Your best presentation will fail if they don’t believe you

"It's a fine line to walk - but the best presentations are when the presenter is honest with themselves during the presentation - which transmits honestly to their audience."

Authenticity. Credibility. Trust. They aren't just words - without them, you would have no customers and no business. Trust is everything - rarely spoken about openly, but always by the narrator in our heads.

"Your solution is very good - however we've decided to work with another provider." Said the no-longer-sellable-Q1-prospect to the under-performing salesperson after what he thought was a stellar presentation, but sadly was one where he pretended to be someone - he wasn't.

And it wasn't because his presentation was bad. It was because they didn't believe him.

If you're presenting your fabulous B2B solution to a group of strangers, no matter how awesome your product may be, how beautiful your deck is, how easy it may be to see the results of the promised land you are hoping to take your clients to - if your audience doesn't believe you - they won't buy what you're selling. And they won't likely tell you that hard-truth anyway.

How do you create trust with buyers of your product or service? And is it you personally that needs this trust? Is it your company's brand that needs it? Is it both?

We're tribal animals. Evolutionary psychology says our brains have evolved to place a high-value on trusting only people who are inside of our tribe - distrusting people who are outside of our tribe. If your prospect hasn't met you personally before, even if you come recommended - you need to become part of, or prove that you are already part of their tribe - of their "values" if nothing else - before any decision happens. And if we're honest - with how we buy from people, these are the questions that go through our minds;

1. Can I relate to this person?
2. Do I like them?
3. Who do they remind me of?
4. What is their story?
5. Do they share the same values as I do?
6. Will they do what they say they are going to do? What if they don't?
7. Are they lying?

You can use your Challenger Sale methodology until you're blue in the face but if you're not credible, you will not sell much. And worse, you can't try to be credible either - as the trying is an act of pretending which is easily exposed by your audiences honed evolutionary psychology.

It's a fine line to walk but the best presentations are when the presenter is honest with themselves during the presentation - which transmits honestly to their audience.

Now that information is everywhere, in everyone's pockets - and customer ratings and reviews are just a keyword search away from your audience, "Your reputation precedes you" is becoming - once again - the most important basis for your presentation. Filling in their gaps of their understanding what you are offering has become the purpose of your presentation instead of information transfer. Credibility for that process is the foundation of your presentation and you can stand on this piece in a million ways or more - but only by being yourself; being authentically you. Not by being a polished public speaker - or by delivering a perfect TED-talk kind of presentation that for some reason people still think is important for them to be like when presenting.

And one more thing; even if you're brand commands a healthy dose of trust, i.e. Apple, GE, IBM, etc., unless the messenger of that brand is also credible, you will not be able to establish trust needed for them to leap over the risk they are taking by making the decision.

You must do this. Else, you will have proven to provide a great solution at a great price - but totally un-believable.