A brilliant sales presentation has a number of things going for it. Show
Being product-centered isn’t one of them. Or simply focusing on your sales pitch won’t do the trick. So what can you do to make your offer compelling? From different types of slides to persuasive techniques and visuals, we’ve got you covered. Below, we look at data-backed strategies, examples, and easy steps to build your own sales presentations in minutes. Track presentationsPage-by-page breakdowns to help you find the most engaging pages in your presentation 7 Types of Slides to Include In Your Sales Presentation
Inside The Mind Of Your Prospect: Change Is HardMany sales presentations fall flat because they ignore this universal psychological bias: People overvalue the benefits of what they have over what they’re missing. Harvard Business School professor John T. Gourville calls this the “9x Effect.” Left unchecked, it can be disastrous for your business. According to Gourville, “It’s not enough for a new product simply to be better. Unless the gains far outweigh the losses, customers will not adopt it.” The good news: You can influence how prospects perceive these gains and losses. One of the best ways to prove value is to contrast life before and after your product. Luckily, there’s a three-step formula for that. Before-After-Bridge: The Only Formula You Need To Create A Persuasive Sales Presentation
Start with a vivid description of the pain, present an enviable world where that problem doesn’t exist, then explain how to get there using your tool. It’s super simple, and it works for cold emails, drip campaigns, and sales discovery decks. Basically anywhere you need to get people excited about what you have to say. In fact, a lot of companies are already using this formula to great success. The methods used in the sales presentation examples below will help you do the same. Facebook — How Smiles and Simplicity Make You More MemorableWe’re all drawn to happiness. A study at Harvard tells us that emotion is contagious. You’ll notice that the “Before” (pre-Digital Age) pictures in Facebook’s slides all display neutral faces. But the cover slide that introduces Facebook and the “After” slides have smiling faces on them. This is important. The placement of those graphics is an intentional persuasion technique. Studies by psychologists show that we register smiles faster than any other expression. All it takes is 500 milliseconds (1/20th of a second). And when participants in a study were asked to recall expressions, they consistently remembered happy faces over neutral ones. What to do about it: Add a happy stock photo to your intro and “After” slides, and keep people in “Before” slides to neutral expressions. Here are some further techniques used during the sales presentation: Tactic #1: Use Simple GraphicsUse simple graphics to convey meaning without text. Example: Slide 2 is a picture of a consumer’s hand holding an iPhone — something we can all relate to. Why It Works: Pictures are more effective than words — it’s called Picture Superiority. In presentations, pictures help you create connections with your audience. Instead of spoon-feeding them everything word for word, you let them interpret. This builds trust. Tactic #2: Use IconsUse icons to show statistics you’re comparing instead of listing them out. Example: Slide 18 uses people icons to emphasize how small 38 out of 100 people is compared to 89 out of 100. Why It Works: We process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. Tactic #3: Include StatisticsInclude statistics that tie real success to the benefits you mention. Example: “71% lift driving visits to retailer title pages” (Slide 26). Why It Works: Precise details prove that you are telling the truth. Contently — How to Build A Strong Bridge, Brick By BrickJust like how you can’t drive from Marin County to San Francisco without the Golden Gate, you can’t connect a “Before” to an “After” without a bridge. Add the mission statement of your company — something Contently does from Slide 1 of their deck. Having a logo-filled Customers slide isn’t unusual for sales presentations, but Contently goes one step further by showing you exactly what they do for these companies. They then drive home the Before-After-Bridge Formula further with case studies: Before: Customer’s needs when they came on After: What your company accomplished for them Bridge: How they got there (specific actions and outcomes) Here are some other tactics we pulled from the sales presentation: Tactic #1: Use Graphics/DiagramsUse graphics, Venn diagrams, and/or equations to drive home your “Before” picture. Why It Works: According to a Cornell study, graphs and equations have persuasive power. They “signal a scientific basis for claims, which grants them greater credibility.” Tactic #2: Keep Slides That Have Bullets to a MinimumKeep slides that have bullets to a minimum. No more than one in every five slides. Why It Works: According to an experiment by the International Journal of Business Communication, “Subjects exposed to a graphic representation paid significantly more attention to, agreed more with, and better recalled the strategy than did subjects who saw a (textually identical) bulleted list.” Tactic #3: Use Visual ExamplesFollow up your descriptions with visual examples. Example: After stating “15000+ vetted, ready to work journalists searchable by location, topical experience, and social media influence” on Slide 8, Contently shows what this looks like firsthand on slides 9 and 10. Why It Works: The same reason why prospects clamor for demos and car buyers ask for test drives. You’re never truly convinced until you see something for yourself. In-depth presentation insightsSee who's viewing and average viewing time Yesware — How To Go Above And Beyond With Your BenefitsWhich is more effective for you? This statement — “On average, Yesware customers save ten hours per week” — or this image: The graphic shows you what that 10 hours looks like for prospects vs. customers. It also calls out a pain that the product removes: data entry. Visuals are more effective every time. They fuel retention of a presentation from 10% to 65%. But it’s not as easy as just including a graphic. You need to keep the design clean.
