According to an article by Hubspot Marketing, there are three core competencies needed for a career in sales. They say that foundational sales knowledge, communication skills, and a willingness to learn are “critical for carrying out the daily duties of a sales professional”.
As more sales conversations and presentations move to the virtual model due to client requests, improving virtual presentations and usage of virtual platforms is more important to the success of sales professionals and leaders. Improving virtual meeting skills builds on the communication skills core competency and shows sales professionals why they need to keep learning in this area because the virtual platforms and techniques are constantly changing.
The skills you learned in 2020 when the move to virtual began won’t be good enough in the future. To stay ahead of the competition you will need to look for ways to improve in four key areas:
Setting up your equipment and using the platforms
Now that presenting remotely will be a significant part of the future of sales, your sales professionals and leaders need to learn how they can upgrade their equipment and leverage the capabilities of the platforms to improve their presentations. For example, sharing content in Zoom and in Microsoft Teams has changed and the new features give sales professionals new ways to engage with prospects.
Options for sharing slides
The default full screen slide sharing is what most sales professionals started with but it is not the best choice in many situations. By knowing their options, sales professionals can make the most of the slides they create from the standard Marketing decks.
Engaging prospects with content beyond slides
Slides should only be one of the types on content used in virtual sales presentations. Being in front of the keyboard gives a sales professional the opportunity to engage the prospect with videos, spreadsheets, web content, and so much more. By learning how to integrate this content into a presentation, a sales professional stands out from the competition.
Advanced delivery techniques
For those sales professionals and leaders who want to make a memorable impact with a presentation, they should explore next-level techniques such as using their desktop as a content canvas and building non-linear presentations that give the prospect more control.
These are the four areas I cover when training sales professionals and organizational leaders on improving their virtual presentations. One of my clients used the ideas to improve her presentations and was recognized as one of the top sales educators in her worldwide organization. Building your skills in these areas can help sales professionals who are looking to improve their virtual presentations and their results.
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Where to go next
–>More articles on virtual presenting –>Training for your team on presenting virtually
–>More articles on virtual & hybrid sales presentations –>Training for your sales team
Dave Paradi has over twenty-two years of experience delivering customized training workshops to help business professionals improve their presentations. He has written ten books and over 600 articles on the topic of effective presentations and his ideas have appeared in publications around the world. His focus is on helping corporate professionals visually communicate the messages in their data so they don’t overwhelm and confuse executives. Dave is one of fewer than ten people in North America recognized by Microsoft with the Most Valuable Professional Award for his contributions to the Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams communities. His articles and videos on virtual presenting have been viewed over 4.8 million times and liked over 17,000 times on YouTube.