PowerPoint has become the poster child for bad sales presentations; so, how about some ways that PowerPoint can enhance your next sales presentation? Here are 5 that I use in my sales presentation training seminars.
Make a Joke
Humor can be very effective, but be sure your that you have the right audience when you use it.
How about a slide of the Windows Blue Screen of Death to get them thinking there was a crash. (Would work best with an anti-windows crowd.)
You can also use the onetime 1-second flash of a bullet item to give a funny subliminal message. For example if you really want to get across the point that you are local to the prospect and you have mentioned it once or twice already, you could have a note flash by saying: did I mention that we are local.
Draw Attention to You
PowerPoint often upstages you by drawing the attention of the audience. Why not use this to your advantage. Try creating a slide that prompts the audience to ask you questions of a specific nature.
Put the Elephant in the Room for You
Need to bring up a sensitive topic? Try creating a slide for it that gets the audience thinking about it. For example try a slide like “What our customers say about our prices” that highlights the pluses.
Hide Detail Until you Need It
This is especially good for technical products with lots of detail or for the dreaded Company Overview. Try creating your main topic slides and for each core topic, then create additional slides that flesh out the detail.
To allow quick access, number the detail slides using the format: end slide number + 20+ main topic slide number, that way you can use the select slide number menu in PowerPoint to quickly locate the detailed slides.
Create a Proforma Scenario
Similar to the Elephant in the room, this tip can help you to make standard terms and conditions more acceptable. Using a slide codifies the policy as official and makes the prospect more likely to accept it.
For some great tips on PowerPoint in general you may want to check out check out this Rules of PowerPoint post by Guy Kawasaki.