3-11-2013
Think about the best radio sales presentation you?ve ever heard. Why did it stand out?
Now think about the best compliment you ever received about one of your own sales presentations. What was it?
We all have our own opinions about what makes a great presentation, but the most memorable ones usually have a very focused message, express information visually, and of course tell a great story.
PowerPoint has been one of the best and one of the worst sales presentation tools ever created. When used correctly, PowerPoint can help make your case to a prospect by succinctly organizing your research into digestible pieces of information, as well as visualize your message points.
Unfortunately, PowerPoint has been used as crutch by too made AEs. Either they stack their sales deck with 50+ slides hoping there is an idea in there somewhere the prospect will like or put them to sleep by reading paragraphs of text from their slides.
Many of the next generation of sales presentation tools have the potential to help AEs tell a better story about their station?s advertising capabilities. They are designed to be more entertaining and visual.
New mobile tools also enable AEs to deliver a sales presentation anywhere and at anytime they encounter a prospect. When you send your sales presentation by email there are now tools to help you track its usage.
Remember the best sales presentations are ones that share a great story. The best story to share with your prospects are your station?s recent advertising success stories. Here are five tools that will help you create more visually appealing, engaging, and entertaining sales presentations . . .
1. Animate Your Presentations
Ever wonder what the next generation of PowerPoint would look like? Now you can with Prezi.
Just like PowerPoint, it helps you focus your message and organize your ideas. Unlike the linear presentation of PowerPoint slides, Prezi presents your information three dimensionally. Your prospects will no longer watch you plod along from slide to slide, but rather see your screen zip from one idea to the next, from image to image.
Prezi breathes life into your facts and figures using images and animations that connect with prospects at an emotional level. After showing your prospect a Prezi presentation, you?ll make them dread boring PowerPoint presentations even more from other local media reps.
There?s also no need to send presentations as email attachments. Prezi is Web-based, so just email a link to your prospects for even easier viewing.
The best way to understand what makes Prezi different is to watch a presentation using Prezi. Check out this Prezi on the history of radio.
2. Infographics
Most people have a much easier time digesting complicated information or lots of data presented visually rather than drowning in text. Wouldn?t you prefer receiving an email with a link to an infographic as opposed to that same information presented in a wordy email? It?s easier to understand, more visually appealing, and it?s more fun!
If you?re still unfamiliar with infographics, they turn lots of research, data, facts and figures, info graphs and images. They are a great way to take a snapshot of all your research, examples and promotion ideas, so your prospect can understand your message points more quickly. Check out this infographic about commercial radio and social media.
Infographics are one of the most entertaining methods for presenting lots of sales information. There is no official research, but sending prospects an email with a link to an infographic using the subject line ?Infographic About ?X?? has a higher likelihood of increasing the open rate and even inspires prospects to share your email with other advertisers.
Here are a few of the most popular free infographic creators:
http://visual.ly
http://www.easel.ly/
http://piktochart.com/
3. Record Screencasts of Your Computer
Not only does telling a story make a radio sales presentation great, but so does educating your prospects about their latest marketing options. Make your sales presentations come alive by capturing local advertising examples on the Web and recording mini-tutorials about local marketing.
A great tool for recording screencasts of your desktop or websites along with audio is Jing. Think about creating a little audio tour of your station?s website and its advertising opportunities. It?s free and also enables you to capture screenshots of advertising examples you find from around the Web.
Local advertisers are more overwhelmed than ever before by all the different marketing capabilities offered by radio stations today. Taking the time to educate your prospects about emerging marketing trends or new advertising products offered by your station will help you earn their trust more quickly. Their interest in learning about one advertising opportunity over another also provides you insight into what they are most interested in buying from you.
4. Mobile Presentation App
In the not-too-distant future most of your sales presentations will be done from a mobile device like a tablet or smartphone. If you are already eager to start delivering sales presentations off your mobile device try sliderocket. You can either download their iPhone app or share presentations from your mobile browser. They offer a free option for casual users.
For those of you still skeptical about using a mobile device for your sales presentations, there are a number of benefits. You won?t have to lug around your laptop or worry if your prospect?s projector is going to work. Viewing a presentation from a tablet is more engaging and informal than delivering a sales pitch in front of a group.
You can also deliver a sales presentation on the fly. You never know where your next hot lead might come from. It could be from a conversation you have with someone waiting in line at lunch or while you are watching your kid?s soccer game. A mobile sales presentation will keep you prepared for any opportunity that might arise.
5. Track Usage of Your Presentation
You?ve probably emailed hundreds of proposals and presentations to prospects, but never really known whether they looked at them or not. Until now. You can upload your PowerPoint slides or PDF documents to ClearSlide.com. Once they are uploaded you can email prospects a link to the presentation and track how they use it.
You?ll be able to tell if they opened your presentation, which slides they spent the most time on and even who they forwarded it to by email. How cool is that?
ClearSlide helps radio AEs focus on the hottest prospects, those who viewed the sales materials sent to them. They can even tailor their pitch based on the information the prospect spent the most time viewing.
ClearSlide offers a free trial, but their monthly per user-cost is roughly $70 with a minimum of five users. It?s costly, but there is huge upside using their tracking tools to close even more sales.
Just like the clothes don?t make the man, tools don?t make the sales presentation. Effective sales presentations educate, engage, entertain, and offer solutions. The above tools have great potential for helping your sales presentations stand out from the crowd, but could also become a liability if used as a crutch.
Stephen Warley is the founder of inboundarts.com, a research and training firm dedicated to helping radio broadcasters use digital tools to generate more qualified sales leads. He is also the founded of LocalBroadcastSales.com in 2008. Email him at stephen@inboundarts.com or connect with him on LinkedIn.
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