5 Tips for Great Sales Presentations

Giving sales presentations can be intimidating at times. There have been some spectacular successes and failures. I remember one of the latter when a slightly bitter presenter who was leaving the company where he was having to work out his final weeks, simply stood up asked if everyone could read and then proceeded to flip the slides over every 30 seconds or so. You could have heard a pin drop. The most painful (and funny) presentation I ever saw.

Obviously, not the best way to give a presentation!

There are some basic tips for presenting in front of a large or a small group.


1. Understanding

Any sales presentation should help you to get that sale. You need to understand what you would like to get out of the session. Equally important is to understand what your customer is hoping to accomplish in the presentation and ensure that they meet their goals as well. Prepare in advance.

2. Engage the Audience

Unless you are presenting to a large group, allow questions when they come up – not just at the end of the presentation. That way you can deal with questions when they are fresh in the attendee’s mind. However you need to ensure that you keep on track and stay focused. It is easy to end up talking to only one person in a presentation if you do this. Remember to engage all

3. Timing 

Time is valuable and over-running your allotted time in a presentation is a big sales fail.  Plan out the sections and how much time each should take. You certainly don’t want to run out of time or even worse, be rushed in a part of the presentation that you feel is very important. Keep an eye on time at all times.

4. Keep It Sharp and Clean

Slides should be uncluttered and clean.  Forget transitions and movement as they often become irritating. Video clips can be highly useful but keep them short and to the point. Remember that too much text forces your audience to be reading when they should be listening to you. Get your point over and then move on. Don’t be tempted to put too much on one slide

5. What’s Next?
The final slide should be one asking the audience to react – “Next Steps?” Ask them how they want to proceed from here. Use this as part of your sales methodology. Use it to start to close.