Every workshop I conduct is a learning experience for me.  Here are some of the key thoughts I had coming away from today’s workshop on Mastering Boardroom Presentations (Richmond VA):

• Assessments and studies justify new business.  If your clients are calling for product quotes, someone else created the justification.  Your value proposition is now “Price”.

 

• If your engineers are delivering your assessment findings, you’re either in front of the wrong audience or your client is sleeping through the presentation.

 

• Learning to present in front of an audience is non-optional for sales people.  Practice, record it, listen to it, critique it, change it, practice it…etc.

 

• Don’t start your presentation on a white board and then abandon the picture.  Your audience will be staring at the picture wondering, while you pontificate to no one in particular.

 

• Don’t write your proposal until you’ve received verbal agreement.  Your presentation is the sales tool; the paper simply solidifies the agreement.

 

• Language matters – speak is specifics, articulate benefits and outcomes, establish your credibility, and offer solutions with confidence.

 

• Poor self esteem is one the primary contributors to stalled proposals.  Turn this around – practice until you’re comfortable presenting in front of your worst critics.

 

• Don’t ask questions IT can answer and don’t speak in technical terms – this leads to an immediate demotion.  Keep a business focus throughout the process.

 

• Hold off on writing proposal and delivering pricing until you’ve had an audience with the buyer.  To proceed otherwise is just a waste of time.

 

Also – don’t forget to sign up for October’s Teleseminar!  We’ve got a great group already…join us by signing up for Successful Marketing to Management at  www.stelzl.us/store.asp – this material is of utmost importance to sales professsionals looking to establish their brand.

 

© David Stelzl 2009