No doubt you face lots of competition. So how can you stand out from the competition and communicate to your marketplace that you have the “chops” to get past first base – to get the attention of your target market and be viewed as a firm that should be considered seriously? In other words, how can you get past "1st base" when presenting your firm to qualified buyers?

As part of the research I did for my next book, buyers were asked a question about how long a salesperson should take to present information about his company. Below is an excerpt from the survey

This surprises most people but didn’t really surprise me. After many years on the buying side of sales meetings, I got bored quickly listening to salespeople showing me long slide decks and talking incessantly about how great their company was. Buyers want to know about your firm but are far more interested in describing what they want to achieve and discussing how your firm can help do it.

Before we dig into the four main things buyers consider when deciding if a firm qualifies for consideration, remember first that the buyer has to make three buying decisions before you can make a sale; first he has to buy you, next he has to buy your company, and only after making those two buying decisions, he has to buy your products and/or services.

What are the top four things buyers consider when deciding if a firm can be a contender and how you can present them in a sales meeting? A Richmond Times Dispatch article provides more information about how to present your company in a sales meeting.