If there's one thing I've learned while engulfed in the world of marketing communications the past few years, it's that you are ALWAYS presenting - especially when it comes to business.
Every interaction you have with prospects, customers, vendors, or even just a random passer-by has the potential to change the course of your business, for better and for worse. Every interaction is a presentation. You don't need a projector or WebEx to conduct a presentation. That irate customer you just dealt with for 30 minutes? That was a presentation. That voicemail you just left for a prospect? That was a presentation. The way you conducted yourself at the last industry convention afterparty? Yeah, sorry, that was a presentation too.
Now that we know every interaction is a presentation, how can you use presentation skills to improve sales? It's simple, but remember, simple does NOT mean easy. You may understand these tips, but you'll have to work hard to master them.
- Practice...a LOT (Don't ever wing it) - Larry Bird wasn't born to play basketball. And you, sir, weren't born to present (nor was I). It takes practice, and a lot of it. Larry Bird was an 88% free throw shooter in his NBA career. Do you know how he did it? As a child he used to shoot 200 free throws before school, every day. If he took the weekends off (which he didn't), that's 52,000 a year. You get the point.
You can't "wing" a presentation. The audience will see right through you. Everyone who ever told me they were going to wing it has done poorly. Whether it's a sales call or just your elevator pitch at a conference, make sure you practice. In business, you often only get one chance - make it a good one. - Tell a Story - I tweeted recently that "Those who tell the best stories win." I firmly believe that. In sales, the prospect doesn't want to hear about your new features or how your service reduces throughput by 12%. They want to hear how your product or service will solve their problems, and rightfully so since it's their money they're spending!
Instead of talking about your company, your features, or your recent awards, tell them a story. One of the greatest "stories" I've seen is the "Will it blend?" campaign on YouTube. Instead of telling everyone how much power their blenders put out or how sharp their blades are, they started putting ordinary objects into the blenders to see if they would blend (and most did!). This campaign helped BlendTec increase sales by 700%. Instead of a list of blender features, wouldn't you rather see if it could blend an iPhone? - Have a Conversation - A truly great presentation that engages the audience and is easily and often recalled is one that is a conversation between the presenter and the audience. It's not a lecture, nor a one-way street. You're not speaking AT them, you're speaking WITH them. Ask questions. Learn about your prospect. Find out what keeps them up at night (with regard to business, of course) and talk about solving those problems. This is nothing new in sales, I know. But I still often see salespeople and presenters alike talking so much that the prospect/audience feels disconnected. It's ALL about them, not you. Make sure you keep them engaged and included.
- Respect their Time, and their Questions - In sales and presentations alike, the audience is sacrificing THEIR time to hear YOU talk. You must be ever-so-respectful of it. If they give you 30 minutes, don't simply make sure that you're off the phone in 30 minutes. Make sure that you have told them your story, had a quality conversation, and answered ALL of their questions within that time-frame. Thus, this means you're going to have to make sure your presentation is timed out perfectly (see tip #1). There's nothing worse than watching audience members walk out of a presentation annoyed.
- Design Visual Communications Effectively - It's rare you see a presentation not utilizing PowerPoint (or Keynote). With technologies that allow real-time visual meetings like WebEx and GoToMeeting, many sales calls utilize the screen-sharing capabilities to show some sort of visual aid. Unfortunately, nearly all of those PowerPoint presentations suck. They utilize an ugly template which wastes space with a logo and some colored header/footer bars on every slide. The product/service information is dumped in bullet-point format onto the slides, with a few slides about the company background. This is terribly ineffective and is costing you sales - I promise that.
Instead, make an effort to design your visuals effectively. There are a number of free resources out there, including my free eBook entitled "10 Tips and Techniques for More Effective Presentations." If you have a presentation that needs and expert's touch, why not hire a presentation designer? Effective visuals will enhance and amplify your message, allowing the audience/prospect to focus on YOU instead of the text on the slides. Through the use of images and text, effectively designed visuals also improve recall, which is extremely important when it comes to sales.




