INTRODUCTION
So you’ve gotten to the point in which you can have an in-person or virtual meeting with a sales prospect to discuss what you have to offer. It’s likely this is your one shot to win them over, or at least move them further down your sales funnel.
Here are some quick tips on how to improve your startup’s slidedeck for new customers.
LESS IS MORE
It’s very tempting to throw everything but the kitchen sink in your presentation. Too much information, however, will backfire on you. That’s because when you overwhelm your audience with information, they won’t remember anything. Instead, you need to hone in on 2-3 major points you want to make, and then drill down on them.
See if you can limit yourself to 8-10 slides. That includes a title slide, only one “About Us” slide (see next section) and possibly one case study.
Lastly, make sure not to put too much text on your slides (one obvious example is having full sentences on them). Even if you plan on leaving a copy of the deck with the prospect, key points are enough. Remember, you’re already explaining everything in the meeting. Plus, lots of text on a slide is not visually appealing.
MAKE IT ABOUT THEM, NOT YOU
Many companies mistakenly start their decks with numerous slides about themselves–namely, awards, personnel, board of directors, locations, history, etc. Most, if not all, of it, is irrelevant to your prospective customers. Instead, they want to learn how your technology will solve their problems.
A better way to impress your prospective customer would be to include a case study, walking through how you used your technology for a similar client. However, if you must include information about your startup, limit it to one slide. Ask yourself: do you really need to include any of the aforementioned information (e.g. personnel, locations, etc.)? Also, put the “About Us” slide at the end of the deck–it is certainly not important enough to put it at the beginning.