By Terri L. Sjodin
In today’s competitive marketplace, a sales professional’s success often depends upon his or her ability to deliver a polished and persuasive presentation. Although salespeople spend a significant amount of their time verbally communicating, many suffer from common shortcomings in their sales presentations that adversely affect their results.
One of the most common mistakes is delivering overly informative presentations. Of course, every solid presentation requires a certain amount of “data,” but many professionals spend too much time informing rather than persuading.
It’s very easy to deliver an informative rather than persuasive presentation. The reason? A prospect typically won’t say “no” when you’re only disseminating information. The problem is they don’t say “yes” either!
A young woman I recently worked with reluctantly confessed that she suffered from the data-dump syndrome. Like many of us, she felt more comfortable in the information zone. Her strategy was simply to provide more information than her competitor. She was hoping that her prospect would like her more, or at least feel obligated to buy from her because she had been so thorough. She came to realize that she had been spending a great deal of time sharing and consulting with her sales prospects without completing any transactions. (Ouch!)
After stepping back and evaluating her presentations, she realized she needed to move beyond merely relaying information; she needed to build her case. By focusing more on brevity and tailoring her strongest points to her prospects’ needs, this young professional eventually became a consistent producer in her organization.
What Makes a Persuasive Case with Prospects?
Prepare like a debater or an attorney. Debaters and attorneys win cases based on persuasive arguments and supporting evidence. Focus on your most compelling arguments with each client or prospect.
Do you deliver a presentation that creates a true need for your product or service that your prospect may not even be aware of? (Ask yourself: why you, why your company, why now?) Don’t just deliver a standard list of features and benefits. (Remember, a feature is what something is. A benefit is what that something does. These two concepts alone are inherently informative.) Think proactive versus reactive. Design a presentation that anticipates common objections and overcomes them within the body of the presentation before they become reasons not to buy.
If you have been meeting with a substantial number of prospects, but haven’t been completing a significant number of transactions, maybe the big question you need to ask yourself is… “Is my presentation overly informative or is it persuasive?”
After recognizing the danger of data dumping, you are poised to tackle any topic that comes along. Your goal is to be both informative and persuasive, pairing rock-solid information with compelling arguments. Your presentation should be a blend or a combination of the two. I have seen it play out time and again. If you are too informative, nothing happens. If you are too aggressive, nothing happens. Find a balance, and you’ll see results.
Terri L. Sjodin is the author of the national best-selling book, Small Message, Big Impact. Her new book, Scrappy: A Little Book About Choosing to Play Big, was just released by Penguin Random House. She is the principal and founder of Sjodin Communications, a public speaking, sales training, and consulting firm. For more than 20 years Terri has served as a speaker and consultant for Fortune 500 companies, industry associations, academic conferences, CEOs, and members of Congress. She lives in Newport Beach, CA. For more information visit: www.sjodincommunications.com.