So you’ve finally got your meeting with the buying team, it’s been a long road to get to this stage and you’ve put in a huge amount of time and effort, all that remains is the face to face presentation, what could possibly go wrong?
Sadly, for most businesses this is the stage where the sales process stops. The order is not taken and all the front end work is wasted. Face to face, buyers find it much easier to gauge your professionalism, attention to detail, capability and credibility. The quality of your presentation says just as much about you as your personal appearance, so getting it right is vital.
So what’s the trick to creating the killer presentation?
Planning and preparation is the key. No two prospective clients or sales meetings are the same, and recognising this will help you to be more effective both in content preparation, style and delivery techniques.
Plan you presentation. Break it into neat sections and keep it brief. Get straight in to it, don’t waste time taking about yourself, deliver your messages in a way that directly answers the customer’s needs, and outlines the key benefits your product or service offers them.
Create dynamic compelling graphics that back up your messages, establishing, in prospects mind, your credibility and capability to work with them. Don’t let your slides get in the way of your story, time spent worrying about clicking through your slides, is time spent not focussing on the client’s needs. Keep the slides simple don’t allow them to become a distraction to you.
Deliver all your messages in a clear concise and compelling way. Nothing frustrates customers more than having to listen to endless waffle or trying to interpret confusing uninspiring slides.
Tailor your slides, to your customer, adding their client’s logo or a description, maybe with images, showing how your product or service answers their needs or directly solves a specific problem, makes a big impression.
Build flexibility into your presentation. There is no point in flogging a dead horse, if a part of your offering is not relevant, skip it, running through slides that have no value to your audience just wastes their time and when you do get to more relevant information you may already have lost them. There are several simple ways to build flexibility into your presentation making it more interactive and therefore more relevant.
Practice makes perfect. Once you have your presentation, don’t be tempted to wing it. Rehearse it out loud, fine tune it, think about variations which might make your presentation more relevant to different customer types. Remember the sales pitch is as much about building trust as showing of your product or service. A confident well prepared pitch says professional and trustworthy like nothing else.
Stand out from the crowd. It’s likely you are going to be one of several presentations the client will receive. Try to do things differently, get yourself animated. Let them know that you really want to work with them, demonstrate real enthusiasm and energy, show that you believe in your product and are committed to your client, to working hard for them, and prepared to go the extra mile.
