When you make a presentation, after you’ve qualified the prospect, you have to give him insight into your thinking. Especially important when you are presenting an enterprise solution (big ticket sale).
Your customer is buying “how you think.” So what better way to express how you think than to demonstrate several things? a) How you approach the solution to the problem he said he has, b) how you will execute the proposal you’re giving him, down to the detail of step-by-step how you will implement, c) what happens when the unexpected occurs (we keep hoping it won’t, but it always does) and d) how you will measure whether the problem is solved or not.
Many other notions in the presentation step? Of course. But remember my saying: “people don’t have time to connect the dots for you.” You have to do it. And you do it in the presentation step.
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I’m a freelance writer and producer. My sales process for larger assignments — my version of Bill’s enterprise solution — is almost always a rolling brainstorm session. My confidence grows from insight, and insight grows from dialogue. As confidence grows, so do the quality of my ideas.
And as for Bill’s ideas on the unexpected, I have a note readily available that keeps my eager but occasionally blind optimisim in check. The note: It gets worse. When I keep that close, I stay ready to then make it better.