Hello again!
I had the opportunity and pleasure of interviewing one of the experts in the field of marketing, managing, and presentations/sales pitches. Micheal Demmons is the General Manager and Marketing Manager for Sentry Security in Kingston ON. I'd like to share some of this interview with you as I'm sure it can benefit you, as it did me.
Here are some presentation hints and tips from him:
Keeping these fresh in your head when you’re developing a pitch or presentation usually will lead to a better end result.
1) Qualifying fast to avoid wasting time
a. Don’t wait for “yes” or “no”
b. Develop a list of qualifying criteria that a prospect must meet to “earn” your time
2) Getting commitments instead of a closing (recurring buyers)
a. Ask for smaller commitments instead of orders from prospects
b. “on your next project, would you give me the opportunity to provide a quote”
c. “would you have 10 minutes tomorrow to go through one of our demos together”
3) “SO WHAT”
a. This is what prospects are thinking when they talk to you
b. They care about what you’re selling if it can solve a problem that they have or make their business better.
c. What is your product to them, ie: benefits not what your product does (features)

He even included more helpful presentation hints and tips:
-Talk about benefits, not features
-practice and be prepared
-This isn’t always the best advice however I’ve had luck with it over the years: a presentation that is designed based primarily on a structured list of questions (sometimes directly from the customer) will lead the customer to sell themselves.
-and of course….be prepared to sell and close the deal. One major problem in business these days is waiting for the customer to close the deal. Always remember to ask for the order!


Cheers!

~Effective Communications~

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