Sales Presentations - my recent bad experiences

Have received a few of these recently which it is fair to say - did not go well. I will try and group the major failings to avoid highlighting any individuals but i am always amazed that these errors still occur in 2010.
1. Sales person talking too much. Admittedly i have a short attention span but this is sooooo dull. It is not about showing off how much you know and sticking crowbarred benefits on everything. Its 2 way dialogue, exchanging info etc.
2. No real objective to meeting. equally dull as it just meanders along to no point. Is objective to close deal, get brief, update on new product. One meeting just petered out where we had all just drifted off and were all probably thinking out what we would be having for dinner.
3. Disagreeing with everything the client said. This was a one off and went spectacularly badly. The sales person just disagreed with everything client and consequently i said. Now putting aside the rights and wrongs of points made. When we have been told you are wrong for about the 4th time - your back gets up and you stop listening.
4. Going on too long. I think you should try and get 3 to 4 points across tops and ensure they are understood and then don't overstay your welcome. I think the impact gets lost otherwise.

I need to say at this point that clearly all the meetings i do are snappy, relevant and beautifully delivered......

How to Price OME's Social Media Work?

Recruitment and social media - a thorny subject - occupying a lot of OME time (not all of the team but growing for all of us). Not the place for a debate about whole topic here - let's make following assumptions for this piece

1. social media is very important now - even more so in future

2. most content should come from within an organisation - not be sourced from external supplier

3. it is NOT a short term response fix - its a long/medium term engagemenmt strategy (some exceptions to this rule)



So the OME approach can be roughly described as (not necessarily in right order)

* Agree Objective

* setting programmes up

* beginning to engage

* decide on policy for Big 3 Social Media (FB LI and Twitter)

* identify niche sites/forums/blogs

* agree ownership internally

* agree what is outsourced

* set up measurement metrics/objectives

* execute policy

* Monitor review and enhance



But we struggle to structure our rates for this correctly i think - the amount of work we do does not in any way correlate with fees. So what do we do?

1. Charge a very big day rate or proj mgmt fees? - make hay while the demand is huge

2. Treat as loss leader? Do such a brill job that we will be engaged for ever more

3. Hide fees in inflated media or content costs? Not the OME way but stuff i see in proposals

4. Bespoke every proposal - based on indvidual client profile - size of opportunity etc. Again not really us - as it means you are sizing up client on what they can afford - not what they need although quite a typical market approach i am sure.



I think our approach has drifted towards Option 2 and it makes sense as it does mirror how we have grown our business - show what we can do - then people are happy to pay higher rates due to value received. But it also means we are underselling ourselves and potentially giving away the quality work for not a lot.



So in summary - probably stay largely in Option 2 - but the rates are going up!