STEP
1: Planning. Depending on the importance
of the sale, this step should be larger or smaller.
Basically, you should be prepared. You should know
your product inside out, as well
as your buyer needs, this will help
you propose solutions to those needs
with your products. Know off by heart
your presentation and don’t forget to properly
test your visual aids if you are going to use these.
Think of all possible questions that may be asked
and make sure you have answers to all of them. Overall,
think carefully about what you expect from your meeting
and plan to achieve it.
STEP
2: Opening. Obviously, as in any situation,
you should be polite and professional,
introduce yourself if your audience
doesn’t know you, but above all, use this opening
time to build credibility and trust
towards yourself and your company or project. Provide
an overview oriented towards the
needs of your audience and ask questions that show
that you are interest in them and that you’re
not just there to carryout your presentation just
as you would to anyone else.
If
you have carried out the first step well, your confidence
will help you transmit the right sensations.
STEP
3: Questioning. As I have said before,
no-one likes someone who is only interested in themselves,
their products, projects or company. People like to
feel that you are taking your time
to analyse and understand their needs in order to
offer solutions. So we must ask open questions that
will provoke answers that may bear
this information in order to adjust
our presentation to the real needs of our audience.
Make sure it’s your audience
that does the talking in this part of the meeting,
listen carefully and when you have all the information
use it in your presentation, but never try to solve
problems in this part.
To
finish summarise the key
points before starting your presentation.
STEP
4: The Presentation. You must know
your product inside out, but don’t make the
mistake of just presenting the wonderful benefits
of your product. Use the information gathered
previously to put this into perspective
and show your audience how these benefits will solve
their needs and priorities. Focus on the key benefits.
You may have a long list of benefits which need to
be mentioned, but don’t deter
the attention from the main issues.
While presenting, show natural enthusiasm and faith
in your product, this will transmit trust.
STEP
5: Objections. The better you carryout
the four previous stages, the less objections
that will arise, even more so, if
the presentation is personalised to the real needs
of the audience. But objections will arise and it
is your job to make them flourish, understand the
real underlying problem and provide a solution so
nothing hinders the purchase.
STEP
6: The Close. In modern thinking,
and if the previous has been carried out in
an exemplary way, it will be the buyer that
will close the deal. If you think
about it, first you do all your homework,
you build up trust and credibility, you discover his
real needs and priorities, you show how you can solve
these and you overcome all the main
objections; in this situation the buyer either purchases
or it’s just not going to happen.
However, this doesn’t mean that the sale will
be immediate.
STEP
7: After-sales Follow-up. This depends
heavily on the kind of product, but you always need
to check the customer satisfaction and in this way
solve any possible misunderstandings
or problems that have occurred. Word-of-mouth-marketing
is important and it’s normally as a consequence
of this last, but important, process.
