The ELAvate 21 Influential Laws of B2B Sales Presentations
By Michael J Griffin
7 minute read
Part of your B2B sales process many involve presentations to senior teams or buying committees. This is a golden opportunity for you to multiply your persuasion and influence but also gain alignment of all the decision makers or influencers in the buying committee. Being poorly prepared to present your solution to a buying committee can kill the sale. In other words, practice and don’t wing it – seasoned leaders can easily smell the fragrance of a great presentation or the stench of a rotten, poorly prepared one!
Read this refreshing and thought provoking 21 Influential Laws of Presentations to inspire you to always exceed buying committee expectations of you, your delivery and your solution. As you read identify which laws are you deficient in and what actions you might take to improve your presentations to better advance the sale.
1. The Law of Multiplication
Presenting multiplies your influence.
Your presentation always multiplies your influence. You are speaking to minds that can change, and you want them to change to buy into your solution. Your influence can be positive or negative, but you do multiply influence when ‘up front.’ So do it well and evangelize your message to many.
2. The Law of Preparation
Being prepared shows you care!
By being well prepared shows the audience/buying committee that you value them, their time. They made a choice to take time be with you. The rotten aroma of an unprepared presentation is deadly. Know “your stuff” so well you can even deliver it if the LCD or laptop crashes. Blow them away with your audience focused preparation and move the sale ahead.
3. The Law of the Edge
Study and practice your presentations for competitive advantage.
Most salespeople do not practice their presentation delivery. They put together power point and wing it. Adequate presentation practice gives you a big competitive edge. Practice with colleagues, a video camera, your hand phone or even a mirror, but practice!
4. The Law of Improvement
Always upgrade and customize every presentation.
Research states that one failure factor for presenters/salespeople is not upgrading your presentation for each new session or group of customers. Customers can smell a standard, plain vanilla generic presentation. Have your delivery prove you customized your talk to the audience issues and needs.
5. The Law of Happiness
Let the audience know you are “Happy to be here!” ...with them.
The client audience loves a positive attitude. Let them know with your smile, opening remarks and relaxed demeanor that you are honored and happy to present to them. Let them know they are special. This lowers their stress so they are ready to listen and interact with you.
6. The Law of the Nametag
Throw away the labels people give you. Present the real you.
Don’t step on stage with the mindset of defeatist labels when presenting. Negative nametags hinder a great presentation. “I am an engineer; therefore, I should be boring.” Or “I am young, therefore I have no experience to share.” NO! Be the real you. Research shows if you are prepared, believe in what you are sharing, the audience will dump their prejudices and give you the nametag of “Interesting” or “Professional” as they see you as someone they can learn from.
7. The Law of the Loyal Champion
Demonstrate you as a champion helping your customers to succeed.
Audiences value your presentation if it helps them to succeed on a personal and organizational level. Be a teacher, be a problem solver. Your presentation is a live example of being a “Loyal Champion” for your customer’s success. Demonstrate this by getting the audience to participate and interact during your talk. Help them to learn, understand, solve and succeed.
8. The Law of the Early Bird
Arrive early..... Always and lower your stress.
Arrive to your presentation destination early. This is a great stress reducer. By coming at least 30 minutes early, you can check the room layout, the LCD projector computer compatibility, and get a chance to meet and warm up with the clients attending. You usually gain valuable information before the presentation begins.
9. The Law of Nerves
Nervousness is a good sign (if you are prepared!).
Nervousness is a good sign that you value the perceptions and feelings of the customers you are presenting to. If you are not a bit nervous, beware! If you are nervous because you are not prepared...well I can’t help you much! Your nervousness should be sign that you want to serve the audience with a great talk that leads to success.
10. The Law of Thermostat
Be a thermostat and set the mood and motivation of your audience.
People are attracted to a confident presenter that is professional “Adult.” They cringe when they see a “Child” up front who is nervous and focused only on him/herself. Be a “Thermostat” and set an upbeat mood and temperature for the sales presentation. Be passionate about what you deliver, so the audience will be passionate about collaborating with you.
11. The Law of Unpredictability
Be unpredictable! Stand out from your competition.
Dr. Tim Elmore taught me this great differentiator. Be unpredictable, in a good way at the beginning of your sales presentation. Be positively different! The best way to be unpredictable is to exceed customer expectations. When planning your presentation, think of tangible ways to involve the audience, to get them thinking, and of course, to have them enjoy the time with you. Remember time is their most precious asset. Make an impact by surprising them.
12. The Law of the Navigator
Give the audience a positive vision of benefit of your presentation.
