Have you checked your sales team’s PowerPoint lately?

Learn five easy steps to creating a better presentation

Several recent discussions with clients have revealed concerns about the quality and efficacy of their sales presentations. These marketing leaders observed that the positioning, messaging, and imagery in their selling PowerPoint’s were poorly constructed, graphically challenged, and highly inconsistent from salesperson to salesperson.

It’s my observation that most speakers use PowerPoint as a crutch for visual note taking, forgetting that the audience truly is persuaded by the presenter, not the words on the screen. In the interest of reducing audience boredom, the following are five easy tips for creating a more effective selling presentation:

1. Lead with your unique value proposition: At almost every sales presentation I attend, the speaker leads with a series of “who we are, what we do” slides. Boring! Most in the audience already know what you do. In opening your presentation, try these approaches: On your very first slide, explain one or two brief thoughts on why you are different from the competition in ways that add value — and express it in terms of customer benefit. Or, begin your presentation by telling a story that plays into the main points to be made.
2. Create a professional appearance: Does your deck look like the outtakes from your child’s third grade science presentation? The brand impression made by your first few slides will be lasting. Make it a good one. Many in the audience come from major companies and organizations where brand presentation is sacrosanct. They will judge your company accordingly. (Spending a few dollars with a graphic designer can produce dramatic improvements in a presentation’s effectiveness.)
3. Tell your story in images, not just with text: Steve Jobs never used a slide with a bulleted list of text. Instead, he relied on individual graphics or images to tell his story. Using high-impact photography and visuals makes your presentation fun, different — and memorable. It drives the audience’s attention to the most important element in the presentation — you!
4. Summarize your main points at the closing: Your audience will remember only three or four things from your presentation. Make sure these points are recapped at the end of your pitch.
5. Win the audience with speaking skills and personality, not your slides: Spend as much time on practicing your delivery as you do on preparing your slides. The world’s best deck will not make up for a poor presenter. But a great speaker can inspire the audience, even with a lousy set of slides. If the video projector broke, could you still deliver your presentation?

As an added note, Guy Kawasaki, well-known blogger, author, managing director of a venture capital firm and an Apple Fellow, promotes a technique that can help sales people with their presentations, the 10-20-30 Rule:

• No more than 10 slides
• No more than 20 minutes
• No font smaller than 30 points