1、Sell More ThroughEffective Technical Presentations2ndEditionGruhn_00_FM.fm Page i Monday, April 7, 2008 10:43 AMGruhn_00_FM.fm Page ii Monday, April 7, 2008 10:43 AMSell More Through Effective Technical Presentations2ndEditionPaul Gruhn, P.E., C.F.S.E.Gruhn_00_FM.fm Page iii Monday, April 7, 2008 10
2、:43 AMSell More Through Effective Technical PresentationsCopyright 2008 by ISAInstrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society67 Alexander DriveP.O. Box 12277Research Triangle Park, NC 27709All Rights Reserved.Printed in the United States of America.10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 ISBN: 978-1-934394-54-0No part
3、of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any formor by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the priorwritten permission of the publisher. NoticeThe information presented in this publication is for the general educatio
4、n of the reader.Because neither the author nor the publisher have any control over the use of the informationby the reader, both the author and the publisher disclaim any and all liability of any kind arisingout of such use. The reader is expected to exercise sound professional judgment in using any
5、of the information presented in a particular application. Additionally, neither the author northe publisher have investigated or considered the affect of any patents on the ability of thereader to use any of the information in a particular application. The reader is responsible forreviewing any poss
6、ible patents that may affect any particular use of the information presented. Any references to commercial products in the work are cited as examples only. Neither theauthor nor the publisher endorses any referenced commercial product. Any trademarks ortrade names referenced belong to the respective
7、 owner of the mark or name. Neither theauthor nor the publisher makes any representation regarding the availability of any referencedcommercial product at any time. The manufacturers instructions on use of any commercialproduct must be followed at all times, even if in conflict with the information
8、in thispublication.Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataGruhn, Paul.Sell more through effective technical presentations / Paul Gruhn. -2nd ed.p. cm.ISBN 978-1-934394-54-0 (alk. paper)1. Sales presentations. 2. Business presentations. 3.Selling-Technology. 4. Selling-Technological innova
9、tions. 5.Marketing-Technological innovations. I. Title. HF5438.8.P74G78 2008651.73-dc222008013314Gruhn_00_FM.fm Page iv Monday, April 7, 2008 10:43 AMvContentsAbout the Author ix1 Introduction1Who Is this Book Written for? 22 So You Dont Think Youve Got It in You, Eh? 5Training and Practice 6Overcom
10、ing Fear. 6Focus on the Final Goal 73 Basic Types of Presentations 11Teach.11Inform . 12Persuade 12Entertain . 134 What Are Your Objectives?.15Reason . 15Results . 16Goals .16Response17Constraints 17What Is Your Elevator Message? .175 Know Your Audience 21Things You Should Know about Your Audience.2
11、2Audience Types and How to Deal with Each . 25Gruhn_EffectiveTechSales.book Page v Friday, April 4, 2008 11:08 AMvi ContentsCommunication Styles . 27Learning Styles 316 Questions You Must Answer Up Front35What Are You Talking About? 35Why Should I Listen? 36Who Are You to Tell Me? 367 Content .39Who
12、 Are You Addressing? 39What Do You Want to Say? 40How Much Time Do You Have? .40Why Did They Ask You to Speak? 408 Structure .43Overall Outline . 44Strong Beginnings. 46Body 48Strong Endings 489 Sales Issues 53Features versus Benefits. 53Focus on User Needs . 55Dont Bash the Competition 55Do Your Ho
13、mework 5610 You As a Presenter59Appearance 59Body Language 60Podiums 60Film Yourself! 60Voice 61Maintain Eye Contact .62Create Empathy 62Enthusiasm 6311 Supporting Materials65Visual Aids. 67Flip Charts. 68Whiteboards 69Overheads . 70Gruhn_EffectiveTechSales.book Page vi Friday, April 4, 2008 11:08 A
14、MContents viiModels and Demos . 71Slides .73Video .74Computer Presentations . 7512 Color77Light Text on Dark Background .77Dark Text on Light Background .78Be Careful about Color Combinations! 7913 General Tips 81Know the Environment 81Limit the Number of Topics per Slide. 83Dont Dwell on Any Slide
15、or Topic Too Long 83Get the Audience Involved. 83Entertain, Dont Lecture . 84Show an Appropriate Video 84Use a Remote. 84Periodically Test if Your Audience Is Still Awake 8514 Question Gruhn_EffectiveTechSales.book Page 11 Friday, April 4, 2008 11:08 AM12 Sell More Through Effective Technical Presen
16、tationsthey want to be able to do something with that knowl-edge such as operate better or faster, or be more effi-cient. Most things can be boiled down to people want tosave money, and your class is one way they believe theyllbe able to do that. Keep in mind that if you are truly teaching, you shou
17、ldbe doing very little actual presenting. The title of one ofmy favorite books is Telling Aint Training. Telling peoplesomething does not mean they understood it or learnedanything. If you are training people, you need to getthem actively involved. There are plenty of good booksavailable on effectiv
18、e training techniques.InformSome presentations are designed to inform. You maysimply want to convey information and may not requirea decision or action step. An example might be a presen-tation to update a client or supervisor on a project. Youare just letting them know where things currently stand.
