Preparation is key when it comes to delivering successful sales pitch presentations — particularly if you are a beginner. Being prepared will increase your confidence and help you deliver a compelling pitch that has a higher chance of success. We got some advice from Denis from Audience Advantage whom explains how beginners can prepare their first sales pitch presentation.

Core Goals of a Sales Presentation

If you are a sales presentation beginner, it may be helpful to remind yourself of the key goals of your presentation. Keeping these objectives in mind will help you focus on the elements of your presentation that are the most important. The core sales pitch presentation goals include:

• To introduce yourself, your business, and the product or service you sell
• To gain the prospect’s trust and build rapport
• To provide the prospect with a very good reason to buy from you
• To become a prospect’s preferred vendor
• To get the sale

Reaching each of these goals requires several steps, which I’ll outline below.

Sales Pitch Presentation Preparation

1. Do your due diligence

Research is an essential part of preparing a sales pitch presentation. It provides you with important information about the prospect, their industry, and your business’ competitors.

The areas you should primarily focus on are:

The prospect and their business

• What is the history of the business?
• What does the business do and how do they do it?
• What are their core objectives and immediate needs?
• What challenges and opportunities are in front of the business or industry?
• What buyer concerns would prevent a successful sale?
• What do they want to hear from you?
• What budget will they have?
• Are they in an expansion phase or downsizing?
• How eager are they to buy your product or service?
• What criteria will they use to evaluate your product or service?
• How do they make a purchasing decision? Who is in charge of this process?

Many of the answers to these questions will come from reading annual reports, newspaper articles, business websites, social media, and industry analysis. However, you may be able to obtain some useful information by talking to other people who have dealt with the prospect previously or have insider knowledge.

The product or service you are selling

• What are the technical specifications of your product or service?
• What is included when a prospect makes a purchase?
• What additional enticements are you allowed to include in the pitch?
• How have other individuals or businesses successfully used your offering?
• How is your offer different to the other products or services available?
• Does your business have a history of working with this prospect?
• What proof do you have to show off the effectiveness of what you are selling?
• Why should a prospect use your product or service instead of a competitor’s?
• How does your product or service solve the problems your prospect is facing? How does it help them take advantage of opportunities?

It is crucial that you know exactly how your product or service works, and how it will be of benefit to the prospect. If you can demonstrate that the prospect needs what you are offering, you are virtually guaranteed a sale.

2. Think about challenges and opportunities

Resist the urge to devote the majority of the presentation to talking about product specifications or different service levels. Instead, continually bring the focus back to how your product or service solves challenges and improves opportunities. Most prospects won’t care about the technicalities of what you are selling — they want to see what it can achieve.

The challenges and opportunities that you talk about should be specific to the prospect. If you know that a business struggles with productivity, highlight the productivity gains provided by your solution. If you know that they are looking for a more cost-effective solution compared to what they already have, focus on affordability. Make your product or service the solution to their problems or a way to access exciting new opportunities.

3. Collect proof to incorporate into the sales pitch

Any significant claim should be backed up with proof. If you can prove that your software improves productivity or that businesses perform better when using it, your pitch will be much more convincing. Proof can come in many forms including:

• Research papers
• Client testimonials and third party reviews
• Case studies
• Supporting statistics and data
• Product feature comparisons

Make any data that you include simple to digest. Graphs, charts, and infographics tend to be most effective as they can convey information very quickly.

4. Make it a conversation

Sales presentations that are more conversational in nature tend to be more successful. As you plan your sales pitch presentation, look for opportunities to ask questions of the prospect and to answer their questions. Don’t be afraid of questions — encourage them.

Questions will help you learn more about the prospect’s challenges, objectives, and concerns. This will give you the opportunity to explain how your product or service.

5. Create your sales pitch presentation

There are several ways to structure a sales pitch presentation. However, the most effective approach is usually:

Stage 1: Short introduction and rapport building

Spend a small amount of time introducing yourself and your business. Share a value proposition or mission statement which helps the prospect know what you are about. If you have mutual relationships or a history with the prospect, consider mentioning that to build additional rapport.

Stage 2: Identify the challenge or opportunity 

Identify several challenges or opportunities that relate to the prospect or the industry they are within. Ideally, you will have discovered specific challenges and opportunities during the research phase.

In some cases, it can be helpful to ask a question of the prospect, like “What are the most significant challenges when it comes to marketing your business?”. You can then explain how your product or service resolves those challenges.

One particularly effective approach is to share a story with the prospect. This could be a case study involving another business which clearly highlights how useful your product or service can be. This provides you with an excellent opportunity to share real world proof of the utility of your product or service.

Stage 3: Showcase your product or service

Spend some time sharing more detailed information about the capabilities of your product or the features of your service. Explain how it works, how it is different to other offerings, how to use it, and what results it can produce.

If you are giving the presentation in an office environment, consider using presentation software. These applications make it easy to share proof of the performance of your product or service. Alternately, use paper printouts or a tablet device to share information.

Stage 4: Deal with any concerns

Spend some time negating any concerns that the prospect might have about your offering. You can also mention the ongoing support your company provides; any money back guarantees and warranties.

Stage 5: Conclusion

Spend some time answering any questions that the prospect has. Then, use a call to action (CTA), which is a question or phrase that asks a prospect to take some action, be it buying your product, obtaining more information or booking another meeting. It can also be useful to obtain some feedback during this time.