Ban the Boring Presentation and Find Greater Sales Success

Julie Hansen, Author and Founder, Performance Sales and Training

A sales rep should consider great presentation skills not just part of their job but as an actual role they need to step into. Don’t force your customers to sit through another boring presentation; make it come alive and inspire. And that can only happen with you. Here are a few ways to take your presentation skills up a notch and find greater success in your sales meetings.

Start from within.

The best sales meetings happen when a salesperson first takes a look within and asks, “What is my intention for this conversation, and how do I get it across?” Learn to bring out what’s inside of you and connect with the material, especially when it’s a script or bullet points that you need to get across.

You also have to pay attention to the subtext. Are you just saying the words, or do you know why you’re saying them and how you want your audience to feel about them? The best script in the world will go to waste if it’s not delivered in a way that is real and meaningful to the presenter.

Information on its own doesn’t engage people. You shouldn’t expect them to stand up and applaud just because you got through the presentation. You have to inspire them, and that can only happen when you find your own personal connection to the material and know how you want your listener to feel or what action you want them to take.

Practice your delivery.

Delivery becomes much easier when you have made that inner connection with the material. But there’s still quite a bit of work to do in order to deliver it effectively and really bring it to life.

Know why you’re saying every line and how you want that line to make the other person feel throughout the presentation. Are you engaging, challenging, or reassuring them? Creating clear intentions will deliver more resonance and a much more connected delivery.

It’s also important to practice in different ways. Believe it or not, practicing a presentation can actually be fun. Go big and over the top; maybe pretend you’re Al Pacino or your favorite actor or superhero. It sounds silly, but it helps you familiarize and remember the material and what you’re saying.

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