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Match Made: Romancing the Audience for a Better Sales Pitch

Posted on by Rick E

Business pitch decks aren’t confined to stiff and stuffy deliveries. You can find inspiration outside the boardroom, especially if you’re up for a sales pitch.

To outdo the competition and close your sales, you need to be creative enough when selling your product. One way to do this is to call up your inner Cupid to establish personal engagement that results in investment and loyalty.

Just like a great romance, your relationship with the customer should be a lasting passion. Don’t settle for shallow enthusiasm. Get your audience to love you.

Courtship

All romances and sales pitches start with the courtship stage.

Look up your prospects and align your marketing strategy to your client’s wants and needs. Your competition could be bigger, more experienced, and more influential. In this case, don’t try to beat them at their own game.

Try to create your own playing field.

In the book Brand Romance, brand experts Yasushi Kusume and Neil Gridley discuss high design principles that ensure customer loyalty. According to these principles, a recognizable brand identity is one way to effectively bring your product to the audience.

Introduce yourself during your pitch and build a narrative around your journey. After that, you can present a value proposition to show solutions unique to your services.

Have your visuals reflect your brand’s distinct character, whether by incorporating your logo or by using your company colors into the deck.

Passion

Think of your pitch as a first date with the audience. Sometimes, their attentiveness dies halfway through your speech because your offer might not be too impressive. People have a limited attention span, so make the most out of your pitch.

A bit of humor lightens the mood and disperses any lingering tension. However, make sure that all these seemingly unrelated points still lead back to you.

You can only entertain your listeners with interesting anecdotes for so long.

Delivering a dragging and winding speech not only distracts prospects from your major ideas but also dampens their interest.

Commitment

Don’t let the connection with your listeners go cold. Letting them walk away without convincing them of your importance will ruin your chances at making a sale.

Cover as many blind spots as you can, and avoid making common pitch deck mistakes that alienate the audience. Do away with fillers, but don’t force yourself to be perfect either. Act natural and be confident.

People feel more at ease with someone who uses the conversational tone while establishing their authority on stage. Take notes from your previous sales pitches to see which tactics worked to attract people and which ones failed.

Keep the Flame Alive

Be intimate with the audience, and court their interests by building upon your identity. Having a distinguishable personality sets you apart from the competition. Keep their attention by delivering engaging stories that eventually point back to your main pitch.

Finally, commit to maintaining their interest by constantly improving your public speaking skills. As in any relationship, the connection you make during your sales pitch should ideally lead to a long-term commitment for your business.

Need help with your pitch deck? Consult with our pitchdeck.com experts today for a free quote!

Featured Image: “A Taste of Romance.” by Esther Spektor on flickr.com

Nightmare Fuel: How to Save Sales Pitch Decks Gone Bad

Posted on by Rick E

Sometimes you lose prospective clients due to clunky sales pitch decks. You may have exerted all your effort on calling them and following up, but you may have already committed mistakes that cost you their trust. Don’t worry.

Once identified, it’ll be easy to wake up from these pitch deck nightmares:

Avoid the Information Quicksand

nightmare-fuel-sales-presentation-01

Rapid technological advancement and increased connectivity leads us to believe that oversharing is a good thing. In sales, it’s an entirely different story. While working with a narrative builds rapport and puts the audience at ease, overdoing it could trap you in a chatty, irrelevant loop that diverts your flow.

Stop boring your audience to death. List down at least three value propositions that are relevant to you and your target market. Make sure your visuals are simple and understandable, enough for anyone to immediately get your main message.

Find Your Core Identity

nightmare-fuel-sales-presentation-02

There’s plenty of competition out there. If you can’t make an impact on your leads, you’ll end up losing them. To avoid getting sucked into anonymity, highlight your brand’s best features and show how they’re unique from other offers. Supplement these with an engaging pitch deck that both catches the eye and shows off your content.

You can add testimonials from past trusted customers who give positive feedback on your services. These will help draw your listeners’ attention to the benefits of investing in you.

