A sales presentation is not about slides, it's about solving problems

Creating a presentation that sells is no easy task. Often customers make a fatal mistake, which ultimately ruins the whole idea. This is a loss of focus on the main mission of a commercial presentation: to sell an idea, product or service. But with our article you will definitely succeed! We have collected the most powerful tips on how not to lose focus and bring it to your attention with the Olympic torch. finishing slide. By the way, a notepad and pen will come in handy today!

What is a sales presentation

Have a new corporate client caught your eye? Great! While he doesn’t suspect anything, quickly arm yourself and have a good hunt! You need to get the most out of each ammunition. 

But your arsenal, alas, is not so great:

• website;
• telephone conversations;
• and, of course, the presentation is exactly what today is about.

Remember, you simply don’t have a second chance to make a good impression! Accordingly, there is no room for error. But we are only determined to win, aren’t we? Therefore, you are welcome to the headquarters to prepare a combat strategy. Let's start with the basics.

So, a sales presentation is NOT a vinaigrette of pictures and big words about “we, us and only us.” This is a marketing tool that helps to interest the client in the offer, warms your relationship and takes it to a new (partnership!) level.

She should:

1. Sell, and not emerge in memory as a bad dream;
2. Solve the task at hand, and not fly into the trash can as soon as your steps outside the reception door fade away.

For this to be the case, a number of principles should be observed. 

What should a presentation consist of?

Principle number one: all parts of a business presentation should be thought out to the smallest detail:

• title page;

• description of the client's problems;

• offer;

• call to action and contacts.

The content largely depends on the type of presentation. And, by and large, there are only two of them:

1. Presentation for speech. Here you can limit the amount of text in favor of visualization. During the demonstration, you will add words to everything that is needed.

2. Presentation for distribution and printing. Here, on the contrary, the material should contain as detailed comments as possible. This will make it easier for potential clients to understand your idea as they explore on their own. 

Regardless of the type of presentation, it must be performed in a strictly defined order.

Typical presentation structure

We won’t hide it: there has never been a formula for an ideal structure! Each business, depending on its specifics, has its own. But there are still a number of blocks that you cannot do without:

1. Title page (slide) with USP. 

This block is very similar in meaning to the first landing screen. Its task is to firmly hook the audience, to briefly and clearly tell what you offer and what the value of your project is. And also explain why you and not your competitors. 

2. Problems/pains of the target audience.

At first glance, the slide is just like a slide, neither simpler nor more complicated. But you need to work hard on it in order to precisely hit the pain from which your target audience is suffering. And if you have never engaged in such “diagnostics” before, then it is better to have a professional marketer do it. Your own hypothesis alone will not be critically enough.

3. Intensification of the problem.

We carefully, without excessive sadism, press on the audience’s sore spot. It is worth telling what the problem could result in, recalculating the possible scale of the disaster in a relevant, understandable equivalent for the listener (leakage of time, money, clients). To hint at what happens to those who fold their hands and do not fight the “illness.”

Nobody wants to try on the scenario of a bleak future! Sometimes this block serves as a good motivating kick for those who until now pretended that this was not such an ambush.

4. Offer.

Let's give hope! Here you need to show that you are aware of what is happening. It's time to show your cards and demonstrate that very magic pill that is guaranteed to get rid of the disease and give a good chance for recovery and a wonderful future. 

By the way, do you remember what Steve Jobs’ presentations were based on? Exactly, exactly! He was not selling a product, but a dream!

5. Slide introduction.

And now you can tell about yourself, highlighting the main thing. There is no need to post all the events since its founding. It is better to briefly and succinctly tell about your achievements and key employees with regalia. It would be good to use numbers, graphs, facts, certificates, cases and names of the most significant clients.

6. Benefits of cooperation.

Perhaps, until this moment, the listener was going through in his mind who else could get such a pill from. But this slide won't give your competitors a chance! Now you can talk about all your strong points: speed of order fulfillment, comfort of cooperation, reasonable price, bonuses/discounts, special conditions for wholesalers.

