Sales Presentation Training

Test Your Sales Presentations and
Make Them Even More Effective

Use this sales presentation training to test your presentations to prospects and make them even more effective, which will  make closing the sale and building a consistent high revenue income much easier. 

The test is a quick and easy sales training technique that I developed for the sales teams I have managed and trained in my 25 year sales career.

Prospects are bored by Features...

Sales people often talk at great length about the features of their products when they are presenting their solution, proposal, or just selecting the right product and presenting it to the prospect.

But a feature only tells a prospect the prospect what the product or service does and they soon become bored with hearing about them. Prospects don't feel a connection with features, because features belong to the product. 

What prospects want are Benefits...

Prospects want to know what's in it for them, the benefits your products, services, solutions, proposals offer. 

When you present benefits prospects start to feel connected to the product because the benefits are theirs. Benefits are what the prospect wants and gets as a results of buying the product. In many cases they are not all that interested in the features other than as an explanation of how the benefits are delivered. 

The key message from this sales presentation training - Present the benefits the prospect wants.


Why Sales People Present Too Many Features

Sales features are easy to learn, it takes very little sales presentation training.

Just read the marketing advert for a product, visit the website for a service, read instructions and specifications. It's all their, row after row of features. With simple products just look at them, the features are there and easy to spot.

Benefits are not that easy to learn

Benefits have to be found, thought about, they are the connection between what the prospect wants and what the product does.

To come up with a customised list of benefits for a sales presentation for each individual prospect takes sales skill. It also takes time to find and learn all the benefits your prospects could potentially want.

Learning the skills and the benefits with good sales presentation training is what separates sales professionals that have invested in themselves from the rest. If you don't invest in your own sales training don't expect results.

Start investing in your sales skills by testing your sales presentations...


Sales Presentation Training Test

Run your sales presentation through the test and see if you're presenting too many features and not enough benefits.

Step 1

Choose a product or service that you sell and you regularly present to prospects.

Now do your normal sales presentation and record what you say or write down the main points. You can use a voice recorder on most mobile phones. 

Step 2

Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the centre from top to bottom. At the top of the left side write Benefits, and on the right Features.

Listen to the presentation, or look at what you have written. For every benefit you presented place a tick in the left hand column, and for every feature a tick in the right column.

A feature is something about the product or service you sell, or what it does. A benefit is what the product or service will do for the buyer.

Examples

The braking system is a feature of a car. The protection it gives the buyer, and their passengers, if they have to break quickly, is a benefit.

A feature of this sales presentation training is this test. The benefit will be the additional sales you close when you have completed it and take action.

So if you have a watch that tells you the time, is that a feature or a benefit? 

Step 3

Now total the ticks in each column.

You can now see how many benefits and how many features you are using in your sales presentation.

The more benefits you include in your presentation the more customer focused it is. Benefits are about the customer, what they want as an end result, the bottom line benefits provided by the features.

Remember this sales presentation tip: The more features you present the more your sales presentation is focused on your product or service. Features are the details, mechanisms, and attributes of your product.


Benefits to Features
What should the ratio be

As guide to the what the ratio of sales benefits to features should be, I aim for an equal number of both. 

The reason for this is I usually present a feature and a benefit together, This tells the prospect what the product will do for them and how it the feature delivers the benefit. 

Going back to the earlier example question on whether a watch that tells the time is a feature or benefit, the answer is it's a feature. Showing the time is what a watch does. What being able to instantly know the time does for the prospect is the benefit. 

If I was presenting this to a prospect I would do it as: 

The watch face clearly shows the time (feature) which means you can instantly know what time it is by looking at your wrist rather than having to get your mobile phone from your pocket. (benefit)


Multiple features and benefits

There are times when you may want to include many more benefits or features in your sales presentation. 

A sale based more on an emotional impulse will include more benefits than features, benefits connect directly to the emotions. These types of sale presentations will often lead to a buying decision made using emotions which is then justified by logic. 

If there are a lot of similar features that are connected or work together to provide a benefit these can grouped together and presented with the associated benefit. 

Keep this sales presentation training in mind as you prepare presentations and review the ones you use. Doing so will constantly improve the effectiveness of your presentations and increase your sales closing rate.



More Sales Presentation Training

Mini sales training course on linking features and benefits

Need to Close Chains is a unique mini training course that will give you the skill to instantly connect the features and benefits of your products and services. You will be able to fluently use them in your sales presentations to connect with prospects.

Learn to connect a prospect's needs with the benefits and features of your products and services and add then an agreement gaining line. It makes preparing and presenting sales offers, proposals, and product selection simple.

We discussed earlier about how it can be difficult and time consuming to learn the benefits of your products or services. This free mini training course is the solution. Get your free copy now at Need to Close Chains



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