Magical Sales Script - Part Two

3 day ago I published a very important post about the Magical Sales Script Revealed.

That message was undoubtedly more important than today’s message in several ways - but today’s message will also prove to be a major ‘shift’ in perspective for sales people (actually for all people).

If you haven’t read the post on ‘Magic Sales Script Revealed’ on this site ( Training-In-Sales), I suggest you do. Once you recover from that shock you can return to this message which will add a another key ah-ha secret to significantly increasing your sales.

Thinking that a great sales script is essential in your success in sales is commonplace and I can assure you it is putting the cart before the horse.

The reason I can say that is because there are several other things that loom so much larger than the words you use it’s almost laughable once you discover them.

Ever hear the clique, “Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear a word you’re saying”?

Today is about reality –specifically your reality.

We all look in the mirror and see the reflection there - so we think we know what we look like to others. We also hear ourselves talk and think we know how we sound to others.

Wrong…

I’m sure you remember the first time you heard a recording of you r own voice. Shocking wasn’t it – and I bet you didn’t feel it was as flattering as you thought your voice sounded either.

A year and a half ago I was had a radio show with a business Partner. As a part of the process I had the opportunity to record and edit the audio of a couple of shows we had done.

BAM! It was shocking, it was embarrassing, and most importantly I realized - it was not effective communication.

Why? It wasn’t so much the errors Charmaine (my co-host) was making because I had been listening to her so I knew what hers were (in fact that’s why I was doing the editing).

What hit me like a 2×4 across the head were my unnecessary and annoying language patterns.

For instance; I must have said, “You know” about 50 times in that hour long show. When I was speaking I had no idea how annoying that little phrase could be until I heard a recording of myself using it continuously.

I also discovered I was also using, “Uhhhh”, “Ummm”, and other similar mistakes on a regular basis. Talk about distracting people from your message…

Listening to that recording impacted me immediately because from that point on I made it a point to ‘hear’ myself when I used those terms and that immediately helped reduce the frequency by a ton.

Trust me partner – you have little to no idea how you REALLY sound to other people until you listen to yourself talk via a recording. Yes, I’m saying this is an exercise you need to actually do.

Record yourself and listen the recording. Keep score regarding the number of times you use those phrases, the number of times you are speaking too fast, the number of times you jump from topic to topic without properly linking them. Are you talking more than your prospect? Are you talking too fast?

The ‘problem areas’ should jump out at you and bite you.

Realize that these issues are causing people to ‘turn off their attention‘when you speak.

Change your patterns. It’s really not hard to do once you experience the shock of how often those bad habits occur.

Can you handle another shock?

Well after listening to yourself talk and bearing that epiphany; there’s an even greater shock - that if you bear it – can greatly increase your ability to be an effective sales person.

Ready for the secret?

Have someone video tape you, and I’m not talking about 30 second shots of you on vacation.

I’m talking about you doing things like giving a presentation, public speaking, and the way you look from a short distance when you’re not aware that you’re being filmed.

Are you standing erect? Do you LOOK confident and poised? Do you move with authority and self-assuredness? You’ll be surprised at the ‘reality’ you are projecting.

It’s important to record the video during these types of situations because otherwise you’ll be acting like you do when a pretty girl is nearby and you’re sucking in your gut.

Those brief ‘looking good’ moments are not how the world sees you.

To grow &/or move forward you need to know where you (really) are currently. It may not be pretty, but at least you’ll learn a lot about yourself and how others see you. If you choose to, you can then make some adjustment because at least you know where you are.

Hopefully you’re beginning to see that looking for a perfect sales script is silly when compared to the person you’re being – because that’s what’s really broadcasting your message to the world.