19、There may or may not be any decisions made as a result. PersuadeSome presentations are designed to persuade. This iswhere you want to change someones opinion(s). Mostsales presentations fall into this category. But you dontwant to just persuade someone that your solution isbetter; you want them to b
20、uy it. You may believe whatyoure selling is the latest and greatest thing since slicedbread and that anyone who doesnt agree with you is anidiot, but thats what all your competitors say andbelieve too. The audience is going to need convincing.Gruhn_EffectiveTechSales.book Page 12 Friday, April 4, 20
21、08 11:08 AMChapter 3 Basic Types of Presentations 13EntertainSome presentations are simply designed to entertain.While not many technical presentations fall exclusivelyinto this category, every presentation should have a bitof entertainment built into it. Well cover how later. There is generally an
22、element of each type in every pre-sentation, but each of your presentations should haveone primary focus. Keep in mind that what you think itshould be may not be what the intended audience wantsor expects it to be. Well cover how to make sure the twoare the same in the following chapters. TipWrite d
23、own the type of presentation youre doing. This will force you to think about it and will allow you to review the final product to see if you actually met your goal.Gruhn_EffectiveTechSales.book Page 13 Friday, April 4, 2008 11:08 AMToo many presentations are done for the wrong reason. Gruhn_Effectiv
24、eTechSales.book Page 14 Friday, April 4, 2008 11:08 AM15CHAPTER 4What Are Your Objectives?There must be at least one objective for every presenta-tion. Sales presentations may occur at various timesduring the sales cycle and the objectives may be dif-ferent for each one. Your initial discussion may
25、be aninformal discussion with only one person just to getyour foot in the door. The next might be to a group oftechnical people to get you past the technical gatekeepers. The next might be to management who willneed convincing on different issues. No matter whatyour presentation, you should be able
26、to answer thefollowing:ReasonWhy are you giving the presentation? Too many presen-tations are done for the wrong reasons. A lot of vendorsare happy just to have the opportunity to spend someGruhn_EffectiveTechSales.book Page 15 Friday, April 4, 2008 11:08 AM16 Sell More Through Effective Technical P
27、resentationstime in front of a prospect. This may be nothing morethan wishful thinking. Doing a lunch and learn to edu-cate a prospect on certain issues may not be in your bestinterest if the prospect eventually decides to buy fromyour competitor. I think people give too much credenceto the thought
28、of getting their foot in the door.Are you trying to a) introduce your company and/orproduct, b) present how your solution may be best for aparticular application, or c) overcome particular objec-tions that may have been raised earlier in the salescycle? Just as your reasons for presenting will diffe
29、r, yourpresentations must differ as well.ResultsWhat do you want to achieve? How long is your salescycle and what results are you expecting along the way?Are you only trying to get your foot in the door? Areyou trying to get past technical or managerial gatekeepers? If the end result of your talk is
30、 your prospectsaying, “Thank you very much, that was very inter-esting” and you never hear from them again, you obvi-ously blew it. Nobody will call you back when they havean application just because you gave them a presenta-tion last month or year. GoalsShort- and long-term goals generally differ.
31、Also, yourgoals will most likely differ from those of your pros-pects. For example, when I give seminars on presenta-tion techniques, my short-term goal is to present usefulinformation in a short amount of time in an enter-taining manner (and get paid for it). My long-term goalmay be to sell books a
32、nd/or additional consulting ser-vices. The goal of the attendees will be long term andGruhn_EffectiveTechSales.book Page 16 Friday, April 4, 2008 11:08 AMChapter 4 What Are Your Objectives? 17generally along the lines of increasing their salesthrough more effective presentations by their staff. Resp
33、onseWhat sort of response are you expecting from your audi-ence? Do you want them to think or feel differently, orperhaps take some action? Do you need them to giveyou a pass to the next level within their organization?How will you build that into your presentation?ConstraintsWhat are you actually a
34、ble to accomplish? That willdepend on how much time you have and the peoplewith whom youre dealing. If what youre selling has ashort sale cycle, you might be shooting for an order aftera single presentation. If what youre selling has a longsale cycle, you arent. How many gate keepers do youneed to g
35、et past in order to reach the actual decisionmakers? Each gate keeper has different priorities andyou need to find out what they are and satisfy them.(Well cover how in the following chapters). What is your audience able to accomplish? You may beable to interest school children to take up engineerin
36、g asa profession during a short presentation, but you cantteach 8thgraders differential equations in 30 minutes.You may be able to interest maintenance technicians inyour solution, but they may not have the power toimplement your recommendations. What Is Your Elevator Message?Most salespeople have h
37、eard of the term elevator mes-sage. (If you meet a very important person in an elevatorGruhn_EffectiveTechSales.book Page 17 Friday, April 4, 2008 11:08 AM18 Sell More Through Effective Technical Presentationsand they ask what you do, you need to be able to tellthem before one of you gets off.) An e
38、levator message isa 30-second summary of who you work for, what yourcompany does, what youre selling, how your solution is(hopefully) unique, and how the prospect might benefitfrom your product or service. Thats a lot to cover inonly 30 seconds, and 30 seconds may be all the timeyou have when meetin
39、g people for the first time. If ittakes you more than 30 seconds, you probably haventeven figured it out for yourself. You should be able to distill the same sort of messageabout your presentation. Whats the subject? Whats thebenefit to the listener? Whats the recommendationthe take-away message? If
40、 you cant distill it down insuch a manner, your presentation will lack focus. You want your elevator message to be what otherswould say after hearing your presentation and beingasked by someone else, “So what was that guys mes-sage?” If they cant figure it out, your message was notclear and simple e
41、nough. Well talk more about focus inthe following chapters.TipPut your “Elevator Message” in the notes section of your title page to remind yourself why youre giving the presentation in the first place.Gruhn_EffectiveTechSales.book Page 18 Friday, April 4, 2008 11:08 AMGruhn_EffectiveTechSales.book
42、Page 19 Friday, April 4, 2008 11:08 AMYou may end up using the same set of slides whether youre talking for 15 minutes or 5 days, but the specific slides you use and words you speak will be different each time depending upon your audiences background.Gruhn_EffectiveTechSales.book Page 20 Friday, April 4, 2008 11:08 AM
