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Prep, Present, and Follow Through: How To Nail Your Next Sales Presentation

Audrey Harris

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When it comes to building an effective sales presentation, no one-size-fits-all sales deck exists.

Every sales presentation you deliver to a prospect should be personalized and tailored just for them. Successful selling today is about establishing yourself as a trusted advisor. Cookie-cutter messages won’t do that. So how should you get started?

High-performing sellers close more deals by focusing on their prospects, rather than their products. Follow these sales presentation tips before, during, and after your next meeting to make it more resonant (and hopefully, more lucrative). These tips work whether you’re building customer relationships remotely or in person.

Deliver polished presentations that address your prospect’s biggest pain points

Use generative AI, powered by Einstein, to help you draft an engaging, tailored talk track for your next sales presentation, perfectly aligning product value to specific prospect needs.

Step 1: Research the company and your contact

An effective sales presentation starts long before the actual presentation. The first step is to learn who your prospect is and the challenges they face; then you can use those insights to show how you can help them succeed.

In particular, you should research the company, the challenges it faces, and the contacts who will hear your presentation.

Learn more about the company’s past, present, and future

First, consult your CRM platform. Find other accounts from the prospect’s industry and see what their customer journeys looked like. Their client information and case history will help you learn what products and services they use most and how your company serves them well. The information in your CRM platform can give you insights and tips that will help you win deals like the one you’re currently working on. Take a look, too, at the sales pipeline for that particular industry. Your CRM system is a tool specifically used to help you sell successfully and should be used throughout the sales process.

Once you have that preliminary information, head to the company website and research what the prospect’s company does, how big it is, and what products or services it offers. Then, dig deeper. Make a note of their mission, values, and corporate culture. Also try to learn more about the company’s history and any news items involving the company. Look into the company’s annual report to get a good idea of where it might be headed in the future.

Your presentation should focus on using insights from your research to show a deep understanding of the company and why your product or service can help it grow.

Consider the company’s challenges

As you learn about the company, pay special attention to the challenges it faces that are relevant to your product or service offerings. Remember these issues so you can use them as conversation starters during your sales presentation. Then you can offer advice — or insights — about how they could better face those challenges.

This type of approach is called insight selling : You as a salesperson bring unique, tailored insights to a prospect to solve their problems.

For example, if you sell a marketing tool, you may notice in your research that your lead is currently using the same ads across social media, search, and display networks. Your insight might be, “I see that your company is using the same ad copy across several platforms. How have those ads been performing for you? Have you been able to reach your sales or traffic goals?” Their answer may change aspects of your sales presentation or may make it even stronger.

Learn more about your audience

When it comes to communication, knowing who will be in the room is critical. If your prospect is the Director of Production, your most effective sales presentation may focus on metrics that can determine how to improve output. If your prospect will be presenting the information to a decision maker, offer resources to help make it easier for them.

Step 2: Prepare for your sales presentation

After gathering insights about the company and your contacts, you are ready to put together your presentation. Whether you use a sales presentation template that your workplace provides or you start from scratch, use these sales presentation tips to build a more compelling pitch.

Focus on the challenges your prospects face, not just your benefits

Salespeople should present themselves as a trusted advisor, not just a company representative. Look for ways to create a dialogue with the prospect and share how you can help their company work more efficiently, provide better service, or solve the challenges holding them back.

Keep your presentation simple

Sales template decks can be useful, but they can also overwhelm prospects if they’re too long. Instead of a 50-slide canned presentation, focus on keeping the slide deck relatively simple and highlighting engaging images and key statistics. This will make it easier to use a storytelling approach, rather than just reading off a slide.

Practice your presentation

You want to prepare, but you don’t want to come across as robotic or scripted. Practice what you’ll say and how you’ll answer questions, and make sure you’ve memorized important statistics or metrics. Build time into the presentation so you can share personal anecdotes or pause for questions.

Keep your delivery style confident, but agile. You may find that one point you thought would be critical doesn’t have as much impact with your prospect as you’d hoped, but a different point unexpectedly piques their interest. Keeping your talk track fluid will make it easier to shift gears if you need to.

Step 3: Nail your sales presentation

Presentation day has arrived. You’ve done your research, nailed the perfect storytelling approach, and trimmed down your slide deck. Now is your time to shine. Here are a few sales presentation tips to help your pitch end in a sale.

End the meeting with your presentation; don’t begin with it

You’ve likely had conversations with your contact and know them well enough, but in this presentation you’ll potentially meet additional people who make decisions. Take the time to get to know each attendee.

Building a rapport with your audience before pitching is a no-brainer. But avoid too much small talk; it can come across as inauthentic or like a waste of the customer’s time. Instead, time permitting, try to use the beginning of the meeting asking questions about day-to-day operations and goals. Ask specific questions that demonstrate your knowledge of their company and industry, and use the answers to shape your narrative. Then, during your presentation, tie back to topics the prospect brought up and focus on how you, the trusted advisor, can help.

Ask questions during the presentation to encourage a dialogue

Getting feedback from your prospect during the actual presentation is the best sales presentation technique of all. This allows you to change your focus in the moment, rather than spending your presentation talking about challenges and solutions that might be unimportant to your prospect.

After you make a key point, ask your prospect a question like, “Does this make sense in your industry?” or “Can you see this applying to your company?” This prompts the prospect to either agree or start a dialogue about pain points and how your products and services can better serve them.

If they agree with you, then you know you’re on the right track and that your suggestions are up to date. On the other hand, if they have clarifications, this lets you adjust your presentation — and follow-up efforts — to better fit their position.

Include proof that shows how your products and services have helped others

Step 4: Prioritize the follow-up just as much as the presentation

The actual sales presentation is just one part of your sales process, and it doesn’t guarantee a signed contract or even further contact with you. The final piece of your sales presentation is a well-planned follow-up, and it’s just as important as the presentation itself.

The most effective follow-up format will depend on your prospect, their needs, and how they best retain information. For example, you may follow up by:

• Emailing your slide deck and asking to schedule a follow-up call. Just remember to avoid the “Just following up” email and make sure your email offers the recipient value.
• Scheduling follow-up emails to reiterate key points in your presentation. A sales automation tool automates emails to share product information and set reminders for you to connect. It helps make sure no prospects fall through the cracks.
• Preparing personalized content that highlights the main points from your sales presentation and includes videos of products in action, testimonials, or other helpful collateral.
• Sending an additional resource about a topic they mentioned during your meeting, whether it pertained to your presentation or not.

Your sales presentation doesn’t end when you walk out the door or end the meeting. As you research and present your pitch, consider what the best follow-up approach will be. Then, take the time to create a well-considered follow-up strategy.

You can make your next sales presentation your best

Preparation and practice are key to successful sales presentations. But there’s so much more to a great presentation than well-designed slides or new research. The heart of a great sales presentation is the relationship between you and your customer, and that’s built on unique insights focused on your potential customer’s challenges and needs.

When you focus on helping, rather than pitching, your sales presentation is more likely to be a hit. That’s a win-win for you and your customer.

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Audrey is a senior product marketer for Core Sales Cloud (Salesforce Automation), and a customer advocate who has spent her career delivering B2B technology. An engineer turned marketer, she is passionate about business efficiency, philanthropy, and mentorship.

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Effective Sales Presentations: 11 Tips to Win Deals + Templates

What makes a sales presentation truly effective?

Is it that secret-sauce font, the comprehensive case studies, intricate graphs, or your shining personality? Or is it… something else?

It might seem like a simple question, but understanding the answer unlocks a world of opportunities for sales reps.

If your sales presentations are truly effective, they should accomplish these 4 things:

• Give prospects confidence in your brand
• Develop a deep relationship and mutual understanding of needs and priorities
• Convince potential customers of the value of your product
• Give clear direction for the next conversation

How many of your recent sales meetings have fallen short of these results?

A study by Forrester of more than 300 C-level buyers found that many reps are lacking key information for a successful sales meeting:

Put simply, most salespeople go into meetings:

• Unprepared for questions
• Without knowledge of the business or industry they’re selling to
• Without understanding the prospect’s situation and problems
• Without relevant social proof

Want to avoid falling into the trap of generic, ineffective sales presentations?

While preparing for and delivering a really good sales presentation isn’t an exact science, the following best practices will lead you to better results.

Let’s dive into the top methods sales professionals are using to nail their presentations and deliver killer sales pitches .

How to Prepare the Perfect Sales Pitch Presentation

Think you can get away with giving a great sales presentation on the fly? Think again. A PowerPoint presentation that was thrown together over lunch is not going to impress your decision-makers.

Preparation is a key aspect of every effective sales presentation.

Here are five ways you can prepare for success:

1. Set a Clear Agenda

Your sales presentation is built to guide the conversation and gives you a structure to work with throughout the meeting. But the prospect doesn’t know how your presentation is structured.

Does this situation sound familiar?

Prospect: “This is really interesting, but how does your product solve XYZ?”

You : “Actually, we’ll talk about that in a few slides. Anyway, as I was saying…”

These kinds of interruptions are common, and the popular response of “We’ll get to that” doesn’t normally go over very well with prospects.

Here’s how to avoid this: Set a clear agenda for the conversation, and share that with your prospects.

This could mean sharing an outline of the presentation topics you’ve prepared, or it can mean sharing the whole sales presentation with your prospect.

This way, your prospect can review the information before your meeting, see where you’ll cover certain topics, and save their questions for the right moment.

2. Adapt Your Script and Presentation

Above, we saw that 77% of reps enter meetings without a clear understanding of the issues that their prospect is facing, or areas where they can help.

There are two clear ways to fix this problem:

First, do your homework. The more you know about your potential client's business and current situation, the better. Also, try to understand their industry and target audience, read up on current news in the sector, and get a feel for the particular pain points this person is likely feeling the most.

Second, base your presentation and accompanying sales script on your ideal customer profile. If your sales team has multiple ideal customer profiles to sell to, discover which profile this prospect fits into and base your arguments, questions, and main points on the specific needs of this profile.

3. Pick Three Main Points for Each Prospect

No matter how many crazy statistics and fun features you throw at your prospect, they’re still only human. Shocking, we know.

In other words, they’ll probably forget at least half of what you say.

To create effective sales presentations that your prospects will remember, focus on three main bullet points that you want to highlight.

This isn’t a number we pulled from a hat. It’s based on an experiment performed by Kurt A. Carlson and Suzanne B. Shu. Their study found that, when your audience knows you’re trying to persuade them, the ideal number of positive claims to make is three. After four claims, your audience will start to become more and more skeptical of anything you say.

The title of their paper is a catchy phrase to help you remember this principle: Three Charms but Four Alarms .

So, go through your slides and pick three key points that you want your prospect to remember. Maybe these will be product features or maybe not, but once again, base these points on the real, felt needs of your prospect. You’ll see better results.

During the presentation, draw your audience's attention to these points as you introduce new ideas. Phrases like these draw attention at the right moments:

• Here’s the point…
• This is crucial…
• But this is what matters…
• But it gets even better...
• This next point is really important...
• This is what XYZ could mean for you, Jack…

And make sure these key points lead directly where you want them to—to your call to action. If they aren’t leading you to that, what’s the point?

For more, check out this video, where I talked in-depth about captivating and directing your prospect's attention during a sales conversation. Remember: whether you're delivering in-person or via video conferencing, maintaining eye contact and using body language to draw attention to main points works.

4. Use Visuals to Show, Not Tell

A sales deck can have several different functions. For example, if your sales deck is going to be read and discussed among stakeholders at your prospect’s company, it will need to include text that explains the visuals presented.

However, if you’re giving a sales presentation with that deck, it doesn’t need all that text.

To prepare a sales presentation for a product or service, make sure you include infographics and visuals that complement what you’re saying. You can use Canva or even a responsive whiteboard to do this.

Think of your slides as visual aids that give more meaning and context to your words.

These visuals can help to:

• Simplify complex processes
• Provide a clearer understanding of data/metrics
• Add credence to your words
• Keep your audience engaged
• Help your audience remember main points (this one is backed by science )

In short, for an effective sales presentation, keep your script and your slides separate. Use your words to add meaning to the visuals, and use your visuals to maximize the power of your words. With this approach, you will elevate your value proposition —and increase your close rate.

5. Show Them You Know Their Pain

Using a narrative in your presentation shows that you’re sympathetic to the problems your prospects are facing and that you know how to solve them.

So, what’s the narrative for your product?

Generally, the story you tell with your presentation will follow this pattern:

• There is a problem caused by a shift in the market, a change in the company’s circumstances, or the world situation
• That problem is solved, the business is saved, and your product is the hero

A compelling narrative that captures the feelings and frustrations of your prospect shows them that you understand them, you’re on the same page, and you’re here to help.

Maybe this is the story of how your product was born, to solve a problem internally at your own company. Maybe it’s the story of one of your successful customers. Or maybe it’s just a narrative that they can relate to and see themselves in.

In any case, using stories instead of just facts makes your presentation more memorable. According to one study, people only retain about 5-10 percent of the statistical information they hear. But they’ll remember 65-70 percent of the information they hear as stories.

Take advantage of this fact: Turn your data into a narrative.

Once you’ve prepared your sales deck and accompanying script, you’re ready to nail your next sales presentation.

Or are you?

Day-Of Sales Presentation Tips: Nail Your Next Sales Presentation

Ready for the big day? Here are six more tips you can use while actively presenting to your prospect, to give a truly effective sales presentation.

6. Open With Your Biggest Selling Point (Don’t Save it for the End)

Many sales reps like to save their product’s biggest selling point for the very end of their presentation as if they’re coming to some grand crescendo.

But your prospect didn’t come to this meeting hoping to hear the Philharmonic Orchestra play Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. So, don’t play this pitch deck like another day at the theater.

Instead, open with your big selling points. Dazzle your prospects from the get-go, and you’ll have them hooked to the end.

To be counted among the Sales Success Stories and Stars of your organization… just go for it. Get the show on the road with a big opening. Leave them in (happy) tears.

7. Ask Open-Ended Questions

To understand your prospect and to keep them engaged with your presentation, questions are essential.

But wait, if you’re giving a sales presentation, aren’t you the one that’s supposed to be doing the talking? You answer the questions, right?

True. But, how do you know if your prospect is paying attention? How can you highlight the relevant points in your presentation if you don’t know what interests them?

To engage your prospect and draw them into your presentation, ask questions like:

• Can you walk me through how your team handles [problem]?
• Have you found any clever workarounds for when [issue] happens?
• What would your ideal solution to this problem look like?
• How would you expect a solution to this problem to affect your team?

It’s true, you’ve probably asked a lot of similar questions during the qualifying stage . But with these questions, you can lead the conversation and keep your prospect engaged with what you’re saying.

Open-ended questions will also help you with the next tip:

8. Build Context Around Your Biggest Value Points and Differentiators

The same questions we shared above can help add context to what you’re saying.

Don’t just tell the prospect: “ Our product helps you solve X problem. ”

Add meaning to that value point by asking questions:

• How often do you face X problem?
• How much time/money do you lose when this happens?
• How does X problem affect the morale/productivity of your team?

When you have the numbers clear, reiterate the problem: “ So, you lose $X every week because of this problem. That’s more than $Y per year that’s going down the drain until you solve this issue. ”

Then, bring in your value point: “With our product, you could save $Z every year by eliminating this problem for your team.”

The same method works for highlighting your key differentiators.

Instead of telling prospects that your product is the best because it’s the only one that does X, lead prospects to the features and benefits that set your product apart with open-ended questions.

This creates value and context around a problem that only your product can solve.

