You finally managed to get your prospect to sit down with you or join a video call. You present your pitch deck… maybe one question, a quick thanks, and goodbye… nothing. Sound familiar? You’re not alone. In fact, this happens every day, everywhere. Why? Well, for starters, because your presentation wasn’t a conversation.
Prepare for the Worst
One common mistake when creating a presentation for an important meeting is consciously or subconsciously preparing slides for every possible question a prospect could have. To be fair, that’s not a bad strategy. Focus on their questions, rather than on what you desperately want or need to say. However, the mistake occurs when you start presenting all of those slides. Chances are, your prospect has only 10% or 20% of the questions you anticipated.
As a result, they end up spending precious time listening to answers to questions they never asked.
In other words, prepare for the worst, but present what they want.
Know Thy Prospect
So how do you get to know your prospect before the meeting? How can you understand what questions they have in advance? And how do you decide which slides to show?
Option 1:
Ask ahead of time. In your initial communication—whether by phone or email—try to gather as much information as possible about your prospect’s pain points and goals. Understand what’s important to them, their company, and their boss. You can even list a few topics beforehand to steer the conversation.
Option 2:
If you don’t have the opportunity to ask questions or gather information beforehand, don’t dive into your meeting with a full deck of slides. Instead, start without a presentation. Ask questions to uncover what matters most to them, then introduce slides as needed to support the conversation.
Remember: Your presentation is meant to support your conversation—to clarify points, visualize your story, or showcase your solution or product. It shouldn’t dictate the direction of the conversation.
Virtual Presenting
This advice is even more critical when presenting virtually. In a face-to-face meeting, you can shift the focus from the screen to the conversation. But during a screen share, you essentially block yourself out, making it harder to keep the conversation engaging. In fact, your prospect will likely start multitasking the moment you begin screen sharing—just as you probably would.
Solution: Don’t screenshare an entire presentation. Instead, have a conversation, and only share a slide when it's needed to explain a specific topic, such as a workflow, a quote, or a product demo. Once you’ve addressed the question or shown the slide, stop sharing your screen.
Finding That One Slide - Smoothly
So, you’ve prepared for the worst. You have slides ready to answer potential questions, you know what your prospect wants to hear, or you’re figuring it out as you go. But how do you create a smooth experience for finding and presenting the right slide at the right moment?
Online:
When presenting online, first find the slide you need, then screenshare. After you’ve presented it, stop sharing, find the next slide, and then screenshare again. This is the cleanest experience—your prospect won’t have to watch you flip through tabs or scroll through your entire slide deck. To streamline the process, use the Slide Sorter view in PowerPoint (located next to the presenting button in the bottom right corner). This gives you an overview of all your slides and helps you quickly locate the one you need.
Offline:
For offline presentations, there’s an even smoother approach: create a non-linear PowerPoint presentation with a main menu or overview of topics. Have the presentation ready, but don’t plow through it slide by slide. Instead, use it as a tool to explain or clarify key points. Click on a topic, show the relevant slide, and then return to the main menu to continue the conversation and easily navigate to other slides as needed.
Concluding
In most sales presentations, remember: your prospect doesn’t want to just listen to you—they want their questions answered. Find out what those questions are, and present the specific slides that answer them. Let the conversation guide your presentation.
Oh, and by the way... these tips apply to meetings further down the funnel too, like when you’re presenting a proposal or solution.
