High impact presentations are the ones people are still talking about weeks later. At a recent sales conference, I witnessed such a presentation. The success secret: use a skit to capture the audience and improve your powers of persuasion.We all know apples and oranges are two different things. This skit leveraged this common thinking by opening with two fruit vendors on stage on a busy market street.
The apple stand’s high-energy peddler exclaimed, “I’ve got apples for sale. Fresh shiny apples. Granny Smith, Macintosh, Fuji, you name it I’ve got it.” As a passerby walked up to the apple stand, she began to convince him that an apple a day was exactly what he needed to purchase. The wrench in the plan? The customer clearly wanted an orange. The apple vendor would not listen, she was very proud of her apples and wanted sell an apple. The potential customer walked off.
Then the lights come on at the orange stand and vibrant fruit seller says, “Oranges for sale. We’ve got the best and freshest citrus in town. Oranges for sale. Get your daily vitamins in one sweet and juicy orange.” The same man walks up to the orange stand and it is a quick sale.
Next, the tables turn and the orange vendor gets a potential customer who is in a hurry and worried getting juice from the orange on his suit. He really wants an apple. The orange vendor asks him if he can wait just a minute and she will get him an apple. The orange vendor races over to the apple vendor to make a wholesale purchase of apples. Without knowing what type of apple is needed, she has to purchase one of each type.
The orange vendor arrives back at her stand and asks the customer what type of apple he would like. He chooses the Granny Smith and she sells him the apple for three times the price of what the inflexible apple vendor had posted. As the man in a suit person walked off eating his apple, he was recommending the orange vendor to everyone he passed.
The moral of the story? Listen to your customers, ask questions about what they truly need and get creative when it comes to having the salesperson connect the buyer with the right product.
It was a short skit followed by a passionate plea for the audience to apply this thinking to their everyday sales interactions. Talk of the skit was common fodder during the next meeting break. First, everyone liked seeing their peers participate in a skit that had some funny moments. Next, the messaging resonated, because everyone was talking about how they could be as flexible as the orange vendor with their customers.
Just two weeks later, a celebration was in order for a sales person who made a sale and claimed he made it happen because he worked the deal like the orange vendor! The buzz continues throughout the organization about emulating the orange vendor; the skit made the theory real for everyone watching. Next time you have a critical message, consider going the extra mile and performing a skit that reinforces your message.
Good ideas and a great vision are not enough to be successful today. Winners need an authoritative, convincing, articulate presentation. Fast Track Tools offers resources to help. After completing the Communicate to Win workshop, you will know how to outline your plan and how to get where you really need to go. With this complete package, you gain the tools necessary to guarantee that you have the best ideas and that you can present them confidently so you will WIN.
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photo by Katrina Snaps. Used by permission.
Stories sell – scripts tell. No one like to be told.
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