What Alfred Hitchcock Could Teach You About Sales. What Alfred Hitchcock Could Teach You About Sales

Transcription

1 What Alfred Hitchcock Could Teach You About Sales

2 Are your sales presentations lacking in excitement? Do even YOU get tired of hearing yourself say the same old things over and over again? Odds are you suffer from SCRIPS or Service Contractor Repeating Industry Presentation Syndrome. That s right you ve been drawn in to the industry norm and trained to give a standard contracting industry snooze fest when you present your services to a customer. Where did this start? Well, first you have to remember that before flat rate pricing and service contracting best practice groups, there was precious little training in this area. So as bad as it is, in the old days it was even worse. However, Manufacturers training, the sales trainers that they recommend, and many others have at best perpetrated mediocrity in the contracting business and have done little to help. They start by telling contractors, techs and sales people to use company presentation books, literature, efficiency ratings and a host of other smoke and mirror techniques. Techniques like having the tech bringing the parts into a home to show a customer in hopes to add value. In my opinion these very things they have told contractors to use, are the very reason that you suffer and continue on the path to mediocrity. The industry endorsed contracting experts eventually use the economy, the weather and a host of other excuses to give themselves an out or to explain why their stuff just does not work, or at least not very well. What does one do then to add zip, excitement, curiosity, desire, suspense and a thrill to your presentation? Probably the best way to explain it can be illustrated by one of the masters of shaping the human mind in his famous movies. That man is Alfred Hitchcock who was famous for creating movie thrillers like Psycho and The Birds as well as a host of others. Hitchcock knew that it wasn t the actors or even the script that drew people in. It was his presentation of the material he made to the public using the movie as his vehicle. With that in mind, I have compiled a few techniques that Alfred Hitchcock used to turn some very absurd ideas into major box office hits that thrilled his audience and still are recognized today as being timeless entertainment. If you incorporate some of his ideas to communicate with customers, you will see your presentation go from ordinary to very special as well. Who knows, this information just might save your career. 2

3 #1 - The Most Powerful Presentation Is In the Mind The first suggestion is to leave behind all sales materials and written or pictorial information. The most powerful picture of what your sell is in the mind of your buyer. The verbal pictures are far more persuasive than anything you will show them. This has been proven over and over again by authors like Steven King. People who read a King novel and then go to see the movie are disappointed 99% of the time that the movie wasn t as good as the book. Why is this so true? Because the power that the mind has in shaping the mental movie. The mind simply uses the words to create emotions, suspense, curiosity and humor. The image the mind creates is far more powerful than anything you could show your customer. Change everything in your presentation so that it is done for the customer. Nothing is more important than how each scene affect s the buyer. Make sure the content engages them and reels them in. Use pacing, verbal pictures and your mannerisms to tease them and pull them along, desperately wanting more. Hitchcock knew why people are drawn to a darkened theater to absorb themselves for hours with images on a screen. They do it to have fun. In the same way people go to a roller coaster to get thrown around at high speeds, theater audiences know they are safe. As a sales person, you can create despair, suspense and danger then provide the solutions they need that leaves them thrilled, happy and falling in love with you at the end. They'll be confident that were be able to leave your presentation with the exact solution they wanted and then they can go about their lives better than they were before they met you. Remember, the more engaged and fun they experience, the quicker they will come back begging for more. 3

4 #2 Emotions Let People Sell Themselves It is well know that most of what we purchase is done using our emotion. Yes, even when people shop on price, there is an emotional trigger based on the pride that one feels by getting a great deal. Unfortunately for contractors, we tend to make emotionless presentations using engineering or logical argument like efficiency ratings, consumer report statistics, sizing techniques or other things that do not matter to the buyer. Emotion (in the form of fear, pride, laughter, surprise, sadness, anger, suspense, etc.) is the ultimate goal of any sales presentation. Emotions draw in the buyer and involve them in your experience. In many ways it is like a test run or trial to see what it feels like to do business with you. The first consideration should involve knowing what emotion you want the buyer to experience and at which particular time. Emotion can come directly from the sales person. Sometimes it is in the form of holding back information thereby creating suspense. Or, it could be in the verbal picture you paint of the service you sell. Even your body language and facial expressions stir something indescribable inside your buyer that may trigger a decision. You can control the intensity of the emotion by using your eyes, voice or mannerism. Hitchcock used the trigger of emotion in each of his scenes. He used the proximity of the camera from his subject, a close up of the eyes, or even the framing an inane object with no meaning to plan out the emotion he wanted for each scene. These variations are a way of controlling when the audience feels intensity, or relaxation. Hitchcock compared this to a composer writing a music score - except instead of playing instruments, he's playing the audience! As a sales person you can do the same thing by explaining what each of your options DOES for your customer and not what it is. For instance, an air cleaner may be described as an Easy-Change Filter System for a senior citizen with arthritis. Use the tone of your voice and your face to create the aura of seriousness in key moments followed with laughter when the time is right. Control the emotions of your buyer then you can control the sale and your results. 4

