How To Create the Perfect Sales Presentation

How To Create the Perfect Sales Presentation:

Now that your simple CRM and sales pipeline tool has helped guide you through the first stages of the sales funnel, you’re ready to give your sales presentation. Before your presentation, look back through your notes and correspondence in Base, shine your shoes, and then batter up!

Creating an effective sales presentation requires more than slapping PowerPoint slides together and showing up at your prospect’s office with laptop and supporting materials in hand. Unfortunately, many sales people don’t create an effective presentation; as a result, they miss valuable opportunities to capture more sales.

Don’t let that happen to you…

Here are five ways to create an effective sales presentation.

Start with a summary

Open your presentation with a brief summary of the prospect’s key problems, issues or situation; a single paragraph or a few lines is sufficient.

This approach captures your prospect’s attention immediately and demonstrates your expertise. It shows that you are aware of their current situation and causes them to sit up and take notice.

Skip the corporate marketing speech

Most sales people spend the first five to ten minutes of their presentation talking about their company. This can include any awards the company has received, how long they have been in business, the clients they have on their roster, their annual sales, and the countries they serve.

Believe it or not, your prospect doesn’t care. They really don’t!

All they want to know is how you can help them solve a particular problem. When you start talking about your company, your prospect automatically starts losing interest. And, when you begin a sales presentation with this information, you demonstrate that you are just like every other sales person the prospect meets with.

If you feel compelled to include this information in your presentation (or you are forced to…) place it at the end and ask your prospect if they want the information before you start presenting it.

Focus on the solution

This doesn’t mean telling your prospect everything there is to know about your product, service or offering. It means presenting the necessary information to clearly demonstrate how your offering will help them solve a particular issue.

It’s all about return on investment (ROI).

How will the company increase sales, reduce costs, make more money, gain more market share, improve employee morale or productivity, reduce dropped calls, improve accuracy, etc.?

Simply talking about your offering does not accomplish this. You need to show your prospect exactly how these results will be achieved. And, you need to be able to do it quickly and clearly.

Rehearse

You can’t wing-it regardless of how long you have been selling or how much experience you have. The business climate is far too competitive for that type of approach. The more important the sales opportunity is the more important it is to rehearse beforehand.

Run through your presentation. Anticipate potential objections and concerns and prepare to respond to these concerns before they are expressed. Make sure that your presentation flows in a logical manner and that it addresses the key issues your prospect may be facing.

Check your timing. If you have 60 minutes allotted for your presentation, make sure you finish with sufficient time for questions and additional discussion.

Lose the logo

I suspect there is a good chance that every slide in your PowerPoint deck has your logo on it. I know, I know…you think it’s good marketing.

Unfortunately, your prospect doesn’t really care about your logo. Having your logo visible on every slide is not going to motivate or compel him to buy from you.

You may say that it helps because your slide deck may get passed around to various people. If that’s the case, include it on the first and last page, not on every single slide.

Great sales presentations are well-thought out. They have a beginning, a middle and an end. They require thought and planning. And, they motivate and compel people to want to buy from you.

For additional ideas, tips and strategies to create compelling sales presentations, check out my free eBook, 58 Ways to Create Compelling Sales Presentations.