Identifying the customer’s real needs is critical to faciliate a sale. Matching it with your unique capability  is just as important – and the answer needs to be identified before preparing your sales presentation.

In Conversations that Win the Complex Sale, Erik Peterson and Tim Riesterer note that company sale presentations need to positioned from strength. They need to focus on:

• the strategic need that your customer has, so he/she understands why it’s important;
• your strength – why you are “uniquely” qualified to meet that need,
• providing defensible proof of both of the above propositions.

Most importantly, these presentations cannot be based on facts alone – they need to be embedded in a story that evokes the emotions of your audience and drive them to the conclusion that your proposal is a competent business solution and that you and your team are a reliable, trusted partner.

Such presentations create for you a position of power for two reasons. First, it’s what your customer needs to hear to accept your proposition. Second, your competent, presentation generates confidence – and self-confidence is the way to conquer any speaking anxieties. Again, as our ADAP formula (Audience-Driven, Authentic Presentations) teaches when you focus on meeting all the customer’s needs, you’re outward-focused, which leaves little room to focus internally at your insecurities!

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