Well, guess what? The only people who really care that you have a robust deck are your marketing departments. Your customer's can typically care less. Why? Well, they've seen the same slides about a thousand times...from your competitors, from other salespeople promoting other stuff, and even from their own marketing departments. In fact, if you were to survey most of your customers, you would find that they don't want you to:

1. Rely on your slides for data; after all, you should know your stuff

2. Read your slides to them; most customers, if they can make buying decisions, have the ability to read

3. Use the slides as a crutch so that when the customer has a question, the salesperson has to toggle back and forth through the deck to get the answer or show the illustration.  

 

So what's your excuse for depending on your PowerPoints? Start presenting without all of the accessories. Instead of setting up the projection equipment, or hiding behind your laptop, look your customer(s) in the eye and focus on being more persuasive while building the relationship in a meaningful way.

 

No offense to those of you wearing the Marketing hats. In reality, if the slides could secure deals, companies wouldn't need hard working, high paying,  salespeople on commission to close deals! The slides could just be emailed to decision makers, they would be opened up, buyers would be so incredibly impressed, that they would simply call your company and place 1m orders all day long!

 

Since you know this is ridiculous, why carry around so many slides? There are a multitude of ways to present visually from other angles. For example, you could bring in photographs, samples, posters, brochures, walk your customer through a portal or your website, draw  interactively while having a discussion, and lastly, just show your customer a FEW slides.

 

Here are my top 5 tips for creating, using, and maximizing your PowerPoint slides in your sales presentations:

 

1. Keep the number of slides limited to 1 every 5 minutes.  (Only 10 in an hour. Max!)

2. Avoid reading anything off the slide. Use the images as an attention-getting device to discuss what's relevant and interesting to the customer.

 3. Think of your slides as "accessories" to your presentations, as opposed to THE presentation. This way, if your computer isn't working, or something goes wrong, it's not a problem. You arrived prepared.

4. Remember the 4 x 4 rule of creating and using slides. Only have four lines down and no more than four words across on a page. Less is definitely more.

5. Keep the lights in the room ON. You don't need ambiance while you are asking for money! Darkening the room while using slides only makes your customers sleepy. We want them alert so they can buy!

 

Try these tips and you'll find that having more success while presenting is YOURS!

(c)Renee Walkup, All Rights Reserved, www.salespeak.com, 678 587-9911