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Giving Sales Presentations

Added 16th of July 2008

For many a white knuckle ride into the unknown, sales presentations can - once broken down into small enough steps - become a straightforward and effective way of showcasing many aspects of your company – not least their staff’s competence and confidence in its offering. Unfairly, we often judge an object’s value by the person representing it. Regardless of how competitive or extraordinary your product or service may be, a sloppy presentation can irretrievably damage client interest or confidence.

This article will examine how to prepare the content of your presentation, plan the overall structure and discuss different presentation styles.
Presentation Content:
In essence, there a four steps: plan your presentation’s content by doing research on your audience and tailoring it to suit their needs or any areas they have specifically identified, practice your performance and get feedback, prepare for difficult questions and decide whether your can realistically expect to close on the day.

1) RESEARCH background information on your prospective clients i.e. the company ethos, the participants’ likely level of familiarity with specialized jargon on terminology e.g. presenting IT solutions to non-IT professionals. Many of the company’s guiding principles can be gleaned from their website – make sure you pepper your presentation with the same key words and phrases to establish common ground and a sense of rapport. Avoid cutting corners when putting together your presentation, whether using flipcharts or PowerPoint, but invest time into producing a professional effort that, one way or the other, will reflect your professionalism.

2) REHEARSE: step into your audiences’ shoes when reading through the presentation – ask yourself, would a layman understand the terminology? Try it out on a friend or colleague not involved in your area of business. When rehearsing, perform in front of an audience of one or more – failing that, use a mirror or record yourself using a video camera or webcam – and seek feedback on non-verbal behaviour e.g. eye contact, posture, gestures and use of space. Pay particular attention to the tone and timbre of your voice and remember to vary the tempo, pitch and emphasis to highlight important sections and captivate your audience.

3) PREPARE: brainstorm your product or service and come up with as many objections and potential misunderstandings as possible. This is particularly useful with outsiders as their perceptions will test the comprehensibility of your presentation to laypeople. Even the best laid plans can go awry so honesty is the best policy if stumped on the day by difficult questions or in doubt – coming clean and seeking expert advice is not a sign of weakness but does wonders to bolster your integrity in the eyes of others and can offers you an opportunity to covertly play up your strengths e.g. ability to learn new things, adapt or listen.

4) TO CLOSE OR NOT TO CLOSE? Determine whether you can realistically expect a decision on the day e.g. are they looking at other bids? What is the buying procedure? What is the deadline? How urgent is their need? Are you speaking with a decision maker? If in doubt, go fast by going slow as misplaced haste or urgency can be extremely off-putting.
The presentation structure:
As a starting point, jot down a rough outline of your presentation without being too rigid in terms of the layout or order as you can almost expect to improvise when responding to a live audience.
a) The introduction should contain an ice breaker – first thank your prospects for taking the time to see you and express your enthusiasm for being giving the opportunity to potentially work with their company. Bold and self-assured is good while gushing or false modesty is off-putting. Acknowledge colleagues from both camps at this point who were instrumental in putting the meeting or presentation together.
b) The main body: focus on the benefits your offering can provide with specific examples. Briefly, outline your approach, relevant previous experience and expertise and how it would be utilised in the proposed solution. The key here is to be clear, concise – overselling or cluttering the prospects’ minds with too much information or irrelevant titbits will not leave a favourable impression when later comparing you to the competition.
c) Summary: highlight the benefits of doing business with you – focus on the positive aspects rather than negative comparisons of the competition. Thank everyone for their time. Remember that your company’s suitability is being judged to a large extent on your performance so staying upbeat, calm and assured is essential.
d) Q&A: open up the floor to questions. This need not be the dreaded interrogation some believe it to be – remaining calm and honestly admitting to any gaps in knowledge practically guarantee the presentation goes off without a hitch. Rather than highlighting your lack of knowledge or incompetence, any gaps in knowledge can be reframed as opportunities for further contact – perhaps by arranging a consultation with an expert from your company in that field. Q&As are a crucial part of your presentation as they allow the participants to become more involved in the selling process while offering you much insight into how well you conveyed your message and raises any potential objections and hurdles to closing business for future reference. The earlier preparation and brainstorming comes into its own here as many questions thrown at you will have been anticipated while new ones are useful learning curves for the next presentation. Keep answers brief and to the point, ending each with a benefit of doing business with you. Such interaction is a great way of building rapport, demonstrating those areas you are expert in.

Presentation Style:

It is well known that verbal i.e. spoken communication makes up a small part of the overall message, while non-verbal communication is most important in conveying your message.
Keep your behaviour and language free of negativity – focus on benefit and solution-orientated information. Bear in mind that people interpret information primarily with an auditory (sounds), visual (pictures), kinaesthetic (feelings) and auditory digital (logical/internal dialogue) representational system i.e. they tend to think about and interpret the world using chiefly one of these senses more than the others (see article on ‘recognising client sensory preference’). In practical terms, this mean ensuring that the language you use, the tempo and pitch of your voice and the speed at which you move or gesture should vary – within your own comfort levels - to accommodate all listeners. If presenting to small groups, subtly match and mirror participants’ voices, body language and language patterns (see article on ‘rapport and language’) to build a sense of rapport.
It may sound bizarre but matching language and body language will not only result in a sense of rapport and engagement with your audience but also mean that they will understand and appreciate the content better.

Article written by Juliette Denny, MD of Growth Engineering Ltd

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Article written by a www.sales-development-zone.co.uk operative.

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