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When High Touch Trumps Presentation High Tech

By Anne Miller
Anne Miller

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They say when everyone is buying, you should sell and when everyone is selling, you should buy. The same holds true in presentations. If everyone is using PowerPoint, then do the opposite: use plain old paper and pencil. You will have greater impact and be more memorable.

Grab a pen (or two if you want a second color for emphasis) and a piece of paper and draw your value proposition, or your process, or your competitive position as you explain your points. If you can draw circles, squares, letters of the alphabet, arrows, triangles, stick figures, and plus signs (and you can), then, you can draw just about anything you have to present. For example, say you want to position your website to a potential advertiser. You could show a series of competitive PPT slides, which look like everyone else's, OR you can simply write the letters A, B and C down the left side of a piece of paper, while saying, "Ms. Advertiser, Competitor X gives you A, B, and C" (whatever those features are), "but when you advertise with us" (you draw a plus sign and you say) "You also get D" (your competitive advantage), "which makes our site a more valuable way to target your audience and measure your results." The simple graphic is easy for your buyer to see; easy for your buyer to grasp; and more involving than set images because you are creating it as you are speaking. Sign the piece of paper and leave it as a take-away. It will stand out from the flood of PPT presentations your buyer will see that day.

Processes flow up, down, horizontally, or in circles and can be explained as you draw them. Services are organized in groups (boxes, triangles, circles) and can be discussed for their viability with a buyer as you draw them. Trends and performance histories can be drawn as simple graphs, as you talk about them. If you have to use PPT for small groups, then break from the screen and use a flip-chart or whiteboard to create key visuals.

I am not suggesting you eliminate detailed hand-outs or slides where they are necessary (and they become more so with groups), but in one-on-one or iin one-to- two/three situations, at a high conceptual level, nothing beats a real-time pen and piece of paper to make your points and to make them memorably.

Revised: 05/09/2010 - Article Viewed 132 Times

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Biography

Anne Miller is President of Chiron Associates, Inc. and offers Fortune 1000 companies like Business Week, Dow Jones, Citigroup, Yahoo!, and Booz-Allen & Hamilton creative and practical sales, communication, and management programs that are high content, high pay-off and highly enjoyable. Anne has helped thousands of salespeople sell millions of dollars worth of services and products. Featured on NBC Today in New York, Bloomberg News Radio, in Selling Power and Sales & Marketing Management, and ClickZ.com, Anne works all over the world at all levels from junior reps to CEOs.

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Contact Information

Anne Miller
Anne Miller
212-876-1875
amiller@annemiller.com

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