How To Keep Sales Presentations Concise

You've been there. You get on a demo call. You're excited to show your product. You want to impress the prospect with ALL the cool features... ...and halfway through, you can see their eyes glaze over. Meeting ends. No follow up. Deal dead. I wasted YEARS making this mistake. The problem? I was "selling steaks to vegans". Showing features my prospects didn't care about and never would. Reminds me of the time I walked into an Infinity dealership looking for a comfortable car with good storage for road trips for my growing family. For 20 minutes, the salesperson showed me luxury wood trim, UI features, and rubber floor mats. I walked out, drove to Lexus, and bought from a rep who focused ONLY on what I cared about. Your demo shouldn't be a buffet where prospects sample everything. It should be a custom crafted meal addressing exactly what they're hungry for. Before any demo, ask: "If I could only present 3 things that would move the needle for this prospect, what would they be?" After implementing this approach, my close rate jumped from 22% to 54%. The formula is simple but rarely used: 1. Only show what solves THEIR problems 2. Link every feature to direct business impact 3. Use THEIR language and terminology 4. Make it interactive with questions throughout 5. Keep it simple (fancy fails, simple scales) 6. Prove everything with relevant examples 7. Make it smooth and polished 8. Handle objections before they arise 9. Practice until it's muscle memory Remember: Most prospects will pay MORE for CERTAINTY. — Want to CRUSH your quota and 2x your sales? We should talk: https://lnkd.in/gr9u5Vgd

The Great GSM Illusion lives on. Every supplier thinks a General Sales Meeting is their golden ticket. “Finally! A captive audience of 50, 100, maybe 200 distributor reps. I’ll dazzle them, they’ll fall in love with my wines, and sales will soar.” Let me give you a reality check. They won’t remember 90% of what you said. They won’t suddenly flood the streets selling your brand. And if you think otherwise, you’re severely disconnected from reality. Why? Because GSMs have become a blur. Reps sit through dozens of cookie-cutter presentations in one day. Death by PowerPoint. Endless sampling. Agenda overload. The audience goes numb. But here’s the truth: you must still do them. Skip GSMs and you’ll be conspicuous by your absence. So the question isn’t if you should present. The question is how. If you want to stand out: >Be brief. Be good. Be done. Don’t use 20 minutes just because they gave it to you. >Respect their time. Nothing wins goodwill faster than ending early. >Be memorable. One slide. One handout. One wine. One key message. >Prepare like a pro. Know the room, know the schedule, and never waste time asking basic questions you should already know. GSMs are compulsory—but they don’t have to be pointless. Done right, they won’t transform your sales overnight, but they will earn respect, credibility, and open doors. And in today’s crowded market, that’s worth far more than another forgettable pitch. 👉 I made a video breaking this down—why GSMs don’t hold the power they once did, and how to make the most of them anyway. Watch it here: https://lnkd.in/gU6Majnn

Yesterday, I wrote a post about how most sales demos fail due to "indigestion" rather than "starvation". Some folks liked it.   So, here are 7 more tips to aid "buyer digestion": 1. Speak a tad slower than you'd usually do. It's easy to go too fast, since you've done this demo probably 50+ times. Don't forget it's your buyer's 1st. 2. Don't narrate what you're doing on the screen ("and when I click the 'analytics' tab, you'll see that...."). Instead, use your words to explain what the thing you're showing MEANS for your prospect. 3. Don't show when telling would suffice. Example: You can probably just explain role-based permissions w/o needing to show how to set them up. 4. Adapt your language to the prospect's tech stack. Instead of "We'd integrate with your Enablement Platform", say "We'd integrate with Highspot". 5. Build in "buffer time" for your demo. I would not plan to show more than 20 minutes of functionality for a 30 min demo. 6. When answering questions, give the short version of your answer first, but let them know you can go far more in-depth if needed. Most sellers automatically default to giving the full comprehensive (overkill) answer. 7. I'd love to hear from YOU. What tip would you add for number 7?