Good presentations can be extremely effective when trying to “turn” a prospective customer. While there is usually too much emphasis that is put on this part of the sale (i.e. “the close”), it is not doubt an important part of the sales process in most cases.

When giving presentations, salespeople often spend too much time on the wrong things. For the most part, prospects really don’t care about how long you have been in business, what your product or company story is, and who makes up your executive leadership. Unless your prospect has given you a reason in an earlier phase of the sale to address these items, you are simply spinning your wheels and losing their attention when you need it most.

Instead, your efforts need to be focused on the “goodies” of the deal. Your presentation needs to address how a prospective customer will ultimately make more money by doing business with you. Whether this comes from increased productivity, cost savings, recovering lost revenue, or all three – it matters not. It only matters that they believe your presentation at this point. If you can pull this off by presenting the goodies, you will achieve victory with your presentation.