You never get a second chance to make a first impression!

If you cannot make a connection with your prospective new client within the first 60 seconds then you need to stop reading and quit whatever sales job you are currently wasting your time doing.

This is the easiest part of your routine.  Also one of the most vital.  They really should sort of like you.  It makes it easier.  Unless you're pitching from a position of impending doom or disaster (another post on that later), it would serve you well to have a nice rapport with whomever you're giving a presentation to.  It also aids in building trust.  Trust is a critical element to any sale.  Trust not only can be the lynchpin in getting you the sale, but it usually helps in keeping the sale after the fact, and don't forget return residual business.

I always asked my clients where they grew up.  Not just where they were from, but where they spent their childhood.  This immediately puts their brain working in the middle, and unless they were beaten routinely by their alcoholic parents, brings them to a place of comfortable euphoria.  Get them talking a little bit about this subject and watch the walls come crumbling down.  Ask a married woman about how she and her husband met, even if they hate each other now, and she'll be brought back to a place and time in her life where she was happy.  Happy people buy stuff.  Relating a VERY small tidbit about your life is nice just to establish a connection, but get back out quickly and back onto them.  Try and hold out as long as you can before even beginning to ask the questions relating to the product/service, it never hurts to have them ask you about your product/service before you begin.  But now they're ready.

Now you can start loading your weapon.

Who? What? Why?

We're now going to asked pointed and deliberate questions.  They vary by industry and trade, but it's all the same formula.  We're going to ask people the questions that will tell us what they like, what they don't like, and where in their lives our product can fit them.  Even if they don't want to.

We're going to go through a process of bringing out from them what's important to them (so we can sell that to them), we're going to find out what they dislike (so we can avoid trying to sell that to them), and we're going to bring them to a place in their brain that is comfortable and emotional.  People buy emotionally.  Emotional people buy more than stoic or analytical people.

Spend all the time you want trying to refute that fact.

It is important not to give any information during this step.  No selling while you're discovering.  It's a fatal flaw.  If you're selling you're not listening, you'll have plenty of time 

to sell later during your presentation.  It is essential that you are gathering the information

(ammunition) you will need later to close this deal.  If you ask the appropriate questions that are germane to your product or service, you'll get everything you need to pitch that prospective client hard and strong.  Failing to ask the right questions will just leave you pitching your heart out to someone who is convinced you're just out to sell them something.  Which is very impersonal and nobody wants to be sold anything.

Confirm What You Learn!

The whole point of doing your discovery was so you could gather up ammunition to completely load your weapon, so when it was your turn to talk (sell/present/pitch) you would have all the information you needed to show them what they are about to buy.  How do you know they're going to buy?  it's because they told you what they wanted during your thorough discovery.  They also told you what they didn't want!  So don't sell them that!  They told you what they like, now present your product as a perfect fit for those wants and desires.

By re-confirming the answers they gave you during your discovery you accomplish two goals.  The first is that they see that you listened (most people find that flattering).  The second is you confirm their answers, thus eliminating their ability to change their wants and desires sometime later in your presentation.

Skipping this step is always a major mistake.  By completely confirming what you've learned you've set up complimented the excellent discovery you did, and fortify it's ability to help you get some business.