Problem Solving

Consider using mystery, and the common desire to solve problems, to engage your audience. Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that the audience will want to know what you have got to say – attention must be earned. Use twists, questions, and puzzles to leave the audience wanting to hear more. Even a simple multiple-choice question can engage the audience, if the answer is surprising.

Hyperlinks

In their book Selling Visually with PowerPoint, Robert Lane and Andre Vleck make the case for non-linear, interactive sales presentations. ‘The standard way of using PowerPoint – a strictly linear movement from slide to slide from the beginning of a presentation to its bitter end – forces people to be lecturers rather than conversationalists.’ Better, they argue, to allow the audience to share in setting the agenda, using hyperlinks to move seamlessly between slides as required by the audience.

Dialogue

Allow your audience to engage in dialogue. By having the audience ask questions and think about the implications of what you present, a presenter increases audience engagement and helps brings objections to the surface. Advertising guru Jon Steel (of ‘Got Milk? fame) tells of a time when this idea was implemented in a rather extreme way – ‘a client was simply asked to pick which question he was most interested in hearing [Steel’s team] answer… The presentation became a conversation.’ Just remember the need to present a memorable value proposition too – which might be difficult without presenting at least some material in a coherent and pre-planned way.

Attention Span

With this in mind, don’t spend too much time talking with your audience. When audience attention span is taken into consideration, you only have 20-25 minutes to make your point. If a large part of this is spent debating over one small issue, you’ve missed your chance. There are subtle ways to help your audience feel that they’re involved: ask rhetorical questions and allow a three second pause, or refer to audience members by name. Just be careful not to overdo it!

Questions

Inform your audience that they would get a clearer picture of what you do if they let you carry your presentation through to the end, but if a question is asked, don’t ignore it. Instead, make sure you really listen to any question raised. Identify it: is it an objection? Could it be a further selling opportunity? Take your time understanding the query and thinking about your answer. Interactivity is about really engaging with your audience, and building a relationship.

Emotions

In Brain Rules, developmental molecular biologist John Medina explains the rules of attention, allowing us to apply this understanding to sales presentations. His top tips? Use emotions and meaning to get attention – don’t present detail until the audience care. Don’t present text while reading it aloud – the brain can’t multi-task well. And, finally, don’t overload the brain – present less information, and devote time to connecting the dots.

Company Needs

If you really want your audience to take notice, don’t talk about what your company offers – talk about their company and their needs. People are naturally more inclined to listen to things about themselves, and you will be demonstrating how you can help them directly – something that is difficult to ignore.

Credentials

Be careful when creating a credentials presentation. Different audiences have different needs, and different interests. As Jerry Weisman, author of Presenting to Win points out, ‘the same story that excites and inspires your own employees may bore your customers and actually alienate and anger your suppliers, or vice versa’.

Listen

As Joey Asher notes in How to Win a Pitch, a successful sales presentation should involve listening, as well as talking. Use active listening techniques to connect with your prospect. Listening isn’t the same as waiting to talk – so be patient, make good eye contact, use body language to demonstrate attention, clarify points where needed, and take notes as necessary.

Projectors

Don’t feel that you always need to use a projector. In a small room, with a small audience, projecting slides can feel overly-formal and impersonal. Sometimes presenting from a laptop screen is the most appropriate option.

Audience Trust

Ensure that you have your audience’s trust. Olivia Mitchell, well known blogger on presentation theory and practice, draws on the work of psychologist Robert Cialdini to explain the importance of social proof in sales presentations. People are strongly persuaded by what people who are similar to them do. So, to persuade an audience using social proof,  ‘find an endorsement from a credible expert that your audience knows and trusts, use testimonials from people similar to your audience, develop case studies of people/organisations that are similar to your audience, [or] use statistics to show how many people are using your product’.

Conversational Presenting

Olivia Mitchell also extols the benefits of what she calls ‘conversational presenting’. Present in a natural conversational style. One way to achieve this is to ‘talk to one person at a time… imagine that you’re having a one-to-one conversation with that person… [and] look for their reaction to what you’re saying before you carry on.’ Presenting in a conversational style actually helps an audience to take-in content better.

