Presentations: The marketing factor

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Often the nature of a presentation is to create further revenue for a business, through providing the key components as to why an investment, whether it be shares or a retainer, would be a smart decision for the listeners. So, the above answer is not a good one to have!

There are a few crucial factors to a presentation that are often ignored for the simple reason that it is not seen as a marketing element or activation. This, in my experience, causes the flop that these presentations often lead to.

How does one prevent a presentation or pitch from failing? There are a few simple steps that can help to make your presentation to be a major success.

Simple steps for a successful presentation

The first step you need to take is making sure that when you are presenting a part of the company’s services or products, that you do not sell it in such a way that it negatively affects the other offerings. It sounds simple, but many businesses get white line fever for what they want to drive at present and forget that some of the marketing strategies may affect their current offering. It is often best to involve your marketing partner in this strategy.

Once the bigger picture is in place it is imperative that the right person is chosen to speak. Some people are just born with the gift of the gab and can sell ice to an Eskimo. This person doesn’t always have to be an expert in the field but rather briefed by one. Often it should be someone within the business. It will, however, be important to have the specialists on standby for any questions at a later stage.

Visuals are an essential piece to any presentation and most of these events that I have attended have visuals that look as though they were made by a student in matric that found the effects button on PowerPoint. There are two things to keep in mind with visuals and they are; involve a design team and your marketing partner and keep it short. Although life can become fast-paced, make sure you are tackling the essentials so that the presentation is short and powerful, often the right person presenting will make the time fly by for the listeners.

Often people get lost in too many graphs and will respond better to short bullet points with powerful insights and conclusions.

Presentations are corporate, targeted and affluent brand activations

Businesses need to realise that these presentations are essentially corporate, targeted and affluent brand activations and should prepare their content as such. The old days of long pitches are out the window, it is time to adapt or die, especially when you are in front of an audience with a strong barrier to entry and high disposable income or businesses that want to invest in your company.

Let the WOW factor hit them first, once you have their attention and they are interested, then bring out the nitty-gritty information. This game is about shining and standing out, which means the sales pitch needs to be the primary focus.