best practices in sales presentation

10 Best Sales Presentations To Inspire Your Sales Deck [+ 5 Tips]

Published: August 17, 2022

While many salespeople focus on making their sales decks flashy, fun, and exciting, they do little to ensure that their presentations address the prospect's top concerns and offer an irresistible solution.

As a result, many presentations are met with wishy-washy responses that drag along the sales process and waste valuable time.

What does a great sales deck look like? We'll take a look at some of the best, and provide tips for creating your own stellar sales deck and presentation.

What is a sales deck?

A sales deck is a slide presentation (e.g., PowerPoint, Keynote, etc.) used to supplement a sales pitch. The sales pitch, given by a salesperson to a prospect, often includes an overview of the product or service, offers a value proposition and solution for the prospect, and includes examples of success stories from other clients.

The primary purpose of a sales deck and presentation is to introduce a solution (ie, your pitch ) that ultimately leads the prospect to purchase from your company.

If you've done everything right during the discovery process — digging deep into your prospect's challenges and understanding exactly what they need — only to get a noncommittal response, then your presentation needs some major adjusting.

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Sales Deck vs Pitch Deck

A sales deck is a pitch meant to convince a prospect to make a purchase by showcasing your product features, benefits, and value proposition.

A pitch deck , on the other hand, is usually created for investors who want to learn more about your company, vision, products, financials, and target audience. Think of the pitch deck more like a synthesized version of your business plan.

Ready to see some sales deck examples? Here are a few of the best, in no particular order.

Sales Deck Examples

• UpstartWorks
• Attention Media
• Leadgeeks.io

1. Leadnomics Sales Deck by Katya Kovalenko

Leadnomics has done something few companies successfully do in presentations: Showcase their brand identity.

The internet marketing agency hired a designer to create a sales deck that reflected their sleek, techie brand.

So while prospects learn about Leadnomics and what it offers, they can also get a peek into what it represents as a brand.

2. UpstartWorks Sales Deck by BrightCarbon

This slide deck for UpstartWorks starts with an image of the road to success, followed by a value proposition and a list of benefits buyers can enjoy from working with the company. They provide an overview of what they deliver to customers, who their clients are, and the results their customer base has seen.

The sales deck touches on all the key points a sales presentation should cover. And when it includes graphics and logos, they are clearly organized and not cluttered.

3. QS Sales Deck by BrightCarbon

QS , a platform that ranks colleges and universities, effectively uses icons and visuals throughout its sales deck to communicate its messages. At just a few slides, this is one of the shortest sales decks featured on this list.

If you’re going to make your sales deck short, make sure the information you include gets straight to the point, and be sure to front-load the most important information.

In terms of content, QS showcases its features, value proposition, and client impact.

4. Attention Media Sales Deck by Slides

Attention Media , a B2B creative agency, hired a presentation design agency to create a sales deck that features statistics and reasons businesses should work with them.

Key figures and messages are either in a bold, large, or bright font to make them stand out from the rest of the text.

While their slide deck is on the shorter side (the typical presentation is around 10 to 15 slides ), they include intriguing visuals and statistics that grab attention and keep viewers interested.

5. Freshworks Sales Deck by BrightCarbon

Freshworks is a B2B software platform that promises an all-in-one package for businesses. Its sales deck emphasizes simple text and organization. The problem and solution are introduced using graphics, which makes the text easier for readers to prioritize.

They include a dedicated slide to their mobile app, one of the product’s key differentiators and most salient benefits. The following slides provide a step-by-step walkthrough of how customers are onboarded and what they can expect on a regular basis.

Since the slides aren’t text-heavy, the salesperson can easily elaborate and answer any questions the prospect might have.

6. Soraa Sales Deck by BrightCarbon

Soraa , a lighting company, starts its sales deck with a visually appealing table of contents that contains three items: “Quality of light,” “Simply perfect light,” and “Why Soraa?”

The brand then dives into what its prospects care about most: How the light will look in their spaces and how they can apply Soraa’s offerings to their specific use case. It sprinkles in the benefits of using Soraaa as a lighting supplier. And it does this all while maintaining its strong branding.

7. Planetly Sales Deck by OCHI Design

The first thing Planetly does in its sales presentation is present an eye-catching statistic about customers wanting more eco-friendly brands. Then, they present the reasons behind that data.

The deck doesn't overwhelm prospects with too much text, opting for more graphics and visuals instead. It introduces a hard-hitting stat about the problem their prospect is facing, engages them by asking a question, and provides a solution to the issue.

The slide deck continues to outline specific product details and what sets the solution apart from others, ultimately leading to a slide that represents the expected outcome for the prospect.

8. MEOM Sales Deck by Katya Kovalenko

What you’ll first notice when scrolling through MEOM's sales deck is that it’s straightforward and easy to scan.

The brand kept it simple with their deck, making it easier for consumers to take in the information. Too often, companies overload their decks with information, and by the end of the presentation, consumers can’t remember anything.

On every slide, MEOM has one main message with supporting information in smaller font. In addition, the brand incorporates a detailed look at one of its staff members — a powerful tool when trying to attract consumers.

9. Leadgeeks.io Sales Deck by Paweł Mikołajek

Sometimes, the best way to explain a concept is through a series of process maps and timelines. In this sales deck, Leadgeeks.io takes this approach to explain its product process and onboarding process.

This method helps consumers visualize how this software will help them reach their goals and how they can adopt it at their business.

10. Accern Sales Deck by Katya Kovalenko

Similar to Leadnomics, software company Accern puts its branding at the forefront of the sales deck.

In addition to the use of design to make the sales deck stand out, Accern also highlights customer case studies in its deck, another form of social proof that shows the success other customers have found with this tool.

Each of these presentations provides a general overview of the products, problems, and solutions, and they can easily be tailored and customized to each prospective company. A custom presentation not only piques the prospect's interest but also increases the likelihood that they'll buy from you.

Curious as to how you can word your presentation during your meeting with prospects? Below, we go over the best examples we’ve seen so far.

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Example Sales Presentation

While there are plenty of videos online on how to deliver a sales presentation, there aren’t quite as many live sales presentations to watch.

That’s because sales presentations are delivered in the privacy of a meeting between the sales rep and the prospect, and are often not recorded with the intention of sharing online.

As a sales rep, though, you have an excellent resource for inspiration: explainer videos. Companies publish explainer videos to pitch their products to qualified leads. (Sound familiar?) Use the below examples to hone your own pitch to buyers, and pay close attention to the structure of each video.

This explainer video for Leadjet starts with an urgent problem: Finding leads on LinkedIn and moving them to a CRM loses valuable time and minimizes lead opportunities. Leadjet then presents its product as the solution.

The video jumps into the benefits users can enjoy, such as synchronizing conversations over both your CRM and LinkedIn, keeping the lead status updated, and adding custom details. In this video, Leadjet follows the ideal sales presentation structure: problem, solution, and benefits.

2. Node Influencer App

The Node influencer app allows small business owners to connect with influencers on social media. It starts its video with a simple question: “Looking to promote your brand with social influencers?” The presentation effectively identifies and addresses the target market before pitching the product to viewers.

This presentation is more tutorial-based, making it ideal inspiration if you’re creating a sales deck for someone who’s closer to making a decision. People most often want to see actionable demos when they’re ready to choose a provider.

This explainer video from Upsend, a former customer service software, begins with a problem: Most customers want instant responses to their queries, but customer service systems can be expensive for new companies. Enter Upsend.

The presenter addresses the target market — startups and small businesses — while assuaging their concerns about budget. In addition, it covers the most important features of the platform and the end result for the user. If Upsend were still available, this would be a product a new business would immediately want to add to their tech stack.

4. Algoplanner

Within a few seconds of the start of this presentation, Algoplanner drives home the critical urgency of adopting a supply chain software. It uses a scary number to pull your attention, citing a possible “loss of millions of dollars” if you fail to adopt the right tool.

It then introduces its product with a breakdown of what the software can do for users. Plus, it provides powerful stats to back up its claims, including that users can reduce automation development costs by 80%. The call to action at the end is powerful and simple, telling viewers to schedule a demo.

Sales Deck Presentation Tips

Ready for your presentation? Sticking to these five simple sales presentation guidelines, recommended by Marc Wayshak , will help you blow your competition away while dramatically increasing your chances of closing the sale.

1. Lead with solutions.

Have you ever met with a prospect who was excited about your product or service – and used your presentation to keep on selling? This is called over-selling, and it's the leading cause of death for sales presentations.

When you start your presentation, first lead with solutions. Don't talk about the benefits of your product's features or tell the prospect how great your company is.

Simply dive into how you're going to solve the deepest frustration your prospect is facing right now.

2. Incorporate case studies.

Once you've addressed the specific solutions you can provide to the prospect, it's time to add some color to your presentation.

Turn your sales presentation into an engaging story by sharing case studies of similar prospects and the results they've achieved with your help.

This step is important for building trust and credibility with the prospect. At the same time, case studies bring your solutions to life in the real world, making your presentation more engaging.

3. Ask for feedback throughout.

Most presentations are a one-way monologue by the salesperson. This approach is boring – and it's certainly no way to connect with a prospect.

Instead, ask short questions throughout your presentation like "Does that make sense?" or "Can you see how this would work for you?" Asking for feedback periodically ensures your prospect stays on the same page.

4. Welcome interruptions.

If you want to close more sales, you have to care about what your prospect is thinking throughout your presentation.

Any interruption is the perfect opportunity to find out. Whenever a prospect interrupts you – either with a verbal remark or subtle shift in their facial expression or posture – stop immediately.

Acknowledge the interruption, and welcome the opportunity to explore it with the prospect. Never ignore signals just to stay on a roll and conclude your point. Invite prospects to ask their questions or share their concerns.

The opportunity to respond to those concerns is always more valuable than whatever you were about to say.

5. Wrap it up quickly.

Your presentation should be ASAP: as short as possible.

It's natural for salespeople to get excited about what they have to share, but this causes most of them to ramble on for far too long.

Prospects only care about themselves and their challenges. Present the information they'll be interested in and nothing more.

Practice your next sales presentation with a colleague or friend and ask for their honest feedback on its length.

Sales Deck Template

Ready to start creating your own sales deck? Get started with these free templates .

It includes ten Powerpoint templates, each with a different focus.

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How to find a sales deck template.

Haven’t found what you’re looking for? Here are additional resources to find a sales deck.

This presentation platform allows you to pick from hundreds of templates and fully customize the template you choose. The best part? It’s free and offers premium packages for teams who want analytics, multiple users, and live video collaboration.

On this graphic design platform, you can search through countless presentation templates and customize them. Canva also offers extensive collaboration features, such as file sharing and commenting.

Get Inspired With These Sales Presentations

When delivering a sales presentation to a prospect, you can do so with the knowledge that thousands and millions of others have been in the same position as you. Luckily, we can see their work online to guide our sales deck creation process. Use these decks to structure your own, and you’ll be well on the road to closing more deals and exceeding your quota.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in April 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Don't forget to share this post!

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23 Foolproof Sales Presentation Tips to Help You Close More Deals

Table of contents

Are you intimidated by sales presentations and not sure how to best prepare for them?

Should you talk formally or informally? Should you talk about your product, or not talk about your product at all? What are the best practices to ensure every sales presentation results in, well, sales?

You’re not alone. 

Nearly 57% of B2B prospects and customers feel that their sales teams are not prepared for the first meeting.

While sales presentations can seem intimidating the first few times you participate in them, once you get the hang of them and create an efficient, thorough process, you’ll be able to glide through them a lot easier and a lot more successfully.

In this guide, we’re going to discuss,

• What is a sales presentation?
• 6 types of sales pitches and presentations.
• What should be included in a sales presentation?
• 23 sales presentations tips to help you close more deals

So let’s dive right in.

What is a Sales Presentation?

A sales presentation is similar to an in-depth sales pitch where companies promote a product\service they’re trying to sell to potential clients.

However, it’s usually more complicated and comprehensive than a regular sales pitch. There are multiple PowerPoint presentations involved , meetings, and lots of prior prep time to ensure you’re hitting all the right persuasion notes. 

Related : 12 Most Helpful Sales Report Templates for Teams

6 Types of Sales Pitches and Presentations

Contrary to popular opinion, a full sales presentation is not always necessary or even appropriate. Different situations call for different types of sales presentations and different approaches to selling your product\service.

There are several important sales presentations and pitches that all sales representatives and companies should be well versed in. Let’s take a closer look.

• The one-word pitch
• The social media pitch
• The elevator pitch
• A full-blown sales presentation
• Written sales presentations

Related : 42 Free Sales Dashboard Templates For Tracking & Improving Sales Performance

The One Word Pitch 

Can you boil down your brand’s value proposition to one word? Just like Google’s one word is ‘Search’ and Barack Obama’s was ‘Hope’, what’s your brand’s one-word pitch?

The Social Media Pitch

Sales reps using social selling are 50% more likely to meet or exceed their sales quota. 

With over 3.5 billion social media users worldwide, companies need to have a concrete, pithy sales pitch for their social media profiles. One that not only instantly tells your social media followers and potential customers what your brand is all about but can also withstand the test of ever-changing algorithms. 

An elevator pitch is a quick speech that instantly tells your potential clients what your brand’s all about and what solutions you offer.

It works especially well when you’re not formally trying to close deals, such as during networking events and similar functions. It can also be used during cold calls. 

A Full-Blown Sales Presentation

A full sales presentation usually happens in a meeting room with 1 or several clients and includes PowerPoint presentations slides , sales decks, handouts, and a fully prepped team. It also requires a value-heavy pitch, solutions your company is offering, and so on. 

Written Sales Presentations

68% of B2B businesses use landing pages to garner a new sales lead for future conversion. 

Written sales presentations, like landing pages, are getting really popular in this digital-first world. A high-converting written sales presentation usually starts with addressing the problem and presenting its solution, and outlining the benefits of the brand’s product\service. And the best sales pages have several complimentary graphics accompanying the text, as well. 

Webinars are sales presentations conducted via the internet. Usually conducted in real-time, it gives interested prospects the opportunity to get their questions answered on the spot, and similarly, it helps brands persuade prospects to convert.

What Should Be Included In a Sales Presentation?

An effective sales presentation should focus more on the benefits and solutions it offers, instead of its product\service’s features. 

After all, 88% of executive buyers want a conversation, not a presentation

Your sales presentations should also consist of:

• Testimonials from previous clients and customers
• Data, like graphs, charts, quotes, backing up your claims
• Customized content targeted to your prospective client
• A call to action, which usually includes next steps for the clients

Related : SMART Sales Goal Examples from 30+ Sales Professionals

23 Sales Presentation Tips to Help You Close More Deals

Now we’re on the most exciting part – tips and tricks to close more sales deals. To help you ace your next sales presentations, we asked 42 sales pro their best sales presentation tips. 

And here’s what they said.

Express your interest in working together

• Give hard copies of the sales presentation 

Leverage stories

Encourage questions, highlight case studies, make data a part of your presentation, outline your value proposition, follow up with your prospect, prepare yourself and your team, highlight client’s goals.

• Incorporate videos

Drive the no’s

• Don’t hard sell

Prime your prospects before selling

Solve your prospects problems, wear your confidence.

• Personalize it for your client

Know their competitors

Keep it succinct.

• Make it conversational
• Sell your brand, not your product

Demonstrate your product\service

End with a clear cta.

Related : The 37 Sales KPIs Every Sales Leader Should Be Measuring

PRO TIP: How to Set SMART Goals for Your Sales Team’s Performance

To decide which goals meet the SMART criteria, sales managers need to look at sales analytics for their teams and monitor sales KPIs, for example:

• Average Time to Close Deal
• New Deals Amount
• Number of Customers
• Average Revenue per New Customer

Based on these metrics, and in light of other revenue-based and activity-based goals, you can identify and set desired goals for future performance, but how to get this information?

Now you can benefit from the experience of our sales experts, who have put together a great Databox template showing an overview of your sales team’s performance. It’s simple to implement and start using as a standalone dashboard or in sales reports, and best of all, it’s free!

You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.

To set up this Sales Analytics Overview Dashboard , follow these 3 simple steps:

Step 1: Get the template 

Step 2: Connect your HubSpot account with Databox. 

Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.

“Too often we just assume that, of course, the leads or prospects we’re reaching out to, or following up with, know that of course, we want their business. 

We don’t explicitly tell them, though, and that can be a very powerful thing to do. Something as simple as: ‘I’m really hoping to have the opportunity to work with you ,’ can make a big difference. It’s worked for me!” Explains Linda Pophal of Strategic Communications .

Give hard copies of the sales presentation

Dustin Singer of Dustin Buys Houses shares, “One of our most effective sales presentation techniques for increasing conversions is on top of giving an excellent presentation, we leave the client with a print presentation. This presentation goes into detail about who we are, what we do, how we can help them, the steps and process of working with us, and what next steps would be if they decide to work with us. 

This also includes their offer price, and terms and details of the proposed contract along with all of our contact information. It allows us to leave our sales presentation with them, so if they don’t convert over the initial meeting, we impress them with important information for the client to refer to as we work them through the sales funnel. 

We’ve received feedback about how our print presentations presented us as more professional than our competitors, and they felt more comfortable with working with us because of it.”

You can also turn that hard copy into an engagement exercise for your prospects. 

As Jeff Brandeis of Brandeis Training Solutions explains, “When presenting remotely, we typically provide a PDF that has incomplete sentences. We encourage people to fill in the blanks. People remember things when they write things down. Providing them a template to fill in separates our presentation from others.”

“Tell a story. No one wants to listen to stats on every slide. And your prospects can see right through your ‘visualize success’ ideas.

Instead, include a narrative with characters, setting, and plot. Make sure your prospects can empathize with the character. THEY need to be the hero—not you.” Says TJ Kelly of FreeDrumlineBeats.com .

Bradley Keys of PatchMD explains why stories work so well. “Stories give us an emotional connection, and it will be more effective if it is relatable to their situation. Share stories about how your products worked successfully for your clients. It is one of the leading sales strategies to help you improve your presentation and close deals. Statistics are useful, but make sure that it is not overwhelming – they are easily forgotten. Learn to play emotions when presenting as it helps to become more personal.” Shares Keys.

Nathan Binford of MarketChorus explains the benefits of using The Challenger Sale, a sales presentation methodology based on selling through constructive tension. 