Vanquish the Personal Bias Phantom

nightmare-fuel-sales-presentation-03

Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that your audience’s perspective automatically aligns with yours. Remember that these are people you have yet to win over. Since they aren’t invested yet in your services, they won’t appreciate a lengthy discussion of your history or anything that moves away from finding out your relevance to them.

Assume that you’re starting with a blank slate and you have to explain some things that would otherwise seem clear to you because of your knowledge of the company. Put yourself in your prospects’ shoes. Do thorough research on their background, needs, and interests as early as your planning stage.

Let them know that you understand where they’re coming from, and that that’s where you’re headed, too.

Turn on the Night Light

nightmare-fuel-sales-presentation-04

Making a sales pitch can be very challenging. Plenty of presenters end up digging their own graves. But with enough practice and awareness, you’ll be able to map out feasible solutions. Stave off the nightmares with just a glimmer of light. Reel in prospects with the right amount of information that can showcase the best parts of your offer.

Don’t offend them by injecting too many personal assumptions in your pitch. Instead, convince people that you’re better than the rest. Make your brand look like the best option, and be the best option available.

References

“Conducting Market Research.” Entrepreneur. September 30, 2010. Accessed October 23, 2015. www.entrepreneur.com/article/217388

3 Ways Altruism Impacts Your Sales Pitch Skills

Posted on by Rick E

Chances are, you’ve been brought up to value altruistic behavior. This might have even turned you into the successful person you are now (or hopefully, will become). It may also have highly positive ramifications for your sales pitch skills.

First, let’s define our word of the day.

Altruism is a desire to help other people. Characterized by a lack of selfishness, anthropologists claim that civilized societies came about because altruism incentivizes cooperation. It is unfortunately not a universal trait, with several difficulties preventing people from practicing self-sacrifice for the greater good. The frequent barriers to showing selflessness include laziness, compounded by a feeling that the benefits are minimal.

Showing concern for others inspires other people to care for your welfare in kind. Here are specific ways that altruism can improve your speaking skills for your next sales pitch:

Altruism Makes You Relatable

Audiences are more likely to listen to speakers they relate with. Showing them that you care for their well-being promotes social connection. According to psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky, this “fosters a heightened sense of interdependence and cooperation in your social community.”

You can increase their involvement by using words that convey a collaborative theme in your pitch. You want to say sentences such as: “We want to start a partnership where we both profit greatly through cooperation.” or “This proposal hopes to begin a mutually beneficial partnership that yields income for all parties.”

Tell your audience that what benefits you, which, in turn, benefits everyone.

Altruism Makes You Happier

Neuroscientist Emiliana Simon-Thomas cites a report that shows how altruism has positive effects on an individual’s health and happiness. This doesn’t mean that people only feel good because they think they’re supposed to. In fact, the effects of unselfish acts are reflected in neural studies on the brain.

These studies have also shown that charitable actions activate the same areas of the brain that are related to receiving gifts. It’s clear that doing good does good for you, too.

As opposed to egoists, who think more selfishly, altruists put the wellbeing of others before their own. Projecting this positive aura has the added benefit of putting people in a good mood. Related to our earlier point, this also makes it more likely for them to pay attention.

Altruism is Contagious

In addition to how selflessness can make you happier, it also triggers an area of your brain linked with the processing of moral behavior. This rewards your brain, making it more likely that practicing altruism will feel good in the future.

This creates a positive feedback loop (or as Sonja Lyubomirsky puts it, “a cascade of positive social consequences”) which hopefully leaves an impression on your listeners to inspire them as speakers. Being good to others makes them try to be better towards everyone else.

Conclusion

Altruism is a key trait that has helped our ancestors survive the harshest conditions – enduring the hardest challenges through greater cooperation. It takes a little step to show the smallest amount of care for the welfare of others. The benefits could snowball into something greater – to the benefit of you and your pitch.

Unsurprisingly, being kind to your fellow human beings is unambiguously good for humanity. Being kind to others makes you appear more relatable, which makes your audience reach out to you more. Doing good deeds doesn’t only make other people happier – it also makes you, yourself, feel better.

