Comments on: Sales 2.0: Rethinking the sales presentation http://www.foghound.com/blog/2008/11/12/sales-20-rethinking-the-sales-presentation/ Uncovering possibilities, purpose, passion for leadership, marketing, sales Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:11:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Ron McFarland http://www.foghound.com/blog/2008/11/12/sales-20-rethinking-the-sales-presentation/comment-page-1/#comment-1179 Ron McFarland Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:42:24 +0000 http://www.foghound.com/?p=362#comment-1179 I wonder how this varies from a b2b sale to a consumer product? Or one that has b2b sale in front of the consumer sale? I wonder how this varies from a b2b sale to a consumer product?

Or one that has b2b sale in front of the consumer sale?

]]> By: Lois Kelly http://www.foghound.com/blog/2008/11/12/sales-20-rethinking-the-sales-presentation/comment-page-1/#comment-1178 Lois Kelly Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:31:48 +0000 http://www.foghound.com/?p=362#comment-1178 Rob, Agreed! Another helpful thing for sales reps are customer stories -- not the traditional case studies, per se. One value of online communities is that there are so many great anecdotal conversations and stories happening that are worth repeating. Lois Rob,
Agreed! Another helpful thing for sales reps are customer stories — not the traditional case studies, per se. One value of online communities is that there are so many great anecdotal conversations and stories happening that are worth repeating.
Lois

]]> By: Rob Leavitt http://www.foghound.com/blog/2008/11/12/sales-20-rethinking-the-sales-presentation/comment-page-1/#comment-1177 Rob Leavitt Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:55:26 +0000 http://www.foghound.com/?p=362#comment-1177 Good points, Lois. The very thought of an 85-slide ppt makes me cringe. Two additional thoughts: First, as I'm sure you'd agree, we should be thinking more about conversations than presentations anyway. So training and support for sales needs to shift much more toward conversational (and listening) skills, networking systems (i.e., helping sales people connect customers and prospects with the right experts for additional conversations), and just-in-time information support to equip sales people with useful conversation starters and market/industry/company information relevant for the interaction. Second, proof points still really matter. Of course you can and should put your case studies, et al, on your website, but it's still essential for sales people to talk intelligently about specific examples of how the company has helped similar customers and what results ensued. They just shouldn't do it with slumber-inducing slides! Good points, Lois. The very thought of an 85-slide ppt makes me cringe. Two additional thoughts:

First, as I’m sure you’d agree, we should be thinking more about conversations than presentations anyway. So training and support for sales needs to shift much more toward conversational (and listening) skills, networking systems (i.e., helping sales people connect customers and prospects with the right experts for additional conversations), and just-in-time information support to equip sales people with useful conversation starters and market/industry/company information relevant for the interaction.

Second, proof points still really matter. Of course you can and should put your case studies, et al, on your website, but it’s still essential for sales people to talk intelligently about specific examples of how the company has helped similar customers and what results ensued. They just shouldn’t do it with slumber-inducing slides!

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