I thought it was just me but apparently others detest the sales PowerPoint presentation as well.
Over the years I’ve been visited by many sales people. They range from the cable television advertising rep that came into my office, threw his keys on my desk and then put his feet up on my desk to people that have become good friends, including one that went on to write for the Howard Stern radio show.
Probably the most disturbing part of any sales presentation is the PowerPoint slide show. I have learned over the years to despise the PowerPoint presentation so much that I tell sales reps to not bring a PowerPoint presentation or not take it out. If the PowerPoint makes an appearance, then we have bigger problems.
The reason is that I don’t want a salesperson to come and talk at me and fall upon their crutch of some slides or a laptop presentation (even more hated) is because I need a salesperson that will listen to my needs and provide me with a solution that will address those needs.
The ultimate ‘you’ve got to be kidding’ sales presentation was by this apparently new salesperson. I scheduled a meeting with her and told her about my aversion to PowerPoint presentations. She brought it anyway.
As we were talking she reached for her laptop and I told her that if she wanted to show me a PowerPoint presentation that it would be the end of our meeting. She opened the laptop and proceeded to fire up PowerPoint anyway. I told her that was the end of our appointment and when I asked her why she did that she said that it was all she knew from her training. It wasn’t a sales tool, for her it was a crutch and a way for her not to listen to what I had to say as the customer.
Here Are The Traits I Look For In a Sales Representative
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Hi Steve,
I couldn’t agree more! The scourge of badly trained sales equipped with badly constructed, linear PowerPoint presentations is a blight on all business today.
HOWEVER…
Let’s not get carried away here… Let’s look at the constituent parts of the problem:
The SalesPerson
From the sound of it; poorly trained, lacking the basics of good survey skills and, ultimately, clueless about how to engage with an audience. Pity this poor soul! May her bosses hold their heads down in shame - they’ve cast her out into the big bad world of sales with no story, no skills and, ultimately, no chance of success. Blame the bosses, not one of the victims (i.e. her!)
The PowerPoint Presentation
Guns don’t kill people, people do. Cars don’t kill people, irresponsible drivers do. PowerPoints don’t kill the sales process, a poorly constructed story delivered in a linear fashion without an understanding of the audiences requirement does.
Blaming PowerPoint for the ills in today’s sloppy sales processes is too easy and, in my opinion, lazy - we need to think deeper than that. PowerPoint is a “killer app” when designed correctly and used appropriately - interactive “toolkit” presentations help explore client’s needs and can offer a poweful way to share information. Used in combination with whiteboarding, brainstorming and (a lttle used sales skill) conversation, PowerPoint is a great sales tool.
In short, let’s focus our attention on fixing the cause of the problem, the human, first. Once we’ve solved that conundrum, we can work on how to create a sales tool that works WITH them…who knows, that could even be PowerPoint!
Simon,
LOL. Right you are. PowerPoint didn’t kill the sale, the sales person killed the sale. Unfortunately the approach of many untrained sales people is that they won’t let go of the PowerPoint presentation until they pry it from their cold dead hands.
Thanks for the brilliant comment.
Steve