A subtle but important realization is that the point of your communication as a sales professional is not merely to have the individual listen to you but to engage with you, to join in the conversation, to ask questions and offer their own thoughts and insights on the topic.
As wholesalers, you are professional communicators. When you consider those positions at the height of professional communication…keynote speakers, litigation attorneys, news professionals, stand-up comedians, talk show commentators (and their guests), actors and even politicians (though some consider that the same thing as a stand-up comic :)…they are all overwhelmingly speaking from prepared talking points.
To be absolutely clear, your next level as a professional communicator is not less scripting, it is more scripting. Not necessarily a full-on screen play but more like the heavy hors d’oeuvres of prepared talking points.
And your biggest challenge today may be that you simply have less time to make your point to engage your listener! You can fill ten minutes easily with a stream of data and commentary on the wonders of your company and solution set…but can you get the same result, or produce a better level of engagement, in three minutes?
Building concise and compelling communications today requires a framework regardless of your tenure or natural speaking ability. Fortunately, the science of adult learning provides us clear direction and a simple framework on how to engage more of your audience all of the time. And we can apply those principles to communications whether spoken or written!
Here are guidelines to get you started:
Have a Point
- This is the single most important first step in building concise, effective communications. When you have a clear point you are trying to make, what is said in support of your point and what is left out to address later or in another conversation becomes much more obvious. Without a clear point virtually anything you know about a topic or solution is fair game for inclusion! Deciding on the clear point for your communication may be the most difficult step in the entire process!
Have a Framework
- Engaging adults is a well-researched topic that centers on addressing four questions in your communication: Why, when or to whom is this important? What is your solution or the benefit of your solution? What facts or evidence support your message? What happens next…how do we act on this information?
- Whether the questions we suggest are stated aloud or simply used as a framework for preparing your remarks is a matter of personal preference. Stating the questions within your remarks can aid the listener in organizing the message by helping differentiate the information shared.
Address the “Why”
- If there is no need, there is no sale! The biggest opportunity for elevating impact and engagement immediately is to more powerfully address the first question…why is this important? When is this important? To whom is this important? Why me? Why now? Without the listener acknowledging that there is a need, engagement is weakened, and decision making is greatly slowed. The popular author and speaker Simon Sinek is making a very nice living off of his premise of “Start with Why”.
Support Your Statements with Facts
- Use of data and facts by wholesalers to support and amplify the points they wish to make tends to be all over the board. A statement that is supported by a data point is almost always more powerful than the statement on its own. I have listened to and provided feedback on hundreds of wholesaler presentations. Some have a tendency to sound like a portfolio manager’s presentation and use 6,8,10 data points or more! At that point it becomes more confusing than compelling! And ironically, in our data-centric profession, far too many presentations include virtually no data points or a single data point at best! As a guideline, build your story and talking points around 2 to 3 strong data points.
State the Impact or Benefit of Your Solution
- You are all well versed in your products and solutions. Of the four questions, this question poses the fewest problems. And yet, the details of your product are less compelling to the listener than the benefits or impact it provides. Remember there are only three things your solution can do…fill a gap, compliment an existing solution or replace an under-performing solution. The better you become at positioning your product in one of those three areas, the more likely it is that an advisor will reach a decision.
The “Close” Must Center on What You Believe
- Wholesalers, from my observations over a long period of time, are not as powerful at addressing “what happens next” as they like to imagine. What do you believe they should do? Without an opinion, a belief, a point of view…you are leaving the decision entirely up to the advisor. But you are not neutral…you believe something…share your belief!
- Simply telling an advisor to use your solution can be awkward. The “hard close” does not fit many scenarios and has fallen from favor in today’s selling environment. I believe that talking about the “types” or demographics of clients your solution might benefit…their age, stage of life, portfolio size, greatest source of worry…is a much more compelling and also more comfortable way to answer the question of “how do we act of this information?” Remember that advisors spend the greatest percentage of their time thinking about the people they serve! So help them see the people who will benefit from their decision.
Write, Rehearse and then Refine your Talking Points
- Draft your major talking points and supporting statements first and then review to see how well they address the four engagement questions. As Mark Twain once said, “The choice between the right word and the nearly right word is the choice between lightening and a lightening bug”. Time spent in developing prepared talking points and the small edits that follow are powerful.
Engage Both the Left and Right Brain
- Powerful communications engage both the left brain and the right brain. The left brain focuses on the logic of the message (your statements supported by data). The right brain focuses on the emotions and imagery of the idea (this is why the use of visuals and stories is so important to today’s listener). Remember the adage that decisions are based on emotion and then justified with logic means that engaging both the left and right brain is crucial!
Prepare Questions and Prepare for Objections
- Finally, consider both the questions and objections from the advisor you might face during the conversation as well as one or two questions for the advisor. I have seen many a sales effort go awry when the first raised objection by the advisor was dreaded, but not prepared for, resulting in a halting, less compelling and less fluid response.
- Questions for the advisor embedded in your talking points fosters a more rapid engagement of the advisor in the conversation. And please craft something more interesting and more engaging than “does that make sense?” or “do you agree”?
Compelling, well-crafted communications are powerful…but not easy to master. It takes time and practice, then it takes editing and revision – and then more practice. Communication is the lifeblood of the wholesaling profession. Only you can decide if the investment in being a better communicator is worth the commitment required.
Start with talking points for a single product or theme. Spend an hour or so building your message using some of the guidelines offered here, practice it with someone you know (colleague, spouse, friend), make the necessary tweaks and edits then take it out for a test run for a couple of weeks. Bring it back in, more tweaks and edits and take it on the road again for another couple of weeks. One month, one presentation. Twelve months, twelve presentations. Or perhaps four months, four presentations then take a couple of months off and hit it again, four months, four presentations followed by a couple of months off.
Use our Communication Framework Worksheet to get started.
And please send me your comments and questions along the way!