As business begins to reopen across the nation and folks start heading back to work, how is your team going to adapt their presentation style or technique when providing quotes or proposals? The harsh reality of the new world is some organizations are going to jump back into business as usual, others will not be able to as easily. As leaders we need to adapt our organization’s technique on how we position our products and our solutions.
Will the days be gone of going into a corporate environment and delivering a power point presentation? The short answer is no, not forever. In the near term however, we need to adapt the way that we are positioning our proposals. Below are three areas that I feel will make the difference between a proposal meeting gone wrong, and one that drives home a memorable experience.
1. Video: You, your team, heck, your entire organization will need to understand how to present subject matter content across video in a way that is engaging, informative and drives home your speaking points to your prospects. If you snooze on this, you will lose. You need to start thinking like a production company!
2. Understand Technology: There are a slew of apps and tools that you can use to snazzy up your presentations. Loom and Bomb Bomb are a few video recording tools that will help get you started.
3. Receiving and giving clear, well understood commitments: To me, this is the most critical area that organizations and sales reps fumble the ball. For example, when a prospect says to you “we’ll get back to you in a week or two after we have had some time to discuss” and we reply with “not a problem that sounds good, I’ll reach back out in a week or so.” This response is too loosy goosy, you haven’t taken the time to lay out clear well understood expectations. A more appropriate response should be, “not a problem, just to clarify when you say a week or two which one is it? At the end of the day, I just need to understand what truly is appropriate on my end when following up with you.”
There is no doubt that the current state of affairs has and will continue to impact the way companies go to market. This is a fundamental fact and as leaders we need to train and prepare our people with new skillsets that will thrive in a virtual sales environment.
Stay healthy, stay safe and as always, keep growing!
Principle MP Solutions- For 25 years Rob has been driven by the passion he has to grow people and organizations. Rob has worked with hundreds of companies and is a sought-after speaker on sales, sales management, social media, strategy and goal setting. He brings his 18 years of Sandler Training experience to MP Solutions.
