LOUIS NICHOLE MUSIC

Operating their mouths at high speed, some salespeople put on amazing demonstrations. They flip levers, punch buttons, zip stuff around. And out of the machines they’re demonstrating come a flood of perfect parts, data, copies, or whatever. But they don’t sell much with these superb performances.
Why not?
Because apathy rushes in where involvement fails to tread. Buying is action. It can’t take place unless there are decisions, and decisions require a switched-on mind. Watching instead of doing is a switch-off. The longer your prospects are switched off, the harder it’ll be to switch them back on again when you want the paperwork approved at the end of your demonstration.
The Champion avoids the long switch-off’s low sales, and demonstrates by encouraging the client to enter the data, thread the needle, or feed the parts. Of course, the client won’t do these things as well or as fast as a practiced salesperson can, but if he’s doing them instead of watching, he’s thinking about your product instead of wondering why his gums hurt and his horse ran last. In fact, he’s doing more than merely thinking about your product—he’s experiencing it. That means he’s emotionally involved with what you’re selling.
However great or small this emotional involvement may be, it’s certainly going to be far greater than if your prospect just sits there while you sing your number. Owning is a very intimate form of involvement, don’t you agree? Then doesn’t it follow that the buying necessary for owning won’t take place unless there’s prior involvement?
If you accept that, you’ll want to find as many reasonable and positive ways as you can to involve your prospects in your product. One of the best methods I know of is the client-participation technique that we’ve been discussing. If you’ve been switching your prospects off with I’m-the-star performances, you’ll need to completely overhaul your demonstration to successfully convert it—and yourself—to the client-participation method. And you’ll find that giving up I’m-the-star technique is like giving up smoking: you can’t do it unless you really want to. Understand yourself here. Many of us—and I’m in this group—place a high value on applause, on appreciation, on being in the limelight. That’s good—unless it leads you into making bad business decisions like sticking with I’m-the-star demonstrations when you’re not selling.
But the truth is that you’re the star twice when you master the client participation demonstration: first when you have your prospects happily Z’IIIflg
involved in your demonstration and product, second when you walk out with the endorsed file copies of an order.
The difference is small but vital. You win your oh’s and ah’s by showing your prospects how to do amazing things on your demonstrator not by doing amazing things on it yourself. To fan their interest into a fire hot enough to melt their built-in sales resistance, you get them to chip rust, solve problems, or boil water with your device. That’s always more fun than watching you run the game. With good products, familiarity breeds confidence and scatters fear.
And fun sells better than frustration. Remember that your prospects aren’t used to your machine’s peculiarities; keep your steps simple and your attitude encouraging.