Marketing and sales have definitely shifted over the years, but what’s stayed the same is the need to pitch. No matter how you do it, every marketing strategy starts with a pitch, and often those pitches still need to be made in person. They are a little different today in that pitches often come in the form of a free or discounted seminar that offers something of value to the audience. The hope is that a well-executed presentation will have you leaving with leads lined up, reading to become your next client.

PowerPoint – PowerPoint has routinely been the go-to-choice for presentations, but I find them completely boring, easily losing viewer attention and underestimating our collective intelligence.

To change it up, consider converting your presentation to Flash with Wondershare via six really simple steps. The conversion retains all animations, hyperlinks and multimedia objects. iSpring Solutions and Articulate also offer similar conversions.

Video – Why not create a video presentation that stimulates the eyes and ears and complements your own presentation and keeps your audience engaged and on their toes? Your post presentation video can and should also be hosted on your YouTube channel, which lets you continue reaching out and making use of your presentation to draw in new people.

PDF – The reason PowerPoint has been successful or a favorite choice is simply because you can share graphics and text easily. But you can do the same with a PDF, which can also be converted into a handout to share with the audience.

Handouts – Take it a step further by having your handout be interactive. Require readers to take mini quizzes, mark it up and make it their own. The more they interact with a document, the more likely they are to remember the content, and you. Also, by engaging with your handout, they’ve already taken the first step to offering you their business.

Psychologically speaking, they’ve already interacted with you subconsciously, accepted something you’ve offered them and taken your lead; studies show they’re now that much more likely to accept a valuable service you offer them. The psychology works along the same lines as what detectives/law enforcement use to get a suspect to offer information or accept a bargain when they offer a coffee, a piece of gum or a bottle of water.

These are simple things but they set up a subconscious pattern of behavior that paves the way for the next step.
Additional Tips:

Here are some other great ideas to make your presentation a smashing success…

  1. Learn What People Want to Know – Ask the host to run a quiz or query you’ve created that let’s people share what they want to learn about. Targeting your presentation to what they’re actually curious about ensures that no matter what your mode of delivery, people will be interested.
  2. Offer Downloads – Not everyone is a note taker, but people still want that data. Offer a download on your site that people can visit post meeting. This encourages them to visit your site and use something you have to offer. You can also require email registration prior to download so that you can obtain their digital data.
  3. Social Media – Encourage people to Twitter during the presentation. If they’re new to it, have one of the mini lessons be on how to do just this and then encourage them to try it out. Offer the best or most creative tweet a small reward, which you can send in after you’ve had a chance to review them all.
  4. Collect Contacts – You’re more likely to get people’s business if you take the lead. Don’t depend on others to contact you. Rather, gather their data and follow up with them. A creative way to do this is by sending out a basket or bowl asking for everyone’s business cards. An end of the meeting drawing can yield one or two random winners.

Everyone likes games and people like getting excited about prizes. No matter what the industry, this is something you can try out – just make sure the prizes are comparable with the rates you’re setting and the clients you’re presenting to.

Tech-Rich but Idea Poor? Stay Tuned for Part 2 Next Week on How to Use Creative Tech-Savy Platforms to Revitalize Presentations…