Is that even possible? To have an entire team conduct stellar eye-popping presentations as a unit of one as if they’re Steve Jobs? To capture the minds and imagination of an entire audience and have the entire team be on one accord? Steve Jobs was once of the greatest corporate story tellers. In many cases, he was the show…not so much the iPhone.
Many organizations try to influence their salespeople to sell and present as individuals. They ask “What stellar presentation characteristics do you possess?” When the real question that matters is “What stellar team presentation characteristics do you possess?” Being able to incorporate Steve’s skills into a team presentation and emphasizing that will allow sales teams to close more deals. First lets discuss 6 ideals Steve Jobs stood by when presenting.
6 Actual Skills We Can Take Away From
Power of 3 – Steve Jobs always took high level topics and broke them down into three easy to digest points. Steve knew the number 3 was one of the most powerful numbers in the world of communications. Steve would always talk about “three new products” they had or talk about high level aspects of the new products in threes. Utilizing the power of three as a team can be very powerful when in sales presentations.
Who’s The Bad Guy? – This is better known as creating the Villain in your presentation. For Steve Jobs, their “bad guy” was the traditional phone that wasn’t so smart as the iPhone smart phone. If you’re in a real estate broker presentation and you’re presenting on a apartment investment you want to represent, the bad guy may be “the market” or “the rental rates.” Whatever your bad buy is, make it consistent and point to it throughout your presentation as it’s your team and your solutions that will rid the world and more importantly their life of this evil villain.
Simple Visual Slides – Keep your slides elegant yet simple and easy to digest. If you go through any of Steve’s past slides, they were for the most part incredibly easy for viewers to digest. Doing this requires creating consistency in both the presentation software tool you use as well as the branding and messaging your team wants to get across to the prospect. But simplicity typically wins the day over complex slides. The average PowerPoint slide has forty words. Think about that when you and your team are creating presentations.
Show The Passion – It was easy for Steve Jobs to showcase the passion for Apple. He created the company. But how can sales teams showcase their passion? By finding that northstar and thing that makes them tick about their job and what they ultimately want to achieve for the client or customer, they are able to portray strong positivie energy to the prospective client. They will for sure feed off of it. No more dry humorless monotone presentations. Just the change in inflection and tone can give off the pretense of an impassioned presentation.
Stories Win The Day – Tell more stories. Walk people though case studies and vivid success examples. No one better at corporate story telling than Steve Jobs. View many of his past presentations on YouTube and you’ll see. Before Jobs revealed the new phone, he spent a moment to review the history of Apple, telling a story that built up to the big event. Then he’d do the big reveal. That build may not matter to you, but usually it does matter even in pressure timed presentations. So if you can even spend a minute or two telling a good story that builds up to your what and why, you will capture the minds of your audience.
Practice Excessively – Know your presentation inside and out. Know what stories you’ll be telling when you’ll be telling them. How you’ll pass the mic to your partner and how/when you’ll take it from them. Steve Jobs knew every detail of every slide in his decks. Sales teams don’t do this enough because they’re embarrassed to admit they need it or they think other do need the practice but they don’t think they need the practice. If you practice excessively the way you present, your presentations will turn out amazing.
Getting Your Team On One Accord
So here is the trick. Take the six characteristics of Steve Jobs and pepper them throughout your team. Everyone must stay true to these ideals…..everyone. We’re not simply talking about one person being better than another at presenting. Everyone possesses innate presentation skills that may be better than others on the team. But adhering to team principles and utilizing the right presentation software the entire team is comfortable with will make the overall presentation shine. Whether the team goes out on a team presentation retreat or someone comes in to train the team, it’s not as difficult to get your team to present as a unit just like Steve Jobs.
Consider The Presentation Tools To Facilitate
The tool you use matters. There are plenty of options to choose from including the infamous Powerpoint. But presentation tools that facility collaborations and customizable graphics that are elegant yet simple will only make your presentations that much better. Of course we believe CustomShow is the right tool to accomplish that, but we also understand it’s not for everyone. If fostering strong team presentations with stellar graphics and team collaboration matters, CustomShow is the right tool for you.
Disseminate Across Entire Organization
Finally, you want to disseminate your tool and your principles to your organization. Imagine increasing your close rates by 10% or 20% simply by getting everyone on one accord. At the end of the sales funnel, the close matters the most. And ensuring everyone uses and is comfortable with your chosen presentation software matters just as much.
