Presenting: This is how you challenge every client and give them new valuable insights
The following article from my book “The Corporate Sales Winners Guide” is about presentations and common mistakes made by salespeople. Everyone knows them: Those enormously detailed, graphic PowerPoint presentations with the most fantastic stories about a company. The company is presented in the finest detail. There is a torrent of benefits for the customer.
There is no reason to think of why you wouldn’t want to become a customer!
A standard corporate presentation doesn’t work and it’s all the marketing department’s fault
Often the culprit is the marketing department that has spent months perfecting the presentation. Companies have then often already invested thousands of dollars in creating a beautiful presentation. The in-house marketing department, or an external company, have made sure that absolutely nothing is missing from the presentation! Preferably as long and comprehensive as possible, nothing should be left out!
After seeing such a fantastic presentation and all those wonderful benefits, how can you refuse to become a customer? The marketing department is extremely proud of their baby: the most graphically perfect and comprehensive presentation imaginable!
And you know what? In the end, it just doesn’t work! One extremely important point went unnoticed by all involved in the presentation.
- The customer was once again ignored.
- What is the client’s unique situation.
- Why is the client sitting at the table with us at all.
Therefore… Displaying an elaborate PowerPoint business presentation is the ultimate excuse to hide laziness and sloth.
- Laziness and lack of ambition to sincerely consider possible reasons why the customer wants a conversation.
- Laxity in not surprising the customer with creative ideas and solutions.
Using a standard powerpoint presentation from the marketing department is the dumbest thing you can do as a salesperson
No, many salespeople and marketers would rather choose to bore the customer to death and ignore the customer’s real needs with a meaningless, self-centered presentation. It is an incredibly missed opportunity to spend valuable time with the customer. To really talk together and personally with the client about their needs, situation, desires and pain points.
Do you know what’s special about this situation and why, at the same time, it’s a huge opportunity for you as a salesperson? That is that almost all of your competitors are actually all doing exactly what doesn’t work! Most salespeople are sure of themselves. They are firmly convinced, that they are going to convince and win the customer anyway. “Who wouldn’t want to work with us-the absolute market leader?”, they ask themselves.
Almost all of your competitors, brimming with confidence, hide behind their monster PowerPoint presentation.
As a result, many customers have grown to hate receiving salespeople who come to give a presentation about their business. Often the customer already starts playing with his phone as soon as the salesman conjures his PowerPoint presentation on the screen. Because … the customer thinks … “Surely it will be another one of those standard long presentations.” They are distracted, start answering emails, play with their phone or sometimes fall asleep!
And now I ask you, after you read all this….
Realize what a gigantic opportunity you now have to do things 100% different from your competitors and leave a great impression. Even though on paper you may not be the number one supplier the customer initially expects to buy from!
Exactly! It starts with recognizing, by you as a salesperson, that the traditional presentation no longer works.
Maybe you still have a manager who still insists that you do the big presentation. You shouldn’t be tempted by that! Instead, follow the tips and motivation below of how to do it differently. Because it has to be done differently!
By doing things differently and immersing yourself in the customer you will do better than 90% of your competitors
Your goal is to make a big difference. To build a successful and meaningful relationship with clients. A pleasant, refreshing, new contact. Full of new insights, genuine interests, tips and dialogue. A meeting with the customer that will leave you with an indelible positive impression. A successful meeting that will leave all your competitors far and hopelessly behind you, confused and tangled in all their PowerPoint slides.
But where do you start?
Tips for preparing a really good presentation with the (potential) client
Start with the following basic principle: You are not going to present unless the client himself needs background information about your company.
When preparing, always consider the following points:
- Make sure you have prepared a very short presentation for each unique client appointment, five slides is the absolute maximum.
- Are you short on slides? Then make sure you have the complete large company presentation on hand as a backup so you can easily click to a specific topic.
- Make sure your opening slide of the presentation has a unique title or slogan. You may use this again and again, as long as it remains unique and relevant to each client. It should come across powerfully and arouse curiosity!
- Speak the title and slogan confidently and louder than you are used to. You want meeting participants to look up from their phones immediately, or preferably put those phones away immediately! They can no longer contain their curiosity now, because….. “this is already off to a good start and very different from what we are used to!”
- Make sure the slogan has a reward attached. This is the message, the “payoff,” the reward for listening intently to the upcoming presentation. If this is a great message and somewhat bold, you will have everyone’s attention immediately. Everyone is now curious and wants to know how you are going to deliver this!
