A sales presentation is your pitch.
More specifically, the presentation is your formal chance to present how your company’s offerings are beneficial to the prospect. It’s a chance to show how you provide value and how you can solve a prospect’s unique problems.
Sales presentations tend to occur after earlier preparatory sales work has been completed.
Before meeting in person, you probably found the prospective client thanks to your prospecting efforts that caught their attention because of some compelling value you presented. You have most likely had at least one phone call where you were able to ask probing questions.
During those pre-meeting phone conversations, you should have asked the prospect numerous questions to find their pain points and determine what they truly value.
Although the presentation is your chance to highlight yourself and your company, there is still plenty of opportunity to listen. That’s important, because you can never know enough about a prospect and listening strengthens relationships.
Here are 9 pieces of advice to help you make sales presentations more successful for you:
1. A sales presentation is your formal chance to present how your company’s attributes are beneficial to the prospect. It’s a chance to show how you provide value and how you would solve a prospect’s unique problems. Just make sure the presentation is tailored to how your offering exactly satisfies what matters to that client. In other words, limit the talk about how long you’ve been in business, how many clients you serve, the combined years of service your staff has, etc.
2. Don’t just focus on presenting. Think about building a trusting relationship with the prospect. You can build trust by establishing rapport, communicating thoroughly, being appropriately self-deprecating and listening earnestly when the prospect talks. A presentation isn’t all talk. Make sure to listen as well.
3. Structure your sales presentation both rationally and persuasively, taking advantage of human nature. Don’t forget the emotion. Salespeople love to present logical arguments as to why a prospect should buy, but prospects purchase based on emotion. Yes, that’s true even in complex B2B transactions.
4. When you coach and facilitate your prospects, the hard sell is not necessary.
Determine what part of your sales presentation is boilerplate and which part is to be customized. Focus your preparation on the customized part.
5. Cast a vision of how great life will be with your product or service by using a little showmanship during the sales presentation. Highlighting value-added benefits can be just enough to push the deal over the top.
6. Over-reliance on audio/visual aids or props is a mistake but not using them all can make you come across as unprepared, unprofessional or unsophisticated.
7. Tell the truth, communicate earnestly and be yourself (but be the most appealing version of yourself).
8. Two presenters are usually better than one, but three presenters can feel like a crowd. The larger the number of prospects in the meeting, the more representatives you can have from your company.
9. Doing something a little special and out of the ordinary makes prospects feel as if you truly value them and their business. If there is a pleasant surprise during the sales presentation, it can help you chances, just as long as the surprise isn’t cheesy or over the top.