Even better, doing good for one person will cause a chain reaction, wherein people will pass the good deed on to other people. This is especially advantageous for you if you started it, as people will be able to trace the initial seed of goodwill back to you.

What’s good for humanity is also good for your sales pitch skills.

References

Lyubomirsky, Sonja. “Happiness for a Lifetime.” Greater Good. July 15, 2010. Accessed August 20, 2015.
Simon-Thomson, Emiliana R. “Is Kindness Really Its Own Reward?” Greater Good. June 1, 2008. Accessed August 20, 2015.

Pitching Skills We Can Learn from Gymnastics

Posted on by Rick E

Gymnastics is not solely about learning split leaps, jumps, and handstands. It’s about harnessing an individual’s physical strength, agility, and determination to execute astounding physical feats. In an article on FloGymnastics, Keri Monstrola shows us that the sport transcends its craft and manages to relate itself to other parts of our life as well.

The skills gymnasts learn in training are perfect building blocks for presentations. Here are some more gymnastics skills you need to learn to become a well-rounded speaker:

Overcoming Fear

Gymnasts work through their fears to undertake difficult routines on uneven bars, springboards, and balance beams. It’s impossible for them to pull off perfect tens on each activity without mastering the first step: overcoming fear. Likewise, presenters must set aside and face their personal public speaking fears.

If you’re afraid of being the center of attention, making mistakes, or feeling dissatisfied with your presentation skills, consider the hardships of gymnasts. The tumbling passes at different heights are more terrifying – and have greater physical consequences – than speaking in front of a crowd.

Your life isn’t put at risk, but your business reputation or sales deals are.

Social Interaction

All professionals pass through the beginning stages. Aspiring gymnasts are also given the chance to develop their social skills like listening, taking turns, and following directions. In turn, the senior students learn to become role models to foster a good learning environment for the newbies.

The same goes for keynotes or pitch decks. Your discussion is a two-way street, breaking the wall between you and your audience. Establish a successful and productive dialogue by asking questions, responding to feedback, and allowing participants to speak up to develop an engaging, audience-centered discussion.

Balance and Control

Balance and control are two of the most important skills to succeed in the sport of gymnastics. The perfect combination and understanding of the two must be incorporated for a seamless execution of every routine.

In public speaking, a harmonious combination of verbal and non-verbal cues demonstrates an interactive speech delivery. Your emotion is what connects you to your audience. Keep them under control so that you appear genuine, but not threatening or insincere.

Conclusion

Gymnastics doesn’t only teach sports enthusiasts positive lessons learned through daily training, but it can also inspire people who make presentations for a living.

Before you can start presenting, you have to overcome your fears to begin your public speaking journey. Presenting isn’t a solo effort. After all, you’re presenting to an audience, so you must make it a conversation by involving the crowd.

Lastly, master a balance of verbal and non-verbal cues to engage different types of audiences in the ways they best learn.

Looking for high-quality pitch decks for your business? Give us a call at 1-858-217-5144 or request for a free quote from pitchdeck.com today.

Reference

Monstrola, Keri. “10 Life Skills Learned From Gymnastics.” FloGymnastics. November 2, 2014. Accessed August 19, 2015.

Featured Image: “TWU Gymnastics [Floor] Mollie & Amy” by Erin Costa on flickr.com

5 Pitch Speaking Tips from Winston Churchill

Posted on by Rick E

One of the most effective speakers we can learn from is Winston Churchill. In fact, both advertising agency gurus and pitch experts have cited his skills, be it crafting and rehearsing a presentation speech, as brand communications expert, Carmine Gallo lauded, or for writing persuasive advertising copy, according to creativity mentor, Luke Sullivan.

Churchill’s speeches have always been powerful and persuasive. These can be used as inspiration for more convincing business or sales pitches, especially if you’re selling something. Use these five pitch speaking tips to get the most out of your pitch:

1. Begin Strongly

Start with a question, cite a relevant quotation or challenge your audience. Whichever way you pick, be sure to give your audience a strong and credible impression. You also need to empathize and show that you’re willing to help solve their problems.

