Have you ever been at a ‘sales presentation’ where you’re only 10 minutes into the presentation and have already decided you don’t want to buy from the ‘seller’, and instead you’ve actually made the decision to give your business to the closest competitor?
I’m sure we’ve all encountered such ‘lackluster’ of a sales narrative time and again, which immediately sends us slouching back to our chairs or glancing at our watches, in the hope that the presentation finishes soon, so we can get on with our day.
A study by Prezi revealed that 70% of workers (US), who present regularly agreed that presentations are critical to their success at work, and 75% of the presenters surveyed indicated that they would like to improve their presentation skills.
And if you happen to be on the ‘giving’ and not the ‘receiving’ end of this equation, let’s not forget that even the smartest ‘pitch’ with beautifully designed slides decks will fall short if it’s not relevant to the prospects’ needs, or if it does not actively engage them in the ‘conversation’.
So what does it take to deliver a sales presentation that helps us to perfectly position ourselves and convey the right message to our prospects? Is it the confidence and the pizzazz of the presenter? Is it the beautifully crafted design of the sales deck? Or is it simply to do with being ‘relevant’ rather than showering prospects with a ‘canned’ PowerPoint presentation having 50 numbers of slides?
Let’s explore below, 5 such key elements that go into making a killer sales presentation, which will highly improve your chances of motivating your prospects and engaging them to take the desired action:
When preparing a presentation, it’s common practice to keep some introductory slides as it is from the old ones, and then maybe make a few changes here and there to give it a new feel. Nevertheless, it’s still a generic presentation, and to expect it would appeal to some prospects by saying the same thing in every presentation is but a failed strategy.
The fact is, your prospects don’t care much about your headquarter and branches locations, your clients and investors, or your sales growth. One thing they’re most interested in is – How is your product/service ‘relevant’ to them? How does is solve their needs and challenges? That’s where you want to keep your focus and not ‘beat around the bush’.
Having said that, it’s crucial you conduct your due research on what the issues are, that your prospects are currently facing. It also helps if you’d quickly be mindful of a few probing questions before you start your slides, which can help identify the gaps they’re facing.
Always think from the shoes of your prospects, and first and foremost address how your products/services can tackle their specific challenges, everything else is secondary, almost irrelevant.
A successful presentation is the one that fully engages the prospects in the ‘sales narrative’ or the conversation. Blabbering on and touting about one’s products and benefits, without acknowledging the ideas and queries of your prospective clients, is a ‘one-way’ street that will only get you back to square one.
The idea is to not get caught up in your presentation, but actively pay attention to how your prospects are reacting to your pitch. They often show if they have any queries or concerns through verbal, gestural or facial expressions.
Whenever you sense any such behavioural signals from your prospect, it’s best to stop your presentation and encourage them to interrupt you and ask questions. This creates an interactive and ‘conversational’ environment, which builds connection with the prospects and even presents a greater opportunity, to showcase how your products can tackle their challenges or how it can be of great value to them.
If it’s a product you’re dealing with, it’s always good practice to hand it over to them, so they can get a feel of what’s in the offing and stirs up the conversation bringing more enthusiasm to the table.
There is a tendency amongst many of us to either repeat similar ideas, or to keep rambling on about any aspect which we assume as important. It’s critical you take notice of such long-winded discussions or when you’re being overly enthusiastic about a particular issue and you’re give too many examples to elucidate your point.
Most of us are already running on tight schedules and anything that’s not relevant or is being emphasised for too long could backfire on you, because your prospects will quickly lose interest, and it will be difficult to revive that attention, once you lose your grip.
One strict rule you need to follow is – Only talk about what you absolutely must present, and when you feel you’ve covered the critical messages, stop right there, unless you’ve been questioned by your prospects.
This could actually make or break your presentation. If you’re presenting your slides with a run-down voice backed with halfhearted energy, no one will be convinced with your pitches, even if it’s a well-crafted sales deck and you’ve practiced it a dozen times.
Your body language says it all. If you don’t believe in your product, it shows that too - not the right message you’d like to impart to your prospective clients.
The trick is to demonstrate enthusiasm and energy in every word you say, show you’re excited to bring the solutions to the table. One common mistake is we talk in monotone, if we’re familiar with a product/service, this will instantly make the listeners lose interest in the conversation. Your tone of your voice should vary as per the context, creating a variation in the speech to keep it vibrant and interesting.
The most effective sales presentation, which actually closes in sales, is the one that encourages a lot of feedback from the prospects.
When you make a point in your presentation about your product/service, you can quickly ask the clients, ‘Does this make sense to you’? or ‘How would this idea apply to your business?’ This will prompt the prospects to do two things: They will either approve of your solution, or reject the idea giving a deeper insight to their existing problem.
Both responses are ‘gold’ for you, because if they approve you know you’re moving closer to making a deal with them. If they don’t and give you reasons why, you have enough time to tweak and adapt your messages to tackle their challenges and increase the chances to close the sale.
Below is an amazing infographic from HubSpot on the Anatomy of A Perfect Sales Presentation:
Finally…
What other elements do you think would make your sales presentations a ‘killer’ one?
If you'd like further assistance or would like to discuss anything covered today, we'd love to hear from you.
Call Andy Fox (me) on (03) 5249 5570 or email andy@element7digital.com.au
Our Website is element7digital.com.au
