When you’re preparing a sales presentation, remember that your listener doesn’t necessarily want to be educated. They want to be sold. They want to be told what to do. They want to be entertained and motivated to take action.
Do you need a PowerPoint? Not necessarily. In fact, I’d recommend you skip it, unless you’re a fledgling movie producer who needs to put everything on a wall. What you need to focus on is your prospect’s acupressure points and how your offerings can improve their lives. You don’t necessarily need a PowerPoint presentation to do that.
You also need a one-page proposal. I’ve told many of my students that a proposal is proposing something, nothing more. Persuasion is more pressing than content. You need to be persuasive and you need to know your “why.” If you don’t pursue either of those things you don’t have much of a proposal. For more of my advice on creating a one-page proposal, you can visit here and here.
There are other aspects of executing a successful sales presentation that should be second nature. First, get there early. Second, be prepared. That means researching your prospect thoroughly, whether online or through speaking with others (preferably both). Third, know the person you’re talking to. The more you know about your audience (e.g., their role, their concerns, their goals and even their scar tissue with projects similar to the one you’re proposing), the more likely you’ll produce a compelling value proposition that motivates an affirmative response.
