Last Updated on 05/10/2011
In the same way that an effective salesperson makes the customer the focus of his conversation, effort and work – as opposed to talking about and focusing on himself or his company – in order to succeed, an effective presentation is all about the customer. The focus should be on translating all the knowledge of the customer to a presentation about the customer.
One simple way of accomplishing this is to ask those present at the presentation which topics they would like you to cover, what they would like to see or hear and which steps need to be covered. Your questions will demonstrate your knowledge of the customer’s environment. However, the danger one runs here is that the presentation, along with all the facts the seller has gathered, will go awry and the agenda and its flow will turn to incoherence.
Solution? Suggest the topics, ask whether they cover everything the audience expects, add/augment/complement or subtract the presentation accordingly.
Both the seller and buyer are happy.
