The Sales Presentation

Many sales people feel the most exciting part of the sales process is presenting products or services to prospects. Finally, the vast amount of knowledge you have about your products, services and your company comes into play!

Here are some suggestions for putting your best foot forward in your sales presentation:

·         Don't be afraid to be excited about your product. Your enthusiasm carries a strong message about your personal investment in the product.

·         During presentations, focus on the benefits of your products and services. Benefits are different from features, which are characteristics such as size, color and functionality. Benefits answer the customer's question: "Why would I want to own that product?" Benefits are what cause people to buy. For example, if you are selling electric crane, and it uses less power/KW. You can calculate the number of kilowatts hour saved for an eight hour period usage. Multiply this by the number of working days in a year and you have the total kilowatts hour saved for the year. Convert this into dollars saved for the year and showed it to the client. This benefit is often the contract clincher as the customer may see a lower operating cost and savings as beneficial to their operations.

·         Set objectives for sales calls. Write the objectives on index cards and keep the cards handy to make notes as you think of items to add. For example, you may want to elicit the detailed technical specifications of a particular project and offer them an official quotation later on. Or you may want to probe the customer’s buying price and other preferences.

·         Be on time for sales appointments. If you are unavoidably delayed, call before the appointment to let the prospect know your estimated time of arrival.

·         Be prepared for your call. Have your sales brochures, demonstration materials, and other supplementary information available. Show your prospective customers your photos of past projects or sales. Enlighten them of your sales reference lists.

·         Be relaxed during sales calls. That often is easier said than done. It helps to give yourself plenty of time in transit so you don't arrived frazzled from a rush through bad traffic. Always appear cheerful and enthusiastic. And, once you are there, take a moment in the car to take a few deep breaths and review what you want to say or present.

·         Let prospects talk 90 percent of the time; they'll tell you how to sell to them. You just need to listen.

·         Use testimonials. Your best selling tool is a reference from a satisfied customer.

·         Don't be afraid to ask for their business. Ask them to give you an opportunity to offer a quotation. Ask for the specifications of their requirement. Not asking will be a wasted opportunity. You may not be granted another appointment the next time.

·         Invite prospects to interact with products. For example, encourage customers to try a massage chair, operate a device or smell/sniff the perfume.

·         Limit the choices during a sales presentation. Most experts advise sales people to show prospects only three options at a time. Too many options may prove overwhelming, resulting in them not choosing anything.

·         Adapt your sales presentation to your prospect. For example, an insurance agent would provide different types of information about basic life and hospitalization insurance package to a person purchasing his first policy than to a person that has already owned dozens of policies.

·         Rate yourself after sales calls. Determine what you did well and what you need to improve upon. Develop action steps for improvement.

·         Always follow through on promises.

·         Determine what your prospect seemed most interested in and work that into your follow-up plan.

·         Follow up, follow up, follow up. It often takes five to 10 exposures to get a sale.

In my next post, I will touch on how to handle objections.