“Learn and use a sales presentation methodology like The Challenger Sale to craft a compelling narrative every time you build a pitch. I’m a big fan of The Challenger Sale specifically because it forces you to ‘walk in your prospect’s shoes’ and emphasizes the importance of shocking your audience out of status quo thinking and into a receptive state.” Says Binford.

Luke Smith of We Buy Property In Kentucky recommends, “After your presentation, allow questions to be asked. As the customer or client gets the answers that meet their needs (for us – they layout terms they need for us to buy their house), I will say, “It sounds like we have a rough outline for a deal. What would you like to happen now?”

More often than not, they ask me about signing a contract to get everything started. This has allowed me to close numerous deals without the awkward transition to the close. The buyer is closing me rather than me pulling them to the closing table.”

The best way to encourage questions is by adopting the 60-second rule.

“To be more effective during a sales presentation, you must consider this — the 60-second rule. It’s simple; all you have to do is NEVER speak without entertaining questions or interruption for more than a minute.

Ditch your monologue and stop bombarding your audience with information. If you have been talking for more than 60 seconds without any interruption, it is most likely that your audience is no longer interested.

Keep in mind to engage with your audience throughout your presentation. Try to incorporate open-ended questions within your presentation to keep it conversational.

It’s easy to keep talking but always pay close attention to when to stop. By following this tip, you will increase your chances of securing deals.” Explains Dan Nolan of Camping Console .

“Drown your prospect in successful case studies for businesses like theirs. That’s my number one sales presentation tactic. It should be so obvious that you’ve done the work before, you’ve transformed situations from bad to great, and you’re certain you can do the same for them if they buy. 

For example, if you’re a B2B sales organization with a software company on the call, show them three case studies of the work you’ve done for other software companies. By doing you, their confidence rises and the doubt. that so often stops a sale, goes away.” Shares Brian Robben of Robben Media .

Brandon Amoroso of electrIQ marketing shares his experience of closing sales deals by highlighting success stories. Amoroso says, “Demonstrating our success rate at the end of a presentation through different case studies has helped our company demonstrate our knowledge in the marketing field.

We showcase studies that resemble the potential client and show them some of the ways we will carry out duties if they choose to partner with us. In doing this, we reassure them that they will be diligent with our time, communicate with them constantly, and work towards getting similar or greater results than those shown in the case study.”

Catriona Jasica of Top Vouchers Code agrees and believes success stories are essential to closing deals. 

“It takes real skills for the salespeople to be efficient enough and close a deal through their presentation. One of them is sticking to your success stories.

Sharing the statistics is surely vital to show your company’s growth, but your attendees are most likely to forget those figures. What will stick to their minds are the success stories you share in the presentation.

Let them know about your product and how it has worked wonders for your company and helped it flourish. Think of a compelling story, present it, and build an emotional connection with the clients. This undoubtedly helps you outstandingly to close the deal in the end.” Says Jasica.

Growth Hackers ’ Jonathan Aufray agrees and adds, “To increase your probability of closing a deal, you want to show your prospect how your solution helped similar people/companies in their industry. Showing them a case study on what you implemented, achieved, and accomplished for another client is definitely one of the best sales presentation techniques out there.”

David Garcia of ScoutLogic believes data is as important as success stories to seal the deal. “The most effective sales presentation technique that increases your chances of closing a deal is a quantitative analysis demonstrating the economic benefits of your solution. If you are running an enterprise sales cycle, by that point, you should understand the client’s pain points, the client’s personal win, and should be able to articulate the unique economic value only your solution will bring.” 

Trenton Erker of Clarity Online advises sales presenters to “Know the numbers in your industry and theirs. It’s compelling, authoritative, and adds to your charisma, your product/service, your company, your industry, everything. People trust industry authorities. They’ll also know you care.”

Susanne Pope of Whiterock Locators agrees with the two and says, “Including succinct and relevant data to drive your point across is one of the most effective presentation techniques that will increase your probability of closing a deal.

Anyone can make bold claims, but having the data to back up those claims will drive the nail in the coffin, so to speak. It’s also important that the data you’re presenting is clearly communicated in its relevance to the goods/services you’re pitching.

If you have data that the audience cannot make sense of, your odds of closing lessen. You also want to ensure you don’t overload your audience with data. The most critical data sets will do, but always be prepared to present more data should someone in the audience ask for it.”

Greg Taft, a Realtor , shares, “I would say the one item that gets me the most traction both from my pitch books from my private equity career and in my listing presentations to clients selling their homes is a strong value proposition.

The value proposition needs to be tangible and measurable. It is hard to put a number on intellectual property or intangible assets, but you have to. As an example, you can talk to a home seller about selling their home, but why are you the right agent for them?

You have to show that you are better than average, whether that be your homes are selling for more than they are worth, or your full marketing package is selling homes x days faster, etc. If you are just average, they will just shop for the cheapest rather than the most value.”

“Fundamentals win championships, and the same goes for sales professionals when they’re working to gain a new client. If there was one piece of advice I’d bestow upon someone new to the sales profession, it would be to follow up with your prospect . 

48% of salespeople never follow up with a prospect. Only 25% of salespeople make a second contact. Those alarming numbers, especially considering that 80% of sales are made between the fifth to twelfth contact. So if there was one technique that will increase your close rate on a macro scale, it would have to be to follow up with your prospect.” Explains Evan Donahue of JMJ Phillip .

Related : 36 Practical Tips for Writing A Great Sales Follow Up Email

When asked the most important sales presentation tip that helps close more deals, Nathan Bliss of Kinsta says,

“Prepare. There is no replacement for being prepared to go into a discovery or demo call. Know all that you can about that potential customer and their business. Make some assumptions about what you think might be important to them based on your experience, but test those assumptions with effective questioning while you are on the call.”

“I always state the potential client’s goals before I go into anything. They’ve told me what they want to achieve in a pre-call, but I reiterate that in my words, while I also hint at how we’ll get there by way of our services. Then I ask them, ‘Are we in agreement?’

If we don’t establish that agreement before I start the rest of the presentation, we can run into many swings and misses during the rest of the presentation.

That question helps me understand that my pitch is spot on, or tells me if I need to pivot some of my discussion points or commentary that are coming in the next several slides.” Shares Tracy Beach of Portent .

Incorporate videos 

“One unique and effective technique I use to help me close more deals is creating asynchronous video content, also known as recorded video, video messages, screen shares, or video voicemail.

By using a free screen-share or recording tool like Vidyard, you can turn your bland ol’ slide presentation into an interactive video that explains all the details that the recipient needs to hear.

Instead of the old methods of sharing PDF’s and hoping your customer champion will sell your pitch internally (which can become a risky game of telephone), instead, turn that PDF or presentation into an interactive video and send it via email (or any other channel) to your recipient.

This ensures that your message is heard the way you intended it to be heard. It also gives the recipient a simple way to float the video around to the decision-makers within their organization so they can get buy-in to push deals across the line. Think about using asynchronous videos to explain proposals, quotes, customer stories, demos, etc. Video works!” Says Jacob Fernandes of Vidyard .

Deepak Shukla of Pearl Lemon Sales agrees and adds, “A growing trend in sales and marketing is Explanation Videos. Expounding on your product’s value in a down-to-earth, relatable way helps build personal connections with potential clients.

It also prevents user bounce rates and increases your SEO ranking – meaning your client finds you easier and is more likely to stay on your page. All of these things contribute to vastly improving your chances of closing that sale!”

“I have found asking questions to drive the ‘No’ instead of the ‘Yes’ leads to more sales. By asking questions, the prospect has to answer ‘No’ opens up the door to get the ‘Yes’ at the close.

The ‘No’ questions are designed to get the prospect to tell you where they are coming up short or items they are missing. Asking these questions and actually listening will give you the upper hand when going through your sales conversation by letting you know their pain points without asking the standard ‘Yes’ questions.

So switch the way you direct your conversations from the ‘Yes’ questions to the ‘No’ questions, and you will see more success at the closing.” Explains Eric Bergman of Serendipit Consulting

Don’t hard-sell

Boxroom Office ’s Neil Roach believes that hard selling never works in a sales presentation. 

Roach says, “People know when they’re being sold to. Instead, your focus should be on solving whatever problem that person has and the most affordable way for them.

Far too many salespeople are trained to go in hard and basically talk the prospect into submission.

That approach shows a lack of finesse and a real lack of understanding of human psychology. Basically, it’s the path to most resistance, by its very nature.

The salespeople I’ve trained always focus on what the customer needs but rarely what the customer wants. If, for example, a customer wants a $1,000 smartphone, you should ask them what they need it for? If it’s “…just for calls and texts,” guide them to something more affordable.

That will cause one of two outcomes.

• 1. The customer will either buy the $1,000 phone on the spot because they know you’re not trying to strongarm them.
• 2. They’ll buy the cheaper phone, but tell everyone they meet how helpful you were and didn’t try to push the sale on them.

Either way, your business, and your reputation, and your sales figures will benefit.”

Lauren Shroll of Outside The Box opines, “When you work from specific questions and comments that put pressure on that meeting to convert, your leads who are not specifically in that small percentage of users ready to convert at the time of the call, are going to be turned off to a conversation that is already primed for someone who wants to buy.

Your ideal sales conversation should prime the user to buy, both at the time of the call and in future retargeting, by including invitations.

This means that you are inviting the user to share their concerns, preview the product, opt-in to email updates, and effectively gear the user to feel that it’s a perfect fit for their specific needs.

This is the case even if they are converting in the next 12-24 months. Your conversation should aim to make the user feel that they are comfortable making a purchase decision, but not necessarily focused on the present moment.”

And did this strategy work for her? 

Shroll shares her experience and adds, “Using this approach has helped massively with one of the software companies I work alongside.

Even in the midst of a pandemic, we have enrolled three major clients in a program that equated to several hundred users.

The reason? We primed the sales call toward “continuing the conversation” to fit our leads at any stage of their buying journey.

A conversation that started as a sales call twelve months ago turned into a neatly closed deal in the most uncertain of times to achieve an amazing return on investment.

If you do include a quote in your story, please let me know when it’s published so that I can promote it across social media channels.”

“The most effective sales presentations that help us close deals all follow one formula: Educate the prospect on a pain that they have, leverage data that is unique to them to support the pain point, then solve the problem.

If you are using a sales deck, it should follow this framework without talking about your own product until the solution section.

If you are doing a live demo, you should break this same approach into sections based on the solution you are providing.

And every solution should first be teed up by education, specific pain for the client, then solution.

Following the formula in every presentation is the key to closing.” Says Zach Rego of Unstack .

Samantha Kohn of AutoVerify recommends taking a customer-in approach in your sales presentations. “You can increase your probability of closing a deal by taking a customer-in approach (rather than a product-out approach) in your sales presentations.

Instead of starting by explaining how great your product is, consider beginning with a discussion of the pain-points your customers are trying to solve.”

Osiris Parikh of Lilius says one of the most important sales techniques is to tailor solutions to the needs of a prospective client. Parikh explains, “Asking questions and showing genuine interest in helping them, rather than seeming like a robot reading from a script, allows for greater rapport and ultimately better solutions aligned to their situation. The chances of a sale only increase from there.”

Lynell Ross of Education Advocates agrees with them and gives some practical tips. “Stress how your product or service will make your customer’s life easier.

Most customers are stressed out and have a million things on their plate. Just as important as the money they’ll save by going with you or the upgrade in quality they’ll achieve is the ease with which they’ll do it.

Even if not relevant to your product or service’s substantive qualities, stress the importance of how your company or service will remove work and time from the customer’s plate, streamline their processes, and make them more efficient.

Reference the type of lift similarly positioned customers have experienced, and use data for that where available.”

“When presenting pitches to potential clients, confidence is everything because you are what you’re selling. How you handle yourself is as important as the presentation itself.” Says Jolene Caufield of Healthy Howard .

And the best way to do that is by showing your stuff. 

Adam Smartschan of Altitude Marketing explains, “Do your research and present it in an attractive fashion. The more you show you know your stuff, the more a prospect will be willing to work with you.

Don’t just tell them their competitors are doing it better. Show them what their competitors are doing, and explain why – then tell them how you’ll help them win.”

Richard Latimer of Veritas Homebuyers explains what works best for him in sales presentations. “The best presentation technique that I employ frequently is physical cues. This includes my posture, use of hands, eye contact, and tone of voice.

Having an upright yet relaxed posture helps make your counterpart feel at ease, using your hands helps illustrate your meanings, eye contact promotes trust, and your tone of voice should guide your counterpart through the presentation.” Shares Latimer.

Paige Arnof-Fenn of Mavens & Moguls also shares her experience and says, “Before a sales pitch I always take a few deep breaths and remind myself I know this topic well, I try to make eye contact with at least a few people in the room as I speak and share stories from my experience to make my points.

I also try to smile a lot. That usually helps me relax and get started, and once I start talking, I am usually good to go.

I have presented successfully virtually, too, via video, online, and phone. With social distancing video presentations are a popular reality now and should be treated just as important as face to face meetings.”

Personalize it for the client

“One important tip is to personalize your sales presentation for your customer.

Most presentations are all about the company presenting them, which is quite backward since the prospect really doesn’t care about you (sorry). They care about their business and their own goals.

In some cases, your audience will connect the dots between the solution you offer and the problems they have, but it’s much more effective to do your research ahead of time and connect those dots between your customer’s unique problem and your proposed solution inside of the presentation.” Recommends Spencer Smith of IRC Sales Solutions .

Syed Irfan Ajmal who is a Growth Marketing Consultant at Physicians Thrive , says personalization of any sales presentation is actually easier than it looks. 

He shared a sales presentation example that helped him to win a 5-figure marketing contract. He shares the following:

• “1. Provide a forecast (traffic, leads, revenue) based on existing keyword rankings data of the client.

This visual example shows how the client stands to earn $49K to $99K per month by applying only 2 simple SEO/Content-Marketing strategies. 

• 2. Provide a comparison (in simple tabular format) of the client with the top 3-5 of their key competitors.
• 3. Provide specific content ideas (personalized for the client’s niche) that they can employ to attract more backlinks.

This visual example shows the specific ideas meant for a company working in the Household Industry. ”

Knowing your client’s competitors, what’s working for them and what’s not can easily make or break your sales pitch. 

Lenny Liebmann says, “I do research on my prospective client’s competitors. I make sure to include a passing reference to one or more of those competitors in my press. That way, the client gets the sense that I really understand their market and their challenges — as opposed to just peddling them something based on some sort of questionably universal value proposition.”

Digital Debut ’s Deniz Doganay also recommends keeping a close eye on your prospect’s competitors. “Actually, take the time to look at leading competitors of your potential client and point out the things they are doing well and what you plan to do to best them. Be very transparent in your company processes and policies as well, so the client knows exactly what to expect when entering an agreement with you.” Advises Doganay.

Mike Charles of Lookout Lofts believes short and to-the-point presentations are always better. “The 9-minute rule! Keeping your presentation to 9 minutes or less is a great rule of thumb to follow for keeping your audience engaged. If you are using slides, do not spend more than 2-3 minutes on each slide. This number is based on research that has shown audiences start to lose their attention around minute 11.”

Make it conversational 

Edwin Rubio of Vapor Empire says, “The more conversational of a pitch, the less of a sales presentation it will feel like. Everything will come more naturally by having an open dialogue because you are building the trust and rapport that many need to feel engaged and comfortable with making a purchase.” 

Melanie Musson of CarInsuranceCompanies.net agrees with Rubio and adds, “Think about the presentation as a conversation. Keep the client engaged and actively involved in the dialogue. If you do the presentation as a monologue, you’ll risk losing their attention.”

Sell your brand, not just the product

“I could write paragraphs about this. I witnessed first-hand how a sales process when well executed, will allow you to position a very normal product as the best in class. It’s all in selling on the brand and the solution.

Presentations that focus on the features and what features will do to you are losing presentations, in my opinion.

In our internal training process, we have a whole day about ‘Establishing Mastery’. Sales peeps and engineers have to establish mastery right after positioning the brand. You position the brand by talking about your internal values, how you run your business, what your vision is. And yes, this is no BS cause what you’re doing here is establishing trust with the company in front of you that you will be able to solve any problem that arises just because you are running a good business.

And that’s the key; customers should be buying the brand and not the product. First-hand. Now, of course, your product should be a real, reliable, and sustainable product that lives up to the expectations.

Once trust in the brand is established, then you dive into establishing mastery by showcasing that you know the ins and outs of the industry you are solving problems for, you understand actual use cases.

Always pull examples about current clients you have that are similar to the prospects you’re speaking to. This helps with social proofing as well as indicating to the prospect that you’ve been there, done that.” Explains Bob Sabra of Hovi .

Quincy Smith of Mira advises businesses always to show how their product\service works during a presentation to close more deals. 

“I’ve had great success by demonstrating the tools we use to complete whatever project it is we’re pitching. For example, when we show clients SEO tools and how we actually have search data on what terms they could be targeting, most of them have no idea that type of information was out there!

Experience and reputation will get you pretty far, but if you can give a little over-the-shoulder look at how you will perform your job, then you can really stand out!” Says Smith.

Alexandra Zamolo of Beekeeper believes the same and adds, “It’s always best to showcase exactly how the product or software will actually work in the exact manner in which the potential customer intends to make use of it. While most examples are great to illustrate features, a demo with more customization to the user’s exact needs will always provide better results.”

And don’t waste all your hard work by not having a clear, targeted Call to Action at the end of your presentation. 

“Every presentation or post should end with a ‘Call to Action’. The action could be anything from scheduling a meeting to submitting a query/feedback or anything else you feel is appropriate. It is important because, after the sales presentation, people are influenced. So before giving them some more time to think, it is better to involve them in some action!” Explains Adam Rowles of Inbound Marketing Agency .

Wrapping up

Sales presentations are an essential part of scaling your business. There’s no escaping them. So embrace them and try to incorporate all these tips into your next sales presentations.

As Mudassir Ahmed of Blogging Explained sums up all of them and says, “Spend less time talking about your company profile. And talk about R.O.I, how your prospect will see a return on their investment with your deal. But don’t go way deeper, awakening their logical nerves by which critical debates could happen.

Give a glimpse and value touch by adding your customers’ success stories or even case studies. You make sure to get the prospect to see himself/herself in your story and talk about the value they would get. That’s probably called human-centric marketing, where you invoke prospects’ senses with an emotion.

