No matter how compelling your core message, if you can’t capture the attention of your audience long enough for them to heed it, your message (and your sales opportunity) will be lost. Here is where customized sales presentation training can help…
First understand that, on average, attention spans are decreasing. Not only do you need to grab your buyer’s attention at the start but you have to keep them engaged throughout. People are easily distracted and all too ready to check their phones for the latest email. Some say the average human attention span has dropped almost 4 seconds in the last decade to 8.25 seconds in 2015! So the first sales presentation training tip is to come on concise and strong…no long, irrelevant introductions. Use simple, direct language and get to the point right off the bat.
Next, consider presenting your message in the form of a story. Communication by using well practiced storytelling techniques can be far more compelling and effective than delivering information with a list of cold, hard facts. Presented with straight data, only the language part of our brains are involve. But when we are hooked by a story, our emotional brains light up as well. All of us like to be entertained and stories are entertaining as well as memorable.
Tip #3 is the most important of all…connect with your audience. You must find a way to link your story to something the audience cares about. We can’t help but tune in when there is a story we can relate to in some way. Set up a situation that piques interest and then resolve it in a way that connects to them on a personal or emotional level.
In summary, stories make sales presentations better and, when the stories connect with listeners, they make ideas stick. What you say will be lost unless you can say it in a way that keeps your audience listening.
