When transforming your house into a dream home, talk to three architects.
When getting heart surgery to transform the quality of your life, talk to three surgeons.
And to transform your sales presentations, talk to three consultants.
I have three people in mind. The first is Ford Harding, a sales consultant to professional service firms and the author of Creating Rainmakers, (Wiley 2006) and other books on selling professional services. Ford has helped umpteen thousand professionals get over themselves and bring in business.
The second is Suzanne Lowe, a marketing consultant and author of Marketplace Masters: How Professional Firms Compete to Win. As Ford says, she can get a burlap bag full of cats, dogs and canaries to hum the same tune.
The third is me, Sims Wyeth, a presentation coach whose mission is to transform the personal impact of business presenters.
To officiate, we have assembled a panel of fifteen objective judges selected for their diversity along multiple dimensions.
Here are THE FIVE DON’TS OF SALES PRESENTING in no particular order.
Don’t even go to the presentation if the client won’t meet with you ahead of time so you can learn what they want and why they want it. Your time is extremely valuable, as is theirs, and you should not waste either their time or yours by pursuing an opportunity for which you are not suited, or by traveling to recite information they could read in a brochure, e-mail, or website.
Don’t assume that the presentation begins when you stand in front of the room and open your mouth. In reality, you began presenting when the prospective client first encountered you and your team—perhaps months before, on the phone, on the web, or in person, when their search for a provider began. Your behaviors, and your tangibles (including your brochure and office) throughout the preliminary discussions and scheduling of the presentation play a significant role in their ultimate decision
Don’t be late, unprepared, sloppy, rude, poorly dressed, or tense when you enter the meeting room. People want to do business with people they like and trust. A sales presentation is a formal social occasion as much as it is a business transaction. Therefore, be attentive to all aspects of the conversation. Show interest at all times. Do not slouch in your chair, Blackberry under the table, conduct side conversations, scowl, be boring, or dominate the conversation. A bad dinner guest is the same as a bad salesperson.
Don’t elevate prospects to a higher status than yourself, nor should you look down your nose at them for any reason. You do the potential partnership a disservice on both counts. Treat your prospects as equals—partners with whom you can be yourself and speak your mind.
Don’t go there to sell them anything. If you do, they will smell it. Go there to help them. Don’t make the presentation all about you. Make it all about them.
If you would like to submit additional Sales Presentation Don’ts, Ford, Suzanne, and I are glad to pass them on to our totally objective board of fifteen judges for rating.
To see a marketing expert’s choices for presentation Don’ts, go to Suzanne Lowe’s blog:
To see a sales consultant’s, go to Ford Harding’s blog.
You are currently on Sims Wyeth’s Blog.
Just to add to the list of don’ts – no matter how long your presentation may be, don’t forget to tell your contact that you will be as brief as possible and that you won’t take up too much of their time. This relaxes them as they are more than likely very busy, and don’t forget to keep them involved throughout the whole presentation with questions. No-one wants a lecture. Really they don’t. And keep everything ultra-geared to the contact’s company (the more tailoring to individual contacts, the better and more relevant the presentation will be.
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