How to Design and Deliver Effective Virtual Sale Presentations- Tom Drews

How to Design and Deliver Effective i l S l i

How to Design and Deliver Effective i l S l iVirtual Sales PresentationsVirtual Sales Presentations

Tom DrewsTom Drewswww.whatworks.biz

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The Wave of the FutureW

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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 ourvalue and our message to our prospect.That said, it will mean next to nothing if wecant effectively engage them. And it turnsout thats the biggest challenge we facegg gwhen selling online.

The average attention span of the typicalhuman is somewhere between five andeight seconds And its only getting shortereight seconds. And it s only getting shorteras 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 engagingpresentation theres a good chance

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they are free to wander. presentation, there s a good chance

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We will put our prospect to sleep!We will put our prospect to sleep!

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Presenting Online is Challenging!W

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During the past ten years, Ive beenfortunate to work with many great clients,including Google, CLIF Bar, Symantec,McKesson and Cisco I started out

My ObjectiveDuring the next 25 pages or so, Id like foryou to walk away with something of great

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McKesson and Cisco. I started outteaching In-Person sales presentationskills. The interesting thing is, several ofmy clients would approach me afterwardsand say, This is great, but can you teachs ho to do this online?

y y g gvalue that will help you to even moreeffectively engage your prospects in thevirtual environment, so you can shortenyour sales cycle, beat your competitionand close more business

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us how to do this online? and close more business.

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

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

Thats when I realized theres a demand for

4. The demonstration5. Keep your slides simple6. Add some Hollywood!7. Make the most of your voice8 Interact oftenThats when I realized theres a demand for

this. 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

8. Interact often9. Prepare in advance10.Differentiate yourself

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equipped with.


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Typical Challenges We FaceW

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3. Creating interaction with our prospect isanother common challenge. Often timesthe decision makers will sit quietly in theback of the room and not say a word

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back of the room and not say a word.

We have to be able to leverage everystrategy possible to interact and engageor prospect. Once weve lost them, wema ne er get them back Take this g

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Before I dive in to my best practices, it

may never get them back. Take this guy,for example.

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

1 The number one challenge I see based

zzzzzz

1. The number one challenge I see, basedon literally thousands of responses, isnot being able to engage the prospect.

2. The second biggest challenge is notbeing able to gauge the prospectbeing able to gauge the prospect.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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1. Communicate ValueW

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This may be painfully obvious for most ofyou, but communicating your value basedon your audiences most important needs isby far the most effective means of engaging

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

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by far the most effective means of engagingyour prospect. Its amazing to me how manysales people say they know this, but thenthey dont practice it. You may have thegreatest product or service in the world, butit ill mean ne t to nothing if o cant

important to our prospect is to askquestions.

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it will mean next to nothing if you canteffectively 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 saythat most buyers just dont have time forquestions. Theyre too busy. I think youhave to sell them on why you want to askquestions. For example, In order for me to

I propose that we shift this in the other

questions. For example, 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.Would that be okay? If they say no thenI propose that we shift this in the other

direction. Listen 90%, and then talk 10%.Then and only then can we custom design astreamlined presentation focusing on those

Would that be okay? If they say no, thenthey 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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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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3. Have a StructureW

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k 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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for another customer. Be sure to addengaging visuals, photos or graphics to helpsupport your point.

Who are you?

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Some of you may be wondering, Whats up

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yTypically, 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 withan agenda or by talking about themselves

grabber, share a brief elevator pitch statingwho you are, what you do, who you workwith, and how you help people. Heres anexample:

an agenda, or by talking about themselves,which is not very interesting.

Grab their Attention!We have to grab our prospects attention

My name is Tom Drews, the CEO andFounder of What Works! Communications.We have delivered Sales Presentation Skillstraining for all kinds of companies, includingSymantec Cisco and McKesson UltimatelyWe have to grab our prospect s attention

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

Symantec, Cisco and McKesson. Ultimately,we help them to shorten their sales cycle,beat their competition, and close morebusiness.


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Credibility Statements

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Agenda with TimeHaving a clear agenda is essential

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Bring up a slide with a testimonial, a fact, ora statistic that supports your objective andgives you even more credibility. Forexample:

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Having a clear agenda is essential,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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The BodyI recommend no more than three to five

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points 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, whichmight include a demonstration focusing on

State your Objective

might include a demonstration focusing onvalue. 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 anybj ti t h h d ithLet your prospect know what you want them

to get out of your presentation, and whatyou want them to do as a result. Forexample: My objective is to have you walkaway with a clear understanding of how we

objections your prospect has shared withyou.

Closingaway with a clear understanding of how wecan 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 wecan open it up for discussion and next steps

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answer usually is No. can open it up for discussion and next stepsfor moving forward.


