The Attributes of Top Closers + Killer Presentations

By Steven K. Haught, MBA

 Every company wants the best sales people on the front lines selling and closing better than their competition. As America begins to open for business, revenue will be the most important aspect of reviving any company after the pandemic slumber.

Salespeople who close more deals than their average colleagues might work a little harder or smarter, but what often sets them apart are unique approaches to their personal attitude, self-confidence, passion and enthusiasm.

Here’s what’s at the core of top closers:
  • They believe in what they sell. They start every presentation assuming prospects will buy from them because they truly have the best possible solution. Passion for their products and/or services is their most effective closing tool.
  • They accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative when they’re closing. Prospects respond far better to positive messages than negative messages. Top closers work hard to keep out negative influences, by remaining upbeat, even when dealing with pessimistic prospects.
  • They don’t feel bad for themselves, even when a sale fails to close. They maintain enthusiasm by repeating positive affirmations to themselves, such as, “I will close the sale because I have the best product.”
  • They constantly focus on the prospects’ needs. They know that the difference between convincing prospects to buy and convincing them to buy now can come down to a strong understanding of the buyer’s needs. They use benefit statements to create belief in their products or services.
  • They speak in terms of value for the prospect. Top closers help prospects see not only the ROI they’re likely to receive, but how much the absence of their product or service is costing each today.
  • They listen first, sell second. Instead of making assumptions, top closers ask questions to uncover why prospects buy and how their buying process works.
  • They’re patient. Top closers consider the longer buying cycle an opportunity to educate prospects. They recognize that prospects who turn into the best customers may be under cultivation for two or three years.
Now that we’ve established there’s a unique set of characteristics that make for a very good salesperson, a top closer… there is one more thing.  How they present the products they sell.

At some point, you’ve probably sat through a terrible powerpoint sales presentation—bad content, too much text, too many slides, no images or poorly selected ones, and no showmanship. This type of presentation isn’t just boring; it can literally kill the potential sale.

A well-executed, customer-centric, and data-driven sales presentation will convince any audience that they need your product or service. A good presentation blends with those aforementioned characteristics of a top closer, and what the sales rep understands about their potential customer before building their sales presentation.  

Sales presentations should never be “canned” or an off-the-shelf collection of slides used over and over to tell about your company and the products you want prospects to buy.  

The phrase "making the most of every opportunity" is no longer an over used cliche, as many organizations coming out of COVID-19 will be struggling with thinner sales pipelines, and looking for creative ways to push fewer and reluctant buyers over the proverbial hump.  Every formal presentation must be near perfection to move the needle to “close.”

Nothing accelerates the sales cycle better than a presentation that simply "nails the most important issues” on the prospects radar. Here's a quick test to determine the Presentation Relevance Quotient (PRQ) of your sales pitches. 

1.  Take any sales presentation and count the number of slides where at least 80% of the content on the slide is about your buyer.  Examples include market trends in the buyer's industry, CEO initiatives in the buyer's company, the buyer's current business practices/processes, operational goals, growth opportunities and challenges of the buyer, etc.  

In other words, count the number of slides that are 80% focused on the business of the buyer, information that would have been acquired in discussions by the sales rep and the buyer contacts in leading up to the first onsite or online presentation.

2.  Divide the number of buyer-relevant slides by the total number of slides in the presentation.  The result is your Presentation RQ.  For example, an .80 PRQ would mean 20 of 25 slides are buyer-relevant.  

Use the following as a guide to evaluate the PRQ of your sales presentations.

- Green Zone = .70 or higher - highly relevant
- Yellow Zone = .50 - .69 - caution, borderline irrelevant 
- Red Zone = < .50 - irrelevant; too much product detail

If you're questioning how a presentation that's only 30% product content can sell the product, the answer is simple.  

Psychologically, most buyers aren't actually buying your product.  In fact, they really don't care much about your products.  They only care about finding the easiest way possible to resolve their top priority issues.  

So what they end up buying is your ability to clearly articulate their issues in a pure business context prior to discussing the values and benefits of your product solutions.  Your products are merely proof points that substantiate solutions to business problems.  

If you clearly present with style and passion the business issues better than your competition, buyers subconsciously assume your products and services are superior, and they see what you have as the answer to solving their issues. 

As you prepare to hit the ground running, make sure you check your sales presentations.  Make life easier for your sales teams by building presentations that will speak to prospects business, competitive landscape and overall needs.  

Do that well, and you will see thin pipelines producing results more frequently in the challenging times ahead.   When combined with reasonable product knowledge, it's an unbeatable combination.  
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Is your sales management strategy effective? Most company's do not follow effective sales strategies; costing them millions of dollars in lost revenue.  Are you worried about your sales team performance in the months ahead? Do you have the right people in the right positions?

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