User Friendly

Technically challenged sales professionals can finally breathe a collective sigh of relief. No longer must presentations feature the latest and greatest high-tech tools. These days, an increasing number of salespeople are trading in their high-priced and over-hyped gadgets for user friendly and cost-effective gear.

It’s a turn of events prompted by a tough economy and tightened budgets, according to Julie Terberg, owner of Terberg Design, a Michigan-based company that creates custom presentation solutions. She says, “People are now more focused on content and getting the right message out there versus how slick they can make their presentations.”

A slashed expense account isn’t the only reason so many salespeople are opting for simplicity. For years, the market remained flooded with high-tech gadgets promising to practically deliver your presentation for you. As a result, a digital wedge was driven between presenters and their audience members. Prospective customers complained about feeling overwhelmed by a presentation’s bells and whistles, while sales professionals struggled to better connect with their customers.

But now all that is changing. Cliff Atkinson, president of consulting firm Sociable Media, says that a “high-tech backlash” is gaining ground as salespeople grow increasingly tired of incorporating cutting-edge gadgets “at the expense of the core message they want to get across.”

The dawning of this new presentation era, however, hasn’t exactly heralded a return to flipcharts and leviathan-sized projectors. Rather, tech tools that are easy to use and stress free are gaining in popularity. User friendly projectors, everyday video camcorders and plug-and-play presentation displays are sending complicated, highly sophisticated tools in the direction of the dinosaur.

All of which comes as a relief to Scott Trenter. Sales and marketing manager at Sonora Quest Laboratories, Trenter spends the better part of his work days in the field, helping his sales reps pitch the company’s laboratory services to health-care professionals. Trenter’s prospective customers are typically overworked and strapped for time – a situation that doesn’t leave much room for setting up and fumbling through tech-heavy presentations.

“Oftentimes, you can get only five to 10 minutes with physicians, so you’ve got to be able to communicate quickly and concisely and get your major message across, because if you don’t in that small time frame, it might be a few months before you get another opportunity,” says Trenter.

Aside from limiting his presentation technology to a standard laptop-Power Point combination, Trenter says that he has been taught that low-tech tools can also serve as important preparatory aids. The teacher, in this case, is Ellen Kaye, founder of the consulting firm Perfect Presentation and author of Maximize Your Presentation Skills: How to Speak, Look and Act on Your Way to the Top (Prima Lifestyles, 2002). Trenter hired Kaye to help him prepare for an important interview with Sonora Quest Laboratories’ top executives.

Rather than arm Trenter with a whole host of sophisticated gadgets, Kaye videotaped two eight-hour sessions during which Trenter practiced elocution, answered questions and employed nonverbal communication techniques. By using a video camcorder, Trenter was able to closely examine his presentation style and address any flaws.

(One such popular camcorder is the Sharp VL-Z3U MiniDV Camcorder. With a free-angle range of 225 degrees, users can simply swivel the device to shoot from both high and low angles.)

Kaye believes that low-tech tools can actually strengthen a sales professional’s selling skills by shifting the focus from distracting gadgets to a presentation’s more human elements.

“Low tech does not mean low end or low expectations,” says Kaye. “Low tech puts more emphasis on the presenter, the content, the delivery, the entertainment value and the presenter’s image and voice.”

In addition to eliminating unnecessary distractions, easy-to-use presentation tools can help build a presenter’s overall confidence. Many gadgets call for greater compatibility among disparate machines, added extension cords, extra battery power and practically a Ph.D. in arranging color-coded wires. Having to accommodate all of these high-tech specifications can cause a presenter to become flustered and frustrated.

Just ask Dave Paradi, president of Ontario, Canada-based consulting company Communicateusingtechnology.com. “With an ultrahigh-tech device, salespeople often become fearful that it’s going to break, and that fear shows up as hesitation,” Paradi says. “The audience senses your hesitation but interprets it as hesitation about your product or your offer. For sales, that’s absolutely deadly.”