It also helps budget-hesitant prospects to get clear insights about their investment and ROI and make a positive decision about the deal.

Do your research and be ready to impress the prospect with this factor. The key is to be conversational rather than presentational.”

Maham S. Chappal is a content writer for SaaS and marketing brands in B2B. She’s been published in several leading publications including Social Media Examiner. She loves writing in-depth, research-backed content that drives traffic, increases brand awareness, and boosts ROI. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her engrossed in the latest John Grisham novel. You can find her on LinkedIn or on mahamschappal.com

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Effective Sales Presentations: 11 Tips to Win Deals + Templates

What makes a sales presentation truly effective?

Is it that secret-sauce font, the comprehensive case studies, intricate graphs, or your shining personality? Or is it… something else?

It might seem like a simple question, but understanding the answer unlocks a world of opportunities for sales reps.

If your sales presentations are truly effective, they should accomplish these 4 things:

• Give prospects confidence in your brand
• Develop a deep relationship and mutual understanding of needs and priorities
• Convince potential customers of the value of your product
• Give clear direction for the next conversation

How many of your recent sales meetings have fallen short of these results?

A study by Forrester of more than 300 C-level buyers found that many reps are lacking key information for a successful sales meeting:

Put simply, most salespeople go into meetings:

• Unprepared for questions
• Without knowledge of the business or industry they’re selling to
• Without understanding the prospect’s situation and problems
• Without relevant social proof

Want to avoid falling into the trap of generic, ineffective sales presentations?

While preparing for and delivering a really good sales presentation isn’t an exact science, the following best practices will lead you to better results.

Let’s dive into the top methods sales professionals are using to nail their presentations and deliver killer sales pitches .

How to Prepare the Perfect Sales Pitch Presentation

Think you can get away with giving a great sales presentation on the fly? Think again. A PowerPoint presentation that was thrown together over lunch is not going to impress your decision-makers.

Preparation is a key aspect of every effective sales presentation.

Here are five ways you can prepare for success:

1. Set a Clear Agenda

Your sales presentation is built to guide the conversation and gives you a structure to work with throughout the meeting. But the prospect doesn’t know how your presentation is structured.

Does this situation sound familiar?

Prospect: “This is really interesting, but how does your product solve XYZ?”

You : “Actually, we’ll talk about that in a few slides. Anyway, as I was saying…”

These kinds of interruptions are common, and the popular response of “We’ll get to that” doesn’t normally go over very well with prospects.

Here’s how to avoid this: Set a clear agenda for the conversation, and share that with your prospects.

This could mean sharing an outline of the presentation topics you’ve prepared, or it can mean sharing the whole sales presentation with your prospect.

This way, your prospect can review the information before your meeting, see where you’ll cover certain topics, and save their questions for the right moment.

2. Adapt Your Script and Presentation

Above, we saw that 77% of reps enter meetings without a clear understanding of the issues that their prospect is facing, or areas where they can help.

There are two clear ways to fix this problem:

First, do your homework. The more you know about your potential client's business and current situation, the better. Also, try to understand their industry and target audience, read up on current news in the sector, and get a feel for the particular pain points this person is likely feeling the most.

Second, base your presentation and accompanying sales script on your ideal customer profile. If your sales team has multiple ideal customer profiles to sell to, discover which profile this prospect fits into and base your arguments, questions, and main points on the specific needs of this profile.

3. Pick Three Main Points for Each Prospect

No matter how many crazy statistics and fun features you throw at your prospect, they’re still only human. Shocking, we know.

In other words, they’ll probably forget at least half of what you say.

To create effective sales presentations that your prospects will remember, focus on three main bullet points that you want to highlight.

This isn’t a number we pulled from a hat. It’s based on an experiment performed by Kurt A. Carlson and Suzanne B. Shu. Their study found that, when your audience knows you’re trying to persuade them, the ideal number of positive claims to make is three. After four claims, your audience will start to become more and more skeptical of anything you say.

The title of their paper is a catchy phrase to help you remember this principle: Three Charms but Four Alarms .

So, go through your slides and pick three key points that you want your prospect to remember. Maybe these will be product features or maybe not, but once again, base these points on the real, felt needs of your prospect. You’ll see better results.

During the presentation, draw your audience's attention to these points as you introduce new ideas. Phrases like these draw attention at the right moments:

• Here’s the point…
• This is crucial…
• But this is what matters…
• But it gets even better...
• This next point is really important...
• This is what XYZ could mean for you, Jack…

And make sure these key points lead directly where you want them to—to your call to action. If they aren’t leading you to that, what’s the point?

For more, check out this video, where I talked in-depth about captivating and directing your prospect's attention during a sales conversation. Remember: whether you're delivering in-person or via video conferencing, maintaining eye contact and using body language to draw attention to main points works.

4. Use Visuals to Show, Not Tell

A sales deck can have several different functions. For example, if your sales deck is going to be read and discussed among stakeholders at your prospect’s company, it will need to include text that explains the visuals presented.

However, if you’re giving a sales presentation with that deck, it doesn’t need all that text.

To prepare a sales presentation for a product or service, make sure you include infographics and visuals that complement what you’re saying. You can use Canva or even a responsive whiteboard to do this.

Think of your slides as visual aids that give more meaning and context to your words.

These visuals can help to:

• Simplify complex processes
• Provide a clearer understanding of data/metrics
• Add credence to your words
• Keep your audience engaged
• Help your audience remember main points (this one is backed by science )

In short, for an effective sales presentation, keep your script and your slides separate. Use your words to add meaning to the visuals, and use your visuals to maximize the power of your words. With this approach, you will elevate your value proposition —and increase your close rate.

5. Show Them You Know Their Pain

Using a narrative in your presentation shows that you’re sympathetic to the problems your prospects are facing and that you know how to solve them.

So, what’s the narrative for your product?

Generally, the story you tell with your presentation will follow this pattern:

• There is a problem caused by a shift in the market, a change in the company’s circumstances, or the world situation
• That problem is solved, the business is saved, and your product is the hero

A compelling narrative that captures the feelings and frustrations of your prospect shows them that you understand them, you’re on the same page, and you’re here to help.

Maybe this is the story of how your product was born, to solve a problem internally at your own company. Maybe it’s the story of one of your successful customers. Or maybe it’s just a narrative that they can relate to and see themselves in.

In any case, using stories instead of just facts makes your presentation more memorable. According to one study, people only retain about 5-10 percent of the statistical information they hear. But they’ll remember 65-70 percent of the information they hear as stories.

Take advantage of this fact: Turn your data into a narrative.

Once you’ve prepared your sales deck and accompanying script, you’re ready to nail your next sales presentation.

Or are you?

Day-Of Sales Presentation Tips: Nail Your Next Sales Presentation

Ready for the big day? Here are six more tips you can use while actively presenting to your prospect, to give a truly effective sales presentation.

6. Open With Your Biggest Selling Point (Don’t Save it for the End)

Many sales reps like to save their product’s biggest selling point for the very end of their presentation as if they’re coming to some grand crescendo.

But your prospect didn’t come to this meeting hoping to hear the Philharmonic Orchestra play Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. So, don’t play this pitch deck like another day at the theater.

Instead, open with your big selling points. Dazzle your prospects from the get-go, and you’ll have them hooked to the end.

To be counted among the Sales Success Stories and Stars of your organization… just go for it. Get the show on the road with a big opening. Leave them in (happy) tears.

7. Ask Open-Ended Questions

To understand your prospect and to keep them engaged with your presentation, questions are essential.

But wait, if you’re giving a sales presentation, aren’t you the one that’s supposed to be doing the talking? You answer the questions, right?

True. But, how do you know if your prospect is paying attention? How can you highlight the relevant points in your presentation if you don’t know what interests them?

To engage your prospect and draw them into your presentation, ask questions like:

• Can you walk me through how your team handles [problem]?
• Have you found any clever workarounds for when [issue] happens?
• What would your ideal solution to this problem look like?
• How would you expect a solution to this problem to affect your team?

It’s true, you’ve probably asked a lot of similar questions during the qualifying stage . But with these questions, you can lead the conversation and keep your prospect engaged with what you’re saying.

Open-ended questions will also help you with the next tip:

8. Build Context Around Your Biggest Value Points and Differentiators

The same questions we shared above can help add context to what you’re saying.

Don’t just tell the prospect: “ Our product helps you solve X problem. ”

Add meaning to that value point by asking questions:

• How often do you face X problem?
• How much time/money do you lose when this happens?
• How does X problem affect the morale/productivity of your team?

When you have the numbers clear, reiterate the problem: “ So, you lose $X every week because of this problem. That’s more than $Y per year that’s going down the drain until you solve this issue. ”

Then, bring in your value point: “With our product, you could save $Z every year by eliminating this problem for your team.”

The same method works for highlighting your key differentiators.

Instead of telling prospects that your product is the best because it’s the only one that does X, lead prospects to the features and benefits that set your product apart with open-ended questions.

This creates value and context around a problem that only your product can solve.

9. Make Social Proof Engaging: Mirror the Prospect’s Situation

This data blew our minds, and will probably blow yours, too: According to studies from our friends at Gong , sellers who use social proof in their sales calls have a 22% lower close rate .

Have you noticed a similar pattern with social proof in your sales presentations?

We all know that social proof is a powerful tool in the hands of sales reps and marketers. No need to throw out all your social media customer quotes, or company testimonials. But, it must be used correctly to work effectively.

Otherwise, you could actually hurt your chances of closing.

So, what’s the correct way to use social proof in your presentations?

Favor customers that are part of this prospect’s tribe .

For example, imagine you’re selling to an SMB, and you tell them that Facebook is your customer. They’ll be impressed, sure… but they’ll also start to wonder if your product is really a good fit for their small business.

Instead, when selling to SMBs, talk about your other SMB customers. Use examples of happy customers who are in the same field or industry. Or, find customer stories that mirror this prospect—with similar pain points.

With tribal social proof, you’ll gain the respect of prospects while demonstrating that you truly “get” them.

10. Never Talk Price Before Value

Chances are, you’re talking price somewhere in this sales presentation. At this stage in the sales pipeline , it’s normal that your prospect is ready to hear what your solution will cost.

But don’t open the conversation like this.

Sometimes you get into a room (whether in-person or virtual) with your main point of contact and important stakeholders, and the first thing they want to know is: “How much will this cost us?”

One of the golden rules of sales is this: Never talk price before value .

If you fold to the pressure and start off by talking about the price of your solution, your audience will view your product as a commodity, not as a valuable solution to their problem.

When stakeholders push you for a number, don’t be afraid to push back. If they’re insistent, turn the question back around on them:

“Before we talk about price, let me ask you this: How much will it cost your company if you don’t get these issues solved by next quarter?”

By focusing on the real monetary value that your product provides, you’ll help position your product as a premium solution, not a wholesale band-aid.

11. Keep It Less Than 10 Minutes

Did you know that every presenter at Apple’s product launches speaks for just 10 minutes or less?

This is because science tells us that the brain gets bored easily—our attention spans just can’t expand beyond a certain point. However, you can reengage your audience by introducing a change every 10 minutes.

Apply this principle to your keynote sales presentations: If you’re presenting longer than 10 minutes, the prospect’s interest will steadily decline. Wrap it up.

Our friends at Gong found that there’s a sweet spot for winning sales presentations: 9.1 minutes. It’s like the ideal elevator pitch for sales presentations.

So, stick to this rule of thumb: Keep your presentations under 10 minutes.

Sales Presentation Templates: Use These Sales Pitch Decks to Win More Deals

Want to build a stellar sales pitch presentation? Steal these presentation templates and customize them to your business—including stunning visuals, striking text, and a presentation process that wins deals.

Get the Powerpoint or Keynote version of these templates, and start creating your own effective sales presentations!

Ready to Give the Best Sales Presentation Ever?

You’ve got all the pro tips you need to nail your next presentation.

In the end, you want to demonstrate that you understand your prospect’s needs and concerns. Show you “get” them by adding a compelling narrative and including customer stories that mirror their own situation.

An effective presentation must also be engaging, which is why it’s essential to highlight three main points and add context with open-ended questions.

With this info, you’re ready to deliver a winning sales presentation. ( Psst... don't forget to use our sales presentation templates to get started!)

But what happens next? There are still some unaccounted-for areas of the sales process. If you want to really crush the follow-up and close more deals, you need a CRM to help you do it.

Close CRM does all this—and so much more. Watch our demo or try Close free for 14 days.

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Prep, Present, and Follow Through: How To Nail Your Next Sales Presentation

Audrey Harris

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When it comes to building an effective sales presentation, no one-size-fits-all sales deck exists.

Every sales presentation you deliver to a prospect should be personalized and tailored just for them. Successful selling today is about establishing yourself as a trusted advisor. Cookie-cutter messages won’t do that. So how should you get started?

High-performing sellers close more deals by focusing on their prospects, rather than their products. Follow these sales presentation tips before, during, and after your next meeting to make it more resonant (and hopefully, more lucrative). These tips work whether you’re building customer relationships remotely or in person.

Deliver polished presentations that address your prospect’s biggest pain points

Use generative AI, powered by Einstein, to help you draft an engaging, tailored talk track for your next sales presentation, perfectly aligning product value to specific prospect needs.

Step 1: Research the company and your contact

An effective sales presentation starts long before the actual presentation. The first step is to learn who your prospect is and the challenges they face; then you can use those insights to show how you can help them succeed.

In particular, you should research the company, the challenges it faces, and the contacts who will hear your presentation.

Learn more about the company’s past, present, and future

First, consult your CRM platform. Find other accounts from the prospect’s industry and see what their customer journeys looked like. Their client information and case history will help you learn what products and services they use most and how your company serves them well. The information in your CRM platform can give you insights and tips that will help you win deals like the one you’re currently working on. Take a look, too, at the sales pipeline for that particular industry. Your CRM system is a tool specifically used to help you sell successfully and should be used throughout the sales process.

Once you have that preliminary information, head to the company website and research what the prospect’s company does, how big it is, and what products or services it offers. Then, dig deeper. Make a note of their mission, values, and corporate culture. Also try to learn more about the company’s history and any news items involving the company. Look into the company’s annual report to get a good idea of where it might be headed in the future.

Your presentation should focus on using insights from your research to show a deep understanding of the company and why your product or service can help it grow.

Consider the company’s challenges

As you learn about the company, pay special attention to the challenges it faces that are relevant to your product or service offerings. Remember these issues so you can use them as conversation starters during your sales presentation. Then you can offer advice — or insights — about how they could better face those challenges.

This type of approach is called insight selling : You as a salesperson bring unique, tailored insights to a prospect to solve their problems.

For example, if you sell a marketing tool, you may notice in your research that your lead is currently using the same ads across social media, search, and display networks. Your insight might be, “I see that your company is using the same ad copy across several platforms. How have those ads been performing for you? Have you been able to reach your sales or traffic goals?” Their answer may change aspects of your sales presentation or may make it even stronger.

Learn more about your audience

When it comes to communication, knowing who will be in the room is critical. If your prospect is the Director of Production, your most effective sales presentation may focus on metrics that can determine how to improve output. If your prospect will be presenting the information to a decision maker, offer resources to help make it easier for them.

Step 2: Prepare for your sales presentation

After gathering insights about the company and your contacts, you are ready to put together your presentation. Whether you use a sales presentation template that your workplace provides or you start from scratch, use these sales presentation tips to build a more compelling pitch.

Focus on the challenges your prospects face, not just your benefits

Salespeople should present themselves as a trusted advisor, not just a company representative. Look for ways to create a dialogue with the prospect and share how you can help their company work more efficiently, provide better service, or solve the challenges holding them back.

Keep your presentation simple

Sales template decks can be useful, but they can also overwhelm prospects if they’re too long. Instead of a 50-slide canned presentation, focus on keeping the slide deck relatively simple and highlighting engaging images and key statistics. This will make it easier to use a storytelling approach, rather than just reading off a slide.

Practice your presentation

You want to prepare, but you don’t want to come across as robotic or scripted. Practice what you’ll say and how you’ll answer questions, and make sure you’ve memorized important statistics or metrics. Build time into the presentation so you can share personal anecdotes or pause for questions.

Keep your delivery style confident, but agile. You may find that one point you thought would be critical doesn’t have as much impact with your prospect as you’d hoped, but a different point unexpectedly piques their interest. Keeping your talk track fluid will make it easier to shift gears if you need to.

Step 3: Nail your sales presentation

Presentation day has arrived. You’ve done your research, nailed the perfect storytelling approach, and trimmed down your slide deck. Now is your time to shine. Here are a few sales presentation tips to help your pitch end in a sale.

End the meeting with your presentation; don’t begin with it

You’ve likely had conversations with your contact and know them well enough, but in this presentation you’ll potentially meet additional people who make decisions. Take the time to get to know each attendee.

Building a rapport with your audience before pitching is a no-brainer. But avoid too much small talk; it can come across as inauthentic or like a waste of the customer’s time. Instead, time permitting, try to use the beginning of the meeting asking questions about day-to-day operations and goals. Ask specific questions that demonstrate your knowledge of their company and industry, and use the answers to shape your narrative. Then, during your presentation, tie back to topics the prospect brought up and focus on how you, the trusted advisor, can help.

Ask questions during the presentation to encourage a dialogue

Getting feedback from your prospect during the actual presentation is the best sales presentation technique of all. This allows you to change your focus in the moment, rather than spending your presentation talking about challenges and solutions that might be unimportant to your prospect.

After you make a key point, ask your prospect a question like, “Does this make sense in your industry?” or “Can you see this applying to your company?” This prompts the prospect to either agree or start a dialogue about pain points and how your products and services can better serve them.

If they agree with you, then you know you’re on the right track and that your suggestions are up to date. On the other hand, if they have clarifications, this lets you adjust your presentation — and follow-up efforts — to better fit their position.

Include proof that shows how your products and services have helped others

Step 4: Prioritize the follow-up just as much as the presentation

The actual sales presentation is just one part of your sales process, and it doesn’t guarantee a signed contract or even further contact with you. The final piece of your sales presentation is a well-planned follow-up, and it’s just as important as the presentation itself.

