5 Mistakes to Avoid in a Sales Presentation
Posted by Bridget Gleason on Thu, Feb 04, 2010 @ 11:00 AM
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."