At our last webinar on making effective PowerPoint presentation, one of the consultants commented that the hardest part of her job is to convince her senior people that their sales presentations should be focused on the clients and not the consultants. She asked for suggestions on how to do that.
One way to convince your colleagues to talk less about your company and more about your potential client’s needs is to tell them that your clients already know something about your company - otherwise you wouldn’t be in front of them making a presentation.
Your potential client doesn’t really care how many offices you have. He want to knwo if you will be able to solve his problem. At the back of his mind are these questions: “Will these consultants solve my problems?”, “Will my boss be mad at me if these guys mess up?”, “Will they make me look good?”.
To get past these hurdles, you need to demonstrate that you can do the job by giving your client SPECIFIC examples of how you are going to go about doing it. Everything must be directly related to your client’s problem.
Use the limited time alloted to your sales presentation on your client’s issues rather than a long corporate overview of your firm.
When your future client asks you about your firm, can you describe your services to her in 30 seconds or less? Or do you just hand her a glossy 10-page brochure?
On the topic of marketing professional services, Tom Peters says “it doesn’t necessarily mean handing out flyers at the Mall of America. It does mean understanding that you have a Genuine Product Worth Paying For to sell”. The key is understanding clearly in your head what you do. If you have that udnerstanding, you will be able to describe your services to yoru future client in 30 seconds or less. Train your employees to think that way.
Back to Tom: “Any good career salesperson will tell you that if you don’t feel good/great about what you’re selling, you’ll be a lousy salesperson. It is as true for a professional service as it is for XYZ Widgets.”
Our next FREE webinar on PowerPoint presentation is scheduled for August 7 at 10 am Pacific Daylight Time. Please sign up here. Space is limited and availability will be on a first-come first served basis.
Here is what one of our webinar attendees said about our last webinar: “Thank you, Norman. This was a very informative presentation, not filled with technical tips, but good, practical advice on the clients’ perspective. Thanks again.“ Manager of Business Development for a major construction company.
Note: Please be considerate of others. Sign up ONLY if you are sure you will be able to attend since space is limited.
When you make a presentation to your clients, you are telling a story. What you say in the story will determine if you are successful or not. Many consultants fall into the trap of focusing way too much on themselves. They spend much of the valuable time before the clients on how great they are, how many years of experience they have, etc.
The successful consultants focus on what’s in it for their clients. They focus on the benefits that the clients will get when they hire the consultants.
I have set up a free one-hour webinar on how to make effective PowerPoint presentations on July 30. The response was so overwhelming that I had to set up another one on August 1 to accommodate the overflow. If you are interested in the August 1 webinar, sign up now before it is full.
Anyone who makes his or her living dealing with customers will end up providing some level of customer service or tech support. It does not matter whether you are a consultant, attorney, plumber, contractor, computer maker, real estate agent, politician or used car salesman.
I recently purchased a new laptop from Hewitt Packard. It is a fine machine with tablet feature. The problem is that it runs on Windows’ Vista operating system - which one very knowledgeable computer geek generously refers to as a “pig with lipstick”. That’s another story by itself. I called Microsoft with my problem with Vista. They told me that since it was an OEM product, I would have to speak to HP or pay Microsoft $90 to “diagnose” the problem. I called HP and they wanted $55 to fix Microsoft’s problem. I ponied up the $55 to HP and got transferred to some tech support group in India. The people in India were very polite and patient but they didn’t know how to solve the problem. In fact, in their attempt to solve my one problem, they created new ones for me.
So after three hours on the phone with India I was stuck with one old problem and one new one and less weathy by $55. I finally found the solutions to both problems by going to Google.
Contrast such dismal tech support service from India with my Internet service host provider Godaddy.com. These folks at Godaddy answer their customer’s phone call generally within 15 seconds. Their website does not have the world’s most intuitive layout but they walk you though the problem and show you how to get to the solution. They are courteous and they KNOW their products. That’s why they host all six of my websites.
My hats off to Godaddy and I pray that they NEVER outsource their tech service to India. These guys deserve a plug here.
As professional service providers, we can all learn from them.
It was very popular about 10 or 15 years ago for companies to have mission statements. Companies are supposed to tell the world what they do and how they do it. Do they rally mean anything to the consumers or users of these companies’ products or services. Let’s look at one such mission statement from the world’s most famous brand name - Coca Cola.
Here they say they will “provide the highest quality products to our consumers”. Surprise! It would be a shock if they were to say “we will sell crappy products to our consumers”.
