Sales Presentation

You have all seen big budget mega movies with leading actors and expensive sets bomb at the box office. They fall flat on their face as they do not have a story line to support their presentation.

A sales presentation may face the same fate. A formal sales presentation must get attention of the prospect and make him interested in the product. The sales person can do it through a lively and interesting sales talk as well as a systematic demonstration of the product. The product could be offered to feel, taste or smell depending on the nature of the product.

It is important to know about the presentation process and how to be more persuasive and how to put a structure together for a good presentation.

It’s always good to have a great opening to your presentation. Talking too much and not asking enough questions may confuse the customer. If it’s too many statements without questions, you’re not a good presenter. A good presenter is somebody that’s asking relevant questions because you get to find about the customer and his buying needs. Providing some insight or some information that the customer may not know as an attention grabber may be a powerful opening.

Another aspect of a great presentation is that you must have a narrative or a story line–

What is your presentation about?
What’s the key point you are about to make?

It may be a new technology that may be your cutting edge or you may be trying to convince the customer that he needs to replace the product or company he is using at present with yours as you are better.

Having a nice and crisp narrative supported by two or three key messages makes the presentation that much powerful. Produce authentic evidences to prove the product’s superiority.

Every time a presentation is made, it always begins with the obvious end in mind. What is the end? What do you want to happen when your presentation is done? You need to have this clearly defined in your thoughts even before you put together your presentation. The desired outcome must be clearly defined before making the presentation. It helps you build your presentation towards the pre defined desired outcome.

Address any concerns or objections the prospect may have. A good sales person must interpret objections clearly and remove them tactfully. Unless the objections and complaints are satisfactorily answered, the sales cannot take place.

Last but not the least; the presentation must have an outcome. So, as you move towards the close, you must start asking for commitments.

Qualities of a good presentation:

Presentation is questions and knowing your craft, knowing your product and generally not B sing people whom you don’t know what you are talking about.
Sales Presentation must be complete covering all aspects related to company, product, competitive benefits, etc.
Sales Presentation must be clear, free from all confusions and vagueness.
Sales Presentation must be consistent.
Sales Presentation must be precise.
Sales Presentation must prove superiority of products over competition.
Sales Presentation must be confidence winning.
Sales Presentation must be supported with evidences. A good sales person must produce testimonials, awards and guarantees issued by government or test labs, celebrities, and other reliable sources.

The Sales Presentation Process may be summarised

Start with a structure
Start with a good opening with some attention grabbers/did you know information/some key insights/ information beyond the obvious
Create a narrative or a storyline
Support your narrative with demonstration/social proofs/things you have done with other customers
Reduce resistance by effectively handling objections
Close by asking commitment questions.

During your presentation, you have to answer three key questions which the customer always has in mind:

Why do I need to change?

Why should I do it now?

Why should I buy From you?

What would you do?
What would you say?
What would you show?
What would you demonstrate to answer the above three key questions?

If you can answer these three key questions, a customer is more likely to say “YES” than a “NO” to your sales presentation.

Be well prepared- Prepare, prepare, practice, practice and then practice more for an effective presentation. You only have one shot at making a first impression.

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