Remember that you need clients or partners to invest in you. Giving a confident impression and backing it up with an effective pitch make for a strong introduction.

2. Have One Theme

A compelling idea is the cornerstone of an effective business pitch. Being able to centralize your speech around one idea describes and clarifies what you want to say. Sullivan suggests that in order to find that one idea, look at your product and find the best way you can describe it.

If you can summarize that within one description, putting in the supporting points to back up your claims will be easier to make. Your audience will also have an easier time following your pitch too.

3. Use Simple language

Using a conversational tone, together with simple and easy-to-understand language gives potential partners an easier time following your pitch. This saves you time in reiterating your key points and explaining them to the audience.

Rather than giving a technical explanation, stick to highlighting what your product or service can offer your clients. Gallo suggests you let them know what they get out of it and why they should care about your pitch.

4. Leave a Picture in the Audiences’ Minds

Words are more than just a means to convince your clients. They can also be used to paint pictures in the audience’s minds. This is important because people buy what they can see, more than hearing the description, more than reading about it, clients and prospects need to visualize the product and the situations where it can help them.

To help you get the most out of this, try to find out what a professional pitch deck design specialist can do to enhance your pitch deck.

5. End Dramatically

As with your beginning, you need to make a dramatic ending. It can be a call to action, a challenge for your clients to invest in your proposal, or an important fact they can associate with your brand.

When you make your conclusion, always refer to your main idea and how it is organized. If your pitch is structured with the strategy of highlighting your best selling point, you already have an edge against the competition.

One Last Thing

Leaving a lasting impression can potentially be as powerful as an initial impression. Learning to apply these tips will give you the same edge that Winston Churchill enjoyed.

To help you make your speech work with a matching pitch deck, take a few minutes to get in touch with us, all for free!

References

“Audio Archive.” Winston Churchill. Accessed August 18, 2015.
Gallo, Carmine. The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010.
Sullivan, Luke. Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: A Guide to Creating Great Ads. 3rd ed. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2008.

Featured Image: “NY – Hyde Park: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library – Winston Churchill Portrait” by Wally Gobetz on flickr.com

3 Reasons Not to Settle for Just Any Pitch Deck

Posted on by Rick E

If you’re looking for the best results, then make sure to bring your best efforts to the fore. You may be making a pitch with an amazing product or solution, but that doesn’t mean you can slack off. You should never come into a conference room with a subpar slide deck.

Curiously, PowerPoint gets a bad reputation for making presentations more boring than they usually are, causing presenters to dismiss its importance. People often mistake it for a dull collection of words that mirror what the speaker’s saying– or worse, that it’s just a giant set of speech notes. This is a huge mistake that could have negative drawbacks for you and your company. You should value good design and planning for your pitch deck.

1. Half-Baked Won’t Make It

“Just give me any presentation. It doesn’t matter.”

This is still a common way of thinking, no matter how big your company already is. Sometimes, someone may even request for a presentation with the bare minimum requirements and be happy with it.

After all, it’s a salesman’s job to sell, and the deck is just there for support, right?

Wrong.

Even an amazing presenter can benefit greatly from a professionally designed set of slides. With a visually appealing deck, you can show clients that you care about your credibility enough to invest in resources to be at your best. In addition to showing that you‘re serious about your business, this complements your core message and give you more convincing power.

2. A Higher Standard Nets Better Results

Why wouldn’t you want a pitch deck that best represents your brand? Usually, the answer we hear is that there’s not enough time, money, or people to do it for you. You can only go so far by settling for what you think you can afford.

Even the tiniest amount of extra effort will have wide-ranging positive consequences. This applies to something as simple as checking for spelling and grammar errors, to something more complicated like providing your deck with a unified and streamlined design.

3. What We Can Do

As professionals, we know the importance of having a strong core message supported by the clear and concise presentation of data. All our work is executed with the client’s needs, values, and brand story in mind.