- After the introduction slide, create an overview slide of your company. Limit the content of this slide to only a few very relevant key facts of your business.
- Then add a second slide with an overview map of the countries in which your company operates. In this overview, also list the main services or products your company provides.
- Now create a third slide summarizing the key challenges you think the client currently has. If you’re not 100% sure, you’re really not making any mistake by making assumptions here. Indeed, you are showing that you have immersed yourself in the client’s situation.
- For example, you can mention and explain a few things, based on your first phone conversation and ask the customer to confirm whether this is still true? Again, this shows your genuine interest and concern. This way you have a lively dialogue to engage with your customer about the current state of affairs.
- On a fourth slide, be sure to link the customer’s potential pain points and problems. Link these to your company’s services or products that can solve these problems.
- Add another fifth slide to your presentation. Make sure this slide is all about validation and evidence. You want, your client to find evidence on this slide about similar businesses you have helped. The goal is to make sure, that this slide removes objections to moving forward with your company and becoming a client with you. For example, consider logos of similar clients or a video case study.
- Finally, on the last slide, place some questions and assumptions about the client’s situation. Tell how you will ensure, that the client’s challenges and problems are solved. End your presentation with an open discussion and round of questions and cover the next steps.
As you can see, creating a unique, interactive presentation is not complicated! It’s not hard to do something completely different from the crowd every time! You’re not going to leave a bad impression with this style of presentation anyway. As long as you always prepare it well and are always knowledgeable about the client’s business.
Nonverbal communication and tension
During the presentation, try to maintain eye contact with all participants in the meeting room. Do you find that complicated? Then, in a slow flow from left to right, look indirectly at all participants in the meeting room. Use nonverbal communication and make use of your arms and hands to make a message even more powerful.
Present your story with tremendous passion and conviction!
Make use of pauses and silences so that people can take a moment to think. Especially if these are controversial topics that cause tension or uncertainty in the client. For example, think about confronting certain risks if the client does not want to do something about their current situation in time. You want the client to remain engaged and sometimes uncomfortable with the data and risks you present. Afterwards, take back control immediately. Show how you can avoid the risk by choosing your company’s solutions.
Also, make strong and brave statements! For example:
- That you are so convinced that you can best help the client! That you want to do everything you can to make sure your partnership succeeds!
- That you will work harder than the competitor and that you will be better than the competitor.
- Suggest, that other customers start confirming it on your behalf in the form of personal references. Something for which you take the full initiative and proactively arrange everything for the client. You remove all objections with that.
- Suggest that you are really going to do everything you can to gain their trust. Ask what the customer needs in order to trust you.
Why you as a salesperson must be passionate, sincere and above all not play it safe
Don’t be afraid to appear overzealous and overly passionate! Never play it safe and never be conservative! That won’t work and you will be guaranteed to lose out to a competitor who scores all the points and who is actually already the preferred supplier on paper.
If you want a real chance to win new customers and business, you must be brave and strong. Be genuine, unique, relevant, passionate and valuable! In the long run, this will always win you more business than the rest! I guarantee it!
The opportunity to be invited and present to your client is your unique moment. It is your chance to change their mind. It is your chance to gain their trust. The client’s memory of your presentation must be positive and stick. You have to surprise the client and leave them with something they will talk about many times over. This will keep you top-of-mind and keep you relevant.
Relevant and top-of-mind you will never get if you play it safe and give a standard business presentation. With your thousand-and-one slides that put everyone to sleep.
Imagine the following situation….
- Six candidates are invited as potential new suppliers.
- Five candidates present the same thing and brag about how great they are.
- In terms of price, quality and distinctiveness, there is little difference between these five candidates.
- Then you want to be that number six who is totally different from the rest, right? It is then the presentation and your story that are going to help you stand out from the rest. Do you solve the customer’s problems and give them new relevant insights? Then you can even get away with a higher price!
- Business customers do not buy based on price, but on added value and trust in the people with whom they do business.
Be the person who dares to be different, who gives clients new insights and challenges them. The person, who really came to tell something new and valuable.
Be the person, whom the customer likes to see again. The person who helps the customer make decisions.
By being brief, powerful and relevant, you always win more new business in the long run and always more new customers than the competition!
Book Source
The corporate sales winners guide: Transform your life and become a top sales performer – by Gerrit Jan de Vries. Available on Amazon, Google Play Books and Bol.com.