Most of us have had a chance to make many different presentations in our sales career. We've made business presentations, solution presentations, business relationship presentations and closing presentations. Here's another terrific opportunity to stand up and present: to address an issue or problem with a customer.

We've faced this situation before - a customer calls us and is upset by something that's happened with our product, system or solution. In essence, we're getting "called on the carpet", and the ramifications can range from moderate to severe.

How do we best handle this? We recommend using a presentation following the basic IMPAX flow of: Them; Us; Fit; and Action. We can share what we've learned about the issue, present our perspective, describe our recommended solution and how this helps them address their issue, and present our problem resolution action plan.

Why is this beneficial? Because it puts us in control, keeps us positive and not defensive, and allows us to make recommendations that we think are in everyone's best interests. It also lets us set the tone of the roundtable discussion that follows the presentation. We can set a positive "let's work together to get this taken care of" tone, while acknowledging the issue and our role. Lastly, it helps reiterate the value in our relationship that got them to want to work with us in the first place. With that as a backdrop, we're in the best possible position to resolve the issue, and perhaps even strengthen our position!