Sales Laundry

Archive for August 4th, 2009

Through an odd set of circumstances I found myself touring the Lyndon B Johnson ranch outside of Johnson City, TX a while back trying to give my kids some perspective on history.

While looking at the hundreds of photos and exhibits across the three or four different sites I ran across a picture that gave me some perspective I was not expecting.

Under an otherwise typical picture in the exhibit of President Johnson shaking hands with an old gentleman with a bushy white beard was a crisp little quote that I almost missed.

“A five minute speech with fifteen minutes spent afterward is much more effective than a fifteen minute speech… that leaves only five minutes for handshaking.”

- Lyndon B. Johnson

As I thought about that statement my mind immediately jumped to the hours I have spent watching boring PowerPoint presentations wishing a hunk of ceiling would fall on my head so I would have a legitimate excuse to escape.

Then it hit me, (and not a piece of the ceiling, mind you) that spending hours writing and developing a presentation with little to no time spent developing a strategy to work the room post-presentation to communicate the important points face to face was just plain silly.

President Johnson figured out a long time ago that influencing the key individuals in the room that could be catalysts for the change he was advocating was a far more effective strategy than solely focusing on a big fat presentation.

Presentations are best used to lay out the facts as concisely as possible and not used as bully pulpits to agonizingly persuade an audience.  Face to face conversation, or “handshaking” as President Johnson put it, is where the deals really get done.

Long term success in sales is more determined by the network of prospects, customers, partners and friends you build than all of the killer 70 slide PowerPoint presentations you have spent all night cranking out.

Don’t get me wrong, a good speech or presentation can be essential to your eventual success but it does not have to last a lifetime in delivery.

The power in the room does not come from your presentation or your powers of persuasion but from the power of the prospects in the room and the strength of their desire to want to engage with you.

Presentations and speeches alike that are sharp, crisp, and to the point are, from my experience, much more effective than a gut-wrenching three-act opus that forces everyone to take a “bio-break” upon completion.

Use your speech to make them curious, use your handshake to make them customers, and that is a History lesson worth repeating.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Image courtesy of americandigest.org