Can you feel it? Clutter provokes anxiety and stress because it bombards our minds with excessive visual stimuli, causing our senses to work overtime on stimuli that aren’t important. Here’s a tip from Yesware’s Graphic Designer, Ginelle DeAntonis:
Here are more tactics to inspire sales presentation ideas: Tactic #1: Personalize Your Final SlidePersonalize your final slide with your contact information and a headline that drives emotion. Example: Our Mid-Market Team Lead Kyle includes his phone number and email address with “We’re Here For You” Why It Works: These small details show your audience that:
Tactic #2: Pair Outcome Statements With Icons in CirclesExample: Slide 4 does this with seven different “After” outcomes. Why It Works: We already know why pictures work, but circles have power, too. They imply completeness, infiniteness, and harmony. Tactic #3: Include Specific Success MetricsDon’t just list who you work with; include specific success metrics that hit home what you’ve done for them. Example: 35% New Business Growth for Boomtrain; 30% Higher Reply Rates for Dyn. Why It Works: Social proof drives action. It’s why we wait in lines at restaurants and put ourselves on waitlists for sold-out items. Uber — How to Cater Your Content for Readers Quick To ScanPeople can only focus for eight seconds at a time. (Sadly, goldfish have one second on us.) This means you need to cut to the chase fast. Uber’s headlines in Slides 2-9 tailor the “After” picture to specific pain points. As a result, there’s no need to explicitly state a “Before.” Slides 11-13 then continue touching on “Before” problems tangentially with customer quotes: So instead of self-touting benefits, the brand steps aside to let consumers hear from their peers — something that sways 92% of consumers. DealTap — How To Use Leading Questions To Your AdvantageLeading questions may be banned from the courtroom, but they aren’t in the boardroom. DealTap’s slides ask viewers to choose between two scenarios over and over. Each has an obvious winner: Ever heard of the Focusing Effect? It’s part of what makes us tick as humans and what makes this design move effective. We focus on one thing and then ignore the rest. Here, DealTap puts the magnifying glass on paperwork vs. automated transactions. Easy choice. Sure, DealTap’s platform might have complexities that rival paperwork, but we don’t think about that. We’re looking at the pile of work one the left and the simpler, single interface on the right. Here are some other tactics to use in your own sales presentation: Tactic #1: Tell a StoryTell a story that flows from one slide to the next. Example: Here’s the story DealTap tells from slides 4 to 8: “Transactions are complicated” → “Expectations on all sides” → “Too many disconnected tools” → “Slow and error prone process” → “However, there’s an opportunity. Why It Works: Storytelling in sales with a clear beginning and end (or in this case, a “Before” and “After”) trigger a trust hormone called Oxytocin. Tactic #2: This vs. ThatIf it’s hard to separate out one “Before” and “After” vision with your product or service because you offer many dissimilar benefits, consider a “This vs. That” theme for each. Why It Works: It breaks up your points into simple decisions and sets you up to win emotional reactions from your audience with stock photos. Close more deals todayTrack, analyze, and standardize what’s working Zuora — How To Win Over Your Prospects By Feeding Them DotsRemember how satisfying it was to play connect the dots? Forming a bigger picture out of disconnected circles. That’s what you need to make your audience do. Zuora tells a story by:
