Sales vs. product presentations: one size does not fit all

 There was a question posted by Craig Preston (Saratech Inc) on LinkedIn a couple of weeks ago.  He asked, “Why do sales people modify their slide presentation instead of using the one prepared for them?” I think sales people modify the presentations provided by marketing because they are typically product presentations, not sales presentations.  My definition of a product presentation is a presentation that is focused on a product/service; it highlights features and benefits. I believe a sales presentation is different, it goes beyond the product. It focuses on a specific audience and their situation; specifically how the product benefits them or addresses their unique requirements.  Each sales presentation is… Read More

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A presentation is a live event, isn’t it?

I read the phrase “live presentation” on a website the other day. I thought… isn’t a presentation always live? We use the word presentation to mean the live event and the visual supports for that event. This leads us to the phrase “Can you send me your presentation?” Sending someone a set of slides that they can “read” without the presenter’s commentary suggests they are “slideuments” (see sidebar – Slideuments Anonymous). It’s interesting that we don’t use this concept with other live events.Take theatre for example, if someone asked you to send them the play you saw last night, you would think they were out of their mind. Go to SlideShare.net “World’s Best Presentations” contest (http://tinyurl.com/2eglj7c).  There… Read More

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I’ll just throw a few slides together…

We know that “throwing a few slides together” can lead to a less than memorable presentation. Yet people do it. Is it because they don’t understand the impact a presentation can have? Or is because they have only learned to design presentations in the traditional style bulleted slide after bulleted slide after bulleted slide There is a new presenting style that is revolutionizing presentations.  It is more engaging and will have more impact with your audience. Garr Reynolds www.presentationzen.com and Nancy Duarte www.duarte.com are some of the people who are leading this “revolution”. The speed at which you adopt the new style may depend on how important you view presentations. In her book Resonate – Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences; Nancy… Read More

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