May 2008 - Sales Newsletter
What defines a powerful, effective sales presentation? Perhaps the argument could be made that you have given a great presentation any time your prospect has bought your product or service!
However, that reasoning is erroneous. Your sale may have had absolutely nothing to do with the quality of your presentation. It may have been timing that performed the trick. Maybe you gave your presentation directly on the heels of a poor presentation by a competitor. Perhaps your price was the lowest.
Knowing this, what really defines an effective, powerful sales presentation? Let’s look at 10 essentials for a powerful sales presentation.
Your presentation is absolutely, 100% on target and addresses the specific issues, needs or problems your prospect has to have solved. There is no gap between your product or service application and the solution the prospect is trying to achieve.
You design your presentation to be a dialogue instead of a monologue. You will seek and receive feedback, reaction, comments and an acceptance level from your prospect.
Your prospect will become engaged physically and psychologically with you, your presentation and how it applies to them. Allow them to experience your product or service.
You consistently stress benefits and positive, end-result solutions that your prospect will receive if they purchase your product or service. You don’t just stress feature after irrelevant feature.
You will create value for your product or service. You will not just quote a premature price or anything that doesn’t translate into value for your prospect.
Your presentation will mirror your prospect’s time frame and schedule for making a purchase. Not yours.
If you are one of multiple presenters, you should either make your presentation first or last. Under no circumstance do you want to be buried in the middle between other potential suppliers.
You are willing to course correct, adjust or modify your presentation as you move along. You are not afraid to resubmit, rewrite or reconfigure your presentation.
You will have garnered sufficient internal support to guarantee that you have enough depth in the account to provide you the level of knowledge you need to have in expediting the account.
You will not confuse your prospect. Don’t use buzzwords, acronyms or any phrase or word that could, in any way, be confusing to your buyer.
Making an effective, meaningful presentation is at the very heart of professional selling. However, without input from your prospect it is impossible to make the most meaningful presentation you can. As a consequence, there are two essential issues that must be dealt with before you can begin to achieve this. They are:
Pre-Call Planning and Preparation
Accurate questioning and the subsequent targeting of precisely how your product or service will address your prospect's situation.
Another essential here is your depth of product knowledge. This will allow you to search your personal database of information and extract from it your best method of presentation and the capacity to make what could be a complex presentation more easily understood.
In making a great presentation, remember this – simple is better. Also remember that it is all about your prospect and how your product or service will bring value to their situation. It is not about you or your pocketbook. If you remember all of these essential tips, you will be a world-class presenter of your product or service.
The real bottom-line issue is one that all salespeople need to understand and apply. If your product or service is not something that clearly addresses a problem, fills a need or helps your prospect do what they do better, don’t even make the presentation! If there is not a fit, move on to the next prospect. There is nothing worse or more tragic than a salesperson who continues to joust with windmills that aren’t there. If your product or service is not right for one situation, there are lots of other situations where it will fit.
That leads to one final point. Have you ever thought that, perhaps, the most essential key to an effective presentation is really prospecting? That prospecting and identifying prospects who really do have an interest in or need for your product or service just might be the best way to ensure the best presentation? Give it some thought…I believe you’ll discover the answer.
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