Avoiding Cheesy Pictures in your sales presentations
What makes a picture cheesy? Three things:
- An artificial setting that portrays a situation your client would never encounter in everyday life
- People who are constantly smiling, regardless of the situation they find themselves in (in a meeting, in front of a computer, etc.), or who are looking into the camera lens… or better yet, a combination of the two
- Poorly mastered exaggeration: if a real situation is exaggerated to the point where it no longer feels realistic, it often ends up being corny instead of effective.
Cheesy images like these are ridiculous and only provoke derision, whereas the goal of your presentation is to inspire your client by creating inspiring analogies. Choose images that will engage the right brain, the emotional side. Suggest emotion: if not laughter a least a smile, admiration, fear, joy, sadness, tenderness. It is best to stay rooted in reality to connect the client with the known, everyday realities of real life. Use analogies, from outside the business world whenever possible, to activate the right brain and the imagination and engage the client’s attention. Opt for realistic photos to help the client connect with your sales presentation.
For instance:
See this news in French: http://presentations-de-vente.com/comment-eviter-les-images-niaises-dans-vos-presentations-commerciales
jfmessier
PowerPoint and sales: How to get the best out of the new technologies and make your presentations great. My approach to great sales presentations is based on three-pronged experience:
- 30 years of experience in and passion for sales: 16 years of B2B, retail, and pharmaceutical laboratory sales, and 14 years of consulting at Mercuri International, where I have trained some 5,000 sales representatives, as well as over 500 sales management executives.
- My experience with new technologies: As New Technologies Director for Mercuri International, I now travel to some 25 countries to implement the best that technology has to offer in terms of sales development.
- The example of the world’s best communicators:
Thanks to all those whose publications and presentations inspire me a little more each day:
- Garr Reynolds: The master of modern communication, he has influenced me the most. An American living in Japan, he is an internationally-renowned communications expert and the creator of the most popular website on presentation design, presentationzen.com. He has also authored a book of the same name, as well as several other books.
- Steve Jobs: It’s not his engineering skills that make him so indispensable for Apple … it’s his extraordinary ability to sell its products. Steve Jobs is one of the most captivating salesmen in the world.
- Nancy Duarte heads Duarte Design, one of the largest design and woman owned firms in Silicon Valley. Her client list includes the largest Fortune-500 companies, such as Adobe, Cisco, Google and Hewlett-Packard.
- Carmine Gallo is a communications coach who is passionate about the techniques Steve Jobs uses to captivate his audience.
- Phil Waknell: Philippe Waknell is the founding co-director of Paris-based Ideas on Stage, one of France’s best presentation companies. His “Phil presents” blog is a marvel of inspiration, originality and simplicity.
- Guy Kawasaki is an American born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Ex-Apple, he was one of the first directors of marketing at Apple, where his mission was to create a community of passionate users and defenders of the Apple brand.
- Seth Godin was vice president of direct marketing at Yahoo. He has written twelve books that have been translated into over 30 languages. All were best sellers. American Way Magazine calls him “America’s Greatest Marketer”.
- Olivia Mitchell is a presentation trainer based in Wellington, New Zealand. Her blog “Speaking about presenting” is a rich resource.
- Hans Rosling, a professor of international health at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, is the Zen master of presenting statistics when it comes to making sense and telling a story.
- Doctor John Medina is a molecular biologist focused on the genes involved in brain development. He is the author of several books, including the New York Times bestseller Brain Rules, which decodes how the brain processes and assimilates information.
- John Sweller is an Australian psychologist known for formulating the theory of cognitive load. He has authored over 80 scientific publications, mainly on cognitive factors, with specific emphasis on the implications of working memory limitations.