5 #3 Silence Creates Power Many times the best dialogue is the use of silence. Remember that in a situation where you have been invited in to someone s home, you are an invited guest. Don t become a pest by talking too much. Sometimes silence is far more powerful than any words can convey. Silence is an ingredient that sales people use far too little of. With silence, the buyer is left to do nothing more than to concentrate on your presentation at the moment of decision. It is common for a sales person to start explaining the option they have already presented while the buyer is thinking. This gap in talking creates expectation on the part of the buyer. It allows them to feel like they are involved in the presentation. Alfred Hitchcock started in silent film. Without sound, filmmakers had to create ways to tell the story visually in a succession of images and ideas. Hitchcock said this trend changed drastically when sound finally came to film in the 1930's. Suddenly everything went toward dialogue oriented material based on scripts from the stage. Movies began to rely on actors talking, and visual storytelling was almost forgotten. Later in his career he used the camera to take on human qualities and roam around playfully looking for something suspicious in a room. This allowed the audience to feel like they are involved in uncovering the story. Scenes often began by panning a room showing close-ups of objects that explain plot elements. Use silence in your presentation as well. When speaking, remember that your pitch, pace and the ability to use a silent pause creates power. People don t always express their inner thoughts to one another," said Hitchcock, "a conversation may be quite trivial, but often the eyes will reveal what a person thinks or needs. The focus of the scene should never be on what you and the buyer are actually saying. Resort to speech only when it s impossible to do otherwise. In other words, we don t have pages on a presentation to fill. We have a rectangular screen in a mind of our buyer that creates the vision of your solution people want. 5

6 #4 Leave Things Out of Your Presentation Some of the most powerful scenes that Hitchcock ever filmed were montages or pictures of incomplete thought. He left the viewer with gaps so that their imagination could fill in the spots he left out. Divide your presentation into a series of verbal packages used in succession and be careful not to use too much detail. Use this basic technique to let the buyer fill in the rest. This is not the same as throwing together random thoughts in your presentation to create confusion. Instead, carefully choose a something that has been challenging your buyer, or better yet, something that would ring true with them to be more on code to tell your story in a custom manner. In this way you can portray your solution in various pieces of it and having control over the timing. You can also hide parts of your solutions so that the mind of the buyer is engaged. Hitchcock said this was "Transferring the menace from the screen into the mind of the audience." The famous shower scene in Psycho uses montage to hide the violence. You never see the knife hitting Janet Leigh. The impression of violence is done with quick editing, and the killing takes place inside the viewer's head rather than the screen. In sales, you can use this powerful technique to create a more vivid solution. For instance, instead of mentioning the brand name of the product or the specs from the cut sheet, you can call it your Rolls Royce option. Or you can say it is your company s Signature Series that the owner of the company has selected as the finest. Let the buyer fill in the rest of the information. Usually it will be a lot better than if you went into detail. 6

7 #5 There is Value In Simplicity Many sales Guru s in the contracting industry have created confusing presentations using a myriad of different formats. Most create one solution and then also create some add-on options after the main thing they are selling. This Makes the buyer select all the different things they may want, and then add up how much the sum of their options would cost. It is confusing and is the first demonstration of your poor service. Hitchcock believed that if your story is confusing or requires a lot of memorization, you're never going to get suspense out of it. The key to creating that raw Hitchcock energy is by using simplistic, linear stories that the audience can easily follow. Everything in your presentation must be streamlined to offer maximum dramatic impact. Remove all extraneous material and keep it crisp. Each option should include only those essential ingredients that make it gripping for the buyer. As Hitchcock says, what is drama, after all, but life with the dull bits cut out An abstract story will bore the audience. This is why Hitchcock tended to use crime stories with spies, assassinations, and people running from the police. It is easy for the audience to define the problem and the ultimate solution. When you are creating your presentation, put everything the buyer could ever dream of in the first option and explain it in verbal montages and explained above. Every option after that will just have les and less of what is in the first one, Make choosing easy. The best one is the most permanent, highest quality with the best service and warranty. The bottom option is the band-aid most temporary option with degrees of quality and permanency in between. 7