7. Call to action.

That's it, the audience is ready to buy, just give them a hint where the cash register is and who is last in line! The main thing here is not to overdo it with CTA (Call-to-Action) options. We choose one thing (order, call, reserve, leave contacts), otherwise the audience will get confused and leave to “think”. Maybe even forever!

Stages of creating a presentation

Are you eager to fight and have more than enough enthusiasm? Take your time - you still need to figure out what steps the process of creating presentations consists of. 

Where to start and where to end?

Don't worry! You don't have to reinvent the wheel. Follow the ready-made plan that professionals use, and you are guaranteed stunning success! 

So, forget about the slides for now and get to the preparatory steps. 

Goals

You need to start by defining your goal. It can be anything:

• introduce the product, information;
• demonstrate achievements, results;
• coordinate the work of employees;
• convince to buy an idea/service/product. 

The format of your presentation depends on your goals:

• booklet (introduces the audience to the product, conveys information about discounts, promotions, new products);

• marketing kit (attracts potential partners and clients, introduces the company and its uniqueness);

• online presentation (helps promote the product among the target audience, sells, coordinates the work of employees).

Are you done with this stage? Take it to the next level. 

Target Audience

Ask yourself the question: “Who is the presentation intended for?” Work on your target audience. “Draw” a portrait of potential clients. Imagine who these people are:

• Men or women;
• What is their age, education, marital status;
• Where do they live (province, metropolis);
• Who do they work for?
• What they are interested in (hobbies, where and how they prefer to relax).

Then we deal with pains and needs. Let's find out what exactly brought them to you. We assure you that the habit of deception is not common to all people. And only then we select methods of “treatment”. 

Do you agree that a doctor doesn’t prescribe medicine without a diagnosis? First he conducts at least a minimal inspection. 
If you treat this part of the work negligently, the whole project will go down the drain! The target audience will continue to suffer from their pain, and you will waste your budget and time.

Text

Start preparing text content with a cool head. You need to restrain yourself, write briefly and to the point. You're not going to repeat the feat of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, are you? 
All text needs to fit into 10-20 slides. Therefore, squeeze out only the cream. Avoid overloading. Follow the principle: one slide - one message.  
Like here.

This is a brain explosion. A couple of these slides and you can call the paramedics!

Structure

Now you can move on to sculpting the backbone of the presentation—the structure. To do this, sketch out a draft with a sequential arrangement of slides. Give each a title and only then start implementing the technical part.

Presentation storyboard

The work is in full swing, and the deadline is ticking! Now you are already on the bridge that connects two shores: script and design. This is the place where ordinary text magically turns into visualization of an idea. We begin to fill the raw structure with image options for each slide.

By the way, the idea of a storyboard was the first to come to the mind of the great Walt Disney. Up to this point, a huge amount of effort and time was spent on the production of cartoons. The animation studio was dealing with orders that were being fulfilled rather slowly. There were piles of drawings everywhere, confusion and chaos: all the time it was necessary to figure out which plot was already ready and which one had yet to be drawn. Something had to be done!

As a result, illustrators began to post sketches on a special board in a pre-approved sequence. This saved the lion's share of time and helped increase the speed of cartoon production.

Design

It's time to render the text. When choosing a picture, rely on the finished text and structure. The design should be captivating and make the audience want to screen every slide! 

Many people make the mistake of thinking that simple visualization (such as a white background and black letters) looks boring and unprofessional. They try to pack the slide with unnecessary details and overload it. In fact, the point of an effective presentation is exactly the opposite! Viewers more easily perceive ideas embodied in simple illustrations and laconic text. 

Keep it simple - people and success will be drawn to you! 

How to strengthen your presentation

We found out what a presentation consists of. We learned how and in what sequence to perform all its stages. Now you can decorate the cake with cherries! 
So, in order for the presentation to get that zest, you need to place accents. Check out an example of how we turned dry, unwieldy data into succinct infographics for “Rosatom»!

Diagrams

If you need to convey the dynamics of any processes or phenomena expressed in numbers, use diagrams and graphs. This will make it easier for your audience to perceive the information. The complexity of analytics has not yet done the honor of a single presentation!  

Compare:

Please note that analyzing the numbers in the slide on the left requires more effort and time. Whereas the information from the right slide is not only easily perceived, but also perfectly remembered. 

