WhatWorks eBook[1]

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How to Design and Deliver EffectiveHow to Design and Deliver Effective

Virtua Sa es Presentat ionsVirtua Sa es Presentat ions

www.whatworks.biz


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s!s! The Wave of the Future

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There is virtually no limit to the number ofdistractions available to our prospects,including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,email and instant messaging.

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Selling in the virtual environment is thewave of the future. It can be an incrediblyeffective means of presenting both our

value and our message to our prospect.That said, it will mean next to nothing if wecant effectively engage them. And it turnsout thats the bi est challen e we facewhen selling online.

The average attention span of the typicalhuman is somewhere between five and

.as the speed of business and technologychange. When were presenting online, wecant see our prospect. Most importantly,they KNOW that we cant see them. So

Have you ever sat in on a virtualpresentation and wandered off to dosomething more important? It happens allthe time. If we dont deliver an engaging

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they are free to wander.,

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s!s!s! Presenting Online is Challenging!

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During the past ten years, Ive beenfortunate to work with many great clients,including Google, CLIF Bar, Symantec,

My Object iveDuring the next 25 pages or so, Id like for

ou to walk awa with somethin of reat

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.teaching In-Person sales presentationskills. The interesting thing is, several ofmy clients would approach me afterwards

and say, This is great, but can you teach

value that will help you to even moreeffectively engage your prospects in thevirtual environment, so you can shorten

your sales cycle, beat your competitionus ow o o s on ne .

Agenda

My agenda is simple. Ill be sharing thefollowing ten tips and strategies with you:

1. Communicate genuine value2. The discovery process3. Have a structure

4. The demonstration5. Keep your slides simple6. Add some Hollywood!7. Make the most of your voice

a s w en rea ze ere s a eman orthis. And theres a really good reason for it.Presenting in the virtual environment ischallenging and requires a whole new setof skills. One that most of us arent already

.9. Prepare in advance10.Differentiate yourself

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equipped with.



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s!s!s! Typical Challenges We Face

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3. Creating interaction with our prospect isanother common challenge. Often timesthe decision makers will sit quietly in the

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We have to be able to leverage everystrategy possible to interact and engage

or prospect. Once weve lost them, we

Before I dive in to my best practices, it

may never ge em ac . a e s guy,for example.

makes sense to review some of thechallenges most sales people face whenselling online.

. ,on literally thousands of responses, isnot being able to engage the prospect.

2. The second biggest challenge is not e ng a e o gauge e prospec .

Because we cant see them, its difficultto get a read on what theyre doing, howtheyre feeling, and whether or nottheyre even paying attention to you. Its

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not too different from being blindfolded.



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s!s!s! 1. Communicate Value

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This may be painfully obvious for most ofyou, but communicating your value basedon your audiences most important needs is

two our three value points that are ofgreatest interest to your prospect. Ofcourse, the only way to know whatsim ortant to our ros ect is to ask

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at your prospect. Its amazing to me how manysales people say they know this, but then

they dont practice it. You may have the

greatest product or service in the world, but

questions.

w mean nex o no ng you caneffectively communicate your value basedon your prospects most important needs.Probably the biggest mistake I see salespeople make is not presenting value. Mostsales people talk 90% of the time and onlylisten 10%.

Many sales people will debate me and say

that most buyers just dont have time forquestions. Theyre too busy. I think youhave to sell them on why you want to ask

uestions. For exam le In order for me tomake the most of your time, and to bestmeet your needs, Id like to ask you a fewquestions about your business and some ofthe challenges youre currently facing.

propose a we s s n e o erdirection. Listen 90%, and then talk 10%.Then and only then can we custom design astreamlined presentation focusing on those

,they may not be a good prospect anyway.Its also essential to find out who else isinvolved in the decision process andinterview them, as well.

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s! 2. The Discovery Processs!

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Rather than asking a few situation questions, why not dig in deeper. Find out what prospectsproblems are. And the problems they didnt know they had. And the problems that only you cansolve. This will definitely help you to differentiate yourself from your competition!

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Next, we can establish the impact these problems are having on their business. Finally, we candetermine what their most important needs are. Ill typically ask one last question, and that is,What will it take for us to work together? If you dont ask, the answer if often times no, right?



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s!s!s! 3. Have a Structure

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one challenge that my prospect is facing,and then tell a brief customer success storyshowing how we solved the same problemfor another customer. Be sure to add

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at engaging visuals, photos or graphics to helpsupport your point.

Who are you?

