4 Things That Ruin a Sales Presentation

April 6, 2016

A sales presentation has three important goals. First, inform the audience about the company, product and service of the company with the goal of painting the brand in an ideal light. Second, captivate the audience. Third, convert the audience into a paying customer. The first goal is the easiest to accomplish. But, the same cannot be said for the second goal and thus, the third one. Why? Because of the flawed sales presentation.

Did you know that there are several ways your own presentation can actually sabotage the entire sales process? Below are some of them.

Things that ruin a sales presentation

1) Being immensely generic

Interestingly, the benefits of your product or service are not universal and apply to specific groups of people. Your sales presentation must not be too general, too. It should be customized to the needs of your audience. By now, you should have already realized that there are no two prospects alike. Each has its own pain points. Thus, the solutions you should present must be tailored to its needs.

If you won’t do this, you are losing the opportunity to let the prospect imagine himself using your product. This will be more apparent when you are sharing with him some success stories. He would be able to relate to the story if the story is relevant to what issues he currently struggles with. Visualization is key here.

2) Discussing benefits to a fault

To continue, it would be better to discuss up to four major benefits of your product in connection with the prospect’s pain point. People tend to remember information they think are useful to them. The knowledge about the relevant benefits you highlight in your presentation will become the basis of their decision.

Don’t bombard your prospect with too many benefits. In the end, she might get confused and doubtful whether all your claims are true or not. What will happen if she discovers that these are just false or unfounded claims? You won’t win her trust and so her business. Not to mention, listening to too-good-to-be-true statements can be very distracting. It also has negative implications on the person’s decision-making process.

3) Sticking to the script

No sales rep would be able to build a momentum if he would start his presentation in an obviously scripted manner. Coupled with a monotonous voice and questionable body language, the presentation is doomed to fail. An emotion-lacking presentation is a lackluster presentation.

How can you expect your attendees to respond if the presentation and the presenter himself lack energy and enthusiasm? You can avoid a drab presentation through practice. A dry run in front of your co-sales reps for instant Q&A and immediate feedback specifically on what you need to avoid and improve will be valuable. Ditch the script if possible.

4) Avoiding to answer questions

If there is one thing that can quickly kill your credibility that would be avoiding to acknowledge and answer questions thrown at you. Some sales rep think that their presentation is so great that it will suffice. Little did they know that it leaves holes here and there – black holes that slowly inch your prospect away from you! Additionally, presentations like this leave more questions than answers so you really need to answer questions to the best of your abilities.

Some sales rep dodge questions because of their inherent fear of giving the wrong answers. Misinformation has its costly consequences, too. Well, you need to know your products and services by heart so that you are able to give the right answers. This is also the reason you need to practice. Never say “I don’t know.” If you cannot answer a question, you may tell the person asking and the audience that you will consult a superior first. You can ask for the person’s email address and make sure that you contact her.

Sales presentations are tricky. Even the sales experts have off days and misses. Now that you know the basic presentation killers, strive to avoid them at all cost. Your goal should be acing the presentation. If it means customizing the pitch, focusing on relevant benefits, and practicing over and over including answering questions, then so be it.

Now that you know what must be done and avoid during a presentation, discover more tips and hacks for salespeople through browsing our blog section.