The most effective follow-up format will depend on your prospect, their needs, and how they best retain information. For example, you may follow up by:

• Emailing your slide deck and asking to schedule a follow-up call. Just remember to avoid the “Just following up” email and make sure your email offers the recipient value.
• Scheduling follow-up emails to reiterate key points in your presentation. A sales automation tool automates emails to share product information and set reminders for you to connect. It helps make sure no prospects fall through the cracks.
• Preparing personalized content that highlights the main points from your sales presentation and includes videos of products in action, testimonials, or other helpful collateral.
• Sending an additional resource about a topic they mentioned during your meeting, whether it pertained to your presentation or not.

Your sales presentation doesn’t end when you walk out the door or end the meeting. As you research and present your pitch, consider what the best follow-up approach will be. Then, take the time to create a well-considered follow-up strategy.

You can make your next sales presentation your best

Preparation and practice are key to successful sales presentations. But there’s so much more to a great presentation than well-designed slides or new research. The heart of a great sales presentation is the relationship between you and your customer, and that’s built on unique insights focused on your potential customer’s challenges and needs.

When you focus on helping, rather than pitching, your sales presentation is more likely to be a hit. That’s a win-win for you and your customer.

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Audrey is a senior product marketer for Core Sales Cloud (Salesforce Automation), and a customer advocate who has spent her career delivering B2B technology. An engineer turned marketer, she is passionate about business efficiency, philanthropy, and mentorship.

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How to Smash Your Next Sales Presentation [15 Tips and Tricks]

We all know that sales presentations are a love-it-or-hate-it part of B2B sales .

You might consider yourself a natural presenter, and love slaving over PowerPoint, thriving on every moment of the experience.

Others? Dread it like a trip to the dentist.

Luckily building and delivering an effective and truly great sales presentation is something that can be taught.

In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to smash your next sales presentation. From must-have slides to sales presentation tips and examples, you’ll find out all it takes to captivate your prospects and close deals.

Let’s start with the basics:

What is a sales presentation?

At its simplest, a sales presentation is a collection of slides that tells a story through visual elements and text.

Teamed with a salesperson’s narration (either in person or via video), its aim is to convey a product or service’s value proposition, and ultimately convert potential clients into paying customers.

A successful sales presentation will resonate with your prospect – linking in with their current needs and challenges, and positioning your company as the ideal solution. Here’s a great structure for one:

Knowing this formula will put you ahead of some of the competition, but how do you make sure you beat them all ?

What slides make up a good sales presentation?

1) The cover slide

Too many reps make the mistake of creating a generic cover slide for their sales deck. Our view? This is a big waste of valuable real estate.

Come on, this is where you make your first impression. You want to reel your prospect IN. 🎣

Whilst it might not be a clincher on its own, it can start to get across your main point: the value of your product.

Let’s go with an example.

You’ve immediately suggested some of the benefits and value your software offers before you’ve even reached the first “real” slide of your PowerPoint presentation.

So, now you have your prospect’s attention. Nice work – now it’s time to build on that.

2) The context slide

The context slide: where you set the stage with information on the trends and pressure points that are spurring change in your prospect’s market.

It’s all about setting your prospect up, hinting at the pain points you’ll touch on next. Build tension, and in turn, interest. 🤞

Your context slide might include the following snippets:

• Work is becoming increasingly remote and dispersed.
• Collaboration occurs across countries and continents.
• As the pace of work increases and competition rises, slowing down is not an option if you want to succeed.

3) The problem slides

Next, you’ll want to dedicate a few slides of your sales presentation to covering the problem, or a key pain point.

You’ll need more than one slide to do this because problems – especially big, business-critical ones – are complex and interconnected.

What’s more, prospects don’t always see the full range or depth of the problems they’re experiencing – it’s all too easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day, isn’t it?

According to the principle of loss aversion , people will work twice as hard to avoid loss as they will to gain a benefit. So, by painting a clear picture of the problems your prospect faces (and will continue to face in the future), you can motivate them to seek a solution.

Example time:

Let’s examine this through the lens of our fictional company, Projector.

Sure, your prospect knows they don’t currently have dedicated project management software. They might know it’s difficult for their teams and departments to keep tabs on work or communicate on progress, but have they considered anything like:

• How this impacts productivity
• How many hours their team loses every week, month, and year due to low productivity
• Connecting the dots between low productivity and less revenue
• How needless meetings and excessive communication apps can actually make things worse

You get the idea.

4. The “enviable future” slide

Cool, so you’ve hit them where it hurts (their pain points), the next step is to portray how it could be if the problem no longer existed.

From there, provide solutions to prove this is actually possible. Something like this…

Projector enables:

• Centralized communication to eliminate unnecessary video calls, email threads, and text messages
• A visual way to monitor progress and identify bottlenecks, so nothing slows you down
• A single source of truth for all of your resources and deliverables, so you never need to go searching for the latest version
• Customizable workflows to meet the needs of any project

The secret is to instill a true sense of longing for all of these benefits. This can help secure the ultimate buying decision.

5) The bridge slide

Next up in your sales pitch is the bridge slide. This slide provides the path to a problem-less world, and how your solution can get them there.

The bridge slide is a great opportunity to include the first touch of social proof, because people (and businesses) often copy how others behave – especially if they see proof of positive results.

In sales, it means demonstrating that someone relevant to your prospect (like a close competitor or a category leader they respect) has gotten real value from your solution. The implication is that:

• Your prospect could too
• If they don’t, they’ll be missing out on a real competitive advantage

This comes to life through a customer quote, stat, full case study, or all of the above on how a customer improved a business metric while using your solution.

See what we did there?

6) The solution slides

Like the problem slides, you’ll want to include more than one slide dedicated to describing the solution in your sales presentation.

The first of your solution slides should give a brief, clear explanation of what your product or service does.

This likely won’t be the first time your prospect is hearing about your offering, so there’s no need to cover every single detail. Try to boil down your product or service – as it relates to your prospect’s unique needs – into one to three clear sentences , and include a few visuals of your product in action where you can.

The next of the solution slides should focus on the value your offering will bring to the prospect. Make sure your value proposition ties directly back to the “enviable future” you previously outlined, so it’s clear your offering is the key.

Once again, social proof – like testimonials and customer stories with results from clients – can really lift these slides and grab your prospects attention.

“Projector helped my team cut back on 70% of emails and eliminated the need for weekly team sync meetings. Now everyone’s status and progress is clearly visible to the whole team on Projector’s platform.”

“With full visibility into our marketing campaign budgets, we can quickly reallocate spend and optimize our campaigns. This quarter alone, we’ve increased inbound leads by 200%!”

Those are some pretty compelling stats (even if it is a fictitious company).

7) The closing slide

You’ll want to end your deck on a short slide with a powerful statement that helps ignite a sense of urgency in your prospect.

Like we said before, visuals of your solution’s success will always make an impact; a nice little upward trending graph or a video testimonial of a loyal customer, perhaps.

If your final slide touches on both the emotional impact of resolving the pain point and the potential business gains, you’ve hit the mark. Not only will your prospect want to stop losing out on productivity, revenue, or whatever else they’re losing, they’ll want to reap the benefits of your great offering.

Powerful sales presentation templates to learn from

Explanations are good, and fictional decks are nice, but we all know learning by example is the best way to gain new skills.

You can find examples of sales presentation decks and PowerPoint templates scattered all over the web, but below we’ve sorted the wheat from the chaff just for you.

Get ready to borrow from the best:

• 21 incredible sales deck examples guaranteed to get buy-in
• 9 incredible sales presentation examples that succeed
• 10 best sales presentation to inspire your sales deck

6 sales presentation tips to help you crush your pitch

After you’ve crafted your narrative, built your slide deck, and got your design looking slick, it’s time to practice delivery.

The way you deliver your sales pitch is key to your prospect’s engagement, understanding, and their interest in continuing the process. 🔑

Here are six tips to help you communicate best.

1) Don’t talk for too long

There’s no specific winning length for a sales presentation, but data suggest that keeping under 10 minutes is smart.

According to a study from Gong (which analyzed 121,828 web-based sales meetings), successful presentations in intro meetings lasted on average 9.1 minutes . The unsuccessful presentation? 11.4 minutes .

This mirrors neuroscience research which found that human attention begins to wander when a listener hears a single voice for 10 minutes.

It’s actually why Apple doesn’t let its keynote presentations run for more than 10 minutes without introducing a change (like a switch to video, a demo, or just a new speaker).

2) Rely on data and insights

Now, we might be biased, but this one is really important. ☝️

If you want to drive a business decision, you need to prove there’s a problem, and what the impact of the solution would be – all using real numbers.

A sprinkle of competitor analysis , a measure of revenue forecasting ( if they close a deal with you), and a dash of ‘what could be’ goodness is the magic recipe.

If you’re able to confidently recall some persuasive, meaningful figures and drop them in where relevant, you could be in for the win.

3) Clearly illustrate the problems

The challenges you’re describing might be big, messy, and complex. But your sales presentation and pitch needs to be concise and digestible. Don’t overload slides with text.

Choose the most relevant information and illustrate it in a logical, clear way.

When crafting your problem slides and thinking about how to deliver the information, keep the following pointers in mind:

• Use numbers and data to back it up : As mentioned, data is key. Connect each main problem to tangible losses, like revenue, human capital costs, customer churn, etc.
• Focus on the strongest (most painful) points: Your goal is to distill a web of problems into a few core examples.
• Paint a telling picture: Think charts, graphs, stats, and images.

4) Personalize it

Even the most pixel-perfect PowerPoint presentation won’t get you anywhere if it looks like you’re just going through the motions. 🤖

What we mean is: your sales presentation needs to feel like it’s been specially crafted with them in mind – even if you know the majority of it stays the same from week to week.

Dropping in meaningful insights about their business is a great way to do this. These could relate to their own performance in the marketplace, to their competitors’ performance, or to an opportunity you’ve spotted for them.

Ideally you’ll be telling them something about their business that they don’t already know, and guess what? Your product can help them to exploit, navigate, or overcome it.

A tool like Similarweb Sales Intelligence can generate attention-grabbing and compelling data like that. It helps to inform any sales conversation you have, thanks to traffic and engagement data on over 100 million companies worldwide.

The Sales Intelligence Insights Generator allows you and your sales team to automatically find “insight nuggets” to either include on slides or incorporate into your dialogue. This is the secret to a consultative selling approach, which we won’t shut up about (and for good reason).

With an effortless way to source the freshest data tailored to your specific audience, building and delivering a successful sales presentation can become your most powerful selling strategy yet.

5) Welcome interruptions

It’s easy to get fixated on landing your key points while presenting. So fixated, in fact, that you don’t give your prospect a chance to get a word in.

Encourage your prospect to speak up with questions or comments throughout the presentation. Make this clear at the start, and keep an eye out for any hints through body language that suggests a question or observation is brewing.

A sales presentation that feels more like a dialogue will be far more effective and memorable. Here’s why:

🗣️ People like to talk: When you give your prospects a chance to get their two cents in, you’ll make them happy – and will help them to remember the conversation more fondly.

✍️ You can learn along the way : If your prospect says something super interesting and relevant, you can use that information to tailor and refine your presentation on the fly (and maybe use it in your next pitch).

⚡ It helps keep their mind engaged: As mentioned, when people take turns speaking, their brains automatically reset – and that makes it easier to have longer conversations, instead of listening to one long monologue.

What’s more, interruptions also help relieve you of some of the pressure of talking non-stop. Win-win.

6) Be confident

If you typically hate delivering a sales pitch, then you might be rolling your eyes at this tip. We know it can be hard to just ‘become confident’ if that’s not how you really feel.

But there are things you can do that really will boost your confidence, helping you deliver a better presentation:

• Prepare : Get to know your slide deck back to front, memorizing all the numbers and stats you need to highlight.
• Practice your script : But also anticipate where questions or comments might come up.
• Listen to successful presentations: Make the most of your company’s recording software or find successful pitches on YouTube, and try to analyze what made these meetings, pitches, or persuasive presentations succeed.
• Make sure you’re super-familiar with your product: If you don’t fully understand your product, you’ll have a hard time getting someone else to. Practice presenting to a colleague to identify the holes in your own understanding as you speak.

How do you do a sales presentation?

Two good tips are to keep it short and tell a story.

What should a sales presentation include?

Include an introduction and presentation of the problem or pain point, before getting to the solution (hint hint, your product).

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How to create an effective sales plan and present it: components and tips

Any business involves sales, and forecasting and planning are some of the major activities for a sales team. In this article, you will learn what a sales plan is, how to create an effective one, and how to make a sales presentation PowerPoint based on this plan. We will also discuss some sales plan examples.

What’s sales plan, and why do you need it?

A sales plan is a part of an extensive sales planning process. It helps forecast the sales success a business wants to achieve and outlines a plan to help it accomplish its goals.

Here are the reasons why you need an effective sales plan:

• It helps foresee risks.
• It makes it easier to track company goals.
• It helps find any bottlenecks in the process.
• It helps set clear revenue targets to achieve within a specific period.
• It helps improve lead generation efforts.
• It helps unify labor policies and ensure consistency in operations.
• It helps understand the business’s strengths and weaknesses.
• It helps track progress.
• It helps identify sale strategies that match the target market.
• It helps evaluate the sales team’s performance.
• It helps define each salesperson’s role and delegate work.
• It helps lay out tactics to execute the sales team’s strategies.

Sales plan structure

A sales plan outline will help you present critical metrics, KPIs, processes, tools, objectives, and strategies necessary to hit your sales goals.

If it is your first time creating a sales plan, below are the sections that must be included:

1. Your target revenue

In a sales plan, you can set a revenue-based goal, such as a target of $10,000 in 5 new deals in one month or $150 million in annual recurring revenue. You will need to keep that revenue target achievable.

Here are a few tips for setting your target revenue:

• Determine a reasonable sales goal according to prior sales results and your ability to reach a new market.
• Calculate the anticipated expenses for a specific period.
• Use projected sales forecasts based on estimates or industry standards.

2. Your ideal customer profile and buyer personas

To establish the target market or ideal customer, you must create a series of unique customer profiles that include geographics, demographics, job positions, behavior, and interests. From there, you can clearly define buyer personas and develop more targeted marketing and advertising strategies.

3. Your sales team

A sales team plays a vital role in implementing any sales plan. You must clearly delegate roles and responsibilities to the sales managers, customer service representatives, account executives, sales development representatives, and other sales professionals.

What’s more, there should be smooth communications and a handoff process. You can even consider using a Customer Relations Management (CRM) system to bring visibility and transparency to the sales process for all team members.

4. Your resources

Is your team small? Then, it would help if you determine how to expand the team to meet the sales targets and state how many resources are necessary within a specific period in your business plan.

You may also utilize specialized sales software for effective sales operation management. One such tool is snov.io , which helps scale a small business while engaging better quality leads with the product or service.

5. Safety of communications

Effective communication is essential in a sales team as it keeps each member productive, engaged, and informed. It also performs the following functions:

• Provides analytics needed to measure engagement with sales goals and benchmarks.
• Encourages marketing and sales teams to collaborate on projects.

That’s where you need to ensure the security of your communications and take advantage of dialpad.com, a workspace dedicated to team and customer communications. It is designed for global teams, where they can safely and efficiently communicate through voice, video, and AI contact centers.

6. Your position on the market

Position on the market is about competition, market trends, risks, and predictions. It outlines what your company must do to market your products and services to your target customers.

If you know how to position your business on the market, you will have a big picture of how you can establish the identity or image of your brand. It also allows you to achieve superior margins for the product or brand relative to competitors.

7. Your prospecting strategy

Prospecting strategy involves how you will generate quality leads and what inbound and outbound methods your sales team will use. Your goal here is to create interest and convert it into a sales meeting.

Below are easy ways to start your prospecting strategy:

• Build a list that includes who your sales team wants to generate meetings with.
• Research your prospects to ensure your new leads are a good fit.
• Craft your offer to drive value.
• Create a prospecting campaign to generate appointments with potential buyers and include a solid value-based offering.

8. Your pricing strategy

Your sales plan’s pricing strategy is about determining how you plan to change the price of your product and within what period. It will help you choose prices that maximize your shareholder value while considering the market and consumer demand.

Pricing strategy accounts for many business factors, such as product attributes, brand positioning, target audience, marketing and revenue goals. It is influenced by external factors, such as economic and market trends, competitor pricing, and consumer demand.

When creating a pricing strategy, consider the following:

• Pricing potential evaluation
• Buyer personas
• Historical data
• Your business goals vs. value
• Competitor pricing

9. Your goals, objectives & DRIs

Goals often include one to three- or five-year projections. Your goals must reflect recurring or existing customers’ expected sales and revenue. Then, you will need to have sales objectives that prioritize the activities your sales team needs to engage in.

Assigning Directly Responsible Individuals (DRIs) also helps make a successful strategic sales plan. These individuals are typically responsible for making sure particular tasks are well-executed.

10. Your action plan

Part of creating an effective sales plan is defining your action plan. It deals with summarizing your plan to achieve each specific objective. For instance, if your sales goal is to increase your referrals by 20%, your actions would be:

Holding referral technique workshops Running a contest to boost referral sales Increasing referral sales commissions by 5%

11. Your budget

In this section, you must outline all costs you believe will be required to achieve your sales targets. Some expenses include hiring, printing, travel, training, sales tools, commissions, salaries, etc. These expenses are meant to be estimates, but due diligence and research should be done to prevent financial errors.

Sales plan examples

When it comes to creating a sales plan, there is no unified sales plan template. Each sales plan differs based on the company’s purpose. While you can encounter different sales plans, here are the common ones:

1. 30-60-90-day sales plan

A 30-60-90-day sales plan is milestone-based. This means it specifies a short-term goal you must achieve within 30, 60, or 90 days. This type of sales plan is suitable for new sales managers, helping them establish tactical and strategic activities according to this plan.

2. Territory sales plan

A territory sales plan features tactics dedicated to the sales team in different territories. You will need to consider a specific area’s market dynamics and working environment.

With a territory sales plan, you can:

• Target specific customers, opportunities, regions, and industries.
• Align the sales team with the prospects.
• Set realistic goals, optimize the strategies, and track progress.
• Spend more time selling.

When creating this sales plan, you have to:

• Define larger sales goals.
• Define the target market.
• Assess account quality and prospects.
• Map out the sales representatives’ strengths and weaknesses.
• Assign leads. Polish your plan.