9. Make Social Proof Engaging: Mirror the Prospect’s Situation

This data blew our minds, and will probably blow yours, too: According to studies from our friends at Gong , sellers who use social proof in their sales calls have a 22% lower close rate .

Have you noticed a similar pattern with social proof in your sales presentations?

We all know that social proof is a powerful tool in the hands of sales reps and marketers. No need to throw out all your social media customer quotes, or company testimonials. But, it must be used correctly to work effectively.

Otherwise, you could actually hurt your chances of closing.

So, what’s the correct way to use social proof in your presentations?

Favor customers that are part of this prospect’s tribe .

For example, imagine you’re selling to an SMB, and you tell them that Facebook is your customer. They’ll be impressed, sure… but they’ll also start to wonder if your product is really a good fit for their small business.

Instead, when selling to SMBs, talk about your other SMB customers. Use examples of happy customers who are in the same field or industry. Or, find customer stories that mirror this prospect—with similar pain points.

With tribal social proof, you’ll gain the respect of prospects while demonstrating that you truly “get” them.

10. Never Talk Price Before Value

Chances are, you’re talking price somewhere in this sales presentation. At this stage in the sales pipeline , it’s normal that your prospect is ready to hear what your solution will cost.

But don’t open the conversation like this.

Sometimes you get into a room (whether in-person or virtual) with your main point of contact and important stakeholders, and the first thing they want to know is: “How much will this cost us?”

One of the golden rules of sales is this: Never talk price before value .

If you fold to the pressure and start off by talking about the price of your solution, your audience will view your product as a commodity, not as a valuable solution to their problem.

When stakeholders push you for a number, don’t be afraid to push back. If they’re insistent, turn the question back around on them:

“Before we talk about price, let me ask you this: How much will it cost your company if you don’t get these issues solved by next quarter?”

By focusing on the real monetary value that your product provides, you’ll help position your product as a premium solution, not a wholesale band-aid.

11. Keep It Less Than 10 Minutes

Did you know that every presenter at Apple’s product launches speaks for just 10 minutes or less?

This is because science tells us that the brain gets bored easily—our attention spans just can’t expand beyond a certain point. However, you can reengage your audience by introducing a change every 10 minutes.

Apply this principle to your keynote sales presentations: If you’re presenting longer than 10 minutes, the prospect’s interest will steadily decline. Wrap it up.

Our friends at Gong found that there’s a sweet spot for winning sales presentations: 9.1 minutes. It’s like the ideal elevator pitch for sales presentations.

So, stick to this rule of thumb: Keep your presentations under 10 minutes.

Sales Presentation Templates: Use These Sales Pitch Decks to Win More Deals

Want to build a stellar sales pitch presentation? Steal these presentation templates and customize them to your business—including stunning visuals, striking text, and a presentation process that wins deals.

Get the Powerpoint or Keynote version of these templates, and start creating your own effective sales presentations!

Ready to Give the Best Sales Presentation Ever?

You’ve got all the pro tips you need to nail your next presentation.

In the end, you want to demonstrate that you understand your prospect’s needs and concerns. Show you “get” them by adding a compelling narrative and including customer stories that mirror their own situation.

An effective presentation must also be engaging, which is why it’s essential to highlight three main points and add context with open-ended questions.

With this info, you’re ready to deliver a winning sales presentation. ( Psst... don't forget to use our sales presentation templates to get started!)

But what happens next? There are still some unaccounted-for areas of the sales process. If you want to really crush the follow-up and close more deals, you need a CRM to help you do it.

Close CRM does all this—and so much more. Watch our demo or try Close free for 14 days.

Actionable sales advice

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23 Foolproof Sales Presentation Tips to Help You Close More Deals

Table of contents

Are you intimidated by sales presentations and not sure how to best prepare for them?

Should you talk formally or informally? Should you talk about your product, or not talk about your product at all? What are the best practices to ensure every sales presentation results in, well, sales?

You’re not alone. 

Nearly 57% of B2B prospects and customers feel that their sales teams are not prepared for the first meeting.

While sales presentations can seem intimidating the first few times you participate in them, once you get the hang of them and create an efficient, thorough process, you’ll be able to glide through them a lot easier and a lot more successfully.

In this guide, we’re going to discuss,

• What is a sales presentation?
• 6 types of sales pitches and presentations.
• What should be included in a sales presentation?
• 23 sales presentations tips to help you close more deals

So let’s dive right in.

What is a Sales Presentation?

A sales presentation is similar to an in-depth sales pitch where companies promote a product\service they’re trying to sell to potential clients.

However, it’s usually more complicated and comprehensive than a regular sales pitch. There are multiple PowerPoint presentations involved , meetings, and lots of prior prep time to ensure you’re hitting all the right persuasion notes. 

Related : 12 Most Helpful Sales Report Templates for Teams

6 Types of Sales Pitches and Presentations

Contrary to popular opinion, a full sales presentation is not always necessary or even appropriate. Different situations call for different types of sales presentations and different approaches to selling your product\service.

There are several important sales presentations and pitches that all sales representatives and companies should be well versed in. Let’s take a closer look.

• The one-word pitch
• The social media pitch
• The elevator pitch
• A full-blown sales presentation
• Written sales presentations

Related : 42 Free Sales Dashboard Templates For Tracking & Improving Sales Performance

The One Word Pitch 

Can you boil down your brand’s value proposition to one word? Just like Google’s one word is ‘Search’ and Barack Obama’s was ‘Hope’, what’s your brand’s one-word pitch?

The Social Media Pitch

Sales reps using social selling are 50% more likely to meet or exceed their sales quota. 

With over 3.5 billion social media users worldwide, companies need to have a concrete, pithy sales pitch for their social media profiles. One that not only instantly tells your social media followers and potential customers what your brand is all about but can also withstand the test of ever-changing algorithms. 

An elevator pitch is a quick speech that instantly tells your potential clients what your brand’s all about and what solutions you offer.

It works especially well when you’re not formally trying to close deals, such as during networking events and similar functions. It can also be used during cold calls. 

A Full-Blown Sales Presentation

A full sales presentation usually happens in a meeting room with 1 or several clients and includes PowerPoint presentations slides , sales decks, handouts, and a fully prepped team. It also requires a value-heavy pitch, solutions your company is offering, and so on. 

Written Sales Presentations

68% of B2B businesses use landing pages to garner a new sales lead for future conversion. 

Written sales presentations, like landing pages, are getting really popular in this digital-first world. A high-converting written sales presentation usually starts with addressing the problem and presenting its solution, and outlining the benefits of the brand’s product\service. And the best sales pages have several complimentary graphics accompanying the text, as well. 

Webinars are sales presentations conducted via the internet. Usually conducted in real-time, it gives interested prospects the opportunity to get their questions answered on the spot, and similarly, it helps brands persuade prospects to convert.

What Should Be Included In a Sales Presentation?

An effective sales presentation should focus more on the benefits and solutions it offers, instead of its product\service’s features. 

After all, 88% of executive buyers want a conversation, not a presentation

Your sales presentations should also consist of:

• Testimonials from previous clients and customers
• Data, like graphs, charts, quotes, backing up your claims
• Customized content targeted to your prospective client
• A call to action, which usually includes next steps for the clients

Related : SMART Sales Goal Examples from 30+ Sales Professionals

23 Sales Presentation Tips to Help You Close More Deals

Now we’re on the most exciting part – tips and tricks to close more sales deals. To help you ace your next sales presentations, we asked 42 sales pro their best sales presentation tips. 

And here’s what they said.

Express your interest in working together

• Give hard copies of the sales presentation 

Leverage stories

Encourage questions, highlight case studies, make data a part of your presentation, outline your value proposition, follow up with your prospect, prepare yourself and your team, highlight client’s goals.

• Incorporate videos

Drive the no’s

• Don’t hard sell

Prime your prospects before selling

Solve your prospects problems, wear your confidence.

• Personalize it for your client

Know their competitors

Keep it succinct.

• Make it conversational
• Sell your brand, not your product

Demonstrate your product\service

End with a clear cta.

Related : The 37 Sales KPIs Every Sales Leader Should Be Measuring

PRO TIP: How to Set SMART Goals for Your Sales Team’s Performance

To decide which goals meet the SMART criteria, sales managers need to look at sales analytics for their teams and monitor sales KPIs, for example:

• Average Time to Close Deal
• New Deals Amount
• Number of Customers
• Average Revenue per New Customer

Based on these metrics, and in light of other revenue-based and activity-based goals, you can identify and set desired goals for future performance, but how to get this information?

Now you can benefit from the experience of our sales experts, who have put together a great Databox template showing an overview of your sales team’s performance. It’s simple to implement and start using as a standalone dashboard or in sales reports, and best of all, it’s free!

You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.

To set up this Sales Analytics Overview Dashboard , follow these 3 simple steps:

Step 1: Get the template 

Step 2: Connect your HubSpot account with Databox. 

Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.

“Too often we just assume that, of course, the leads or prospects we’re reaching out to, or following up with, know that of course, we want their business. 

We don’t explicitly tell them, though, and that can be a very powerful thing to do. Something as simple as: ‘I’m really hoping to have the opportunity to work with you ,’ can make a big difference. It’s worked for me!” Explains Linda Pophal of Strategic Communications .

Give hard copies of the sales presentation

Dustin Singer of Dustin Buys Houses shares, “One of our most effective sales presentation techniques for increasing conversions is on top of giving an excellent presentation, we leave the client with a print presentation. This presentation goes into detail about who we are, what we do, how we can help them, the steps and process of working with us, and what next steps would be if they decide to work with us. 

This also includes their offer price, and terms and details of the proposed contract along with all of our contact information. It allows us to leave our sales presentation with them, so if they don’t convert over the initial meeting, we impress them with important information for the client to refer to as we work them through the sales funnel. 

We’ve received feedback about how our print presentations presented us as more professional than our competitors, and they felt more comfortable with working with us because of it.”

You can also turn that hard copy into an engagement exercise for your prospects. 

As Jeff Brandeis of Brandeis Training Solutions explains, “When presenting remotely, we typically provide a PDF that has incomplete sentences. We encourage people to fill in the blanks. People remember things when they write things down. Providing them a template to fill in separates our presentation from others.”

“Tell a story. No one wants to listen to stats on every slide. And your prospects can see right through your ‘visualize success’ ideas.

Instead, include a narrative with characters, setting, and plot. Make sure your prospects can empathize with the character. THEY need to be the hero—not you.” Says TJ Kelly of FreeDrumlineBeats.com .

Bradley Keys of PatchMD explains why stories work so well. “Stories give us an emotional connection, and it will be more effective if it is relatable to their situation. Share stories about how your products worked successfully for your clients. It is one of the leading sales strategies to help you improve your presentation and close deals. Statistics are useful, but make sure that it is not overwhelming – they are easily forgotten. Learn to play emotions when presenting as it helps to become more personal.” Shares Keys.

Nathan Binford of MarketChorus explains the benefits of using The Challenger Sale, a sales presentation methodology based on selling through constructive tension. 

“Learn and use a sales presentation methodology like The Challenger Sale to craft a compelling narrative every time you build a pitch. I’m a big fan of The Challenger Sale specifically because it forces you to ‘walk in your prospect’s shoes’ and emphasizes the importance of shocking your audience out of status quo thinking and into a receptive state.” Says Binford.

Luke Smith of We Buy Property In Kentucky recommends, “After your presentation, allow questions to be asked. As the customer or client gets the answers that meet their needs (for us – they layout terms they need for us to buy their house), I will say, “It sounds like we have a rough outline for a deal. What would you like to happen now?”

More often than not, they ask me about signing a contract to get everything started. This has allowed me to close numerous deals without the awkward transition to the close. The buyer is closing me rather than me pulling them to the closing table.”

The best way to encourage questions is by adopting the 60-second rule.

“To be more effective during a sales presentation, you must consider this — the 60-second rule. It’s simple; all you have to do is NEVER speak without entertaining questions or interruption for more than a minute.

Ditch your monologue and stop bombarding your audience with information. If you have been talking for more than 60 seconds without any interruption, it is most likely that your audience is no longer interested.

Keep in mind to engage with your audience throughout your presentation. Try to incorporate open-ended questions within your presentation to keep it conversational.

It’s easy to keep talking but always pay close attention to when to stop. By following this tip, you will increase your chances of securing deals.” Explains Dan Nolan of Camping Console .

“Drown your prospect in successful case studies for businesses like theirs. That’s my number one sales presentation tactic. It should be so obvious that you’ve done the work before, you’ve transformed situations from bad to great, and you’re certain you can do the same for them if they buy. 

For example, if you’re a B2B sales organization with a software company on the call, show them three case studies of the work you’ve done for other software companies. By doing you, their confidence rises and the doubt. that so often stops a sale, goes away.” Shares Brian Robben of Robben Media .

Brandon Amoroso of electrIQ marketing shares his experience of closing sales deals by highlighting success stories. Amoroso says, “Demonstrating our success rate at the end of a presentation through different case studies has helped our company demonstrate our knowledge in the marketing field.

We showcase studies that resemble the potential client and show them some of the ways we will carry out duties if they choose to partner with us. In doing this, we reassure them that they will be diligent with our time, communicate with them constantly, and work towards getting similar or greater results than those shown in the case study.”

Catriona Jasica of Top Vouchers Code agrees and believes success stories are essential to closing deals. 

“It takes real skills for the salespeople to be efficient enough and close a deal through their presentation. One of them is sticking to your success stories.

Sharing the statistics is surely vital to show your company’s growth, but your attendees are most likely to forget those figures. What will stick to their minds are the success stories you share in the presentation.

Let them know about your product and how it has worked wonders for your company and helped it flourish. Think of a compelling story, present it, and build an emotional connection with the clients. This undoubtedly helps you outstandingly to close the deal in the end.” Says Jasica.

Growth Hackers ’ Jonathan Aufray agrees and adds, “To increase your probability of closing a deal, you want to show your prospect how your solution helped similar people/companies in their industry. Showing them a case study on what you implemented, achieved, and accomplished for another client is definitely one of the best sales presentation techniques out there.”

David Garcia of ScoutLogic believes data is as important as success stories to seal the deal. “The most effective sales presentation technique that increases your chances of closing a deal is a quantitative analysis demonstrating the economic benefits of your solution. If you are running an enterprise sales cycle, by that point, you should understand the client’s pain points, the client’s personal win, and should be able to articulate the unique economic value only your solution will bring.” 

Trenton Erker of Clarity Online advises sales presenters to “Know the numbers in your industry and theirs. It’s compelling, authoritative, and adds to your charisma, your product/service, your company, your industry, everything. People trust industry authorities. They’ll also know you care.”

Susanne Pope of Whiterock Locators agrees with the two and says, “Including succinct and relevant data to drive your point across is one of the most effective presentation techniques that will increase your probability of closing a deal.

Anyone can make bold claims, but having the data to back up those claims will drive the nail in the coffin, so to speak. It’s also important that the data you’re presenting is clearly communicated in its relevance to the goods/services you’re pitching.

If you have data that the audience cannot make sense of, your odds of closing lessen. You also want to ensure you don’t overload your audience with data. The most critical data sets will do, but always be prepared to present more data should someone in the audience ask for it.”

Greg Taft, a Realtor , shares, “I would say the one item that gets me the most traction both from my pitch books from my private equity career and in my listing presentations to clients selling their homes is a strong value proposition.

The value proposition needs to be tangible and measurable. It is hard to put a number on intellectual property or intangible assets, but you have to. As an example, you can talk to a home seller about selling their home, but why are you the right agent for them?

You have to show that you are better than average, whether that be your homes are selling for more than they are worth, or your full marketing package is selling homes x days faster, etc. If you are just average, they will just shop for the cheapest rather than the most value.”

