In your approach you have won the prospect’s interest. You have put them in the mental position where they are ready to purchase if you prove up your claims. And you can prove up these claims because you made them, knowing in advance that they were merely a preface to showing your proposition.

What is the mission of your presentation?

To create desire for your products. That’s all. And the minute that is accomplished, the order is yours for the taking.

Let your presentation be organized, well thought out, with a beginning, middle, and an end. Don’t take any chances in your presentation. Know what you are doing.

Once a friend of mine was demonstrating a new steam cleaner to an interested contractor. He failed to ground the unit as he usually did. The lesson is still in his mind ten years later: his prospective buyer leaned against the machine, receiving an electric shock that did not hurt him, but it sure killed the potential sale.

The rule that a person travels familiar roads more rapidly and surely than they can pick their way along unknown paths absolutely applies to demonstrating.
Consequently, prepare and practically memorize a standard presentation of your proposition; have it in such shape, like a pilot’s check list, so that your mind is dealing with the person you are talking to. And if emergencies arise, instead of groping for something to say, you have already rehearsed for it.

The best speeches, the greatest orations, the ones that have made history, have in the great majority of cases been prepared beforehand and carefully memorized.

I don’t mean to say that you should write out a presentation or demonstration, then commit it to memory, and try to repeat it word for word. Just know it well. But I do say that you should have a standard practice in presenting or demonstrating your proposition. Again, remember the pilot’s checklist. No matter how many times you’ve flown, no matter how smart and capable you are, following a standard practice will be worth your effort. Let this presentation of yours be born of your experience and that of others in selling your product.

Sit down with a pencil and a lot of paper, or behind your computer screen. First, jot down the big talking points of your proposition. Then organize them with a beginning, middle, and an end. Then write out a presentation, putting yourself in the other person’s place, and weighing the effect upon them of every word you’re going to utter. Remember, you’re a salesperson, not an author.

Cut down. Boil down. Eliminate. Abbreviate.

Then when you’re satisfied that you’ve got the shortest, best, most convincing, most complete presentation of your product that you are capable of giving, commit it to memory. Yes, commit it to memory. And if you doubt the effect on others of memorized words, witness the actors who, with the same speeches, make different audiences laugh and cry at the same places in their play night after night after night.

Yes, when you are convinced that you have the best presentation you are capable of giving, then memorize it.

Take it out on the firing line. Add to it. Take away from it. And you’ll find yourself with a presentation that will bring down the game in the shape of orders.

We can’t all be at our best every day or every hour. But if you get your best possible presentation down on paper and then firmly entrench it in the back of your head, you’ll be certain to make a better average presentation than you ever have before. It will also give you confidence during off days.

To learn more about the Crucial Points to Succeed in Sales and how to use them to improve your sales results, get my e-book here.