This sales presentation training will tell you if you, or your sales team, are irritating your customers. Many sales people don’t even know they are doing it. They could be losing sales and missing out on rewards, and be unaware of why. Only good sales training techniques will make them aware of their habit and get them to stop. They can then learn sales skills that will eliminate the problem for good, and increase the effectiveness of communication with buyers. So what’s this habit that many sales people have but don’t know they are doing it?

Erm, you know, obviously, you don’t want to irritate the buyer

The next time you hear someone giving a presentation, on anything not just a sales presentation, count how often they repeat an irritator. Irritators are those words or phrases that people have a habit of repeating, and that add nothing to the meaning or the communication of the message. Typical irritators include: You know, obviously, yeah, basically, at the end of the day, and the most common irritator of all; Errmm. When people have the irritator habit they only use one. It’s very rare to hear a mixture of different words or phrases repeated.

Errmm or err, tend to be used between sentences. To the listener it sounds like the presenter is thinking of what to say and just making a noise to fill the gap. Basically and obviously usually come at the start of a new topic in the sales presentation as a way of introducing the sentence. Listen to sports celebrities and spot the irritators. U.K. soccer players and managers can often be heard repeating; you know, at the end of the day, and over the moon, when giving interviews. On a recent sales presentation training course I had a delegate that constantly used the irritator; my friend, when showing features and benefits to a customer. Like most people he didn’t realise he was doing it.

Sales presentation training on stopping irritators

The first sales training technique to stop people using irritators is to make them aware they are adding them to their presentation. You can do this in several ways. If you have visual or audio recording facilities, ask them to do a sales presentation and record it. Then play it back to them and ask them what they think. Most sales people will watch the replay and not pick up on the irritator habit. Once you point it out to them a look of revelation comes over their face. They realise they have been doing this for years and never noticed. For many just the action of pointing out the habit is enough to stop it happening. If they include it again, once they are aware of it, they can start to irritate themselves.

A good sales training technique to include in your sales training courses is to get all the delegates counting the number of times their colleagues use an irritator for the rest of the training course. I ask people to count by holding up their fingers as they listen to other delegates presenting. This usually limits the inclusion of the irritator to one or two as the speaker is again made aware the habit has returned. You have to use some diplomacy and tact when making people aware of their speaking habits. They can take it personally and feel insulted or embarrassed. When giving sales presentation training make it light hearted and fun and tell them how you used to have the same problem.

Now add some more selling techniques

Using effective sales presentation training to eliminate irritators will improve the communication of the message and help keep the attention of the customer. When sellers learn sales skills the effects stack up on each other. Once the irritator habit has been stopped, you can start looking for more sales techniques to improve the sales presentation. As more selling techniques are learned and put into action the effects will compound and sales results, and rewards, will multiply.