In this blog you will understand the art of team collaboration on presentations. We all know the importance of a presentation deck that speaks to the buyer and tells him not just want they want to hear but as important what you want them to hear and see.  But finding time to get an entire team together to create the perfect pitch deck can be both challenging and frustrating for each individual member.  Yes, you can assign someone to facilitate the coordination of the presentation but there will always be those who disagree with specific sections and even those who don’t want to have anything to do with it other than get up the day of the pitch and perform their part.

How can we create an environment that makes the coordination part of the process more efficient and smooth for all parties?  Based on our years of both designing presentations and creating a presentation software that fosters real collaboration, we have a few ways that can make the process of presentation ideation to pitch both efficient and successful.

Rid Yourself of the Powerpoint

We know that powerpoint has been around since the birth of Jesus, but there comes a point when old types of software no longer produce the advances that we believe are essential to presentations.  For starters, powerpoint does not provide an advanced cloud based solution the same way CustomShow and other presentation tools on the market may provide.  This stems beyond creating eye popping presentations.  If you want Bob to view an update of your presentation and suggest changes, would you rather tell him to go to the presentation in the cloud where he can still make those changes, or have you send him the updated pitch deck, make the changes via powerpoint’s track changes, and then you view his suggested changes which you need to accept?  Bottom line, in order to move forward you need to rid yourself of dead weight.  Time to move on to a new solution.

Go With A Cloud Based Solution

Cloud based solutions allow for another level of collaboration that non-based cloud solutions don’t.  View and change decks in the cloud.  Offer up notes and new things to add.  People are likely to be held accountable because they know anyone or assigned parties can view the updated deck at anytime thus creating speeding up the finished product.  The cloud is truly an efficient and even cost effective solution to foster the team collaboration that you are looking for…especially if you have your design team and sales team in on the same deck.

Save All Branded Assets To The Cloud

The other beauty of cloud based is not only changes to the deck but updated branded assets teams can use for future presentations.  If your design team has built an amazing library of branded assets anyone can access, this only allows for better collaboration as well as a better presentation.  Can you image many sales teams across an organization using different branded assets that are not consistent and on message.  This stems beyond the the team working on the deck, but it becomes even more powerful for the team coming together to produce a beautiful finished product.

Assign A Point Person

Many parties forget to do this but someone needs to accountable to getting the team to put their eyes on the deck and offer recommendations.  Someone needs to be fulfilling this task and believe or not this step alone will foster team collaboration.  This person will quarterback the process and keep everyone in line to finish the presentation. Using a cross platform calendar app, this person will ensure efficient scheduling and task management throughout the process.

Schedule Quick In-Person Meetings

Your assigned point person should also schedule quick in person meetings the week before the big pitch so ideas can be generated and extracted in real time versus in the cloud.  Again, we love the cloud but eventually those ideas that everyone poured into the deck needs to be discussed in person in order to change or continue with the deck strategy laid out in your initial meeting.

Improve The Deck Overtime

Finally, your team finished the presentation.  They gave the pitch and it went well but you know there is room for improvement.  Schedule a meeting immediately after the pitch and if appropriate have your point person take notes.  This will come in handy as the team lays out the strategy for the next presentation and overtime your pitches will get better, sharper and more effective.  Remember that presentations are not documents.   Presentations are experiences and that includes both the both and process of creating the presentation.

With every good presentation is a good presentation builder that fit the intricacies and identity of your organization. At CustomShow, we believe our presentation software can do just that.