Developing a presentation strategy involves preparing presale objectives, developing a presale presentation plan, and providing outstanding customer service. The presentation strategy combines elements of the relationship, product, and customer strategies.

Preparation for the sales presentation is a two-part process. Part one is referred to as the preapproach and involves preparing presale objectives and developing a presale presentation plan. It’s best to develop presentation objectives for each stage of the buying process. Part two is called the approach and involves making a good first impression, securing the prospect’s attention, and transitioning to need identification.

In recent years, team selling has surfaced as a major development. Sales teams can often uncover problems, solutions, and sales opportunities that no individual salesperson could discover working alone. Team sales presentations require a more detailed precall plan than individual sales calls. Without careful planning and extensive practice (rehearsal), team presentations are likely to be delivered in a disorganized manner.

Adaptive selling involves altering sales behaviors in order to improve communication with the customer. Salespeople today are challenged to develop a broader repertoire of selling strategies. Salespeople skilled in adaptive selling consider how the relationship, product, and customer strategies can enhance the sales presentation.

After collecting background information, salespeople need to create a customized presale presentation plan. The plan is developed after careful study of the six-step presentation plan, which includes approach, need discovery, presentation, negotiation, close, and servicing the sale.

The approach may involve face-to-face contact, telephone contact, or some other appropriate method of communication. If the approach is effective, the salesperson will be given an opportunity to make the sales presentation. A major goal of the social contact is to make a good first impression, build rapport, and establish credibility. The business contact involves converting the prospect’s attention from the social contact to the sales presentation.

Over the years, salespeople have identified several ways to convert the prospect’s attention and arouse interest in the presentation. Some of the most common ways include the agenda approach, product demonstration approach, referral approach, customer benefit approach, question approach, survey approach, and premium approach.