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. 

Initial Sales Contact Slides

The Initial Sales Contact

When the Prospect Initiates the Contact

Prospects will visit you during normal business hours if you have a store or business location. If you do not have a store, they might contact you by phone, mail, email, or through your website to request information, ask questions and/or to make a purchase.

Prospects who visit or contact you are very good potential customers. They have done their homework and look you up. Pay attention to what they want. Give them good service and convert them into your customers.

Prospects might also call at odd hours to find out when you're open or where your store/office is located. Be sure your answering machine message, answering service or website answers these questions.

When You Initiate the Contact

One of the most common initial contacts is a "cold call" conducted by phone or in person. A cold call refers to a contact made with prospects who have not indicated they desire the call. It's obviously much more efficient - and most say more successful - to conduct cold calls on the telephone rather than to drive around town, but you might have a reason that warrants an in-person cold call on occasion.

Make an appointment, giving them choices of appointment times and meeting locations.

Here are some ideas to help turn cold calls into warm prospects:

·         First, determine your objective and the purpose of your call. Your purpose may be to make an appointment, to inform, to question, to talk to a certain person, and to sell. Additionally, determine if you want to close the sale on the first call or simply pave the way for a later call or sales presentation.

·         Try to do a little homework before the call. If you know someone who may have insight or information about the prospect, call them.

·         Send a fax or mail some information prior to the cold call. Reference the information in the call, but don't open with, "Did you get the information I sent?" This allows the prospect to simply say, "no," just to get you off the phone. Instead, try something like, "I sent you some information by fax yesterday; I'm following up to provide additional information . . ."

·         When you're ready to make the call, make sure you have all the materials you need at hand. For example, if the purpose of your call is to make an appointment, have your appointment book open and a working pen or pencil in front of you. Having brochures and product photos are useful too.

·         State your purpose quickly - within 15 seconds.

·         Get prospects interested by asking questions that make them think.

·         Make statements that build rapport and confidence.

·         Use humor - people love to laugh.

·         Be sincere.

·         Be friendly - people like to buy from people they like.

·         Keep your eye on the prize - never lose sight of your objective, regardless of the outcome of the call.

In my next post, I will elaborate on The Sales Presentation.

Why Quality?