“You don’t need a big close, as many sales reps believe. You risk losing your customer when you save all the good stuff for the end. Keep the customer actively involved throughout your presentation, and watch your results improve.” – Harvey Mackay

Sales presentations are a necessary function of the sales cycle. Whether these presentations are online (as a pre-recorded video or as white papers); on the telephone/with online demo; or face to face the reality is that we, as sales leaders, often don’t prepare our Teams for the best possible *customer* experience in this process.

Far too often we do as Harvey wrote. We spend enormous amount of time sharing with our customers who we are and what we have done and how long we’ve been around who all our other customers are and all the other services we provide.

Here’s a spoiler alert – the customer rarely cares about this. They have a need. It may even be a critical need. Yet we continue to teach and train our sales team to go forth and talk about their company as if it is the most important thing to the customer. Another newsflash, folks – in the grand scheme of things rarely does who we are and what we’ve done answer the client’s question of how we can help *them* with their unique problem.

Instead consider the following. What would happen if we turned things around and made the customer the center of our presentation. What would happen if we were actually prepared (and yes, this means doing a pre-sales call plan) and before we started talking (or bringing our the dreaded PowerPoint presentations) we actually asked questions and listened?

Is it possible that in such an instance that we could tailor our conversation to the needs of the customer and not waste their time discussing items and sharing information that isn’t relevant to their current situation?

Is it also possible that by engaging the customer in an open dialogue that they will share more and provide more information that will not only help you shape your eventual solution, but also form a bond with them where they feel that they are participating in the process rather than merely ‘receiving’ a pre-package/canned offering that (in their perception) you showed to your last three clients? What would such an approach do to your relationship with that prospect/customer?

I call it the “anti-presentation”. Keeping the customer actively involved in the process is critical to improving individual (and Team) results. Remember when in doubt, ask the customer how you can help. In a worst case scenario you could save yourself countless hours pursuing someone who isn’t really interested in your product/service. In a best case scenario your offering will be real and relevant and the customer will be accelerated through the sales cycle. But if you remember nothing else about this article, remember- turn the spotlight off you, and onto your prospect.