Make a strong sales presentation

You can learn to create interest in your sales plan presentation. In the age of "Wow!" marketing and advertising, it's important to make your presentation unique and audience focused. Although a strong sales plan presentation won't ensure sales success, it builds credibility and support to help you reach sales objectives and quotas. The following techniques can help:

Deliver your presentation with power. Design your message based on your listeners' needs and expectations. Use the State-Support-Summarize (S-S-S) formula to move your listeners to action.

Deliver with power

Research confirms that listeners process information based on both verbal and nonverbal messages. To present a strong message, you must focus on both of these aspects of communication. The following data indicates the power of nonverbal messages:

Visual Vocal Verbal

Gestures, movement, and expression make up 55% of your message. How you say the words makes up 38% of your message. Your actual word choice makes up just 7% of your message.

As you see, 93% of the content of a presentation is conveyed nonverbally through visual and vocal elements of the presentation.

VISUAL COMMUNICATION
Gestures can have a huge impact on presentation success. Avoid the following gestures.

Parade Rest

Fig Leaf

Hands in Pockets

Try the following gestures.

All of Us

We Are Gathered

Open Hand

VOCAL COMMUNICATION
How you present your sales plan is the second most critical strategy for ensuring that your presentation has an impact on listeners. Key aspects of your vocal approach include:

Boosting the volume

Often a sales presenter speaks too softly. Most listeners won't put a lot of effort into

straining to hear the presenter. Speak loudly enough so that everyone can hear your message.

Varying the pace

One of the most powerful yet overlooked sales presentation tools is silence. A pause can be

very powerful. In fact, the lack of appropriate pauses is the single largest cause of "uh"s and "um"s. Hint: When practicing your sales plan presentation, have someone tap a water glass each time you say an "uh" or an "um" so that you become aware of how often you use these interjections. (You might go crazy, but you'll stop doing it.)

Varying your pitch

Avoid monotone delivery by adding up and down intonations to your presentation. Begin

speaking in your normal vocal range and return to it often, but don't let it be the constant pitch of your presentation. Hint: Although it might be a bit painful for you to hear, record your sales plan presentation when practicing it, and then listen to the recording, paying special attention to your vocal pitch throughout.

VERBAL COMMUNICATION
Choose your words carefully, and avoid the temptation to include fluff in your sales plan presentation. Although the verbal aspect of a presentation has the least impact, it can turn off a listener surprisingly quickly. Here are a few tips for making your words work for you rather than against you:

Use the active voice

You can make your sales plan presentation more credible by using the active voice rather

than the passive voice. For example:

Active: "We missed our goal by 15% ..." Passive: "Our goal was missed by 15% ..." Using the active voice communicates your point much more effectively.

Use lists

Listeners retain your message better if you organize the content into lists or key points. One trap to avoid is the overuse of acronyms and jargon. Your audience might

Avoid acronyms and jargon

perceive such terms as fluff or buzzwords and as a smokescreen for your real sales message.

Design the presentation for your listeners

While preparing your sales plan presentation, consider three key elements of the message:

What do you want your audience to do? What do you want your audience to know? How do you want your audience to feel? If you keep these elements in mind, your message will be both listener focused and persuasive. Here's how to address those three crucial elements:

Do

Many sales plan presentations are intended to persuade management to support some type of initiative, such

as creating growth, expanding into new markets, or improving solution-delivery quality. Make sure that your audience has no doubt about what you want them to do as a result of your presentation.

Know

Any sales plan presentation contains elements that are merely informational. Make sure your audience

knows what they need to remember from your presentation. Make the main points clear, and provide adequate supporting information.

Feel

The tone of your presentation is critical but often overlooked. Too often, sales plan presentations convey an

unintentional sense of arrogance the "look what I accomplished" syndrome. At other times, presentations can sound whiny providing excuses for why goals and objectives cannot be or have not been met. Your goal should be to create a feeling throughout your talk that matches the "do" and "know" objectives.

Use the S-S-S formula to move listeners to action

As you design your presentation, develop both a strong opening and a powerful closing. After your opening, preview your main points and then provide enough specific information to support your message. The following S-S-S formula helps your listeners retain important information and prompts them to act:

State

State your main points clearly and concisely. Provide enough supporting information to address your listeners' needs adequately. Summarize each main point of your message.

