How To Ruin Your Sales Presentation (And How to Hit it Out of the Park)
Selling relies on presentations, and a presentation can make or break a deal. Presentations give you the opportunity to connect with prospective clients and separate yourself from your competitors. However, if you aren’t careful, your presentation can fall flat. Here are some presentation killers you need to avoid and how you can turn them into winning presentations instead:
1. Giving the same presentation to every prospective client
It’s much less work to give the same presentation to every audience. But each prospect is unique in their mindsets, their goals and what triggers them to action. One size doesn’t fit all when giving a presentation. A big mistake you want to avoid is not customizing your presentation to each specific audience.
Make sure you research each lead and determine their needs, challenges and culture. Find the specific information and insights that appeal to them. Then, you can tailor your presentation to them and inspire them to take the next step.
2. Not being prepared
A sales presentation isn’t the time to improvise or wing it. Most times, you’ll end up stumbling over your words, reading your slides word for word, or pouring through your notes to find a point you’ve forgotten all while the prospective client loses interest. The bottom line is if you are unprepared, you will look unprepared.
To avoid this, always rehearse your sales pitch. Know it backward and forward. Be confident that you can complete it in the time required without rushing. Make sure all the technical aspects of your presentation are working beforehand. Keep your notes close but only look at them if you need to. Showing the prospective client that you know what you’re doing goes a long way in closing the deal.
3. Lack of enthusiasm
Nothing kills a sales presentation, even a good one, like a presenter who has no energy. People will tune you out if you have no emotion and speak in a monotone voice. You will give the impression that you don’t want to be there, and that impression is contagious. If the prospect feels you don’t want to be there, then they won’t want to be there either.
So, how do you avoid this? The first step is to grab the audience’s attention from the start. Get them excited about what you’re going to present. Use your inflection and body language to generate interest. Just as a lack of enthusiasm will spread to your audience, a presentation full of energy will do so as well. Avoid filler slides, and present your leads with what they actually want to see. Maintaining eye contact is essential to building a bond with your audience. Most importantly, smile! Your passion will translate to your audience and get them to react in the way you want them to.
4. Overselling
Salespeople often make the mistake of talking about everything a product or service can do. When you go on and on about a product, you’ll start to lose your audience. Nobody wants to be beaten over the head about how great a product is. Likewise, hitting the audience with too much information can turn them off. When people are overwhelmed with information, they tend to retain very little of it. You also don’t want to talk too much about yourself. Your audience isn’t there to hear about you, and they can quickly lose interest. What your audience wants to know is how your product or service will benefit them.
To avoid this presentation killer, don’t overload your audience with every single thing your product can do. Instead, focus on a few things that will benefit the specific audience you’re talking to. Not only will you give them smaller doses of information, but they will better see the benefits of what you have to offer. They will better retain what you’re giving them and will be more likely to act in your favor when making a decision. The bottom line is to keep it simple and focus on key points for your specific audience.
5. Overusing PowerPoint
PowerPoint is a good presentation tool, but it has changed little since it was first rolled out many years ago. On the other hand, the world has changed a lot. PowerPoint presentations are text-heavy, lack video and can be boring. Many presenters simply read each slide as it comes up. If you have a big presentation and many slides, your audience might fall asleep before you’re finished.
A way to avoid a PowerPoint-heavy presentation is to incorporate other methods and tools to get your message across, such as using video, offering a live demo or storytelling through updated presentation tools. PowerPoint can enhance your presentation, but when overused, it can also destroy it. You want the audience to be engaged in what you’re saying, not reading slide after slide. It’s important to tailor presentations to each customer, and PowerPoint doesn’t allow you to do that, but Ingage does.
6. Not engaging your audience
A presentation shouldn’t be a one-way conversation. If you are too busy focusing on all the features or benefits of your services and products, you can lose your connection with your audience. If they aren’t engaged, chances are they won’t be enticed to act.
Telling your audience the benefits of your products is important, but instead of only feeding them information, weave a story into your presentation by using Ingage. Make them feel as if they are part of it. Use interesting points, characters, situations, and humor when appropriate. Captivate your listeners and encourage them to participate in your presentation by asking for questions or feedback.
7. Sticking to the script no matter what
A presentation is dynamic. It’s live. Whenever something is live, it usually doesn’t go exactly as planned. Presentations are no different. It’s a guarantee that at some point, your presentation will go off on a tangent due to a comment or question. If you try too hard to get it back on track, you can lose your audience.
If a presentation goes off track, it’s because your audience wants to go in that direction. In these cases, be flexible. Use this as an opportunity to learn more about your audience and what their interests are. This relates back to the first presentation killer to avoid, which is tailoring your presentation to your specific audience. Sometimes, the audience will tailor it for you. Go with it. Find out what your audience is looking for beforehand and try to anticipate what they might ask, so you are prepared to give them the answers they are looking for.
Hit Your Presentation Out Of The Park With Ingage
Presentations can fail for a number of reasons, but what we’ve found is that the platform you’re using can make or break the situation. At Ingage, we know the importance of turning leads into clients, which is why we’ve created the perfect platform to do so. We have proven data showing your reps will sell better with Ingage, which means more money in your company’s pockets. If you’re sick of the boring, old way of selling, let’s connect to talk about how Ingage can change things for you.