“Fundamentals win championships, and the same goes for sales professionals when they’re working to gain a new client. If there was one piece of advice I’d bestow upon someone new to the sales profession, it would be to follow up with your prospect . 

48% of salespeople never follow up with a prospect. Only 25% of salespeople make a second contact. Those alarming numbers, especially considering that 80% of sales are made between the fifth to twelfth contact. So if there was one technique that will increase your close rate on a macro scale, it would have to be to follow up with your prospect.” Explains Evan Donahue of JMJ Phillip .

Related : 36 Practical Tips for Writing A Great Sales Follow Up Email

When asked the most important sales presentation tip that helps close more deals, Nathan Bliss of Kinsta says,

“Prepare. There is no replacement for being prepared to go into a discovery or demo call. Know all that you can about that potential customer and their business. Make some assumptions about what you think might be important to them based on your experience, but test those assumptions with effective questioning while you are on the call.”

“I always state the potential client’s goals before I go into anything. They’ve told me what they want to achieve in a pre-call, but I reiterate that in my words, while I also hint at how we’ll get there by way of our services. Then I ask them, ‘Are we in agreement?’

If we don’t establish that agreement before I start the rest of the presentation, we can run into many swings and misses during the rest of the presentation.

That question helps me understand that my pitch is spot on, or tells me if I need to pivot some of my discussion points or commentary that are coming in the next several slides.” Shares Tracy Beach of Portent .

Incorporate videos 

“One unique and effective technique I use to help me close more deals is creating asynchronous video content, also known as recorded video, video messages, screen shares, or video voicemail.

By using a free screen-share or recording tool like Vidyard, you can turn your bland ol’ slide presentation into an interactive video that explains all the details that the recipient needs to hear.

Instead of the old methods of sharing PDF’s and hoping your customer champion will sell your pitch internally (which can become a risky game of telephone), instead, turn that PDF or presentation into an interactive video and send it via email (or any other channel) to your recipient.

This ensures that your message is heard the way you intended it to be heard. It also gives the recipient a simple way to float the video around to the decision-makers within their organization so they can get buy-in to push deals across the line. Think about using asynchronous videos to explain proposals, quotes, customer stories, demos, etc. Video works!” Says Jacob Fernandes of Vidyard .

Deepak Shukla of Pearl Lemon Sales agrees and adds, “A growing trend in sales and marketing is Explanation Videos. Expounding on your product’s value in a down-to-earth, relatable way helps build personal connections with potential clients.

It also prevents user bounce rates and increases your SEO ranking – meaning your client finds you easier and is more likely to stay on your page. All of these things contribute to vastly improving your chances of closing that sale!”

“I have found asking questions to drive the ‘No’ instead of the ‘Yes’ leads to more sales. By asking questions, the prospect has to answer ‘No’ opens up the door to get the ‘Yes’ at the close.

The ‘No’ questions are designed to get the prospect to tell you where they are coming up short or items they are missing. Asking these questions and actually listening will give you the upper hand when going through your sales conversation by letting you know their pain points without asking the standard ‘Yes’ questions.

So switch the way you direct your conversations from the ‘Yes’ questions to the ‘No’ questions, and you will see more success at the closing.” Explains Eric Bergman of Serendipit Consulting

Don’t hard-sell

Boxroom Office ’s Neil Roach believes that hard selling never works in a sales presentation. 

Roach says, “People know when they’re being sold to. Instead, your focus should be on solving whatever problem that person has and the most affordable way for them.

Far too many salespeople are trained to go in hard and basically talk the prospect into submission.

That approach shows a lack of finesse and a real lack of understanding of human psychology. Basically, it’s the path to most resistance, by its very nature.

The salespeople I’ve trained always focus on what the customer needs but rarely what the customer wants. If, for example, a customer wants a $1,000 smartphone, you should ask them what they need it for? If it’s “…just for calls and texts,” guide them to something more affordable.

That will cause one of two outcomes.

• 1. The customer will either buy the $1,000 phone on the spot because they know you’re not trying to strongarm them.
• 2. They’ll buy the cheaper phone, but tell everyone they meet how helpful you were and didn’t try to push the sale on them.

Either way, your business, and your reputation, and your sales figures will benefit.”

Lauren Shroll of Outside The Box opines, “When you work from specific questions and comments that put pressure on that meeting to convert, your leads who are not specifically in that small percentage of users ready to convert at the time of the call, are going to be turned off to a conversation that is already primed for someone who wants to buy.

Your ideal sales conversation should prime the user to buy, both at the time of the call and in future retargeting, by including invitations.

This means that you are inviting the user to share their concerns, preview the product, opt-in to email updates, and effectively gear the user to feel that it’s a perfect fit for their specific needs.

This is the case even if they are converting in the next 12-24 months. Your conversation should aim to make the user feel that they are comfortable making a purchase decision, but not necessarily focused on the present moment.”

And did this strategy work for her? 

Shroll shares her experience and adds, “Using this approach has helped massively with one of the software companies I work alongside.

Even in the midst of a pandemic, we have enrolled three major clients in a program that equated to several hundred users.

The reason? We primed the sales call toward “continuing the conversation” to fit our leads at any stage of their buying journey.

A conversation that started as a sales call twelve months ago turned into a neatly closed deal in the most uncertain of times to achieve an amazing return on investment.

If you do include a quote in your story, please let me know when it’s published so that I can promote it across social media channels.”

“The most effective sales presentations that help us close deals all follow one formula: Educate the prospect on a pain that they have, leverage data that is unique to them to support the pain point, then solve the problem.

If you are using a sales deck, it should follow this framework without talking about your own product until the solution section.

If you are doing a live demo, you should break this same approach into sections based on the solution you are providing.

And every solution should first be teed up by education, specific pain for the client, then solution.

Following the formula in every presentation is the key to closing.” Says Zach Rego of Unstack .

Samantha Kohn of AutoVerify recommends taking a customer-in approach in your sales presentations. “You can increase your probability of closing a deal by taking a customer-in approach (rather than a product-out approach) in your sales presentations.

Instead of starting by explaining how great your product is, consider beginning with a discussion of the pain-points your customers are trying to solve.”

Osiris Parikh of Lilius says one of the most important sales techniques is to tailor solutions to the needs of a prospective client. Parikh explains, “Asking questions and showing genuine interest in helping them, rather than seeming like a robot reading from a script, allows for greater rapport and ultimately better solutions aligned to their situation. The chances of a sale only increase from there.”

Lynell Ross of Education Advocates agrees with them and gives some practical tips. “Stress how your product or service will make your customer’s life easier.

Most customers are stressed out and have a million things on their plate. Just as important as the money they’ll save by going with you or the upgrade in quality they’ll achieve is the ease with which they’ll do it.

Even if not relevant to your product or service’s substantive qualities, stress the importance of how your company or service will remove work and time from the customer’s plate, streamline their processes, and make them more efficient.

Reference the type of lift similarly positioned customers have experienced, and use data for that where available.”

“When presenting pitches to potential clients, confidence is everything because you are what you’re selling. How you handle yourself is as important as the presentation itself.” Says Jolene Caufield of Healthy Howard .

And the best way to do that is by showing your stuff. 

Adam Smartschan of Altitude Marketing explains, “Do your research and present it in an attractive fashion. The more you show you know your stuff, the more a prospect will be willing to work with you.

Don’t just tell them their competitors are doing it better. Show them what their competitors are doing, and explain why – then tell them how you’ll help them win.”

Richard Latimer of Veritas Homebuyers explains what works best for him in sales presentations. “The best presentation technique that I employ frequently is physical cues. This includes my posture, use of hands, eye contact, and tone of voice.

Having an upright yet relaxed posture helps make your counterpart feel at ease, using your hands helps illustrate your meanings, eye contact promotes trust, and your tone of voice should guide your counterpart through the presentation.” Shares Latimer.

Paige Arnof-Fenn of Mavens & Moguls also shares her experience and says, “Before a sales pitch I always take a few deep breaths and remind myself I know this topic well, I try to make eye contact with at least a few people in the room as I speak and share stories from my experience to make my points.

I also try to smile a lot. That usually helps me relax and get started, and once I start talking, I am usually good to go.

I have presented successfully virtually, too, via video, online, and phone. With social distancing video presentations are a popular reality now and should be treated just as important as face to face meetings.”

Personalize it for the client

“One important tip is to personalize your sales presentation for your customer.

Most presentations are all about the company presenting them, which is quite backward since the prospect really doesn’t care about you (sorry). They care about their business and their own goals.

In some cases, your audience will connect the dots between the solution you offer and the problems they have, but it’s much more effective to do your research ahead of time and connect those dots between your customer’s unique problem and your proposed solution inside of the presentation.” Recommends Spencer Smith of IRC Sales Solutions .

Syed Irfan Ajmal who is a Growth Marketing Consultant at Physicians Thrive , says personalization of any sales presentation is actually easier than it looks. 

He shared a sales presentation example that helped him to win a 5-figure marketing contract. He shares the following:

• “1. Provide a forecast (traffic, leads, revenue) based on existing keyword rankings data of the client.

This visual example shows how the client stands to earn $49K to $99K per month by applying only 2 simple SEO/Content-Marketing strategies. 

• 2. Provide a comparison (in simple tabular format) of the client with the top 3-5 of their key competitors.
• 3. Provide specific content ideas (personalized for the client’s niche) that they can employ to attract more backlinks.

This visual example shows the specific ideas meant for a company working in the Household Industry. ”

Knowing your client’s competitors, what’s working for them and what’s not can easily make or break your sales pitch. 

Lenny Liebmann says, “I do research on my prospective client’s competitors. I make sure to include a passing reference to one or more of those competitors in my press. That way, the client gets the sense that I really understand their market and their challenges — as opposed to just peddling them something based on some sort of questionably universal value proposition.”

Digital Debut ’s Deniz Doganay also recommends keeping a close eye on your prospect’s competitors. “Actually, take the time to look at leading competitors of your potential client and point out the things they are doing well and what you plan to do to best them. Be very transparent in your company processes and policies as well, so the client knows exactly what to expect when entering an agreement with you.” Advises Doganay.

Mike Charles of Lookout Lofts believes short and to-the-point presentations are always better. “The 9-minute rule! Keeping your presentation to 9 minutes or less is a great rule of thumb to follow for keeping your audience engaged. If you are using slides, do not spend more than 2-3 minutes on each slide. This number is based on research that has shown audiences start to lose their attention around minute 11.”

Make it conversational 

Edwin Rubio of Vapor Empire says, “The more conversational of a pitch, the less of a sales presentation it will feel like. Everything will come more naturally by having an open dialogue because you are building the trust and rapport that many need to feel engaged and comfortable with making a purchase.” 

Melanie Musson of CarInsuranceCompanies.net agrees with Rubio and adds, “Think about the presentation as a conversation. Keep the client engaged and actively involved in the dialogue. If you do the presentation as a monologue, you’ll risk losing their attention.”

Sell your brand, not just the product

“I could write paragraphs about this. I witnessed first-hand how a sales process when well executed, will allow you to position a very normal product as the best in class. It’s all in selling on the brand and the solution.

Presentations that focus on the features and what features will do to you are losing presentations, in my opinion.

In our internal training process, we have a whole day about ‘Establishing Mastery’. Sales peeps and engineers have to establish mastery right after positioning the brand. You position the brand by talking about your internal values, how you run your business, what your vision is. And yes, this is no BS cause what you’re doing here is establishing trust with the company in front of you that you will be able to solve any problem that arises just because you are running a good business.

And that’s the key; customers should be buying the brand and not the product. First-hand. Now, of course, your product should be a real, reliable, and sustainable product that lives up to the expectations.

Once trust in the brand is established, then you dive into establishing mastery by showcasing that you know the ins and outs of the industry you are solving problems for, you understand actual use cases.

Always pull examples about current clients you have that are similar to the prospects you’re speaking to. This helps with social proofing as well as indicating to the prospect that you’ve been there, done that.” Explains Bob Sabra of Hovi .

Quincy Smith of Mira advises businesses always to show how their product\service works during a presentation to close more deals. 

“I’ve had great success by demonstrating the tools we use to complete whatever project it is we’re pitching. For example, when we show clients SEO tools and how we actually have search data on what terms they could be targeting, most of them have no idea that type of information was out there!

Experience and reputation will get you pretty far, but if you can give a little over-the-shoulder look at how you will perform your job, then you can really stand out!” Says Smith.

Alexandra Zamolo of Beekeeper believes the same and adds, “It’s always best to showcase exactly how the product or software will actually work in the exact manner in which the potential customer intends to make use of it. While most examples are great to illustrate features, a demo with more customization to the user’s exact needs will always provide better results.”

And don’t waste all your hard work by not having a clear, targeted Call to Action at the end of your presentation. 

“Every presentation or post should end with a ‘Call to Action’. The action could be anything from scheduling a meeting to submitting a query/feedback or anything else you feel is appropriate. It is important because, after the sales presentation, people are influenced. So before giving them some more time to think, it is better to involve them in some action!” Explains Adam Rowles of Inbound Marketing Agency .

Wrapping up

Sales presentations are an essential part of scaling your business. There’s no escaping them. So embrace them and try to incorporate all these tips into your next sales presentations.

As Mudassir Ahmed of Blogging Explained sums up all of them and says, “Spend less time talking about your company profile. And talk about R.O.I, how your prospect will see a return on their investment with your deal. But don’t go way deeper, awakening their logical nerves by which critical debates could happen.

Give a glimpse and value touch by adding your customers’ success stories or even case studies. You make sure to get the prospect to see himself/herself in your story and talk about the value they would get. That’s probably called human-centric marketing, where you invoke prospects’ senses with an emotion.

It also helps budget-hesitant prospects to get clear insights about their investment and ROI and make a positive decision about the deal.

Do your research and be ready to impress the prospect with this factor. The key is to be conversational rather than presentational.”

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7 Amazing Sales Presentation Examples (And How to Make Them Your Own)

7 Types of Slides to Include In Your Sales Presentation

Inside the mind of your prospect: change is hard, before-after-bridge: the only formula you need to create a persuasive sales presentation, facebook — how smiles and simplicity make you more memorable, contently — how to build a strong bridge, brick by brick, yesware — how to go above and beyond with your benefits, uber — how to cater your content for readers quick to scan, dealtap — how to use leading questions to your advantage, zuora — how to win over your prospects by feeding them dots, linkedin sales navigator — how to create excitement with color, how to make a sales pitch in 4 straightforward steps, 7 embarrassing pitfalls to avoid in your presentation, over to you.

A brilliant sales presentation has a number of things going for it.

Being product-centered isn’t one of them. Or simply focusing on your sales pitch won’t do the trick.

So what can you do to make your offer compelling?

From different types of slides to persuasive techniques and visuals, we’ve got you covered.

Below, we look at data-backed strategies, examples, and easy steps to build your own sales presentations in minutes.

• Title slide: Company name, topic, tagline
• The “Before” picture: No more than three slides with relevant statistics and graphics.
• The “After” picture: How life looks with your product. Use happy faces.
• Company introduction: Who you are and what you do (as it applies to them).
• The “Bridge” slide: Short outcome statements with icons in circles.
• Social proof slides: Customer logos with the mission statement on one slide. Pull quote on another.
• “We’re here for you” slide: Include a call-to-action and contact information.

Many sales presentations fall flat because they ignore this universal psychological bias: People overvalue the benefits of what they have over what they’re missing.

Harvard Business School professor John T. Gourville calls this the “ 9x Effect .” Left unchecked, it can be disastrous for your business.