Some of you may be wondering, Whats up

Typically, in a sales situation, you wonthave someone around to read anintroduction for you. Which means you haveto do it yourself. Once youve delivered your

with the photo here? Its meant to get yourattention. Which is exactly what we need todo in our presentations right from the start.Most people begin their presentations with

grabber, share a brief elevator pitch stating

who you are, what you do, who you workwith, and how you help people. Heres anexample:

, ,which is not very interesting.

Grab thei r Attention!

My name is Tom Drews, the CEO andFounder of What Works! Communications.We have delivered Sales Presentation Skills

training for all kinds of companies, including

right from the start. Open with a provocativequestion, a personal story, a quote, atestimonial, or an interesting fact. Myfavorite grabber is to present the number

, . ,we help them to shorten their sales cycle,beat their competition, and close morebusiness.



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s!s! Credibil ity Statements! Agenda wi th Time

orkork Bring up a slide with a testimonial, a fact, or

a statistic that supports your objective andgives you even more credibility. Forexample:

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especially in the virtual environment. Ithelps to keep both ourselves and ourprospect on track. Let your prospect knowwhat youll be covering and how long it will

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take.

The Body

I recommend no more than three to fivepoints for the body of your presentation. Itsbest to start by focusing on your prospectand their situation, problems and needs.Then you can present your solution, which

State your Object ive

value. Lastly, and most importantly, let themknow clearly whats in it for them. If it makessense, and if its necessary, you might alsoaddress your competition and any

Let your prospect know what you want themto get out of your presentation, and whatyou want them to do as a result. For

example: My objective is to have you walk

o ec ons your prospec as s are wyou.

Closing

can best meet your challenges, and thenhave you choose us as your vendor movingforward. Put it in your own words, ofcourse. Remember, if we dont ask, the

Have one final Q&A session, summarize thehighlights of your presentation, re-state yourobjective, and close with a grabberguaranteed to get their attention. Then we

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answer usually is No.for moving forward.



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s!s!s! 4. The Demonstrat ion

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different kind of presentation. This might bea value based PowerPoint presentation,with your demonstration woven into yoursolution.

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at If youve done your discovery process well,

then youll have a clear idea of what your

prospects challenges are. When youre

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features, tie in these challenges, and showhow your product or service will solve them.Also, if you team up with a partner, such asa sales engineer, take the lead role and let

and how long they have to present.Roughly 95% of the demonstrations Ive satin on are focused mostly on features andfunctionality. Theres no question this will be

,especially the people that would be usingyour product or services hands on.

However, often times the decision makerson even nee o see e pro uc . ey

just want to know how you will help themgrow their business and increase theirprofits. That means we have to build a



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s!s!s! 5. Keep Your Slides Simple

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The biggest mistake I see salespeoplemake when designing their presentations isincluding too much information on their

There are several ways to solve theproblem.

1. We can use a build where we brin in

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.read a slide like this? one point at a time, speak to that point,

bring in the next, speak to that point,and so on. This way your prospect wont

be reading ahead of you..

information on your slide, then at thevery least use the annotation tools. Webconferencing platforms such asGoToMeeting provide highlighters, laserpointers and arrows to help your

prospect focus on what you want themto focus on.

3. Perhaps the most ideal scenario is tobreak our slide into several different

If it takes you longer than three or fourseconds, then its too long. Heres the

slides, simplify the text and addengaging photos to help illustrate yourpoints. In this scenario, of course, youcan still use a build and leverage the

pro em. e re na ura y es gne o wanto read whats in front of us. And whileyoure reading, youre not paying attentionto what I have to say. So we have to keepour slides simple.

.before and after slides from a highlyrespected client of mine, 4 Profit.



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s! Before After

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After After After

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s!s!s! 6. Add Some Hollywood

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Hollywood production. Add photos, visualsand graphics to help illustrate your points.or

kWhen I was younger, I spent some time asan actor in Hollywood where I performed incommercials, studied improvisation and had

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.great deal from TV and Film about how tocreate engaging presentations.

Also, telling customer success stories canbe an incredibl effective wa to en a e

o nt

your prospect, communicate your value,and drive your prospect to action.

Visit the link below if youre interested inAn academy award winning film is basicallythousands of images strung together to tell

recordings to see an example of how I addHollywood to my virtual presentations.

a s ory. e can o some ng s m ar wour sales presentations. Instead ofdesigning a dull, boring presentation loadedwith text, imagine yourself as the writer,producer, director and actor of your own Holl wood

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s!s!s! 7. Make the Most of Your Voice

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might as well send them a PDF of yourpresentation. Also, when it comes to sales,dont forget that enthusiasm is contagious.

