Everybody in business has to give presentations of one kind or another. But as a sales manager, you’ll know that an effective sales pitch requires a very specific set of skills. Your audience is time-pressured and inwardly focused, not interested in you so much as what you can offer them. And you only get one shot at a pitch. Delivering what they want to hear is not rocket science, but it requires some advance planning as well as on-the-day pizazz.

Do your homework
The old saying goes that ‘features tell, benefits sell’. You should only be pitching where you have identified a potential need for your product or service. Your strategy should be to turn this need into desire by showing them how it will improve their working life. So, rather than starting with a detailed description of what you are selling, first engage your audience with a discussion of the relevant issues they face. You can then introduce your product as a solution. To do this, you need to research your audience and their business requirements.    Think about whom you are selling to in terms of the individuals on the panel, rather than seeing the firm as a single entity.  Decision-making teams are of varying sizes, and each member of your audience will have their own concerns waiting to be addressed. Bear in mind that there is a direct relationship between the size of the purchase (relative to the company’s turnover) and the size of the Decision Making Unit. Smaller companies may be harder to convince that they have a need for your product. Meanwhile, large companies often have more sign-off procedures to approve a purchase.  

Individual attention
Highlight your understanding of the different issues facing the panel by establishing eye contact with the key person when discussing a particular benefit – this requires you to remember and consider everyone’s job description, but it is worth the effort – more on eye contact and interpersonal skills from our presentation skills training videos.

So, for example, a salesperson selling a printing press to a publisher will need to answer the editorial director’s concerns about whether he can insert large colour pictures. He will also need to address the operations director when discussing how the sale will be funded, the reliability of the machine and whether he can have a discount on maintenance fees. Meanwhile, the CEO will wonder how the new equipment will add to the bottom line by printing more books of higher quality at reduced cost. The presenter needs to speak directly to all these people. 

It’s all in the delivery
After considering the various elements of your audience and what they need to know, decide on a sales style which will put this understanding across (again, more about this in Professor Khalid Aziz's ebook on presentation skills). Increasingly, those with decision-making power seem more inclined to respond to consultative selling. So make your pitch more like a conversation and less like a one-way sales pitch. When being talked at, people lose attention very quickly, especially if they begin to feel that what is being said is not quite what they want to hear. Aim for no more than five minutes speaking initially. After this, invite interaction by posing open questions to your audience which you can use to direct the discussion as you progress through your presentation.

About the author

Professor Khalid Aziz is Chairman and founder of The Aziz Corporation, Khalid has over 20 years’ experience of consultancy in presentation and media skills, following a career in television journalism. 

Download the Presentation Skills book for more information.