Presentation Style

Don’t stray too far from your normal casual conversational style when presenting. But at the same time, don’t make the mistake of thinking that only “natural” presenters can pull this off. As Carmine Gallo notes in The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, hard work is the key – ‘Steve Jobs is an extraordinary presenter because he works at it’. In other words, practice presenting in a relaxed style. Being “natural” is a skill that can be learnt.

Audience Imagination

Conservative campaign expert Frank Luntz knows a thing or two about persuasion (Vader or Skywalker – you decide…). In his book Words that Work, Luntz examines the role of language in persuasion. Sales people should not be afraid to ask their audience to imagine things – ‘the word imagine is perhaps the single most powerful communication tool because it allows individuals to picture whatever personal vision is in their hearts and minds’.

Personalised Communication

Ask rhetorical questions. As Frank Luntz also writes in Words that Work, ‘When you assert … the reaction of the listener depends to some degree on his or her opinion of the speaker. But making the same statement in the form of a rhetorical question makes the reaction personal – and personalised communication is the best communication.’

Audience Suspicion

It’s amazing what those writing presentations can glean from other disciplines, particularly those in related areas such as design, marketing, sales, and psychology. One website with a lot to teach about presentations is copyblogger. In one article ‘12 Tips for “Psychological Selling”‘, Dean Rieck explains why claims in any sales material must be backed up with evidence – ‘People are naturally suspicious. It’s true that there’s a sucker born every minute, but most people are moderately skeptical of any offer. They seek to avoid risk. You can never predict the level of suspicion any particular person has, so it’s usually best to back up all claims with evidence, such as testimonials, survey results, authoritative endorsements, test results, and scientific data.’ Don’t just tell the audience what you’re capable of – prove it.

Answering Difficult Questions

Many a sales presentation comes unstuck when questions are fielded badly. David Kean recommends listing ‘the worst question the client could ask you’, then ‘the second nastiest question clients could ask’, and so on. The group should ‘work out what the answer is and who should answer’. It is far better to assume that the client will ask difficult questions and to prepare strong answers, than to be caught off-guard. We’ve written extensively about successful presentation Q&A on this site.

Weaknesses

Don’t try to ignore possible weaknesses – address them instead. As well-known presentation blogger Jan Schultink points out ‘highlighting weaknesses does not mean shooting yourself in the foot… If you don’t address them, the questions will remain’. Don’t identify obscure weaknesses that your audience would never think of for themselves, but do ‘think what questions any intelligent human being would have when listening to your story’.

Case Studies

Turn case studies into success stories. As Joey Asher writes: ‘Success stories can give your prospect something that is very hard for them to get, a taste of the intangible thing that they’re buying – a satisfactory result.’  So, go beyond lists of client names or logo slides, and bring your successes to life by telling stories; they can be really memorable, particularly if an element of suspense can be introduced.

Ask for the Order

Don’t forget to ask for the order. As presentation coach and author Jerry Weissman explains – ‘if you’re a sales professional, how can your customer reach the point of making a purchase unless you ask for the sale? … Ask for the order! Call your audience to action!’

In this example, the benefit is shown by comparing sales results with, and without, a service.

The general point here is not about how to show graphs, but about making sure that information is presented in order to bring out benefits for the audience.

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The audience are left with nowhere to hide – the data make the point in a very clear and strong way.

Do your slides all have a purpose? How to state benefits clearly in sales presentations.

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A value proposition will contain statements of advantages or benefits. When presenting a value proposition, it is important to tease out the full benefits of the proposition to the prospect – use phrases that help to make benefits explicit.

A technique that works well is a feature – benefit switch. Start by presenting the feature (e.g. hybrid engine), and then quickly switch to the benefit (e.g. better mileage, lower road tax).

Phrases that bring out the benefits in a value proposition include the following:

“… which means that…”
“…and so you will be able to…”
“…and so you will benefit by…”
“…meaning that you…”

If you aren’t talking about your customer (using language like ‘you’ and ‘your’), and you aren’t explaining what they will get from what you offer, then your sales presentation is unlikely to be effective.