Millions of sales presentations will be given this year. Many will establish a positive connection with customers. Others will be met with yawns.
It’s harder than ever to locate qualified prospects, so when you finally get in front of a potential buyer you need to think and plan strategically.
Here are five ways to get your presentation off to the right start:
- Have great open-ended questions prepared, and develop responses to common objections.
- Be prepared to answer the question posed by many prospects — “Why pick you?”
- Allow prospects to discover the depth of your experience and extent of your knowledge. This is the value you bring that can make a significant difference.
- When you’re finally in front of a prospect, you must use your time well. The more you know about the prospect’s business the more credible you will be during the presentation. Discover what your prospects want and need before your presentation.
- Be aware of what makes your product or service different from your competitors’ and find ways to make your prospects aware of the difference.
Stadium pitch
There’s an exercise to force you to think like a strategist, called the Stadium Pitch. It requires asking yourself if you’d be ready if you had to be in front of all your prospects in a giant stadium and present to them all at once.
Here are 7 presentations rules that would help you keep most of them in their seats:
- K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid). Your presentation needs to be easy to follow and understood. Don’t clutter it up with too many words or examples.
- K.I.F.P. (Keep It Fast Paced). Prospects will get bored if you spend too much time on nonessentials. Keep the presentation interesting and moving.
- Use “wow” facts and stats. You want the prospects to think, “Wow! I didn’t know that.” Factual information at the beginning of your presentation creates a sense of credibility that leads to sales.
- Build in opportunities for stories. Well-told stories increase recall by 26% over making a point without a story to illustrate it.
- Keep your presentation curiosity driven. Unfold the information in a way that keeps your prospects curious. Try to give them a fact first, and follow it with an explanation.
- Be confident but not obnoxious. Develop a rapport with everyone in the stadium, but pretend you’re speaking to one person at a time.
- Focus on them, not on you. Everyone’s favorite topic of conversation is himself or herself. Try to think of the prospect’s needs and how you can meet them. Concentrate on your prospects and remain focused on their needs, and how you can help them.
