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How many presentations do you make each week, each month?
Presentations are a killer for most small businesses. Often, we
even measure the number of attempts to the number of
presentations we make. We end up putting a lot of pressure on
ourselves to make a good, or even great, presentation.
The quality of your work is important. However, if you are
thinking, "If I make great presentations, my prospects will buy
from me," you may be falling into the trap of "unpaid
consulting." The largest and best client we have today was sold
without a presentation.
How did it happen? We spoke to the "real" decision maker and
made sure that we had addressed the "real" issue. After that, it
was all down hill. If you spend lots of time and money on
presentations and are not getting the return you want, try
stopping the presentations and focusing more on what the
decision maker is really looking to gain by adding your product
or service.
A great presentation may cause a "fence sitter" to get off the
fence. However, if you rely on your presentation to convince,
persuade, entice, or motivate a prospect to buy your product or
service, you put too much pressure on yourself and your
prospect.
Conceptually, prospects should be "sold" before you make your
presentation. They must develop a view of your product or
service as the best fit for their problem, need, or challenge
during the development process. By asking the appropriate
questions, you can help your prospects define their problems,
their challenges to be met, and their needs, wants, or desires
to be satisfied, from the perspective of how your product or
service would do so.
Your questions help them paint a picture of what they want - a
picture that looks a lot like your product or service. That way
your prospects approach your presentation predisposed to buying.
You do not have to convince them, you only have to demonstrate
how your product or service will fill their needs.
© Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
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