What are the most common sales presentation challenges?

One of the strongest temptations I had during my initial years, was to try and impress the prospects. I would tell them things that were not the most applicable and tend to over-explain their queries that eventually would lead us off topic. I lost many opportunities to work with potentially great clients. In exchange, I learned the important lesson that: people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Fast forward today, instead of trying to impress, I always seek to understand each person’s problems, worries, dreams, preferences, etc. Even if the presentation doesn’t lead to a sale, the sessions are always enjoyable and amicable.

What to know BEFORE you present! 1. Make Sure You Understand the Audience: Tailor your presentation to their needs and pain points. Know what makes them tick. 2. Hold Their Attention: Engage with compelling visuals and stories. Keep it lively! 3. Know How To Handle Objections: Be prepared. Know the common concerns and address them proactively. Don't know the answer? NO shame in saying "I'll look into that and get back to you" ?? Bonus Tip: Always end with a clear call to action. Make it easy for your audience to take the next step with you! Remember, a successful sales presentation is a blend of understanding, engagement, and preparation. Happy pitching ?? Make sure to connect with me! Reach out anytime to discuss strategies!

1. Knowing your audience is must 2. Understanding their pain points, requirements etc. can help in structing the ppt 3. Not sure about the content captured in the slides 4. Horizontal and vertical logics are not properly captured 5. Not timing the slides 6. Need to rehearse the slides before hand at least once

The better you know the audience the better you can prepare for their needs and pain points. Never go with a standard PowerPoint from your company! Always tailor it accordingly to make the best impression. The more emotional you tailor it, the better. At the end we are all humans and buying decisions are always related to emotions.

Indeed essential to understand who you are presenting for. I fully recommend to create a stakeholder matrix to clearly define your audience including all key informormation.

In my opinion, the most effective way to ace a sales presentation is to incorporate it with the feelings of the audience. Somebody will be able to solve their existing business problems with it, somebody will be able to take the business to the next level or secure a long-awaited promotion. To be in the shoes of the audience and to make the whole pitch/presentation a mutually beneficial and equally important venture, is the key to further the relationship with the audience. Not only for the current project, but for the long run.

I always make it a point to read about my audience, learn about their backgrounds before getting into a call with them. A great way to do this is via their linkedin/twitter profiles. And I am not just talking about skimming through their career journey or about section. Slide intro their posts. Check out the last 5 posts they have made. If those are not available, check out what posts they have liked/commented on. This is will give you a deep insight into what do they care about. It can also give you ideas of how to strike an interesting conversation beyond the features of the product you are wanting to sell.

Every pitch is different for different customers. Creating a narrative with below basic understanding can help you in a long way 1. Understanding the audience(CFO, CTO, CHRO etc), 2. Their use case (new requirement, replacing existing vendor, new geography/product) and 3. The best industry practice used by buyer's competition

Sin duda es un factor clave sobre todo para iniciar la conversación y narrativa. Ser esquematizados creará posicionamiento en los mensajes a comunicar y una mejor percepción de los receptores.

I use a generic engagement timeline which can be adapted accordingly: Introduction Frame the problem Hook Examples / Solutions Call to action

Your visuals should be a powerful tool to win the room and engage your audience. Much too often, I see presentations that are drowning in data. It's a common and persuasive problem for presenters who either use their slides as personal reminders to keep their thoughts on track or mistakenly believe that inundating them with information is what their audience wants. Yawn! Over-communication hinders your objective and will sabotage your Call To Action (CTA). Instead, envision your visuals as your support system and their role is to enhance you and your brilliant ideas--not to upstage you. Captivate your audience with your PPT without overwhelming an audience text and leave enough white space to make your information digestible.

Now a days using an effective visuals are highly important. Here I feel that the old traditional way of presenting through PPT would be obsolete one day. As a new method of presenting it through animations, interactive games and videos would be more effective to engage the audience

It’s the end of Bullet Points for me. In generation TikTok, attention spans are very short when presenting. Tell a story, use the context/deliverables and engagement timeline I discussed previously and associate that with a simple picture slide and there you have it !

An example of clear presentation for me is where I see effective use of bullet points and key phrases without overcrowded information per slide. Visuals are important to reinforce the message to be delivered and should be clear to strengthen the memory connection to the information delivered

Being nervous is a natural response to a situation who's outcome we are not sure about. What we can be sure about however is our own preparedness. This involves some of great points mentioned in this article and the brilliant insights shared by the experts above and looks like: - Read up about the person/people/org you're addressing. This is a great way to gauge the audience and their body language, expectations and persona. - Based on the above assessment cater your material and pitch. - Get there early. Being on time ensures you can run one last check on your readiness. You can also run a check on your appearance to ensure you're looking presentable. - Eat something and stay hydrated. Curbs the impact of stress hormones.

