Engaging Our Customers for Success

Ed Albertson
Vice President, National Accounts
Carew International, Inc.

“Tell me and I'll Forget.

Show me and I'll Remember.

Involve me and I'll Understand.”

-Chinese proverb.

An argument could be made that we sales professionals, by nature, tend to launch into “show and tell” mode with prospects and customers, enthusiastically sharing all the features and advantages of our products and services. Add to that the glorious graphics, special effects and marketing capabilities of today’s PowerPoint software, and the temptation to dazzle them with a big show becomes overwhelming. However, merely telling and showing our customers all the features and advantages of our products and services can risk our becoming a “me-too” commodity in our customers’ eyes. The most effective sales presentations go beyond a one-way flow of information, and include a plan for involving our customers in the presentation. Since this typically doesn’t occur spontaneously, we must first consider how to engage customers as part of our sales process.

The most effective method for involving our customers in our presentations is to invite them to become an active participant in the communication. Fundamentally, we can choose between 1) asking questions throughout our presentation or 2) incorporating pauses and strategic silence at appropriate points in our presentation. Typically, the pause is best positioned after we’ve made some statement of capability in the form of a benefit to our customer. Pausing afterward allows for “thinking time” and a response from our customer that may provide insight into the relevance and the value they perceive in the benefit.

Asking questions is certainly the more proactive means of involving the customer. Questions intended to garner customer input and feedback can be simply distilled into two separate types: Open-Ended and Closed. Closed questions require merely a “yes” or “no” response, suggesting acceptance or rejection. Because of the simplistic nature of the answer required, closed questions can be considerably risky and difficult to deal with, depending upon the answer. In a group presentation, a single response can easily shut down further valuable discussion, discouraging additional, more encouraging feedback and perhaps even leaving us in doubt of the true reactions throughout the group.

Open-Ended questions require more than a “yes” or “no” response and are usually begun with words such as “Who, What, When, Where, Why and How…” Open-ended questions are much less risky than closed questions and will lead to far more interaction between us and our customer. Additionally, when presenting to more than one person, the open-ended question allows for multiple opinions and responses across the entire group, instead of having the matter “closed” by a single, perfunctory response from one person.

Never underestimate the role of the customer in a successful sales presentation. The considerable benefits of involving our customers in our presentations make it worth investing time to carefully consider and plan the questions we’ll ask, as well as where in the presentation they are best asked. Such planning enables us to decide “in the moment” how to phrase the questions that best involve our customers so they can effectively learn about the true value of our offerings.