Support

Summarize

Strong presentations lead to success

A sales presentation plan should be well thought out with a balance of hard data and persuasion. You should be creative within the guidelines of your organization's culture and style. Using both verbal and nonverbal techniques while focusing on what you want the listeners to do, know, and feel helps ensure a successful outcome

10 slides to a better sales presentation

Jim Logan | September 28, 2011 | 0 Comments

Its a complicated offering and we really cant get through it in less than an hour. Thats what I was told by a start-up technology company I met with at the request of a friend. My friend, the majority investor in this company, asked me to review their sales presentation a 50+ slide presentation loaded with features and functionality. Abraham Lincolns Gettysburg Address, considered by many to be the greatest American speech of all time, defining democracy and our purpose as a nation, took three minutes to deliver. So, why would it take anything more than 30 minutes to describe a company, its offering, and benefits to a prospective customer? Thats 15 times longer than Lincoln used at Gettysburg! In my business, I see a lot of presentations the majority are poor. Companies spend too much time bragging on themselves and extolling their greatness as opposed to focusing on the meaningful ways they aid the interests and alleviate the concerns of their customer. Customers could care less about the things you do, theyre interested in the things you do for them. Customers buy benefits, not features. Features and functionality exist to support the benefits you offer. Get to the benefits first. I dont believe there is such a thing as the right or wrong number of slides in a sales presentation. That said, never have more than a 10 slide sales presentation. If you need more than 10 slides to convey your value and benefits, something is wrong. Limit yourself to 10 slides and challenge yourself to get to the main points faster. You dont have the luxury of time with a prospect you need to lock their interest early.

An interesting exercise is to make a presentation from the customers perspective, addressing information the way they are likely processing your conversation with them. Use the following titles for each slide and put information on the slide that answers that slides question. Compare this presentation to whatever you have today. Which is more meaningful to your prospect? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Opening Slide Who Are You? What Do You Do for Me? How Do You Do It? How Are You Different?? Why Should I Believe You? What Does It Cost? Do You Offer a Guarantee?

9. How Do We Start Doing Business Together? 10. Closing Slide What do you think?

Seems like sales people are always asking me about how to make their sales presentations better. What presentation tips can I help them with to gain an advantage? Other than the most common areas to focus upon questioning skills to get valuable information prior to presentations and great planning and strategy are the real keys to having an effective sales presentation. Yet, I find the need to share some practical how-tos with my sales clients, both for confidence and the realization of when a sales presentation is going well. So, here are six simple steps to better presentations

Six Steps to Better Sales Presentations

1. Customer Participation
The day of the talking head are gone. It is time to develop presentations that engage your prospects or customers in the process. Always remember this equation Involvement equals Commitment. The more time, energy and input into the sales process a customer has, the more likely they are to commit to the next stage. No involvement equals no investment of time, energy or expense.

2. Tell Stories
Im talking about Success Stories of how you did things for other customers. This allows the customer to become part of the story in their minds. Being there and experiencing both the problem and the possible solution gives positive energy to your offering. This is also a method to show your experience and expertise relative to the industry and able to execute a needed solution. The more the story involves similar companies, same industry and same

titles or position in the story the better for you. Use more stories and less details in your sales presentations.

3. Objections Are Good

Most sales people get mad or frustrated when a customer raises an objection during a presentation bad karma. Actually, this is an excellent sign for you to develop. If a customer raises an objection during a presentation it shows their are thinking about HOW TO USE your solution and have a question that needs to be answered. No interest or no objections are the kiss of death to a sales presentation. Get excited about objections ask questions for clarity and understanding and answer the issue with strong reasoning and emotional connections showing you care. Winning will become more commonplace for you.

4. Price Issues
Okay, the eight hundred pound Gorilla in the room will always be price. Price comes up early, often and late so expect it. Ask questions about what they are comparing your price to so to insure apples to applies comparison. Confidently askSo, as I understand it, you like everything about our offering except the initial price. What would you do in my place? This triggers a possible solution that is a lesser problem than you thought it would be. In any event, this allows for a healthy dialogue about the benefits and ROI of your offer. Show all the advantages and how your solution will be a greater improvement at any price.

5. Gaining Agreement
Avoid using words that sound confining or harsh to the customer. In reality, most business to business selling begins after the final agreement to move forward. The hard work will now begin due to the customers dependency upon your ability to service and perform the needed milestones in the agreement. Therefore, use different terminology or words than sign here or lets close on the dotted line. Use softer language such as If youre ready, lets get started. or When would you like to begin? or What is the first deadline date according to your discussions? It is a softer and more gentle way to say Let begin.

6. Review Every Presentation

This is the best way to improve your sales presentations over time. The more you do sales presentations, the better you become using this critical skill. However, if you continue to use ineffective techniques and methods, you will lose more than you will win. Therefore, ask yourself two questions after each sales presentation What did I do Well? (You want to repeat these steps) and What do I need to Improve? (Notice this question is about what to improve rather what you did wrong. Putting a positive on this questions means you are looking for ways to improve rather than blame.) Also, it is usually very valuable to get feedback from the customer or prospect for areas you did well and what you could have improved for them. It again shows you care about them and the future sales presentations to them.

