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"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." -- Anonymous You’ve prospected; you’ve conducted a superior interview; you’ve prepared forthe relevant objections. You’ve gone back and looked at what the prospect or customer has to get accomplished. You’ve put together a proposal. Now -- how do you move the sale into overdrive? You make a stellar presentation. By that I mean a Titan presentation, one that focuses in on where the other person wants to go. GIVING ‘EM WHAT THEY NEED, THE WAY THEY WANT IT Regardless of the presentation situation you’ll be facing -- that of the one-on-one meeting or the group -- a simple principle must guide your actions. Whenever you prepare to deliver a presentation, you must be sure that you are offering the other side the information that will help them get where they want to go -- and you must also be sure to communicate that information in the way your audience wants to hear it. You can be saying "all the right things" (as you’d define them) but if the people you’re talking to don’t want to hear the message the way you’re delivering it, you’re not going to be successful. They can have all the technical input, all the good intentions, all the solutions -- but if they don’t take into account the unique prejudices, predisposition’s, interests and preferences of the audience, there’s a problem. Unless what you have to communicate has been heard by the other side and has created a reason to respond, the communication will not succeed. Most sales presentations fail this test. THE "KILLER" PRESENTATION It’s true -- many salespeople boast of their ability to deliver "killer" presentations -- but all these presentations actually accomplish is to kill the possibility of interest from the other side. I can’t tell you the number of salespeople I’ve worked with who insisted on devoting hours and hours to preparing slides, multimedia exhibits, and product demonstrations -- but neglected to spend five minutes thinking about the best ways to connect on a one-on-one basis with the individuals in the room. But don’t make the mistake of assuming that the flashy presentation tools you use in and of themselves are enough to customize your message. They’re not. Over-reliance on today’s (admittedly impressive) technical presentation resources is a recipe for disaster. You cannot remove the "personal" from the "personal presentation" and still close the sale. Accordingly, in this article, we’re going to focus on the best ways to deliver the key points of your presentation on a personal level. Once you’ve done that, the slides and multimedia tools -- if you decide to use them -- can act as reinforcers. People don’t want to hear recitations. They want to hear the "what." Tell them a good, engaging story about what they can expect from doing business with you. Use passion and plenty of examples that are energizing and full of life. Make sure the anecdotes you include support a point you are making. If they don’t, leave them out! They need you to expound on what’s not in the literature. HOW TO CONNECT: EYE CONTACT Many salespeople choose to make little or no direct eye contact during presentations. I don’t know exactly why this is, but I do know that it’s a great way to alienate prospects and customers. Bear in mind that establishing eye contact with specific individuals in a Group -- whether the group is large or small -- is just as important as establishing eye contact in a one-on-one setting. Don’t "bore in" on one person -- but do vary your focus so that, from time to time, you’re addressing various members of the assembly on a personal basis, rather than talking into empty space. HOW TO CONNECT: OVERCOMING NERVES You’ve probably read about public speaking ranking as the number one fear of most people, with death ranking only number two. The first and best tool for reducing fear and nervousness during the presentation is both simple and incredibly effective: preparation. The more you prepare, the better off you’ll be. The more familiar you are with the materials you’ll be using to support your remarks, the less fear you’ll feel. The more comfortable you are with the questions you are going to use to draw people out and get them involved, the more comfortable you’ll be during the presentation. A certain degree of nervousness is inevitable, of course, but you can be nervous and still be confident. Bob Hope, when asked about the best way to overcome "butterflies - in-the-stomach" syndrome, is said to have replied, "You never really get rid of the butterflies -- you just teach them to fly in formation." Once you start to think of yourself as a resource, someone who can help make somebody else successful, the presentation go much more smoothly. HOW TO CONNECT: ONE-ON-ONE PRESENTATIONS Titans know that, when you present to an individual, it’s particularly important to "land the message." Landing the message means finding a single anchor point -- in this case, your prospect or customer -- and coming back to it again and again whenever you send or receive important information. The opposite of landing the message is giving your presentation as though your lines were written out on cards and scattered all over the wall, floor, and ceiling -- everywhere, in short, except where your prospect or customer is. Whenever you make an important statement or pose a key question, stop moving your focus around; look directly at the person to whom you’re talking. If you can, make a direct appeal to a key point or issue your prospect or customer has raised in the past. "Mr. Smith, you remember how you said quality was very important to you on this job, and you told me how quality meant an average defect rate of less than .005 percent each and every quarter? Let me show you exactly how we’d deliver that." Let’s go back to the quality example we just discussed. You have just focused on Mr. Smith and repeated why he felt quality was important. Now you are ready to deliver your information. You hold visual contact with Mr. Smith and you say: "Mr. Smith, our XYZ Process allows us to offer our customers a less than .005 percent defect rate. It is the only process of its kind in the market, and not one of our customers has experienced a defect rate over .005% in the last five years." As soon as you finish that concluding sentence, you should pause, maintain eye contact with Mr. Jones for a second or two, and let the message sink in. Then go on to your next point. That’s the Beat Beyond. Try it. It’s remarkably effective! (And adapting this strategy to a person within a larger group helps you "land the message" with the group as a whole.) Another important tactic to keep in mind in one-on-one presentations is to begin your response to questions and comments by using some of the exact same words that the person just used to communicate with you. That proves that you’re listening. For example: An audience member asks the following question: "What safety features have you designed to minimize the possibility of injuries to employees who use the equipment?" Your answer should start with: "The safety features we have designed to minimize the possibility of injuries to employees include…:" HOW TO CONNECT: PRESENTATIONS BEFORE GROUPS As I’ve already suggested, confirming information is important, regardless of the size of the group to which you’re presenting. Sometimes this is simply a matter of reviewing key points with members of a small group before your presentation. If you’re making a presentation before a large group, start off by recapping what was discussed in the past and asking for input: "So far, A, B, and C are the issues we have uncovered. Before we begin, does anyone have any additional issues that they would like to see discussed here today?" Assume there are missing issues the missing and find out what those issues are! At the end of the day, you have to make sure you spoke to everybody in that room -- not just the contact with whom you’re most familiar. If you need more time to adapt or revise your presentation based on new questions or concerns, ask for that time! SILENCING THE CRITICS In any presentation, but especially in those given to groups and committees, there is a possibility that there will be one person sitting at the table whose life revolves around finding a reason to question or criticize something. How do you do handle this situation? The first thing you’ll want to do is acknowledge what the person is telling you and then try to address it as directly and responsibly as you can. If, after you’ve done this, the person still pursues the point, and the inquiries are clearly tangential and are distracting you and key decision makers from the main point of your presentation, you can say something like this: "Obviously, what you’re talking about requires a great deal of discussion for me to help you on this point, and I want to do that. Can I suggest that we hold off on this and deal with it in depth a little later on?" Then you can either address the question again near the end of the meeting, or talk to the person one-on-one during a break. Sometimes distracters can be extremely rude. If you respond in kind and attack them with emotion, though, the awkward situation can escalate into outright conflict, which isn’t going to help your presentation much. Stay calm, objective, and focused at all time. ONCE YOU’VE FINISHED THE PRESENTATION… Whenever you give a presentation, you must conclude with a call to action. Your audience must know exactly what you want to happen next. Whatever call to action is appropriate--- agreeing to meet again, finding answers to questions not yet resolved, closing the deal, or anything else -- you must make sure that everyone in the room agrees on that "next step" and on how it will be implemented. Before the meeting wraps up, everyone should know what to expect and when to expect it. If the next step is still undetermined at the conclusion of your presentation, you’ve got more work to do! There are no magic words. There’s only good questioning, intelligent presentation, and strong follow-through! |
