4. Be animated. The majority of sales presentations I have heard have been boring and unimaginative. If you really want to stand out from crowd make sure you demonstrate enthusiasm and energy. Use voice more effectively and vary your modulation. A common mistake made when people talk about a product with which they are very familiar is to speak in a monotone voice. This causes other person to quickly lose interest in your presentation. I recommend using a voice recorder to tape your presentation. This will allow you to hear exactly what you sound like as you discuss your product. I must profess to being completely humiliated when I first used this tactic. As a professional speaker, I thought all my presentations were interesting and dynamic – I soon learned that my stand-up delivery skills were much better than my telephone presentation skills.

5. Use showmanship. In book, The Sales Advantage, an example is given how a vending sales person lays a heavy sheet of paper on floor and asks his prospect, “If I could show you how that space could make you some money, would you be interested?” Consider impact of this approach compared to typical approach of saying something like, “We can help you make more money.” What can you do to incorporate some form of showmanship into your presentation?

6. Use a physical demonstration. A friend of mine sells sales training and he often uses whiteboard or flipchart in prospect’s boardroom during his presentation. Instead of telling his client what he will do, he stands up and delivers a short presentation. He writes down facts and figures, draws pictures, and records certain comments and statements from discussion. This approach never fails to help his prospect make a decision.

7. Lastly, believe in your product/service. Without doubt, this is most critical component of any presentation. When you discuss solutions, do you become more animated and energetic? Does your voice display excitement? Does your body language exhibit your enthusiasm? If not, you need to change your approach. After all, if you can’t get excited about your product, how can you expect your customer to become motivated enough to buy?

Don’t you think people will believe it? If you can give a solid reason for a particular action, people will have no doubts about what you say - there is simply very little room for doubt.

Greed

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People are greedy. I'm not talking about food but 'greedy' in a marketing perspective. Everybody feels from “what’s in it for me” syndrome. They really want to know how your product can benefit them. Notice that, "customer's will buy benefits and not products". Confused? You'll see what I mean in a minute.

Analyze following list of benefits written about a digital camera.

* Can store over 200 photos

* Supports every color you can see

* Manual included so you can start even if you have no previous experience

This will certainly open eyes of a person who has an idea of bu'ying a camera one day. This is in complete contrast to following, where 'product' is described.

* Has a memory of 6000k

* Supports 16-bit colors

* 60-page manual included

Customers don't want a memory of 6000k, but they want to store 200 photos. Get it? You must clearly tell customer how will they benefit by bu'ying your produc't. You can then describe prod'uct itself, when they are looking for more information.

To make this point clearer, understand that,

"Customer's will bu'y benefits and 'not' features."

Okay.. Whats difference between features and benefits? Features describe product itself - what it has. Benefits describe advantages a customer gets by bu'ying product. The first list above is a benefits list and second is a features list.

Benefits will drive customers to explore more information about product. This is when you should give them features and describe product itself. To summarize, get customers into looking for more info by telling them benefits and then describe prod'uct. This will assure best results.

I laid out just 3 powerful tactics here. There are many more 'explored' and 'unexplored' secrets, and hope you can discover a few too. Please let me know if you do. I hope this information was helpful to you and wish you good luck and success in your future mark'eting efforts.