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What are your tips for the optimal sales presentation?
I'd love to here from both sales people and people who have been sold to on their tips for the optimal sales presentation. Sales presentation can be delivered in person or over webex. An example of a tip might be "Only use a maximum of 4 slides" and why.
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4 Answers
Good stuff. I would add onto the previous answer with the following.
1. Make it about the buyer. Yes, the buyer needs to know they are purchasing from a viable vendor but logo slides and accolades can be skimmed over or provided at the end of the presentation.
2. Do your homework on the company and the people meeting with. What are their backgrounds, who has the power to yes, who has the power to say no, any important news in print or on-line that relates to your attempts to sell to them.
3. Perform discovery and strategize. Know why you are sitting at the table. Who has the power, is there budget, do you need to provide budget, what challenges are they confronted with, align your resources wiht the buyer resources, have an agenda and understand how you'll manage that time.
Tony
Great question Craig. I bet there's going to be some good responses to this. Here's some of the basic blocking/tackling sales presentation tips I've seen/learned over the years:
1. Arrive 20-30 minutes early. Use the time to overcome the inevitable conference room / projector / IT issues. And if none of those issue exist, get a pre-brief from your contact on how to best run the meeting. And if you don't get time with your contact, use the time to mentally prepare / relax / meditate before you enter the ring.
2. Manage the clock. Re-confirm when the meeting starts that you still have the time allotted with all the key people that you thought you did. 5 out of 10 times, a key decision maker / influencer has a "hard stop" 15-30 minutes earlier than you expected. If you can accomplish your objectives in this compressed window of time, you can be more productive in your next meeting (assuming you get another one).
3. Manage your crew. Make sure anyone supporting you in the meeting knows exactly what they are there to do/say and what they should NOT do/say. If anyone on your team is dialing into the meeting, they should (a) be in a quiet place (b) be using a good phone (c) not be distracted by anything else and (d) not have any chat windows or other screen pops come up during the meeting (Web conf scenario only). I had a hands-down market-leading software vendor selling to my company a couple of years ago. The sales person was unfortunately not adept at managing his resources, and what should have been an easy win for him became a drawn out affair because his demo failed and his team was not prepared for the meeting. When our CEO came into the meeting, the disorganization was obvious, and there was no opportunity for the sales rep to show why his company was the clear market leader. Instead, a lot of doubt was created that I, as the vendor champion, had to manage through over the next several weeks.
These are just a few of the little things that, if left unmanaged, can completely derail a sales presentation, and detract from the actual business of selling.
Tom
I do agree with the previous posts so I won't repeat them. I will offer one piece of advice often forgotten - make it seriously memorable. Chance are the customer is being pitched by multiple companies, each having multiple people present or on the call for a pitch. After the presentation is over, will the customer remember you and what you can do? Yes, it is embodied in all that stated by Tom and Anthony but whether it is an incredibly differentiated product, a serious passion for helping the customer, an ace support team, or whatever - sing it in a way that compels the customer based on need or building their business. Otherwise, you're looking at the trees and missing the big opportunity to stand out.
Craig, I was tempted to say, "Just watch any of yours and emulate it?" I thought better of that ;-)
The key thing about effective presentation is it is all about the customer and What's In It For Them! The mistake people make is they think the presentation is about them and their product. Regardless of how polished the presentation, how slick the technique, it's a recipe for failure.
Having great impact has less to do with polish and technique and everything to do with connecting effectively with the customer. It means doing your homework in advance and at a detailed level. Who is participating? What is each person interested in? What is their agenda or interest? How do you best connect with them?
In smaller meetings, talk to each person before they walk into the room, so that you are prepared before they arrive. If you haven't had the opportunity, at the beginning of the meeting, before you start pitching, ask them--then adjust how you present to make sure you address what they have identified.
While it's more complex with large groups, there are still things that you can do to "get to know the audience," increasing the liklihood of connecting with them.
I've written about this recently in my post, Know Thy Audience, at http://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/know-thy-audience/
It's a great and provocative question! Thanks for posing it.
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