how long should a sales presentation be

Essentially, you want to cover your key messages in a compelling and persuasive way. Tell a story. It’s your mission, brand statement, business card, and company persona, all rolled into a brief, persuasive presentation. 90 seconds equates to approximately 200 words. Often not. Audiences are different, sales cycles are different, and content is different. Yep, they drop off. How should you begin your sales presentation? Your sales deck should support your presentation. We exhibited at a large trade exhibition a couple of weeks ago, and I went along to see what other vendors are up to. Don’t save your best content until the end as the audience might have stopped listening before you ever show it. Organize your presentation’s structure. Break the Standard Mold of a Sales Presentation . Even if you’ve sold your prospect on your company or product, your job isn’t done … Do you really think attention levels follow the same curve regardless of what the presenter does? He called it the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. … You should have a long and short version of your sales presentation. Length: And if you really want to know how long a sales presentation should be, the right answer is probably as short as it can be to work. Don’t save your best content until the end as the audience might have stopped listening before you ever show it. And if you really want to know how long a presentation should be, the right answer is probably “as short as it can be to work”. One option is to have a 5-minute version and offer an extended 20-minute version for those who want it. Do you really think attention levels follow the same curve regardless of what the presenter does? That doesn’t mean attention levels are always low at the start of a presentation though – they aren’t if something interesting happens. Most people will suspend judgement for about the first 90s, so it's important to use that time wisely. Any old-style presentation will be designed to work well with a wide range of prospects. Your sales pitch is arguably the single most essential piece of your sales process. Do you have experience with this and what has worked for you? Very rarely are salespeople in a “one-call close” selling situation. 19 minutes is probably more time than you have – or at least at the outer-limit. Don’t let your presentation have a ‘boring bit’. Always use a written presentation. If you think it does, you need to tighten the content. Write out your sales presentation. It provides a starting point and context to have a conversation around, not a crux to coast through a generic pitch. Presentations need to be prepared in a way that makes them interactive. A few years back, he wrote a short blog advocating a simple rule for PowerPoint & pitch deck presentations. Successful sales people break down their presentations into usable components, with each part becoming an important element in making a successful sale. 40 minutes, 60 minutes, or even more isn’t unheard of – even in a prospecting session. 3. This category includes determining long term strategies, deciding which customers to contact, and working on presentations. It’s boring. Every product or service is different - you need to customize your pitch. 40 minutes, 60 minutes, or even more isn’t unheard of – even in a prospecting session. There’s no definitive answer, and nor can there be. If you've done a good and thorough job during each of the previous steps, closing the sale may be easy. Using Time to Determine the Right Number of Slides Practice your presentation in front of a mirror … We've seen lots of sales presentations now, so here is our take on what should go inside and how it should be structured. Don’t go into your presentation blindly, that is, don’t just turn … The total presentation should last about 30 mins (max) There are obviously times when you may need to break from this, these are meant more as general rules but the point is this; keep it concise and make sure to interact and explain the clips to players. This show was actually pretty busy though, and by walking around l think I managed to notice things companies were doing (right and wrong). The long version of your presentation should be approximately 30 to 45 minutes in length and should fill the majority of a 60 minute meeting that you might have with a buyer. Your sales presentation length needs to be long enough to say what you need to say in a punchy manner – but no longer. Keep sections relatively short and reasonably spaced – to ensure that attention levels don’t drop off too fast. Offices in Manchester, Bristol, & London (UK) and Boston/Cambridge (USA). Do you need to present for more than 20 minutes? With a short six slide long sales deck, Tumblr gets straight to the point of what in-stream ads mean and why brands should care. Look forward to working with you again soon. I know this is coming late, but we are working on a video presentation (to be packaged on DVD.) © 2021 BrightCarbon. Your sales presentation outline should have an opening that you can easily commit to memory: this is not a time to rely on cue cards. Don’t let your presentation have a ‘boring bit’. This article was originally posted to BrightCarbon.com. How Can Sales Enablement Bounce Back from a Tough Q2? Whatever proposal you present will always affect your client and their customers, if they have any. Then we cut to the real software screen cast and demonstrate it for 5 minutes, then recap and conclude in two minutes. All of these graphics assume there’s a ‘fundamental’ audience attention curve that is the same from presentation to presentation. What do you think happens to attention levels if your first few slides are boring corporate naval-gazing of the most tedious kind? Sell … And speaking of scripts, the traditional sales presentation, in which a salesperson talks about his product and the prospect listens, isn't the best way to sell. Interactivity works brilliantly to keep audiences engaged – consider building a visual conversation instead of a one-way presentation. How would research into ‘natural’ attention levels even work? What is a sales presentation, actually?Is it a 1 minute pitch on the elevator or an elaborate one hour display before a board of executives?Depending on your point of view, it can be both, or it can be none.Nowadays sales presentations not always take place in person, many are done remotely via Skype or similar means. The more words on the page, the more they're reading the text and not listening to what you're saying. Nothing makes prospects stop listening more quickly than when you throw an endless list of facts and numbers at them. How to make the ULTIMATE sales presentation, 9 sales pitch lessons from exhibitions and tradeshows. That doesn’t mean attention levels are always low at the start of a presentation though – they aren’t if something interesting happens. Great sales reps gut their sales presentations to the core. You don’t want to lose your audience’s attention. Keep Them Trained & Ready, Activate Data-Driven Readiness with Scorecards, Aragon Research Globe™ for Sales Coaching and Learning, 2020, Sales Presentation Length: How to Keep the Audience Engaged. On DVD. ‘ fundamental ’ audience attention curve that is the from! Your thinking right, invest 60 seconds creating a Mental Model of how your sales presentation ; stand out engage! Cut to the core good sales presentation length needs to be prepared in punchy... Different, sales cycles are different, and company persona, all into... 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