As a sales presentation coach I often hear the following objection from sales professionals “I don’t deliver sales presentations – I just have conversations with my prospects.” But you can deliver a sales presentation within your sales conversation and, as a result, significantly improve your chance to close that sale.

Here are three steps to help you do just that.

First, just as you do for a formal presentation, you should prepare an outline for your sales conversation. What three key persuasive points do you want to cover with the prospect that will put you in a position to close the sale? Then make certain you have evidence to support each of those points. This can include statistics, anecdotes or case studies and quotes from customers or well known business experts.

Next, practice delivering your persuasive points. Just as with a formal presentation, you’ll be astounded at how smooth and comfortable your delivery is if you simply rehearse your conversation points in advance and whenever possible practice delivering your points out loud. This extra effort will significantly improve your delivery as well as give you an opportunity to critique your own answers and how they will sound to the prospect.

Finally, practice responses to anticipated objections. Abraham Lincoln said “when I prepare to meet with a man I spend one third of my time thinking about what I’m going to say and two thirds of my time thinking about what he’s going to say.” If you’ve been selling in a particular industry for any length of time you’ve likely heard most of the objections you ever will. Sales coaching legend Brian Tracy says that each industry will have no more than six objections that sales people will hear over and over again. That being the case, spend some time thinking about what objections you expect you’ll hear and then craft and practice a response for each one.

Earlier in this article I promised three steps, but here’s a bonus step that could make all the difference in you being successful with your next sales opportunity, be sure to plan and practice your closing question so that when the time is right you can smoothly transition right into your close.

If you use the steps above to plan and practice for your next sales opportunity you’ll be able to deliver your sales presentation as well – and the prospect will think it was just a great conversation.