At one point in time, we’ve all sat through a bad presentation. Whether it was a boring college lecture or a bad sales pitch, there’s nothing worse than sitting through a presentation and just wishing it would be over already. What’s possibly even worse than that, though? Being on the other side of things as a B2B sales rep and constantly facing rejection.
The last thing you want to hear when you’ve worked hard on a B2B sales presentation is, “Sorry, I’m going to need more time to think this over.” Hearing this over and over again never gets easier. Unfortunately, if your B2B sales deck has too much text, bad content, no images, and no unique differentiators, you probably won’t sell as much as you’d like.
Selling to other businesses isn’t easy. Fortunately, with an excellent B2B sales presentation, you can start delivering killer sales pitches and close more deals. Here’s what you need to do if you want to sell your B2B services effectively.
Understand the Wants and Needs of Your Target Audience
The first step to developing a killer sales presentation is understanding your target audience. If you don’t take this into consideration, your whole pitch will be off. According to Forrester Research’s Buyer Insight study, only 13% of customers believe salespeople can demonstrate an understanding of their business challenges and how to solve them. The buyer must come first.
Before you even start building your sales presentation, define your who and how. Who are you pitching to, and how will you solve a problem their business currently faces? When you understand your ideal customer perfectly, you can better tailor your message to that audience.
So, before you make a pitch deck, first identify who you are pitching to and ask yourself:
- What are their main pain points?
- Who are their customers?
- What solutions or products are they currently using?
Once you identify your who, determine how you are going to solve their problems.
- What’s in it for them?
- How can you solve a problem they currently have?
- What makes you better than the competition?
Answering these questions before creating a pitch deck will help you target your message to your ideal customer and make each pitch you deliver that much better.
Why Should You Qualify Leads?
A lead generation strategy without lead qualification is just guesswork. Lead qualification in your B2B sales process is necessary because it enables your sales team to focus on high-quality opportunities, close more deals, and boost revenue.
There are three steps a sales development representative (SDR) must follow to qualify a lead:
Step 1: Prospect and Gather Data
During the prospecting stage, an SDR researches and finds information about the prospective business. This includes the key decision maker (KDM) and their contact information, such as direct phone number, extension, and email address. After gathering this information, it’s much easier to get in contact with the KDM and pitch your business’s product or service.
Step 2: Ask Qualifying Questions
After identifying a KDM, it’s time to start pitching and asking qualifying questions. This helps determine their buyer persona and if they’re a good fit for a business partner. Qualifying questions could include:
- Are you responsible for handling this product or service?
- Do you have a specific budget?
- When do you reevaluate your budget?
- What do you wish to change about your current solution?
Step 3: Ask Relevant Survey Questions
By asking survey questions, you can uncover specifics about the prospective business, such as the number of employees they have and when their contract is up with their current provider. This enables your business to secure high-quality business opportunities.
Highlight Differentiators Without Using Too Much Text
One of the keys to a great sales presentation is to not clutter your slides with too much text. Every slide should have a good mix of text and images. Also, make sure the colors, fonts, and visual elements in your presentation match your branding.
What Should Be Included in a Business Presentation?
We know your business has a lot to offer prospective companies, but you don’t want to overwhelm them with an abundance of information all at once. Here is a slide-by-slide guide on what should be included in a business presentation:
Slide 1: Presentation Overview
Start your presentation by listing the key points that will be discussed in the meeting. Giving the potential customer an agenda maps things out clearly and eases them into the presentation.
Slide 2: Company Introduction
It’s essential to start your presentation by telling the audience more about your company. You can’t just jump right into products and services without telling them a little about your history, who you are, and what you’re about.
Slide 3: Identify the Problem
A key component of every sales presentation should be to speak to a pain point. If you know your ideal customer (you should if you’re in B2B sales), then you already know their pain points and understand why they may need your products or services. Use this to your advantage. Identify a problem, use statistics to back up your statements, and use the issue to lead into your value proposition.
Slide 4: Why Us?
Before diving right into products or services, you should next incorporate a “Why Us?” slide. Sure, you may offer a solution to a problem, but why should a customer want to work with you? What makes you unique? What value do you offer? This slide helps customers understand why they should work with you instead of a competitor.
Slide 5: Products/Services
Any B2B sales presentation must include one to three slides talking about products or services. Obviously, the whole point is to sell your offering, so you’ll want to highlight this more than anything. Clearly explain what your product or service offering entails, but keep it short and sweet. Don’t clutter slides with text, use bullet points, and include imagery when possible.
Slide 6: Meet the Team
If you’re selling a service rather than a product, it’s a good idea to include a “Meet the Team” slide. Showing a customer the team they’ll be working with should they sign on with you helps them better picture themselves as your partner.
Slide 7: Process and Pricing Information
If you’re selling a service, clearly explain to the customer what the implementation or onboarding process looks like. It’s likely that things aren’t going to go from 0 to 100 in the blink of an eye. Usually, there is a process in place for how a new client is brought on as a customer. Tell them what this looks like, what the pricing options are, and what they can expect next.
Slide 8: Conclusion and Next Steps
Be sure to keep it short and sweet and quickly wrap up key points in the last few minutes of your presentation. Your final slide should clearly define the next steps and segue into the next phase of the partnership. Whether this means a second meeting, a phone call, or a follow-up email recapping the pitch, make sure you have a plan for the next step. Also, make sure that you’ve answered all questions before ending any sales pitch.