By the way, those who like to get creative have a place to roam here! After all, there are many types of diagrams. Shall we figure it out?

Pie chart

Designers call it a “pie”. Indispensable if you need to clearly show the numerical proportion of the constituent parts to a single whole. It looks like a round graph divided into sections.

Histogram

A method for visualizing tabular data in the form of proportional rectangles. A two-dimensional graph whose bars have the same width but different heights. This height determines the dynamics.

Schedule

A graph is an excellent option for demonstrating the change in value in two planes: horizontal and vertical. Simply put, this tool helps to depict the quantitative rate of development of something using curves. For example, the growth or decline of a company's profit during the year.

6 steps for final testing

The text is written, the design is ready and all parts of the presentation are lined up in a disciplined line. What's next? 
Now you need to monitor each slide for errors and compliance with design principles. It would be good to do this yourself first, and then pass it on to your colleagues for checking: a blurry eye often does not see banal “jambs”.
 

For convenience, use these tips:

• A uniform style is maintained (colors, fonts, placement).
• There is enough "air" in each slide.
• Accents are placed in the right places. 
• Spelling and punctuation are okay.
• The slides are arranged in a logical order.
• The information in the presentation is presented simply, without puzzles or riddles.

In the book of American business coach Tony Robbins, who earns a million dollars per speech, there is a phrase: “Many people know what to do, but only a few actually do what they know!” 

Bonus - the secret to successfully solving audience problems

It’s unlikely that we will discover America now, but still: they didn’t agree to watch your presentation in order to learn more about you and your product. Someone else's idea, alas, is of no interest to anyone. But...

Just until it turns out to be a useful tool for solving someone else's problem! A sales presentation must convince the client that your offer will truly make their life easier. 

The key idea of this point: talk more about the client, and not about yourself and your product. Even in those slides where you talk about the company, do it from a position of benefit for the audience. 

 
Let's look at the example of a graphic design studio Veonix:

• We are confident in our professionalism, so we give 100% money back guarantee money, if the quality of the presentation does not suit you, you are protected from the risk of wasting your money.
• We are trusted by the country's top officials, Gazprom, the State Duma and more than 300 other clients - you can definitely rely on us.

The client’s interest should run like a red thread through the entire presentation, flashing in every slide of yours! 

How to attract the client's attention to the slides and convince him that the deal needs to be concluded with your company? Here is a selection of thermonuclear-effective tips. We ourselves followed these principles when we created presentations for Rosatom, Sberbank, Kaspersky Lab and other market “sharks”!

1. Strengthen your arguments

There is a “Homer’s rule” that helps to convince clients more effectively.
Just use selling arguments in a certain order:

1. strong;
2. medium strength;
3. the strongest.

Discard weak arguments - they will not give a cumulative effect, but will only spoil the overall impression!

2. Limit yourself to 1-3 fonts

When there are too many fonts, information is perceived much more difficult.

You need to be especially careful when using serif fonts. They load the slide with additional small details.

At the same time, alternate the size of the inscriptions, headings with text so that the potential client’s eye has something to “catch on to.”

3. Build trust

Think about what numbers and facts favorably characterize your company as a reliable partner you can trust.

These could be:

• duration of presence on the market;

• a short review from a respected person;

• prestigious place in a well-known ranking;

• victories in professional competitions.

This way, a potential client who watches the presentation will immediately understand that he is dealing with professionals. It will be easier for him to trust you.

4. Apply Guy Kawasaki's Rule

Guy Kawasaki is one of Apple's most prominent employees. This man makes millions thanks to the art of effective presentation.
Here is his approach in a few words:

• 10 is the ideal number of slides;
• 20 minutes is the maximum duration of a speech;
• 30-point font is the smallest font that can be used.

Of course, in some cases you can make a couple more slides, but there is no point in overly cumbersome presentations.

We are confident that this article will help you convince clients of the benefits of your company. The main thing is that representatives of 3 professions are involved in creating the presentation - marketers, copywriters and designers. 

And if suddenly you don’t have such a team, contact Veonix. We will create a presentation from scratch or take over the project at any stage. Just leave application.