Actors know a great supporting cast can make the star’s performance more powerful. As the star of your presentation, you, too, need great support with materials and equipment that let you shine. Whether a customized multimedia approach or a simple whiteboard gets your message across best depends on what you sell, how you sell, who’s buying and the strengths of your presentation skills. As the vice president of sales and marketing at Presentation Products Inc., a full-service presentation solutions company offering presentation hardware, design and training, Linda Savoie can help you understand the tools that are available and explain which ones will deliver your message most powerfully. With her technique and technology expertise, you can get the best products for your selling circumstances, for presentations that get results.

Most popular products
If variety is the spice of life, the presentation product market is well seasoned indeed. Almost anything your mind’s eye can envision, presentation product manufacturers offer software and tools to help you create. Those who tend to follow the crowds may want to jump on the laptop-and-ultraportable-projector bandwagon. For most presenters, that’s a winning combination, says Savoie.

“You plug the computer into the projector and it displays your computer image onto a screen or wall,” she explains. “If your salespeople are using a computer in that format, the projector allows them to present a lot of data, display images graphically and provide high visibility even for larger audiences.”

On the software side of the presentation product kingdom, PowerPoint still reigns supreme. Savoie attributes its popularity to its ease of use, its variety of predesigned templates and the fact that it takes presentations to new heights of professionalism without taking too much time. Salespeople who think PowerPoint’s standard format doesn’t pack the impact it once did can show their old buyers some new tricks with customization.

“PowerPoint is now becoming so common that a lot of people already are used to looking at the standard format,” Savoie says. “People want their presentation to look unique and different from everyone else’s, so they’re creating corporate templates, changing the background design, animating their logo or putting video clips of their own company information into the PowerPoint presentation. That’s also an arm of what we do, providing what we call a ‘creative facelift’ to PowerPoint presentations.”

Whatever hardware or software you choose as your standard equipment, remember that presentation changes may call for equipment changes as well. Savoie warns salespeople against using the same equipment every time without considering what they want the presentation to accomplish.

“Sometimes the laptop and projector you normally use may not be the right tool at all for your meeting,” Savoie suggests. “You may be better off going back to a traditional easel and literally capturing information on the page. For another option, consider interactive whiteboards, electronic whiteboards on which you can draw or write and then save your notes to a computer file for printing, faxing, emailing or whatever, so you’re more productive. Whiteboards are especially effective for technical or interactive presentations, when you want to have people participate and maintain two-way communication.”

Timing is everything Your presentation product choices depend not just on the type of selling you do but also on your phase in the selling cycle. An initial sales call warrants a unique strategy, and possibly unique equipment, to make a first impression that keeps you on your buyer’s mind. How the phase of the selling cycle affects your presentation depends largely on the type of business you call on, says Savoie.

“On my sales staff I have more than twenty salespeople who meet with new prospects six to ten times a week. We have a predesigned laptop presentation that tells the Presentation Products Inc. story. That presentation also shares what our other clients are using for presentations and meetings and at the same time showcases all the high-tech projectors and hardware we sell. We get to role model an effective sales call for the client and sell our product at the same time.

“For an initial meeting like this, you definitely want to have something that showcases your company, is high-image, is easy to understand and brief, so you don’t take up the lion’s share of the time talking and selling. Our laptop presentation, for example, also standardizes our message, ensures that our salespeople look the same and keeps our quality standard to a certain level. It limits our salespeople’s talking to the first 15 minutes or so, and the rest of the hour-long client meeting we spend listening to customers tell us what they want to accomplish.”

Matching people with presentations Before you get up in front of your prospects, shine the spotlight on yourself for a moment. Think about how much presentation experience you have and how comfortable and engaging you are as a speaker. If you wish the world really was a stage, you may have it made, but if you get nervous or your skills aren’t up to par, Savoie says to consider letting your materials do more of the talking.

“A very skilled presenter with some charisma and experience can get away with fewer support materials because the focus will be on them, and they aren’t afraid of that. If they decided to use PowerPoint for a one-hour presentation they may use only four or five slides – that’s it. Someone with less skill may use as many as 30 slides in the same amount of time and read their presentation right off the slides. That’s not all bad, because a tool like PowerPoint can make the images look really good, but the downside may be that the audience may learn less, retain less and use less of the information you share. The more you engage your audience, the more likely they are to walk away with information.”

Although less experienced presenters often suffer more nervousness, Savoie reminds salespeople that they should stay in front of their audience instead of hiding from them. By choosing equipment that makes you overcome your fear instead of indulging it, you can improve your performance. Savoie says that podiums, for example, are not for hiding behind and should be reserved for presentations in front of audiences with at least 10 people. She also recommends remote pointers, to get salespeople away from their computers and alongside their audience.

Final analysis Knowing the most popular equipment, your place in the selling cycle and your level of skill should give you direction in your product selection. Still, these factors are just the tip of the iceberg. To invest your budget as wisely as possible, assess your typical presentation situation as thoroughly as possible. At Presentation Products Inc., says Savoie, consultants carefully survey clients on their needs before making recommendations.

“We ask about the product they sell, the size of their audience, the number of people involved, the typical presenters in their company and those presenters’ skill levels and trade,” Savoie says. “Are they engineers? Are they salespeople? Is it the company president? We also want to know what they are using to make presentations now, who their target customers are and where they usually make presentations, so we can think about the travel issues they may have. Of those factors, the most important ones include the physical presentation environment, who your customers are and what their key business issues are.”

A productive presentation, like a productive sale, serves the special needs of both buyer and seller. Bear in mind that you need a complete and accurate picture of your buyer’s needs, but to give your very best performance you must also consider your own needs.

Waves of the future
To help you make a better buying decision now, you might want to think about what tomorrow holds for the presentation product market.

Proving that bigger isn’t always better, Savoie predicts that as ultraportable projectors get smaller and smaller, their popularity will get bigger and bigger. She also notes that these projectors’ prices are shrinking along with their size, which only enhances their appeal. Savoie also points out a growing trend of companies designing rooms specifically equipped for presentations, which include an impressive array of all the latest and greatest toys and technology.

“A lot more businesses have a fully integrated presentation room where they’ll have a permanently installed projector, special lighting and audio, an interactive whiteboard and videoconferencing set up so they have all the latest technology available at their fingertips,” Savoie says. “That’s also a real showpiece – when clients come in they’re wowed by that room.”

Wowing – and persuading – customers is what good presentations are all about. Like well-made, tasteful clothes, the right presentation equipment flatters you, enhances your image and credibility and builds your confidence when you need it. Choose presentation products that clarify your statements, emphasize your main points and engage and inform your buyers, and you’ll make your message memorable.

Presentation Products is a complete presentation solutions company specializing in multimedia projectors, presentation training and multimedia presentation development. For more information, write 10349 Heritage Park Dr., Ste. #4, Los Angeles, CA 90670, call 1-800-722-6444, fax 562/ 946-8377 or email solutions@presproducts.com