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4. The DemonstrationW

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

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If youve done your discovery process well,then youll have a clear idea of what yourprospects challenges are. When youredelivering a demo and presenting your

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delivering a demo and presenting yourfeatures, 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 letthem know what you want them to focus on

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them know what you want them to focus onand how long they have to present.Roughly 95% of the demonstrations Ive sat

in on are focused mostly on features andfunctionality. Theres no question this will beimportant for a certain audience mostimportant for a certain audience, mostespecially the people that would be usingyour product or services hands on.

However, often times the decision makersdont even need to see the product Theydont even need to see the product. Theyjust want to know how you will help themgrow their business and increase theirprofits. That means we have to build a


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5. Keep Your Slides SimpleW

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The biggest mistake I see salespeoplemake when designing their presentations isincluding too much information on theirslides How long would it take for you to

There are several ways to solve theproblem.

1. We can use a build, where we bring in

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slides. How long would it take for you toread a slide like this?

1. We can use a build, where we bring inone point at a time, speak to that point,bring in the next, speak to that point,and so on. This way your prospect wontbe reading ahead of you.

2 If you absolutely must keep all of the

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2. If you absolutely must keep all of theinformation on your slide, then at thevery least use the annotation tools. Webconferencing platforms such asGoToMeeting provide highlighters, laserpointers and arrows to help yourprospect focus on what you want themto focus on.

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

If it takes you longer than three or fourseconds, then its too long. Heres theproblem Were naturally designed to want

break your slide into several differentslides, simplify the text and addengaging photos to help illustrate yourpoints. In this scenario, of course, youcan still use a build and leverage thehighlighter tools Heres an example ofproblem. Were naturally designed to want

to 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.

highlighter tools. Here s an example ofbefore and after slides from a highlyrespected client of mine, 4 Profit.


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Before AfterW

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After After After

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6. Add Some HollywoodW

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When I was younger, I spent some time asan actor in Hollywood where I performed incommercials, studied improvisation and hadsmall parts on soap operas I learned a Photos

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small parts on soap operas. I learned agreat deal from TV and Film about how tocreate engaging presentations.

Photos

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Also, telling customer success stories canbe an incredibly effective way to engage

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be an incredibly effective way to engageyour prospect, communicate your value,and drive your prospect to action.

Visit the link below if youre interested inviewing one of my recent webinar

An academy award winning film is basicallythousands of images strung together to tella story We can do something similar with viewing one of my recent webinar

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

a story. We can do something similar withour sales presentations. Instead ofdesigning a dull, boring presentation loadedwith text, imagine yourself as the writer,producer, director and actor of your own Hollywood


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title, your prospects logo, your name andyour role at your company A businesss

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There are many royalty-free stock photoresources on the internet including

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your role at your company. A businessheadshot will help to make you a realperson rather than just a voice.

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resources on the internet, includingPhotobucket and Getty Images. One of mypersonal favorites is www.istockphoto.com.Youll find millions of photos in Google, butwe dont have the legal right to use the vast

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W majority of them. Its better to be safe andpurchase your photos from a credible stockphoto source.

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ff fAnother effective means of connecting withyour audience is to include what I call aLooping Slide Deck. As people enter yourmeeting, provide them with rotating slides tokeep your prospect engaged. Includep y p p g gtestimonials, facts, quotes, statistics oranything else that might be relevant andsupport your sales objective.

One of the best ways to connect with ouraudience right from the start is to include aprofessional photo of yourself on yourwelcome slide. Include your presentation


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7. Make the Most of Your VoiceW

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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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We also want to avoid distractions as muchas possible. Remove filler words such asums, ahs and you knows. I sat in on asales presentation recently where I counted360 i h Thi ill d fi i l

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360 ums in one hour. This will definitelydistract your prospect from the value yourepresenting!

We can also avoid distractions byWhen were presenting in person, we havethe opportunity to engage our audience witheye communication, facial expressions,gestures, body and movement. When were

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yeliminating noise in our background, suchas parrots screeching, dogs barking, andpeople snoring. And when the noise iscoming from the audience, we have theoption to mute them if necessarypresenting in the virtual environment, we

only have our voice. So its essential thatwe make the most of it.

The are several elements that go into the

option to mute them if necessary.

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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I dont recommend using a speakerphoneunless its high quality. I would absolutely

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Many of us present to a global audience,where the first language of our prospect

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g q y yavoid using a cell phone, partly because ofthe poor audio quality, but also because youdont want to risk having a dropped call inthe middle of an important salespresentation

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g g p pmay 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 whatyoure presenting

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presentation.

It will be convenient and cost effective forboth you and your prospect to use a VoIP orintegrated toll-free audio option, which is

thi G T M ti id A

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you re presenting.

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something GoToMeeting provides. Aheadset will provide you with the bestconnection and the clearest audio.

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The best way to know if youre making themost of your voice is to deliver a salespresentation for a colleague or friend, andt h t f db k Ofget honest feedback. Of course, you can

also 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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8. Interact OftenW

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k them show any file, application or programon their desktop.

