Читать книгу Sales Presentations For Dummies - Julie M. Hansen - Страница 10

In This Chapter

▶ Figuring out the opportunity

▶ Developing a persuasive presentation

▶ Understanding where to find the information you need

▶ Having conversations that produce insights and build rapport

▶ Tracking your progress with a presentation plan checklist

You have an opportunity to present your product or service to a qualified prospect, which is no easy feat in today’s competitive landscape. After you finish high-fiving yourself, your team, or your dog, what’s your first order of business?

✔ Pulling out the standard deck and you’re ready to go.

✔ Diving in to PowerPoint to start cutting and pasting from previous presentations.

✔ Creating a presentation plan to gather all the information you need.

Whether you have 10 minutes to prepare or 10 days, the third option is the winning choice. In a competitive market, planning plays a more critical role than ever in the success of your presentation. Planning means gathering as much relevant information as possible about your prospect prior to your presentation so you can tailor your message to her specific needs in a way that motivates her to take action. Failing to gather the insights you need or ask the right questions with today’s savvy buyers can damage your credibility and leave room for your competition to slip by and win the business. Because planning takes time, isn’t fun or sexy, it’s tempting to skip this step and jump right into picking out graphics and themes or loading up the standard deck – even though neither option may be a good fit for the current opportunity.

Planning a presentation is like building a house. You want to first make sure you have a design and a solid foundation that will produce the results you want. All of the cool videos and flashy graphics in the world can’t make up for faulty structure or inconsistent messaging. Without a plan, you may find yourself dodging the following landmines when you’re in front of your prospect:

✔ Disagreeing on value or goals

✔ Focusing on the wrong issue with the wrong person

✔ Being surprised by preferences or allegiances

✔ Fumbling through unanticipated objections

✔ Failing to make a logical and persuasive case

In this chapter, I show you how to create a solid foundation for your presentation. I help you determine what you must know before your presentation to successfully align your solution with your prospect’s goals, establish value, and overcome potential objections. I help you uncover the prospect’s challenge and define and quantify the impact on her and her organization. In addition, you discover how to prepare for a presentation that involves multiple decision makers by setting up and conducting discovery conversations and asking questions that produce valuable insights. You also find out how to keep everything on track – your team, your materials, and your technology – by creating a presentation planning checklist.