8 #6 Break Clichés Since the entire contracting industry has been basically trained by the same people, then it is not unusual for the buyer to hear the same format or even the same old tired clichés that most service contractors use. Of course buyers will shop on price if everything else contractors are saying is the same. Hitchcock was the master of breaking molds. He many times made characters the exact opposite of what the audience expected. He turned dumb blondes into smart blondes, he gave the Cuban guy a French accent, and criminals that were rich and successful not the bottom rung of society. These sort of ironic characters made them more realistic to the audience, and much more ripe for something to happen to them. Hitchcock criminals tend to be wealthy upper class citizens whom you d never suspect, the policeman and politicians are usually the bumbling fools, the innocent are accused, and the villains get away with everything because nobody suspects them. They surprise you at every step of the plot. Can you say the same thing about your presentation? For instance on repair call, are you selling a gas valve like everyone else? Or, would you say your best solution is a Premium PLUS Ignition System Renovation complete with a Life Safety protection System. Throw in five years, Can t Write a Check: Maintenance and Warranty and you get the idea. If your presentation is the same as others but just costs more, you are in trouble. Differentiate or die. 8

9 #7 Tension Creates Relief If your sales or service call has no tension in it than you will probably have many buyers that do not take action to purchase. The tension you create with your buyer can lead to a sense of joy or relief that you can get the job done. Tension was essential to Hitchcock storytelling. He was famous for playing a practical joke on the main character of his movies. He gave them the most ironic situations to deal with. The unexpected twist, the coincidence, the worst possible thing that can go wrong - all can be used to build tension. In Marnie, Tippi Hedren is stealing money from an office safe and is just about to leave when she notices the maid happens to be cleaning in the next room. The maid is completely innocent and unaware. Hedren will get caught if the maid sees her, but the audience is already hoping that she gets away with it. The more happily the maid mops the floor and the closer she gets to seeing Hedren, the higher the tension. Tension or cognitive dissonance is the element or springboard that creates action. Without the tension that you may not be able to get the job done today, the buyer will never wish for that outcome. The best way is to create tension is by the use of scarcity with your services and information that the buyer seeks. For instance, if you ask the buyer, We were just looking at the problem today, we re not doing any work right? This will get the buyer in a state of anxiety and they will then demand you get the work done today. Without, tension there is no reason to act now. The buyer in a state of tension will always want to get back to a state of harmony. For harmony to exist, they must act or purchase your solution. 9

10 #8 Leaking Information Creates Suspense Do you give your information too soon before you present solutions? If so, you may very well be shooting yourself in the foot. Your presentation loses suspense when you give too much info too soon. Spilling candy out to your buyer before the presentation is the worst move in selling history. Why is suspense so important? Suspense, or your ability to let your buyer know you have information that you will reveal in the presentation may be the only thing that makes it tolerable and enjoying. Don t ruin the show for your buyer. Leaking out information" is essential to Hitchcock suspense; showing the audience what the characters don t see. If something is about to harm the characters, show it at beginning of the scene and let the scene play out as normal. Constant reminders of this looming danger will build suspense. In Family Plot (1976) Hitchcock shows the audience that brake fluid is leaking out of a car well before the characters find out about it. In Psycho (1960) we know about the crazy mother before the detective (Martin Balsam) does, making the scene in which Balsam enters the house one of the most suspenseful scenes in Hitchcock's career. An example of how you can create suspense may occur when a buyer asks you a question about a service or product of yours they are interested in. You can respond with, John, did you hear the newest thing that just came out about that? The buyer will be curious to know. No, what is it? they will ask. Wait until my presentation, your really going to like it. You answer, creating suspense and desire for the information only you can bring them. SUMMARY: Alfred Hitchcock was a master film maker. Perhaps one of the most valuable things you could learn from him is his consistent and high quality work that he performed. A film had to be perfect before it got the Hitchcock seal of approval. He was also a master of getting his audience to sit up in their seats and bite their fingernails in suspense. Hollywood of course, loved him most of all because he could sell out the theatres for all of his movies. Basically, he knew how to close the deal every time. Can you as a sales person say the same? If you brought in the money that he did, your audience would no doubt love you too. 10