumbing and electrical under new drywall. The house looked brand new when they finished. In fact I would guess that almost 80% of the house was brand new.
Near the end of the show, a real estate sales person walks prospective buyers through the house and leads her pitch with the following statement: “You should have seen this place before. It had big rats and cockroaches and gang graffiti all over the walls.” The potential buyers went from cheerful, happy faces to looks of horror. In those two sentences she lost any opportunity she might have had to sell the house to the prospects. Instead of telling the prospects that the house had new plumbing, electrical and a whole host of other upgrades she began with the negative. In the blink of an eye, she managed to put more questions and concerns in the minds of the prospects then she should have.
I cringe when I see speakers start their speeches with an apology about their public speaking abilities. As an audience member I now think, “Great, now I am going to have to listen to someone read slides and stumbles his way through a speech.” I wasn’t thinking these thoughts until the speaker planted them there.
Both examples could be dealt with by preparing talking points before your sales call or speech. Know the points you need to offer and practice them. (Practice is key.) When you feel unprepared and not ready is when you will blurt out irrelevant and unnecessary information and often cost yourself a sale.
<