You can achieve this by founding your sales presentation on your audience’s intuitions. Set them up with the closely-set “dots,” then let them make the connection. Here are more tactical sales presentation ideas to steal for your own use: Tactic #1: Use Logos and TestimonialsUse logos and testimonial pull-quotes for your highest-profile customers to strengthen your sales presentation. Example: Slides 21 to 23 include customer quotes from Schneider Electric, Financial Times, and Box. Why It Works: It’s called social proof. Prospects value other people’s opinions and trust reputable sources more than you. Tactic #2: Include White SpacePad your images with white space. Example: Slide 17 includes two simple graphics on a white background to drive home an important concept. Why It Works: White space creates separation, balance, and attracts the audience’s eyes to the main focus: your image. Tactic #3: Incorporate Hard DataIncorporate hard data with a memorable background to make your data stand out. Example: Slide 5 includes statistics with a backdrop that stands out. The number and exciting title (‘A Global Phenomenon’) are the main focuses of the slide. Why It Works: Vivid backdrops are proven to be memorable and help your audience take away important numbers or data. LinkedIn Sales Navigator — How to Create Excitement With ColorPsychology tells us that seeing colors can set our mood. The color red is proven to increase the pulse and heart rate. Beyond that, it’s associated with being active, aggressive, and outspoken. LinkedIn Sales Navigator uses red on slides to draw attention to main points: You can use hues in your own slides to guide your audience’s emotions. Green gives peace; grey adds a sense of calm; blue breeds trust. See more here. Tip: You can grab free photos from Creative Commons and then set them to black & white and add a colored filter on top using a (also free) tool like Canva. Here’s the sizing for your image: Caveat: Check with your marketing team first to see if you have a specific color palette or brand guidelines to follow. Here are some other takeaways from LinkedIn’s sales presentation: Tactic #1: Include a CTA on Final SlideInclude one clear call-to-action on your final slide. Example: Slide 9 has a “Learn More” CTA button. Why It Works: According to the Paradox of Choice, the more options you give, the less likely they are to act. How To Make A Sales Pitch In 4 Straightforward StepsStep One: Ask marketing for your company’s style guide (color, logo, and font style). Step Two: Answer these questions to outline the “Before → After → Bridge” formula for your sales pitch:
Step Three: Ask account management/marketing which customers you can mention in your slides (plus where to access any case studies for pull quotes). Step Four: Download photos from Creative Commons. Remember: Graphics > Text. Use Canva to edit on your own — free and fast. 7 Embarrassing Pitfalls To Avoid In Your PresentationOver to youWhat are the sales presentation strategies that work best for your industry and customers? Tweet us: @Yesware. What are the 4 types of sales presentation?The four categories, namely memorized(structured), persuasive selling(semi-structured), need-satisfaction(unstructured), and problem-solution(centralized), are presented in a zig-zag fashion to make ample space for the additional details.
What is a formula sales presentation?Formula selling is an approach in which the sales presentation is designed to move the customer through the stages in the decision-making process such as get the customer's attention, develop interest, build desire, and secure action (AIDA).[1]
What are the three types of sales presentation?There are three main types of Sales Presentation Strategies:. Informative Presentation Strategy.. Persuasive Presentation Strategy.. Reminder Presentation Strategy.. What is the formula approach?an approach to selling in which the salesperson uses a formula such as AIDA - awareness, interest, desire, action - as a guide to taking the buyer from one stage of the buying process to the next; also called the Mental States Approach.
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