Presentations & Business: From Message to Millions

So, you’re going to pitch your business, eh? You’ve probably got your standard PowerPoint and a decent speech prepared. You know your potential clients pretty well, and you think you know what they want to hear. That’s all you need right?

Maybe.

If you want to put yourself and your ideas out there, and you’re comfortable in your value proposition, then by all means do your thing. However, just keep in mind that your slide deck and general overview can always be better. Always.

The good news: Anyone can re-vamp their pitch to be more exciting and meaningful.

The bad news: It takes time, hard work and an eye for design.

So, if you’ve got the patience to learn about presentation design and organizing content, then this may just be a re-cap, but if you’re curious about enriching your company’s image through presentations, then here we go!

Firstly, the key to a good pitch is all in the framing.

Knowing your audience is absolutely crucial when creating your presentation. You’ve got to not only cater your presentation to your audience, but you also have to anticipate their reactions when you present the information.

A good way to get to know your audience is through good old-fashioned research. Learn and absorb anything and everything that you can about your potential client before you begin working on your presentation. From websites to meetings to press, your research lays down the foundation of your pitch. Without knowing your audience thoroughly, you might be overly redundant or ill-informed in your message. The last thing you want in a pitch is for the potential client to call you out on basic knowledge of the potential project. Your credibility goes down while their doubts go up.

Once you have as much content as possible from your research, then you can move on to the next phase of a great pitch: content breakdown.

No one wants to listen to a lengthy talk or read 200 bullet points when they are being pitched. That being said, the best way to present your information is through clear, concise wording and images. Clutter in any form will automatically decrease your chances of getting the sale. Think about it. If you were a business executive hearing multiple pitches for your newest project, would you want to be bored with the same old PowerPoint riddled with cluttered jargon and imagery? I didn’t think so. People want to cut to the chase, so you’ve got to clear up your message if you want them to hear and see you in a positive light. A simple message prompts simple thought. Don’t waste their time.

Now that the content is being directly stated and organized, you’re ready to incorporate great design.

Designing for a pitch is one of the most important things you can do for your sales. You can have a great sales force that rakes in leads left and right, but if you cancel out those chances with an unbearable-looking presentation, you are being extremely inefficient. Take some time to learn the basics of design. I promise it’s worth the investment. Some tips that we like to offer are things like using The Rule of Thirds, easy-to-read fonts, heavy imagery, memorable symbols and a central image or focus. Design is very similar to content. Be simple and memorable in your look and feel.

You’ve framed your message, organized clear content and made it all aesthetically pleasing. Now what?

In order to truly engage your audience, you’ve got to appeal to their emotions. People buy from people based on emotion rather than logic. In short, you’ve got to have flair.

Your attitude and demeanor are just as important as your content and design. Without your words, the presentation would just be a set of slides. Your personality and your style breathe life into the message. Always remember, despite the quality of the content and design, the most important part of presenting is knowing your information well enough to be comfortable, relaxed and stylish in your words. Your slide deck is simply a tool that you use in achieving the goal of a great presentation.

So, there you have it. Combined, these elements work to showcase your business effectively. We guarantee that if you use these methods, your pitches will significantly improve, which correlates directly to your business being more successful. These are simply our thoughts, so adapt them to fit your own process or completely disregard them. The choice is yours.

Was this post helpful? Do you have any stories about successful pitches or even common mistakes you see in pitches? We’d like to know! Feel free to contact us at anytime regarding your presentation issues, needs, comments, concerns or ideas. We’re readily available via Facebook, Twitter or in the comments below. Also, if you have any spare time, please stop by our YouTube channel to view our most recent and exciting projects.