Biggest PowerPoint Mistakes Salespeople Make

What are the biggest mistakes salespeople make with PowerPoint presentations?

Too Product / Service Oriented and Too Many Slides

Most salespeople totally miss the point of their presentation, thinking that the more they can cover about their company and its products and services, the better they’ll be. As a result, their presentations have ballooned to 40 – 60 slides.

And then what happens when they meet with their prospect? They feel compelled to cover ever single one in excruciating detail. If the hour ends and they’ve covered everything, they’re happy.
If that’s what you do, you’re not helping yourself get the business. Your prospect has been bored to tears. They see you as another self-serving salesperson who’s doing her pitch. You don’t stand out from the crowd at all.

PowerPoint Presentation Tips

If you need to do a PowerPoint presentation, make it 10 slides or less. Put your company overview in a handout to give your prospects. What you want to do in your time together is have a genuine conversation about their business objectives, key priorities and strategic initiatives as they’re relevant to your product line.
Don’t sell. Act as if they’ve already selected you and you’re having your first important meeting with them. When you do that, they’ll be able to see themselves working with you. And, they’ll select you over your competition.
Think about it!

© 2015 by Jill Konrath. Jill Konrath is the author of AGILE SELLING, Selling to Big Companies and SNAP Selling. As a sales accelerator, she helps salespeople close deals faster. She’s a frequent speaker at sales kick-off meetings and conferences. Her expertise has by featured by ABC News, Fortune, Forbes, The New York Times, Entrepreneur and Inc. magazine. Click here to get her free Prospecting Toolkit.