There you have six simple steps to better sales presentations. Let me know if these are helpful to you, or if something should be added to this list for more effectiveness. Either write a comment on this post or contact me direct using the contact us page on this site. I will get back to you with any questions or comments.

5 Tips for Better Sales Presentations

Monday, December 12, 2011 By: Susan Gunelius Its safe to say that just about every business person has sat through a boring PowerPoint presentation at least once. You know how it feels to watch the clock and hope that next slide is the last one, and you definitely dont want potential clients, business partners, or investors to feel that way when you deliver a sales presentation for your small business. To avoid falling into the boring PowerPoint presentation trap, follow the 5 tips below to give your sales presentations a boost that will keep your audience engaged and drive positive results.

1. Tell Stories.
Instead of simply reciting a list of statistics, sales volumes, and so on, tell stories that make all of those numbers more interesting and more meaningful to your audience. Look for any opportunity during your presentation to incorporate a relevant story that adds another dimension to your pitch, making it more personable and real.

2. Less is More.
Less is more in every aspect of your sales presentations. Keep the text on each slide to a minimum, and make sure your entire presentation stays focused on no more than three main points. If you try to communicate too much information, your audience wont remember any of it.

3. Images Trump Text.

Your PowerPoint slides should support your oral presentation, not act as the delivery vehicle. Therefore, use more images than text and make sure every slide is visually appealing with appropriate imagery.

4. Lists Not Paragraphs.

Too much text is never a good thing when it comes to creating a PowerPoint presentation. Dont give into the temptation to write in paragraphs. Lists are always the better choice. Whether you use bulleted or numbered lists depends on the information youre communicating on each slide. As long as youre not creating slides filled with paragraphs of text, you should be okay.

5. Try New Tools.

PowerPoint is the presentation standard, but dont be afraid to try new tools and alternatives to PowerPoint. For example, Prezi is a fantastic tool that enables you to create presentations that can knock your audience members socks off. In recent releases of the PowerPoint software by Microsoft, a handy tool called SmartArt is offered that can

turn bulleted lists and pictures into visually dynamic graphics. Even Keynote, which was once used only by Macowners, has become a great PowerPoint alternative since it so easily integrates into the iPad through theKeynote app. It can also convert files to and from PowerPoint and Google Docs. In other words, PowerPoint isnt the only option for sales presentations anymore.

Are Your Slide Presentations Effective?

After watching or reviewing hundreds of slide presentations used by sales people, I have decided very few of these sales people understood the term effectiveness when applied to their slide presentations. Most of the slides are nothing more than data spreadsheets or short books of information text covering every slide. This is not the way to win friends and influence people during a sales presentation. Take some time to create the professional image you want the customer to take away from your sales presentation. Take some time to prepare your presentation and use techniques to help build a professional image. Here are Ten Tips to Effective Slide Presentations 1. Plan Your Time In other words give yourself enough time to create and edit your slide presentation. Putting together a slide presentation an hour before your presentation is usually the fast track to an ineffective presentation. Spelling and grammatical errors will be found by the customer! Remember this equation for every minute of planning you save four minutes in execution, 2. Prepare an Outline Organize your thoughts and think about what visuals could tell the story without you writing a book of test. Visuals should help emphasize your message for the customer, So, write out an outline of your presentation, then review the information and think about what visuals would tell the story for you or would support your primary point. 3. Consult a Graphic Artist If you feel you have no visual talent, then consult a graphic artist or a product marketing professional on your team for recommendations. These people should be able to provide you with some insight as to what to use in your visuals. However, one word of caution too often sales people totally rely upon someone else to design and create their slide presentations. This can be an ineffective tactic due to two primary reasons one, the person provides the slides at the last minute giving you no time to practice or review results are you end up reading the slides to the customer bad image. Or, two, the person doing the slides has no sales experience or knowledge and creates a cute presentation offering no sales message or targeted objective for you and the customer. Use graphic artists for their expertise and remember you are responsible for the final product. 4. Background and Color Combinations If you are creating a slide presentation for a projector, then you need to run a test using the projection system. The reason this is important is due to what you see on your computer screen the best view and what you see on a projected image can be totally different regarding visual effectiveness. I have made this mistake on occasion due to thinking everything looked great on the computer screen only to find out an image was too dark on the big screen or the font colors washed out in a background color. There are several articles and tutorials on color combinations for slides. The two most common because they work every time is black fonts on a white background and a yellow or white font color upon a dark

