Target Audience: Sales professionals who need to know how to adjust their sales strategies to succeed with prospects of diverse cultures, personalities, races, or backgrounds.
Format: This topic is available as either a keynote/general session talk, break-out session, or half-day workshop. The primary difference between the three is the amount of detail and audience participation.
Note: This presentation differs from “Bias-Free Customer Service” in that the examples used are pertinent to the sales environment.
Program Benefits:
- Increased sales and profit margin
- Increased repeat business and profitable long term relationships
- Positive word-of-mouth “advertising” within close-knit diverse communities
Customization: Prior to the offering of any program, Dr. Thiederman will make every effort to hone the presentation – through client and industry-specific examples – so that it speaks directly to the needs and expectations of the audience.
Client Description: (This description is designed to aid the client in his or her decision-making process. Specific content may vary according to client needs and/or the development of new material.)
In today’s increasingly-diverse marketplace, sales professionals cannot succeed without the ability to interpret accurately the needs of each and every prospect. More than any other single factor, it is biases– inflexible beliefs about a particular category of people–that create the misunderstandings that in turn bring about reduced sales, lost prospects, and, ultimately, diminished profits.
Using real workplace examples along with a touch of humor, this presentation provides skills for overcoming the subtle biases that all-too-often interfere with successful sales relationships. Included in the presentation are:
- Introductory material designed to diffuse participant discomfort and resistance.
- Information on how bias impacts our ability to sell effectively.
- Skills for accurately identifying bias in oneself and others.
- Tools for achieving “bias mindfulness” and, thereby, targeting one’s biases for extinction.
- Cognitive skills for weakening the foundation of bias.
- Skills for reducing bias by engaging in counter-bias behaviors (“Fake It Till You Make It”.)
- Skills for shoving biases aside long enough to see prospects and their needs accurately.
- Customized information about the needs and communication style of prospect groups that are of particular importance to the client organization.
- Techniques for immediately applying the material learned in the workplace.
Promotional Description: (This description is for use in the meeting brochure or other program promotion.)
More than anything else, successful selling has to do with the ability to accurately interpret the needs of potential customers and clients. There is nothing that interferes with this ability more readily than the presence of a conscious or unconscious bias that distorts our view of who people really are, how they feel, and how we can fulfill their expectations.
Sadly, even the most professional among us can be guilty of bias – an “inflexible belief about a particular category of people.” Usually these biases are subtle and practically invisible, but they are nonetheless capable of interfering with our ability to succeed. This interactive and enlivening presentation supplies specific information about diverse populations while showing participants how to overcome the biases that prevent us from doing business successfully with each and every prospect.
"Bias-Free Sales: Your Key to the Close" is based on material found in Dr. Thiederman's book Making Diversity Work: Seven Steps for Reducing Bias in the Workplace.
