Powerpoint Design Agency and Presentation Training

Mary Sales

Corporate sales presentations come in many forms, but it’s fair to say that a large proportion of them are uninspiring – if not downright tedious. Powerpoint design is easy thanks to the simple nature of the software, but Powerpoint presentations rarely live up to their potential. Because anyone can use the programme, the job can often be left to someone with the correct technical ability but no real insight into how it should be used. There’s an appreciation for the capabilities of the software (perhaps manifested in flashy effects) but not for the best way to use it to engage and win over your viewers.

If you’ve ever sat through a bad sales presentation you’ll have a fair idea of what to avoid. Repeating the spoken content on the screen (often verbatim) is a classic mistake. Don’t think that this doubles someone’s chances of taking in your message: quite the opposite. Having the material in two different formats distracts your audience from engaging with the one they find best. Just imagine if you were listening to your favourite song but the lyrics were being displayed on a screen in front of you.

What’s harder to know is how to get it right, which is why it’s often a good idea to enlist the help of a professional. This might either be to create a specific presentation, or to deliver some training so that in future you will be able to create effective sales presentations yourself, in-house. Someone who knows what they are doing and who has a good grasp of your product or service will be able to put together a striking presentation. You may not know why it works, but it will. It will probably have a simple, clear narrative, with each point leading smoothly to the next. The slides will be sparse, not overwhelmingly frequent, and each one will add something unique and useful to what you are saying. They will probably make good use of graphics, or key quotes, though words will not be over-used. They will be uncluttered and immediately comprehensible.

The impact on your sales presentations should be immediate. Powerpoint design can be highly effective when done well, to complement rather than duplicate your spoken presentation. Powerpoint presentations should make best use of the medium, displaying on the screen pieces of information that you want to highlight, or perhaps that cannot really be communicated in words. Get it right and your audience will take away your message without any effort on their part: it will just happen. And that translates to more sales. The return-on-investment of a good trainer or Powerpoint expert should speak for itself.

Please visit http://www.eyefulpresentations.co.uk/ for more details.

Sales presentations depend on more than a good idea

David Meetings, Sales

Powerpoint presentations are extremely easy to put together with a minimum of training. That is both their strength and their failing. sales presentations are complex undertakings that need effective communication of your idea. But as well as what you are communicating, you need to look at how it is communicated. Powerpoint design can either strengthen your presentation – adding to its impression and convincing your hearers of your ideas – or it can seriously detract from it. If that’s the case, it may not matter how good your ideas or competitive your package. If you lose your audience with a dull presentation, they’re not going to be interested.

That’s why Powerpoint has to be employed with a pinch of salt. It’s a fantastically useful program and, delivered well, it can add significantly to the effect you are hoping to transmit. However, it has become the expectation that sales presentations must be accompanied by a Powerpoint presentation. That adds a pressure to put something – anything – together, even if it is badly thought through. Needless to say, relying on an amateur slide presentation is a recipe for disaster.

Part of this is unfortunately our culture’s love of multimedia. The more parallel strands of information we can take in, the better. So a talk isn’t complete without visual representations of what you’re saying – pictures and, better still, video clips. The problem arises when these distract from the chief content rather than adding to it. Simplicity is key. But additionally, the presentation needs to contribute something of itself. We’ve all attended lectures where the spoken content is mirrored on the screen – and, quite likely, in a handout too. Thus the message is simply triplicated, and you could equally skim the handout in five minutes than sit through the hour of speech. It’s frustrating and a waste of time – and something to be avoided in your own presentations.

So, Powerpoint presentations must complement, not replicate the content of your sales presentations. Careful Powerpoint design will enable you to communicate more effectively, rather than distracting from your spoken message. This is vital, since the expectation that a talk will be accompanied by overheads can push well-meaning but misguided speakers into hamstringing themselves and losing their audience on what would otherwise have been a fascinating talk. If that costs you a contract, then it’s easy to see that a little training or outsourcing can be an investment that is worth making and can pay for itself over and over.

Please visit http://www.eyefulpresentations.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

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