Make It All About Them: Winning Sales Presentations

5   Facilitating the Experience

Myth: Facilitation happens naturally.

Truth: Facilitation must be carefully planned and orchestrated.

There should always be one person responsible for facilitating the sales presentation. While this is typically the salesperson, it can be particularly powerful to assign this role to the person who will hold the responsibility for the day-to-day relationship. This allows this person to build credibility, to demonstrate the ability to manage a process, and to show his or her commitment to addressing the clients' needs and what is important to them.

It's especially crucial to take this approach in a rebid situation, where a relationship with an account manager or a relationship manager already exists. Handing over the reigns to a salesperson (assuming he or she does not have a relationship with the client) can cheapen the tone of the meeting. It can also potentially make clients feel like they are being sold to, which is the last thing you want. Ideally, they should feel as though they're choosing to extend the existing relationship as a natural course of business.

Facilitation skills are paramount to the sales presentation's effectiveness. The facilitator's role is a complex one that requires a great deal of confidence, presence, and organization. Facilitators often have to think on their feet in situations where every detail has not gone exactly as planned (which is almost always the case).

The facilitator is responsible for managing each section ...