3. Sales plan for specific sales

When it comes to this sales plan type, you must familiarize yourself with different sales domains, such as sales training plans or compensation, as well as:

• State the company’s mission
• Set objectives and timeframe
• Define the sales team
• Define the target market
• Evaluate the resources
• Create a comparative analysis of your offerings
• Set the sales budget
• Define the marketing strategy
• Work out the strategy
• Define the action plan

4. Monthly sales plan

If you prefer a traditional sales plan, you can opt for a monthly sales plan. It features tactics and revenue goals, which have to be accomplished within a month.

5. Sales tactics plan

A sales tactics plan includes execution strategies. It also involves detailed daily or weekly plans, including prescribed call sequences, meeting appointments, and email follow-up frequency.

Tips on how to create a sales plan

Are you looking for effective recommendations on how to make sales plan for your company? Then, check out the following:

Tip #1: Back up your plan with research and statistics

It is advisable to always back up your sales plan with research and statistics. This will help you define the sales team’s tasks needed to better meet your sales goals. These tasks should primarily stem from statistics and research.

Tip #2: Use SWOT analysis to analyze your capacities

From a sales perspective, SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis will help assess your company’s position in the market. It will also allow you to gain insights into leveraging your selling points, acquiring market shares, and comparing your business’ position with that of your competitors.

To make this easier, you can use a visualizing tool to document the results of your SWOT analysis. You can choose from flow-chart tools, spreadsheet apps with SWOT analysis templates, mind mapping software, SWOT analysis generators, or online presentation or graphic design tools.

Tip #3: Split your sales plan into specific tactical plans

You can use specific tactical plans to achieve your sales goals. The details depend on different variables, such as resources and time. You can make a plan for individual areas of sales, such as SDRs, sales enablement, sales operations, and customer success.

As you create a tactical plan, you have to consider the following key elements:

• Company mission
• Key performance indicators
• Flexibility
• Action items
• Responsible parties

These key elements will help you identify the plan’s success in many ways, including the likelihood of accomplishing it.

Tip #4: Use previous performance data

You can use previous performance data to build incentive, territory, quota, and sales capacity plans. Using this data as your crucial decision-making tool, your sales team can have a basis for making informed decisions and forecasting performance more efficiently and accurately. In return, your sales plan will likely help achieve efficiency, higher performance, and bottom-line growth.

Tip #5: Outline the tracking methods you’ll use

By outlining tracking methods, you can set process workflows, allowing your sales representatives to determine where each prospect stands and which steps they need to take next.

You can also track the following:

• Sale cycle length.
• Number of closed deals.
• Conversion rate.
• Average contract value.
• Pipeline value by quarter, by month, and by individual and team.
• The number of unclosed deals after reaching a specific stage.

Now that you know the peculiarities and components of a sales plan, let’s find out how to make a sales plan presentation, what to include in it, and discover the top 14 sales presentation tips from vetted professionals.

What is a sales deck, and how to best present one?

A sales deck is a set of slides you can use to guide your audience through your sales strategy presentation.

Slide presentations can help your target audience grasp crucial information, pricing, and product characteristics your sales representatives can build their story around.

The best sales presentation slides serve as a touchstone for your sales team’s pitches. They allow your sales managers to draw on their personal knowledge to deliver additional information tailored to the prospects and stakeholders they are presenting to.

What are the types of sales presentation?

Sales presentations are classified into three types: standard memorized presentations, formulated sales presentations, and need-satisfaction presentations. Each sales presentation deck type has distinct characteristics that suit different scenarios.

1. Standard memorized presentations

Standard memorized presentations are very detailed and precise and always follow a predefined structure. They ensure no detail is overlooked and enable the sales team to produce a well-rehearsed, flawless presentation, leaving no room for misinterpretations or potential inaccuracies.

2. Formulated sales presentations

Formulated sales presentations offer a balance between rigidity and flexibility. While they follow a structured sales presentation outline, they allow salespeople to adjust their presentation in real time based on the customers’ reactions. Because of this flexibility, the sales presentation is not set in stone but revolves around customer preferences and queries.

3. Need-satisfaction presentations

Need-satisfaction presentations follow a customer-centric approach, allowing the salesperson to focus on satisfying the customer’s individual demands. The emphasis here is on establishing a dialogue rather than presenting a monologue, encouraging the customer to actively engage in the process.

What are the features of a sales presentation?

The content of your sales presentation PowerPoint must be written carefully and portray the story behind the specific product or service. As time is of the essence in sales, ensure your presentation is no more than 10 minutes and the overall meeting time does not exceed one hour.

When you invite people to come to your sales presentation, make sure they are decision-makers and are related to the things you are selling. Also, try not to lose the prospect’s attention by choosing the wrong points. Your sales presentation doesn’t have to concentrate too much on your service or product. Instead, show the audience how your service or product will change their lives in a good way.

Sales presentation structure

Here’s how to build a sales presentation that catches your audience’s attention and delivers your product’s value proposition in the best way possible:

• Introduce the pain points of your prospects.
• Describe the impact of the problem your prospects are facing.
• Explain why change is urgently necessary and what they stand to lose by not acting.
• Present the solution: a clear path toward the prospect’s goals.
• Provide evidence, address reservations, and FAQs.

To create personalized sales decks quickly, you can use a sales presentation template with the most recent FAQs and case studies. This will allow you to easily copy a deck and create a customized sales presentation for each new prospect in a matter of minutes.

What to include in a sales deck?

Good sales decks have a few key elements, such as:

• Introduction. Say a few words about your company, mentioning your activities and mission. Make sure you grab the audience’s attention with a memorable opening slide or cover image.
• Definition of the problem. Identify the main issues that your company is trying to solve. Provide your audience with some data. Metrics can come from third-party sources or your own sales dashboard.
• Social proof. For instance, you might add quotes and success stories from customers to support your sales presentation. However, you must not repeat the things you say.
• Customized content. Customize your sales presentation for every single prospect so as to build a bridge between your services or product and your audience. In other words, make sure it is personalized.
• Next steps. Include a clear and brief call to action. Offer a few next steps for your potential prospects.
• Visuals. Graphs, charts, and other design elements are all effective techniques to illustrate your point. However, make sure they are simple. Do not overwhelm your sales presentation with too much data; use more visuals instead.

Lastly, make sure that the font (and font size) used in your sales presentation design is legible to everyone in the room.

Other points to consider

1. the product.

Demonstrate how your service or product operates in action. Create a perfect environment to showcase how the product works, if it is physical. Utilize technology if it is a digital product. For instance, you might ask your prospects to download the app. In some cases, you might use video as a demo.

2. Handouts

Hand out some materials to your audience. For instance, it might be a QR code or contact data. The information must be clear and to the point. Distribute the handouts once the sales presentation is over.

3. Practice and teamwork

Double-check your sales presentation with a few salespersons. Practice a lot before the actual presentation. Come earlier to make sure everything works well. Also, decide who will say some information during the presentation and who will do certain things to help you.

Expert tips: How to create your sales presentation?

Tip #1: sync.

Your main points must be synchronized with your sales deck. When you present statistics, you should speak slowly. Emphasize your tone of voice when you are talking about pain points. Express relief when you showcase how your company wants to tackle specific issues. Make sure all the questions you ask your audience have straightforward answers or are rhetorical.

Tip #2: Involve storytelling

People like exciting stories related to their daily lives and problems. They will listen to your sales presentation even more attentively if you tell a story that solves their everyday problems.

Tip #3: Avoid using technical slang

In your sales presentation, use general terms that are clear to every audience member. Do not use slang words. Most people in the room might not have a clue about your offering, so the simpler the lexicon is, the better the result.

Tip #4: Emphasize the value of your product or service

Try to demonstrate how your product or service differs from your competitors. Tell about the main differences slowly. Mention how your product or service will make other people’s lives more comfortable. In other words, emphasize their value.

Tip #5: Practice body language

Your body language must be confident during the presentation. Improve your body language by maintaining eye contact and standing straight. It will prove to people that you are interested in communicating with them.

Tip #6: Be funny

Use your sense of humor. For instance, you might play jokes, but you would better not force them. Keep in contact with your prospects by telling funny stories. Make sure everyone in the room is comfortable and relaxed.

Tip #7: Emphasize your expertise

Do not talk too much about your company. You should focus your sales presentation on the field of your expertise instead. For instance, you might demonstrate a slide with logos of the companies that have already invested money in your brand.

Tip #8: Focus on benefits

Emphasize the strong points and tell how your product or service will improve your prospects’ lives. Do not focus too much on the pain points. Make sure your presentation is personal and describe all the benefits they will get. You might also mention the names of people in the room to make them feel valued.

Tip #9: Include research

Add internal and external types of research to your sales presentation. Use statistics or graphs and cut the information into brief pieces for your company to get more authority. Add relevant numbers and examples to demonstrate how you helped previous clients.

Tip #10: Showcase the return on their investment

Tell how your company will master productivity, multiply market share, make more money, eliminate costs, and boost sales. In other words, you should show the results of investments both long- and short-term.

Tip #11: Rehearse

Rehearsing before a presentation will help boost your confidence and smooth “rough spots.” You will also get to know the approximate amount of time needed to deliver your presentation.

Tip #12: Talk directly to your audience

Do not speak just to your slides. Utilize slides to emphasize the things you say. If you fail to do so, your presentation will most likely sound boring. Try to engage every member of the audience. Express yourself by using your hands. For instance, you might ask them to raise their hands if they agree to some of the points.

Tip #13: Add a clear call to action

Make sure your last slide includes a call to action. Add your contact data, but do not go deeply into detail. Know when it is the right time to stop.

Tip #14: Answer the audience’s questions

Your prospects will ask questions, and you have to be prepared to stop the presentation and answer their questions as they appear. Your audience must be sure that you take them seriously. At the end of your presentation, you can also offer a product’s trial, discount, or other incentive to motivate the audience or create a sense of urgency. The main goal here is to make the audience involved.

Lastly, follow sales presentation best practices to ensure a polished and persuasive delivery. This includes maintaining a clear and concise narrative, addressing potential objections proactively, and incorporating compelling storytelling techniques. Utilize engaging visuals to enhance your message and capture the audience’s attention. Practice your delivery to ensure a confident and natural presentation style and encourage audience interaction through discussions.

By adhering to these best practices, you can create a sales presentation that not only increases the likelihood of successful outcomes but also fosters positive connections with potential clients or stakeholders.

Still wondering how to create a sales deck?

Don’t worry—our presentation design service has got you covered! With profound expertise in designing compelling presentations in different software and thousands of satisfied customers from across the globe, it will be a no-brainer for our dedicated team to transform your ideas into a visually stunning, impactful sales presentation. Take the first step towards a winning presentation by reaching out to us today.

Your success story begins with professionally crafted pitch deck slides —let SlidePeak help you make it a reality!

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Prepare, Present, And Follow Up: How To Nail Your Best Sales Presentation

Some people find presenting easy. They seem to have an intuitive understanding of how to grab and keep the attention of everyone in the room. Meanwhile, there are those who confess presenting is stressful. What to do if you are a sales rep who belongs to this second type?

There is a piece of good news for you: you can definitely master the art too. To deliver the best sales presentation, you should learn key tips beforehand, so you’ll be ready the next time you’re done with lead generation .

In this blog post, we’ll break down the process of creating a sales presentation into steps and discuss best practices you can use at each stage.

Sales presentations — what are they?

• Why is it difficult to deliver a good sales presentation?

Step 1. Preparing for a sales presentation

Step 2. presentation, step 3. follow-up.

A sales presentation is a part of the sales process wherein a salesperson demonstrates a product/service and explains in detail how to use it with a single aim — to move a prospect further down the sales funnel , motivating them to buy it. 

The best sales presentation makes room for questions, so it becomes a genuine two-way process, in which the prospect understands the value of the sales offering, while the sales rep learns more about their target market, prospect’s real wants, and needs. 

Another significant characteristic of a successful sales presentation is that the audience will likely feature some major players, i.e., decision-makers, which definitely streamlines the sales process.

But why is it sometimes difficult to deliver a good sales presentation?

The truth is, people, in general, don’t find presentations exciting. About 79% agree that listening to others presenting them something is boring. Your goal as a salesperson is to make your sales presentation engaging so your prospects understand all the benefits of your product without being overloaded with unnecessary information. Thus, professional presentation design and limited data are key to attractive slides.

Seems like a challenge, doesn’t it? Worry not, though. This post is designed to help you prepare the sales presentation step by step. 

How to give a successful sales presentation: a step-by-step guide

We recommend that you break down the process of delivering your sales presentation into three logical steps:

• Preparation
• Presentation itself

Let’s discuss what you should do at each of these steps, so you can be forearmed with a good outline next time you present your solution to prospective customers.

Good sales presentations begin before the speaker actually enters the room or joins the call . That’s the case when success is down to preparation. 

Preparation for the sales presentation means getting knowledgeable about any details relevant to your product, prospect, and the market in general. Incorporating an AI presentation tool can enhance your preparation, providing insights for more engaging and effective communication.

This is why this first step to giving your best sales presentation should boil down to the following tasks: 

Know your product

You need to know your product features inside out. Learn this information from your team and study the questions about your product that your customers frequently ask. These issues are likely to come up during the presentation itself. 

Try to test your product features as a user on your own. This way, you’ll be well-versed in how it’s all working and better understand your solution’s benefits. Look through your product testimonials to back up your expertise with real data from the current customers who have been using your product successfully for some time. 

Now think about how to render information about your company and solution simply and clearly — prospects you’ll be presenting to may have little knowledge of what your business is doing.

Know your competitors

“Know your enemy” — a saying you’ve probably heard many times. In business, it’s not about enemies but rather competitors who may serve as a good background for your product growth. 

Look more precisely into the solutions your prospects might buy instead of yours. Identify their weaknesses, so you can shine while comparing your features to theirs. But don’t neglect to study their strengths, too, so you’re prepared to overlay them with the benefits of your product. 

On top of this, learn how your competitors give their sales presentations. If they turn up with slick visuals and the most up-to-date software , you’re going to look pretty lackluster with your ring-bound notepad. 

Research your competitors both online and using any printed materials they circulate to potential customers. Get a feel for their tone of voice and brand identity. If there are any elements of their approach you can successfully assimilate (in a fully legal fashion), do so. They’d do the same to you. After all, all’s fair in love and sales. 

Gain customer knowledge

Knowing your customers and their buyer behavior is crucial to a successful sales presentation. Always keep in mind: you’re there not just to talk about your product but to connect with your prospecting customers. For this to happen, you have to know them well and identify their needs and wants. 

Before you even start a sales process, you’ll build your ideal customer profile , which will help you target prospects who are more likely to buy your product. But it doesn’t mean they’ll all actually will. 

So, at this stage, learn more about your prospect’s buyer personas. How long have they been in the company you’re selling to? Are they experts in their field? Have they bought from your competitors before?

Study the market 

What, in essence, does the company you’re presenting your solution to is doing? What’s the nature of their market? What problems are they likely to deal with? How might your product help solve them?

It will work wonders if you show you’ve done thorough research about the market your prospects operate in and their challenges and offer ways your company can assist in healing their pain points. You’ll come across as someone who wants to make their life a little better, which is hard to resist. 

Now that you’ve worked hard to prepare for the sales presentation, let’s discuss what strategies will help you win your prospect’s heart during the sales call or meeting when you’re demonstrating your demo. 

Leverage storytelling

One of the most powerful tools while making a sales presentation is telling your prospect a good story . People like stories: we’ve been gathering around campfires to hear tales from our fellows for centuries. OK, the tribes of antiquity were probably not assembled to learn about what the newest support chatbot could do for them, but there are some constants of storytelling that pertain to marketing and sales even now. The fact is, stories can be fun, and they can be memorable. 

Tell the company’s story: why it was born, how it was born, and the dreams and ideas behind it. People love stories of struggle and eventual triumph, so stage it like this, but don’t go overboard. Something else people like about a story? Brevity. 

Tell your prospects about one of your current customers who faced a problem your product could alleviate, propelling the company to succeed. Testimonials you’ve prepared at the first stage will be pretty helpful here 🙂 

Emphasize the value of your solution by painting a picture of what might be achievable when all obstacles are overcome. Once your prospect can envisage this promised land, you can tell them how your product will get them there, faster than other alternatives (aka your competitors). 

Use technology

You can’t rely solely on your magnetism and storytelling while giving a sales presentation. The modern audience expects a little more of an audio-visual feast than a salesman with a clipboard. They expect a digital pitch . 

Any technology like PowerPoint is a great way to get information across in a manner pleasant to your prospect’s eye. Well-crafted PowerPoint templates will allow you to visualize your product features, while a nicely laid out infographic will make the information you’ll be telling your prospect not tedious to hear. Look at the example:

If an image can somehow put what you’re saying in a better way, do use it in your sales presentation. 

In addition, you can use video content to present your solution. Short videos work miracles — not a surprise, about 94% of marketers say video has helped them increase user understanding of a product/service.

Include social proof

Social proof is a psychological phenomenon that consists in people mimicking the actions of others when faced with uncertainty. In marketing and sales, you can use social proof in a variety of forms:

• Customer reviews
• Testimonials
• Certifications and awards
• Influencers
• Press features
• Endorsements from experts in your industry

Social proof greatly influences decision-making: 2 out of 3 people say they’d be more likely to make a purchase after watching a testimonial video demonstrating how a business, product, or service had helped another person like them. 

You can learn who to ask for social proof professionally in our post about customer referrals . 

Demonstrate your product functionality

Don’t forget to bring the product in with you, of course.

If your product is digital, like an application or other software, have it installed and ready for work in real-time. 

Say, if your company is offering a CRM solution , show how all of its features work as soon as your prospect onboards. You can even let them try it on their own, under your caring guidance. This way, prospects will test it beforehand – the experience that will be more likely to result in their decision to buy it. 

End your presentation with a call to action

Your sales presentation can’t be just a one-way conversation. You should aim at building relationships with your prospect. A call to action (CTA) actually extends the life of your sales presentation, whereby you give them something to think about…and come back. 

In your call to action, offer your prospect one or two next steps. Just ensure it is short, straightforward, and personal. For example, instead of using something generic like ‘Download the guide,’ try something like ‘Become a pro with this short guide.’ The second option highlights the benefits and sounds more buddy-like, doesn’t it?

A sales presentation doesn’t end at the last slide and a polite ‘Goodbye.’ You should be sure your prospect has got the idea right, has no questions to ask, and is satisfied with how a presentation went. So, at this final step, we recommend that you do the following:

Ask yourself a series of questions about your performance. These could include:

• ‘Have I identified my prospect’s problem and offered solutions?’ 
• ‘Have I made sure the prospect knew how much I appreciated the chance to present to them?’
• ‘Have I encouraged a dialogue?’
• ‘Have I kept my comments relevant and engaging?’

