Frederick took his time with the presentation and he was sure the group was impressed. His brief? Sell bundled engineering services to a health care facility. Frederick had taken the CEO, CFO and COO of the facility through a 50 slide, fact packed presentation. Leaving nothing out, Frederick had provided extensive details of the integrated mechanical, electrical and plumbing designs for the proposed facility. Hours later, Frederick’s phone buzzed. It was Paul, his Sales Director. “What went wrong, Frederick?” queried Paul, anxiously “They are not impressed”. “Why not, Paul?” asked an intrigued Frederick “I gave them all the information they needed and even more”. “That Frederick, seems to be the problem” said Paul. What did he mean?
A wealth of information and a poverty of attention. That describes today’s workplace. Time starved executive teams, making complex purchase decisions with collosal budgets look for crisp, sharp and relevant sales presentations.
And here are 3 reasons why concise, clutter breaking, decision-focused presentations can prove winners:
- Conserve Decision Maker’s time – A good presentation made from carefully assembled facts and information, sifted for relevance and stack ranked by priority creates quick impact. It stands out as it demonstrates agility and clarityof thought along with respect for executive time. These are first impressions of lasting value.
- Are audience centric and take care of stakeholder concerns – Presentations that win deals are not only concise and targeted, their structure is defined by the objective and audience profile. This ensures that key concerns of all important stakeholders are anticipated and addressed in a group decision.
- Address the ‘why’ frame of audience – Winning presentations are memorable as they address the ‘why frame’ of the audience first. Why we need to do what we need to do and how is described upfront. Effective sales presenters share no more than 3-5 arguments that support their personal story and key messages.
Those are 3 reasons why less is clearly more in sales presentations. Can you now come up with why & how Frederick should rework his presentation?
To learn in greater detail about impactful presentations, access Mercuri Insight on What does it take to deliver high impact presentations?
Minsights – 3 Reasons Why Less Is More In Sales Presentations
