Best Practices for Awesome Sales Presentations

The business of closing business is big business. Make your sales presentations shine.

How do you convince prospective clients that your business provides something that they can’t find anywhere else? In a competitive marketplace, salespeople not only need persuasive tools that help turn opportunity into success, they need a fresh perspective on what makes a sales presentation great and powerful.

Essentially, the greatness lies in building a connection with potential clients that distinguishes your business from any other and sets the tone for mutual agreement and future conversations. These best practices help salespeople with techniques for putting together a compelling presentation.

Think of your sales presentation as a conversation rather than a lecture.

Two-way sharing of information is key. The more dialogue, the easier it is to persuade. Encourage talk; in fact, plan, nurture and manipulate it. Why? People are more likely to be convinced if they help develop the premise. It’s called ownership.

Craft messages that compel potential clients to think about their challenges in a new way.

The people across the desk are likely to have a useful perspective on their own company. Asking for and acting upon that input right then and there –is actually a secret of Mad Men’s Don Draper. Show how doing business with your company can increase interest in their products and services; how developing information or expertise together can resolve issues or eliminate stress; how you can best respond to their needs and expectations; how you sell confidence in doing business with their company.

Tell your story creatively, visually.

Choose your medium and message based on the audience and the context of the presentation. Help make your message resonate by combining storytelling with effective visuals. Why is storytelling so impactful? People typically process information by associating it with meaning. A story can help prospective clients understand the value of what you are selling and that information becomes more memorable. Get professional help for the presentation materials: use designers, use coaches, use experts. Whether a presenter uses PowerPoint, Keynote, whiteboards or YouTube videos seen on a mobile device, powerful visuals are the final ingredient. Developing slides and other sales tools that complement the content helps bring your story to life and help his customer “see” the solution, and evangelize it.

Prepare for the presentation and talk the talk.

Not only will the quality of your actual presentation be scrutinized, essentially every interaction you or your staff have with a client can affect the outcome in a positive or negative way. Check how staff members greet clients on the phone and in person and how help desks respond to customer concerns. Companies with a competitive edge demonstrate how every member of the organization is a reliable resource. The ultimate decision to partner with your company then becomes less a question of price and more a question of value, trust, confidence.

Best practices for effective sales presentations depend less on expensive marketing campaigns, edgy taglines or trendy promotions and more on personal connections that nurture client relationships and relevant solutions to specific needs and expectations.

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