4 Proven Presentation Formats that will get you Results
5 minute read |
One of the main driving forces behind successfully convincing a prospect that they’re missing out on a market opportunity or that your product will help achieve their goals, is the establishment of interpersonal chemistry.
Having the right chemistry is a significant box that needs to be checked by the buyer when considering their options. In the world that we’re most accustomed to, it’s without doubt that face-to-face interaction is the best method to achieve this.
However, current trends for the last few years have pointed towards more people “teleworking”. Combine this with the long-term practice of social distancing, it’s causing many of us to hit the brakes on in-person interactions indefinitely.
While it’s uncertain just how long we’ll have to maintain such measures, history assures us that this will probably not be the last time that we’ll be forced to work from home or provide high value business pitches from remote locations.
So how do you accomplish much of the same chemistry that is associated to face-to-face interaction while virtual pitching? Here’s our top six tips:
1. Avoid dull surroundings and gloomy backdrops
If you’ve never been passionate about composition and framing, now is the time to find your hidden talent in cinematography – A little visual creativity can go a long way.
First and foremost, make sure to stay near natural light but avoid sitting with your back to a window. Instead, face windows if possible or invest in lighting equipment, such as a ring light, to add some warmth.
Plain white walls are the usual go-to backdrop for most video conferencing participants but for sales reps, who are trying to instill trust and confidence, this should be banished. Try propping yourself in front of shelves that carry pieces which express who you are, such as family photos, sports memorabilia, superhero figurines, movie posters, achievement awards, plants, etc.
The point is to create a small peek into your elegant world and possibly spark off-topic conversation. This leads nicely into the second tip.
2. Make connections
In-person interactions allow you to study mannerisms, determine the energy in the room, and to generally get a better sense of who the other person is. In order to win more business from virtual pitching, you need to position yourself in way that allows your prospective client to clearly connect with you.
This begins with what’s in your frame right through to maintaining eye contact. The camera should be at eye level and not at chest-level – Your audience would prefer not to see into your nostrils!
When talking, try to look at the camera and only glance over at the screen occasionally to read facial expressions. This is tough to put into practice but as they say, practice makes perfect. A bonus tip is to sit a little further away from the camera (roughly 3 ft) so that any break in eye contact is less noticeable.
3. Remember, a picture is a thousand words
You don’t know if your prospect is using a laptop-size screen or a much smaller phone-size screen so be sure to have the right visuals, be descriptive, use less words on screen. Not everyone will have a curved and picture-perfect screen to help increase the realism of their virtual meetings. Therefore, you have to prepare for the worst-case scenarios.
Furthermore, make it a priority to suggest to your audience how best to view the virtual pitch. I.e., If you plan playing a movie clip then you might want to suggest that they position their devices in landscape.
If you foresee participants having a problem or you just don’t trust technology, pitch decks and all relevant materials can be sent immediately prior to the meeting.
4. Prevent Zoombombing
Zoombombing (generically known as video bombing) is slang describing the moment a troll jumps into a public Zoom video call and exposes startled participants to unsavoury behaviour.
Yes, the practice of “Zoombombing” has become a thing. The company Zoom has been previously criticized for lax privacy practices and rising harassment on conference calls from uninvited perpetrators in this way.
What you don’t need during your virtual pitch is a bombardment of obscenity from Wild Man Dan! It serves as a reminder to take security seriously by addressing all necessary precautions whether you’re using Zoom, Google Hangouts, Skype, Cisco Webex, or another. Some are better than others with their encryption technology to stop outside parties from seeing users’ data but almost all should have a method of decreasing security risks.
5. Encourage regular engagement
When you’re pitching in-person, you have the ability to better gauge how interested or attentive people are with their body language alone. This becomes difficult to read in the virtual world so other tactics should be utilized to garner the same result.
First of all, allow interruptions more often than usual. This will help discourage participants from losing interest and checking their emails or opening up their Subway Surfers app.
Second, alternate between your pitch deck and displaying the participants’ faces. This will not only increase attention levels but will also give the presenter an opportunity to reconnect with participants.
Lastly, avoid moments of silence by fully preparing questions specifically for when participants are speechless because your knocking your pitch out the park.
6. Appeal to emotions
Buying decisions will likely be made behind closed doors, outside of a salesperson’s influence. The business case that you make in your virtual presentation must appeal to emotions as well as logic.
Delivering a weak presentation with little memorability is a surefire way to be forgotten. The best approach is to use visually engaging slides with a storytelling structure.
