Pitching your product or service to potential clients or investors can be a nerve-wracking experience. There’s a lot riding on a sales presentation, so it’s essential that you design a visually engaging slide deck to accompany your talking points. If you follow these expert tips, you can ensure you deliver an effective presentation. The three major areas of concern for a corporate sales pitch are:
When you have a core message or mission statement for your presentation, stick to it! Don’t add extras. You probably have a lot of background information on your product or service that you’d like to include, but your audience will be more engaged with persuasive facts, examples, and quotes.
1) Title slide with company name and presentation topic
2) Three slides maximum about the problem you’re setting out to solve
3) Slides about how your product or service solves this problem
4) Slide explaining your company and what you do
5) Slide showing how you plan to solve problems
6) Slides with social proof – previous customer logos and testimonials
7) Final slide with call-to-action and your contact information
- One message per slide
By organising your information correctly, using design to support your core message, and making smart design choices, you can put together a winning sales presentation. And if you need more help, you can always call professionals like The Presentation Experts, a London-based presentation design agency. Your next sales pitch doesn’t have to be intimidating, as long as you design a cohesive presentation.
- Organising your information properly
- Supporting your message with design
- Making smart design choices
Organise Your Information Properly
- Less text, more visuals
People are much more likely to remember content with visuals than with text. Visuals grab and hold our attention longer, and we process visuals 600,000 times faster than text. Most conference speakers will tell you – audiences are annoyed by too much text. To build visually engaging presentations, use PowerPoint template platforms.
- One core message
- One core message
If you try to cover more than one major topic in your sales pitch, you’ll lose your audience. Instead, identify your core message and design your presentation to reinforce it. Adding your mission statement at the beginning of your presentation helps your audience understand your goal as well.
- Eliminate extraneous info
- Eliminate extraneous info
When you have a core message or mission statement for your presentation, stick to it! Don’t add extras. You probably have a lot of background information on your product or service that you’d like to include, but your audience will be more engaged with persuasive facts, examples, and quotes.
- Make an outline
Always outline your presentations, no matter if it’s a sales pitch or keynote speech. An outline will keep you organized and help you stay on track when you’re designing your slides later on. For a sales presentation, there are generally seven types of slides you should include:
1) Title slide with company name and presentation topic
2) Three slides maximum about the problem you’re setting out to solve
3) Slides about how your product or service solves this problem
4) Slide explaining your company and what you do
5) Slide showing how you plan to solve problems
6) Slides with social proof – previous customer logos and testimonials
7) Final slide with call-to-action and your contact information
Support Your Message with Design
The design of your corporate sales presentation should work in tandem with your message. All design choices should be geared toward driving home your goal or mission statement.
- Text should reinforce, not repeat
- Text should reinforce, not repeat
If you put text up on a slide, the audience is going to read it – all of it. Only use enough text that your listeners can read in six seconds or less. You should never type out word-for-word what you’re planning to say and put it on a slide. Using software to convert text to speech online can be a great help.
- One message per slide
Just as your presentation shouldn’t tackle more than one main idea, neither should any of your slides. Limit each slide to a single statement with accompanying images or icons which help audiences grasp your meaning.
- Visuals highlight the key message
- Visuals highlight the key message
Avoid bulleted lists in your sales presentation as much as possible. They should only appear about one in every five slides. Instead of lists, rely on visuals. Remember, the audience will process visuals more quickly and will likely become more annoyed if they have long lists of texts to read.
Make Smart Design Choices
Make Smart Design Choices
- Reorient your audience
It’s easy to lose your audience if your corporate presentation is unorganised. Use a table of contents or agenda slide, including the topics you’ll cover. Each time you start a new section of the presentation, show the agenda slide again, highlighting the section your on.
- Be consistent
- Be consistent
Once you’ve chosen your design scheme, stick to it. Repeat the same design elements throughout the presentation to create congruity. If you switch up colours or other features, it will just confuse your audience.
- Variety of page layouts
- Variety of page layouts
Keep your design interesting by incorporating different layouts. As long as you’re incorporating consistent design elements throughout, your varied slide layouts will make your sales pitch look more professional.
- Start with templates
- Start with templates
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the presentation design, you can always start with a template and customise it to your needs. Templates can provide you with a sense of direction as well as inspiration for your own slide deck.
Final Thoughts on Expert Design Tips for Your Next Sales Pitch
Final Thoughts on Expert Design Tips for Your Next Sales Pitch
By organising your information correctly, using design to support your core message, and making smart design choices, you can put together a winning sales presentation. And if you need more help, you can always call professionals like The Presentation Experts, a London-based presentation design agency. Your next sales pitch doesn’t have to be intimidating, as long as you design a cohesive presentation.