Ditch The Pitch

In conversations with sales professionals, I am often surprised by how many get caught in the presentation trap. They spend an inordinate amount of time preparing for a razzle-dazzle presentation and lose sight of the issues at hand. Everything salespeople do beforehand--the prospecting, contacting and qualifying of potential customers--is aimed at creating the opportunity to present their solutions. Everything after, including the downhill run to the sale itself, is designed to support and reiterate the presentation. Consequently, sales organizations devote a great amount of time and resources to creating compelling presentations. Ironically, most of that effort is lost on your customers.

A presentation that is too early for complex decisions is largely a waste of time. Conventional salespeople hate to hear that because it is usually the key weapon in their sales arsenals. It is their security blanket, and they loath giving it up. They seem to be on a mission to relentlessly educate customers because, after all, they will not buy what they don't understand.

Granted, a presentation can take customers to a higher level of understanding, but it is one of the least effective methods for accomplishing that goal. Why?

• A presentation--even one that includes advanced multimedia elements--is, in essence, a lecture. The salesperson is the teacher and the customer is the student. The big problem is that little information is retained. The use of visual aids boosts retention rates, but the rule of thumb is that more than half of even the most sophisticated presentations can be lost.

• A typical sales presentation rarely devotes more than 10 to 20 percent of its focus on the customer and his current situation. Rather, the great majority is devoted to describing the seller, its solutions and the rosy future if customers buy them. All too often, however, salespeople are dealing with customers who are not sure of the exact nature of their problems, how your products and services impact other areas of their businesses, who would be concerned and the cost in their absence. As a result, while customers may be greatly impressed with your products, they still don't understand how they apply to their particular situation.

• Competitors are following the same strategy and are busy presenting, as well. In each meeting, a sales team is presenting the best side of its solutions. Your team is telling the customers that they need the solutions that only your company offers, while your competitors are making the same arguments. And in every case, the presentations are heavily skewed toward the seller and the solutions.

Talking the Talk

So, what do customers understand? Price. As you might already expect, everyone is in a downward spiral to commoditization, which is the natural outcome of presenting too much, too soon and too often. To help you avoid falling victim to the "presentation trap," ask yourself these five critical questions:

1. What percentage of your sales presentation/proposal is devoted to describing your company and your solution?

2. What percentage of your sales presentation/proposal is devoted to describing your customer's business, its problems and objectives?

3. How well does the customer understand his/her own problems?

4. How much of your presentation is focused on persuading and convincing?

5. How well can the customer connect your solutions to its business situation?

How do customers then respond to competing conventional presentations? From my experience, in several key ways.

First, they concentrate on the information that falls inside their areas of comprehension. Customers attempt to understand complex information by weighing those elements that vendors' offerings have in common and eliminating those elements that do not fit neatly onto a comparison chart. When that happens, salespeople's ability to differentiate their offerings from the competition is subverted, and price, the one common denominator, is likely to become the deciding factor in the sale.

Second, customers might also respond by not responding. They listen politely as you educate them, thank you for your time and promise to get back in touch when they are ready to make their decisions.

Finally, some customers may actively respond. They might ask you to justify the information you have presented or challenge the viability of your solution. That is the response every conventional salesperson is expecting. The customer objects, and the sales professional works to overcome those objections. When that happens, it is apparent there has been a disconnect along the way.

Ultimately, sales presentations exacerbate communications between buyers and sellers, leading to frustration, misunderstandings, conflict and adversarial relationships. Advice for sales professionals who wish to avoid the presentation trap: Don't present. Instead, use a diagnostic approach. Simply stated, conduct a thorough diagnosis to uncover problems and expand customers' awareness. Once customers clearly understand and perceive all the ramifications of a problem, the salesperson can make recommendations, and a presentation is no longer necessary. Guide customers through this process, and you will establish a high level of credibility and find yourself jointly developing optimal solutions.

Jeff Thull is author of the books Mastering the Complex Sale: How to Compete and Win When the Stakes are High and The Prime Solution: Close the Value Gap, Increase Margins, And Win the Complex Sale, on which this article is based.