This training module is based on a conversation with Terri Sjodin, CEO and founder of Sjodin Communications, a public speaking, sales training, and consulting firm based in Newport Beach, CA. A speaker and sales trainer, Sjodin is author of New Sales Speak – The 9 Biggest Sales Presentation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them (Wiley, 2006). Over the last 17 years, Sjodin has consulted on persuasive sales presentation skills to Fortune 500 companies, industry associations, academic conferences, and members of Congress. She can be reached at Sjodin Communications, P.O. Box 98, Newport Beach, CA 92662. Tel: 949/723-3132
Web: SjodinCommunications.com.

A dictionary definition of a sales presentation might be “a spoken communication that moves the sales process forward.” That’s a fancy way of saying that a sales presentation is “what you say to the customer when you have the floor.” A sales presentation is not a conversation, it’s not a questioning session, and it’s not a rapport-building chat. While those are elements of the sales process, they’re not sales presentations, per se. Sales presentations range from an elevator pitch delivered on the fly, to a top executive to standing alone before a roomful of faces, clutching the clicker in their fist. A sales presentation is when you must literally “stand and deliver” what selling proposition you have to offer.

Misconceptions about sales presentations abound. Some sales pros believe that sales presentations should be like keynote speeches – entertaining but without much meat. Other sales pros are just as convinced that sales presentations should be like lectures – informative but without emotion. Both groups are mistaken. To move the sales process forward, a sales presentation must persuade. To do this, a sales presentation must have a structure that matches the way that people make decisions. It must also answer the key questions every customer has, while intriguing and inspiring the listener. In other words, a sales presentation will use both entertainment and information to support its persuasive arguments, but these are always subservient and never included for their own sake.

The Basic Structure

Your high school English teacher probably taught you that every essay should have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. That teacher could have been a sales trainer, because a persuasive sales presentation has those exact elements in that exact order, with the addition of another element – the close or call to action. This is the basic structure of a sales presentation:

1. Introduction: previews what message you’re going to communicate.
2. Body: provides the content you want to communicate, with supporting evidence.
3. Conclusion: summarizes communications.
4. Close: asks for the next step.

This basic structure is universal because it matches the way that adults learn and make decisions. For example, imagine that you’re a famous lawyer, giving your arguments in court to save the life of your client. You start by telling the jury what you’re going to prove (the introduction). Then you go through your argument, step by step, showing how the evidence supports your position (the body). Then you summarize your argument (the conclusion) and ask the jury to find your client “not guilty” (the close).

Similarly, imagine that you’re a politician running for office. Your “stump speech” will introduce you and give a quick sense of what you’re all about. The body of the speech communicates the reasons you’re running for office and what you’ll do if elected. The conclusion will summarize your positions, and the close asks for their vote.

Sales presentations are identical except that, rather than asking for a verdict or a vote, they ask the customer to make the decision to move forward with the sale.
In addition, to be persuasive, every sales presentation must answer the three questions that are uppermost in the customer’s mind:

1. Why should they work with you?
2. Why should they work with your company?
3. Why should they do it now?

To answer these questions, the presentation must construct a series of claims or arguments that describe to the customer what you’re planning on doing, what tools you’re going to use, why it’s going to work for them, and how they’re going to feel afterwards. Each element of the argument must be supported by specific supporting evidence. Finally, the presentation must be delivered in a way that’s intriguing and engaging.

Informative Versus Persuasive

Information without context is meaningless data. Similarly, a presentation that’s informative rather than persuasive is a waste of time and effort. The persuasiveness forms the context that provides meaning to the information.

Unfortunately, most sales professionals (and indeed most business folk) think that if they present a string of information to a customer, the customer will be able to understand the context and therefore be persuaded to buy. For example:

The sales rep (using laser-pointer to run down bullet points on a slide) might say,” This slide illustrates how we helped G.E. into the China market. You’ll note that our state-of-the-art solution was installed over a five-year period and included inventory control over a wide variety of key product categories. We improved the efficiency of the overall inventory management by an average of 35 percent and were recognized by top management as a key element of their strategy.”

That “information-rich” statement may be entirely accurate, but it asks way too much of the customer, who may not see the connection between your company helping G.E. with its problems and your ability to help the customer’s with theirs. To make matters worse, the “running through the bullets” method of delivery is not only boring, but insulting, since most executives are capable of reading a slide.

A more experienced sales rep might try to make the presentation more persuasive by
presenting the information in a more entertaining fashion. That makes sense – at least to a degree – because all buying decisions are emotional decisions, which is why a presentation must also appeal to the “heart” as much as to the “head.”

The sales rep (showing slide with giant GE logo on it), might say, “I know you’re wondering, did I get to meet Jack Welsh? Well, it turns out he was at the debriefing that we gave to G.E.’s board of directors. He’s a lot shorter than he looks on camera, but let me tell you, when he smiled and said that we had done a good job, I never felt more proud in my entire life. And with good reason, because we saved them…” (clicks to slide with $1.1 billion on it) – $1.1 billion a year – according to G.E.’s annual report!”
There’s no question that the “improved” statement is more entertaining than the original. Where the original provided a bland statistic (35 percent), the improved version states a concrete dollar value ($1.1 billion), which is inherently more exciting. Similarly, the supporting evidence in the original is abstract (by top management), while the supporting evidence in the improved version is concrete.

However – and this is a key concept – the “improved” version is not one whit more persuasive than the original, because it still presents information without any sense of context. The customer is still being asked to abstract the meaning behind the factoids.
Contrast the first two statements with the following: “Our solution will save you 35 percent of your inventory costs through elimination of excess inventory. We’re willing to contractually commit to this figure because we had a similar engagement at G.E. that achieved a 35 percent savings, or roughly $1.1 billion, as evidenced in their annual report.”