They say they “value the work satisfaction and lifestyle of each associate.” We certainly hope so.
They will “meet shareholder needs by achieving sustainable growth”. How else should they state it? We will not meet shareholder needs?
They also say they will “strengthen relationships with the community” as opposed to weaken the relationships.
What does all this motherhood and apple-pie platitude really say? NOTHING.
If you are a consultant or professional service provider, your “mission statement” should be a very specific statement on what you do for your clients. For example: “We remove underground storage tanks”. Period. You don’t need to tell them you will remove the tanks in a most cost effective manner because everyone in the business will say that. Do you really think your competitors will advertise that they remove tanks in the least cost effective manner?
Skip the platitude and go straight to what you do. Stop with the happy talk.
Here is an advertising flyer from a local contractor that says it all: “We will always return your call”.
The owner caught on to the idea that MANY of his competitors never return potential customers’ phone calls. It is truly endemic. IF he follows through with his promise to return calls, he WILL be a great success!! You can count on it.
I came upon a very interesting video by Seth Godin on YouTube yesterday. Seth is a well known marketing guru who has written six books. His last book is “All Marketers are Liars”.
In his video he told the story (remember: all marketers tell stories) about driving through the country with his children. All of a sudden the usual ruckus in the back stopped. He looked through the rear view mirror and saw that his kids were staring at several cows in the field. That silent moment lasted perhaps five seconds and the ruckus resumed. Seth made the point that if one of the cows had been purple, he would have stopped the car, his wife would have taken digital picture of the purple cow, his kids would have walked up to the purple cow and touched it. They would have been talking about it at school the next day.
The purple cow was remarkable - meaning It was worth talking about.
If your professional service to your clients are good, your clients would consider you to be a “remarkable” consultant and they would tell other people about you. They would in fact become your marketing department and spread the word about you.
Another point Seth made in his wonderful video is that the worst thing a marketer can do is to lie (or exaggerate) about his products (or service). Once the customers (clients) find out the truth, they will never come back to you again. The bottom line is this: never over promise what you can deliver.
There are other marketing gems in Seth’s video. So here it is and enjoy:
I am including a side presentation from Garr Reynolds - one of the best presentation designers in the world. Some of the points he discusses in his presentation are relevant to the consulting field.
He talks about focusing on your strengths and not your weaknesses. That is so true when you are marketing your services to your clients. For example, if you are a small firm, you don’t focus on your smallness as weakness, you sell it as a strength. You are better than those behemoths because you can be more responsive to your client’s needs, you can adapt to changing situations more easily, etc.
The presentation also talks about “it’s not about you”. That too is germane to your situation as you make your presentation to your clients. It is never about you. It is always about how you can help your clients.
The way Garr tells his story (his presentation) is exactly the way you should make your presentation to your clients. Forget about those awful bullet points. Use as many slides as you need to make your points. Always use one slide for each point. Never jam ten points (as bullets) on one slide. That will put your clients in a coma.
When you make a presentation to your potential clients, do not spend 10 minutes or more telling your clients how great you are and how many years of “combined experience” your staff has. Your clients want ot hear what you do for them; how you are going to solve their problems.
Here is an example of a really bad introduction. This example came from Wayne Botha’s blog. The consultant goes on and on about how great he is. The sad truth is - nobody cares!
Instead of a boring and lengthy introduction, bring up your RELEVANT experience as you are describing your proposed approach to solving your clients’ problem. For example, if your clients are looking for someone to install a computer network system for them, you tell them you are recommending XYZ system because it will meet their needs in a cost-effective manner and - by the way - you have installed the same system for other clients and it works real well.
It is never about you. It is all about your clients and it is all about timing.
To get past these hurdles, you need to demonstrate that you can do the job by giving your client SPECIFIC examples of how you are going to go about doing it. Everything must be directly related to your client’s problem.
On the topic of marketing professional services, Tom Peters says “it doesn’t necessarily mean handing out flyers at the Mall of America. It does mean understanding that you have a Genuine Product Worth Paying For to sell”. The key is understanding clearly in your head what you do. If you have that udnerstanding, you will be able to describe your services to yoru future client in 30 seconds or less. Train your employees to think that way.
It was very popular about 10 or 15 years ago for companies to have mission statements. Companies are supposed to tell the world what they do and how they do it. Do they rally mean anything to the consumers or users of these companies’ products or services. Let’s look at one such mission statement from the world’s most famous brand name - Coca Cola.
Here is an advertising flyer from a local contractor that says it all: “We will always return your call”.
I came upon a very interesting video by 
