You've done a lot of work to get to the point where you can make a presentation to a new prospect - so don't ruin all your hard work with a little presentation mistake that's easily avoidable. Today sales trainer Dan Adams shares some of the biggest presentation mistakes with us - and tells you what to do to avoid them.
Mediocre First Impression
Jack Welch said: "Whenever I see a young man make a great presentation, I never forget that young man. Unfortunately the opposite is also true." You will never get another chance to make a great first impression. Your first impression is key to a great presentation. Consider the very first few slides you intend to show your client. Do they convey that you have done your homework and that you have created a highly customized presentation? Or, do they smell like the same old "standard" presentation you have used over and over again?
No Presentation Goal
Every meeting and every presentation must have a goal or objective. Your presentation's goal should be clearly communicated at the beginning of the meeting to ensure that everyone is on the same page.
Poor Visual Aids: Less Is More
Dump the cartoons, and remember that the primary goal of the slides is to remind you what points you want to make to your client. The 4 X 4 rule of thumb works great. Never use more than 4 bullets per slide and never more than 4 words per bullet. Avoid paragraphs of data!
Too Long: Less Is More
In general, most people don't want to sit through a very long presentation; they get bored. If I learn that my competition has taken 2 hours to bore my client with their presentation I might open my presentation with: "I know you are very busy. Out of respect for your time I plan to take 30 minutes to share the information you requested. If any of you would like me to stay longer that's fine, we can delve deeper as needed."
Allowing "Derailments"
A presentation may get "derailed" if you permit a question or comment to take you in a direction that is not in your mutual best interests. Questions and comments are fine as long as they are controlled and take you in a direction that you find acceptable. Otherwise respond with: "Judy, that's a great question, thanks for bringing it to my attention. If you can hang on to that I'm planning on addressing that specific issue at the end of our time together."
No Audience Involvement
Without audience involvement you will not know if you have connected with them. You will not know if they understand your points. Stop occasionally and ask the audience members questions such as, "Does that point capture how your department may benefit from ABC?" Or, "Give me your opinion on our approach to ABC". Once you pause for reinforcement the audience becomes more receptive to your effort to satisfy their objectives. Just be sure that you maintain a balance between audience involvement and derailment.
Daniel Adams, author of Building Trust, Growing Sales, and creator of Trust Triangle Selling helps corporations improve their profits by optimizing the performance of their sales teams. He is a frequent and popular speaker at national sales meetings, workshops and association events. Visit www.trusttriangleselling.com
Looking for a way to add interest to your presentation that's meaningful and shows your attention to detail? Customized presentation materials like folders, binders, index tabs and pocket folders from Binders.com may be just what you're looking for! Check out their excellent prices and quality materials here.
No comments:
Post a Comment