As we look forward to budding economic turnaround gains and to not being held hostage to unintended consequences of decisions that have taken place, we wish you the happiest of holiday seasons and pray that 2010 will bring everyone peace, health, and success.

As a resource center dedicated to empowering our clients to achieve excellence in all endeavors, Presentation Excellence is always working to add new capabilities. During the past four months, we introduced a new webinar series designed to help you increase customers, sales, and profits. We had over 1000 registrants, and look forward to working with many on implementing new innovative ideas. Building on the overwhelmingly positive feedback, we plan to introduce a year-round webinar program in 2010. Additionally, we look forward to presenting similar presentations at associations and related industry conferences. Please register on our website for our newsletter and webinar announcements.

At the bottom of this newsletter are the logos of our current affiliates, some of whom have joined our family over the past few months. We intend to introduce new ones in 2010, which will provide you significant resources in sales, marketing and leadership communications: providing you a competitive advantage. Stay tuned.

As always, let us know what we can do to help you grow your company. Please feel free to contact me directly at 800-493-1334.

Jerry Cahn, Ph.D., J.D, President

Plan for More Effective B2B Sales Presentations

While retail sales generally take place during a single encounter, B2B sales usually require a series of meetings; each a gateway to the next. Whereas both the sales person and buying organization want to keep the number of meetings to a minimum, many fail, wasting time and/or ruining the sale. The longer the meeting-cycle takes, the easier it is to lose the sale. *

Planning and delivering the series of presentations and items to negotiate can be very complex. When sales people fail to recognize the sales/negotiation goal of each meeting, there is a tendency to repeat what was done at the last stage. This “clutter” damages the sales process; slowing down the speed of going from one stage to the next and crippling the professional credibility of the sales person. Each stage has a specific goal – an informational or persuasive challenge, which must be met and accomplished in order to move on to the next. Focus on meeting the goal; you'll speed up the process and come across more professional.

Another presentation challenge – each member of the buying team has different ways of processing information; you’ll need to ascertain his or her personality style quickly in order to adapt your presentation style to resonate. Whether you focus on the DISC, NLP or dozens of other approaches, the findings are the same – people like to buy from people they think are like them. Therefore, if they like to see the big pictures and you're drilling down to details, your presentation isn't going to be effective.

Finally, negotiation challenges. Each member of the buying team has different objectives in getting what they want from the sale. You need to be careful in delivering what they want, without undercutting your ability to negotiate with the next stage-buyer. Give away too much at one stage, may have set a precedent for later stage buyers! Also, you may find yourself cornered by the time you complete the sales process with little leeway in terms of services, products, quality, price, etc.

In sum,

• Plan out the stages of the presentation.
• Know what kind of information each gatekeeper needs and be prepared to meet it.
• Know how the buyer processes information so your presentation can resonate with his/her style.
• Know how your negotiated resolution of each stage may impact on future stages of the sales process.

Nine Final Presentation Tips for 2009

1. In selling, every encounter is a presentation moment and needs to be excellent. So the lead sales person has to coordinate activities with all members of the sales team, and make sure everyone else – from the receptionist to the installation team – is supportive.
2. When presenting, it's not just what you say and how you say it, but how you use pauses and silence to help the audience take in the information and form a favorable impression of you. Let "white space" and silence help you!
3. In any negotiation, there's a simple rule: he who talks first, usually loses.
4. With attention spans getting shorter and shorter (think about the growth rates of Twitter versus BusinessWeek), LESS IS MORE!
5. Get a conditional close based on the sales information you present and use the product demonstration to verify your claims. Don't use the demonstration as a closing device because buyers are in a skeptical mindset.
6. To identify the different personality styles of buyers, keep the first part of a presentation short (20 seconds) and interactive, using the information you get to gauge what you should do next.
7. In a multi-step sale, explicitly get agreement on each part of the process before going to the next.
8. In a group sale, make sure to speak and have eye contact with each person; don't just talk to the audience as a whole.
9. Use your voice's tone and pacing, and body language to amplify your key messages. They're your secret weapons!