What are the best tools and software for creating engaging Presales presentations and demos?

Quel que soit l'outil utilisé pour créer le support, trois principes fondamentaux sont à mettre en œuvre : 1- Soigner la forme : il faut accorder une attention particulière à l'orthographe et à la grammaire; et la présentation ne doit pas contenir l'intégralité du discours, c'est un support visuel pour accompagner l'argumentation. 2- Clarté et concision : Il faut opter pour des phrases courtes, des points clés et des éléments visuels afin de rendre le contenu facile à comprendre et mémorable. 3 - Présentation dynamique et attrayante : Il faut choisir des titres accrocheurs, un design épuré avec des polices lisibles, une palette de couleurs harmonieuse et des images/éléments graphiques de qualité.

I love using tools like Miro! Key benefits: Clarity: chunk intricate processes and concepts into digestible bits ⤑ easier understanding across all levels Easy to understand: visuals bridge language gaps ⤑ all stakeholders, regardless of native tongue, can follow and contribute meaningfully Prospect engagement: interactive features invite prospects to actively participat ⤑ sense of ownership and deeper involvement in the discovery process 💥 Bonus: see prospects fill in your discovery gaps for you. They may even suggest other stakeholders you have not considered! Open-ended interaction: strategic prompts within these diagrams ⤑ guide prospects to uncover and articulate specific challenges ⤑ more tailored and impactful solutions.

Temos várias soluções de apoio, como o Power Point, Canva,Prezi, Keynote(apple), até Google Slides para apresentações colaborativas. A escolha da melhor ferramenta dependerá de fatores como a complexidade da apresentação ou demonstração, o nível de personalização e interatividade desejado, e as preferências da equipe

This is what I am telling my team members: most people understand better when they SEE things in addition of HEARING them. Visual aids are a must. But in order to be effective, they need to be: 1. Easy to understand. A slide chock-full of verbiage won't do the trick! 2. Aesthetically pleasing. 3. To the point, and organized in a logical way. 4. And... flexible. A good visual aid should let you de-emphasize certain parts and emphasize certain other parts depending on the feedback that you gather from your audience DURING your presentation. (In other words, be attuned to the feedback you get from the audience. If you are putting them to sleep - STOP)

I have made a conscious effort to not use multiple screens when I do sales demos. Why?... I knew during the pandemic I didn't want to build a reliance on having multiple screens available when doing demos. This is because when things went back to being in person, you have no control over the setup in customer meetings. Thankfully nowadays; Zoom/Microsoft Teams/Google Meet have brought out functionality to share just your tab/window which has been a gamechanger for performing sales demos. One thing you want to avoid in a demo is your prospect not being able to see what you are showing them. A tip I have is to zoom in to the screen slightly and make your cursor a bit bigger to avoid this.

You've shared your screen. Now what? How are you going to direct your customer's attention? Don't let their eyes wander all over your demo screen. Using a screen annotation tool such as ScreenBrush brings focus, engagement, and dynamics to your presentation. I like to use it to highlight sections of the demo screen or presentation that I want my audience to focus on. The spotlight mode is pretty handy for this as well. There's more that you can do such as adding text. I don't use that. There are other similar tools such as Presentify and Epic Pen. Disclaimer: I don't benefit from the sales of any of these tools. You and your customers will benefit from better presentations :)

Not all demos and presentations can leverage surveys, polls, quizzes etc. The assumption here is that the demo is online rather than live. For live, YOU, the presales professional, YOU are the "feedback sensor". Take a look at your audience. Don't just talk TO them, talk WITH them. If they seem puzzled, ask if everything is clear. If bored, move on. If they lurch forward, then perhaps they want to know more. So, in other words, don't forget to monitor their feedback - verbal AND not verbal. And if you feel the feedback is not clear, ask questions. Sure, it may make you feel more vulnerable than just zipping through your demo or presentation. But only by querying feedback real-time can you be truly successful.

Collaboration and automation are vital to an efficient and effective presales practice - within the selling team and with prospects. Internal - streamline collaborative note-taking using Scratchpad, Google Docs/Word. These enable excellent scalability and will ensure smooth handovers - Work closely with AEs and CSMs on discovery, demos, and industry analysis External - Collaborate with your champion, employing tools like Miro for joint whiteboarding, filling discovery gaps, and understanding the value arc connecting functional users, LoB heads, and C-suite - Jointly fill out PoC documents to ensure mutually beneficial goals and a common sense of urgency Streamline your workflows and free up time to focus on your prospects' problems.

Customer stories are your MOST powerful tool in striking a balance between tech depth and value. They help you - form an emotional connection by humanizing the problem - establish relevance - preemptively handle some objections - differentiate your offering AND your sales approach from the competition _Practice storytelling with your presales team and with your AEs. Use simple frameworks such as CONTEXT > CONFLICT > RESOLUTION > TRANSFORMATION. When presenting to a Director or above, tell stories of how your solution helped their peers at other companies achieve lower spend, do more with a team, etc. When presenting to a practitioner, tell a story that helps them understand how their peers are able to do X faster or easier. Have fun!

The old adage is:"It is not the gun; it is the person behind it." While tools definitely help us, over-reliance on tools can be detrimental. You must leverage tools but don't use them as a crutch. Most people use PowerPoint very badly, but effective use of slides can be a great pre-sales tool. Remember, the customer is not buying the tool; the customer is buying from you. Why should they care about what you are telling them? They have not given you the time to read from the corporate boilerplate library. Tell them what you bring to the table and leverage different tools as necessary.