Online sales presentations are becoming more common as companies are using internet communications to replace face-to-face meetings. Presenting a live webinar or webcast of a sales presentation allows you to reach a potentially large audience, but it can also take a lot of preparation to do it right and make your efforts worthwhile.

In general, there are five stages to optimizing sales presentations for lead generation:

#1 – Get the Word Out

In order for your sales presentation to succeed, people need to know when it’s happening and how to access it. Send out an email blast to your email list, post about it on social media (especially LinkedIn groups), create a blog post about it, create a landing page for your PPC campaigns, encourage word-of-mouth advertising and any other strategy you can think of to let people know it’s happening. Create a webpage that has a simple registration form, and provide registrants with a link to view the presentation. The simpler you can make this process, the more likely a person will be to attend.

#2 – Learn About Your Prospects

If possible, try to clarify your registrants’ level of interest in your product, their budget, and whether or not they’re decision-makers at their company. Not every person you will meet during an online sales presentation will be responsible for making new purchases for their business. Using your registration form, you can often ascertain where in the buying process a registrant is and whether or not he or she can make purchasing decisions.

You may also want to determine if this is a purchase that a prospect may make in the near future, as this can affect the angle your presentation takes. In addition, you should be sure that your product or service can fulfill your registrants’ needs. If not, you could be wasting your time and your prospects’ time. It’s also possible that a prospect may not really know if what you are selling would be beneficial, and is simply attending your presentation on an exploratory basis. In this case, you may have to research their company and determine how your product or service can help.

#3 – Prepare Your Presentation

Create notes for your presentation and pay special attention to the topics, benefits and features you believe will be valuable to your prospects. Tailor the sales presentation to providing the answers or solutions your prospects need. Also, you may want to do a mock presentation where you practice giving your pitch and make sure things like your webcam and sound settings are functioning properly.

In addition, it’s helpful to send a reminder invitation to prospects that contains an easy, one-click confirmation button that lets you know if he or she is still attending. An email sent the day before the presentation also gives you a chance to ask the prospect about his or her company’s needs. If you’re using marketing automation tools, you send these types of emails automatically.

#4 – Giving The Sales Presentation

One of the most important points of your sales presentation must be keeping attendees engaged. If you read from a script or are simply reciting generic points that aren’t relevant to your audience, your presentation may be ineffective. Keep a list of tailored features and benefits close by to reference when needed.

Try to address your audience directly, keeping it personalized for the attendees. Ask for questions and feedback throughout your presentation. As you go, keep in mind what you’re hearing from your prospects and focus your presentation on the solutions and answers your prospects need, as well as any other selling points.

At the same time, don’t overwhelm your attendees by providing them with too much information or too many details. Create a specific timeframe for your presentation and stick to it.

#5 – Follow-Up

Immediately after your sales presentation has ended, send a thank-you email to your prospect. Include product or service pricing, the benefits and features of the product or service you offer, how the product or service can specifically benefit the prospect’s company, and your contact information. Give him or her a chance to ask any questions that he or she may have that weren’t mentioned during the sales presentation. Again, marketing automation can help you complete this step easily.

To nurture an important lead even further, it’s important to try personally following-up with the prospect a few days after the presentation. It’s possible he or she will have additional questions, and you can answer those questions and reinforce the selling points that pertain to their company in a personal follow-up call.

Helping Create Sales Presentations 

Let Forward Vision Marketing help you create an effective sales presentation that can help you get more leads. Forward Vision Marketing has experience in writing powerful content and creating beautiful graphics to help you convert your prospects into customers.