You are the “navigator” of the audience and what they gain from your talk. Let them know what to expect from your talk. Have an agenda and the goal you want to achieve by the end of the talk. Then lead them to an ending that exceeds their expectations inspiring them to make a decision to go with you and your company.
13. The Law of the Technology
Technology is not going away. Get fluent to employing it for presentations.
Many presenters love face to face presentations as they can use their full range of skills and tactics to lead their audience to a successful close. Virtual presentations whether by Zoom, MS Teams, webcast, or telephone can be daunting. More and more organizations are choosing to employ technology to keep meeting, travel and lodging costs down, or, to build diverse global teams. So, embrace technology for virtual presentations and master the process of presenting by bits and bytes through virtual technology. MAKS SURE THE TECHNOLOGY WORKS BEFORE THE VIRTUAL MEETING!
14. The Law of Storytelling
Personal stories bring learning alive for the audience.
Harvard Business Review cited a study that history’s best orators are those who connect to the audience with personal stories. Personal stories connect to the audience heart and head so they ‘hand’ you the order. Stories, analogies, and relating past customer successes give proof to what you are proposing is real and can be successful for them.
15. The Law of the Messenger
It’s the message, not your language.
Second language English speakers sometimes become child-like and blame their lack of language skills for poor presenting. Focus on a vibrant passionate message, not your grammar! Audiences overlook language when a presenter is a messenger that delivers an engaging and passionate message. They already know you are presenting in your second language.
16. The Law of the Eye Power
Give each audience member eye contact to touch their heart.
Make sure you give each member of the audience adequate eye contact when you speak, not only the “Big Boss.” No scanning, looking up at the ceiling, but true confident, warm eye contact to each individual. This way you deliver the logic to their heads, touch their hearts with your attention, so they give their hands for your business. Thanks Dr. John Maxwell!
17. The Law of the Drone
Don’t drive your audience to sleep with a drone voice.
Vary and align your voice volume, pace and inflection with your gestures to create a message that is attractive. No one likes a drone. Take your audience on a ride that allows them to connect with your range of emotional emphasis on the key points that are important for them to listen to. Just as singers make a song memorable with their voice, so do you with your message.
18. The Law of the Master Chef
Serve your Audience a three-course meal.
Everyone has preferred learning style: auditory, visual or kinesthetic. Feed them your message in a way that keeps them hungry. Change the way you deliver your message every 10 minutes to appeal to all three learning styles. Make it easy for all to be attentive. Have audience asking you the “Master Chef” for more of you and your “delicacies.”
19. The Law of Cool
Never take an attack personally.
Sometimes you may be asked very difficult questions or even be attacked when you present. Always remember “It’s not about you”. Usually something has happened outside the room that causes this disruptive customer behavior. Keep your cool and assume the person has good intent. Rephrase with politeness. Then answer is a non- threatening voice, while maintaining positive eye contact. Be cool and collected.
20. The Law of Decision Appeal
Different personalities absorb information and make decisions differently. Make it easy for them.
You can help them by creating slides that appeal to their information gathering style. For the “Visionary Pushy” types, paint the vision and results expected. For the ‘People Networker,’ describe the benefits and bright future. For the ‘Steady Team Player,’ have a logical presentation and process. For the ‘High Quality Critic,’ outline the problem to be solved and how you reduce risk. Use these 4 keys to make it easy to align the different audience personalities to make decisions with the information you present. Dr. Bill Bonsetter taught me well on this law.
21. The Law of the Goal
Every presentation has a goal. Go for the goal!
Just as sports people play the game to score to win, you, the person are playing to create a win-win for you and your audience. Remember to close the presentation with the outcome or goal you stated in the beginning of your presentation. Go for the goal! It could be for the order, a pilot program, data collection, site visit or demo. Ask and it shall be given!
These presentation “laws” are part of our two-day ELAvate Presentation Skills (EPS) Workshop that I have fine-tuned and crafted over 30 years. I can truly say ELAvate has never had negative participant feedback on our EPS workshop and participants always improve with proof – recording their presentation progress on their handphones!
Therefore, ELAvate will give a 100% money back guarantee to any participant not satisfied with their EPS skill improvement. You can download our EPS Platinum flyer here.
If you wish to explore how ELAvate can upskill your salespeople to deliver world class sales presentations, contact me by email or WhatsApp. Remember effective and inspiring sales presentations can accelerate closing the sale and increase revenue.
Michael J Griffin
Founder and APAC Regional CEO
michael.griffin@elavateglobal.com
+65-91194008 (WhatsApp)