The Top Tips for Better Sales Presentations

Effective sales presentations can make or break your business. These tips can help you create meaningful content for better sales presentations.

1. Avoid giving too much information – or too little

Many people believe that a sales presentation is like a lecture: packed with information, instructive, and informative. Others believe that they should be more like keynote speeches: lighthearted, entertaining, and full of jokes and stories. Neither of these methods, however, create a good sales presentation. Instead, find a way to combine both methods, providing your audience with enough information that they understand what you’re selling, but enough jokes to keep it entertaining.

1. Follow a basic presentation structure

No matter what kind of sales presentation you are giving, it should follow the same basic structure: introduction, body, conclusion, and call to action. The introduction provides an overview of what you will be talking about. The body should include the most important content you want to convey along with supporting data. The conclusion is a summary of what you discussed, while the call to action provides the next step.

1. Use supporting data

Having a compelling and engaging presentation is important, but few customers are wowed by arguments alone. Instead, provide the data to back up your claims. For example, instead of making a general statement about increasing sales, state that you can increase sales in their company by 30% in 3 years.

1. Don’t hold the questions

Oftentimes, presenters ask clients to hold the questions until the end of the presentation. However, many people may forget a specific question once you’ve moved on to more information. Instead, if you notice that someone has a question – whether it is a verbal or non-verbal cue – stop the presentation to answer it. What the prospective client has to say is more important than keeping the presentation moving.

1. Answer the three why’s

Potential customers commonly ask three why questions:
- Why should we work with you?
- Why should we choose your company?
- Why should we buy now?

By finding ways to answer these questions in your sales presentation, you can construct an argument that increases your likelihood of closing the sale.