According to Gourville, “It’s not enough for a new product simply to be better. Unless the gains far outweigh the losses, customers will not adopt it.”

The good news: You can influence how prospects perceive these gains and losses. One of the best ways to prove value is to contrast life before and after your product.

Luckily, there’s a three-step formula for that.

• Before → Here’s your world…
• After → Imagine what it would be like if…
• Bridge → Here’s how to get there.

Start with a vivid description of the pain, present an enviable world where that problem doesn’t exist, then explain how to get there using your tool.

It’s super simple, and it works for cold emails , drip campaigns , and sales discovery decks. Basically anywhere you need to get people excited about what you have to say.

In fact, a lot of companies are already using this formula to great success. The methods used in the sales presentation examples below will help you do the same.

We’re all drawn to happiness. A study at Harvard tells us that emotion is contagious .

You’ll notice that the “Before” (pre-Digital Age) pictures in Facebook’s slides all display neutral faces. But the cover slide that introduces Facebook and the “After” slides have smiling faces on them.

This is important. The placement of those graphics is an intentional persuasion technique.

Studies by psychologists show that we register smiles faster than any other expression. All it takes is 500 milliseconds (1/20th of a second). And when participants in a study were asked to recall expressions, they consistently remembered happy faces over neutral ones.

What to do about it : Add a happy stock photo to your intro and “After” slides, and keep people in “Before” slides to neutral expressions.

Here are some further techniques used during the sales presentation:

Tactic #1: Use Simple Graphics

Use simple graphics to convey meaning without text.

Example: Slide 2 is a picture of a consumer’s hand holding an iPhone — something we can all relate to.

Why It Works: Pictures are more effective than words — it’s called  Picture Superiority . In presentations, pictures help you create connections with your audience. Instead of spoon-feeding them everything word for word, you let them interpret. This builds trust.

Tactic #2: Use Icons

Use icons to show statistics you’re comparing instead of listing them out.

Example: Slide 18 uses people icons to emphasize how small 38 out of 100 people is compared to 89 out of 100.

Why It Works:  We process visuals 60,000 times faster than text.

Tactic #3: Include Statistics

Include statistics that tie real success to the benefits you mention.

Example: “71% lift driving visits to retailer title pages” (Slide 26).

Why It Works:  Precise details prove that you are telling the truth.

Just like how you can’t drive from Marin County to San Francisco without the Golden Gate, you can’t connect a “Before” to an “After” without a bridge.

Add the mission statement of your company — something Contently does from Slide 1 of their deck. Having a logo-filled Customers slide isn’t unusual for sales presentations, but Contently goes one step further by showing you exactly what they do for these companies.

They then drive home the Before-After-Bridge Formula further with case studies:

Before : Customer’s needs when they came on

After: What your company accomplished for them

Bridge : How they got there (specific actions and outcomes)

Here are some other tactics we pulled from the sales presentation:

Tactic #1: Use Graphics/Diagrams

Use graphics, Venn diagrams, and/or equations to drive home your “Before” picture.

Why It Works:  According to a Cornell study , graphs and equations have persuasive power. They “signal a scientific basis for claims, which grants them greater credibility.”

Tactic #2: Keep Slides That Have Bullets to a Minimum

Keep slides that have bullets to a minimum. No more than one in every five slides.

Why It Works:  According to an experiment by the International Journal of Business Communication , “Subjects exposed to a graphic representation paid significantly more attention to , agreed more with, and better recalled the strategy than did subjects who saw a (textually identical) bulleted list.”

Tactic #3: Use Visual Examples

Follow up your descriptions with visual examples.

Example: After stating “15000+ vetted, ready to work journalists searchable by location, topical experience, and social media influence” on Slide 8, Contently shows what this looks like firsthand on slides 9 and 10.

Why It Works:  The same reason why prospects clamor for demos and car buyers ask for test drives. You’re never truly convinced until you see something for yourself.

Which is more effective for you?

This statement — “On average, Yesware customers save ten hours per week” — or this image:

The graphic shows you what that 10 hours looks like for prospects vs. customers. It also calls out a pain that the product removes: data entry.

Visuals are more effective every time. They fuel retention of a presentation from 10% to 65% .

But it’s not as easy as just including a graphic. You need to keep the design clean.

Can you feel it?

Clutter provokes anxiety and stress because it bombards our minds with excessive visual stimuli, causing our senses to work overtime on stimuli that aren’t important.

Here’s a tip from Yesware’s Graphic Designer, Ginelle DeAntonis:

“Customer logos won’t all necessarily have the same dimensions, but keep them the same size visually so that they all have the same importance. You should also disperse colors throughout, so that you don’t for example end up with a bunch of blue logos next to each other. Organize them in a way that’s easy for the eye, because in the end it’s a lot of information at once.”

Here are more tactics to inspire sales presentation ideas:

Tactic #1: Personalize Your Final Slide

Personalize your final slide with your contact information and a headline that drives emotion.

Example: Our Mid-Market Team Lead Kyle includes his phone number and email address with “We’re Here For You”

Why It Works: These small details show your audience that:

• This is about giving them the end picture, not making a sale
• The end of the presentation doesn’t mean the end of the conversation
• Questions are welcomed

Tactic #2: Pair Outcome Statements With Icons in Circles

Example: Slide 4 does this with seven different “After” outcomes.

Why It Works:  We already know why pictures work, but circles have power , too. They imply completeness, infiniteness, and harmony.

Tactic #3: Include Specific Success Metrics

Don’t just list who you work with; include specific success metrics that hit home what you’ve done for them.

Example: 35% New Business Growth for Boomtrain; 30% Higher Reply Rates for Dyn.

Why It Works:  Social proof drives action. It’s why we wait in lines at restaurants and put ourselves on waitlists for sold-out items.

People can only focus for eight seconds at a time. (Sadly, goldfish have one second on us.)

This means you need to cut to the chase fast.

Uber’s headlines in Slides 2-9 tailor the “After” picture to specific pain points. As a result, there’s no need to explicitly state a “Before.”

Slides 11-13 then continue touching on “Before” problems tangentially with customer quotes:

So instead of self-touting benefits, the brand steps aside to let consumers hear from their peers — something that sways 92% of consumers .

Leading questions may be banned from the courtroom, but they aren’t in the boardroom.

DealTap’s slides ask viewers to choose between two scenarios over and over. Each has an obvious winner:

Ever heard of the Focusing Effect?

It’s part of what makes us tick as humans and what makes this design move effective. We focus on one thing and then ignore the rest. Here, DealTap puts the magnifying glass on paperwork vs. automated transactions.

Easy choice.

Sure, DealTap’s platform might have complexities that rival paperwork, but we don’t think about that. We’re looking at the pile of work one the left and the simpler, single interface on the right.

Here are some other tactics to use in your own sales presentation:

Tactic #1: Tell a Story

Tell a story that flows from one slide to the next.

Example: Here’s the story DealTap tells from slides 4 to 8: “Transactions are complicated” → “Expectations on all sides” → “Too many disconnected tools” → “Slow and error prone process” → “However, there’s an opportunity.

Why It Works:   Storytelling in sales with a clear beginning and end (or in this case, a “Before” and “After”) trigger a trust hormone called Oxytocin.

Tactic #2: This vs. That

If it’s hard to separate out one “Before” and “After” vision with your product or service because you offer many dissimilar benefits, consider a “This vs. That” theme for each.

Why It Works:  It breaks up your points into simple decisions and sets you up to win emotional reactions from your audience with stock photos.

Remember how satisfying it was to play connect the dots? Forming a bigger picture out of disconnected circles.

That’s what you need to make your audience do.

Zuora tells a story by:

• Laying out the reality (the “Before” part of the Before-After-Bridge formula).
• Asking you a question that you want to answer (the “After”)
• Giving you hints to help you connect the dots
• Showing you the common thread (the “Bridge”)

You can achieve this by founding your sales presentation on your audience’s intuitions. Set them up with the closely-set “dots,” then let them make the connection.

Here are more tactical sales presentation ideas to steal for your own use:

Tactic #1: Use Logos and Testimonials

Use logos and  testimonial pull-quotes for your highest-profile customers to strengthen your sales presentation.

Example: Slides 21 to 23 include customer quotes from Schneider Electric, Financial Times, and Box.

Why It Works: It’s called  social proof . Prospects value other people’s opinions and trust reputable sources more than you.

Tactic #2: Include White Space

Pad your images with white space.

Example: Slide 17 includes two simple graphics on a white background to drive home an important concept.

Why It Works:  White space creates separation, balance, and attracts the audience’s eyes to the main focus: your image.

Tactic #3: Incorporate Hard Data

Incorporate hard data with a memorable background to make your data stand out.

Example: Slide 5 includes statistics with a backdrop that stands out. The number and exciting title (‘A Global Phenomenon’) are the main focuses of the slide.

Why It Works:  Vivid backdrops are proven to be memorable and help your audience take away important numbers or data.

Psychology tells us that seeing colors can set our mood .

The color red is proven to increase the pulse and heart rate. Beyond that, it’s associated with being active, aggressive, and outspoken. LinkedIn Sales Navigator uses red on slides to draw attention to main points:

You can use hues in your own slides to guide your audience’s emotions. Green gives peace; grey adds a sense of calm; blue breeds trust. See more here .

Tip: You can grab free photos from Creative Commons and then set them to black & white and add a colored filter on top using a (also free) tool like Canva . Here’s the sizing for your image:

Caveat: Check with your marketing team first to see if you have a specific color palette or brand guidelines to follow.

Here are some other takeaways from LinkedIn’s sales presentation:

Tactic #1: Include a CTA on Final Slide

Include one clear call-to-action on your final slide.

Example: Slide 9 has a “Learn More” CTA button.

Why It Works:  According to the Paradox of Choice , the more options you give, the less likely they are to act.

Step One : Ask marketing for your company’s style guide (color, logo, and font style).

Step Two: Answer these questions to outline the “Before → After → Bridge” formula for your sales pitch :

• What are your ICP’s pain points?
• What end picture resonates with them?
• How does your company come into play?

Step Three: Ask account management/marketing which customers you can mention in your slides (plus where to access any case studies for pull quotes).

Step Four:  Download photos from Creative Commons . Remember: Graphics > Text. Use Canva to edit on your own — free and fast.

What are the sales presentation strategies that work best for your industry and customers? Tweet us:  @Yesware .

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How to make the ULTIMATE sales presentation

• Written by: Joby Blume
• Categories: Sales presentations , Sales messaging , Visual communication
• Comments: 8

Sales presentations are the cornerstone of many companies’ sales efforts, yet so often they aren’t given the time and attention they deserve. Thrown together at the last-minute, often your sales reps stand up in front of a sales presentation that’s nothing more than a glorified page of notes.

The right sales presentation can be the Excalibur to your rep’s King Arthur. But if you’re sending your troops into battle with a wooden sword, they won’t be terribly successful – or do much dragon-slaying for that matter.

How to use this article

In this article you’ll find everything you need to know about sales presentations – what they are, how to go about writing a killer one, and how to deliver it like a pro. We’d recommend starting at the beginning – we’ve heard it’s a very good place to start – but you can also use the links below to jump to your favourite bit.

Sales presentations: An overview

Writing a sales presentation: the process, writing a sales presentation: context and competition, writing a sales presentation: persuasive structure, writing a sales presentation: sales presentation introductions, writing a sales presentation: content, writing a sales presentation: a powerful close, designing a sales presentation: visuals.

• Preparing to deliver a sales presentation
• Delivering a sales presentation

Outside of the telephone and email (and CRM), what’s the most important sales tool in most B2B companies? After careful consideration, I think it’s PowerPoint: salespeople use presentations all the time when talking to prospects.

What is a sales presentation: A sales presentation is a talk which promotes a product or service that you are trying to sell, which includes illustrative material such as slides, sketches, or props.

• Can most reps use PowerPoint properly?
• Can most marketing departments use it well?
• Are most reps given adequate slide decks to sell with?
• Do most reps have the content to enable great visual sales conversations?
• Are reps still wasting good leads by inflicting ‘Death by PowerPoint’?

The problem: How many opportunities do you create each month? Think about how valuable those opportunities are – not just in terms of whether you have enough of them, but also your cost per opportunity – all that marketing spend that gets you face-to-face with a prospect. And then how much did you spend on your sales presentation – the sales tool that helps tell your sales story and communicate value to prospects? For a lot of companies, it’s nothing.

People must think that creating sales tools is easy. Just open PowerPoint and type some bullet points to get your message across. Maybe if you’re feeling fancy, ask a graphic designer to take a look.

Never mind that arming your sales teams to read bullet points (even pretty bullet points) won’t work.

Never mind that the same techniques that work for a charismatic speaker talking to 1000 people at a conference don’t work when your average sales rep is delivering their sales presentation to four people from a laptop.

Why change: The figures on how buyers feel about sales people and sales meetings suggest a communication failure:  just 22% feel that sales people understand their issues and how they can offer value ( Forrester ). Looking at the sales presentations that many companies use confirms the same view: this isn’t an area that marketing has mastered.

Improving conversion rates at the bottom of the funnel is equivalent to sourcing many more ‘sales-accepted leads’ or finding 1000s more prospects. For this reason, improving your sales presentations is one of the most impactful things that a marketing team can do .

If your sales tools aren’t persuasive and compelling, if your sales people are spending time creating their own clandestine collateral, or if your conversion rates are too low – you need to do something different.

Back to top

A PowerPoint sales pitch allows you both to capture the messages you want to present to prospects (straight from the minds of your best sales people) and to distribute these messages in a way that others can use too. So how do we make sure we write a good presentation?

Always prepare properly: I’m going to begin with a disclaimer – creating an effective sales presentation takes hours. Before you even open PowerPoint, there’s a whole pile of stuff that it’s better to know beforehand: content, length, who will be presenting, how complex will your slides be, will you use icons or pictures, colour scheme, deadlines…and the list goes on.

You see, you can’t just make a sales tool and then throw it over the fence to the sales team. You need to work with them to find out what they need. When do they talk to prospects? What messages are they trying to articulate? What objections are they seeing? Where are competitors gaining ground? In summary, what conversations are sales people having that visual slides could support?

Gathering this kind of information does (and should) take time – and it’s definitely worth investing in it to do it properly.

The voice of the customer is often missing in sales messaging.  The solution? Just ask customers why they buy from you, or what you do that they value. Better yet, ask them what challenges  they  face (in your field of influence); now you can start to identify opportunities – areas where they need help but where you don’t currently have competitive advantage.

One word of caution though. Stated preferences and revealed preferences aren’t the same. Just because customers say they want something, doesn’t mean that they do. Offer them a real choice of products, and see what they choose – that’s a revealed preference.

To acquire new –  different  – customers, it makes sense to talk to those who  aren’t  currently buying from you, not just those who are. They may have different thoughts, value different things, and have a different view of your competitive strengths.

Here are some good questions to find the answers to:

• What are your prospects doing now?
• What do you want them to do?
• What are they thinking now?
• What do you want them to think?
• How are they feeling now?
• How do you want them to feel?

With all this data gathering done, you can move on – no, not to PowerPoint – to understanding what kind of a change you want your prospects to make, and then with that knowledge, you can set clear (and SMART ) sales presentation objectives.

Sales presentation objectives: Setting the wrong goals – unrealistic goals – for your sales presentation won’t help you. Before you work out what to say, you need to be clear about what you are trying to achieve with a sales presentation or sales conversation.

There are plenty of possible objectives, beyond making the sale immediately:

• To be invited to respond to a tender
• To be down-selected to the next round of a bidding process
• To be allowed to help write the tender
• To be invited back to meet with the decision maker
• For the prospect to meet with your technical consultant
• To get permission to run a study
• For your prospect to start a trial
• For your prospect to commit to a technical evaluation.

