Posts with Category "Sales Presentations"

I really wanted a new basketball for my 6th birthday - so big sis went to the sidewalk to talk influence strategy...

When I was 6 I wanted a basketball for my birthday. I didn’t ask my dad for it myself. I sent in the big gun: my sister Allyson.

I gave her the 411 on what I wanted and why, and we proceeded with a white board session where we mapped out all of the possible ways to get the decision makers to rule in our favor. (OK, as talented an 8 year old as Allyson was, maybe no white board. But we did talk about it, and she was a mean sidewalk chalk girl.)

Shortly thereafter, we green lighted operation Cedric Maxwell.

A few hours later, the qualified decision maker (a.k.a. Dad) came to see me. As he tells me the story, he asked me why I sent my sister in to lobby for me.

My answer, “She’s the better convincer.”

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A New Way of Thinking about Value Propositions

By Bob Croston

Confused why your value prop doesn't work? You shouldn't be.

“We build brands…”

Back in the late 90s when I was a running a marketing firm, this was the beginning of our value proposition. We thought it was brilliant… until we started using it.

This was how we were going to engage prospects. The only problem: nobody found it all that engaging. You can’t sell what you can’t describe, and in prospecting situations, where you may have just seconds to make an impression, if you’re not engaging and easily understood, you’re toast.

I now know we were expecting too much from one simple statement...

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Are Your Sales Presentations Putting Prospects to Sleep?

By Erica Stritch

Keep your prospects engaged, and lead them to the next step.

Imagine you’re a business leader, and you’re considering buying a new technology that could help your business succeed. You log in to the web presentation and, after a few pleasantries, the presenter starts in, “We started in 1978 by John Doe and have grown into the market leader in the space. We provide efficient effective solutions leveraging a unique combination of people, process, and technology to help you achieve results…Here’s a sample list of our clients…Now let me log in to the software. It’s all hosted online so you can login from wherever, whenever you need to…Over here is where you control admin rights of the users…”

Boring. Unfocused. Unhelpful.

At some point comes the time for every sales person to deliver a presentation. For some this may be early on in a demo of your product or capabilities, or to share a new approach to solving a problem. For others it may be later in the sales process as you present your proposed solution. In any case, delivering engaging sales presentations is a key to success.

Why, then, do so many professionals and sales people put prospects to sleep during their presentations?

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5 Deadly Sales Call Sins

By Erica Stritch

Sales people can slip at a variety of different stages during the sales process.

People with kids tell me that sometimes you have to let them fail, even when you could have jumped in to save them, so they will learn. Painful to sit by and watch, but necessary for growth. After being on the receiving end of an awful sales call last week, now I know the feeling.

Poor kid (he could have been 60 for all I know, but he seemed like a kid), started sinking from the get-go. Since I couldn't dive in and save him, the future parent in me is dying to share the learning with someone. So here goes.

While I will protect the name of the innocent, I have summarized my favorite (if I can call them that) 5 deadly sins that pulled him down like a pair of concrete shoes in the Mystic River.

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The #1 Conversation Killer (and How to Beat It)

By John Doerr

Many sales people make the mistake of just plain talking too much.

Willy: I don't know why - I can't stop myself - I talk too much. A man oughta come in with a few words. Charlie's a man of few words, and they respect him.

Linda: You don't talk too much, you're just lively.

Arthur Miller - Death of a Salesman

We all have sympathy for poor Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. He knew he talked too much, but he couldn't figure out why. And he couldn't stop talking too much even though he wanted to be like Charlie, a man of few words, who was respected by all.

When business developers talk too much, they generate too few clients.

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