What did you say again?

Did you go to a sales meeting and present some idea to someone, last week? How much do you think they remember this morning after the weekend?

 If you are lucky they will remember you and your presentation but might not remember much more.

I was prompted to write this weeks newsletter by a training I attended on Friday by Mary Tillson-Wharton who is an inspirational trainer and coach. She shared the Ebbinghaus curve of forgetting, which is often used in how to make training more effective

I have honestly never seen this model ...unless I have forgotten of course and I am sure I would have remembered because it is so relevant!  More of that later

But Ebbinghaus researched into memory and published his findings back in late 19th century. He plotted the curve of how quickly people forget information that they have learnt which follows a definite path.  And it got me thinking about the impact this would have on effective selling, if the customer or buyer instantly forgets most of what they learnt at your presentation

If you look at the graph above, after 20 minutes, people will remember just 58% of your presentation and the next day they will have forgotten two thirds of it.  And let’s be clear here, that is not two thirds of your presentation but two thirds of what they LEARNT, which is of course very different and alot less as they won't be listening to half of it and probably thinking about what to have for tea or their next meeting.

Which gives us two problems - making sure they learn what you are trying to tell them and then how to ensure they retain the critical bits you want them to remember.  

If you are selling sandwiches to them, they might remember the really interesting story you told about what happens to the crusts of the loaves. But completely forget all the good stuff about why your sandwiches are the best vs the competition and why they need to buy from you!!

 Here are 5 top tips to help you to get your message across

1.     Make it relevant – if you read this newsletter regularly, you will know that the most important thing you do before a sales meeting, is to research the people you are selling to, so you know  as much as you can about them as a human and also as a buyer in their organisation which enables you to tailor your approach.  And this is also key in ensure they remember your presentation – make sure it is relevant to them. 

2.     Make it memorable (and know what you want them to remember) – before you go to the meeting ensure that you and your team know the key messages they want to get across – I often suggest to clients they think of the three main points that they want the person to remember.  And this is relevant for job interviews as well as sales pitches.  What three points do you want to leave the customer with that hopefully are the game changes for enabling them to make the right decisions

And then think about how you can ensure people remember them – whether you get them to write them down, repeat them, tell a story for each – whatever is right for the recipient audience which leads me to point 3

3.     Make it interactive  - understand the 70:20:10 rule. 70% of learning comes from doing, 20% from talking to others and 10% from listening.  Don’t just make a presentation without discussion about your key points and think of ways for the recipient to experience your key points – maybe you get them to do something after the meeting, interact with software on the day or whatever is relevant to your business

4.     Follow up with memory triggers – one of the first things you are taught in sales is how to write a meeting report.  What was discussed, key actions and next steps. There are all great but remember (in case you have forgotten) that by day 2, two thirds of what you presented yesterday will have been forgotten so never assume in that contact report that they will have retained everything you presented, discussed or agreed.  Always reiterate the key points that you want them to have learnt and take away. 

Your subsequent follow up emails and discussions may be even further into the future and a bit more memory will have eroded so you will need to keep repeating your key messages to make sure they are not lost over time. Which leads me to point 5 ..the need for repetition

5.     Repetition – This is pretty simple.... tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them what you are going to tell them and then summarise what you have told them. And then reinforce this when you follow up again.

And don't forget the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve!!