Sales Presentation: 4rth Step of The Selling Process (Explained)

What is Sales Presentation?

A sales presentation is the set of activities where a seller presents his products/services to the prospects, seeks to persuade them, and creates a desire for the product.

The sales presentation is the 4rth step of the selling process after the approach where for the first time potential customers get to know about the products the seller has for them.

Presentation is a complex task where the seller has to use persuasive communication, involvement of customers, evidence statements, visual aids, demonstration, dramatization, and many more. As it is complex when a seller effectively combines visual, dramatization, and more the presentation becomes more effective. However, which blends to use in giving a presentation depends upon the goal of the presentation.

While presenting, the main goal of the salesperson is to inform prospects about his products, steal attention, persuade them, and seek to convert prospects’ attention into a desire for the product.

During the presentation potential customers also come up with different questions but at this stage, the goal of the presenter remains at just introducing (little two-way interaction). And, handling such questions is begins later this stage in handling objections.

Types of Sales Presentation

The types of sales presentations vary depending upon different selling approaches. However, the stimulus-response approach and mental status approach require two types of sales presentation-the standards memorized presentation and the outlined presentation.

But the need situation approach and the problem-solving approach require only one type of presentation-the program presentation. In total, here we have three types of sales presentations to discuss:

The Standard Memorized Sales Presentation

For making a sales presentation effective, a well-designed sales story is prepared in sequential order and the salesperson memorizes all the key points of the story. While presenting the salesperson starts describing the product/ service with the help of the memorized points.

However, preparing an effective sales story requires extensive time and effort, because the key points are collected from the most successful salespeople and the experiences of the salespeople with various sales presentations. Sometimes, agents of allied companies are also consulted for developing standard sales stories.

The success or failure of this method depends upon the salesperson’s ability because an experienced salesperson talks so skillfully that prospect will not suspect that he/she is merely repeating memorized words, but an inexperienced salesperson may sound phony.

The Outlined Presentation

Although some of the measures of the Standard Memorized Presentation (SMP) are used here by a salesperson while using the Outlined Presentation (OP), these two methods differ significantly in flexibility. The SMP is inflexible, whereas OP is quite flexible.

This means, in OP the salespersons need not memorize the key points word for word. Instead, he/she can remember certain points of the presentation and use these points skillfully to make their own presentation. The only consideration is that he/she should arrange the points systematically in sequential order.

The general steps for developing an outline include the following:

• Receiving outlines from the companies for which a salesperson works.
• Receiving instructions from these companies.
• Arranging outlines in a systematic way.

Before implementing the outlines, a salesperson may use the necessary steps for determining a prospect’s needs instead of going directly to the stage of presentation. But in many cases, outlines are systematically arranged by the companies themselves. A salesperson can use them in his/her own way.

Program Presentation

Program presentation is prepared after a detailed study of the prospects’ needs and wants. Such a study requires a comprehensive and comparative analysis of the information obtained. After completing the analysis, the presentation is developed in writing (with illustrations, if necessary).

To prepare such a program presentation, it includes the following four steps,

• Getting permission for survey
• Doing survey
• Preparing the program, and
• Finally, presenting the program

Also read,

• Sales Prospecting: Definition, Objectives, Process, and Importance
• Pre-Approach: The 2nd Step of Selling Process (Made Easy)
• Approach: The 3rd Step of Selling Process (Made Easy)
• Handling Objection: 5th Step of The Selling Process (Made Easy)
• Closing A Sale: Definition, Importance, and Techniques
• What is Follow Up? Definition, Importance, Methods, and Mistakes