Strategic Sales Presentations (Jack Malcolm) Book Review

Strategic Sales Presentations takes you inside the mind of an executive and gives you all the tools you need to speak their language and come out with a signed contract.

I evaluate a book based on how many notes I take while I’m reading it.  Based on how my pen was flying when I read this book, I’d have to place Strategic Sales Presentations in my top 5 presentation books. It provides a complete system for planning, building and delivering a successful sales presentation.

First, you need to PLAN your presentation. Malcolm stresses that you win or lose based on what you do BEFORE you enter the room. You need different approaches early versus later in the sales cycle. You need to understand your audience’s current mindset so you know who you need to move, and how. And you need to arm people for the conversation that will happen after you leave the room – where the real “selling” takes place.

Second, you need to CRAFT your presentation. Malcolm draws on rhetoric, persuasion and cognitive science to show you how to develop a convincing sales message and assemble the right business case to move the sales process forward. Malcolm gives you specific phrases you can use to open a presentation and shares what appeals really work with an executive audience.

Finally, you need to DELIVER your presentation. Malcolm provides practical advice for how to manage your nerves, how to sound like an executive and reasons audience interaction will increase your chances of closing the sale.

Malcolm is clearly well-read, drawing on research data and expert advice in fields as diverse as cognitive science, rhetoric, sales, organizational behavior and stand-up presentation skills. And all sharpened against the flint of Malcolm’s own extensive experience in sales. This book is bubbling over with ideas you can use today.

If your paycheck depends on complex B2B sales presentations to executive audiences, Strategic Sales Presentations simply must be on your bookshelf.

About the author: Bruce Gabrielle is author of Speaking PowerPoint: the New Language of Business, showing a 12-step method for creating clearer and more persuasive PowerPoint slides for boardroom presentations. Subscribe to this blog or join my LinkedIn group to get new posts sent to your inbox.