Improve Your Sales Presentations

"What problems are you trying to solve" is a great way to frame a sale presentation to a potential new client.  Too often, decorative plumbing and hardware sales professionals dive head first into recommending solutions without fully understanding the actual problem.  If your prospective client is a custom builder, what goals do they want to achieve in the bathrooms?  Why are your recommendations relevant?  Why should they or their customers care?  When you answer those questions, you capture someone's attention and make getting to "yes" a lot easier.

 

Once you determine the problem, the next step is to put it into context.  Why is the builder considering your showroom?  How immediately does your client need a solution?  Understanding a sense of urgency not only helps determine relevance but time frame.  What's the cost of not specifying product from you and your showroom?

 

In any high stakes presentation, it is important to highlight evidence of your competence, but do so with humility.  Most customers don't really care how long you have been in business or that you may have been the first company to market with decorative products in your region.  What they do care about is what you can do for them that will make their lives easier and their experience more enjoyable.  The message that you want to convey is the basis for your recommendation.  For example, we specified this faucet suite for the Ritz Carlton residences based on the quality of the product, the innovative nature of the design and the ability of the manufacturer to meet tight deadlines.  Several examples and anecdotes will provide a comfort zone for your prospective customer that will inspire confidence in your ability and recommendations.

 

Finally, any presentation must include a call to action.  A simple call is to ask the question, "Where do we go from here?"