In the world of Sales collateral, content needs to be impactful and catch the prospect’s attention. Indeed, if you have ever come across a bad sales presentation you know the signs : too much text, not enough images, struggles to get the point across. This type of presentation is not only boring, but it can have a negative impact on seizing a future sales opportunity.
A customer-centric, well structured and data driven presentation has a much better shot at convincing any audience that your product and service are the right fit to fix their pain point.
In this article our goal is to share a few guidelines to build your presentation around a rock solid structure. This way, you can guarantee that your prospect will see that you understand their needs.
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Step 1: Company presentation
First thing’s first : who are you ? This part of the presentation should be all about briefly introducing your company and your products or services. It is key to remain simple and succinct, as there is no need to drown your prospects in unfinishable descriptions.
The idea is to start preparing the field and show that you are qualified to address their needs. For example, introduce your company’s history and services in a way that shows that you have already dealt with similar customers or use cases. This way, you include your prospect and their needs indirectly from the beginning of the presentation. It is essential that you keep in mind that your prospect is at the core of your sales presentation.
Be mindful, if you speak too much about yourself, your prospect might overlook your differentiation factor.
Step 2: The prospect’s issue
This might be one of the most important parts of your presentation : explaining your prospects request in your own words. This will allow your prospect to see that you have been listening and that you understand their needs. To do this, you can use words used by your prospect on earlier exchanges : they will logically speak to them.
The more your prospect feels like you understand their issues and context, the more they will feel like your solution is the right fit for them.
In this part you should clearly see the following elements :
- The context : A brief description of your prospect’s context with details on the company, its size, their role, their market and short term goals.
- The issue : A dive into your prospects’ pain point as described by them. In this section it is key to address the stakes for your contact person and their organisation as a whole.
- The reason : This is where you have a chance to make the difference with your competition. Briefly explain the reasons behind your prospects issue, you might mention factors that they did not think about.
All in all, do not hesitate to highlight the challenges and opportunities related to the issue and its resolution. This will certainly catch their attention and help them project themselves alongside you in this matter.
Step 3: Your strategy
This part of the presentation is your time to shine. It brings your solution to your prospect’s problems : it is your game plan. In other words, it gives a more detailed picture of how you plan to help them.
It is through presenting a clear strategy that your sales presentation should stand out from a quote. You should take the time to detail the different actions you will put in place to reach the goals set in the prior step.
Step 4: Results
After detailing your game plan, you should mention the benefits that your solution will rip. You can mention prior use cases or bring up customer testimonials to strengthen your speech. If you show your prospect that you have already encountered and defeated similar challenges, it will be easier for them to believe you can tackle theirs.
To wrap it up do not forget to bring in some concrete information such as a provisional timeline or a more detailed explanation of how you plan to share your results with your prospect.
Step 5: Pricing
Once you have described your plan, it is time to estimate the price of your product or service so that your proposal can be evaluated by the prospect. We strongly recommend to be firm with your price all while offering different payment options.
However, keep in mind that your proposal should not be centered on your prices but rather the value proposition that comes off the strategy you just presented. Value is subjective and if your proposal is solid, price will naturally seem fitting.
Step 6: Summary
A final summary serves as a conclusion for your sales proposal. The goal of the summary is to enable any key player to have a quick overview of your proposal. If your document is very long, you might want to put your summary at the beginning of the proposal. Always keep in mind that your prospect will spend less than 5 minutes looking at your proposal.
Finally, your sales proposal should also include calls to action that make it easy to go forward. For example, you can include general terms and conditions or a direct debit order.