Then rate your performance on each of these aspects out of 10. Doing this exercise immediately after the presentation will give you a good idea of how you performed.

Approach the prospect for feedback

If the call to action doesn’t seem to have worked, and the prospect isn’t hurrying up to order from you, there’s nothing wrong with approaching them and asking (but briefly) what feelings they have after the demo and what they think about your solution.  

Any customer retention guide will tell you about the importance of making a customer feel valued, and following up is an aspect of that. Ask if they’ve had time to think about what you had discussed and see if there’s anything you can do for them to seal the deal. This way, you’ll demonstrate that you care about your prospect’s feelings.

Quite often, the prospect may have loved the product but hasn’t had time to mull over how best to implement it. You can assist by suggesting ways your product might be integrated into their company and emphasizing how much time will be saved once the product is in place. 

Some basics to end with

To crown it all, we’ve gathered several simple tips to help you deliver effective sales presentations. Here are a few of them:

• Make eye contact. Sales professionals know this is one of the most important sales techniques. If you aren’t afraid to look directly in the eyes of your prospect, you come across as honest. In addition, this allows you to notice how they feel when you’re saying something and adjust your speech accordingly.  
• Relax. Your behavior at the sales presentation should convey calmness and confidence, so even if it’s your first demo in life, try to be relaxed. You’re an expert, and your knowledge of the subject is enough not to worry.  
• Listen. Though a sales presentation seems your moment to speak, remember to make contact with the prospect. Be attentive to what they’re asking and telling you. That’ll prove you really care.  
• Learn from the best. You don’t have to come across like Cirque du Soleil or PT Barnum, but it can help if you demonstrate a little showmanship. Watch some videos of great orators (from Martin Luther King to Jerry Seinfeld), but do bear in mind your capabilities. If you want to improve in this area, consider a public speaking course. 
• Practice, especially if you’re part of a sales team making the presentation. The more people there are, the greater the potential for mess-ups, so get that presentation nailed. You’ll all feel much more confident, which will be visible to your prospects. 

Wrapping up

The key to your best sales presentation, like any other business communication , is your knowledge and understanding of the interlocutor. Have a clear message, ensure you’re using all the tricks to get it across and practice until you know your pitch inside out. When you deliver your demo, be mindful of your prospect’s needs and ensure they get a chance to express them. 

Whatever sales presentation ideas you use, if you treat your audience with respect and look like you genuinely want to be there with them, you’ll give yourself the best chance of success. And if you need a single platform for all your sales activities, Snov.io is always here for you.

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

• Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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Top 21 Sales Presentation Tips & Ideas From Experts

Related articles, lead vs prospect vs opportunity: what's the difference, 52 lead generation statistics to consider in 2024, top 14 email nurture campaign best practices.

Selling Signals content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More .

Sales presentations are persuasive meetings designed to explain the value of your product or service and convince prospects to take the next step in your sales process. By properly preparing for the presentation, strengthening your presenting skills, and following some key best practices, you'll find it easier to win over your prospects. We've compiled sales experts' unique and creative sales presentation tips that have brought them the most success in their careers.

• Tips for Preparing Your Sales Presentation: Read more below.
• Tips for Giving Your Sales Presentation: Read more below.
• Tips for Closing Your Sales Presentation: Read more below.

For a professionally-designed sales presentation deck, check out Fiverr, a marketplace of experts offering sales presentation design services starting at just five dollars . There, you'll find gig-based design packages for sales presentations created in PowerPoint, Google Slides, Keynote and more. Check out the top sales presentation design options today:

Tips for Preparing Your Sales Presentation

When getting your sales presentation ready for your prospect, there are some tips and tricks to help set yourself up for success. Learn from the pros how to properly prepare for a sales presentation.

Joseph Schulman

Institutional Sales, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

Set an Agenda Like a Leader

"Having an agenda allows you to have a solid sequential flow to your presentation in any line of business, and it is clearly evident that when you have an agenda planned out before a meeting, you are more confident in what you are trying to convey to whomever is sitting across from you at the table — or in recent events, whomever is in the Zoom. I like to over-prepare for meetings because you never know if you will be given another opportunity, so you want to make every chance you get your absolute best version of yourself."

— Joseph Schulman, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

Lorie Carson

Founder & Marketing Manager, Real People Finder

Keep Your Sales Deck Light on Text

" Keep your sales deck light on text to avoid people getting bored. Short, captivating bullet points will do just fine. Rehearse your sales presentation often to gain more confidence in your ability to present with few words on the screen. When you can say your sales pitch confidently, you'll be able to make an impact on your attendees."

— Lorie Carson, Real People Finder

Gerrid Smith

Chief Marketing Officer, Joy Organics

Add Images Instead of Text

"What's the quickest method to turn a prospect off? Reading a slideshow. Create slides that support your sales message without drawing attention away from you. Because the human brain processes pictures 60,000 times quicker than words, infographics, charts, and short movies are far more effective in conveying your message."

— Gerrid Smith, Joy Organics

If you're looking for an engaging and well-designed sales presentation, check out the top freelance designers on Fiverr, a marketplace of gig-based experts. There you'll find pre-set sales presentation design packages for PowerPoint, Google Slides, Keynote, and more. Prices start at five dollars :

Chris Gadek

Vice President of Growth, AdQuick

Tell a Story With Your Presentation

"Stories are a powerful presentation tool to create an emotional resonance with your product and your brand. Every story has a hero, a conflict, and a resolution. And having a similar framework in your sales presentation will tell a story that builds tension and holds interest. Use cases are prime storytelling material as they paint a picture of how your customers achieve success through your solution. Sharing a relevant customer use case in your presentation also provides the kind of social proof that encourages leads to take action."

— Chris Gadek, AdQuick

Jason McMahon

Digital Strategist, Bambrick

Personalize the Presentation

"Content that is personalized for your intended audience is found in the most effective sales presentations. There are a few easy rules to follow to reduce the amount of time it takes to personalize a presentation for a specific meeting. The first one is to only customize a few slides at a time, usually the first few in your deck. You should also concentrate on a few popular methods for incorporating buyer-specific information into your sales presentation. You can provide information unique to the buyer's function or industry-specific data. You might add data gathered during your sales cycle's needs assessment or discovery phase. Finally, before the meeting, make sure you have a system in place for personalizing the presentation. Too many salespeople get right into their pitch without giving personalization any attention."

— Jason McMahon, Bambrick

Ryan Cartwright

Head of Sales, Spacelift

Use Transition Slides to Build Anticipation

" You should always add the transition to the text on a slide. Transition helps in hiding the complete picture from the viewer. It takes them to the conclusion step by step — keeping them interested in listening to you in anticipation of the next point. For example, if you have multiple points on the slide, showing them one by one will keep the focus on the conversation on the recently visible point. This way, the viewer will not get distracted by all the text on the slide."

— Ryan Cartwright, Spacelift

SEO Expert, First Page Digital

Practice, Practice, Practice

"Practicing your presentation will help you stay on track and avoid wandering off topic. Make a list of the key points you want your audience to take away from your presentation. Taking notes during the meeting will help you recall what your prospect is searching for — certain items they refer to can help you improve your presentation."

— Shane Liuw, First Page Digital

Susan Carin

Marketing Manager, Drsono

Share Your Sales Deck With Attendees

"You might think that sending out a customer the deck before a call is like disclosing whodunnit on the cover of a murder story. No person's going to pay attention to the rest of the book, right? Wrong.  If your deck is engaging, prospects will want to enter it with you, even if they know the bottom line. If you wish to see how closely your customer took note of your deck, start your call with, 'Based on the information in the deck I sent, where should we begin?' Do not stress if they did not examine it — they'll just inform you to take it from the top. Absolutely nothing's lost other than their opportunity to delve into a deeper conversation faster. That's what you want: a top-tier discussion, immediately. You can enter into one much quicker if your buyer has seen your deck and is ready to speak about it. "

— Susan Carin, Drsono

Business Development Executive & Co-Founder, YardsNearMe

Express Your Desire to Create a Partnership

" Practice expressing the need to build a partnership in your sales presentation. This is the most crucial step in the whole strategic planning process because this step involves thorough research. You need to analyze the company's risks beforehand and build an anticipation model by demonstrating strategic partnering."

— Alex Haley, YardsNearMe

Tips for Giving Your Sales Presentation

When giving your sales presentation, experienced sales professionals suggest taking certain actions to get your point across and sell your product effectively. Read the expert tips below.

Daniel Foley

Marketing & SEO Specialist, Scooter.guide

Showcase Your Industry Knowledge & Expertise

"Begin the discussion by asking questions about day-to-day activities and objectives. Use the replies to develop your narrative by asking specific questions that demonstrate your expertise in their organization and industry. Then, during your presentation, refer back to the issues raised by the prospect and emphasize how you, as a trusted advisor, can assist."

— Daniel Foley, Scooter.guide

David Floyd

Owner, ThePestInformer

Analyze Their Main Problem In Depth

" You may have a habit of launching right into your pitch at the outset of a meeting. Of course, you've done your study and have a meeting scheduled with this prospect, so you're ready. However, learning about your prospect does not end when the presentation begins. So start by asking some questions to find or confirm pain areas and better understand the problems your prospect may be facing. If you've already had a comprehensive talk, confirming what you know and asking if there's anything else you should know demonstrates that you care about the prospect and appreciate their time enough to pay attention to the details."

— David Floyd, ThePestInformer

Padmaja Santhanam

Growth Manager, FirstPrinciples

Make a Strong Introductory Pitch

"Start the presentation with a solid introductory pitch. It helps organize your thoughts and present your ideas in a streamlined and persuasive way. Be passionate about your product or service, but ensure to keep emotions in check. Be prepared to answer any questions your potential buyers may have and consider using facts and figures to support your argument or points of view. Showcase how your product or service can benefit the people in the room and offer ways they can get started using it right away."

— Padmaja Santhanam, FirstPrinciples

Werner Jorgensen

Sales & Marketing Manager, Heatxperts

Be Engaging & Flexible While Presenting

"Do not speak monotonously or make people feel as if you have a memorized speech. Although it is a good idea to practice your presentation beforehand, do not memorize it word for word. It will be a serious turn-off for the audience and will reflect poorly on your creativity. While giving a sales presentation, be calm and prepared. Even if you are giving the same presentation to 30 different people, make it new every time."

— Werner Jorgensen, Heatxperts

Sumeer Kaur

Founder & CEO, Lashkaraa

Be Authentic During the Presentation

"Stay true to who you are during a sales presentation. People can read through anything that isn't 100% genuine, so don't pretend to be who you think they are looking for; instead, be exactly who you are. If you are analytical and data-driven, focus on that strength. If you are innovative, creative, and passionate, lead with that. Know what you are selling and why, then approach it in your unique way, and focus on why you believe in it. People are buying not just the product or service but into you as the seller, so be authentic."

— Sumeer Kaur, Lashkaraa

Digital Marketing Consultant & Founder, johntorres.com

Use Success Stories in the Presentation

"Use storytelling to help your audience relate to your sales pitch. We all yearn to belong. But we prefer to associate it with success stories. The more successful the salesperson's story is, the more the audience feel endeared to them — and the brands/products they're associated with."

— Jon Torres, johntorres.com

Jenna Carson

Financial Partner, Money Lucid

Add a Big Moment in the Middle

"Have a 'WOW' moment in the middle of the presentation, as people's minds start to lose focus. This is a great way to realign people's attention towards you. A 'WOW' moment could be a great statistic, or some service you offer that they weren't expecting and matches their needs. Following this big mid-presentation moment, reduce the amount of text on your presentation as a way to keep up momentum and stop people from getting bored."

— Jenna Carson, Money Lucid

Greg Cammarata

Account Executive, demandDrive

Ask Open-Ended Questions Throughout

"I ask prospects questions throughout our call/presentation to see if what I’m saying aligns with what they are looking for. If you’re consultative and politely direct, I believe objections will also reveal themselves throughout the conversation."

— Greg Cammarata, demandDrive

Founder & Managing Partner, Funnel Clarity

Get Audience Reactions

" Ask your audience for reactions about every 10 minutes of presentation time. Avoid asking ‘Do you have any questions?’ That is a conversation killer. Ask instead, ‘What have you found most intriguing?' "

— Tom Snyder, Funnel Clarity

Jeff Johnson

Acquisition & Sales Manager, Simple Homebuyers

Demonstrate the Solution In Action

"The best sales presentation tip is demonstrating the solution in action. It allows the audience member to assess the functionality of your product/service in a real-world context. This strategy would allow an individual to build an interpersonal connection with the audience members, leading them to make a favorable buying decision. A solution-oriented demonstration helps individuals visualize how the product would make their lives easier."

— Jeff Johnson, Simple Homebuyers

Tips for Closing Your Sales Presentation

After giving your sales presentation, follow these expert tips to help wrap up the conversation and get the prospect to agree to next steps, such as receiving a business proposal .

Connor Buckley

Account Executive, Salesforce

Search for Objections After Presenting

"Open-ended questions are absolutely critical for uncovering a prospect's pain by getting them to open up about current processes and ‘unload’ rather than simply say yes or no. Asking ‘How do you envision yourself using this solution?’ is going to lead to a much stronger discovery than ‘Is this something your team would find useful?’ Pair this with mirroring/labeling and you can really get someone to open up about what their needs or objections are."

— Connor Buckley, Salesforce

Co-Founder, RevenueGeeks

Follow Up After the Presentation

"Follow up on your presentation and ask for feedback. Try to time this no more than three to five days after you presented the presentation in question. Following up on your presentations allows you to steer prospects toward making a purchase. If you ask for honest feedback, it can also help you find areas where you need to change in order to be more successful."

— Adam Wood, RevenueGeeks

Bottom Line: Sales Presentation Tips

The sales presentation can make or break your deal. If you spend the time you have with your prospects touting your features or client list, you could bore them and unintentionally send them to the competition. Instead, spend 80% of your time talking about them, their needs, their problems, and their potential future, and try the expert tips that you believe will help you keep your prospects engaged and interested so you can successfully  nurture your leads  to deal close.

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9 sales presentation tips that great salespeople swear by.

• Stick’s 200+ interviews of top sales and marketing pros
• Using the top sales presentation examples, here’s what we learned:

Part One: How to Build a Powerful Sales Presentation

Sales Story = Change + Pain + Gain + Proof.

1. Start with change.

2 . Show them their pain.

3. Share a glimpse of the gain.

4. Provide proof.

• Showing value (“ Similar Company X was like you, but then they achieved these results” )
• Showing volume (“ 10,000+ companies have joined”)

Part Two: How to Deliver Your Sales Presentation

“Take the same product and present it directly to the prospect by talking about it and then take that same product and present it using visual aids.

You will find that, not only do you close a higher percentage of prospects, but they will actually pay more money for the same product.”

1. Replace text with visuals.

“Human PSE is truly Olympian. Tests performed years ago showed that people could remember more than 2500 pictures with at least 90 percent accuracy several days post-exposure, even though subjects saw each picture for about 10 seconds. Accuracy rates a year later still hovered around 63 percent….

Sprinkled throughout these experiments were comparisons with other forms of communication, usually text or oral presentations. The usual result was PSE demolishes them both.”

2. Keep it to 9 minutes.

3. Author your own content.

Part three: following up after your sales presentation, 1. turn discovery into custom content..

2. Build your champion’s buying guide for them.

3. Build it in their brand.

Conclusion: The Ultimate Sales Presentation

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The Most Effective Sales Presentation Tips & Techniques

Selling is difficult, but sales presentations can help. This article demystifies the art of creating a winning sales presentation that connects with your customers and increases your revenue.

Dag Hendrik Lerdal

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Selling is difficult, but one of the most effective tools sales reps have in their back pocket is the sales presentation. When done right, it’s the key to landing more deals and generating higher revenue for your business. 

However, it takes more than throwing together a couple of PowerPoint slides and calling it a day. It requires compelling content and engaging delivery to close the deal. 

In this article, we will demystify the art of creating a winning sales presentation that connects with your customers and ultimately drives more sales. 

Understanding Sales Presentations

Before we get into what makes a sales presentation “good,” let’s first make sure we’re on the same page about what a sales presentation is. At its core, a sales presentation is a meeting between your sales team and the key stakeholders of your target client company. 

The ultimate goal is to convince them that your product/service is the best solution for their business needs. This means you need a clear understanding of their business challenges, solutions, and goals. 

What sets a sales presentation apart from a typical sales pitch is the scope and resource requirement.

Sales presentations are usually geared toward going after big-ticket deals and generally have multiple stakeholders that will have the final say. Also, sales presentations will often have a product/service demo so the target customer can see your offering in action.

With so much on the line and so much to gain, a sales presentation also requires more time, money, and effort in preparing and planning to make sure everything goes smoothly.

What Makes a Winning Sales Presentation?

Beyond the speech and visuals, there are five core components that elevate a sales presentation from “nay” to “yay.” These five elements include:

1. Doing Your Homework

Knowledge is power, and it’s even more true when it comes to creating a sales presentation that actually closes deals. You need to clearly understand what challenges and pain points concern your prospects. Then, you can tailor your sales presentation to present how your solution adds value and helps them address these issues.

It requires you to do extensive research into your target company and their industry:

• What unique challenges do they face?
• What are some issues they might have to deal with later?
• How can you help them become more competitive?

By digging deep, you can provide a custom solution that can ultimately get them on board.

2. Telling a Story

Use the art of storytelling to your advantage. Stories are a great tool for helping your prospects visualize and internalize how your solution will work for them. Of course, that doesn’t mean you need to be Stephen King – you can rely on anecdotes from real clients.

However, make sure to keep your story concise and focus on the key points. Showing the real-world potential of your offering carries more weight and helps your prospect see its value.

I love this breakdown by Consultant’s Mind:  

3. Highlighting the Value Proposition

Yes, your product has X awesome features and can do this and that. But honestly, your prospect doesn’t care about those. They want to hear what your product can do for them. 

How is it going to solve their problems? How will it make their life easier?

That’s what you want the core of your sales presentation to answer. It doesn’t need to be overly complicated, either. 

