by rameshkumarramachandran | Jun 28, 2021 | Sales
Whenever someone opens slideshows during events or online meetings, my mind goes “Oh no! Another presentation. I am going to be bored to death.”
I always believe slideshows should complement the speaker. However, the majority of the time it has become a distraction. So, I revisited a few presentation videos of Steve Jobs(I am a big fan of his presentations) to study what made his speech outstanding.
Here are a few points that can help prepare your slideshows
Plan
In your presentation, you should know what you intend to say. Your presentation should have a takeaway for your audience. So, visualize the journey and outline the presentation before trying to put together slides.
Many love story tellers. So, script your presentation to follow a screenplay with start, middle and climax. Your audience should enjoy the current slide and at the same time they should be eager to know what comes next.
Simplicity
Have very minimal words on your slide. When you display four bullet points, the attendees tend to read that first and wait for you to complete what have you to say.
So, make sure to display one simple title or word in your slide. The audience should know what you are conveying at that moment. The slide should help the flow of information to your attendees.
Avoid Paragraphs
This is a big no-no. People have come to listen to what you have to say. Not, to read the slides. Save the notes for yourself and not to be displayed on the screen,. Many software have notes to be displayed only to the presenter.
Simple facts or Big graphics with minimal display is what will be preferred.
Design
Pay attention to the design of the slides. Avoid dressing up your presentation with flashy themes and fonts. As mentioned earlier, stick to simple design.
Things to focus on design are fonts, images, alignment, colors and background.
Remember slides are part of the presentation and not the main part. The focus should be on you and the content. They have come to listen to you and gain something at the end.
The aim of your slideshows should be to support your statements not steal the center of attention.
by rameshkumarramachandran | Jun 15, 2021 | Sales
A prospect connects with you and shows tremendous interest in your services. You had a great conversation and all sounds positive. You are excited about this deal.
After a couple of days, the prospect stops answering your call. They don’t return your voicemail. They read your WhatsApp messages but don’t reply. Your email never gets a response.
The ultra responsive prospect goes silent on you.
I have been in this situation many times. Have you been? I am sure you would have been to.
Since sales was new to me I started my investigation on why they ghosted me and what could have I done to fix this.
Let’s start with the Why?
Usually, most of the sales assume it is something they had done wrong. That is not the case all the time. There are a few factors for prospect ghosting you and I have listed them based on my experience in sales.
The estimate
The instinct says they are the one with whom you are going to do the handshake. So, the estimate is sent after which there is silence.
When the estimate is way over the budget, there is no obligation for them to respond back. And, they believe it won’t be fruitful even after the negotiation. So, in their interest on time, they avoid connecting with you.
Other reasons are they have already evaluated and are ready to choose another product. They reach you so that they can show it to their management. Once they got it they are no longer interested to continue with you.
2. Timeline
All of a sudden the project is not their immediate priority. Something came critical or business has some other plan for the current year. Hence, it got pushed
In a few cases, the prospect knows that the project may kickstart late. However, they want to do the intel so that there is no last-minute rush in making decisions. In simple terms, they have made their decision and they know their timeline.
3. Requirement mismatch
Yes, we do the discovery and qualification. It may sound all glossy and fine. However, when the discussion deep dives you should start listening to understand the bigger picture and the goal. When the requirement is not well understood, the solution provided is a mediocre one.
Sometimes, when the behavior of sales is Know it all, the chances are the prospect never shares the requirement.
4. Trust
The talk with your prospect would have been great. However, prospects do business with you only when they know you, they like you, and most importantly trust you.
The prospect should have the connection that you are the one for them. It is not just the price. It is about the customer service, convenience, reputation, culture and values of your organization.
It is important sales realize that a prospect’s silence doesn’t reflect the sales style. For some reason, the prospect interest in our service has faded and most of the time it is internal. However, if this happens frequently, take some time to revisit your visit closed lost accounts and figure out ways to improve your skills.
Now,you know why your prospect goes silent. Its time to take action. In my next blog, I will share the efforts I had to taken to identify the motive of the prospect and kept them talking or gave me the reason on why they didn’t pick us.
