Whenever you’re presenting your product or service to a client, it’s important for your presentation to stand out from the crowd. Most presentations are dull and unconvincing and not nearly good enough to keep the client’s attention, much less motivate the potential client to make a purchase.

That being said, it can be easy for you to stick out from your competitors by giving an amazing presentation. Here’s how:

Focus the presentation on the client, not your company. This means tailoring your presentation for each client. The most common mistakes people make is to create one generic presentation and use it for all of their potential clients. This may save on poster and brochure printing costs, but you won’t gain the clients’ business. Don’t give a “canned” speech – make your product relevant to your specific prospect.

Do a little research and find out your prospect’s main problems before the presentation and show them how you can solve each one.

Tout benefits, not features. Use your presentation time wisely – grab the potential client’s interest with benefits that your product will bring to her company. The best way to do this is to bring a prototype of the product and let the client touch it and examine it himself. Then he can ask questions and you can tell him about the features, if he asks. My bet: he won’t ask about features until you’re way past this first presentation.

Be brief. You’ll most likely be presenting to the top management tier of the company you are courting, and that means you need to value these people’s time. Make your points and move on. A good rule of thumb is to make your presentation take 60% of the time allotted for the meeting. This means if you have an hour allotted, your presentation should take no longer than 40 minutes. If you have a half-hour meeting scheduled, you shouldn’t take any longer than 18 minutes. Generally, a 20-minute presentation is a good length of time. If you go much longer than that, you might start rambling and talk your way out of a sale by talking too much. 

Get excited! The majority of sales presentations are boring. The presenters are boring, the information is boring and the PowerPoint is boring. Try not to speak in a monotone voice, and get excited about your product. When you’re excited, other people will get excited. Your client will mirror your behavior. If you act lackluster and serious, so will your client. If you get excited about your product, so will your client. Excitement is contagious!

Do something physical. You can either do a demonstration with your product, or you can even just write down facts and numbers, and draw pictures on a whiteboard. This will keep your client engaged to see what you’re writing or drawing next.

Believe in your product. This is the most important aspect of any sales presentation. If you don’t believe in your product, then there’s no way you can do a good job selling it. It will show in your body language, your word choice and the sound of your voice. And if you can’t get excited about it, what makes you think your client will?