Today we share with you the recommendations of Göttingen Luke (Luke Goetting) -
a recognized expert on creating business presentations, Director Puffingston Presentations agency.

But let's start with the words of Jill Konrath , an expert on integrated sales strategies.

She describes the scale of the disaster as follows:

“ 95% of the presentations that I happened to see (or maybe even more)
actually REDUCE the chances of success . They are long and completely dedicated to the seller company, its products, its services. Blah blah blah".

You must have experienced the pain of working with traditional PowerPoint slides more than once:

a linear presentation - with a predetermined sequence of display - simply does not correspond to the dynamics of live communication with customers . 

As a result, the choice arises: to show all the slides that are, in the order in which they exist, or to completely abandon them.

But what if the slides were more ... interactive ?

What if you could easily switch to the content that is most interesting to a potential client? This is precisely the concept of interactive, non-linear slides .

Simply put, instead of one long story, you get a set of mini-presentations and choose the right one based on the interests of the interlocutor.

This eliminates the need to show all slides in order. Just use the navigation menu (as on websites or in mobile applications) and use it to jump to one or another part of the presentation.

Such an interactive approach gives an optimal result : relevant and interesting to the interlocutor slides that only complement your dialogue with him, and do not predetermine his course.

Here are three examples of using non-linear slides for a more natural presentation:

1. If your company works in three main areas , put them on a separate slide and let the interlocutor choose the one that is of the most interest. Then go to the appropriate slide set.

2. If you have a “success story” that perfectly answers the client’s question, go to the slide with all such stories and select the one you need.

3. If the meeting time is coming to an end, go to the call-to-action section and complete the deal.

Well, in general, you understand.

How to make interactive slides?

You can implement slide navigation in any presentation editor. It’s not difficult at all - no special add-ons will be required.

In PowerPoint , Google Slides and Keynote, you can turn any text, shape, and generally anything into a navigation button using a hyperlink - just in this case, it will direct you not to an external site, but to other slides within the same presentation. Voila!

The Prezi editor is still simpler, since it originally provides for grouping content into separate sections that you can click on.

How to optimize content for a non-linear presentation?

To begin with:

• analyze how your meetings with potential clients usually go (or how you would like them to go);
• determine at what stages it is best to seek the inverse relationship of the interlocutor.

The starting point, of course, is a slide with a list of your goods and services: 

“Which of these services are you most interested in?” Excellent!"

Scroll to the desired section with one click.

Other reference points:

• Level of detail: start with a small portion of content for a given item (about 5 slides). Then evaluate whether the person you are interested in is receiving more detailed information or is it better to move on to another topic.

  
  

• Type of personality of the interlocutor:  it is easier to convince some clients with the help of detailed statistics, others with the help of more conceptual, strategic things. Personalize the content for each of these roles.

  
  

• Industry:  Do not waste time preparing (and keeping up to date) numerous presentations for each of the industries with which you work. One document is enough with separate sets of "industry" slides and the ability to navigate through them.

  
  

• Success stories:  why limit yourself to one pre-selected example? Let them all be at hand. Then you can choose on the go the one that will cause the greatest response from a particular interlocutor.

  
  

• Frequently asked questions:  not yet ready to use an interactive approach for the main part of your presentation? Save it for slides with the most frequently asked questions and answers to them - so you will definitely be fully equipped!

  
  

Interactive slides simplify the task of substantiating the value of your product or service for a particular client. If earlier during the presentation you were forced to rely only on pre-acquired information, now you can adapt on the go and redistribute emphasis if necessary.

If earlier you had a dozen versions of the same presentation (after all, each meeting required its own), now you will have only one version , but you can present it in a dozen different ways .

And finally, if earlier you rushed through 20+ slides in a hurry and only then asked for feedback from the interlocutor, then now you can get his feedback right in the process and adjust accordingly.

Jill Conrat interviews with Luke Gotting as part of the Engaging Presentations video series

Luke Getting talks about interactive slides