blue background. These are true color contrasts that work every time. 5. Use Logos It is a good idea to include your logo on slides in fact with the new transparent functions on the leading slide show software you can place your logo on every slide usually in the lower corners of the slide. Also, use your customers logo at the beginning of the presentation. Here you want to make certain you have followed the exact requirements for your customers logo color and size and font type or you will get a negative comment from your customer. It is best to download a copy from their website or even better request a copy of their logo from an administrative assistant of the customer. 6. Fonts I have seen slides using ten different fonts on one slide. Bad karma! Frugal is the name of the game with fonts. Use one font and no more than two in any slide presentation. Use common fonts such as Helvetica, Arial or Optima for your slides. Avoid the fancy script fonts at all cost they are unreadable on the big screens. Also, use larger font sizes on your slides. Your slide presentations are no place for small print leave small print to the legal department. 7. Use Bullet Points Wisely Bullet points are designed to summarize your thoughts and you use the spoken word for more detail or explanations. Use no more than five to six bullet points with 3 to 4 being better for effectiveness. Also, an extra tip here use builds or animations to show one bullet point at a time as you speak to the point. It keeps the audience focused upon each point as it is delivered rather than speculating on future points. 8. Use Charts and Graphs Rather than show a spreadsheet no one can read from the audience, use a visual element such as a chart or graph to reflect the data. Sense 70% of people are visual today and rely upon visual clues for understanding, charts and graphs provide their answers. Use the graphs to show changes or trends and then discuss the reasons or effects of the trend. 9. Use Photos and Pictures One of the best uses of a picture speaks a thousand words was an inventory management company had taken a picture of a customers actual production line with all the inventory stacked everywhere and using photoshop had taken out the stacks of inventory, cleared space and then placed their inventory binds in the picture. These pictures closed the deal since the customer was able to visually understand what was being offered and how it would impact their production line and their bottom line. That is how you can use pictures and photos to personalize the slide presentation for your customer. 10. Make a Presentation Check List You have done all the work on the slide presentation, now the tricky part do you have everything you need for the presentation? Do you have any special adaptors between your computer and the presentation projector? (MAC users you will need your VGA or DVI adapters) Do you have a wireless slide show advance tool? ( Never keep moving to the computer to hit the space bar or page forward key unless the battery dies on your wireless tool.) Oh, spare batteries and if you are using your own projector system do you have a spare lamp? It does not hurt to have your slide presentation on a thumb drive or a CD-rom in case there are unique situations requiring you to transfer your presentation to another computer or system. There you have Ten Tips for Effective Sales Presentations using slide show presentations. Use this list as a guide for creating your slide presentations. And, if you are an experienced presenter check to make sure you are current. One on the pitfalls of experience is to stop learning or improving our skills or understanding of what is best today. Enjoy your presentations and make them fun for you and your customer

While I believe the best course of action is to be so open and honest in your communication with customers you actually minimize the need to handle any objectives. This means you have already brought up any possible objections during your presentation or interview and have gained agreement as to how to best handle it. However, there are some surprises that pop up during any sales process. So you must be prepared to handle any type of objection the customer raises. I have found these six steps to be the best course for improving customer relations and moving forward even with a major objection coming up. Here are the six steps to follow 1. Hear the Whole Objection Okay, you hear a little objection from a customer what do you do now? What you must do is make certain this is only a symptom of a larger objection on the horizon. In other words, begin to thank the customer for bringing it up and please tell you more. You need to get the customer to open up and not hide a bigger issue that could kill the deal later in the sales process. 2. Re-Phrase the Objection as a Question This is an art of selling. You must learn how to rephrase an objection into a question. Some times when the customer hears the rephrased question it no longer seems as big an issue as it was before. This practice also allows the customer to open up even more if it is a valid question in their mind. You must show the customer that you are open to discussion about any topic this is the foundation of building trust with your customer. 3. Question the Objection Tact and diplomacy live in this step. Carefully worded questions allow for the expansion of the issue is it personal or a corporate issue? In other words, really get to the root cause of the objection it could be very deep and very personal. This very personal enlarges the possibility of an emotional outbreak or response. Remain calm during this step to keep the customer calm and relaxed so you can have an objective and non emotional dialogue. 4. Answer the Objection After you are confident you have the complete objection on the table, collect your thoughts, take a deep breathe and answer the objection or question to the best of your ability. Now remember the Law of Six from your basic sales training. There are usually only six major objections categories that will be asked by customers. IF you have identified the six major categories, you will have had an opportunity to develop, internalize and practiced the response you would use. This practice and internalize makes your response professional and authentic which gives the customer the confidence to trust and believe you. 5. Gain Agreement This is the step overlooked by most sales people. Usually overlooked because of the fear of rejection and opening up the emotion of a real objection. Here is the real message. IF the customer does not agree to your response and acknowledge the level of agreement with the solution then you may not have an agreement. Only when the customer verbally agrees and hears themselves agree does it register in the mind of the customer. Self discover of the answer is always the best way to have someone learn. Therefore, the customer must say they understand and agree to the solution or explanation of benefit. 6. Move Forward Assuming the customer has agreed to the answers you gave regarding the objection, it is now time to move forward. Sometimes, you have to just start and bring them along