The two passages where sales presentations are often won or lost: the opening and the close, including objections. Both examples are fully written from the same fictional meeting. The mechanics are real. The structure of the whole presentation is explained in writing a sales presentation.
Example 1: The opening (2 minutes)
Situation: Ledgerly, a provider of automated invoice processing software, presents to Franklin & Sons, a plumbing supplies wholesaler with 140 employees. In the room: the managing director, the head of accounts, and the IT lead. 30-minute slot; the discovery call was two weeks earlier.
Ms Adams, two weeks ago on the phone you gave me a number I have not forgotten: 4,200 incoming invoices a month, and three of your four accounts colleagues retype every single one. You said, “If one person is off sick, the pile is still there on Friday.”
I did the maths on what that means. At an average of four minutes per invoice, that is 280 hours a month, almost two full-time roles doing nothing except moving numbers from a PDF into your ERP. And every tenth invoice comes with an early-payment discount that occasionally expires in that stack. On the call, you carefully called that “friction.”
Today I will show you how Mason Building Supplies, a wholesaler like you with 3,800 invoices a month, removed exactly that stack. Today, 87 percent of their invoices go through without a single manual entry. Accounts checks instead of typing, and the early-payment discounts they kept paid for the software twice in the first year.
You will see three things in the next 15 minutes: how an invoice moves with us from inbox to posting; what implementation means alongside your day-to-day work; and, Mr Bradley, the integration piece, because I brought the interface checklist for your ERP. Then we have 15 minutes for anything you want to challenge. Agreed?
Why this speech works: The first sentence belongs to the customer: their quote, their number from the discovery call. That proves listening before anything is sold. The calculation of 4,200 times four minutes translates the problem into almost two full-time roles, a scale the managing director can judge immediately. The reference is chosen precisely: same sector, similar size, measurable result. And the agenda gives each person in the room a reason to stay with the flow. The IT lead knows his topic is coming and does not need to interrupt the demo with interface questions. “Agreed?” at the end earns a first small yes.
Example 2: The close and objection section
Situation: Same meeting, minute 22. The demo is finished. The head of accounts looks convinced; the managing director moves to price.
Managing director: “What does this cost?”
Salesperson: “890 a month for your volume, plus 3,500 for implementation. Before you judge that, I will put the counter-calculation beside it, using your numbers rather than mine. 280 hours of manual entry a month, and in our experience the software automates 85 percent of that. That is 238 hours. Even at a conservative internal hourly rate, you are looking at more than 8,000 a month against 890. The early-payment discounts come on top; Mason saved 1,100 a month there.”
Managing director: “We tried document management four years ago. It was chaos for six months.”
Salesperson: “I hear that a lot, and it is exactly why I am only proposing a trial today. My suggestion: for four weeks, we take only the invoices from your 20 largest suppliers. That is about half the volume; Ms Adams can check the number now. Your accounts team keeps working in parallel as usual, nothing changes for anyone, and Mr Bradley gives us read access to the ERP. That is all we need. After four weeks, we sit down and count: how many invoices went through, how many interventions were needed, how many hours the team really saved. If the numbers do not hold up to what I have said today, you will not hear from me again.”
Managing director: “And what does the trial cost?”
Salesperson: “Nothing. We carry the work because our close rate after trials like this is over 80 percent. I am happy to take that risk. I suggest I send you the two-page trial agreement tomorrow. Ms Adams names the 20 suppliers by the end of next week, and we start on the first of the month. Does the first work for you?”
Why this speech works: The price question gets an immediate, specific answer, then a counter-calculation using the customer’s own numbers from the opening. The objection about a bad implementation experience is taken seriously and answered with a proposal that removes the customer’s risk: parallel working, half volume, measurable stop criteria. The line about never hearing from the salesperson again makes the promise testable. And the ending replaces “we will follow up” with three dated steps and names: agreement tomorrow, supplier list by next week, start on the first. The closing question asks only for a date, the lowest useful commitment.
What both passages have in common
Opening and close use the same material: the customer’s numbers from the discovery call. The opening turns them into a problem with a price tag; the close turns them into a counter-calculation and a low-risk next step with a date. The demo can shine in the middle. The edges do the selling. When you build your own presentation, write the opening and close first; your product carries the middle. The complete structure is shown in writing a sales presentation.