Build Credibility With Case Studies and Statistics
There are two ways to spice up your sales presentation: case studies and powerful statistics. Even a customer who has agreed to a meeting with you is still going to have their doubts. This is why you have to build credibility and show the customer why you’re a company that can be trusted.
- Case studies: Case studies show potential customers the success that you’ve had with businesses that are similar to theirs. This helps the potential customer visualize themselves using your products or services.
- Statistics: A powerful statistic can be what converts someone from a potential customer to a long-term partner. This shows the customer your value and why they should work with you and your company.
Practice Your Sales Pitch—Don’t Memorize It
Once you feel like your pitch deck is complete, it’s important to practice it. This doesn’t mean memorizing each slide word for word but instead delivering your pitch in a way that feels natural. Use slides to guide your thoughts and words instead of using them as a script. Preparation is the key to a great sales presentation, but this means to practice, not memorize. Make sure you’re comfortable with the material and develop the confidence to give the presentation without even looking at the slides. This will result in a natural sales pitch and a more engaging conversation with the potential customer.
A great way to get better at pitching is to rewatch yourself giving a pitch and take notes on how you could improve. If you’re giving a virtual B2B sales pitch, record the presentation and reference it as training material. COVID-19 has changed B2B lead generation drastically. Most sales reps have to give virtual sales pitches now anyway, so record your presentations and practice getting better.
Ask Questions To Engage in Conversation
If you’re the only one talking during your sales pitch, you’ll quickly bore your audience and lose their attention. Engage the prospect by asking questions and letting them talk. Asking questions not only helps you keep your audience on their toes, but it also helps you as the B2B sales rep. The more you can learn about the customer, the better you can tailor your pitch to fit their needs. It will also make your follow-ups much more effective, because asking questions will help you better understand your customer’s business. Don’t read through your presentation like a robot, engage the customer and create conversation throughout the entire pitch.
Questions to Ask Prospects During a B2B Sales Meeting
Asking prospects questions during a sales meeting opens up the floor for conversation rather than talking at them the whole time. Here are some example questions to ask:
- What are you hoping to accomplish with your business within the next year?
- What are your must-haves, should-haves, and could-haves?
- How do you go about reevaluating your current solution?
- What is a priority for you right now?
- When are you looking to make a change to your existing solution?
- Why are you looking at other opportunities?
- Where do you see your biggest opportunities for growth?
Define the Next Steps and Continue to Follow Up
Even if you’ve delivered the perfect B2B sales pitch about your company and your products or services, your job isn’t done. Once you’ve informed the customer, you need to outline the next steps for them. The entire point of a B2B sales presentation is to hopefully convince an interested customer to purchase your product or service. If they’re not 100% clear on how to make a purchase, you’re likely not going to sell to them. Make the next steps clear. What actions do they need to take? What will the beginning of your partnership look like? What results can they expect to see? In addition, if the customer isn’t quite ready to buy at that moment, be sure to schedule a follow-up phone call or appointment.
Why Should I Follow Up With Prospects?
Not every prospect is ready for a business proposal or to sign on the dotted line after an initial sales meeting. Following up with prospects is one of the most important components of your sales approach because it shows that you care about the potential B2B partnership. This can add significant value for when they are ready to make a change.
Following up with prospects is also a great way to build their trust. By routinely connecting with prospects, you show them that you haven’t forgotten about them or their business. It also shows that they’re not just another business on a list and that you care about their long-term success.
How Are Virtual Sales Meetings Different Than In-Person Meetings?
While face-to-face sales meetings are preferred to build better relationships with prospective clients, sometimes it’s not always attainable. When COVID-19 took the world by storm, companies had to adjust their sales strategies with more over-the-phone and virtual sales meetings. Overall, the discussion stays the same, but the approach and engagement have changed. To have a practical virtual selling experience, sales leaders must:
- Keep everyone engaged: It’s easy to get distracted by slow internet connections and background noises during virtual meetings. Make sure your webcam is on to have that face-to-face interaction and pause at various points in the sales pitch to encourage feedback and keep everyone engaged.
- Make meetings efficient: One of the biggest challenges of remote sales pitching is inefficiency. Setting an agenda and sharing it with the prospects and other sales team members ahead of time ensures that the meeting goes according to plan.
- Encourage discussion: As mentioned previously, presentations should be appealing to the eye, have minimal text on each slide, and obtain crucial images and graphics to showcase your impact. This encourages discussion because it allows prospects to ask questions. Asking prospects open-ended questions also encourages them to speak so you can learn more about their current situation.
- Document the meeting: Sales meetings are full of valuable information, so it’s easy to forget many key details. Documenting the virtual meeting by recording it and sharing highlights once the meeting is over is crucial. This ensures the prospect has all the information they need to make a purchasing decision.
Key Takeaways
While there are many ways to approach B2B sales presentations, some methods are much more effective and memorable than others. A sales presentation could be what makes or breaks converting a lead into a loyal customer.
If you need help perfecting your B2B sales presentation, contact a rep at Abstrakt Marketing Group and learn how we’ve helped other businesses create their presentations!
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