Multimedia: a powerful sales tool
What is multimedia selling anyway? It's a sales symphony on CD-ROM. It's video, graphics, animation, text and sound offering a more powerful sales presentation than each could achieve alone.
And ... any of the multimedia components can be used in any order at any time. With a few keystrokes before (or during) a sales call, you can customize any prospect's presentation. And if the multimedia package has been prepared (developed) with the latest technologies, the word you'll hear most from your prospect is "wow!"
Sounds expensive, you might say. Well, what is it worth (or how much would you pay) to increase sales, bury the competition, increase employee retention and train the sales team all at the same time?
It sounds far more reasonable now, doesn't it?
Expensive is relative only to the need for (and the quality of) the solution to a problem. Expensive compared to what?
losing a sale?
losing to the competition?
the cost of training?
salesperson retention?
losing market share?
Sounds real reasonable now.
O.K., What are the advantages of using multimedia CD (or DVD) technology on a sales call? What are the reasons I (or my company) should invest in the best? I asked Bill Whitley, vice president of iXL, an Internet and multimedia firm, what he felt were the best reasons to invest in this technology.
Here are Whitley's 12 strategic advantages of incorporating multimedia into your sales kit. With multimedia you can:
Customize each presentation. You select only the information your audience wants to see.
Make consistent presentations. Your entire sales team presents the same powerful message seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
Tell your story with power. The informational power of text, the excitement of animation, and emotional power of video combine to make your story compelling.
Always present the complete message. Automatic pop-up screens make your sales presentation foolproof never forgetting integral elements of the message.
Interact with your prospect before the sale. Using a built-in database, you can question and prequalify prospects.
Interact with the prospect during the sale. They can push all the buttons to get the full effect of the message, and using the hidden tools you can overcome objections as they occur.
Shorten your sales cycle. When you educate prospects faster, they decide faster. When you present a compelling message, they gain confidence faster. They buy faster.
Simplify complex products and services. Multimedia will show how easy it is to understand, use and own what you sell. It replaces the trap of getting caught up in the often-complicated "telling" portion of the sale. Multimedia clarifies things for the prospective buyer.
Reduce the need to lug stuff. No more boring flip-notebook-turn-the-page presentations. Multimedia is light, compact, portable and plays anywhere a laptop will plug in.
Be Internet-accessible. Add a high-speed modem and you can go anywhere in the world (including your Web site) in one second.
Have live testimonials. Here's the clincher. You'll click on a video section loaded with satisfied clients eager to tell your audience how wonderful you are and how great your product works.
Combine logic and emotion. This is the most powerful element of multimedia. It educates and inspires.
Imagine the look on your prospect's face when you sit down at their desk, living-room coffee table, or your conference room, turn on your laptop, and a video begins playing. You have achieved the initial goal: differentiating yourself from the competition.
When one company has multimedia and the other doesn't, it's painful to be the guy that doesn't.
Need more reasons? The multimedia disc is an inexpensive thing to leave behind. The multimedia database is also used to write proposals and follow up. And it provides instant sales training. Your sales team can access instant sales training information hidden in the program to sharpen their sales techniques minutes before the meeting.
But the best part of well-prepared multimedia is the mesmerizing presentation. It keeps prospects where they belong on the edge of their seat.
Get out the order forms, baby. Here comes the multimedia sales train down the track at full speed. You either have a ticket or get run over by some competitor that does. Ouch.
Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of "The Sales Bible," and "Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless." President of North Carolina-based Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts training programs on selling and customer service. He can be e-mailed at salesman@gitomer.com
