Sales presentations are an excellent opportunity to pitch to a large group of different people and make a lasting impact on your audience. However, many salespeople are ineffective at capturing the entire crowd, and actually generating sales from their presentations. Rob Jolles talks with John Golden on how to sell within your presentations.

This expert sales interview explores sales presentation techniques, such as:

• How to tailor a sales pitch to a presentation
• Helping the audience understand “WIIFM”
• Explain what you expect from the audience

A Tailored Approach:

Most sales pitches are done with a standard sales cycle. This includes creating trust, creating urgency, exploring the problem, and presenting the solution. But most of these pitches are done in front of just a few people. When you explore selling with a presentation, it becomes a hybrid approach, using traditional techniques and techniques tailored to presentations.

What’s in it for me?

When presenting, Jolles encourages salespeople to consider their audience, and what you want the audience to walk away with. The audience is asking, WIIFM: “What’s in it for me?” To properly do this, consider the types of people that are in the audience. The decision makers in the group want to know how your product or service is going to help the organization. The decision influencer wants to know how it’s going to improve on the job. And, the actual users want to know how it’s going to make their life easier. Rather than focus on what’s in it for just one of these people, cover all three different positions to resonate with the most amount of attendees.

What do you expect from the audience?

In the first minute or two, the presenter should explain precisely what they want from their audience. At the close of the conversation, double back and readdress your expectations. Check in on them, and see where they are at the end. It puts everyone’s mind on his or her purpose for being there, and it plants the seed at the beginning of the presentation. Instead of people showing up and not really knowing why they came, you give them a purpose.

If you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing.

“You have to pick what you want to emphasize. If you start emphasizing nothing, your audience will tune out everything, including your product or service,” said Rob Jolles. If there is something that is important that you want your audience to know, say it at the beginning of the seminar. Use language that plants it in the minds of the audience, and check back again at the end. This also helps the audience have a clear set of expectations on what the important parts of the presentation are, and the general big picture of your speech. “When your audience doesn’t have an idea of the big picture, everything gets lost in the shuffle,” said Jolles.

About Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Pipeliner CRM empowers salespeople to make precise presentations. <Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.

Adrian Davis shares a fascinating true sales tale of a real turning point in his career: when the focus turned from the selling process to the buyer process. This story truly illustrates how, in today’s buyer-driven markets, times have certainly changed–and it’s a story with a truly heroic ending!

How has your company focused on the buyer process? Leave a comment and let us know.

Pipeliner CRM empowers salespeople and sales teams to precisely focus on the buyer process.  Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.

It’s no secret that sales software is needed to have a successful sales business. Choosing business software, like a CRM system, marketing automation, and others is a crucial task that can often be overwhelming. With so many different options to do similar things, it’s critical to do your research to make the right decision. Gabriel Gheorghiu, interviewed by John Golden, helps you select the best sales software for your business.

This expert sales interview explores selecting sales software, including:

• Should you DIY (do it yourself), or have a consultant choose your software?
• Why it’s essential to use a business perspective
• Choosing CRM Software

To DIY or not to DIY?

When it comes to selecting sales software, there are many different approaches. Some people are more thorough than others, or even too detailed. This can severely complicate their process. Other companies might not do enough research and might take a recommendation from a friend without seeing if the software will meet their specific company needs. Because of the various options, some companies might turn to work with a consultant to help them select software. However, Gheorghiu advises against this. “It takes time. It takes effort. But to be honest, it’s better to try and do it yourself. You know your business more than anyone else, and it’s possible to do the research and make a selection on your own,” he said.

Business Perspective vs. Technological Perspective

Many times, people look at software from a technological perspective. They explore what functions the software has first, versus looking at their business and finding a solution that fits the company. “Have a vision for what you want,” said Gheorghiu. Another essential part of reviewing things from the business perspective is that it gives you a chance to look at the various business processes of your organization. If the process is broken to begin with, automating it using software won’t fix the problem, it will only make the problem more prevalent.

CRM Selection

When searching for a CRM software, like Pipeliner, several criteria come to mind. Some of these criteria include marketing automation, customer service, account management, lead management, and others. “One thing I realize though is that the technical part of the system is almost as important as the features,” said Gheorghiu. “People want an integrated or centralized solution. They use two or three different solutions, plus Outlook or Gmail and Excel, so they want integration.” People also want sales software that can grow with their company, something that is scalable, and something that provides quality reporting and analytics. Pipeliner CRM offers all of these features and more. Check out the website for a free trial.

For tips on how to select other kinds of sales software, watch the expert sales interview!

About Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

For many sales managers, the approach for sales reps making their numbers is to leave them be to get on with it. But then one day they’re blindsided by poor sales from a sales rep that in the past has been a high producer. How can this be avoided?

How has your company avoided being blindsided by poor sales? Leave a comment and let us know.

Pipeliner CRM empowers sales management to accurately predict sales.Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.

Do you know how to open doors in sales? Perhaps you’ve got a good grip on the sales process. You have your elevator pitch, you’ve worked on boosting charisma and conversation skills, and you put in the time to go above and beyond for your clients. You can’t utilize all of these skills you’ve worked hard on crafting if you can’t open the door and get new clients. Caryn Kopp, interviewed by John Golden, teaches you some practical steps to open doors in sales.

In this expert sales interview, learn how to open doors by:

• Understanding door opening
• Seeking out the right clientele
• Key targeting criteria
• Creating an alluring sales language

What is door opening in sales?

Door opening in sales is the beginning part of the sales process. It involves creating a relationship with the right person. This is usually someone that you don’t know but would like to get to know. You want to spark this person’s interest, and want them to get to know you too, at least enough to schedule a meeting with you. Despite its importance, door opening can be one of the most challenging parts of a salesperson’s job.

Open Doors for the Right People:

It’s evident that opening doors for new clients is essential. Without the ability to open doors in sales, you probably won’t be able to build your client base sufficiently. But how do you know who to open doors for? “People often target the wrong person,” said Kopp. “About 25% of anyone salesperson’s prospect list shouldn’t be there. They’re targeting the wrong people.” This is a big problem, and a huge time waster, especially for salespeople who don’t have a lot of time. If you target the wrong person, to begin with, there’s no point in doing any of the rest of the sales process.

Targeting Criteria:

To ensure you’re not wasting time, and are opening doors for the right people, there are specific criteria that can help identify your target market. Most companies focus only on the basics, like the size of the company, the level of the decision maker, and geography. But there’s a lot more to it than just that, especially if you want to narrow the playing field to prospects that are going to say “yes” sooner than others.
The three questions to ask yourself to identify the perfect target market are:

1. 1. For whom are you the obvious solution, or the only solution? Have every one of these people on your list of leads.
   2. Who will willingly pay for what you have? You don’t want to waste your time trying to convince people to change their minds when you could spend time with people who will pay what you’re asking.
   3. Do these prospects feel urgency around having a conversation with you and taking the next steps?

Sales Message:

So you’ve identified your target audience. Now what? This is where the sales message comes in. “You want to develop a compelling and emotionally sticky sales language,” said Kopp. “What do you say to an individual to have them thinking, ‘huh, even though I already have a solution in place, and I know three other people that can do what I need, I want to have a meeting with this person because, based on what they said, I think they could be better than the others.’” Composing a winning sales message can be difficult, though. To find a few components for your spiel, try contacting several of your previous A-level clients. Ask them what was going on in their company environment when they felt the need to schedule a meeting. Also, ask them what it was that made them want to have a conversation with you. Use these “golden nuggets” of information to help develop your sales language.

About Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Pipeliner CRM empowers salespeople to know who to approach and what to say. Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.