No More Death by PowerPoint: Keys to Sales Success

Let's put it this way. Let's say a friend asked you what you'd like for your birthday. Would you consider saying you'd like a stranger to arrive and hand you a 12-page PowerPoint presentation about their company, then talk about themselves and their firm? Probably not—yet this is exactly the "present" we consultants typically give our prospects.

This is a big problem in professional services. We should know—our consulting business is focused on helping firms sell more, faster. We see all kinds of professional service firms and how they sell. We see how rainmakers approach the same situations. Our estimate is that fewer than 20 percent of first meetings turn into long-term relationships. These failures—the other 80 percent—create a drain on company resources and morale. It teaches people they don't like business development, which many times isn't actually the case. Here's the good news—the solution is easier than you might think.

Here's an approach that works. The key is defining what you want from the introductory meeting. Rainmakers focus on two, simple goals: 1) to connect with the prospect and 2) to get the second meeting while you're in the first meeting. Any other goal is superfluous. If the prospect "connected with you" and they were excited enough to schedule a follow-up meeting on a specific issue, you've hit a home run.

Here are the 5 keys to success

1. Design The First Meeting To Get The Second
Most consultants talk mostly about big, sexy, cutting-edge projects during an introductory meeting. The consultant wants to show off their innovative projects and deep resources. The problem is, the prospect doesn't know the consultant yet and doesn't trust them. Talking exclusively about big projects in an introductory meeting is a little like focusing on getting married on a first date—it's a bridge too far.

Instead of trying to "get married" in the first meeting, rainmakers simply ask for a "date." These are little meetings, calls and other small events we call "give to gets." These are offers to complete small, yet important, tasks without charge. These "give to gets" allow the consultant to develop the relationship and show their value at no risk to the emerging client.

The phase after "give to get" is what we call "paid selling effort." In this phase, the prospect turns into a small client through buying a relatively small project. Psychologically, this is a very important step. The consultant is now in the client's system as a vendor and the client will pay more attention to things they are paying for.

Inserting these two steps into our model gives us something much more accomplishable in the first meeting. Rainmakers look to get invited back through a "give to get", not to sell a big project.

2. Use Powerful Give To Gets In The Introductory Meeting
Let's go back to our goals: we want to connect with the client and get a second meeting. The best way to do this is to get the client talking about their issues (not your locations, history and case studies) and spending the majority of the time talking about why, what, how and when you will come back to help them.

This requires the consultant working very hard to come up with powerful "give to gets" that will get the prospect's attention. What's a powerful "give to get"? The Rainmakers we've worked with make sure their "give to get" offers covers these three elements:

• Relatively easy for consultant
• Very valuable to prospect
• Will likely lead to future work

Let's break these down. Rainmakers don't have time to spend weeks at a prospect for free. So, by being "relatively easy" we mean a time investment of typically two to six hours, with most of this time spent with the prospect. By "very valuable," we mean something that client would love to fix or get smarter about. And, the last rule is very important and typically missed by consultants: you want to choose your "give to get" carefully so that they naturally leads to small paid selling efforts.

Good examples are:

• an analysis of a project about to be started or one that's in process,
• a facilitation of a strategy session for the coming year or for a large initiative, or
• an overview of the Top 10 things learned from working on prior projects similar to what the client is about to begin.

3. Separate Yourself From The Pack In The First Five Minutes
Here's where everything comes together. The good news about nearly all consultants conducting introductory meetings via Death By PowerPoint is that it gives you an opportunity to poke fun at the model and differentiate yourself.

In the first five minutes, you can separate yourself by showing up with a one-pager that describes your relationship-building process and lists your powerful "give to gets." You can begin the meeting with words similar to these:

"Mrs. Prospect, you've been chosen by our firm because of X, Y and Z and we'd like to make an investment in you. Because of the reasons, we feel that you are a perfect match for us. We're willing to do some work on our dime just to 'earn the right to get to know you.' This is a big deal for us, and we can't offer this to everyone because it takes a lot of time. But, while it's a time intensive way of growing our business, we've found it much more effective for everyone, including our prospects. We identify which companies are a perfect fit for us and we heavily invest in them. So, let's briefly talk about the offers I've mentioned. I'm very serious about investing in you and Company ABC. I've come with five examples of small projects we'd be willing to do for you at no cost.

While we can talk all you want about our firm's history, locations and whatnot [It's OK to inject a little humor here], I thought it would be more valuable today to talk about what you've got going on and if any of these offers would be helpful to you. As we talk, we might think of some better ideas than what we developed on this one-pager. If it makes sense, we'd love to start on something for free for you immediately after our meeting today and schedule a follow-up meeting while we're here. In other words, we'd love to build something meaningful for you that you're excited enough about to schedule another meeting before we leave today. What do you think of this approach?"

You'll find these words are incredibly disarming to prospects. Typically, you'll see the turn from resistant to receptive in the first 15 minutes. And, you've framed the meeting to accomplish your goals: to connect and to get the next meeting.

4. Listen In The First Meeting—Which Means Asking Good Questions
We find rainmakers listen much more than talk in the first meeting. This is another reason the Death By PowerPoint method doesn't work—it prompts the consultant to talk too much. The consultant needs to prepare many thought-provoking questions to ask the prospect. While many of these should be constructed to learn and connect, many others should be constructed to show the value of the "give to gets" that will be offered.

5. Be Other-ish
Our last key we see rainmakers do is that they don't try to sell. Selling is selfish. Rainmakers are "other-ish." Rainmakers work very hard in the first meeting to find ways to help, and they frame the conversations about the "give to gets" they've researched and think might be appropriate. Rainmakers don't sell—they help!

The Success Is Ironic
We've seen this approach work so well, that our clients estimate that around 40 percent of the time, the prospect actually asks for proposals for "big projects." Isn't it ironic, that consultants have a better chance to sell something when they're not trying to sell at all?

Mo Bunnell is the founder and managing partner of the Bunnell Idea Group in Atlanta, where he has worked with over 100 companies and developed dozens of personal and team strategies. Before forming Bunnell Idea Group, he was a senior partner at Hewitt Associates, where he assisted some of the world's largest organizations develop sales, business and people strategies.