Presenting with Confidence to Customers

Use the ‘matching’ technique to deliver exactly what customers need

What is Matching?

Nothing is better for presenting with confidence than knowing your product or service is perfect for the customer. It creates a solid belief in oneself that can be further enhanced with presentation skills that help you get the message across.

‘Matching’ is an essential activity for customer presentations that focuses on making connections between customer needs and the features of your product or service. This helps you plan and structure a presentation that communicates the match in a clear and compelling way.

Our simple matching process will have you presenting with confidence every time.

Get to Know the Customer

Naturally, the first step is to understand exactly who the customer is and what they need. This requires you to research their business and the sector or industry they operate in. Ideally, schedule a preliminary session so you can hear about the customer’s needs and challenges in their own words.

For the duration of this preliminary session, it can help to put your own products and services out of your mind. Listen to the customer objectively in the context of their business rather than your own. Otherwise, you might miss something, such as a seemingly minor point that you realise could actually be an important factor in their purchasing decision.

Macro and Micro Matching

Once you have completed your customer research, sort it into primary and secondary needs. Then start by matching their primary needs with the key features of your product or service.

Matching at a macro level is a useful starting point as it assesses whether your business is a good fit for the customer overall. This is essential for presenting with confidence, but bear in mind the answer might not always be a clear yes or no.

If you believe there are enough matches, then undertake the same process with the customer’s secondary needs. This is where you really begin to see how much your product or service is right for the customer.

Undertaking this process enables you to create a powerful story about how you intend to deliver the customer’s needs. Learn more about harnessing the power of storytelling for your presentations.

Identify the Added Value

Having examined the customer’s perspective, it’s time to consider your own. Look at the full specification of your product or service, and cross off what is already serving one of the customer’s primary or secondary needs.

Anything left over is the potential added value you bring to the customer. These are features the customer hasn’t specifically referenced, but could be valuable for their business. Having this added value up your sleeve is excellent for presenting with confidence. However, be objective about whether you really believe the customer will find these added-value features useful.

Structure Your Presentation

You now have the information you need to structure a strong customer presentation. The start of your presentation should present the macro view of the customer’s primary needs and challenges, and how your product or service addresses them. If you identified any major added-value features, then this is the time to reveal them.

The rest of your presentation can focus on the micro view of how your product or service addresses the customer’s needs and challenges, plus any other added value you identified.

When presenting, it’s worth asking the customer whether your prioritisation is correct. The process of engaging with you may cause the customer to realise one or two features are more important than they first thought.

To create a great presentation, you can also use our PowerPoint tips.

Can You Tailor?

It’s worth asking whether you can customise your product or solution to the customer’s exact needs and challenges. The more of a perfect fit you can make, the greater the chance of a successful sales presentation.

The ability and willingness to tailor also demonstrates you are happy to go the extra mile to help customers achieve their objectives.

We Have Listened

Matching is essential for presenting with confidence. It shows you listen to your customers and are keen to deliver exactly what they need without wasting their time on irrelevancy.

Customers who sense this tend to be more receptive during sales presentations, which of course goes a long way to boosting your confidence even further.

Don’t forget to spend some time planning for the Q&A as well. Use our simple question-and-answer presentation techniques.