If you were given the choice to attend a presentation with a salesperson OR organize your office – which one would you choose? 
Can you stand to hear one more presentation?
Can you think of the last time you were excited for a meeting where someone was going to try and sell you something? Our customers are not excited either! I’m starting to think that we should eliminate the words sell and presentational together.
Words are very powerful whether we speak them or think them. There is a lot of knowledge to support this:
A man is but the product of his thoughts, what he thinks he becomes. – Mahatma Ghandi
Words are also actions, and actions are a kind of words. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it. – Proverbs 18:21
With so much power in the words we use to affect our actions & outcomes, doesn’t it make sense to be more intentional about what we say we are going to do? What if instead of a salesperson preparing a SALES PRESENTATION, they changed the quality of the customer meeting (and likely the outcome) if they purposefully prepare for having a STRATEGIC CONVERSATION with recommendations based on the customer’s needs? What if instead of focusing on driving SALES, leaders focused their sales teams on driving PARTNERSHIP experiences / opportunities with customers?
What would you rather do: hear to a sales presentation / proposal, or have a strategic, needs-based conversation with a partner that talks about what makes sense for your business? A Chinese proverb says, “If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words.” What do your customers know about the minds of the salespeople that work with them from your organization? Are they of the mind to become strategic partners, or to simply sell them something?
Author: Michelle Laxa