This is episode eight and nine of our 12-episode series on how to win group sales presentations. So far, we've covered a lot of the foundational concepts of group selling skills. And we've spent a lot of time on how valuable case studies or success stories are in winning a committee over to hiring your team.

Today's episode will be split into to parts. First, I'll give you some tips on how to pick your presentation team and how to divvy up roles for each speaker. I'll also cover the absolute biggest mistakes that presentation teams make. Just a hint... The biggest one is putting a qualified SME (subject matter expert) in front of a buying committee without any basic presentation or sales training.

Then, in part two, I give you some tips on how to research the buying committee. Next week, we'll cover how to design a custom presentation based on what the committee wants or needs to hear from you. The better research you do beforehand, the better the committee is going to like what you say and how you present. But you can't wing it. You have to do some research.

In the last part of this episode, we'll show you how.

This is episode seven of our 12-episode series on how to win group sales presentations. Before the Christmas and New Years break, the last couple of sessions were about inserting case studies into your presentation as evidence that your potential clients can get what they want if they do what you want. I introduced a concept that I call an action/benefit statement.

Just as a review, you'd tell a compelling case study. Then, add a call to action at the end. This call-to-action is another one of those breadcrumbs I've talked about in past sessions. You're leading the committee down a path. Finally, you tell the audience how they will benefit if they take this action.

For instance, an action/benefit statement might sound like...

When you hire our team, you’ll have fewer change orders which will lower the overall cost of the project.

Or, by having me as your project manager, you’ll have fewer delays in the project.

Today, I walk you through how to perform well during the Q&A session of the interview. This is the part of the presentation where you can really set yourself apart from the competition in a positive way. The good news is that the backbone of answering a question is to respond with a shortened version of a case study followed by the call to action and benefit that we talked about before the holiday.

This response is very, very easy to master. And when you and your shortlist team use this technique, the committee will see you as a team of experts who really know there stuff.

This is episode six of our 12-episode series on how to win group sales presentations. For the last couple of weeks, we talked about how a case study is a story or example of how you've helped other clients solve similar problems to what this client has. And we showed how these stories help you show your experience to the buying committee throughout your presentation. We also showed how these stories capture attention, make your data memorable, build rapport, build credibility, build more of a team atmosphere, and help your presenting team reduce nervousness.

So, you want to make the case studies the backbone of your shortlist presentation. Today, I show you how to take one of these case studies and show you how to make short persuasive messages out of them. This technique will be important when we get to the question and answer sessions -- by the way, we'll cover that next week.

But this simple addition to the stories allows you to sprinkle calls to action throughout your presentation so that you are throwing breadcrumbs out to the committee. The goal is to get the committee members to follow these persuasive breadcrumbs until they come to the natural conclusion to hire you and your team.