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at We also want to avoid distractions as muchas possible. Remove filler words such as

ums, ahs and you knows. I sat in on a

sales presentation recently where I counted360 ums in one hour. This will definitelydistract your prospect from the value yourepresenting!

We can also avoid distractions b

When were presenting in person, we havethe opportunity to engage our audience witheye communication, facial expressions,gestures, body and movement. When were

eliminating noise in our background, suchas parrots screeching, dogs barking, andpeople snoring. And when the noise iscoming from the audience, we have the

presen ng n e v r ua env ronmen , weonly have our voice. So its essential thatwe make the most of it.

The are several elements that go into the

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voice, including volume, tone, inflection,pace, articulation and enthusiasm. Perhapsthe most important of these is volume. Ifyour prospect cant hear you, then you



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s!s! I dont recommend using a speakerphone

unless its high quality. I would absolutelys! Many of us present to a global audience,

where the first language of our prospect

orkork avoid using a cell phone, partly because of

the poor audio quality, but also because youdont want to risk having a dropped call inthe middle of an important sales

ork may not be the same as ours. In this case,

its important to pace yourself appropriately,articulate clearly, and pause every so oftenso that your prospect can absorb what

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It will be convenient and cost effective forboth you and your prospect to use a VoIP or

integrated toll-free audio option, which is

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some ng o o ee ng prov es.headset will provide you with the bestconnection and the clearest audio.

The best way to know if youre making themost of your voice is to deliver a salespresentation for a colleague or friend, andge ones ee ac . course, you canalso record a presentation and watch it foryourself. It might be enlightening! A platformlike GoToMeeting will allow you to recordyour presentation and then play it back.



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s!s!s! 8. Interact Often

orkorkork them show any file, application or program

on their desktop.

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at Keyboard and mouse control allows you to

give someone control over the application

or program on your desktop. This can beuseful in a number of wa s such as,youre delivering a virtual salespresentation. Often times its a challenge toget our prospect involved and engaged.What follows are some strategies and tools

negotiating contracts and editing proposals,and it can be done in real time.

The Chat Roomor n erac ng w cus omers an

prospects in the virtual environment.

Annotation Tools

If you have more than a few people sittingin, then you can use the chat room to askopen ended questions and get feedbackfrom our audience all at once. You mi ht

For starters, using the highlighter tool orlaser pointer will help to make yourpresentation more lively, interactive and

engaging. Its something for your audience

ask something like, What would you mostlike to get out of our meeting today? In twoor three sentences

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Pass Presenter Controls

Presenter control allows you to give

s ues ons

This pretty much goes without saying, butask relevant questions of your participantsthroughout. And be sure to address

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everyone y rs name a eas once.



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Address Peo le b Their First NameIf youre not already doing this, then I recommend you give it a try. I learned this strategy from thenumber one sales person at a Fortune 500 company. He said it was by far his number one mosteffective means of keeping his prospect from wandering. That, and presenting value, of course. Hesa o ry . . n wor s. e ea s, you a ress n v ua s y e r rs name a ebeginning of your meeting, then everyone else will be thinking, Id better pay attention, he might becalling on me next.

This strategy will be most effective if youve had a chance to do a discovery process in advance withyour key decision makers. Then you can draw attention to something relevant that came up duringyour conversation, and youll actually have a reason to address someone by their first name. I canguarantee you this will help to keep your prospect engaged, interacting, and focused on what you have

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s!s!s! 9. Prepare in Advance

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I believe that 90% of a successful salespresentation is in the preparation, whichincludes a thorough discovery process so

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VisualizeI dont expect you to take it to the extremelike this guy, but visualizing yourself

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at important to our prospect. There are severalother ways to prepare that will help us to

close more business. What follows are

some ideas.

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delivering a wildly successful presentationcan be incredibly effective.

Know Your Platform

In my early days, I crashed my computer,inadvertently kicked 150 people out of ameeting, and kept an audience waiting for 8

minutes while I figured out how to push thestart button. Clearly, this can lead to lostsales. Learn from my mistakes and know

our latform inside and out. Invest in atraining program. Call customer support.And most importantly, practice! Its really as simple as finding a quiet place,

closing your eyes, and walking yourself

through your presentation from start tofinish. Shakti Gawains book CreativeVisualization, has provided me with somevaluable tips and strategies for how to makethe very most of this process. I encourageyou to take a look if you havent already.



