Sales presentations remain a vital tool for any business.However, they can also easily turn into a disaster and drive people away when done wrong. Both presenters and their audiences alike have come to dread the experience. Too often, sales presentations are done in the style of the hard sell, with presenters pulling every stop to close the sale, and their audiences just looking for a way to end the pain. The problem is, your market already expects what you're going to say, and they're not looking forward to it.
So, let's say you found a way to get prospective clients to listen to a sales presentation. This is the proverbial "foot in the door" that many companies bend over backwards in giving freebies and other incentives just to get a second of people's time.
How can you effectively capitalize on this opportunity?
Here, we will outline some tried and tested secrets to making a killer sales presentation.
Give expert information that will raise eyebrows and command their attention. Show them information that challenges what they think they know. Whatever your business, it goes without saying that you should become an expert in your field, including the industry as a whole, your own company, the competition, and your target market. Show your target that you know what you're talking about, and say things that they can identify with. This will get them to stop thinking that they're being sold to, and start listening with the intention to learn something from you.
Stop selling your product. Instead of selling and selling, focus on the needs of the consumer and how your business can address those needs and challenges. Most companies like to talk about how great their product is. However, that's exactly what the audience expects and they're not interested. Instead, identify problems in your audience and focus your efforts on explaining how you can help address those problems.
Use visual aids to stress the most important points, but stop there. It has been found that people retain less than 10% of things they hear; however, this number shoots up to 60% when what they hear is accompanied by something they see. This is why it's absolutely essential to take advantage of visual aids. However, these aids are meant simply to reinforce what you're saying – most of the information should still come from you. Refrain from simply reading your Powerpoint presentation. Your audience can do that on their own.
Try to include some humor and amusing anecdotes that are relevant to your presentation. If you're serious about your business, you'll be able to find many things in everyday life that are relevant to your business and amusing to your audience. Listening to a serious presentation can easily tire your audience out. Throwing in some humor can instantly get people to focus back onto you, and makes them more interested in hearing more.
Rehearse your presentation in the mirror or to a friend to see or get feedback on how it looks to someone else. No matter how well you think you know your material, rehearsing it out loud can unearth all sorts of things you may not have realized, such as uncertainties in the voice, lack of clarity in flow, and fidgety movements that the audience will definitely pick up on.
Above all, the secret to a killer sales presentation is to always listen to what your audience has to say. As sales expert Marc Wayshak says, "What the prospect has to say is always more important that what you have to say… getting feedback from your prospect is the best sales presentation technique of all."
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