Should you kiss your PowerPoints goodbye? Might not be a bad idea. 95% or more of the presentations I see actually HURT your chances of success. They're long. They're all about your company, your products and your services. Blah...blah...blah.
And, truth be told, if you were in the prospect's shoes, you'd probably be bored to tears by what you're presenting.
In SNAP Selling, I talk about using the four SNAP Factors as your guiding light in determining what to include and how you present it. Here's an excerpt you might find helpful in preparing for your meetings.
1. Decide on Your Content
To start with, grab their attention by focusing on what’s most important to them: their business issues and concerns, and the value they’ll get from making the change. This will help you decide the "story" you want to tell.
- Aligned: Ensure that all content is ruthlessly relevant to your prospect.
- Priority: Make sure you highlight why it’s important to change now.
- Simple: Eliminate or minimize any complexity, making change easy.
2. Develop the Slides
In the actual presentation, you tell the story and your slides simply support it. As much as possible, find photos and graphics to make your main points. To best imagine what I’m talking about, think of a children’s picture book.
Each slide should be the launching pad for a key point you want to make. The fewer (seven to ten) you have, the better. Use handouts for detailed information. This forces you to prepare a conversation, not read a bunch of PowerPoint items. The results? You connect with your prospects on a whole new level.
3. Build in Engagement
Your content itself is only a small portion of how you’re being evaluated. Your prospects are deciding which company they’d feel best working with in the upcoming months and years.
That’s why it’s imperative to think about the questions you will use to engage your prospects in a discussion. This is also where you personally can demonstrate your expertise, commitment, and caring. In short, it’s how you personally become invaluable during a presentation.
Of course, you don't have to change. You can keep boring your prospects to death with your endless patter about your company and stuff. You just have to hope your competitors are doing the same thing. At least you have a chance to win then.
But, if you make the above changes, you'll stand out from your competitors. You'll be seen as an iNvaluable esource (another SNAP factor). And, you'll get more business. Making that happen takes more work upfront, but the pay-off is huge.
The choice is yours. What will it be?