Make It All About Them: Winning Sales Presentations

10   Analyzing Your Audience

Understanding your audience members' personalities and the overall dynamics in the room is critical to achieving a successful sales presentation. Of course, this is often easier said than done—particularly if you have limited access to the buying committee. This is when you have to employ your best Sherlock Holmes skills. Here are some tips that will help:

To every extent possible, use coaches (sometimes fondly referred to as “moles”) to help you build your intelligence. These are usually (but not necessarily) people within the client's organization. They may take the form of previous colleagues, personal friends, administrative assistants, or champions who may have worked with you or your firm in another division.

Turn to LinkedIn, an incredible (and often underutilized) resource. Use it to research everyone on the buying committee. Check out their photos, their previous employers, and where they went to school. Find connections that you and other team members may have with buying committee members, and then use those connections to find out more. Several years ago, a book called I'm on LinkedIn: Now What? (by Jason Alba) hit the market. Although I have yet to read it, I think the title is clever and very reflective of what was on everyone's mind at the time—and still is today, to some extent. You are at an enormous disadvantage if you are not actively using LinkedIn. It is well worth it even if you use it only to research people for sales presentations ...