Any great sales presentation is built around BLT. Does your audience Believe you? Do they Like you? Do they Trust you? Assuming you have a fabulous product or service, if you don’t please don’t hire me-I’m not a miracle worker! Seriously, we start with a great product or service and have about an hour to convince a committee that we are the one. Let’s say there are two or three other companies that will also be presenting-what will be our little edge? Let’s start with- does your audience believe you. Certainly, because you made the final cut, there is a good starting point. Now let’s build on that. It starts with your body language-throw your shoulders back and make eye contact. No need to get in a staring match but have you ever had someone speaking to you while they were looking over or past you? It’s very hard for someone to believe you. Don’t make wild, unsubstantiated claims. Give examples of what others have experienced from your efforts. Acknowledge your competitors but eliminate them by giving a plethora of benefits that your company can offer. Force yourself to write out a features and benefit statement beforehand and be sure that you emphasize your benefits. This goes a long way in establishing your believability. Next, do they Like you? I don’t know about you but I like a person a lot better when they use my name and have done some research on me and my company. Don’t sound like a recording but be sure that you know their pain and address it. An excellent way to find the pain is to interview key figures before the presentation. Talk to others who may know their pain-you know who to contact because you have built an extensive network, haven’t you? Don’t be afraid to tell about pertinent mistakes you have made in the past and how you corrected them-it makes you human and it makes others like the fact that you have overcome adversity. Use self effacing humor when appropriate. If you have any doubts, don’t use the humor! Finally, does the audience trust you. If you have done a fabulous job on the first two components then the trust factor becomes the final building block. Your audience will trust you a lot more when you are confident in your presentation, you aren’t squirming, you are maintaining eye contact and you have addressed their objections before they get a chance to bring them up. Enjoy that BLT!
Steve Mertz Master Chef