Pass Keyboard and Mouse

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Silence can be painful especially while

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Pass Keyboard and MouseKeyboard and mouse control allows you togive someone control over the applicationor program on your desktop. This can beuseful in a number of ways, such as

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Silence can be painful, especially whileyoure delivering a virtual salespresentation. Often times its a challenge toget our prospect involved and engaged.What follows are some strategies and toolsf i t ti ith t d

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

The Chat Roomfor interacting with customers andprospects 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 your audience all at once. You might

For starters, using the highlighter tool orlaser pointer will help to make yourpresentation more lively, interactive andengaging. Its something for your audienceto focus on in real time

from your audience all at once. You mightask something like, What would you mostlike to get out of our meeting today? In twoor three sentences

A k Q tito focus on in real time.

Pass Presenter ControlsPresenter control allows you to givesomeone control of the meeting and have

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

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someone control of the meeting and have everyone by first name at least once.


Address People by 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. Heid t t it I did A d it k Th id i if dd i di id l b th i fi t t th

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said to try it. I did. And it works. The idea is, if you address individuals by their first name at thebeginning 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 haveto presentto present.

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9. Prepare in AdvanceW

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I believe that 90% of a successful salespresentation is in the preparation, whichincludes a thorough discovery process sothat we can understand whats most

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

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that we can understand what s mostimportant to our prospect. There are severalother ways to prepare that will help us toclose more business. What follows aresome ideas.

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W delivering a wildly successful presentationcan be incredibly effective.

W W Know Your PlatformIn my early days, I crashed my computer,inadvertently kicked 150 people out of a

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meeting, and kept an audience waiting for 8minutes while I figured out how to push thestart button. Clearly, this can lead to lostsales. Learn from my mistakes and knowyour platform inside and out. Invest in ayour platform 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 yourselfthrough your presentation from start tofinish. Shakti Gawains book, Creativefinish. Shakti Gawain s 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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Do a Dry RunP ti d li i t tis

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Use Two ComputersD t h? Mi

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Practice delivering your presentationvirtually 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?

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Does your computer ever crash? Minedoes. 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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p ggsecond one as a participant. Its incrediblyhelpful to see what everyone else is seeing.

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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 EarlyLog in to your meeting early and have allyour documents set up and ready to go.Make sure everything is running smoothly

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

Make sure everything is running smoothly.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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10. Differentiate YourselfW

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k that. And as a result, they have increasedtheir profitability by X%. You might eventake it a step further and suggest that theyget in touch with your client so they can

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get in touch with your client so they canlearn why they chose to work with you.

Learn to design and deliver engaging,captivating, entertaining, value based virtualpresentations That is if you havent already

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presentations. That is if you haven t already.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 providegenuine and real value. Custom design astreamlined presentation focusing on thosetwo or three key value points that are mostimportant for your prospect.

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

important for your prospect.One very effective strategy is to tell a thirdparty customer success story. Find out thenumber one challenge your prospect isfacing, and tell a story of how you solved itfor someone else that was facing the samefor someone else that was facing the samesituation. 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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SummaryW

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

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

8. Interact often by asking questions,using the annotation tools, andaddressing people by their first names.

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1. Present genuine value throughout yourentire presentation.

2. The only way to know whats importantto your prospect is to ask questions.And listen Separate yourself apart from

addressing people by their first names.9. Prepare in advance by learning your

web conferencing platform, doing a dryrun, and visualizing a successfulpresentation.

10 Differentiate yourself by telling thirdAnd listen. Separate yourself apart fromthe rest and uncover problems theydidnt know that had, and that only youcan solve.

3. Have a clear structure from start to

10.Differentiate yourself by telling thirdparty customer success stories and bypresenting genuine value.

finish, being sure to start off with agrabber opening.

4. Rather than focusing on features andfunctionality, deliver a value basedpresentation and weave in your demo.presentation and weave in your demo.

5. Keep your slides simple. Enough said.


Closing ThoughtsClosing Thoughts

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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What Works! Communications is aleading provider of Virtual Sales

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

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y , , ,Sonoma and Citrix Online.

We help sales people design and delivermore effective sales presentations so theycan close a lot more business

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GoToMeetingCorporateisaneasytouse,costeffectiveWebconferencingservice.Withcan close a lot more business.

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

gGoToMeeting Corporate,meetingorganizerscansecurelyconnectwithanyone,anywhere,reducingtravelcostsanddramaticallyincreasingproductivity.Companiescanenableemployees to conduct sales presentationspresentations. Thank you!

Tom Drews, CEO and Founder

What Works! Communications

employeestoconductsalespresentations,productdemosandcollaborationsessionsrightfromtheirPCorMac.GetunlimitedonlinemeetingsforonelowratewithourAllYouCanMeetsubscriptionmodel.

What Works! [email protected]

415-674-1373

ForafreeevaluationofGoToMeetingCorporate,pleasevisitwww.gotomeeting.com/s/WReval.


How to Design and Deliver Effective Virtual Sales PresentationsVirtual Sales Presentations

Presented by

www.whatworks.biz

Tom DrewsFounder & CEO

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How to Design and Deliver Effective Virtual Sale Presentations- Tom Drews