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s!s! Do a Dry Runs! Use Two Computers

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virtually with a colleague or a friend and gethonest feedback. As I mentioned earlier,you can also record yourself and play itback. Why blow it with a real live prospect?

ork oes your compu er ever cras ne

does. Maybe not that often, but oftenenough to have a second computer loggedon as a back up. I typically have my firstcomputer logged in as the host, and the

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second one as a participant. Its incrediblyhelpful to see what everyone else is seeing.

I dont mean to get you in trouble with yourboss, or your accountant, but I recommendhaving three computers logged in. It maysound a little extreme, but this has helped

Start Your Meeting Early

Log in to your meeting early and have all

your documents set up and ready to go.

me to avoid disasters that would have costme many more times what a typicalNetbook costs.

.Then, if you have free time, you can headoff and answer some emails or do whateveris next on your list of things to do.



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s!s!s! 10. Differentiate Yourself

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that. And as a result, they have increasedtheir profitability by X%. You might eventake it a step further and suggest that they

et in touch with our client so the can

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Learn to design and deliver engaging,

captivating, entertaining, value based virtual. .

This is one more way to set yourself apart,since most sales people wont be doing this.

The number one best way to differentiateyourself from the competition is to provide

genuine and real value. Custom design astreamlined presentation focusing on thosetwo or three key value points that are mostim ortant for our ros ect.

Most of us have to deal with competition.Its inevitable. So how do we differentiateourselves from everyone else?

One very effective strategy is to tell a thirdparty customer success story. Find out thenumber one challenge your prospect is

facing, and tell a story of how you solved itor someone e se a was ac ng e same

situation. For example, your prospect says,So and so can do such and such. Youcant. Your response might be, Well, thatsexactly what Y Company said, and they

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chose to work with us because of this and



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s!s!s! Summary

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k When it comes to competition, the salesperson that can present their value mosteffectively, based on the prospects mostimportant needs, will likely win the

6. Add some Hollywood by addingcompelling photos, visuals andgraphics to support your points.

7. Make the most of your voice by

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business. Heres a brief summary of someof the strategies that will help any salesperson to sell more in the virtual

environment.

focusing on volume, tone, inflection,articulation and enthusiasm.

8. Interact often by asking questions,

using the annotation tools, andaddressin eo le b their first names.1. Present genuine value throughout your

entire presentation.2. The only way to know whats important

to your prospect is to ask questions.

9. Prepare in advance by learning yourweb conferencing platform, doing a dryrun, and visualizing a successfulpresentation.

.

the rest and uncover problems theydidnt know that had, and that only youcan solve.

3. Have a clear structure from start to

.

party customer success stories and bypresenting genuine value.

finish, being sure to start off with agrabber opening.

4. Rather than focusing on features and

functionality, deliver a value basedresentation and weave in our demo.

5. Keep your slides simple. Enough said.



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Selling and presenting in the virtual environment is the wave of the future. It can be an incrediblyeffective means of communicating both your value and your message to your prospect. That said, itwill mean next to nothing if you cant effectively engage them! Hopefully you have picked up somevaluable tips and strategies here that will help you to even more effectively engage your prospect,so that you will shorten your sales cycle, beat the competition, and close more business!

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s!s!s!

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kWhat Works! Communications is aleading provider of Virtual Sales

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Presentation Skills training. We alsodeliver programs in sales, presentationskills, and time management. We haveworked with companies including Google,S mantec CLIF Bar McKesson Williams-

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Sonoma and Citrix Online.

We help sales people design and delivermore effective sales presentations so they GoToMeetingCorporateisaneasytouse,

costeffectiveWebconferencingservice.With.

Please feel free to get in touch if you wouldlike to learn more about our programs andhow we might be able to help you with your

GoToMeeting Corporate,meetingorganizers

cansecurely

connect

with

anyone,

anywhere,

reducingtravelcostsanddramatically

increasingproductivity.Companiescanenable

presentations. Thank you!

Tom Drews, CEO and Founder

,

productdemosandcollaborationsessionsright

fromtheirPCorMac.Getunlimitedonline

meetingsforonelowratewithourAllYouCan

Meetsubscription

model.

[email protected]

415-674-1373

ForafreeevaluationofGoToMeeting

Corporate,pleasevisit

www.gotomeeting.com/s/WReval .



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How to Design and Deliver Effective

Presented by

www.whatworks.biz

Tom DrewsFounder & CEO

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