6 Keys to a Winning Presentation

Let’s review: You’ve had your first appointment and strategically gathered insight into the prospect’s needs. You sent your summary email and engaged the client. You confirmed a date and time for an in person proposal review. You’ve laid a solid foundation without falling victim to the buyer’s original demands to hurry up and try to sell them something! Your legwork has set the stage for a powerful presentation.

Calm Your Nerves

After you have developed your proposal and are preparing to deliver a sales presentation, do you second guess yourself? If so, there are a few questions you may want to ask. Do I fully understand my prospect’s requirements? How engaged is my prospect? Does my prospect fully understand our process? How do I effectively communicate my organization’s value? Distilling these answers can begin to calm your nerves.

Use the acronym PITCH to streamline your presentations.

Preparation

Review your presentation prior to the appointment. Pitch to a coworker to gain confidence, receive feedback and iron out any wrinkles.

Introduction

Bring a printed agenda, and copies of your presentation for everyone. Begin by confirming that your prospect is still ok on the agreed upon time.

Tactics

First, engage the client or prospect. It is best to send the proposal prior to the meeting. Ask if they have had a chance to review your proposal. If they are honest and admit to not having opened it say, “Great well that is why I wanted to personally walk you through the details today!” Also ask your prospect if they are willing to provide you feedback throughout the presentation. Then, convey value by linking specific solutions to the identified problems or concerns.

Close

 Once you have reviewed the proposal, close the sale! These are several methods for doing so:

• Thermometer Close:  Ask the prospect to rate where they sit in choosing your firm on a scale of 1-10. 1 being “no way” and 10 being “absolutely.” This forces the prospect to quantify how likely they are to choose you and provides you the opportunity to respond by asking what you would need to do to get to a 10.
• Empowered Decision Close:  “Alright so what would you like me to do next?” This close empowers the prospect to respond with a call to action. They might say “Well when can you get started?”
• Agreed First Step Close:  Granted you closed up front and identified the prospects agreed upon next steps say “Does it makes sense to go ahead with [insert next step]?”

Handle Objections

Keep a list of the common objections you most often hear and create best practice responses. This pushback document will keep you from having to shoot from the cuff.

The sales process can be intimidating, demanding, fast paced and downright nerve-wracking. Give yourself a leg up by following these steps, to ensure there are clearly identified actionable items as a result of your meeting and to increase your chances of closing the deal.