5 Mistakes to Avoid in a Sales Presentation

 

5 Mistakes to Avoid in Your Next Sales Meeting Presentation

 

by Lois Wong

When is your next presentation and how will you prepare for it? Millions of presentations are given daily and most of them are mind-numbing. Need help? "The 6 Secrets to Great Sales Presentations" hopefully provided you with some food for thought and a good starting place.

 

While hosting Congresswoman Anna Eshoo in an executive meeting at Xerox PARC 15 years ago, she gave me timeless advice. Relate your solution to something that is part of a person's every day life: their families, their kids, their wants and desires. How your solution will affect that part of their lives? She's right. Address the ‘killer application.' Don't forget that your prospective buyer is a person with personal wants, needs, desires and motivations. Forgetting that fact is sales presentation mistake #1.

 

What are 5 other mistakes to avoid when presenting?

 

1. Minimize Geek Speak, acronyms, and jargon

2. Steer clear of citing numerous boring statistics

3. Avoid "Ummms" and a monotone voice

4. Don't cross your arms when asked a difficult question

5. Answer deliberately negative questions offline

 

As an executive coach I've seen thousands of speaker mistakes over the past 20 years. At a popular MeetUp in Palo Alto, one of the entrepreneurs asked me, ‘How would I know if my presentation was effective?' There are 3 major telltale signs that your presentation was unimpressive, unintelligible, or easily forgettable. But that's for the next blog post.

Click here to receive a free copy of the white paper "Was My Presentation Effective or Forgettable."

6 Secrets to a Great Sales Presentation

by Lois Wong

What's the secret to giving a great sales presentation? Besides practice, practice, practice, you should: know your topic well, be enthusiastic, use simple color graphics, stick to 3-5 bullet points per slide, maintain good eye contact, concentrate on voice projection..... well, maybe you know these basics.

So, what are some of the secrets that the most successful speakers share once they've mastered the basics?

1. Open with a grabber to excite the audience.
2. Use metaphors and analogies to explain complex information. It will most certainly help the audience do what I call ‘retain & explain' the concepts to someone else.
3. Use humor to make a point. Not jokes but levity inserted in the right places.
   
4. Tell stories. Everyone loves to hear stories. Short stories.
5. Ask relevant questions right up front to involve audience participation and interaction.
6. And remember not to drink ice water which constricts the vocal cords, milk which causes mucous, or to have too much caffeine.

While hosting Congresswoman, Anna Eschoo in an executive meeting at Xerox PARC 15 years ago, she gave me advice that's still relevant today. To find out her advice and the 5 other major mistakes to avoid - tune in to tomorrow's blog post!