Do Your PowerPoint Presentations Cure Insomnia?

You know those situations where all you want to do is; escape!  It could a bad date, a bad party or a bad relationship—or a bad presentation.  We have all been in these situations and we have all given bad presentations; they’re like a comedian dying on stage.  The air becomes heavy with embarrassment, failure and abject boredom.  Let’s examine the ways to avoid creating this experience; ever again! Wake up you audience!

#1—Get Off to a Great Start!

First of all you must know your audience and why they are there.  A  basic  fundamental—right?  Well, based on the experience of having sat through hundreds of presentations; maybe not.  If you understand the motivation of your audience for being there; then you can and should open with what we call; the build.

The Content of Your Build is the Key to a Successful Presentation

Remember this and always keep it at the forefront of your presentation; your audience has a problem and wants to get it fixed.  From here; if you go into your “solution” you are in essence, taking out a gun and putting it in your mouth; because you are already dead.  They want to hear about their problem, their pain and to see if you know anything about it.  You will automatically have their rapt attention; if they hear about their problem and all the issues that come with it.  “Hey—they are actually aware of my pain; and can fix it!”  “I’m going to listen to this!”

Have a meeting of the minds within your company; sales, marketing and engineering or whatever the make- up is.  As a group treat this “build” as a creative exercise and make it impactful and entertaining.

#2—“Once Upon a time…….”

What makes a movie great? If a movie has everything, except a great story; it will be a bad movie.  If you read movie reviews; the most often quoted line is—I didn’t care about the characters; because it was a bad story.  Every product or service has a story.  Start yours as part of your “BUILD” and it will be smooth sailing for the rest of your presentation.

#3—Use Good Story Principles.

Tell your story in order to build suspense—it could have gone either way—we came up with a great idea and executed it; but it almost did not happen……because?  Now we are a market leader.  The great author, Tracy Kidder built up a great franchise; with his, The Soul of….series of non-fiction novels.  Everyone who is in business should read his; The Soul of a New Machine; the story of a mini-computer built by Data General.  Giving your potential customers a look into the inside story; will keep them listening and will sell your fix.

#4—Don’t BLAH, BLAH….About your “SOLUTION!”

This is important—your thing fixes problems that people have; it removes their pain and makes them happy.  If I hear or see—“our solution provides the best suite of blah, blah”…..I will be.... bored again.  This is where you talk about what you do, the problem and how you’re the perfect fix.  You understand my problem and my pain and this is how we fix it.  Fall in love with the fix, not your company’s solution set.  It bores your potential market and customers—do not ever lose sight of that.

#5—Make Your FIX….Easy to Implement!

So you kept my interest and addressed my pain.  So now I am thinking about getting involved with your fix—what’s my risk in moving forward with your fix?  As a company you have to examine how you can move customers into your program—by mitigating risk.         Financially, operationally or whatever—make it easy to get involved with you.  Give them options—the old A, B or would C be better for you, Mr. Jones.

#6—You’re Not the Only One.

Illustrate your fix with a testimonial story of one of your customers—who’s problem was successfully fixed with your deal.  Use the same build principles we talked about earlier—but keep it short and sweet and again; focus on the how the fix did its job.

#7—Ask Again for Their Business

The old adage, always be closing is still a fundamental factor in getting business.  In the modern approach of helping people buy, still requires the talent and ability to ask people for their business.  You want them to resist, it gives you the opportunity to help them work through the things they need to consider,  in order for them to buy your fix.  You answer their questions clearly and firmly; review your options that you presented in #5; and ask them again.

#8—Beware of Making Presentations Without a Sales Process in Mind

Every presentation you make, especially at an event should be done with the idea of generating a sale or beginning a sales process.  Sure, people need information from you but it is very easy to give away information without putting them into play.  If you have them in a face to face situation, they already know something about you; and this is the opportunity to move them toward  your fix.