You can simply say, “[Product X] will help [Company A] solve [Pain Point 1] and [Pain Point 2] by doing [Benefit 1], [Benefit 2], and [Benefit 3].”

4. Providing Credibility in Your Sales Presentation

Of course, you can’t just say, “X will do Y,” without having proof to back up your claim. That’s where social proof and data come into play.

Leverage past happy clients to give testimonials to show your product/service provides tangible benefits.

You can also use research data such as statistics, quotes from experts, and product comparisons to give your presentation more weight. For example, saying “X can cut downtime by X%” is more actionable than “Y saves you time.”

5. Including a CTA

Finally, your sales presentation needs a call to action. A CTA pushes the prospect to make the next move by telling them what they should do. It can be contacting you for more info, signing up for a demo, making a purchase, and anything similar. 

The goal is to make sure the prospect has a clear idea of what they need to do to move things forward.

13 Effective Sales Presentation Tips & Techniques

Now, let’s move into the meat and potatoes of this article: 13 actionable tips and tricks you can implement into your next sales presentation.

1. Presenting with Confidence in Sales

In the sales world, confidence speaks volumes. No one wants to be stuck dealing with a boring presentation. Plus, when your voice is shaky, and you’re stumbling over words, it puts you and your company in a bad light.

So, how do you deliver your presentation confidently? The key is being well-prepared and knowing your stuff. You need to know your sales material and product like the back of your hand. We recommend practicing your sales presentation as much as you can. 

If you want to test yourself, do your presentation without using any of your slides. If you can do that, then you can be confident you can knock it out of the park when it’s go-time. 

2. The Five-Second Rule

While sales presentations are considerably longer than a typical sales pitch, the five-second rule still applies. In the digital age, where attention is a commodity, you have around five seconds to capture your target’s attention.

That means the first few words of your presentation need to be impactful. Try opening up with a shocking industry stat like, “Did you know X costs businesses like yours millions every year?”

Whatever you do, remember to make it relevant to your prospect and their goals or challenges. Once you have them on the hook, you can then guide them to the key aspects of your presentation and how your offering is the right fit for them.

3. Leverage Technology like SlideDog in Your Sales Presentations

Gone are the days of boring PowerPoints and WordArt. Take advantage of tools like SlideDog to kick your sales presentation into high gear. 

With SlideDog , you can combine all of your sales materials and assets into a powerful, engaging presentation to really wow your prospects.

SlideDog is especially helpful when you need to hop between slides and other assets like your website or SaaS product during the presentation. It’s also great when there are multiple sales reps that need to speak because you can seamlessly swap between their presentation media.

Try SlideDog today for free on Windows and turn your presentations into multimedia experiences!

4. Make Sure You Sound, Look, and Act the Part During Your Sales Presentation

Depending on your prospect, your attire, jargon, and attitude needs to match what your audience will expect.

If you’re dealing with CEOs, CFOs, and other executives, then business wear and a professional tone is probably the right choice. If you’re presenting to tech bros in a more casual environment, then your presentation should reflect that. 

When you take this approach, it builds trust and shows that you truly understand them and their industry.

Of course, you don’t need to do it all yourself. Rely on your teammates and their expertise in different areas to create a presentation that connects with each individual in your audience.

As an added bonus, swapping between presenters keeps things fresh and engaging for the audience. 

5. Learn to Handle Objections

Objection handling is a core skill every salesperson needs to learn. There are common objections that pop up, regardless of what you’re selling. 

Typically, prospects have objections that fall into one of four categories:

• Urgency/time

Your goal is to understand your prospect’s reasons for their objections and respond accordingly. 

By using past objections from clients and a deep understanding of the industry, you can frame your sales presentation to pre-emptively address these concerns. Just check out this example from Smartwriter :

6. Physically Demo Your Product/Service

Actions speak louder than words, and you should apply this principle to your sales presentation. Providing physical demonstrations gives your audience a real-world example of what your product can do, and they can more easily envision themselves using it.

Plus, it adds a bit of interactivity to your presentation. It also gives your audience a chance to ask pertinent questions during the demo. This is also a great place to throw in examples of how your product/service has helped previous and current clients.

If you have a tablet or other devices you can share with your audience, it’s an opportunity for them to get hands-on experience with your offering.

7. Make Your Presentation Flow

Your presentation needs a logical and seamless flow as you transition between slides and key points.

First, verbal transitions are a must – in fact, I just used two examples with “first” and “in fact.”  There are a plethora of transitions you probably learned in school, such as “conversely,” “furthermore,” and “therefore,” to name a few. 

However, more advanced transition strategies involve using your body language, speech cadence, emphasis, visual aids, and questions to make it easier for prospects to follow along and understand how everything connects together.

8. Ensure Key Decision-Makers & Stakeholders are Involved

The last thing you want to hear after giving a kickass presentation is, “Let me speak with the district manager and get back to you.”

Make sure the key stakeholders and the person who can say “yes” are at your sales presentation.

On that same note, you want all of them to get hands-on experience with your product/service. Get them involved because when they can picture in their mind how easy your product is to use or how it resolves their issues, it makes it much easier for them to sign off on it. 

9. Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for the Deal

After you’ve given your stellar presentation and the customer understands how and why your product benefits them, simply ask them if they are ready to move forward. 

There are many different approaches you can take when asking for a sale. You can use FOMO or “fear of missing out,” which plays on the prospect’s emotion of missing out on a good deal or letting their competition get ahead.

Or you can use an analytical approach where you lay out the pros and cons of your solution. Another method is sweetening the deal with a now-or-never discount or freebie.

There are a ton of different close tactics you can use, so find one that will work best for this particular prospect.

9. Don’t Take the First No for the Final Answer

The best salespeople know that it takes two, three, or more tries to close a deal. If you’ve tried to close the deal and got hit with an objection (see tip 5), then give a thoughtful response and follow up with your attempt to close the deal again.

You might need to wait a while. In this case, work on building your relationship and rapport with the prospect.

That way, when they are ready to pull the trigger, you and your product will be the first solution that comes to mind.

10. Keep Your Presentation Tight and Concise

You don’t want to waste your audience’s time, especially when speaking to executives. Make sure your presentation gets straight to the point. Every word, slide, and media should have a clear point and reason for being there. Even your pauses need to be impactful and poignant.

That’s where practicing and rehearsing your presentation is paramount. You can better control the tempo when you know your presentation inside and out. Create an outline and write out the key points you want your prospects to understand.

In your initial meeting and setting up the presentation time, take notes so you have a clear understanding of what your prospects need to know.

11. Own Your Presentation

You need to take the lead and exude confidence during your presentation. Yes, that sounds like a no-brainer since you’re the one giving the presentation.

You don’t want to say “sorry” or “I apologize,” even if it’s warranted. 

For example, if your slides aren’t showing properly, don’t say, “I’m sorry for the technical issues.”

Instead, you say, “I will be starting the presentation shortly.” 

Another point to keep in mind is to stay away from the ums and uhs in your speech. Not only is it unprofessional, but it gives the impression that you aren’t confident in what you have to say.

Finally, don’t tell your audience what you “think”; tell them what you know. You know your product will solve their problems. You know what benefits your service has to offer.

12. Leave a Lasting Impression

Make your presentation memorable. That doesn’t mean you should expect your audience to remember every minute detail. However, there are things you can do to make sure the key points stay in their mind long after your presentation is over.

One tactic is to use repetition. The details, benefits, and solutions you want them to retain should be mentioned 3 or more times. When Steve Jobs introduced the iPad 2, his presentation repeated the idea of “thinner, faster, lighter.”

Another strategy is the visual aids you use throughout your presentation that revolve around your key points. People hold images in their minds more easily than complex ideas.

Finally, you can use text formatting in your slides to highlight what you want your audience to walk away with. This includes bullet points or bolding and underlining keywords that make those pop out.

13. Expect (and Prepare for) the Unexpected

Lastly, our last tip is to understand that you can’t prepare for every eventuality – but you give yourself a better chance for success by expecting and respecting the unexpected. 

There might be technical issues. You might get asked tough questions you aren’t ready for. However, the best presenters roll with the punch and come out swinging.

If you take to heart all of the previous tips, you will be ready to face any challenges that pop up during your presentation.

Wrapping up

Sales presentations can be difficult to master, but when you get them right, they unlock a treasure trove of opportunity.  Remember, a successful presentation starts well before you’re in the room, with your slides behind you and your prospects in front.

Be confident, do your research, and take advantage of tools like SlideDog to elevate your presentation to the next level.

And with these tips and techniques in your arsenal, you’re ready to have a successful and fruitful quarter. Happy presenting!

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7 Sales Presentation Tips to Crush Your Pitch and Win Deals in 2023

Effective sales presentation tips and best practices each sales rep must follow to persuade the audience and close deals faster.

Table of Contents

Sales presentation tips entail useful pieces of practical advice that help you sail through the cut-throat competition. Wondering how? Let’s understand with an example.

Imagine that you require a few manufacturing units for your business and are sitting in a sales presentation regarding one. However, you are not sure if you will be purchasing one soon.

Then, as the lights dim and the presenter steps on the stage. She leverages sales presentation best practices and captures your attention with a compelling narrative. She paints a vivid picture of a scenario familiar to anyone in your industry: the struggle to balance efficiency and quality in production. She describes a factory floor buzzing with activity but plagued by bottlenecks, delays, and a growing sense of frustration among the workforce.

Intrigued, you lean in, eager to hear how her solution can address these challenges. She recalls the sales presentation tips she learned in her corporate journey and seamlessly transitions into the heart of her slideshow by introducing the product - a state-of-the-art manufacturing automation system. She likens the system to a finely tuned orchestra with a simple and relatable analogy, where every instrument plays its part in perfect harmony.

To drive her message home, she employs one of the effective sales presentation best practices. She includes powerful visual aids and displays side-by-side comparisons of production lines before and after implementing the system. You can imagine how this transformation could revolutionize your own factory floor.

She concludes the presentation, leaving you with a sense of excitement and possibility. Reflecting on the presentation, you realize her approach was a masterclass in effective sales techniques. Through storytelling, empathy, and a deep understanding of your needs, she transformed a simple presentation into a transformative experience that left you inspired, informed, and ready to take action.

Do you also wish to learn sales presentation best practices that can transport your audience from a mundane meeting room to a world of possibilities and help you close infinite deals?

Here are some of the best sales presentation tips to help you do so.

7 Sales presentation best practices for 2023

Here are 7 sales presentation tips you must use in your next presentation.

1. Commence with a compelling product story

Every great presentation begins with a narrative that instantly gets the audience on their toes and captivates them. You can weave an intriguing story around what encouraged you to think of the product (about which you are presenting), what challenges you faced, and tactics you used to overcome them. You can also create an awe-inspiring narrative reflecting your product vision.

For instance, when it comes to sales presentations, there is no better storyteller than the tech giant, Apple. Whenever the company launches a new product, it begins with a compelling product story that persuades the audience to make a purchase.

Right from talking about its innovative design and features to emphasizing the amount of research that went behind it, the company builds massive hype and establishes an emotional bonding with the audience, ultimately converting them from passive listeners to active buyers.

2. Focus on values, not features

While it is tempting to inundate your audience with a long list of product features, it is essential to focus more on the values of your product and convey the impact that it makes.

Let us understand with the help of an example- consider that you’ve recently launched a splendid collection of clothing items, where each design is unique and one of a kind. Every article has flexible fittings, adjustable lengths, and best-quality fabrics. However, merely listing these points can leave the audience feeling overwhelmed.

Instead, you can draw their attention towards how impactful your articles are- talk about their sustainable fabrics, hand-crafted patterns and stitching, and how each garment has empowered artisans and their families.

By associating values with your features, you shift the focus from technical aspects to the real-world impact of your creation.

3. Understand the pain points of your audience

The foundation of a persuasive sales presentation is knowing the challenges being faced by your audience. Research their problems and analyze how you can position your product as the perfect solution for the upheavals in their life. Addressing immediate concerns is key to understanding how to start a presentation . Position your product as the solution from the outset.

For instance, if you are selling inventory management software, begin with how most businesses are crippled with losses due to poor stock and order management. Allow your audience to understand the problem and weave a narrative around how these challenges can be solved by simply putting your product into use. Show them the power of your creation, and help them understand its unique propositions.

4. Encourage interaction and participation

There is nothing that distracts an audience more than a one-sided presentation. Thus, even though it seems like a daunting task, it is crucial to keep them engaged and involved throughout.

You can do so by integrating live polls and trivia questions, conducting group discussions, and even presenting product demonstrations on stage. Such activities will enable your viewers to stay invested and allow them to retain the information that you’ve presented for a much longer time.

5. Harness the Power of Visuals and Graphics

Break the monotony of texts and data by incorporating mesmerizing images, videos, graphics, etc., into your slides. Visuals help break intricate information into simpler pieces, making the presentation easier to follow.

However, we understand that crafting such stunning creatives from scratch can be quite burdensome and consume much of your time. Thus, we suggest using expert-designed PowerPoint slides that can be easily added to your existing presentation and customized completely.

6. Generate trust with client testimonials

In a world overloaded with misleading information and data, it is crucial to build credibility and get your target customers to trust you and your products. Thus, one of the most effective ways to establish such stature is by showcasing testimonials of satisfied customers.

By including real success stories of your clients and showing how your offerings have helped them, you can build a strong rapport and convey the strength of your product or service. You can even convince the toughest clients by doing so and close innumerable deals!

7. End with a clear call to action

As you conclude your presentation , it is extremely crucial to guide your audience toward the next step and end with a strong call to action. Show how they can contact you after the session, send them a link to buy your services, offer a mindblowing discount coupon to generate sales immediately, etc. Your CTA should be straightforward, clear, and actionable.

Examples of some amazing sales presentations

Uber is a renowned American transportation company that provides taxi/cab services.

Its one of the sales presentations is a perfect example of how to make content quickly scannable for the audience. The presentation focuses on the value proposition of the company.

It also reflects how businesses can benefit by partnering with Uber. The points are backed by customer testimonials that add credibility to the presentation.

Zuora is a US-based company that offers software solutions to companies to empower them to manage their subscription-based services.

In one of its sales presentations, Zuora has leveraged the power of visual storytelling to engage the audience. The story begins with a reality followed by a question (that the audience wants to answer). Moving ahead, there are some connecting dots and a common thread to make the presentation more tactical and engrossing.

3. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

The LinkedIn Sales Navigator’s presentation is a good example of how you can make your sales presentations distinguished and stand out by thoughtful use of colors. A CTA is provided in the last slide to encourage the audience to take action.

In a world of cut-throat competition and thriving businesses, presenting your product or service in an intriguing manner is extremely crucial. Not only can it determine the growth of your organization, but it also impacts your credibility as an industry player.

Remember, every memorable sales presentation blends compelling narratives, value-driven content, customer stories, and concrete facts and figures. We hope this sales presentation best practices help you curate your next slideshow effectively!

1. What is a sales presentation?

A sales presentation is a formal communication method employed by sales professionals to present a product, service, or solution to potential customers. Its primary objective is to persuade the audience to make a purchase or take a desired action. This can be done in person, over the phone, or through digital means such as webinars or slide shows.

2. How should you begin your sales presentation?

You should begin your sales presentation by grabbing the audience's attention. This can be achieved by:

• Sharing a compelling statistic or fact.
• Telling a relevant story or anecdote.
• Asking a thought-provoking question.
• Stating a common problem that your product or service can address.

It's also crucial to introduce yourself, state the purpose of the presentation, and give an overview of what you will cover, setting clear expectations for the audience.

3. What should be included in a sales presentation?

A comprehensive sales presentation should include:

• Introduction : Briefly introduce yourself and your company.
• Attention grabber : A compelling story, fact, or question to engage the audience.
• Need or problem : Highlight the problem or need that your product or service addresses.
• Solution : Detail how your product or service solves the problem or meets the need.
• Features and benefits : List the main features of your product or service and the benefits they offer.
• Testimonials and case studies : Show proof of satisfied customers or successful implementations.
• Pricing and packages : Clearly outline the cost, packages, or options available.
• Objection handling : Address common objections or concerns proactively.
• Call to action : Clearly state what you want the audience to do next, whether it's to purchase, schedule a follow-up, or ask questions.
• Conclusion : Sum up the key points and thank the audience for their time.

4. How long should a sales presentation be?

The length of a sales presentation can vary based on the context and the audience. In general, it's essential to keep the presentation concise and engaging. A good rule of thumb is to aim for 20-30 minutes, but this can be shorter or longer based on the complexity of the product or service and the audience's prior knowledge. Always allow time for questions and discussion.

5. How to make a sales presentation?

To make an effective sales presentation:

• Research : Understand your audience's needs, desires, and potential objections.
• Structure : Organize your content logically, starting with a compelling introduction and ending with a strong conclusion.
• Engage : Use visuals, stories, and examples to make your points more relatable and memorable.
• Practice : Rehearse your presentation multiple times to refine your delivery and anticipate questions.
• Gather feedback : Before the final presentation, consider doing a run-through with colleagues or friends to gather feedback and make necessary improvements.
• Use technology : Utilize presentation software (like PowerPoint, Keynote, or Prezi) to enhance the visual aspect of your presentation. Ensure that the slides complement your talk, not replace it.
• Be interactive : Engage the audience with questions, discussions, or interactive elements to maintain interest and gauge their understanding.

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Pitch Decks | Public Speaking | Sales

Powerful sales presentations: 7 best practices.

Written by Kai Xin Koh

Guy Kawasaki, an author and venture capitalist, once said, “Enchantment is the purest form of sales. Enchantment is all about changing people’s hearts, minds and actions because you provide them a vision or a way to do things better. The difference between enchantment and simple sales is that with enchantment you have the other person’s best interests at heart, too.”

A good sales presentation, otherwise known as a sales pitch, is often the distinguishing factor of a successful company that has all of its prospective buyers in the palm of its hand. In today’s rapidly changing market, where approximately 100 million new businesses are started every year by aspiring entrepreneurs with so much to offer, just staying afloat can be a struggle sometimes.

If what you’re looking for is a way to rise above the rest, help is here — because this article is going to teach you the art of delivering a stunning sales pitch.

How To Create Powerful Sales Presentations

If you’re just starting out, don’t worry, we’re going to tell you exactly what you need to do. Making your sales pitch compelling really isn’t rocket science, and it’s going to come naturally once you get the hang of it!

