Most of the presentations I review start with a company background, move to corporate capabilities, and may even focus on features and benefits of their products and services. Remember that customers buy for their reasons and not our reasons. So, we need to focus our message on the needs of our client, and not on us.  In simple terms, we need to illustrate what is in it for them.

First:  Identify the Issue, Impact, and Importance associated with their needs.

Second: Focus the presentation on their top priorities, and demonstrate your differentiation on how you can solve their challenges.

Third: Remember that slides are not a replacement for a document or the presenter.

Finally: The presentation and presenter should tell a story.  The slides should provide graphical support to the message

If you follow these simple steps, your presentations will achieve greater success… and then you can use all of those wonderfully distracting tools in Powerpoint.

The head of sales proudly said “so if it’s costing you this much money, would you agree that it would be crazy to not sign the contract today?”  He observed that the tone of the meeting changed abruptly, and they are not returning calls, now. He asked “What happened?”

The client saw through a rather pedestrian sales technique, felt direct pressure, and questioned the team’s desire to help them solve their challenges. You cannot expect long-term success by pulling or pushing clients to the closing table. Simply asking “So, what would you like to do next” likely would have resulted in the customer sharing the steps to finalize the deal.

We and our prospects both carry NORTH ends of a magnet. If we try to pull them to a close, they go the other direction. If we gently stand neutral, we’ll reach the outcome together. Like a locked door, we can’t open it by pushing or pulling. We have to wait for the owner to unlock the door and let us in.

Do you have any similar stories where you tried to pull an unlocked door, so to speak?

Old sales systems taught sales people to overcome objections that customers present, and never EVER raise objections for the prospect. It seems to make sense.  After all, why would you want to raise something that might prevent your prospect from buying what you are selling?

We know that of the prospects we encounter, we are more likely to NOT do business than TO do business with the majority of them.

The flaw is that most objections come up at some point in the sales process. People buy for their own reasons, and they buy from people they trust. If we take the steps to raise potential objections with our prospects, would that raise or lower our trust?  In short, raising potential objections helps our prospects realize that we are looking out for their best interest.

Best of all, raising potential objections early allows us to identify potential objections before we invest countless hours and valuable resources pursuing opportunities that we cannot overcome. So, would you rather know the truth early in the process, or have false hope and a wishful pipeline?

If you have a business that is trying to conserve its resources, is price the real issue?  Would you want to save 10% if you were confident that the higher priced solution had a greater chance of success? Would you hire the “low bidder” as a consultant instead of hiring the one most likely to overcome your challenges and help you meet your goals? Let’s hope not.

Price matters when sales teams and management feel that price matters. And, if your offering lacks differentiation, then price can certainly matter to the customer. But, if your team has the confidence that your solution delivers better results, then that confidence can translate to higher margins. That confidence is important, but your client needs to realize the impact of their current problems.

If you invest the time to understand the clients issue, the relative impact of that issue on their business, and the ultimate importance of solving the problem, then you might help them realize an underlying value that goes beyond price.

It takes some effort, and requires discipline.  But, if you can realize an additional 10% to 30% of margin, would you be willing to put in the time to deliver value that goes beyond price?

The natural inclination would be to push for the sale, right?  I quickly pressed mute and reminded Chris, “Don’t get pulled off track.  We still need to know why they need to do this project, how it impacts their organization, and how high of priority it is for the individual.”

So, instead of jumping the gun (and jumping up and down), Chris calmly asked great questions, avoided the temptation to tell the client what we would do for them, and ultimately learned of the multi-million dollar impact of their current situation, and the how this project was key to the decision maker earning a promotion.

What started as a potential $50k prototype, quickly became a $250k pilot that the prospect wanted to start as soon as possible. More importantly, the prospect was very excited by how much Chris cared about their business justification and their underlying needs.  Patience and process prevailed.

Can you think of other situations where you have to avoid jumping the gun?