Why Business Presentations Don’t Work

Henry sells insurance for a well known, solid company that’s been around  for years.  He’s been with the company for about a year, and has recently been focusing on improving his business presentations.

He sat in my office and ran through his presentation.  He covered all kinds of things, the myriad of products his company offered, the company history, his experience and education.  Awards his company has won.  The differentiation factors.  His sales presentations weren’t much different than those of most professionals in his field, in fact, he was already improving upon the things his company wants him to cover.  I love Henry, but I have to admit, I was getting antsy as he was speaking.  He lost me in the first couple of minutes, and in fact, he was losing his prospects too.

If Henry’s story sounds familiar, here are some things to avoid when doing business presentations:

  1. Don’t bore them with a laundry list of all of the services or products your company provides.  Instead, find out what what their biggest problems are  and talk about the ONE product or service that you have that will help them solve that problem.
  2. Don’t focus on your company’s history, your experience or awards you’ve won. Instead, talk about the benefits and results your clients have received from working with you.  Tell stories, illustrate with testimonials.
  3. Don’t try to be all things to all people or try to sell them things they don’t need.  I know your company may want you to sell “everything”, but it really does work better if you carve out a niche.  So instead of trying to convince people to buy things they don’t need, focus on developing a reputation as someone who sells one specific solution.  Once you win a client, and gain their trust, it will be much easier to sell them the additional products or services as well.

To give really effective presentations, you need to focus more on them, and less on yourself or your company.  Make it personal, key it into the problems, pain or issues they’re facing.  That makes it real, and gets them interested in doing business with you.

Susan Martin, Sales Coaching

 

By Susan Martin

NYC based Business Coach, Consultant and Strategist Susan Martin is no stranger to entrepreneurship, as she spent the first 25 years of her career running her own successful companies before deciding to dedicate her work to helping others achieve "Business Sanity." A professionally trained business coach, Susan is a popular business workshop facilitator and speaker at events and professional groups in and around New York City. She helps business owners, executives, managers, salespeople and independent professionals stop struggling and learn how to run their businesses easily and effectively so that they can make more money, have less stress and more quality time to enjoy life. Susan's clients want to increase sales and profits, boost productivity, manage their time, motivate their employees, increase performance and leadership skills, plan strategically and have balance in their lives. She provides the guidance, support, encouragement and accountability needed to achieve their goals. If running your business is a struggle, contact Susan to find out how she can help.

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