A great closing requires a great beginning, and this begs the question: How should you start a sales presentation that is more likely to close the sale? The simple answer is that creating an effective sales presentation requires understanding your target market, knowing what makes your company different from the competition, and being able to clearly articulate your value proposition. Unfortunately, most companies fail in all three areas. Hard to believe? Let’s look at some recent findings:
Stats, Stories and False Starts
At Sales Xceleration, we’ve heard hundreds of stories of frustration from sales managers and owners of small and mid-sized businesses. These stories tell of unmet expectations, missed sales goals, and poor financial performance. To get a better sense of the scope of these problems, and to provide tangible recommendations on how to improve sales organizations, we created the Sales Agility Assessment in 2016. Since then, we’ve analyzed 933 Assessments completed by CEOs. The findings underscore the stories we hear and the need for effective sales solutions. Here’s what we learned:
Targeted Markets: 2 out of 3 Don’t Have One!
The completed Sales Agility Assessments revealed that when it comes to having a well-defined target market or client profile, 17% of small to mid-size business leaders rated themselves as “Poor” and an additional 48% stated they are “below average.” That’s an astonishing two out of every three small to mid-sized businesses that do not have a focused picture of their markets and clients. At Sales Xceleration, our licensed Advisors, serving as outsourced VPs of Sales, understand the importance of identifying your targets so you can more effectively hit them!
76% Admit to Not Being Outstanding at Standing Out
An even higher percentage (76%) of Assessment respondents stated they don’t believe their clients and prospects recognize what makes their company unique. In other words, their businesses don’t stand out from, let alone rise above, the competition. This is usually because sales team members aren’t armed with clear messaging and a rock-solid understanding of their own businesses! But when it comes to knowing how to begin a sales presentation that leads to closed deals, you must stand out before you can be recognized as an outstanding choice.
The Undervalued Value Proposition (54% Haven’t Developed One!)
Targeting the right prospects and knowing what sets you apart are great beginnings for improving your sales presentation. But ultimately what will help you close the deal is to clearly express your singular value proposition. Sadly, 54% of Assessment respondents rated themselves “Poor,” meaning they didn’t even have a value proposition in place!
The Bottom Line:
A great sales presentation starts with essential focus on the right target market, clear competitive differentiation, and an unmistakably valuable value proposition. Without those key elements in place, your sales presentation is virtually guaranteed to fail again and again. The good news is that because this is a common problem, if you can fix your sales presentation you can quickly outpace your competition and increase your market share.
To see more takeaways from the completed Assessments, click here. To take the Sales Xceleration Sales Agility Assessment yourself so you can see where your company stands, click here. To learn more about Sales Xceleration or how to fix your sales presentation, simply contact us today at 844.874.7253.
Want to learn more about sales consulting and sales strategy? Read about various sales topics in our sales consulting blog.
