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PowerPoint Prowess: Using Presentations as a Solution
May 02, 2008
Presentations are a critical part of successful selling, but they have to communicate to the customer's mindset
By Randy Lipson and Tina Teodorescu
In sales, there is a lot of emphasis put on a salesperson's PowerPoint prowess. Sales managers and those departments and individuals who are responsible for helping sales reps to be as successful as possible, often voice the need to "improve presentation skills" as a top priority. But this emphasis leads to a lot of pressure put on salespeople to be expert presenters, and often gives a false impression that a knock ‘em dead presentation is a rep's key to success.
But what many forget is that 80% of selling takes place before the presentation. Relying on a powerful presentation to win the sale may result in failure more times than success. Yes, presentations are mandatory to differentiate yourself and communicate your solution, but you must be able to powerfully communicate to the mindset of the customer. Unfortunately, many sales presentations today, appeal to the mindset of the salesperson and the features and benefits Marketing wants sales people to emphasize.
Successful sales presentations should all be framed around one basic premise of successful selling: people love to buy, but hate being sold to. When you make a presentation to your mindset or one that is a wonderful generic representation of all the features and benefits of your offering, you put the prospect in the position of being sold to—which can be referred to as "throw stuff on the wall and see if it sticks" presenting. Unfortunately, not only are these presentations usually off the mark, but they appear to be "canned," which is an immediate signal to distrust, reject and vilify most things that are being presented.
What 's Missing? The Solution Roadmap
When sales people present solutions and or features and benefits beyond the scope of the customer problem or need, you create a perception of paying for more than is needed. Or, even worse, that the value doesn't justify the cost. The usual customer response too these common types of selling mistakes is "you're too expensive." This objection leads to a significant increase in relationship tension between the sales person and the prospect. And you can't solve this one by lowering price, because price is not the real issue. You've presented a solution that has created the sold-to perception.
To avoid these issues, sales professionals need to build their own solution roadmap—a framework for selling successfully. Sales reps follow a step by step roadmap, slowly and systematically building towards selling success. An essential part of the solution roadmap involves building a business case and presentation for solving specific problems or satisfying needs that are compelling to the prospect. This should be the ONLY focus for any sales presentation.
The Keys to Building and Presenting Winning Presentations
• Base the presentation on the prospect's needs and the best solution to meet those needs.
The foundation for a winning presentation is the time spent BEFORE the presentation. If you go into a sales situation with a specific product in mind, you will focus your questioning on areas that will eventually justify that product. You will probably miss a large number of issues that are the most critical to the customer that would justify a considerably more diverse—and larger—order. Make sure you understand your prospect's needs from a best solution perspective, not an I-have-to-sell-this-specific-product perspective.
• Build trust to gain in-depth information.
Presentations built on the most complete information are specific, on target, oriented towards the customer and the most credible. They not only communicate the best alternatives for the prospect, but loudly declare that you are the kind on person they prefer to do business with. The salesperson with the most information will be able to build the best winning presentation, but trust is needed to gain this valuable insight. Trust and credibility reduces the prospect's tension with the buying process. This reduced tension will help them be more open and candid in answering your questions. Customers are not going to share their real fears and problems with you if they don't really believe that your solution has the ability to help them.
• Confirm information with a letter of understanding before any presentations are made.
Some sales professionals take an extra step by writing a letter to a prospect after the questioning phase of the sales process that summarizes what was learned and is later verified with a phone call. This letter and verification demonstrates to the prospect what all people want to some extent—to be understood. This is also an excellent way to demonstrate your understanding and commitment to focusing on the customer's needs and to differentiate yourself from your competition. If you write this letter and then confirm that it is on-target, you have a validated solution roadmap, describing what the customer wants to see in a presentation and path to a solution.
Randy Lipson is VP of Sales Performance Consulting at Competence Systems. Randy has over 30 years of selling and sales management and consulting experience. Randy's specialties include results-driven sales, training, coaching, and execution. Randy can be reached at randy@competencesystems.com.
Tina Teodorescu is president of Competence Systems. She has over 16 years experience helping sales managers and trainers build, support and sustain consistent top sales performance a master's degree in organizational behavior analysis, is a certified performance technologist and is registered as an Empire Who's Who of Executives and Professionals. Tina can be reached at tina@competencesystems.com.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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