Start the presentation with the buyer's own situation

Open a presentation by playing back the discovery summary and checking it with the buyer.

Build your sales presentation from the discovery summary you wrote after meeting the buyer, and leave the company deck closed. The first thing the buyer hears should be their own situation, in their own words, followed by how you would close the gap between where they are and where they want to be.

Most sales presentations are written before the seller has met the buyer. The usual method is to take the company deck, perhaps forty slides, pick the slides that seem relevant, put the buyer's logo on the first page and present. The buyer then sits through ten minutes of company history (also illustrative) before hearing anything about themselves, and by then many of them are checking their phones.

After a good discovery meeting you already have something better. The discovery summary holds the buyer's situation, the problems in their own words, what those problems cost, what success looks like and who has to agree. A strong presentation plays that summary back, then shows how you would close the gap. This reverses the usual order, so the buyer hears about themselves before they hear about you.

Before the playback, think about who in the room missed discovery. The presentation has to work for them too. In a business sale it might be the finance head who signs off the spend. In a household sale it might be a spouse. Plan a minute at the start to bring them in: give a short version of the situation and ask what matters most to them. Their answer may change which parts of the presentation get the most time.

The playback should be accurate enough that the buyer nods along. For a business with three outlets, it might sound like this: "Each of your outlets has a different person doing the books. Month-end takes your operations manager most of a week. Twice this year a supplier was paid late and you lost the early payment discount. You want month-end done in two days, with one person accountable. Did we get that right?"

That last line is the check question, and you should treat the answer as a real check. Things change between meetings. A new person in the room may see the problem differently, or the buyer may have learned something since you last spoke. If the summary is wrong, you want to find out before you present a solution to a problem that has moved, and then adjust what you cover.

Once the buyer agrees with the summary, take each confirmed problem in turn and show how you would solve it and what changes for the buyer. Leave out everything that does not connect to something they said. Many sellers find this the hardest discipline in presenting, because they are proud of features the buyer never asked about. A feature that solves nothing on the buyer's list is noise. It also gives the buyer something to question that has nothing to do with the decision.

A problem and solution map helps you make those cuts. Write the buyer's problems down the left side of a page and your proposed solution parts down the right. Draw a line from each solution part to the problem it solves. Remove any solution part with no line. Any problem left with no line is a gap, and you should address it honestly, either with a plan for it or by saying it is outside what you do.

Proof follows the same logic. A case study helps only if its client looks like this buyer and had a similar problem. A testimonial from a large bank shown to a cafe group does little, however impressive the name. Choose one or two pieces of proof that match the buyer, and place each one right after the solution part it supports.

With the company history and unrelated features removed, most presentations built from discovery fit comfortably into about twenty minutes. That leaves most of the meeting for questions, concerns and a decision, which is where sales are actually made and what the rest of this course covers.

Your task: take the notes or summary from your most recent discovery meeting. Write the opening of your presentation as a summary of the buyer's situation in their words, ending in a check question. Then draw the problem and solution map and cross out anything without a line.

Write the opening of your next presentation as a playback of the buyer's situation. Then draw the problem and solution map and cross out every part with no link.

Course

• Present, handle objections, and close