Poor presentations cost companies sales, damage their reputations and waste executives’ time.

Here are some of the challenges we’ve been hearing about presentations this year:

• A major investments firm has everything going for them. Except for one thing – their competition has presentations that make them look like amateurs. And that’s enough to have them losing ground.
• A marketer at a major health insurer is concerned that their business is being represented differently by every broker making the pitch for it.
• The night before a major finals presentation, seasoned closers of an institutional investment company are tinkering with the photos.

Any of these sound familiar?

The good news is that we have three tips from the Field that can help. We’ve made these a part of our best practices, maybe you should too.

First, identify the unique DNA of your presentation.

Start by asking questions, lots of questions – the who, what, when, where and how. How skilled are the presenters? Who’s the audience? What are they really interested in? Every presentation is different. But the process to develop them is the same, and always begins with questions.

Second, personalize and customize.

You can make a core presentation appear brand new for every audience. In fact, there’s no reason not to. Today’s technology makes customizing content easier, and more cost effective, than ever. Consider modules, setup engines and databases that access content. This allows for updated text and numeric data while still keeping your presenter compliant and on-message.

Third, remember the three Rs: reuse, restore and recycle.

There are at least three ways you can repurpose content: by media and tactics; across business lines within your organization; and by the many market segments that you target. It’s a great way to budget-stretch and budget-share. How’s this for results: by engaging the three Rs, a client got 100% of what she needed on only 54% of her budget. This year demands that kind of thinking.

Want to know more? Invite us to give our seminar on Breakthrough Presentations and we’ll share with you the 8 essential marketing tips gathered from the Field.