The above version is persuasive because it explains what the sales rep’s firm is going to do for the customer and then provides evidence that the rep’s firm can deliver as promised. Note that this version contains plenty of information, presented in a reasonably intriguing manner. However, unlike the previous versions, the statement creates a persuasive argument that allows the customer to comprehend the meaning of what’s being said – that you can save them money.
– Geoffrey James
FEEDBACK: JAMES@SELLINGPOWER.COM

Quick Tips for Your Next Sales Meeting
A shortened Presentation Evaluation Sheet for your session:

Rate the following statements from 1 (Poor) to 5 (Excellent)
___ The speaker was well prepared.
___ The opening statement captured attention.
___ The speaker persuaded rather than lectured.
___ The speaker’s arguments were supported by evidence.
___ The speaker used the time effectively.
___ The speaker used anecdotes to lend emotional color.
___ The speaker seemed credible.
___ There was a clear close or call to action.
___ The presentation was memorable and enjoyable.
___ The speaker showed energy and enthusiasm.
___ The speaker displayed confidence and authenticity.
___ The speaker maintained natural eye contact.

Note: Readers can find a comprehensive version of this
Evaluation Sheet for assessing speeches longer than an
elevator pitch in Sjodin’s book, New Sales Speak (Wiley, 2006).

Sales Manager’s Training Guide

At Your Next Sales Meeting

Below are 12 practical steps to improve your sales team’s ability to give a persuasive presentation. This meeting should take approximately 90 minutes.

1. Prior to the meeting, prepare a handout based upon the “Quick Tips for Your Next Sales Meeting.” Prepare another handout based upon “Quick Tips for Your Training Session.” Make at least three copies of both for each participant.

2. Open the meeting with energy and enthusiasm. Explain that the team is going to begin work on one of the most important life skills for sales professionals – giving persuasive presentations. Ask your team to participate fully and make the meeting productive and successful.

3. Ask for a volunteer. Tell the volunteer to play the role of a famous CEO in an elevator. Mime getting into the elevator and recognizing the CEO. Introduce yourself and then give the worst elevator pitch that you can possibly manage. Do everything wrong, short of kicking the CEO in the shins. Have fun! After all, how often do you get to do comedy? And your team will love it.

4. Ask the team to assess your performance. Point out that, while you were exaggerating, all of the mistakes that you made are common, not just in elevator pitches but in everything from cold calls to major presentations.
5. Review the material presented in the body of this article. This is a good opportunity to put the principles in practice. Present the material in a fun and interesting way. Add anecdotes from your personal experience illustrating the value of persuasiveness. You should now be 25 minutes into the meeting.
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6. Distribute the handout showing the outline of an elevator pitch. Open the floor for a brief discussion and reach a consensus that the outline is an appropriate model for this type of presentation.

7. Have the team members take 10 minutes to craft their own one-minute elevator pitch based upon the principles that you’ve just presented, while avoiding the nine common mistakes. Tell them that the gold standard in this case wouldn’t just be winning the business, but having the CEO remember the pitch and tell another CEO about it.

8. . Distribute the evaluation sheets. Ask for a volunteer. Play the role of the CEO and have the volunteer give the elevator pitch. At the end of the role-play, have the other team members evaluate the performance, writing a big “1” on the page. Hand the pages up to the volunteer.

9. Have a brief discussion of the pitch as delivered, along with suggestions for improvement. Have the volunteer try again, incorporating the suggested improvements. As before, do an evaluation, but this time with a big “2” on each page.

10. Repeat the exercise with a different volunteer for as many times as possible within the time constraints of the meeting.

11. For the last five minutes, summarize what’s been learned, and strongly suggest that the team members incorporate these techniques not just in their elevator pitches, but in all their sales presentations. Offer to provide coaching privately to help them hone this all-important skill. Suggest that they may want to purchase Sjodin’s book, New Sales Speak, for a deeper study.

12. Thank the team members for their participation and close the meeting.

Quick Tips for Your Training Session

Use the following outline for elevator pitch presentations:
1. Introduction
Grab the listener’s attention.
Tell them where you are going.
1I. Body
Why you? (Include a strong argument with supporting evidence)
Why your company? (Include another strong argument)
III. Conclusion
Wrap up (Allude to additional strong points that you wish to discuss in detail if given additional time)
1V. Close
Ask for an appointment to give a more in-depth presentation.
Adapted from Terry Sjodin’s book, New Sales Speak: The 9 Biggest Sales Presentation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them (Wiley, 2006)

Q: What are the nine biggest mistakes that sales pros make when giving sales presentations?
A: They are: 1) winging it, 2) being far too informative rather than persuasive, 3) misusing their allotted time, 4) providing inadequate support, 5) failing to close the sale, 6) being boring, 7) relying on visual aids too much, 8) using distracting or annoying body language, and 9) dressing inappropriately.

Q: Of those nine, which is the most common and the most serious?
A: For shorter presentations, winging it. Sales pros wrongly think that they’ll somehow manage to be brilliant for short periods of time when in fact shorter presentation are often even more demanding than longer ones and thus need more preparation. For longer presentations, the worst offense is being too informative rather than persuasive.

Q: Is it realistic to expect me to completely relearn how to give a sales presentation?
A: There are few skills that you can develop as a sales professional that will have a bigger impact on your career than being able to give a persuasive presentation. Of course, this means making a commitment to becoming more successful and learning a new skill. If you’re not willing to do this, then your success as a sales professional will be limited.