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Tag: presenting

  • How to Present your Product or Service

    How to present your product

    Knowing how to present your product or service is a critical step in The Sales Process. It can be a scary prospect, but follow these tips to put your best foot forward.

    Nowadays, B2B buyers and influencers are busy people and if you have managed to have them dedicate some of their time to listening to you present your new product or service, it’s most likely because they are interested. So banish those fear demons and get ready to be enthusiastic and to impress.

    The most important tip when it comes to presenting is to ensure you do not spend the whole time simply talking. Be sure to ask questions and listen for buyer engagement and buying clues. People buy from people they like and one sure way of being better liked is to listen and make your presentation a participative experience for those in front of you. Your buyer’s needs are more important than your product offering. Be seen to grasp that and you are on the right track.

    how to present your product

    While demonstrating your product or giving a sample of your food product, stop talking. While they are trying out, tasting, working or touching your product, the buyer will not hear anything you say. Plus, you will not pick up on their signals. Knowing how to present your product or service is so much more than the words that spill out of your mouth, no matter how well you have prepared on that front. Observe their reactions!

    Salespeople often suffer from a number of doubts – one of the classics being that “the buyer has all the power”. In truth, this is not always the case. Your buyer needs some product or solution to his or her issue. Equally, we often hear a vendor say that “price is the only factor and my competitors are better priced”. Again, this is not necessarily the case and your product or solution should have a USP that trumps price anyway.

    During the presentation, be sure to ask questions and seek to gain powerful information from your buyer or influencer. Communicate the advantages of your product or service in a way that is most meaningful to your buyer, that is, in terms of benefit to them. You are presenting because you want to be appreciated as the preferred option. After your presentation, why would they consider any alternative?

    How to Present your Product or Service

    I like to advise clients to practice presenting their product or service on a prospect that has limited or no capacity to become an important customer. Make your mistakes here, before moving on to the guys you’d really like to be partnering up with. Self-observation can be a difficult to master skill, but it becomes essential when presenting a product or service.

    On reflection, did you ask enough questions? Did you talk too much? Did you let the buyer feel, touch, taste or sample the product in peace? Then, did you get feedback and thoughts from him/her? Ultimately, did you impress during your presentation, enough to move on to the next step – negotiation? Remember – it’s not simply a question of how to present you product. It’s one step on the over-arching Sales Process.

  • The Sales Process – 6 Steps to Success

    The Sales Process, Vital Steps to Success

    Like its first cousin, ‘The Marketing Process‘ in its field, ‘The Sales Process’ is a way of locating yourself on your path to sales success.

    The Sales Process consists of six steps, helping you to keep focused on how you find and then progress prospects and existing customers through the sales funnel. It’s important to recognise at which step of the Sales Process different clients and prospects are. Knowing how long it typically takes to progress a client from unknown prospect to a buyer, with whom you need to do some post-purchase follow-up, is vital to your sales activity. Depending on the complexity of your sector, these steps may overlap to varying degrees, or indeed several may take place at the same time.

    Step One is Prospecting. Here, we do the groundwork to identify potential future customers, based on our targeting, product offer, positioning, competitive strength, etc.

    Sales Process
    6 Steps of the Sales Process

    Step Two is Information Gathering. Here, we carry out research in order to learn as much as we can about this business with which we haven’t yet worked. This might include finding out what we can about their current supplier or alternative products/services they are using today, who the decision makers and influencers are, etc. Make first contact and ask about their needs, etc. Request a meeting.

    Step Three is Presenting. Demonstrate, present, sample or taste your product or service (depending on your business). Get in front of the prospect and show them what you’ve got. Keep asking questions.

    One of the most common mistakes a salesperson makes through steps 2 and 3 is to talk too much. After all, we often feel more comfortable talking than listening. But listening is the key! By asking questions, we learn things. Furthermore, don’t speak while presenting your product. If your buyer is touching, tasting, or using your product, they won’t hear you!

    Step Four is Negotiating a sale. Remember not to agree to anything, until you’re agreeing to everything.

    Avoid agreeing to (for example) a price, without understanding fully the terms of sale. Discuss all aspects, e.g. price, who is meeting the delivery costs, minimum order quantities, credit terms, training costs where applicable, etc., before making an agreement. In negotiating, price is not the only factor. The buyer does not have all the power.

    Step Five of the sales process is Closing. After all, that’s the point, no?

    Watch out for buying signals. They will come and you need to be alert to take advantage. Consider different ways of closing the sale, including a once-off special offer, time limited offers, quantity-related offers, sensible comparisons with what others have done, the good-old “would you like the red one or the blue?” argument, demonstration of concrete benefits accruing, etc. And be alert to The Value of No.

    Finally, Step Six is Following up, ongoing relationship building and delivery of quality customer care.

    We all know the adage that people buy from people they like. Providing quality customer care is an essential pillar of this. When the sale is made, pick up the phone and ask how your customer is getting on. They’ll appreciate it.

    The Sales Process and You

    Do you know at what stage your various prospects are right now in your sales funnel? Do you understand how long it might take for you to close a sale? Are you ensuring that you follow up, rather than make a sale and move on? Apply The Sales Process to your thoughts and actions and watch your customer relationships improve and deepen.