Online sales presentations have become a critical part of almost every B2B sales process. Presenting online reduces many of the cost and time barriers associated with traditional in-person presentations, while modern conferencing technology makes it possible to deliver all of the benefits.
Yet modern technology also presents unique challenges to the sales presentation. The perceived privacy afforded by an online meeting environment means potential customers are more likely than ever to be distracted by texting, messaging, emailing, or even online shopping.
Coach your reps with these 12 tips to give engaging online sales presentations that consistently hold people’s attention and result in more closed business.
1. Do Your Homework
Attendees will tune out if they perceive the presentation’s content as irrelevant. An engaging online presentation begins with understanding the potential customer and where they are in the buying process, and then tailoring the content to meet their needs.
2. Get Them on Camera
When possible, your reps should ask prospective clients to join them on a video conference for the presentation. When attendees know they will be visible to the presenter and others viewing the presentation, they’re less likely to tune out or multi-task.
At The Brooks Group, we use Zoom video conferencing – it’s simple and prospects and customers can easily join the meeting even if they’ve never used the software.
3. Capture Attention Early
Attendees will judge the value of the presentation within the first few minutes, deciding quickly whether it deserves their full attention. Coach your sales reps to start the presentation with a good story, a surprising statistic, a challenging question, or another form of attention-grabbing content.
4. Be Enthusiastic
Enthusiasm sells. It also compels attention.
Nothing turns a listener off faster than someone droning on in a bored tone of voice. Encourage your sellers to bring their enthusiasm and their excitement to the presentation, as well as their compassion for the pain of their potential clients.
5. Tease the Audience
Research shows that our brains will hold on to an unsolved mystery, and will stay alert until the mystery is resolved.
Many great online presentations give the audience something to be curious about at the beginning, and then promise to resolve their curiosity at the end of the presentation. For instance, the presenter may ask a question or tell a story to which the answer or ending is revealed later.
6. Use Great Visual Aids
The more parts of the attendees’ brains your reps can engage, the more likely they’ll pay attention—and remember the information later.
Encourage reps to include visual aids such as graphs, charts, relevant images, and infographics in their presentations. Tip: work with marketing so that your team has what they need, and to ensure brand consistency.
In addition, you should remind your reps to keep the text on their presentation to a minimum.
7. Include Video
As we all know by now, video is most people’s preferred way to consume content. An audience is more likely to stay engaged and remember content that they’ve viewed in video format.
Equip your sellers with relevant clips to insert into presentation slides, including both product videos and non-product oriented content, and train them how to use them.
8. Ask Relevant Questions
Attendees who are asked to participate in a presentation will naturally be more engaged.
Coach your reps to ask questions throughout the presentation, both to increase attendee alertness, and to gather valuable feedback that can be used to tailor the presentation as they go.
9. Invite Questions Regularly
In addition to asking questions, train salespeople to pause periodically during the presentation and spend the time to invite questions from attendees.
This habit is a great way to make sure the audience is following the presentation and to gauge their level of interest.
10. Provide Something for Everyone
Not everyone relates to online presentation content in the same way.
Where one buyer may appreciate a pertinent data point, another may feel moved by the associated story. Top presenters take this into account and tailor their presentation content to appeal to the buying behavior styles of the individuals they’re presenting to.
11. Only Include Relevant Features and Benefits
Your product or service likely has a long list of features and benefits. Remind your sales reps that not every one will be relevant to every buyer.
Coach reps to determine through their questioning strategy the wants and needs of the buyer, and then pare down the presentation to only include the most relevant and attractive information.
12. Don’t Overstay Your Welcome
No matter how engaging the presentation is, attendees have other things they get to that day.
Presentations that go longer than the agreed-upon time will almost always create friction with potential clients, so remind your reps not to go over! They should keep presentations tight and schedule a follow-up while their prospect or customer is on the line.
Conclusion
At their core, sales presentations should be focused on providing value to the prospect or customer.
When your sales reps use a buyer-focused sales process like IMPACT Selling®, they can craft an online sales presentation to match the buyer’s behavior style and present in a way that doesn’t waste anyone’s time.
Guide for Building an Impactful Story for Sales Presentations
This guide will help your sales reps build compelling and persuasive stories to use in their sales presentations.
