Ten Points to help in Selling with Powerpoint June 15, 2008
I’ve talked about PowerPoint before. I don’t like it so much, but many companies insist on using it for everything.
One such company I was recently working with used it for all sales presentations. That’s right; a ‘Death by PowerPoint Sales Pitch’.
I watched one of the presentations, and the sales guy came a distant second to the slides. This destroyed his sales abilities. He was a good salesman when able to interact directly with his clients, but stuck behind PowerPoint, he really struggled. Is it any wonder the companies sales were low?
In an ideal world, we wouldn’t be forced to use PowerPoint in our sales presentations. If we are, there are things we can do to improve the results we get.
So we sat down and devised a new set. This set used his sales skills directly in the presentation, with the slides to back him up. This slide set also used little known persuasion techniques from a variety of sources to improve his sales results.
So what did we do? Here is a list of what and why…
1. Each slide is given a unique headline that describes a benefit to the client in one single sentence. This benefit is then expanded within the slide itself. The only time you’d mention a feature is if in direct reference to the benefit the client gets. Some example titles might be:
- Increase your customer satisfaction by 32%
- How XYZ can increase your IT hardware ROI
- Decrease downtime by at least 22%
2. These headlines are written in an active voice. Drop the cold wet fish of business language and use active, first person language. Doing this actively involves the readers brain, and keeps their attention longer.
3. Make the slides about the client, not about you or your company. How can your product and service help the client directly? They don’t care about you or your product and service. They only care about how you can help them.
4. Each slide is to have no more than 5 bullet points (Each point written in active, first person language). The reason for 5 points only, is because there are volumes of research on how the human mind can only deal with 7 +/- 2 chunks of information. Some people in the room might be able to deal with 9, but the actual decision maker might only be able to deal with 5. Why risk it?
5. Each and every slide and each and every point of every slide must defer to the sales person to explain and expand on. If the points are well written, everyone in the room with is waiting with anticipation for the sales person to discuss it.
6. If you must read the slides out loud, then use a laser pointer so people can follow along. Otherwise they’ll be reading at different speeds, and starting to get annoyed as you fight directly with their own reading style.
7. This goes for every sales situation, but get excited! Your excitement in the slides will be directly transferred to your listeners. If you are sitting at a desk, watching your laptop, it’s hard to get excited. You might have to stand up and move around.
8. Make sure your regular set of objections are covered somewhere in the slides! The more regular, the sooner you cover it.
9. Have different endings to your presentation. There is a well known adage in sales; “When the customer is sold, stop selling”. It’s difficult to do this with another 15 PowerPoint slides remaining. Within PowerPoint you can create a web site like structure, so instead of going from one slide to the next, you can jump around. Giving more details on a direct benefit the client is interested in, and skipping the ones they’re not.
10. On each slide as the last point, ask a question that is answered by ‘yes’. This can help test for closing and uncover objections on each slide.
Bonus Extra
11. Use pictures. If you can’t find a good picture that describes what you want, then use a picture of a face. Humans are hard wired to recognize and respond to faces. Doing so will keep attention focused and make the slides more memorable.
There are a few more subtle methods we used that were directly related to his client’s problems, but these should get you started on redesign.
Any other ideas or pointers you have used to get good results?
Comments»
The only text on my PowerPoint presentations is the title (so folks can follow the subject transitions more easily.)
I find a picture that illustrates my point, or has a humorous connection to what I’m talking about. People remember a humorous picture. They have a harder time remembering five bullet points.
Although brevity is excellent, there’s lots of information discounting the application of George Miller’s 7 +/-2 research findings to *concepts* (including some from Miller himself; see this page by the amazing Edward Tufte: http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0000U6&topic_id=1)
Joel,
Yup. Depending on style just images, linked with the ideas you’re speaking on goes a long way. Some companies (as in this case) demand their sales people give facts and figures. I’m just trying make them a little more effective.
Yes, Tufte is the fellow to discuss information design with. In this case we were after the sale, not so much the information transfer.