In the Salesforce report State of Sales we read a number of findings that keep today's salespeople and sales managers awake at night. We are glad to highlight a few striking findings and immediately offer a fitting solution.

1. 69% of the salespeople surveyed indicate that selling has become harder. Due to a changing economic climate, adjusted targets, the shift to hybrid and virtual selling, ... the salesperson feels greater pressure on his/her performance.
2. The salesperson uses many different channels to reach the potential client and consult with them. In the post-corona era, various channels are used to reach the potential client but also to engage in conversation with them. The shift from purely physical meetings to virtual meetings and digital contacts has definitively been made.
3. The average salesperson spends only 28% of his/her time selling. The other 72% is spent on other tasks.

Interactive PowerPoint presentations for more efficiency

An interactive PowerPoint presentation is a presentation in which the user can navigate and can tailor the content of the presentation to the needs of the conversation partner. Navigating through the presentation happens by means of interactive buttons on the slides and a menu structure in the presentation. Its operation can be compared to that of a website.

The content of the presentation should be as complete as possible and the structure such that you can easily make choices. In this way, during the sales conversation, the needs and questions of the potential client are responded to directly.

Because the presentation is all-encompassing, a new presentation does not have to be made for every meeting. 'One size fits all" you could say, and with a good interactive PowerPoint presentation from Smartpresentations that really is the case.

Tailored presentations for online meetings

Since corona, many sales conversations and first introductions are done online via, among others, Teams and Zoom. Presenting via a camera is different from a physical meeting. Attention weakens more quickly, there are fewer interaction possibilities, ...etc. The PowerPoint presentation you use must be adapted to this.

Retaining the attention of the conversation partner is the most important challenge in an online presentation. The slides in the presentation must be graphic and varied, so that clear changes happen regularly on the screen. After all, the presentation takes up the largest part of the screen during the presentation. The speaker disappears small into a corner.

The longer slides stay on the screen, the less direct the contact will be. The more un-engaging slides you show, (in content and form) the faster attention will disappear.

On the other hand, in the presentation you must be able to respond as directly as possible to what your potential client wishes to hear more about. For this we make a tailored, shortened version of the company and sales presentation. But with an interactive presentation too, potential clients' questions can be responded to directly.

Outsourcing the design of a PowerPoint presentation

Many salespeople lose a great deal of time preparing and designing the sales presentation. In this way, many and different variants of the sales presentation often circulate in the company. Often at the expense of its professionalism.

By outsourcing the design of the presentation, the content is looked at with a fresh eye. Both the build-up of the story and the structure of the presentation. The PowerPoint presentation is delivered fully built and filled in. And with an interactive PowerPoint presentation, salespeople themselves no longer have to waste time making their own presentation, whether or not specifically for one client. More time to sell, then! A few more reasons to outsource the design of a presentation.

From Smartpresentations we help many companies to have their salespeople generate new business in an efficient way. To give them a sales tool that is effective in a sales conversation, quick to deploy in the organisation and easy to keep up-to-date.