1. Understand Your Audience, Tailor Your Presentation

In most cases, you already know the group of people that you will be pitching to. Take advantage of that and spend some time learning about them: familiarize yourself with their backgrounds, read up on their industries, and get to know them a little better through checking their business websites or searching them online. For a small group of audience, you should be able to do more in-depth background research. However, this tip works even with a significantly larger group of people, even though you might not be able to probe as much. If possible, find out who your rival companies are and in your presentation, not only demonstrate how the product that you’re selling is perfect for people with their backgrounds, but also how it has a competitive edge over other companies. Your selling point should be focused on a specific feature that your audience can benefit from most.

2. Brevity is the Soul of Wit

The people listening to your sales pitch are likely to be those with authority, or have the power to influence the decision makers — which is why you’re pitching to them. Be mindful that these are people with busy schedules and are not new to sales pitches, so make a list of crucial information that would be essential in pushing your sale beforehand and adhere closely to it. Avoid going off-tangent or going to extreme lengths to try to impress them. Most importantly, always ask questions and address their specific concerns so that the entire interaction happens on a more intimate level. This makes for an effective sales presentation , as it reflects the notion that you understand your clients’ needs, and also enriches your personal learning experience. Always make sure you:

• Address how your product covers any specific needs that they have
• Acknowledge any reservations or doubts that they might have
• Accept their feedback if anything falls short and use that to fine-tune your product/presentation

3. Know When to be a Storyteller

Everybody loves a story — good stories , when told at the right situations, can evoke emotional responses from people. People are more engaged when they hear personal narratives as compared to a list of hard facts, because it allows them to connect with you on a more personal and meaningful level. It helps them see who you are beyond a salesman trying to get them to buy something from you; you have depth, history .

The fun part is, you get to choose how you want to incorporate the element of storytelling into your pitch! You can choose to deliver your presentation in the form of a story, or you can choose to build your product on a series of anecdotes, there are so many ways it can be done. Infuse humour whenever a window opens for it, and appeal to your audience through personal narrations.

Remember: Remind them that you’re so much more than just another salesman.

4. Remember the Power of Three

While it is tempting to pack all the benefits of your product into your slide deck, keep in mind that good sales presentations should never neglect the power of three:

• Your pitch should contain no more than three big, central ideas
• Each individual slide should contain no more than three pieces of information

It has been proven time and time again that there’s just something about the power of three — making three points — that really resonates with the human brain. Things that come in threes are just more satisfying, more memorable, and more effective. Any more than three, and you might find yourself losing the attention of your audience.

5. Include Relevant Examples, Evidence, and Data

All words and no proof makes your entire sales presentation weak and flimsy, so be sure to back up your claims with plenty of evidence. Include relevant examples and present your data in the form of charts or graphs, whichever would make them most easily comprehensible with one look. Additionally, instead of giving generic descriptions of what your product can do for your clients, provide specific examples of how your product has helped people of similar backgrounds achieve what they want.

Ideally, ask satisfied customers for referrals to other potential prospects. Referrals are more likely to end up in a sale as prior bridges have already been built, and nothing works better than the good old ethos.

6. Pursuing the Next Steps

Never be too eager to pressure potential clients into sealing any deals. Understand that they might still have some doubts, and be flexible with your options instead of rushing them straight into a commitment. Be open to offering alternatives such as free trials or demos, and let them know they can take a bit more time to consider the product because you truly have their interests at heart. As long as you are pursuing a next step together, it’s a win. Showing them that you genuinely believe in the product you are selling will also go a long way.

7. A Good Slogan Sticks for a Long Time

Last but not least, do your best to come up with a catchy slogan that is not only related to, but also reminiscent of your product. If you’ve ever had the experience of having a particular song or tune stuck in your head and finding yourself humming along without even realizing it, this is the exact same effect that a quality slogan can have. Impress your audience with an applaudable presentation, but make that impression a lasting one with a slogan that sticks in their heads and pops up when they’re not expecting it. Before you know it, you’ve already charmed your way into their hearts.

You’ll see that it’s not all that difficult to find your place in a market that never sleeps. Just remember, for a powerful sales presentation, make sure you:

• Know your audience
• Get to the point
• Be engaging
• Condense your information
• Include relevant evidence
• Pursue a further relationship
• End with a catchy slogan

All it takes is a little bit of practice and voila, watch as the magic happens. Good luck!

Article Written By: Kai Xin Koh

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Sales Best Practices for Success

Casey O'Connor

The Fundamentals of Sales Best Practices

Building a high-performing sales team, sales process optimization, effective sales techniques, customer relationship management.

Sales is one of the most diverse and wide-ranging industries for job-seekers today. 

Because of its all-encompassing nature, it can sometimes be hard to give one-size-fits-all sales advice that will serve all sales teams universally.

That being said, there is a core set of sales best practices that all sales teams — regardless of company size, level of experience, industry, or customer need — should follow in order to be successful and achieve growth. 

In this article, we’ll go over everything you need to know about these non-negotiable sales best practices, including what exactly they are, how to optimize them according to the unique makeup of your team, and how to make sure the needs of your buyer stay at the forefront of all of your sales best practices.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

First, let’s define what a “best practice” actually is, because it’s undoubtedly a buzzword and gets thrown around quite a bit without a lot of clarity. 

A “best practice” can generally be defined as a standard, procedure, or set of guidelines that has been proven to produce positive results when implemented and followed correctly. 

Understanding Your Target Audience

All sales success starts with a deep understanding of your team’s target audience. Sales reps and marketers should collaborate to define the wants, needs, challenges, pain points , and other behavioral characteristics that uniquely combine to create your target buyer. 

ICP & Buyer Personas

Market Research

It’s also important that sales teams have their finger on the pulse of the overall movement of the market at large. 

Market research helps sales teams gauge the potential success of their product, identify upcoming trends that might affect sales, and predict how to remain competitive. 

Market research can look like analyzing the product-market fit, tracking your competitors’ progress, keeping tabs on your brand’s reputation, and more. 

Effective Communication Skills

Effective communication is perhaps the most important foundational skill for sales reps to master. All parts of the sales process rely on good communication, from building trust and rapport to negotiating closing terms.  

Active Listening

Active listening is the act of listening to a speaker with the intent to understand the true message and meaning behind what they’re communicating.

These techniques can help buyer and seller come to a consensus about the buyer’s needs, and how the seller can best meet them. 

Building Rapport

Nobody wants to be sold to — even B2B buyers who know that they’re shopping for a new product. And savvy shoppers can smell fake small talk from a mile away. 

Setting Clear Sales Goals

Short-term vs. Long-term Sales Goals

The first thing that sales leaders should keep in mind as they set goals is that they need to think both short-term and long-term. 

Near-term sales targets help keep sales reps motivated and moving forward, while big-picture sales goals help ensure that their team contributes to overall business goals. 

SMART Goals

The people on your sales team will ultimately determine its success. Even the most optimized sales process can be tanked by an uncoachable, impersonable, or otherwise wayward group of sales reps. 

There was a time in sales when talent was chosen based on a manager’s instinct or gut feeling about potential hires. However, recruiting and retaining outstanding sales reps who can both contribute individually and collaborate for the good of the group needs to be based on much more than just a first impression. 

Building a high-performing sales team requires effective hiring, sales training , motivating compensation, and a culture of support and collaboration.

Hiring and Training

The people who make up your sales team are the ones who bring all of your pen-and-paper goals, targets, and strategies to life with real buyers. Hiring the right reps — and then onboarding them with the right approach — is one of the most impactful things a sales leader can do to improve their sales metrics and drive revenue growth . 

Recruiting Top Sales Talent

Top-performing sales reps can bring in up to six to seven times the amount of revenue than their average-performing colleagues. They can also help improve your overall customer relationships, as well as your brand’s reputation. 

A list, outline, or matrix of hiring qualities can be helpful in adding some tangibility to the hiring process. 

Onboarding and Continuous Training

Onboarding your reps with the tools and knowledge they need to be successful is one of the most important things a sales leader can do to improve rep performance and, ultimately, retention. 

When sales reps feel like their management cares about providing the resources they need to do their job effectively, they’re much more likely to be loyal to your organization and put their best foot forward in the field. 

Product Knowledge 

Each of your sales reps needs to be an expert on the product or service they’re trying to sell. 

As with just about everything in sales, reps should frame their approach to learning product knowledge around the buyer’s perspective. This is why buyer personas are so important; some decision-makers may appreciate very technical product knowledge, while others care more about the ROI and overall outcomes. Sales reps need to be well-versed enough in all of these categories that they can speak to the needs of various different buyers. 

Motivation and Incentives

The way that you engage, motivate , compensate, and recognize your sales team can make or break their success. 

There are two primary areas to consider when it comes to paying your sales team what they’re worth: their specific sales compensation plan, and the ways in which you recognize and reward their hard work and successful results. 

Sales Compensation Plans

The sales compensation plan outlines how a member of the sales team gets paid. 

Most sales compensation plans incorporate some combination of a base salary, commission, and (sometimes) scheduled or performance-based bonuses. 

Some sales compensation plans may also include other benefits, like health care or travel perks. 

Sales compensation plans are not one-size-fits-all, even within the same sales team. Each one is unique in design as well as final payout, as many plans depend on the performance of the sales rep over a certain period of time. 

Regardless of the specifics of your compensation plan, however, there are a few foundational elements to keep in mind as you create them for the members of your team. 

When designed and executed correctly, sales compensation plans can help motivate and engage your sales employees. 

There should be a healthy balance of financial security (usually through some type of base salary), professional challenge (usually achieved with a commission incentive), and an opportunity for additional recognition for outstanding performance (e.g., bonuses and other rewards). 

Effective sales compensation plans are also important for sales leaders and other higher-up executives, as they help drive accurate sales forecasting. 

Recognition and Rewards

Companies that prioritize employee engagement enjoy 20% higher profits than those with disengaged employees.  

Team Collaboration and Support

The worst thing a sales team can do is work in silos. Successful sales teams rely on constant collaboration, as well as a team culture of support and camaraderie. Collaboration is an absolutely essential sales best practice.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Effective team collaboration is closely correlated with improved performance and significant account growth. 

A Yesware study of over 200 companies on sales team collaboration found that companies who shared their best practices with one another enjoyed several benefits. 

With the dramatic shift to mostly remote work due to the pandemic, leaders need to be more proactive than ever about giving their teams (sales and marketing) opportunities to productively collaborate. 

Choosing the right sales tool can make all the difference here. Yesware , for example, allows teams to easily share email templates and entire campaigns among everyone on the team. 

Keep in mind that most sales reps are competitive by nature. While a little bit of healthy competition can be motivating and fun, sales leaders should work hard to instill a culture of communication and supportive collaboration. 

Mentorship and Coaching

Grab our free ebook below which is filled with data-backed findings on the more effective sales strategies and techniques.

Sales teams that implement formalized sales processes are more likely to be high-performing than those that lack structure. 

Creating structured, automated, growth-oriented sales processes requires a team-wide, standardized understanding of the roles, expectations, and accountability requirements of everyone involved.

Understanding the Sales Funnel

Prospecting

Sales prospecting is the process of identifying potential customers and initiating contact with them. 

Sales teams that are great at prospecting also know to track and measure their results, so they can optimize the process. 

Prospecting looks different for every team, and the strategies and tactics your team uses will depend most heavily on the needs and preferences of your target market.

The more that sales managers can add structure and automation to the process with tools like Yesware’s Prospector — with access to enriched data for 100+ million businesses — the easier the entire sales process will be for their sales reps. 

Qualification

Lead qualification occurs after prospecting. This is the process of determining which prospects are most promising. 

To qualify leads, sales teams should start by comparing each one against their ICP and buyer personas. This helps narrow down the prospects who represent a good fit on paper. 

All of them, though, are based on a variety of demographic and behavioral data relevant to your buying process. 

Remember — the key is to add structure wherever you can. Qualifying leads is a process that can become too subjective and murky if sales teams aren’t careful. Lead scoring is a good way to add some objectiveness and standardization to the process, but you may find that another strategy works better for your team. 

Presentation

The definition of a successful sales presentation has shifted over the last several years. Buyers today do not have the bandwidth for hours-long, drawn-out pitches. Sales reps need to be able to drive home the value of their offer in something more akin to an elevator pitch than a full-blown presentation. 

If you need to send out a slide deck for a remote presentation, for example, it’s important to master the strategy and best practices around digital decks (i.e., the first 3 slides are crucial — readers who read those are 80% more likely to read the entire deck). 

On the other hand, active listening is key for in-person presentations, where prospects may have real-time questions or objections. 

The close is the final stage of the sales funnel. By this part, all objections have been handled, questions have been answered, and terms have been discussed. Both parties have agreed upon a mutually beneficial solution. 

Just like all of the previous stages, closing the sale requires personalization . 

Fortunately, the rise of digital marketing has given sales reps a lot of leverage when it comes to prospects who aren’t quite ready to close, but who were otherwise very engaged during the process. They can be funneled into a nurture email sequence that’s designed to keep them engaged (and keep you at the forefront of their minds) until they’re ready to pull the trigger. 

Leveraging Technology

Technology is a non-negotiable sales best practice in today’s sales world. Even the most bare-bones tech stack of an email operating system and a CRM system need to be an integral part of your day-to-day sales processes. 

There are also more specialized platforms, like sales engagement , sales enablement, and sales compensation software that can bring valuable, time-saving automation to just about every part of the sales process. 

CRM Systems

The CRM is like a sales rep’s Rolodex on steroids. It’s responsible for housing, tracking, and sometimes analyzing customer data, including information about previous interactions with sales reps. 

Sales Automation Tools

Beyond contact management, sales teams also have a number of other sales automation tools to consider that may assist their sales process. The following is a non-exhaustive list of the types of tasks that sales automation software can help with: 

• Sales prospecting
• Lead generation
• Lead nurturing
• Call recording and analysis
• Calendar management
• Data enrichment
• Video conferencing
• Note-taking 
• Sales engagement
• Sales enablement
• Email analysis
• Sales forecasting and budgeting

Regardless of the platforms you consider to add to your tech stack, keep in mind the Yesware “Tech Trifecta” when it comes to choosing new software: simplicity, ease of integration, and automation & acceleration. 

Continuous Improvement

All successful sales teams work with a mindset of continuous improvement. 

In other words, individual sales reps and sales teams as a whole know that there is always more to learn, and they look for ways to consistently challenge themselves. 

Sales Data Analysis

Sales data analysis is the process of collecting, collating, and evaluating sales results to gauge overall performance. Effective sales analytics practices are essential for data-driven decision-making. 

The tricky part about sales data analysis isn’t the data itself — in today’s digital age, there’s virtually no limit to the amount of data sales teams can uncover about a prospect. 

In fact, therein lies the problem: there is almost too much data for individual sales reps to use productively. 

There are many sales data analysis and predictive analytics tools available on the market that are built to help teams digest large volumes of prospect and customer data and continuously update it for accuracy. 

A/B Testing and Experimentation

One of the best things about A/B testing and other experimentation within the sales process is that it can be used across all stages of the sales funnel. From email campaigns to cold call scripts to pitch decks, there are very few things that sales and marketing teams can’t test and optimize. 

The rise of digital sales (especially in the context of the pandemic and other major societal shifts over the past several years) has paved the way for a new core group of sales techniques that sales reps can rely on throughout the sales process. 

Buyers today have little to no tolerance for being “sold to,” even when they themselves make no pretenses that they’re in the market to make a purchase. Sales reps need to be very savvy about how they manage their relationships with prospects. 

The following sales techniques are some of the most important for sales reps to master with today’s buyers. 

Consultative Selling

Solution Selling

Solution Selling works really well for customers who require customized or otherwise complex solutions. Solution sellers often create their offers in bundles or packages, custom-built for their specific prospect with a completely unique set of à la carte features so that each of their needs are met for a complete solution. 

Relationship Building

Regardless of the specific sales methodology your team uses when they talk to prospects, one of the most important skills they can master is the art of building genuine relationships. 

One way to do this is to shift their mindset away from the potential transaction and more toward relational understanding. 

Buyers today would prefer to buy from people they trust. When sales reps put the time and energy into building relationships, it demonstrates to buyers that they truly care about understanding and meeting their needs. 

Objection Handling

Sales objections are a completely normal part of the sales process. Sales reps who interpret them as a stumbling block are unlikely to ever become top performers. 

The most successful sales reps know that objections, when managed correctly, can become opportunities. 

Learning how to handle objections can actually be fun, once you get the hang of it. And it’s much less complicated than most sales reps expect. 

The truth is, most effective objection responses are pretty similar to normal conversation. 

Closing Strategies

Although closing is like “the finish line” of the sales cycle, it can often feel like the opposite of coasting for many sales reps. There’s a lot of pressure during this stage, and no matter how successful a rep is throughout the rest of the sales process, none of it will matter if they can’t close deals. 

One of the most important things to remember as you approach the close is to involve all relevant decision-makers. Research shows that most B2B sales now include an average of 7 stakeholders or decision-makers, all of whom will likely need to be looped in at some point throughout the process. The faster sales reps can connect with these influential people, the more likely they’ll be to execute the close. 

Long-term success in sales ultimately comes down to how well your sales, marketing, and customer success teams are able to maintain long-term, mutually valuable relationships with buyers. 

Building Long-Term Customer Relationships

It’s rare in B2B sales that a closed deal occurs without a solid relationship between buyer and seller. Emotions play into B2B sales decisions a lot more than buyers like to admit. 

The key to building strong customer relationships is to personalize every interaction. The more you know about each prospect and customer, the more effectively you can build an authentic relationship with them. 

Note, though, that personalization means more than just remembering a prospect’s name and the right time to call them. It’s really about delivering value to them at every stage of the process and finding the right way to pitch your product so that it speaks directly to their unique needs.

Post-Sale Follow-Up and Customer Care

Managing long-term customer care is sometimes assigned to a dedicated Customer Success team. That being said, even if your organization has access to that kind of resource, it’s still important that sales reps maintain contact with the customers they signed. This adds a personal touch and element of care that goes a long way with buyers and, subsequently, your brand reputation. 

With software like Yesware, you can schedule and automatically send follow-up emails at regular intervals, so all you have to do is set it and forget it once you make the sale. 

Obtaining Customer Feedback

Customer feedback is crucial to optimizing the sales process. Sales reps should regularly distribute customer surveys, as well as offer easy opportunities for happy customers to provide testimonials.

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