In my opinion it is normal to be nervous when exposed to different social comfort zones however there are some techniques that help to overcome this issue such as: 1. Practicing 2. Knowing your topic 3. Breathing and drinking water if possible to take short pauses 4. Trying to enjoy the presentation and don't treat it as a unpleasant task to be completed as soon as pssible 5. Get a feedback to know what can you do better next time While some prefer to practice in front of a mirror I suggest to gather a small group of people if pssible to practice the eye contact technique with the audience

Be prepared Organisation is key Be on time - leave time before and after the presentation Positive affirmations Controlled breathing Confident body language Strong start

Buyers think emotionally first and then think about the feasibility of buying the product. Emotional engagement occurs when buyers are proud to associate themselves with your brand. Understanding the WHY they are looking for a product helps one make an effective pitch and eventually engage well with the audience.

To overcome the challenge of engaging your audience during a presentation, intertwine stories, anecdotes, humor, or questions to maintain interest and involvement. Utilize eye contact, gestures, and vocal variety to convey enthusiasm and passion, building rapport and credibility. This keeps the audience interested and facilitates feedback, addresses questions, and helps overcome objections, creating a dynamic and interactive presentation experience.

Fa?a perguntas, ou?a as respostas com aten??o e conte casos de sucesso, pode ser um come?o interessante para engajar. Prepare slides que se conversem, usando por exemplo a técnica do storytelling, isso pode fazer com que a apresenta??o flua de forma natural. Ensaiar a fala é fundamental. Se você é daqueles que pensa que na hora tudo dá certo, pode se decepcionar algum dia. Buscar palavras chaves e impactantes sobre o assunto, economiza tempo de quem apresenta e de quem assiste. E por último, mas n?o menos importante: seja você mesmo. Um tanto clichê, mas explico. N?o invente de usar uma linguagem que n?o é a sua, use a primeira pessoa, dessa forma n?o faz confus?o na conjuga??o verbal, principalmente se a apresenta??o for em Português.

One thing I have found helpful in engaging the audience is when we can tell stories related to the material delivered. It keeps them interested and gives them a chance to exchange their stories also while linking this to real life examples

Story telling Real life examples of other customers or experiences Humour helps where appropriate Engaging body language Open and positive hand gestures (even on zoom)

Always plant a question to get it started. I like to do this with an early audience member arriving as a way of building a rapport with that individual (who I don’t know previously). It also lightens the mood a little and allows you to have someone to relate with if the presentation gets difficult. Most of all however, KNOW YOUR SH** If you are invited as an expert, you need to be one.

It is very important to acknowledge the question first before jumping to the answering stage. Never fear to say can I get back to you in this if you don't have an immediate answer. No need to get defensive or offensive. Make use of the Q&A session to stress on the important points in the presentation

Unforeseen problems: These include technical issues like equipment failures, unresponsive audiences, difficult questions or objections, time constraints, personal stress, and health issues. To handle these, arrive early to test equipment, adjust your presentation to engage a disinterested audience, and gracefully acknowledge challenging questions. Be ready to adapt to time constraints and have backup presenters for emergencies. Simplify technical jargon, address environmental disruptions calmly, and continue without visual aids if lost or damaged. Handling challenges with composure and adaptability reflects professionalism and problem-solving abilities. Always have backup plans and stay flexible to ensure a successful sales presentation.

Overcoming the fear of rejection starts with reframing it as an opportunity to learn and improve. Maintaining authenticity while meeting the expectation for assertiveness requires finding your unique voice within the sales process. Adapting to diverse audiences involves doing your homework and tailoring your message to their preferences.

I believe the best teacher is experience. Remember that you may read as many articles, books and guides you like to increase your knowledge about sales, sales presentations and challenges associated with it but your best teacher is always the experience of doing it. So don't over think it, Enjoy the moment. keep it simple. Stick to your personality, give it time, be comfortable in making mistakes and ask for feedback so you may learn from it and your next presentation will be automatically better than your previous one. In my many years of sitting through presentations and doing many of my own I have learned that there is no set template everyone has their own unquie style find yours and with time you will perfect it. That's all she wrote

Let's not forget the squalls of technical difficulties - projectors that resemble cryptic puzzles, microphones that choose the path of silence, or slides that dance to their own mysterious rhythm. These technical gremlins love to play tricks, often at the most inopportune moments. Handouts still have their place, and it's right here, serving as a trusty backup plan.