1: The salesperson rips a piece of paper out of a notebook.
The piece of paper is the prop, Erik Peterson and Tim Riesterer write in their powerful book, Conversations That Win the Complex Sale.
The sales rep says: “Imagine that this piece of paper represents all the information that your salespeople need to communicate to their prospects about your company.
“The question is, how much of that information will your prospects remember after your salespeople leave the room?”
[Pause.]
The salesperson continues: “The science says that one hour after your salespeople leave the room, the average person can remember about 50 percent of what the sales reps had to say.”
The rep folds the paper in half, which represents the 50 percent of the message that is remembered.
“Just eight hours after your reps leave the room,” says the salesperson, “your prospects can remember about 25 percent of what they had to say.”
The rep folds the paper in half again.
“Just 72 hours after they leave the room, the science shows that your prospects can remember about 10 percent of what your reps had to say.”
The rep folds the paper in half one more time, and then a bit more, to show that only 10 percent is remembered.
“And just one week later?”
The salesperson tries to fold the paper again, but it will not fold any further.
“There’s not enough strength in my fingertips,” they say, “to reduce this paper down to how much the average person can remember from one of your salespeople’s conversations.”
[Pause.]
2: “So, the question is . . . does it have to be like that?” the rep says.
“And the answer is, no, it doesn’t.
“The human brain is not wired to remember facts and data,” they say. “But it is wired to remember stories—information wrapped in emotion.
“And when you can take all of the complex information that your reps need to communicate and turn it into a simple, differentiated, and memorable story, you dramatically change how much of your message is remembered.”
As the salesperson explains the solution, they begin unfolding the paper.
“And of course, what’s the point of having the meeting if your message doesn’t get remembered?
“That’s why companies are coming to us.”
3: Yesterday, Richard Feynman needed an O-ring, a clamp, and a cup of ice water. Here, all that’s needed is a piece of paper.
“Props are a great way of breaking the pattern of what your prospect expects,” Erik and Tim note.
The lesson isn’t simply to start bringing props to sales meetings.
What makes props so effective?
“Props are memorable,” the authors write.
But that can also be a downside. Props are memorable.
“The thing to remember,” they state, “is that you need to use props to make an important point. If you don’t, you run the risk that they’ll seem silly or cute, and that’s not what you want.”
The goal isn’t for your prospect to remember the prop. It’s for the prop to help them remember your point.
More tomorrow.
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Reflection: What important idea do you regularly communicate that people may understand in the moment but quickly forget?
Action: Identify one simple prop or demonstration that could make that idea easier to see, understand, and remember.
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