There are dozens of things you might want or need en-route to a sale. Be very clear about what you are trying to achieve  before  you write your sales presentation.

Understanding who you are competing with – in terms of how prospects are currently approaching the issues that you address – is fundamental to your sales messaging. If your sales messaging is directed against other companies, but your prospects aren’t even aware that they have a problem, or are thinking in terms of whether to keep on doing things in-house, you are selling the wrong thing.

There is one crucial question you need to ask:

Who are you competing with?

• Are you competing with the status quo or apathy?
• Are you competing with a DIY approach to solving the problem?
• Are you competing with solving the problem in a different way?
• Are you competing with companies you recognise as competitors?
• Are you competing with companies that you don’t even recognise as competitors?

‘Why change’ vs. ‘Why us’

Sales messages when selling a category ( ‘Why change? ’, whether to buy) should be different from those used when selling a particular solution (‘ Why us? ’, which one to buy).

• Have they decided to change, or do you need to persuade them?
• Do they know what category of solution they are looking for, or is that still open?
• Have they got established decision-making criteria, or can you shape their thinking?
• Will they talk to other companies, or could you win this before anyone else is involved?

Why change: At the start of the sales cycle, prospects might not be aware that they have a problem. They might not recognise that a problem they have can be solved. They could have no knowledge of the market you are in, or the vendors who might want to help them. At this stage, messaging needs to focus on bringing out the problems that they have , and all the messy implications. Fear of change, and a certain inertia are the main obstacle to overcome. You need to make it very clear that the prospect has a problem – if they realise it or not – and that the problem is hurting them – perhaps in subtle ways – but it is hurting.

Why us: Once a prospect acknowledges they have a problem, they start to try and find somebody who can help them to solve it. At this point, messaging needs to answer the question ‘Why us?’.

There’s no single way to structure a sales meeting or a sales presentation – as you move through the sales cycle, different things are required. At the very first meeting, you are likely to be fact-finding, exploring whether your company’s solutions are a good fit for the prospect, and discovering what challenges they feel most urgently. At a best-and-final pitch presentation, you may be responding to an entirely prescriptive meeting agenda, with scoring on how well you answer certain questions.

Here are a few good starting points to make sure, at whatever point you are in the sales cycle, your content is always structured in a compelling way.

How not to structure: Did you ever notice how a journey seems to take longer when you don’t know how far you have to go? Sales presentations are the same.

Those sales presentations that  do  make the structure visible – by using agendas – usually make the mistake of using headings that mean more to the presenter than the audience, or that are so dry that they do absolutely nothing to help sell.

Focus on the benefits: One way to make an audience-centred agenda is to think in terms of benefits: what’s in it for your audience. Don’t make the mistake of only talking about benefits in a summary slide right at the end of your presentation. The benefit slide can be used as an agenda that appears as a segue between sections.

This benefit slide ought to be written to answer the key question around which the sales presentation revolves – Why Change? or Why Us? We call this the value proposition – for more great insights on writing value propositions, take a look at this article . Value propositions help us in three ways:

• The advantages or benefits are stated early enough to be noticed
• The agenda is now audience-focused, not product-focused
• By showing a slide with the benefits multiple times during  your presentation, you help your audience to remember your key points

Now that’s a powerful and persuasive presentation structure!

How to write your value proposition: Though it may seem like a dark art, writing a value proposition is something anyone can do. There’s quite a simple formula that you can use:

• Decide whether you are answering ‘Why change?’ or ‘Why us?’
• List the three to five best answers to the question
• Create a slide that shows these answers
• Use that slide as an agenda to help structure your sales presentation, and show it each time you segue from one section to the next
• Arrange your content into sections according to the benefits or advantages they support. Typically, you might want a few slides in each section.
• Use the agenda slide to close the presentation

How many points should a value proposition have: Value propositions should be comprised of 3-5 statements about what your solution or type of solution offers. Any more becomes harder to remember. Any less can fail to structure the presentation content effectively and memorably.

In this  fascinating article  reporting on research by  Weaver et al in the Journal of Consumer Research , Heidi Halvorson points out that adding additional arguments doesn’t always help. If a value proposition has three very strong sections, adding an additional section that’s weaker (but still valid) actually dilutes the overall strength of the argument.

How to write a value proposition statement: Value proposition statements work best if they are of similar length and format. If one item is a single word (‘flexible’) and another is a long phrase (‘standards compliant for SIA accreditation’), it often looks and sounds awkward.

The best way to get the phrasing right is to note a question that the value proposition answers, and format all items to work with that question. So, for example:

• Why change?  ‘You should change in this way because you will get ___’
• Why us? ‘Choose us because we offer ___’

Category vs. solution: When selling the category , the key messages of your sales presentation will typically be made up of benefits, and focus on what your prospects will get if they try a new approach – ‘increase turnover’, ‘reduce risk’, or ‘improve efficiency’.

When selling your  solution , the key messages (or value proposition) will typically be made up of advantages that your product or service has over competing alternatives. If you used benefits here, there’s a risk that competing solutions would all just say the same thing, and you wouldn’t be able to differentiate.

Ordering your value proposition: Once you know your value proposition, you need to decide on the right order for your sections. Many presenters fail to look at structure from the audience’s point of view, and, as such, they make incorrect assumptions about what should go where. Stop and imagine you’re seeing this content for the very first time. What do you need to know first? What is the logical order to approach and take in these points? Opt for logic and simplicity and you won’t go far wrong.

Interactive presentations – let your audience choose: One way to structure a sales presentation is to do something interactive – non-linear. That means you can have a conversation without any pre-determined flow, and show things in response to the way in which the sales conversation develops.

Break your content up into smaller chunks – a few minutes of material at a time. Switch between topics of conversation based on what your audience says to you. So, instead of a single presentation with 30 slides, think more in terms of six topics with five slides in each. You might use some of them, or all of them. You might present them in a different order each time. The point is that you have a conversation and respond to what you are hearing.

A lot of presentations we see are very front-heavy: the presenter talks for slides and slides about the company, about their amazing product, and about why you would obviously want to be a part of what they’ve got going on. The trouble is – I’m sorry – no-one cares.

The problem: Often sales presentations are written from the point of view of Product Marketing, and not the audience. If the first few slides are about ‘ My Company ’, ‘ Company Structure ’, ‘ Company History ’, ‘ Office Locations ’, and ‘ Revenue by Division ’ – chances are the audience is getting bored before the presenter even gets started.

Lose the slides about your company history and awards and clients and internal structure. Nobody ever bought anything because Division A accounts for 36% of turnover.

They already know about your company, from your website. You don’t need to build credibility – they accepted the appointment. And it wastes precious time… Why spend the first five minutes of your sales presentation talking about you, when they want to know what you can do for them. It will just risk boring them, and ensure that attention levels plummet before you get going.

The solution: The start of a sales presentation should be interesting. That means encouraging reps to stop playing 20 questions, stop talking about the size of their company, and start challenging prospects to see the world in new ways. Explain  why  something is an important issue, and why current attempts to solve the problem don’t and won’t work.

Your sales presentation introduction ought to build credibility – but the way to do that is by showing that you  understand the prospect’s challenges , that the standard ways of meeting these challenges don’t work, and that  the prospect may need to do things differently .

Credibility is gained by having something interesting to say, not just by going on about your company in an entirely predictable way.

Do not rest on the assumption that just because you are standing in front of a screen dressed nicely that people will want to give you their attention. Many people you present to will not be inclined to care about what you are saying until you give them a really good reason to. In order to get your audience engaged, you have to bring them into the presentation by identifying their needs or addressing a problem they may be having.

Questions to consider:

• What challenges do companies like your prospect’s tend to face?
• Why have they been unsuccessful in overcoming these challenges so far?
• What do these problems cost them?
• What would a solution to these challenges look like?

In  The Challenger Sale ,  Dixon & Adamson reveal research into what customers want from sales reps. Ranking right at the top (below only ‘professionalism’) of things influential buyers want from sellers is a rep who:

• ‘Offers unique, valuable insights’, and
• ‘Frequently educates me on issues and outcomes.’

Don’t just tell customers what they  want  to hear. Educate them , and tell them what you think they  need  to hear. Challenger reps ought to deliver a teaching pitch: ‘A teaching pitch makes customers feel sort of sick about all the money they’re wasting, or revenue they’re missing, or risk they’re unknowingly exposed to.’ (p.67)

A  successful teaching pitch  in your introduction will be more useful than five minutes about your company history and office locations shown on a map.

Once you have created a structure for your presentation based around ‘Why change?’ or ‘Why us?’ you need to create the content to go into each section. You have the answer to the big, overarching question about why prospects should choose your solution – now you have to prove it.

There are loads of different ways to prove the overarching sales claims that you make:

• Do you have any unique features that provide unique advantages? Are there any performance figures that show that you can deliver benefits more effectively than others?
• Do you do things in a different way, or have a unique process that delivers better results?
• Have you won any important awards or been judged a leader by independent industry analysts?
• Do you have particularly impressive case studies or testimonials that back-up your claims?

‘New’ content: You can’t just repeat what’s written on your website  – they’ve already seen it. You need at least some content that’s somewhat new. There’s an argument that holding back some messages for use by sales (and  not  by marketing) helps in the creation of a sales presentation.

Section length: Keep sections relatively short and reasonably paced – to ensure that attention levels don’t drop off too fast.

Targeting competitors: It can make sense to create targeted sales messaging aimed at taking customers from a certain competitor. Work out what these customers want, what they are unhappy with, and what you can do better. You don’t need to mention competitors by name if you don’t want to – but think about what major competitors do badly, particularly if they have problems that you have solved.

Make the most of your best content: Don’t save your best content until the end as the audience might have stopped listening before you ever show it.

All killer, no filler: Don’t let your presentation have a ‘boring bit’. If you think it does, you need to tighten the content. Remember – sales presentation content doesn’t get better and better the more arguments you use. Putting in too much content risks making things boring, and risks giving audience members something weaker to fixate on and pick apart. Edit aggressively .

Length: And if you  really  want to know how long a sales presentation should be, the right answer is probably as short as it can be to work . Do you need to present for more than 20 minutes? Often, no.

With a great opening in place, and some great content supported by a great structure, it would be a shame if your ending let you down.

Don’t let your presentation fizzle out to nothing. Close with a call to action that moves your buyers on to the next stage and pushes your sale towards a satisfying conclusion .

The close slide needs to be powerful. I’m not talking about a vague ‘Any Questions?’ but a  slide summarising the value proposition , and then another slide with a very clear recommendation of what should happen next .

PowerPoint is often used badly. Of course. But that doesn’t mean that PowerPoint is a bad tool – you know what they say about poor workmen… PowerPoint really is an excellent tool for creating persuasive visual sales content that sales professionals are comfortable using, it’s just about how you use it.

Why bad sales presentations are so bad: Bad sales presentations are overladen with text , and cause ‘ death by PowerPoint ’. Typically, the presenter shows the content on their slide, and then repeats the same information verbally. But as the audience have already read the words on the slide, the presenter becomes unnecessary, and the audience gets bored.

The Weiss-McGrath Report (McGraw-Hill, 1992) demonstrated that, after 72 hours, people retain 10% of what they experience as audio only, 20% of visual only and 65% of audio-visual (or video).

How to increase audience engagement: Content that is well-designed, that uses visuals and animation in an intelligent way, is going to draw in and engage audience members. It compels them to pay attention and helps them to understand and remember what even the least charismatic presenter amongst your team has to say.

What to include: Bullet points are so 2004. Reading text and inflicting death by PowerPoint isn’t the way to make your prospects feel like you’ve made an effort. Sales presentations should use relevant images to help you explain complex concepts, paint a picture of what you are selling, and have your messages stick. Not clip art, not stock images of handshakes , but  relevant visualisations and charts that get your points across. Here’s a few tips on using photography effectively for storytelling .

Keeping it on-brand: PowerPoint – done well – can support your corporate brand and visual identity. Why abandon your brand when you engage people in conversation?

If you provide text-based slides to sales, there’s no reason why individuals can’t just start making edits and doing their own thing. Which can be terrifying in some heavily regulated industries, and often helps to undermine your brand… On the other hand, if you provide something that’s visual, animated, and generally compelling – most reps are going to realise that they can’t make a completely new version, and they will want to use what they’ve been given, in the manner you want them to use it.

Design hacks: Apologising for your slides is not a ‘get out of jail free’ card for not putting in the effort. Not being ‘tech-savvy’ isn’t an excuse for not trying to make something more visual. But it really is possible for anyone to make slides they can be proud to stand next to. If you need some help, why not take a look at this blog post giving you design hacks for more professional-looking presentations.

Preparing to Deliver a Sales Presentation

Preparing to deliver your sales presentation is a much overlooked stage in the process. For a lot of people it consists of flicking through the slides a few minutes before the big event. But great content can be completely let down by poor preparation. Here are some best practice tips to help you prepare like a pro.

Preparing your audience: Before you go to deliver a sales presentation, consider sharing an agenda for your sales meeting . This helps the prospect know you are professional, makes them aware you will respect their time, allows you to take some sort of control of the sales process, sets you apart as being clear in your communication, and lets the buyer know what you expect from them.

Tailor to each opportunity: Always think about how to tailor your sales presentation to each specific opportunity – even if you use a standard credentials overview presentation. Trotting out the same presentation to completely different types of audience won’t work. It doesn’t make sense to waste an opportunity by just presenting a canned presentation in the exact same way to every prospect regardless of their situation.

Tailor to your audience: Your slides and your language need to be tailored to whomever you are speaking. CFOs will have different concerns to technical experts; IT communication firms will have different needs to oil and gas operations. By contextualising information and making it relevant to your audience, you’ll make a much greater impact.

Name-dropping: Don’t be afraid to add specific details targeted towards key attendees or decision-makers. A good example would be to throw in a reference to the security standards that your IT solution is compatible with. It may not mean anything to nine out of ten people in the room, but the compliance officer at the back might be listening out for it.

Rehearsing: Time after time we hear of sales presentations being knocked together the day or even the night before an important pitch, often being tweaked and fiddled with well into the small hours, thereby giving the presenters no chance to learn and practice delivering the content.

Rehearse properly, and make it a priority. Make sure senior people with parts to play rehearse too, and don’t just fly in an hour before and mess things up.

And this doesn’t just mean flicking through the slides and going through what you want to say in your head. Stand up, and practice out loud .

To script or not to script: Writing out a script only ever hampers your delivery – it’s difficult to learn and even harder to deliver naturally. Instead, work out what the key points are you want to cover and practise talking through them. Don’t get caught up on your wording, instead concentrate on getting across the meaning, the value, and your passion.

For more presenting tips, head over to our ultimate guide to presentation skills .

Delivering a Sales Presentation

And with most of the hard work done, there really isn’t that much left to do but knock your excellent sales presentation out of the park. But you’re not quite out of the woods. Here are some things to consider whilst presenting.

Sorry, not sorry: When you’re delivering your presentation you need to be assertive. Don’t apologise for taking people’s time. Don’t apologise for your content. Don’t apologise for yourself. The more you give your audience excuses, the more you give them excuses not to listen and take note of what you say. Even if you’re not a hugely confident person, you can still give a good presentation. In fact if you’d call yourself an introvert, you might want to have a look at this .

‘We’ vs. ‘You’: Old-fashioned sales presentations are all about what the presenter’s company does. ‘We’ this, ‘we’ that, ‘we’ the other. In terms of the message, and also in terms of delivery, the audience is left thinking that the presenter is a narcissist, and only somewhat relevant. Talk about ‘you’ the audience, use ‘ you phrasing ’, and the audience will start to see how what you are offering applies to them.

