A primer on how to engage your audience more quickly in sales situations.

1. Kevin Sasser
Kevin Sasser
Strategies for Complex Sales
Sales Presentations

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What the Sales Rep Said…

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…What a great demo! We were there three
hours and threw everything we had at them…

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…we talked about our history, our vision,
what the analyst are saying about us, even
threw in some quotes from the boss….

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…you can tell they were taking it all in. I feel
really good about this one and will put it as a
sure thing on the forecast.

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What the Prospect Said

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“I now know what meetings in hell are like….”

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“We booked this meeting for 90 min and the
vendor stayed for three hours, pretty much
wrecking the day for the entire team.”

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“The presentation was extremely focused on
them and was filled with generic industry
facts that anyone can find with a simple
google.”

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“I have no idea how they could help us meet
our goals.”

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“BTW, based on his quotes in the
presentation, the President of that company
is a real moron.”

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How to Present

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80% of sales originate with 20% of the
sales people
-Every Sales Manager who has to
give a forecast to management

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Why?

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Most salespeople want to tell the prospect
everything about their solution and make the
sale.

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The best sales people learn what the
prospect is trying to do and present them
with a solution that will allow them to
achieve the desired goal or outcome.

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So let’s discuss some best practices for
managing your sales territory.

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Pre-Game

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Key Point
Make Sure You Only
Present to Qualified
Prospects

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Key Point
Otherwise you are:
– Wasting your time
– Wasting your prospect’s time
– Possibly feeding intel to your competitors
– Ruining your personal professional brand with
the prospect

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Qualified Prospect?
You must know the following
• Why: Is the company looking at your solution?

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Qualified Prospect?
You must know the following
• Why: Is the company looking at your solution?
• Who: Is the decision maker, user, technical champion,
executive champion and budget owner?

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Qualified Prospect?
You must know the following
• Why: Is the company looking at your solution?
• Who: Is the decision maker, user, technical champion,
executive champion and budget owner?
• What: Relevant goals the prospect wants to
accomplish

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Qualified Prospect?
You must know the following
• Why: Is the company looking at your solution?
• Who: Is the decision maker, user, technical champion,
executive champion and budget owner?
• What: Relevant goals the prospect wants to
accomplish
• When: Are they looking to select a vendor, make a
purchase, how long to get a P.O. or check?

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Qualified Prospect?
You must know the following
• Why: Is the company looking at your solution?
• Who: Is the decision maker, user, technical champion,
executive champion and budget owner?
• What: Relevant goals the prospect wants to
accomplish
• When: Are they looking to select a vendor, make a
purchase, how long to get a P.O. or check?
• How: Will they implement? Who will own it?

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Building Your Presentation

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“We are going to blow through these first few
slides and get to the good stuff in a few minutes”
Things Bad Sales People Say

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What most reps think they are presenting

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A complete and comprehensive picture of everything your
company can provide.

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Here’s what most reps are actually doing.

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Because they are not sure what’s important to the prospect
they are throwing everything out them and hope something
sticks.
If you don’t get the spaghetti reference, go ask a cook.

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Your prospects get bored just like the rest of
us.

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Typical Attention Span
TIME
ATTENTIONSPAN
MIN
MAX
Your prospects are most engaged
at the start of the meeting.

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Typical Attention Span
TIME
ATTENTIONSPAN
MIN
MAX
Unfortunately this is when most
reps are talking about the least
relevant material.

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Typical Attention Span
TIME
ATTENTIONSPAN
MIN
MAX
Worse, the information with the
most value and relevancy is typically
presented when the prospect is least
engaged

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Put the information that the prospect would
be most interested in at the beginning of the
presentation

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So instead of this….

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Before you present
Have a “discovery” session (not a sales call) with the
prospect where you discuss why the prospect is looking
for the type of solution you offer.

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Before you present
Pay close to attention to:
• Specific Pain Points, ex “We lost a customer..”
• Understand which Dept/Exec felt that pain the most
• Understand the plan after they implement a solution,
who will own it, how will it be used

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Knowing the prospect’s pain helps you focus on the most
important topics.

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Know who will be in the room
during your presentation.

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Attendees
• Know the attendees of your presentation
• Google them
• Visit their LinkedIn profile
• If they blog see what they care about
• Confirm their roles with multiple people
• Have notes available for you to reference during the
meeting

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Building Your Presentation

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Building Your Presentation
Use the information from your qualification
process to help build an extremely relevant
introduction to your presentation

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Building Your Presentations
• Font Size – 32pt (this size)
– Smallest Font – 28pt (this size)
• Reduce Words
• Use Images to tell Story
• A lot of slides with a few words is better than
fewer slides with more words.
• DO NOT EVER READ THE SLIDES

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Kill the “Slide de la Logos”

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You Know What I’m Talking About

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Slide de la Logos
A vendor presented this to me. There was only one
logo I recognized because I'm a fan.

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Instead, Try This

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Pick One Relevant Story

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Getting Started

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Your Agenda
• Executive Summary
• Business Requirements
• Technical Requirements
• ROI
• Next Steps

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That’s Right.
Start with an Executive Summary

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Why?

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High level decision makers have a habit for
staying for the first ten minutes of a meeting,
and then leaving.

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Executive Summary
Cover these topics
• The prospect’s pain
• How your solution solves that pain
• The ROI the prospect can expect

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An Example

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Executive Summary
Deployment speed of content and applications
to Web Properties
• 19 Websites
• 30 Social Media Accounts
• 5 Mobile Apps
“Mr. Prospect you shared with my
team that you feel that your
competitors have an advantage in this
area, is that correct?”

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Executive Summary
Our solution provides the ability to line-of-
business users to create and deploy targeted
content to web, social, and mobile platforms
“Today, we are going to discuss how
our solution addresses the challenges
we just identified.”

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Executive Summary
Similar customers have experienced:
• 50% Reduction in Time to Deployment
• 12% Increase in Amount of Content Available
• 3% Increase in CTR
“While results vary, our typical
customer can expect meaningful ROI
in this areas.”

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Client Overview
Allow me to share with you the story
of one of our clients who had similar
challenges.

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You may want to point out that someone who
submits a generic resume that is not relevant to
your company is likely not to get hired….

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Your prospects hold the same standard when
it comes to evaluating vendors.

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Good Luck
Kevin Sasser
Sales.Wars@gmail.com