Our company can condense your slides to refine and communicate your message. We can structure your deck to best communicate your purpose and your story. We can even design each slide to ensure your audience won’t feel a wink of boredom.

Conclusion

People are inclined to judge and scrutinize others based on their first impressions. When you have an important opportunity that can change the direction of your career or the fortunes of your company, meet the opportunity with only your finest.

Do you think your business deserves the best? Don’t take anything for granted: hire an expert pitch deck design company now.

References

Evele, Nathalie. “Is It Human Nature to Judge?” Centre for Journalism. Accessed August 18, 2015.

4 Tips on Speaking like a Professional Pitch Deck Presenter

Posted on by Rick E

A well-crafted and rehearsed speech is crucial for an effective professional pitch deck presenter. Once you’ve made your deck, sync up your words with your slides.

Use these four tips to get effective presentation ideas for your speech:

1. Begin with Your Basic Argument

Start with your idea, then build it up. One effective way to give a sales or business presentation is to craft it into a story. From introducing new product clients to reporting your company’s latest market shares to your superiors, narratives are a great way to close a sale or get your recommendations approved.

Once you’ve achieved this, add supporting points to solidify your argument. According to creativity mentor, Luke Sullivan, it’s more effective to put it in a sequence from your first to last points. This will make your pitch easier to follow.

2. Get to the Point

The first three minutes of your presentation are often the most crucial. It may depend on the crowd you’re facing, but for business presentations, once you start talking, get your introductions over and done with, and start your pitch. As speech coach Joey Asher suggests, today’s busy work schedules pull people’s attentions away from your pitch and back towards their own lives and work desks.

Throw in your main point and the reasons why your clients should be invested. If you can be interesting or persuasive from your first lines, do so. Even with ten to fifteen minutes at your disposal, you need to get your audiences hooked from the start. It saves time if a host or emcee will do the introductions for you.

3. Write the Way You Talk

If a conversational tone works best for presentations, then writing the way you talk gives you a more persuasive speech. A smooth and easy rhythm makes you sound more natural and easier to understand.

Stick with the rules of grammar to sound professional and use your adjectives wisely. Be clear about the features and points you’ll be talking about. Remember: you’re selling something.

4. Add Your Brand’s Personality

As a presenter, you are the representative of your company and your brand. One trick to bring in your brand’s voice is to find out its own distinct personality. Try to describe it in one adjective or in one word if you can.

This allows you to put your proposal on a different level away from the competition, making it stick long enough in your client’s minds for a possible second look. If you want people to invest in you, give off a presentable image and follow through with convincing reasons. The first step is to make your sales presentation different and effective.

To get your presentation speech and presentation to the level of the pros, take a few minutes to get in touch with us for free!

References

Asher, Joey. “For Presentations, Half As Long Is Twice As Good.” Fast Company. December 20, 2012. Accessed August 17, 2015.
“Craft Your Corporate Presentations into a Great Story.” pitchdeck.com, May 15, 2015. Accessed August 17, 2015.
Sullivan, Luke. Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: A Guide to Creating Great Ads. 3rd ed. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2008.

3 Ad Agency Tips for Better Pitch Deck Visual Designs

Posted on by Rick E

There are three elements to consider in pitch deck visual designs: a slide title, an image, and a caption (or body text). Using any of the elements is the key to making an effective sales pitch. To make a proper combination of these, here are three tips to follow:

1. Something Needs to Be the Star

Effective pitch deck slides, like print ads, use what creativity mentor Luke Sullivan calls one dominant element. It can be a large piece of text, a big visual, or even white space. Regardless of the combination you choose, make one of these the first thing that your audiences see once the slide comes up on screen. Will your slide need a dominant picture? Will you highlight one big word?

Pick one tactic, and make the rest of the elements work in tandem with it to get your point across faster to your audience.

2. Establish Your Own Look

Sullivan suggests that every brand has its own look, a distinct personality. Macs are simplistic. BMW’s are cool. Nike products are sporty, and Volkswagens are practical. To establish your own image, look to your own company’s brand.