Wave goodbye to the waffle: Keep things interesting by providing only relevant information. Refer back to important points throughout the presentation to help facilitate understanding.

Something missing: If you don’t have the right slide, blank the screen with the ‘B’ key (fade to black) or ‘W’ key (fade to white) and draw something. Or just talk instead.

Humour vs. passion: Be careful with humour in a presentation – it’s not always appropriate and needs to be handled carefully. Passion however, is rarely out of place – and is something that can make a real difference. Don’t be afraid to show that passion, your enthusiasm, and even your excitement when speaking to prospects. If it is genuine, it will make an impact. If you think something is great, say that it is great.

Train your reps: If you can manage it, think about training. If you are providing an awesome new sales presentation, consider actually training your reps to use it. This sort of practical training goes down well with sales people – people who would rather learn to deliver  their  particular presentation than sit through soft skills training on stuff like body language.

Consider an on-demand version of your slides: Buyers want information – but not all buyers can meet with your sales people. In this world of complex sales and collaborative buying – let your supporters sell on your behalf by providing an on-demand version of your sales presentation for busy buyers to view. Consider recording a narrated version of your slides, or add some labels to the slides that you presented so that they make sense to someone who wasn’t there to hear how you presented them. Then ask your contacts to distribute on your behalf if you can’t get face-to-face with everyone you would like to talk to.

If you enjoyed that, we have plenty more resources and insights to share on all things presentations and eLearning.

• For more help on writing presentations, have a look at these free resources .
• If it’s PowerPoint and design you want some help with, we have a free toolkit crammed full of layouts and elements to make your presentations pop and sparkle.
• We run online masterclasses regularly, so check out the events page to see what’s coming up.
• If you still need a bit of help with your presentation, read about our Presentation Creation or Slide Revamp services.
• Didn’t know we did eLearning too? Have a look at some of our insights here . Or read more about what eLearning services we provide over here .

Did you find this article useful? Let us know in the comments box below. Or if you have any questions, drop them below and we’ll get back to you!

Related articles

14 sales presentation ideas.

• Sales presentations / Sales messaging
• Comments: 4

Sales presentations are important, but 1000s of people each day ignore the principles of sales presentation design and sales messaging and deliver material that is tired, ugly, and ineffective. These sales presentation ideas will help you to easily improve your sales presentation; stand out, engage your audience, and sell more.

Choosing a presentation design agency

• PowerPoint design / Visual communication / Industry insights
• Comments: 2

Choosing a presentation design agency for your enterprise is a lot harder than buying a product. With presentation design services, you don’t know what you’re going to get until the project is nearly finished. What you get from the studio isn’t the exact same thing as what any other business ends up with. So how do you choose the right presentation design firm for your company?

12 training presentation ideas

• Presentation skills / Visual communication
• Comments: 13

We've all come across really boring training slides. But wouldn't it be great if training presentations actually supported trainers and helped participants to actually learn something? So, calling all facilitators, trainers, and training content creators, please take note of our 12 training presentation ideas!

Wow, super thorough and helpful. Thank you so much for putting this together! As a content creator, I appreciate all the work that went into this article.

So glad you found it helpful Maggie. Good luck with your next sales presentation!

Really, really good content!

Really Good Idea for Create Sales Presentation … Thanks for Sharing this Great Idea with us.

This is literally the best article I’ve ever read on creating a sales presentation, or just sales in general.

Thank you so much for writing.

Thanks Jay.

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Prepare, Present, And Follow Up: How To Nail Your Best Sales Presentation

Some people find presenting easy. They seem to have an intuitive understanding of how to grab and keep the attention of everyone in the room. Meanwhile, there are those who confess presenting is stressful. What to do if you are a sales rep who belongs to this second type?

There is a piece of good news for you: you can definitely master the art too. To deliver the best sales presentation, you should learn key tips beforehand, so you’ll be ready the next time you’re done with lead generation .

In this blog post, we’ll break down the process of creating a sales presentation into steps and discuss best practices you can use at each stage.

Sales presentations — what are they?

• Why is it difficult to deliver a good sales presentation?

Step 1. Preparing for a sales presentation

Step 2. presentation, step 3. follow-up.

A sales presentation is a part of the sales process wherein a salesperson demonstrates a product/service and explains in detail how to use it with a single aim — to move a prospect further down the sales funnel , motivating them to buy it. 

The best sales presentation makes room for questions, so it becomes a genuine two-way process, in which the prospect understands the value of the sales offering, while the sales rep learns more about their target market, prospect’s real wants, and needs. 

Another significant characteristic of a successful sales presentation is that the audience will likely feature some major players, i.e., decision-makers, which definitely streamlines the sales process.

But why is it sometimes difficult to deliver a good sales presentation?

The truth is, people, in general, don’t find presentations exciting. About 79% agree that listening to others presenting them something is boring. Your goal as a salesperson is to make your sales presentation engaging so your prospects understand all the benefits of your product without being overloaded with unnecessary information. Thus, professional presentation design and limited data are key to attractive slides.

Seems like a challenge, doesn’t it? Worry not, though. This post is designed to help you prepare the sales presentation step by step. 

How to give a successful sales presentation: a step-by-step guide

We recommend that you break down the process of delivering your sales presentation into three logical steps:

• Preparation
• Presentation itself

Let’s discuss what you should do at each of these steps, so you can be forearmed with a good outline next time you present your solution to prospective customers.

Good sales presentations begin before the speaker actually enters the room or joins the call . That’s the case when success is down to preparation. 

Preparation for the sales presentation means getting knowledgeable about any details relevant to your product, prospect, and the market in general. Incorporating an AI presentation tool can enhance your preparation, providing insights for more engaging and effective communication.

This is why this first step to giving your best sales presentation should boil down to the following tasks: 

Know your product

You need to know your product features inside out. Learn this information from your team and study the questions about your product that your customers frequently ask. These issues are likely to come up during the presentation itself. 

Try to test your product features as a user on your own. This way, you’ll be well-versed in how it’s all working and better understand your solution’s benefits. Look through your product testimonials to back up your expertise with real data from the current customers who have been using your product successfully for some time. 

Now think about how to render information about your company and solution simply and clearly — prospects you’ll be presenting to may have little knowledge of what your business is doing.

Know your competitors

“Know your enemy” — a saying you’ve probably heard many times. In business, it’s not about enemies but rather competitors who may serve as a good background for your product growth. 

Look more precisely into the solutions your prospects might buy instead of yours. Identify their weaknesses, so you can shine while comparing your features to theirs. But don’t neglect to study their strengths, too, so you’re prepared to overlay them with the benefits of your product. 

On top of this, learn how your competitors give their sales presentations. If they turn up with slick visuals and the most up-to-date software , you’re going to look pretty lackluster with your ring-bound notepad. 

Research your competitors both online and using any printed materials they circulate to potential customers. Get a feel for their tone of voice and brand identity. If there are any elements of their approach you can successfully assimilate (in a fully legal fashion), do so. They’d do the same to you. After all, all’s fair in love and sales. 

Gain customer knowledge

Knowing your customers and their buyer behavior is crucial to a successful sales presentation. Always keep in mind: you’re there not just to talk about your product but to connect with your prospecting customers. For this to happen, you have to know them well and identify their needs and wants. 

Before you even start a sales process, you’ll build your ideal customer profile , which will help you target prospects who are more likely to buy your product. But it doesn’t mean they’ll all actually will. 

So, at this stage, learn more about your prospect’s buyer personas. How long have they been in the company you’re selling to? Are they experts in their field? Have they bought from your competitors before?

Study the market 

What, in essence, does the company you’re presenting your solution to is doing? What’s the nature of their market? What problems are they likely to deal with? How might your product help solve them?

It will work wonders if you show you’ve done thorough research about the market your prospects operate in and their challenges and offer ways your company can assist in healing their pain points. You’ll come across as someone who wants to make their life a little better, which is hard to resist. 

Now that you’ve worked hard to prepare for the sales presentation, let’s discuss what strategies will help you win your prospect’s heart during the sales call or meeting when you’re demonstrating your demo. 

Leverage storytelling

One of the most powerful tools while making a sales presentation is telling your prospect a good story . People like stories: we’ve been gathering around campfires to hear tales from our fellows for centuries. OK, the tribes of antiquity were probably not assembled to learn about what the newest support chatbot could do for them, but there are some constants of storytelling that pertain to marketing and sales even now. The fact is, stories can be fun, and they can be memorable. 

Tell the company’s story: why it was born, how it was born, and the dreams and ideas behind it. People love stories of struggle and eventual triumph, so stage it like this, but don’t go overboard. Something else people like about a story? Brevity. 

Tell your prospects about one of your current customers who faced a problem your product could alleviate, propelling the company to succeed. Testimonials you’ve prepared at the first stage will be pretty helpful here 🙂 

Emphasize the value of your solution by painting a picture of what might be achievable when all obstacles are overcome. Once your prospect can envisage this promised land, you can tell them how your product will get them there, faster than other alternatives (aka your competitors). 

Use technology

You can’t rely solely on your magnetism and storytelling while giving a sales presentation. The modern audience expects a little more of an audio-visual feast than a salesman with a clipboard. They expect a digital pitch . 

Any technology like PowerPoint is a great way to get information across in a manner pleasant to your prospect’s eye. Well-crafted PowerPoint templates will allow you to visualize your product features, while a nicely laid out infographic will make the information you’ll be telling your prospect not tedious to hear. Look at the example:

If an image can somehow put what you’re saying in a better way, do use it in your sales presentation. 

In addition, you can use video content to present your solution. Short videos work miracles — not a surprise, about 94% of marketers say video has helped them increase user understanding of a product/service.

Include social proof

Social proof is a psychological phenomenon that consists in people mimicking the actions of others when faced with uncertainty. In marketing and sales, you can use social proof in a variety of forms:

• Customer reviews
• Testimonials
• Certifications and awards
• Influencers
• Press features
• Endorsements from experts in your industry

Social proof greatly influences decision-making: 2 out of 3 people say they’d be more likely to make a purchase after watching a testimonial video demonstrating how a business, product, or service had helped another person like them. 

You can learn who to ask for social proof professionally in our post about customer referrals . 

Demonstrate your product functionality

Don’t forget to bring the product in with you, of course.

If your product is digital, like an application or other software, have it installed and ready for work in real-time. 

Say, if your company is offering a CRM solution , show how all of its features work as soon as your prospect onboards. You can even let them try it on their own, under your caring guidance. This way, prospects will test it beforehand – the experience that will be more likely to result in their decision to buy it. 

End your presentation with a call to action

Your sales presentation can’t be just a one-way conversation. You should aim at building relationships with your prospect. A call to action (CTA) actually extends the life of your sales presentation, whereby you give them something to think about…and come back. 

In your call to action, offer your prospect one or two next steps. Just ensure it is short, straightforward, and personal. For example, instead of using something generic like ‘Download the guide,’ try something like ‘Become a pro with this short guide.’ The second option highlights the benefits and sounds more buddy-like, doesn’t it?

A sales presentation doesn’t end at the last slide and a polite ‘Goodbye.’ You should be sure your prospect has got the idea right, has no questions to ask, and is satisfied with how a presentation went. So, at this final step, we recommend that you do the following:

Ask yourself a series of questions about your performance. These could include:

• ‘Have I identified my prospect’s problem and offered solutions?’ 
• ‘Have I made sure the prospect knew how much I appreciated the chance to present to them?’
• ‘Have I encouraged a dialogue?’
• ‘Have I kept my comments relevant and engaging?’

Then rate your performance on each of these aspects out of 10. Doing this exercise immediately after the presentation will give you a good idea of how you performed.

Approach the prospect for feedback

If the call to action doesn’t seem to have worked, and the prospect isn’t hurrying up to order from you, there’s nothing wrong with approaching them and asking (but briefly) what feelings they have after the demo and what they think about your solution.  

Any customer retention guide will tell you about the importance of making a customer feel valued, and following up is an aspect of that. Ask if they’ve had time to think about what you had discussed and see if there’s anything you can do for them to seal the deal. This way, you’ll demonstrate that you care about your prospect’s feelings.

Quite often, the prospect may have loved the product but hasn’t had time to mull over how best to implement it. You can assist by suggesting ways your product might be integrated into their company and emphasizing how much time will be saved once the product is in place. 

Some basics to end with

To crown it all, we’ve gathered several simple tips to help you deliver effective sales presentations. Here are a few of them:

• Make eye contact. Sales professionals know this is one of the most important sales techniques. If you aren’t afraid to look directly in the eyes of your prospect, you come across as honest. In addition, this allows you to notice how they feel when you’re saying something and adjust your speech accordingly.  
• Relax. Your behavior at the sales presentation should convey calmness and confidence, so even if it’s your first demo in life, try to be relaxed. You’re an expert, and your knowledge of the subject is enough not to worry.  
• Listen. Though a sales presentation seems your moment to speak, remember to make contact with the prospect. Be attentive to what they’re asking and telling you. That’ll prove you really care.  
• Learn from the best. You don’t have to come across like Cirque du Soleil or PT Barnum, but it can help if you demonstrate a little showmanship. Watch some videos of great orators (from Martin Luther King to Jerry Seinfeld), but do bear in mind your capabilities. If you want to improve in this area, consider a public speaking course. 
• Practice, especially if you’re part of a sales team making the presentation. The more people there are, the greater the potential for mess-ups, so get that presentation nailed. You’ll all feel much more confident, which will be visible to your prospects. 

Wrapping up

The key to your best sales presentation, like any other business communication , is your knowledge and understanding of the interlocutor. Have a clear message, ensure you’re using all the tricks to get it across and practice until you know your pitch inside out. When you deliver your demo, be mindful of your prospect’s needs and ensure they get a chance to express them. 

Whatever sales presentation ideas you use, if you treat your audience with respect and look like you genuinely want to be there with them, you’ll give yourself the best chance of success. And if you need a single platform for all your sales activities, Snov.io is always here for you.

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The Most Persuasive Sales Presentation Structure of All

Updated: January 28, 2020

Published: April 13, 2017

If you’ve ever sat through a presentation that went around the block a few times before finally arriving at its destination, you understand the need for a clear, comprehensible structure for your message.

Structure isn’t just for keeping you, the presenter, from getting lost in the weeds. As a salesperson, you need to organize your message in a way that has the greatest impact on your audience and ultimately encourages them to take action.

Almost any structure will help you get your arms around information, prioritize, and organize it. However, the right structure can set you up for success and increase your odds of winning the business.

The Basic Three-Act Presentation Structure

Breaking content into an opening , a body , and a conclusion is the basis of most presentations, movies, TV shows, and speeches. This basic three-act structure was invented by Aristotle and has stood the test of time. It’s familiar to audiences, digestible, and easy to follow. In fact, if you’ve ever felt uncomfortable or confused watching a movie, it’s often because the writer has broken the three-act structure ( Memento and Inception are two examples).

A three-act structure is a great place to start for just about any presentation. But within this framework there are several variations. For instance, you could sort information chronologically, by process, or priority, and so on.

If your goal is to educate or inform, these variations are fine -- but they're not optimal for persuasion. To do use, that the  Situation , Complication , Resolution  framework.

SCR: The Best Sales Presentation Structure of All

Situation, Complication, Resolution is really just a way of identifying:

• Our present state
• The problem
• What should we do about it

First identified in Barbara Minto’s book The Pyramid Principle , the SCR structure is an effective way of establishing a persuasive case and will be familiar to anyone who consumes movies, TV, or books.

