Jodie Lopez’s Post

Transcript

Hello Jody here. So the outside one of our local buildings, one of the old churches and I wanted to do a video today because there's something's been playing on my mind ever since BET and that is. Up the pitches on stand, which I was quite disappointed with in most places. So I went to bed with a very specific idea of things I did want to see. So I'd research. Because I'm working with some schools, they're looking for some specific solutions, so I researched them all. Obviously there's ones I knew already. I had a look for any new ones in the market. Had a look at the websites, went through videos showing me what you do, you know, explain the videos. And then for each one I went up to the stand and I said right. I've seen everything online. There's a specific thing I'm looking for and in some cases there was. I want to see how the office staff actually send a message to parents, or I want to see how your payment system works for paying for school dinners, whatever it was and in every case I was then. LED all the way through a very long demo where I was forced down a path that they, the person showing me wanted me to go down. So ohh let me let me show you how the Ms. works. Let me show you this bit first. Let me show you the registers first. And I didn't want any of that. And it got me thinking because I thought, you know, all this opportunity to sell to me was wasted. Not a single one made me think I am going to go and get that one. So I just found it really disappointing. But I was having to think about it and thinking kind of and obviously I know that on stand that something like BET, everyone's not a salesperson, but some of them were, some of them that was sales was their job, For others they were on stand because you know, everyone gets to go on stand at BET because you would need as many Bony bodies as possible. So sales is not their main thing. So I don't want to criticize or judge if that's not your main role, but it's also the responsibility of people who are in that role to make sure that people are doing the best pitches they can. So. I love an analogy, love a food analogy because I'm on a diet, so I'm hungry. And I've come up with one because I think there's a really well meaning misconception here, but it is a misconception and it does cause problems. So the misconception is if you've got a product that does lots and lots of things and all products to some extent. You know, whether it's, you know, the access is different. You know, you get parent access as well as child access or whether it's it does homework as well as in class or whether it's some massive system that does 30 to 50 different things like a learning platform. So there's always kind of lots of things that you do and you kind of want to tell people about all of it. But you're making people go down a path through all of it, no matter what they're looking for or what they're interested in, and boring them along the way. Mostly because nobody's going to take in a full hour of demo whether you going through every single thing that your product does and in detail and remember it and go back to school to the person with the budget and tell them all about it, it's not going to happen. So you need to be able to get to the point and you need to be able to give them a good experience. So what you're doing by doing this, going through every single thing you do, no matter even if someone comes up and says I specifically want to look at this. One bit. What you think you're doing is giving them a buffet and letting them wander up and pick what they want. So here's all the things we do. Pick what you want. Totally valid in certain circumstances. You know, a buffet is is a good thing for a reason. At parties, you've got lots of different people, lots of different dietary needs, lots of different tastes, lots of different preferences. You want to cater to them all in a way that's easy and doable for you. So you've done that in your product and you're trying to do that in the pitch. Look, here's all the stuff and you can pick, and it's perfectly valid. On the buffet, people will walk up with a plate, they'll seize 30 different things and they might pick six or seven things that they like and leave 2324 of them. Find and pick the ones they like. They're happy. Everyone else gets to go up and pick what they like. Some people want Scotch eggs and sausage rolls. Some people want the healthy stuff for the cruder tapes and the hummus and the and the salads and things you've catered for. Everyone. If they've got dietary needs, you've got different stuff going on. So if you don't like, you know. If you're allergic to dairy, you don't have to have the cheese sandwiches. If you're gluten intolerant, you can have more of the salad stuff or the chicken skewers or whatever else you've done. So that case has really well in a party situation and but what's happening? The pitch situation is is a power dynamic that's very specific to sales, one to one in front of somebody. And what you're doing in that situation is not offering them the table and letting them wander up and take it. What you're doing is taking each dish and shoving it under their nose and talking about it ad nauseam while it's under their nose. And if they've got a dairy allergy and you're holding the cheese right there and talking about the cheese with flowery language and all this different stuff, they're just thinking, get the cheese away from me. I'm not interested in the cheese. That's actually making me feel quite sick. Or you're holding sandwiches under them and they've got a gluten intolerance. For all these different things. So you're shoving the plate under their nose and you're turning them off in that instant. And you're also stopping them looking at the buffet because they're they're focused on this one plate that you've decided to shove here and tell them about. And then you put that down, you pick up another plate and you shove it here and you talk about it. And so they're just more and more getting put off the buffet. Like it's not a nice experience even if you shove something they do like, they're like, Oh yeah, I want that. Can you tell me more about you? Put that down and now you're on to the next dish and they're, ohh, I want that one. So you're not creating a nice experience. So how do we do it? How do we do the buffet experience for real in a pitch situation, on stand or anyone to one? Well, what we should be starting with is a menu. So here are all the things we can do. Which ones interest you? Which ones do you want to hear about? Which ones do you want me to show you? Which ones do you want to smell and and have near you and taste? Which ones do you want from this list? So here's the 30 things and that can be a list or it can be if it's small, it could be different areas. You know, we do homework, we do in class work, we do teacher support, we do do duh ohh Well I've got something for the in class work, but we are looking for something for homework. Ah great, let's take you in straight to homework. And by doing that, by giving them the menu of the buffet, you're still showing them. Do loads and some of it they might take later. They might take the homework now and then. Love your platform so much they later get rid of their other platform and take something else from you. But they're not gonna do it by you holding the plate under their nose. You need to show them the buffet in a way a buffet actually is. And have the dynamic of them choosing, not you deciding what goes in front of them. Let them say, I want to have a look at that. Show me more about that one. Now I want to have a look at that one. Show me some more of that. Tell me more about this one. And by doing that and. Handing them the power. You're also handing them the power to say yes, as opposed to the power to go. Ohh, please, just get that away from me. I need to move. So do the buffet, but give them the menu and do the We do all these things. We serve all these different people and all these different needs, but do it in a way that's not shoving one need under their face and expecting them to care about all the other needs. So that's my Buffy analogy. I'm getting more and more hungry, but I need to get rid of some of this, so I'm going to stick with it. I'm going to. Or the bakery that's next to the church. And I'm going to go about my day, so have a great day, everyone. Hope the analogy work for you. Get in touch if you need to find out more about how to get your sales right, because I certainly saw lots of pictures at BET that would make me think there's lots of more work to do. So get in touch if you think that's you or your team. I'd love to help you out. Bye.