Sales is a Performing Art – Hit Your Marks. Know Your Scripts

When I was in High School and College, I loved the performing arts.  I loved performing in plays, singing in choirs, playing the guitar, and writing, and I wrote.  It’s funny how some of these things come full circle for me, but I’ll avoid a tangent.

In particular, I’ve always loved theater.  Movies too, but theater is something totally different because it’s live.  The performers are right there in front of you.  When they feel something, everything in your body responds to what the actor is emoting.  It’s a visceral experience.

In that moment, everything about the play seams effortless and authentic. The players move throughout the stage and recite hundreds and thousands of lines.  The stagehands move set pieces in a matter of seconds that signify the transition of scenes and setting.  Performers go backstage and change clothes.  All of this is tightly choreographed.  Everyone has done their part hundreds of times.

From the moment people are selected for their part in the performance, they begin practicing their craft.  Actors memorize all their lines, word for word, because they know everyone in the play depends on them to say their lines, verbatim, because that’s what will trigger everyone else to do their part.  Once they know their lines, then they learn the where the need to be on the stage for each word.  The director will put tape on the stage signifying where they need to stand.

“Hit your mark, then your co performer will know to do this...”  The director will tell them.

They will repeat these lines and marks hundreds and thousands of times until each movement on stage feels totally natural.  Then they will repeat these performances with the entire cast hundreds and thousands of times until they are synchronized with each other.

When it comes time for the curtain to be drawn, they know they can perform because they have done it so many times it feels natural. 

And when we watch them deliver their lines as an audience, if they execute and it’s a good performance, it doesn’t feel stilted for being memorized.  It feels authentic. 

All that memorization and rehearsal makes the performance feel authentic.

What’s this got to do with sales?

A Beautiful Performance Evokes Emotion

When a salesperson meets with a prospect or a client, it’s a performance.

The goal of client meeting is to make that client feel something viscerally.  We want them to leave their current situation and work with us.  Or we want them to be inspired by our competence and continue to utilize our services. 

Don’t fool yourself into thinking that the job is just to educate.  That’s part of it.  But people are best educated when they are entertained and feel emotionally connected to you. 

People typically use information to justify emotional decisions.  If you cannot elevate their emotions, they will not buy. 

Which means we’ve got to know our performance, and we’ve got to hit our marks. 

And yet, most salespeople walk onstage, and they don’t know their lines, they don’t know the plot of the story, and they intend to make up the entire thing as they go, including the set pieces.

Then they wonder why they don’t have success. 

Have you ever watched a play when the actors don’t know their lines?  It hurts.  Seriously.  It sends electrical shocks through your skin.  It’s agony.

In the insurance sales process, here are the key marks:

1.      Your Elevator Pitch / Big Fat Claim / Whatever You Want to Call It

This is your 20 second pitch when a stranger has given you the opportunity to introduce yourself and what you do.  It needs to include who you are, a compelling reason to work with you, social proof, and a suggestion for the next steps in the process.

It cannot be more than 20 seconds.  You will lose your audience’s attention. 

It needs to hit all the key parts of the statement, or you may not grab all your audience members that you want.

It needs to establish what the suggested next steps are.

I’m going to get on my soap box now:

If you can’t give your Big Fat Claim in front of your peers with no notice, then there is no way you can give it in front of your clients.  Full stop.

I hear people say this all the time. 

“Guys, I promise you.  This sounds so much better when I’m talking to clients, and you aren’t listening.”

No it doesn’t.  It really doesn’t.  It sounds exactly the same.  And they aren’t saying anything, but they’re also not buying anything.

You need to memorize your lines.  You are losing opportunities until you do.

2.      The Qualifying Conversation

The Qualifying Conversation needs to be scripted for about 20 minutes.  People are busy and can’t spend forever with you.  The conversation needs to take a person on an emotional story arch.

First, we establish their current situation.

Second, we uncover how it could be better with a series of carefully crafted questions that we know will target the most common pains we solve.

Third, we determine who are the key decision makers.

Fourth, we decide how to move the process forward.

The great thing about a qualifying conversation is that you can bring your script with you to the meeting.

For me, I have a template pdf on my IPad.  When I’m getting ready to jump into a qualifying conversation, I will copy my script into a folder for the prospect.  Then I will bring my IPad into the meeting and ask the series of questions. 

On top of that script, I have memorized approximately 100 questions that I can use at any given time for this meeting.  I have read sales books and developed tactics to encourage people to continue speaking, even when I’m not sure what the best question should be.

I’m fully aware that these meetings can be fluid.  It may feel like you need to be prepared to go anywhere and talk about anything, but that’s not totally true.  There may be an element of improvisation, but every meeting has a plot.  A beginning, middle, and an end.  Be prepared to guide people through that plot.

3.      The Presentation

Here is the plot line for a presentation:

First, we restate the customer’s problems.

Second, review the solutions in dramatic fashion.

Third, we establish next steps for how to move the process forward.

I have a couple thoughts here.

You should have your own proprietary presentation that helps you guide you through the presentation.  Think about your presentation as your set pieces on stage.  Many insurance companies will give you presentations that you can present.  Using those presentations is like trying to do your play but letting someone else decide what your setting will look like.  Their vision of the play may be totally different to yours.  I wouldn’t recommend it if the client is very important to you.

You need to memorize the customer’s problems before going into the meeting.  This only takes a couple minutes.  Review your notes from the qualifying conversation.  Make sure you’re ready to speak to those issues directly.

Develop a couple powerful stories that help you illustrate key points.  Memorize them.  Be ready to deliver with conviction.

Conclusion:

A successful performance is never an accident.  It is the summation of hours and hours of practice.  Actors spend countless hours memorizing lines, blocking, and staging, so that they can say exactly what needs to be said, when it needs to be said, at a precise spot on the stage, so that their audience can experience the true emotion of the words on the page.

In sales, if we want our audiences to be captivated by the performance, we need to give the same level of care to memorizing our lines and hitting our marks.

If we don’t, we can’t blame anyone else when our audience doesn’t feel emotionally connected to our performances and then chooses not to buy.