Here’s an example of the SCR structure in a story:

Situation : A girl is kidnapped. If a steep ransom is not paid by midnight, a bomb will explode.

Complication : The girl's family can’t get the money together. No one knows where the bomb is except the hero. The hero is stuck on a remote island.

Resolution : The hero jumps on a plane, finds the girl, detonates the bomb, and saves the world.

If that sounds like the framework of most movies you’ve seen, there’s a good reason. The SCR structure organizes content in a way that takes people on a journey that leads to a natural conclusion. It builds up tension in the audience which increases their attention and their desire for a resolution.

By following this proven structure in sales, you can produce the same effect on your business audience. Let’s look at how you can leverage each act in your sales presentation.

To take someone on a journey, you must first know where that journey begins. In this first act, define the status quo. What is the critical business issue or challenge your prospect is experiencing, how is he addressing it, and what is the impact?

This act lays the groundwork for why your prospect needs to change and assures him you have a clear understanding of his situation. Ending this first act by painting a brief picture of where this journey can lead (i.e., current state versus potential future state) creates an uncomfortable but necessary disparity between where your prospect is and where he wants to be.

Complication

In this act, introduce complications or consequences that are likely to arise as a result of your prospect not taking action, or choosing an inadequate solution to his problem. Create tension which will make sticking with the status quo or putting off a decision less desirable.

Because most people are uncomfortable with indecision, tension taps into our innate human desire to solve the problem. Widening the gap between pain and relief increases your prospect’s urgency to take action.

Finally, when tension is at its peak, relieve that tension by providing a clear solution to the problem and making it easy for your prospect to act upon. While many structures require the presenter to deliver a heavy handed close at this point, in the SCR structure, the resolution comes as a natural conclusion to the journey.

The SCR Presentation in Action

Let’s look at how you might use the three-act SCR structure in a business example.

Situation : An HR department is doing most of their reports manually. This currently takes 1.5 days per week of each HR person’s time.

Complication : The company is growing at a rate of 20% per year. Projected HR workload will escalate to two days per week if nothing changes and the chances for errors will increase. Employee satisfaction will decline and turnover rates will go up.

Resolution : Deploy an HR workforce application that will reduce time spent on current processes from 1.5 days per week to .25 days per week, resulting in greater efficiency, fewer errors, increased satisfaction, and a lower turnover rate.

In sales, you need every advantage you can get. Following the Situation, Complication, Resolution structure gives you a jumpstart on presenting a persuasive case for why your prospect should choose your solution and make the desired change.

Don't forget to share this post!

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How to Improve Your Sales Presentation: 9 Tips to Boost Conversions

Table of Contents

P resentations are the heart of sales. And how effectively you perform under pressure can make or break your career as a salesperson.

But talking about a product or service intelligently and confidently isn’t easy. You want to adequately prepare, capture the attention of your potential customers, and show that what you have to offer is exactly what they need. 

Keep reading for 9 sales presentation tips that will wow your audience and boost conversions.

Tip #1: Start off strong

In sales presentations, you have a matter of seconds to engage your audience and establish credibility. 

That’s why it’s so important to hook the audience from the beginning. 

Start strong, and you’ll have a better chance of keeping your audience’s attention throughout the presentation. But start weak, and you’ll lose them before you even get started. 

Here’s how you effectively start your presentation and connect with your audience:

1. Use an attention-grabbing opening line. This could be a joke, story, question, statistic, or anything else that will immediately grab your audience’s attention and keep it.

2. Make sure your slides are visually interesting.

• Use high-quality images and simple, cohesive color palettes.
• Keep the content concise by using bullet points.

Remember, you’re presenting the information; the audience should not be reading long paragraphs on your slides. If needed, you can always further explain your bullets.  

3. Keep the intro short and get to the point. While it’s important to hook your audience in the first few seconds, don’t get caught up in fancy or long-winded introductions. How will your product or service meet their needs?

Tip #2: Use persuasive language

The goal of a sales presentation is to convince potential customers of their need for your product or service. That’s why persuasive language is key.

But what does persuasive language sound like and how exactly do you use it within your presentation?

Know your audience and your product

Start by identifying your audience’s needs and wants. What problems or pain points are they facing? How does your product or service address this? What is their budget?

Once you know the customers’ needs, you can craft your message. Use language and examples that resonate with their own experience can show them that your solution is best. Think about how you can benefit them . Be specific about how your product can solve their problems or improve their life. 

You know what they say: “bring the receipts.” Use case studies, customer testimonials, or favorable statistics whenever you can. For instance, you might say something like, “Four out of five customers reported better sleep and more energy one year after purchasing this mattress.” 

This works because you didn’t just tell the customer your opinion of the product; rather, you showed them why the product is worth it. In-depth knowledge of both your customer and your product is crucial when convincing someone to buy. 

Types of words to use

Try to use personal pronouns like “I” and “you.” This will help your listener feel like you’re speaking directly to them, and it will make your pitch more personal.

Use strong verbs to convey the benefits of your product or service. For instance, instead of saying “Our product is great,” say “Our product will transform your business.” ← Then walk them through how this is true. Word choice matters, but only if you can back up your claims. Speaking of using words the right way, you want to remember that…

Persuasion is a two-way street

There’s a difference between persuading and manipulating. You have to consider the other person—both parties need to benefit from the deal. Be open to hearing your audience’s objections and address them head-on . Learning to listen well , and put the relationship before the sale , will help you avoid pressuring the customer into buying. If the product isn’t for them, it isn’t for them. 

Tip #3: Tell a story

Connecting with your audience is perhaps the most important part of your sales presentation. One of the best ways to do this is through storytelling.

A well-crafted story helps create a mental visual, which can work wonders when getting the customer to feel emotion or understand an idea or concept.   

Using metaphors and examples will help your audience visualize and drive your point home.

A journalist named Rob Walker had a hunch about the value in storytelling, so much so that he put together an interesting experiment:

Walker went on eBay and bought 200 objects for approximately $1 each. He then reached out to 200 authors and asked if they would participate in the “significant object study,”  which involved writing a story about one of the objects.

After collecting all of the stories, he went back to eBay to sell all of the objects—except now each one was equipped with its own story. He originally spent just $129 on all of the objects and on the resale made $8,000! Watch David JP Phillips break down the magical science of storytelling here:

When you build a genuine connection with your audience during your sales presentation, you’ll be one step closer to sealing the deal.

Tip #4: Use props

Let’s be honest. Sales presentations can feel a little dry sometimes.

You’re speaking to a  group of people, covering the same talking points as previous presentations, and trying to land another sale. Maybe you find yourself in a rut and don’t feel as motivated in your presentations. Maybe it’s getting harder to keep your customers’ attention. 

This is when props can be a powerful tool. When used appropriately, props can help to capture attention, convey key messages, and create an emotional connection with the audience. 

Presentations with props are memorable . 

In college, my geography professor brought artifacts and souvenirs to pass around during his lectures. Each one came from a specific city or country he had previously visited. The fact that he’d been to the places he taught about was impressive, but holding tangible items from these places made his stories come to life.

Props support your product or service

One of the most important things to consider is the type of prop that will best represent your product or service. You want to choose a prop that will help your audience better understand what you’re selling.

Of course, the best kind of “prop” is showing a potential customer the actual product or service in action. If you’re selling kitchen knives , demonstrating how to use the knives on various types of food allows you to talk through the benefits. If you’re selling a new software application, a computer screen or tablet showcasing the software would be ideal. 

Props add personality to the presentation

Keep in mind that props can also add levity and humor to your sales presentation. If you can find a way to make your audience laugh, they’ll be more inclined to remember your product or service. 

Just be careful not to overdo it—too many jokes could turn your presentation into a comedy routine rather than a sales pitch.

Props create an emotional connection

Let’s say you’re selling a new baby formula. Showing photos or videos of happy babies can create an emotional bond with your audience. When customers can connect on an emotional level with your product or service, it can lead to a more memorable experience. 

Tip #5: Be prepared

Sales presentations can be daunting. You’re probably thinking about all the ways you could mess up: not knowing what to say or blanking on your product knowledge. 

But don’t worry! Here are a few easy steps you can take to make sure you’re prepared for your next sales presentation:

Practice your presentation. Do this several times in front of colleagues, friends, or family. This will help you to get comfortable with your material and prevent you from forgetting what to say.

Make a list of all the possible questions the client could ask. Practice your answers to them. This way, you’ll be able to think on your feet and address any concerns the client may have with ease. 

Relax and enjoy it! Take a deep breath, and remind yourself that the people in the room are not against you. They’re looking for a connection. Treat your presentation like a conversation with a group of friends. 

Being prepared for whatever comes your way will give you that extra boost of confidence going into your sales pitch. 

Tip #6: Dress the part

Dressing the part for your sales presentation can mean the difference between success and failure. What you wear has a direct impact on 1) how you feel and 2) how you’re perceived. In a high-stakes sales presentation, it’s important to make a good impression. 

When dressing for success, there are a few things to keep in mind.

First, consider the context of the presentation. If you’re meeting with potential clients in a formal setting, it’s important to dress accordingly. 

A suit or business casual attire will convey professionalism and authority. However, if you’re presenting to a less formal audience, you may want to dress down to build rapport . 

Second, think about the message you want to send. Are you trying to convey approachability or authority? Creativity or reliability? Your clothing should complement the message of your sales pitch, not distract from it.

Tip #7: Make eye contact

If you’ve ever given a presentation in school, you know the importance of eye contact. Your teacher may have taught you to shift your gaze to your peers around the room while speaking. And for good reason.

A presentation isn’t nearly as effective or powerful when you look anywhere other than the people you’re speaking to. 

The same goes for sales presentations. 

First, eye contact shows that you prioritize connection. The more connected the audience feels to the conversation, the more likely they’ll listen to what you have to say. 

Second, eye contact keeps your audience engaged. If you’re constantly looking at your notes or the slides, they’ll get bored. 

Studies have shown that making eye contact can actually increase the likelihood of your audience retaining information and being persuaded by your argument.

Third, making eye contact conveys confidence. If you look like you know what you’re talking about, your audience will be more likely to believe in what you’re selling. 

Tip #8: Use body language

Another important tool in the persuader’s toolkit is body language. The way you carry yourself can influence whether or not your audience is receptive to your message. 

Mix up your gestures. Gestures can help emphasize key points and add interest to your presentation. However, if you get stuck using the same gestures over and over again, they won’t add anything at all. Use them for things like emphasizing certain points or acknowledging important visuals on your slides. Just don’t overdo it.

Pay attention to how you stand and move.  Communicate a confident presence by practicing good posture, widening your stance, and being thoughtful about when you move vs. when you stand still. 

Facial expressions matter.  Aim for relaxed and confident. Remember, that sometimes your nervousness can show up on your face, so be intentional about your expressions. A warm smile, for example, can convey approachability, while a furrowed brow can convey a lack of enthusiasm or friendliness.

Don’t forget to pause. Pauses can build suspense and help you remember to slow down. They can also give you time to think about what to say next or how you will respond to questions and comments. 

Tip #9: Speak clearly

As far as sales presentations go, clarity is key. Your audience needs to understand what you’re saying in order to take action on your offer. If you’re mumbling or speaking too fast, they’re likely to miss key points or become confused. 

So how do you make sure you’re speaking clearly? 

1) Slow down. A slower pace gives you a chance to add some personality into your delivery, and it also helps keep people engaged.

2) Enunciate your words. You don’t want your potential customers to misunderstand your words or any important details about what you’re selling.

3) Speak up. If your audience can’t hear you, they’re not going to be very receptive to your message.

4) Use simple language. You don’t want to overwhelm your audience with technical jargon or long-winded explanations.

5) Repeat key points. If you only say something once, there’s a good chance that your audience will forget it by the end of the presentation. But if you emphasize it a couple of times, they’re much more likely to remember it.

Believe in yourself and what you’re selling

Of course, it’s easier to write about pulling off a great sales presentation than to actually do it. Even when you’ve done everything right, there will be times when you don’t come out on top. #facts

But tuning into the key details, along with a whole lotta practice, will add up to big results over time when it comes to mastering your sales presentations.

And regardless of the outcome, when you continue to learn and iterate along the way, that’s a win. Keep at it.

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

• Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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Next-gen B2B sales: How three game changers grabbed the opportunity

Driven by digitalized operating models, B2B sales have seen sweeping changes over the recent period amid rising customer demand for more seamless and transparent services. 1 “ The multiplier effect: How B2B winners grow ,” McKinsey, April 13, 2023. However, many industrial companies are failing to keep pace with their more commercially focused peers and, as a result, are becoming less competitive in terms of performance and customer services.

The most successful B2B players employ five key tactics to sharpen their sales capabilities: omnichannel sales teams; advanced sales technology and automation; data analytics and hyperpersonalization; tailored strategies on third-party marketplaces; and e-commerce excellence across the full marketing and sales funnel. 2 “ The multiplier effect: How B2B winners grow ,” McKinsey, April 13, 2023.

Companies using all of these tactics are twice as likely to see more than 10 percent market share growth than companies focusing on just one. 3 “ The multiplier effect: How B2B winners grow ,” McKinsey, April 13, 2023. However, implementation is not as simple, requiring a strategic vision, a full commitment, and the right capabilities to drive change throughout the organization. Various leading European industrial companies—part of McKinsey’s Industrial Gamechangers on Go-to-Market disruption in Europe—have achieved success by implementing the first three of these five sales tactics.

Omnichannel sales teams

The clearest rationale for accelerating the transition to omnichannel go-to-market is that industry players demand it. In 2017, only about 20 percent of industrial companies said they preferred digital interactions and purchases. 4 Global B2B Pulse Survey, McKinsey, April 30, 2023. Currently, that proportion is around 67 percent. In 2016, B2B companies had an average of five distinct channels; by 2021, that figure had risen to ten (Exhibit 1).

Excelling in omnichannel means enabling customers to move easily between channels without losing context or needing to repeat information. Companies that achieve these service levels report increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, faster growth rates, lower costs, and easier tracking and analysis of customer data. Across most of these metrics, the contrast with analogue approaches is striking. For example, B2B companies that successfully embed omnichannel show EBIT growth of 13.5 percent, compared to the 1.8 percent achieved by less digitally enabled peers. Next to purely digital channels, inside sales and hybrid sales are the most important channels to deliver an omnichannel experience.

Differentiating inside versus hybrid sales

Best-in-class B2B sellers have achieved up to 20 percent revenue gains by redefining go-to-market through inside and hybrid sales. The inside sales model cannot be defined as customer service, nor is it a call center or a sales support role—rather, it is a customer facing, quota bearing, remote sales function. It relies on qualified account managers and leverages data analytics and digital solutions to optimize sales strategy and outreach through a range of channels (Exhibit 2).

The adoption of inside sales is often an advantageous move, especially in terms of productivity. In fact, inside sales reps can typically cover four times the prospects at 50 percent of the cost of a traditional field rep, allowing the team to serve many customers without sacrificing quality of service. 5 McKinsey analysis. Top performing B2B companies are 50 percent more likely to leverage inside sales.

Up to 80 percent of a company’s accounts—often smaller and medium-sized customers, accounting for about half of revenues—can be covered by inside sales teams. 6 Industry expert interviews; McKinsey analysis. The remaining 20 percent often require in-person interactions, triggering the need for hybrid sales. This pertains to highly attractive leads as well.

