How to run effective sales meetings

On average, organizations spend roughly 15% of their time in meetings, according to Airgram. Therefore, when it comes to a sales meeting, we must put in extra effort to make a lasting impression on prospects. 

We invited Richard Mulholland and Dani Balona from the persuasive communications agency Missing Link to share their masterclass on how to use Prezi in meetings to hack customer expectations. Check out the three steps you need to take to change the way you think about your sales meetings or watch the full webinar here. 

Hack your customers’ expectations 

According to Rich, “Great service isn’t defined by how well you do your job, it’s defined by how well you do the ‘not my job’ stuff. i.e. the stuff that they didn’t pay you for.” If you go to a 5-star hotel, you’re going to expect 5-star treatment — however, it’s when they provide something unexpected that it becomes memorable. 

When the Harry Potter and the Chambers of Secrets movie came out, Rich mentioned to his business partner that he already bought tickets and was so excited to see it. His partner said it wasn’t very good, but still told Rich to go see for himself. After Rich watched it, he called his partner wondering what he was talking about — the movie was amazing. His business partner said he didn’t want to ruin it for him, so he set his expectations low (in other words, he hacked Rich’s expectations). 

The bar is already set low for online meetings. All you need to do is appear more professional on camera to hack expectations. Dani and Rich shared a few ways to do so: 

• Incorporate light into your workspace by placing your setup in front of a window or bringing in a studio or ring light. 
  
  
• Add an external camera to make you appear sharper.
  
  
• Hack your height. Everyone appears tall on camera, and you can change the perception of yourself by taking up more of your screen. Place a fist above your head as a rule to see how much space you should leave above your head (or, in Dani’s case, just have a high hairstyle). 
  
  

Prezi lets you easily hack expectations and present the unexpected by allowing you to bring slides on screen right in front of you. You can do this with a full-screen slide, a transparent full-screen slide, a picture-in-picture reveal, or a side slide. By taking advantage of these slide options, you can change the mundane nature of client meetings. 

Break barriers 

To make the most of Prezi and incorporate immersive scenes into your presentation, you’ll want to follow two key principles:

1. It’s about the customer’s story 

Remember: It’s not about storytelling but about story selling. The focus should not be solely on improving how you tell your story during client meetings, but rather on centering your attention on your customer’s story. “Don’t tell them your story. Sell them a new version of their story in which you play a part,” Rich said. 

2. Find common ground 

When you’re meeting a customer for the first time, find common ground or “commonplace” as Dani and Rich refer to it. 

Dani shared an example from a Harvard negotiation class, where students were paired up and tasked to make a deal. Within that group, 55% came to an agreement. 

The next group was assigned the same task, except this time the professor said that before you begin negotiating, share some information about each other and find something in common. Out of that group, 90% of the pairs reached a mutually beneficial agreement, resulting in deals that were 18% better for both parties. Therefore, finding some sort of connection with your clients off the bat will prove beneficial. 

Use Prezi to bring key moments to life 

According to Rich, the audience’s enjoyment of a presentation can never surpass the presenter’s own enthusiasm for delivering it.

Prezi allows you to surprise and excite your audience by being intentional when you share your content. As Rich shared earlier, while you have slide options, what he particularly appreciates about Prezi is that it allows you to choose specific moments when you bring the content on screen. 

There’s no need to screen share or have your content up the entire time. By doing so, your prospect can feel like they’re guiding the conversation, and you can incorporate the “wow” factor by bringing up content they actually want to see.

Like what you see? Contact us to see a product demo and learn more about Prezi for Sales.