Easy-to-use tools, on the other hand, can create a heightened sense of control and excellence. But it’s not just user-friendly presentation gear that can bolster a sales professional’s stage presence and credibility. Sometimes, all it takes is the flick of a switch to impress audience members.

Take Interlink Electronics’ RemotePoint Navigator 2.4. Boasting a 50-foot radio frequency range, this wireless remote control allows users to advance slides no matter where they’re standing or which way they’re facing in the room. But most impressive is the device’s ‘black-out’ function, which allows a presenter to darken a display screen when a particular slide isn’t pertinent at the moment. It’s a convenient feature that not only promises to enhance a presentation, but also can distinguish sales professionals from their high-tech gear-toting competitors.

Says Atkinson of Sociable Media, “If a salesperson is looking to stand out from the crowd, to be refreshing, to knock down barriers, to break the ice, doing something as simple as blacking out their PowerPoint is major.”

Still, there are those who, despite high-tech tools, simply aren’t doing their part to create seamless presentations. According to Terberg, many presenters fail to discriminate when it comes to determining content. While features such as video clips can add flash, too many multimedia bells and whistles and text-heavy slides can lead to overkill and confusion.

“It’s important that you don’t saturate a presentation with too much content,” says Terberg. “A presentation needs to be crisp and to the point, so that it’s not overwhelming for the client.”

Sales professionals aren’t the only ones to blame for complicating matters. Many presenters complain that manufacturers haven’t done enough to ensure that the tools they develop are easy to use. What’s more, some manufacturers have sacrificed quality in the race to make presentation tools as small and as lightweight as possible.

Paradi points to recent incarnations of the microprojector as a prime example. He says that many of today’s microprojectors are so weak that “the only way to properly see your images is to close all the windows and turn off all the lights.” As a result, presenters are unable to actually see the faces of their audience members and gauge feedback. For this reason, Paradi recommends using projectors that boast a minimum of 1,100 lumens.

One example of a projector that is both lightweight and powerful is Boxlight’s SP-48z. Weighing in at a mere 6.6 pounds and projecting 1,400 lumens, this projector delivers crisp images and includes features such as digital zoom and keystone adjustments for hassle-free imaging.

In fact, there are manufacturers who do an excellent job of listening to the needs of today’s sales professionals. Just ask Mike Bogle. Bogle is a salesperson at GC Video, an Albuquerque, New Mexico-based company that has been selling SMART Technologies’ Sympodium interactive pen display ID250 for nearly two years. He says that the ID250’s combination of high-tech features and user friendliness has been a huge draw for customers.

For example, SMART Technologies recently added on-screen function buttons to the ID250 to make it easier for users to access features such as the on-screen keyboard and screen-capture tool which lets a presenter capture annotations while presenting. Users need only touch the screen with the pen to control computer applications and write electronic notes. And handy pen-tool buttons allow users to change ink color or use the eraser without crowding the display with distracting tool bars. In fact, so simple is the display that Bogle says users “can run a presentation on the ID250 with no training at all.”

Another manufacturer that has worked hard to make technology easy for presenters is Alliance International. The company recently introduced the Digital Class Tablet PC. What’s impressive about the device is that it comes bundled with special software designed for presenters. The DC-TPC includes software that lets users easily annotate over any image on the monitor and features electronic-whiteboard functions, drawing tools, a pressure-sensitive highlighter and the recording of voice and notes in a compressed file format that can be posted to the Web or emailed.

By combining Digital Class software with a Tablet PC, Alliance has not only granted presenters the convenience of a Tablet PC and an easy-to-use device, but also has transformed the Tablet PC from a note-taking device into a powerful presentation tool.

Regardless of a gadget’s size, weight, or technical sophistication, the power of a presentation ultimately hinges on the skills of the presenter. Using the right tools can help eliminate distractions, instill confidence and create a semblance of control. But if sales professionals fail to focus on such human elements as communication techniques, building a connection with the audience and presenting clear and concise content, even the easiest-to-use tools will prove useless.

Says Perfect Presentation’s Ellen Kaye, “The magic is in the message, not in the media.”