WOW-style presentations or Surprise effect in sales of complex products

Every day, millions of digital presentations are shown around the world. Most of them fail to catch the attention of the target audience and only a few are remembered by the listeners. As many studies show, it is easiest to attract attention to a speech if it contains an element that breaks patterns. But where to find it? There is an answer.

In the current conditions of total quarantine, which were relaxed, then strengthened again, remote presentations and webinars have become of particular importance for business. Often, this is the only way to convey information about your product or solution to a potential consumer.

Of course, people rarely like boring meetings and long reports, preferring live communication with a specialist, but today it is increasingly difficult to provide it. And it’s not just health restrictions. Complex IT products are becoming more and more numerous every day. As a result, the specific load per each sales manager is increasing. Employees of a company have to work not only with an increasing number of customers but also with an increasing number of solutions that need to be sold. As a result, employees’ attention and efforts are scattered, and their competence in individual products is, on average, reduced.

Offline presentation — a waste of time?

A common solution to this problem is the preparation and distribution of thematic presentations to potential clients. However, as practice shows, this method does not work effectively. By themselves, presentations can rarely attract attention, and they are sent offline, on demand, and, with some delay. They are sent to customers who are already interested, missing out on a vast array of potential buyers who, say, went to a company’s website for informational purposes.

In addition, after viewing the presentation, if the proposed solution is really interesting, the customer must wait for a call or letter from the manager or contact the company on their own. This all leads to the loss of precious time.

Webinars are more effective when, after or during the speech, the audience can communicate with the speaker, ask questions of interest, and discuss the details of the product. However, there is a weak point here too — a webinar is usually available only at a certain time, which is not suitable for everyone. Of course, you can view the recording, but this is not too different from the usual offline presentation.

Is there a way to combine the benefits of online and offline communication and make the presentation as memorable as possible for the client? This is quite possible with the help of special SaaS services for remote presentations. Here’s how — let’s look at Pitch Avatar— a fresh development from the Austrian startup, ROI4CIO GmbH.

“Catch” the client in their natural environment

Let’s say you have a series of branded offline presentations on various IT products. How can you make them more lively and interesting?

First, you need to install a special application on your smartphone to manage presentations and communicate with clients.

 

Then, using a web application, you upload presentations to a special secure repository, after which you can record an audio commentary (script) for each slide that the user will hear.

 

Scripts can be both long and short, reflecting only the main points of the report. The listener can independently choose the duration of the presentation, which allows them to save time. For each recorded presentation, a link is generated that can be sent to potential clients.

 

So far, nothing seems out of the ordinary. But, here is where things get interesting.

When a potential client has received the link and opened the presentation, a notification is sent to the file owner/sales manager and they can connect to the report directly, using live audio and video streaming (text chat is also available).

Outwardly, it looks like the manager is communicating with the client right in the presentation and the banal slide viewing immediately turns into live communication without SMS and registration, without intermediate actions and loss of time.

 

As practice shows, such an approach provides the very WOW-effect that makes the presentation memorable. You do not limit yourself to sending links — presentations or reports can be posted on your own or partner sites. The effect is fully preserved and a potential client can be “caught” right when they are on your site.

 

Another useful life hack is that presentations can be placed, for example, in advertising articles or industry media news (in this case, presentations work like a video insert). As a result, it becomes possible not only to track the number of views or comments under the material, but also to interact with potential customers at when they are most interested in your product or solution. At the same time, lead generation is also provided.

The remote presentation service also improves the efficiency of webinars, which can now be “endless”. It is enough to place a recording of the report (in fact, this is the same presentation) and any listener who views it notifies the presenter. If the author of the report cannot answer right away, they will still receive a notification and can contact the potential customer as soon as they are able.

As a result, everyone wins — the customer receives live communication and answers to their questions right then and there, and the manager (and the company in which they work) attracts new contacts and potential customers. In addition, pre-recorded presentations help to reach a larger audience using fewer employees, and the combination of offline and online approaches in one cloud solution allows you to provide the WOW effect and make your sales presentation more memorable, making it stand out from the thousands of others.

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Аuthor: Igor Kirillov