On my first job as a life insurance agent I had just landed my biggest prospect to date, then. I was now in his office, this Chief Engineer of a multinational firm. After the flawless presentation we found a vacuum which my product could fill and agreed that I submit a sample of the contract for his perusal before he makes a final decision. Boy, was I ready! I flashed it from my folder and gave it to him. He promised to revert in a week’s time. And that’s when it all went haywire!

I had noticed and escalated a gaping anomaly in the wording which was unfair to the client. My copy of the contract even had this offending sentence underlined. And I had just submitted the same copy to the prospect! Long story short, I was fried! Today, while training, I usually give this story to demonstrate that you can never be too prepared. Like most everything else in life the basics is what people forget and wonder why relationships (social and professional) are going wrong despite gaining more experience.

Over the years, as a firm we have sieved preparation into representation, repertoire, research, rehearsal and repetition. One day my wife was looking for a day back. Among several, one stood out. She beckoned her and as she approached, my wife saw emblazoned across her worn T-shirt the word LOSER. The interview was over before it started. First impressions may not be the last mpression, but in presentations they are. Looking presentable need not to be an expensive affair; you look sharper in an ironed second shirt than you do a creased Giorgio Armani suit. Representation does not stop with how you look on the outside. It actually starts with how you carry yourself inside. Your significant other may have forced you into that impeccable suit but it is useless when you wear it with a loser’s attitude.

Usually, every firm has its own sales repertoire, usually called, sales kit. Your job as a sales person is to strategically place items in it such that you do not have to clutter the prospects desk in search of a calculator you should have placed on his desk the moment you sat down. The novice salesperson starts off with the kit, then proceeds to shed off bits as he gains “experience”- and then wonders why he has hit a plateau.

Google has literary brought information to our fingertips. Yet, I still find sales people gushing all the things the prospects website says they do not condone, simply because it worked on the previous sales call. Research allows you to ask a senior level manager how the price penetration strategy is carrying on; how his son who recently topped the region in Maths is fairing; and so on. In many ways, a sales call is equivalent to a social date; what worked for Jean will not necessarily work for Joan and Joan will be more endeared to you when you say things that she can resonate with and certainly not what she knows, worked for your ex, Jean!

Rehearse. Whether on your fifth day in sales, or your fifth year, practice. Practice makes perfect is not a cliché, it’s a fact. A negative attitude, laziness to set appointments, spending less face-to-face and more monitor-to-face time is practicing bad habits. Bad habits are so much easier to develop. Good habits require discipline. Practice the presentation to your mirror, colleague, supervisor. If you must use PowerPoint, keenly go through it every time before you see a new prospect to ensure remnants of the past prospect are absent. Embarrassing does not begin to describe making a presentation to The Service Magazine, with images and taglines of a competitor magazine showing in your proposal or PowerPoint.

The fifth is of course a repetition of the first four and is meant to reiterate the importance of preparation. The 5 R’s apply to anyone really because we are always selling- ideas to our spouses; asking for increments from our bosses; asking for a date. As a professional salesperson though, be steadfast in the scout’s motto: be prepared- always!

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