Hybrid sales is an innovative model combining inside sales with traditional in-person interactions. Some 85 percent of companies expect hybrid sales will be the most common job role within three years. 7 Global B2B Pulse Survey, McKinsey, December 2022. Hybrid is often optimal for bigger accounts, as it is flexible in utilizing a combination of channels, serving customers where they prefer to buy. It is scalable, thanks to the use of remote and online sales, and it is effective because of the multiplier effect of numerous potential interactions. Of companies that grew more than 10 percent in 2022, 57 percent had adopted a hybrid sales model. 8 Global B2B Pulse, April 2023.

How an industrial automation solution player implemented game-changing inside sales

In 2019, amid soaring digital demand, a global leader in industrial digital and automation solutions saw an opportunity to deliver a cutting-edge approach to sales engagement.

As a starting point, the company took time to clearly define the focus and role of the inside sales team, based on product range, customer needs, and touchpoints. For simple products, where limited customer interaction was required, inside sales was the preferred go-to-market model. For more complex products that still did not require many physical touchpoints, the company paired inside sales teams with technical sales people, and the inside sales group supported fields reps. Where product complexity was high and customers preferred many touch points, the inside sales team adopted an orchestration role, bringing technical functions and field sales together (Exhibit 3).

The company laid the foundations in four key areas. First, it took time to sketch out the model, as well as to set targets and ensure the team was on board. As in any change program, there was some early resistance. The antidote was to hire external talent to help shape the program and highlight the benefits. To foster buy-in, the company also spent time creating visualizations. Once the team was up and running, early signs of success created a snowball effect, fostering enthusiasm among both inside sales teams and field reps.

Second, the company adopted a mantra: inside sales should not—and could not—be cost saving from day one. Instead, a significant part of the budget was allocated to build a tech stack and implement the tools to manage client relationships. One of the company’s leaders said, “As inside sales is all about using tech to obtain better outcomes, this was a vital step.”

The third foundational element was talent. The company realized that inside sales is not easy and is not for everyone—so finding the right people was imperative. As a result, it put in place a career development plan and recognized that many inside sales reps would see the job as a stepping stone in their careers. Demonstrating this understanding provided a great source of motivation for employees.

Finally, finding the right mix of incentives was key. The company chose a system based on compensation and KPI leading and lagging indicators. Individual incentives were a function of whether individuals were more involved with closing deals or supporting others, so a mix of KPIs was employed. The result was a more motivated salesforce and productive cooperation across the organization.

Advanced sales technology and automation

Automation is a key area of advanced sales technology, as it is critical to optimizing non-value adding activities that currently account for about two-thirds of sales teams’ time. More than 30 percent of sales tasks and processes are estimated to be partially automatable, from sales planning through lead management, quotation, order management, and post-sales activities. Indeed, automation leaders not only boost revenues and reduce cost to serve—both by as much as 20 percent—but also foster customer and employee satisfaction. (Exhibit 4). Not surprisingly, nine out of ten industrial companies have embarked on go-to-market automation journeys. Still, only a third say the effort has achieved the anticipated impact. 9 McKinsey analysis.

Leading companies have shown that effective automation focuses on four areas:

• Lead management: Advanced analytics helps teams prioritize leads, while AI-powered chatbots contact prospective customers via text or email and schedule follow-up calls at promising times—for example, at the beginning or end of the working day.
• Contract drafting: AI tools automate responses to request for proposal (RFP) inquiries, based on a predefined content set.
• Invoice generation: Companies use robotic process automation to process and generate invoices, as well as update databases.
• Sales commission planning: Machine learning algorithms provide structural support, for example, to optimize sales commission forecasting, leading up to a 50 percent decline in time spent on compensation planning.

How GEA seized the automation opportunity

GEA is one of the world’s most advanced suppliers of processing machinery for food, beverages, and pharmaceuticals. To provide customers with tailored quotes and services, the company launched a dedicated configure, price, quote (CPQ) system. The aim of the system was to enable automated quote creation that would free up frontline sales teams to operate independently from their back office colleagues. This, in turn, would boost customer interaction and take customer care to the next level.

The work began with a bottom-up review of the company’s configuration protocols, ensuring there was sufficient standardization for the new system to operate effectively. GEA also needed to ensure price consistency—especially important during the recent supply chain volatility. For quotations, the right template with the correct conditions and legal terms needed to be created, a change that eventually allowed the company to cut its quotation times by about 50 percent, as well as boost cross-selling activities.

The company combined the tools with a guided selling approach, in which sales teams focused on the customers’ goals. The teams then leveraged the tools to find the most appropriate product and pricing, leading to a quote that could be enhanced with add-ons, such as service agreements or digital offerings. Once the quote was sent and agreed upon, the data automatically would be transferred from customer relationship management to enterprise resource planning to create the order. In this way, duplication was completely eliminated. The company found that the sales teams welcomed the new approach, as it reduced the time to quote (Exhibit 5).

Data analytics and hyperpersonalization

Data are vital enablers of any go-to-market transformation, informing KPIs and decision making across operations and the customer journey. Key application areas include:

• lead acquisition, including identification and prioritization
• share of wallet development, including upselling and cross-selling, assortment optimization, and microsegmentation
• pricing optimization, including market driven and tailored pricing, deal scoring, and contract optimization
• churn prediction and prevention
• sales effectiveness, so that sales rep time allocations (both in-person and virtual) are optimized, while training time is reduced

How Hilti uses machine data to drive sales

Hilti is a globally leading provider of power tools, services, and software to the construction industry. The company wanted to understand its customers better and forge closer relationships with them. Its Nuron battery platform, which harvests usage data from tools to transform the customer experience and create customer-specific insights, provided the solution.

One in three of Hilti’s frontline staff is in daily contact with the company’s customers, offering advice and support to ensure the best and most efficient use of equipment. The company broke new ground with its intelligent battery charging platform. As tool batteries are recharged, they transfer data to the platform and then to the Hilti cloud, where the data are analyzed to produce actionable insights on usage, pricing, add-ons, consumables, and maintenance. The system will be able to analyze at least 58 million data points every day.

Armed with this type of data, Hilti provides customers with advanced services, offering unique insights so that companies can optimize their tool parks, ensuring that the best tools are available and redundant tools are returned. In the meantime, sales teams use the same information to create deep insights—for example, suggesting that companies rent rather than buy tools, change the composition of tool parks, or upgrade.

To achieve its analytics-based approach, Hilti went on a multiyear journey, moving from unstructured analysis to a fully digitized approach. Still, one of the biggest learnings from its experience was that analytics tools are most effective when backed by human interactions on job sites. The last mile, comprising customer behavior, cannot be second guessed (Exhibit 6).

In the background, the company worked hard to put the right foundations in place. That meant cleaning its data (for example, at the start there were 370 different ways of measuring “run time”) and ensuring that measures were standardized. It developed the ability to understand which use cases were most important to customers, realizing that it was better to focus on a few impactful ones and thus create a convincing offering that was simple to use and effective.

A key element of the rollout was to ensure that employees received sufficient training— which often meant weeks of engagement, rather than just a few hours. The work paid off, with account managers now routinely supported by insights that enrich their interactions with customers. Again, optimization was key, ensuring the information they had at their fingertips was truly useful.

Levers for a successful transformation

The three company examples highlighted here illustrate how embracing omnichannel, sales technology, and data analytics create market leading B2B sales operations. However, the success of any initiative will be contingent on managing change. Our experience in working with leading industrial companies shows that the most successful digital sales and analytics transformations are built on three elements:

• Strategy: As a first step, companies develop strategies starting from deep customer insights. With these, they can better understand their customers’ problems and identify what customers truly value. Advanced analytics can support the process, informing insights around factors such as propensity to buy and churn. These can enrich the company’s understanding of how it wants its go-to-market model to evolve.
• Tailored solutions: Customers appreciate offerings tailored to their needs. 10 “ The multiplier effect: How B2B winners grow ,” McKinsey, April 13, 2023. This starts with offerings and services, extends to pricing structures and schemes, and ways of serving and servicing. For example, dynamic pricing engines that model willingness to pay (by segment, type of deal, and route to market) may better meet the exact customer demand, while serving a customer completely remotely might better suit their interaction needs, and not contacting them too frequently might prevent churn more than frequent outreaches. Analytics on data gained across all channels serves to uncover these needs and become hyperpersonalized.
• Single source of truth: Best-in-class data and analytics capabilities leverage a variety of internal and external data types and sources (transaction data, customer data, product data, and external data) and technical approaches. To ensure a consistent output, companies can establish a central data repository as a “single source of truth.” This can facilitate easy access to multiple users and systems, thereby boosting efficiency and collaboration. A central repository also supports easier backup, as well as data management and maintenance. The chances of data errors are reduced and security is tightened.

Many companies think they need perfect data to get started. However, to make productive progress, a use case based approach is needed. That means selecting the most promising use cases and then scaling data across those cases through speedy testing.

And with talent, leading companies start with small but highly skilled analytics teams, rather than amassing talent too early—this can allow them to create an agile culture of continual improvement and cost efficiency.

As shown by the three companies discussed in this article, most successful B2B players employ various strategies to sharpen their sales capabilities, including omnichannel sales teams; advanced sales technology and automation; and data analytics and hyperpersonalization. A strategic vision, a full commitment, and the right capabilities can help B2B companies deploy these strategies successfully.

Paolo Cencioni is a consultant in McKinsey’s Brussels office, where Jacopo Gibertini is also a consultant; David Sprengel is a partner in the Munich office; and Martina Yanni is an associate partner in the Frankfurt office.

The authors wish to thank Christopher Beisecker, Kate Piwonski, Alexander Schult, Lucas Willcke, and the B2B Pulse team for their contributions to this article.

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What Comes Next for the Housing Market?

The Federal Reserve still expects to cut rates this year, and a change in selling practices could shake up home shopping. Here’s the outlook.

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By Jeanna Smialek and Jim Tankersley

Federal Reserve officials are planning to cut interest rates this year, real estate agents are likely to slash their commissions after a major settlement and President Biden has begun to look for ways his administration can alleviate high housing costs.

A lot of change is happening in the housing market, in short. While sales have slowed markedly amid higher interest rates, both home prices and rents remain sharply higher than before the pandemic. The question now is whether the recent developments will cool costs down.

Economists who study the housing market said they expected cost increases to be relatively moderate over the next year. But they don’t expect prices to actually come down in most markets, especially for home purchases. Demographic trends are still fueling solid demand, and cheaper mortgages could lure buyers into a market that still has too few homes for sale, even if lower rates could help draw in more supply around the edges.

“It has become almost impossible for me to imagine home prices actually going down,” said Glenn Kelman, the chief executive of Redfin. “The constraints on inventory are so profound.”

Here’s what is changing and what it could mean for buyers, sellers and renters.

Interest rates are expected to fall.

Mortgages have been pricey lately in part because the Fed has lifted interest rates to a more-than-two-decade high. The central bank doesn’t set mortgage rates, but its policy moves trickle out to make borrowing more expensive across the economy. Rates on 30-year mortgages have been hovering just below 7 percent, up from below 3 percent as recently at 2021.

Those rates could come down when the Fed lowers borrowing costs, particularly if investors come to expect that it will cut rates more notably than what they currently anticipate.

Mortgage rates and some other borrowing costs tend to adjust when investors shift their expectations for what the Fed will do, rather than when the central bank actually makes a move. That is one reason mortgage rates have been drifting lower from a peak of about 7.8 percent in late 2023: Inflation has eased, and it has become clear that the Fed could soon reduce its policy rate.

Central bankers projected on Wednesday that they could make three rate cuts this year and three more next year.

Some analysts think mortgage rates could drop further in 2024. Greg McBride at Bankrate, for instance, thinks they could end the year around 6 percent.

Cheaper borrowing costs will have two big effects on the housing market. First, they make it slightly less expensive to finance a purchase: The monthly payment on a $400,000 mortgage with a 7.8 percent rate is about $2,880, but more like $2,400 with a 6 percent rate. Such a decline could stoke demand from would-be buyers.

Second, lower rates could induce more homeowners to sell. Many Americans are sitting on cheap mortgages that they refinanced during the pandemic and are hesitant to give them up to move. The smaller the gap between those existing mortgages and market mortgage rates becomes, the more that rate lock-in might disappear — potentially making more starter homes available.

Broker practices are poised to shift.

It’s not just the cost of borrowing that could effect the housing market. The National Association of Realtors, a powerful group that has long set the guidelines for home sales, has agreed to settle a series of lawsuits in a move that could shake up home buying.

Pending court approval, the settlement would mean that agents working with home sellers would no longer have to offer clearly advertised compensation to buyers’ agents. The change is likely to pull down the industrywide standard commission of 5 or 6 percent.

It’s not clear exactly what that will mean for home costs. There is speculation that it could reduce prices, in part because lower commissions could make it slightly more attractive for sellers to list their homes.

But there are limits to how much prices may come down. Igor Popov, chief economist at Apartment List, said that while the decision could save Americans money on transaction costs, home sellers were likely to keep trying to charge as much as they could in competitive markets.

“It’s a big deal for the industry, but I don’t think it’s a big deal for prices and quantities,” he said.

Agents are unsure what the fallout will look like. Jovanni Ortiz, a Realtor on Long Island, said that he had heard colleagues wondering whether agents might leave the business — but that nobody was sure exactly how much this would cost agents and reshape home shopping.

“It’s still too soon to say,” Mr. Ortiz said.

The White House has policies in mind.

President Biden has fixated on high housing costs in recent weeks, wary that Americans’ struggles to make rent or buy a home are weighing on the nation’s economic optimism.

He announced new ideas to aid home buyers in his State of the Union address. His latest budget request contains more than $250 billion in spending proposals to tackle high housing costs, including building or rehabbing two million housing units and increasing rental assistance for low-income workers.

But most of those ideas seem unlikely to have an immediate effect: There appears to be little chance of passing a major housing bill this year, with the November election looming and Republicans in control of the House.

Still, Mr. Biden has directed his administration to act unilaterally to reduce some costs associated with home buying. He has moved to eliminate title insurance fees for federally backed mortgages, potentially saving $1,000 or more per purchase. This week, he called on real estate agents to pass the savings from lower required commissions on to consumers.

Housing supply is increasing in rentals, but that could be short-lived.

If there is one bright spot in housing affordability right now, it is the rental market.

A serious supply crunch has been easing in recent months, allowing rents on new leases to grow only moderately or even fall in some markets.

A bunch of big rental buildings were constructed in some Southern and Mountain West cities, taking pressure off monthly prices. But relatively little new inventory is coming next year and in 2026, Mr. Popov said, so that cool-down may be limited.

The supply of for-sale houses is a less sunny story. It’s not just that fewer sellers have been putting houses on the market — home construction has taken a hit from higher interest rates. That has exacerbated a shortage that has been worsening for years, and it has meant that prices have remained elevated even though high mortgage rates have depressed sales of both new and existing homes.

As builders see signs of a market thaw, they may be more willing to construct new houses. But that will come as many shoppers are likely to be enticed by slightly lower rates.

“Demand is so strong that it’s unlikely that the housing market will fall apart,” said Yelena Shulyatyeva, a senior economist at BNP Paribas, noting that many millennials are still looking to buy, among other trends.

The upshot? Mr. Popov thinks the housing market could return to something more like normal in the months ahead — prices are unlikely to fall, but the increases may be slower and steadier relative to the big bounces since 2020.

“We’ve been feeling the aftershocks of the many powerful hits to the housing market that the pandemic brought,” he said. “We’re going to return to more normal numbers, and a more normal feeling in the housing market.”

Jeanna Smialek covers the Federal Reserve and the economy for The Times from Washington. More about Jeanna Smialek

Jim Tankersley writes about economic policy at the White House and how it affects the country and the world. He has covered the topic for more than a dozen years in Washington, with a focus on the middle class. More about Jim Tankersley