4-Minute Read
Marketing trends throughout the past 5-10 years have fluctuated immensely as the shifting winds of technology, society, lifestyles, consumer spending, and global influences drive change. From the first deployment of social media advertising to the introduction of artificial intelligence, trends have emerged and diverged as years pass by.
However, throughout this modern era of Marketing, one thing remains constant: the need for customization.
The need, then, is for sales and marketing teams to access and present real-time information for market segments defined by specific needs and interests. The Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing reports that three factors make sales presentations effective: knowledge, adaptability, and trust.
1. Knowledge
Organizations should do everything possible to make certain their salespeople not only have complete information about their products and their respective industries, but also know how to present both themselves and their knowledge in the most effective way.
2. Adaptability
A salesperson’s ability to ask and answer questions, to provide insightful knowledge, to collaborate, and build a long-lasting working relationship often determines whether a productive working relationship will ensue.
3. Trust
However, if salespeople engage in presentations they believe to be effective but that their customers – potential or established – do not, the salespeople risk defeating their purpose, hurting their company, wasting valuable resources and/or jeopardizing their futures.
To meet objectives for successful sales presentations, organizations face the additional challenges of training diverse individuals in their sales teams in branding, messaging, and presentation design, which requires costly and distracting sales meetings and the additional challenge of designing training that meets individuals’ learning styles.
Cloud-based presentation software, initially designed to level up static slide-based presentations, has evolved to give users a variety of tools that deliver the same results as training. How? Giving responsive, current, relevant content builds trust. Software technologies such as DIGIDECK give sales teams the content they need to customize every presentation using the latest knowledge for quick adaptability.
Make It Personalized
To meet objectives for sales presentations that make an impact on decision makers, organizations use cloud-based sales platforms like DIGIDECK to make customization possible. DIGIDECK works by giving presenters a full menu of options for tailoring content to specific client interests. Content is stored for ease of retrieval on-demand. By storing key messages and digital assets (videos, music, and image files, plus up-to-date positioning statements and value-driven marketing messages) teams stay on-brand and on-message. And viewers receive a personalized message.
Key customization categories are Assets, Styling, Copy, and Data Integration
Assets
Customization can range anywhere from simply putting custom logos on presentations while others “customize” all the way down to personalized brand colors and assets in each individual presentation. One of the first steps to customization is having an internal library of assets that match your brand guidelines. DIGIDECK provides a simple, centralized library for your image and video files, so your users always have access to the latest approved assets.
Styling
To overcome the roadblock of making prospects feel like they are just another sale, stylizing their individual presentations with their brand’s look and feel will show extra effort and help stand out to their audiences. Styling a presentation could be anything from adding a prospect’s company logo, to changing out backgrounds and colors to match their brand. This intentional attention to detail can prove that a rep did not just throw a presentation together quickly, and they actually spent time preparing.
Copy
A company’s brand stretches the span of colors and logos, all the way down to brand/company voice. When it comes to text/copy, keeping things consistent across the organization is key. To achieve this consistent voice across multiple sales reps and decks, provide them with approved copy with specific areas they can customize to adhere to their individual audiences. It can be as simple as fixed places to add in a company’s name within the copy to customize it for that presentation.
Data Integration
Are you leveraging CRM integrations and sales analytics within your presentation platform? Today, the sales process is all about automation. Having CRM integration capabilities will automate your sales process, save valuable time and will result in a shortened sales cycle, giving you more time to pay attention to customizing your sales approach.
With DIGIDECK’s Open APIs, connect to your CRM or any data source to automate data and deck creation. Automatically generate decks based on CRM data or feed data and information directly in your slides from any data source.
Customization increases the power of sales presentations by giving teams the current, relevant knowledge they need and tools for adapting to change when they need to. And they build trust so sales teams can present with confidence and audiences can see personalized solutions for themselves.