Can you tag an encompassing description for it? How would you like your clients and customers to see it?

Being different in terms of pitch deck design means making a unique slide and presentation style. This makes your pitch more memorable, letting clients associate your product with your own company. Once this happens, your competitors will have a hard time trying to outsell you without looking like you.

3. Try to Be Cute or Funny (Only If the Idea Calls for It)

There are times when your pitch idea gives you room to be adorable (if you’re pitching for pet or baby products, for example). This was an approach used by the print ads of Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and Hansaplast Anti-Sweat Foot Spray.

Always try to take a backward spin on such opportunities. This makes your proposed product more noticeable and, possibly, more appealing to clients. As a word of caution, doing this relies on very specific “ifs”:

If your pitch idea calls for it, as with the case of the SPCA and Hansaplast foot spray ads, or if you have time for it, similar to how Steve Jobs showed a gag iPhone image before showing the actual iPhone in 2007.

Summing It Up

Mastering all three tips is something that happens over the course of several pitches. Emphasize one thing in your slide so that your audience has something to focus on. Create a unique look for your brand so that you won’t be mistaken for anybody else.

Lastly, you can try to add a humorous or cute spin, but only if you can justify this tactic. Once you’ve gotten the hang of these, people will start remembering your pitch, enough for you to start seeing an increase in sales.

To help you get a grasp of them faster, get in touch with a pitch deck design specialist for free!

References

Coloribus.com. Accessed August 14, 2015.
Sullivan, Luke. Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: A Guide to Creating Great Ads. 3rd ed. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2008.

3 Title Slide Tips for Great Pitch Decks

Posted on by Rick E

Though we’re told not to, our basic instinct is still to judge a book by its cover. First impressions last, and bad ones are harder to shake off. Even if you want to assume the best in your audience, it pays to make your slides leave lasting impact from the get-go.

Here are three ways to spice up your introductory slides:

1. Come Up With a Memorable Title

Like with books and movies, your success rests heavily on your deck’s title. A good title is short but memorable, while embodying your pitch deck’s main theme and core message.

Creative use of analogy or metaphor can further complement your message. It’s also important to have a variety of choices. Instead of tinkering with one title and changing the words around, write down many different ideas to give yourself more to choose from. Your title tells your audience what your pitch deck is about, allowing them to better prepare themselves to receive your message, and to respond well to your pitch.

2. Use a Visually Arresting Image

When you’re expected to keep the amount of text down to a minimum, you can’t afford to go all out with descriptions in your very first slide, can you? A single photograph, illustration, or graphic will do.

You don’t have to fill the whole space with one image. Applying the rule of thirds and leaving white space to relax the audience’s gaze will make your title slide look more refined and tasteful. With the help of your title, the image can easily connect with your audience.

3. Put Your Logo in There

It’s important to have your logo as one of the first things your audience will see. After all, the logo is the ideal visual representation of your company story. This is especially true if you have some solid brand equity in your sleeves.

If you wish, you can use it in place of your name and company, further lessening the amount of text in your opening slide. There’ll be multiple chances for you to be properly introduced throughout your speech. You can even animate your logo to increase the impact.

Summing It Up

The best works of literature can transcend lazy design and still deliver despite an appalling cover. When too much rests on the line, however, make sure you’ve got it perfectly from the very beginning. Make your title appropriate for your pitch, but unique enough that people will remember what it was called even months after it’s over.

When you don’t have the luxury of a high word count, use strong visuals to make your point instead. Lastly, your pitch is all about what you company can offer, so don’t forget to put your company logo in your title slide so that your audiences will instantly see it as soon as you begin presenting.

With a great start, you’ll definitely get excellent results. The more your audience remembers your great pitch decks, the more likely they’ll call you up and seal a business deal with you.

References

Evele, Nathalie. “Is It Human Nature to Judge?” Centre for Journalism. May 7, 2013. Accessed August 14, 2015.
“PowerPoint Lesson: The Rule of Thirds in Slide Design.” pitchdeck.com. November 10, 2014. Accessed August 14, 2015.

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