How to Create a Product Presentation

Points to Consider
Before you even start building your presentation, be sure you know the following information:

Objective/call to action - At the end of your product presentation you want something to happen, either you want a customer to move forward to evaluate your product, your management to buy into what you are doing with the product, your sales people eager to sell your product, or an investor or your management to provide additional funding of your product.

Target audience - Who are you giving the presentation to? (Prospective customers, investors, management) What is their industry like right now? What are their needs and immediate concerns? What are their individual goals? Where is their pain?

It is helpful to write the above information down before building the product presentation so that you can go back and review it if you get stuck on any given point. You will want to refer to it later to make sure the presentation meets the objective and you will also need it for doing practice runs.

Once you have your basic product presentation, it can be modified for other presenters and other audiences, but it is important to have a target audience and a target objective when building the initial presentation. Failure to do so can result in a presentation that doesn't speak to the audience and one that is not focused on their needs.

Outline of the Product Presentation
The following is a basic outline for a product presentation. You will note that the maximum number of slides is twenty. Most sales calls allow 30 minutes for the formal presentation, at two minutes a slide, fifteen slides is the appropriate number. It is important to keep your presentation precise otherwise your point will be drowned out in detail.

1) Introduction - This is normally just a title slide where the speaker introduces themselves, and the point of the product presentation. This is where you want to hook your audience and tell them what is in it for them. If you are not going to be giving the presentation you may want to have a note slide with the point on it. (1-2 slides)

2) Agenda - An agenda is optional, but provides you with an your opportunity to tell your audience what you are going to cover in your presentation. It avoids people asking questions early in the presentation about material you will be covering later. (1 slide)

3) Company Information - This is a way to establish credibility and to make the audience feel comfortable with your company. Ways to do this include customer lists, high-profile executives or advisors, information on funding (if a private company), awards and major milestones. Don't spend too much time on this, you don't want your audience falling asleep. In fact, in my more recent presentations I have moved this to the back, after I have the audience's attention.

4) Positioning - Successful products have a unique technology or positioning that sets them apart from other products on the market. You want to introduce this aspect of your product up front to let your audience know how your product is different and why they should listen to the rest of your presentation. Use this as an attention getter. This should be done in terms of the problem that they have and that you are solving with your product. Be sure to present this in terms of your audience and their pain. Performing a positioning exercise prior to building your presentation is very helpful. This part of your presentation must be very crisp and to the point. (1-5 slides)

5) Product description - Clearly describe your product in terms that your audience will understand. It may be helpful to have a chart with the product components. You want to give the audience a frame of reference for the features and benefits that they are going to see. You also want them to know how your product fits into their existing environment. Show how the product interfaces with other products or systems they may be using. (1-2 slides)

6) Clearly articulated benefits as they relate to your target audience - You can use a features and benefits list or just walk through the features and benefits. Whatever you do, do not forget the benefits! They may be obvious to you because you live and breath the product, but your audience should have them clearly called out and they must relate to their needs. (1- 5 slides)

7) Examples/successes - At this point in the presentation your audience should be familiar with your product and why it is different and better. In order to drive this point home use examples of how your product is being used and how customers have benefited from the product. (1-3 slides)

8) Closing argument - This is your opportunity for a “call to action”. You want summarize your product presentation, reiterate the point of the presentation, and ask your audience to do something, if that is the point of your presentation.

Other Important Points
Use Examples
Use examples whenever possible. Examples help to illustrate your points and provide a frame of reference for those people in your audience that don't already have one.

Simplify
Keep slides as simple as possible. Lots of text on a slide makes it difficult to read and it loses its impact. Make sure the slides will be readable from the back of the room. If you are not giving the presentation, you may feel compelled to add more text to the slides - provide speaker's notes instead.

If you are using PowerPoint, don't get carried away with colors and many different transitions. Pick a format and stick with it so that you don't draw attention away from your subject.

One of the most effective presentations that I ever saw was done with a single clip art picture in the middle of each slide. The picture makes a point without drawing attention away from the speaker.

Easy-to-Read Fonts
A san-serif font (a font that does not have the little lines at the top and bottom, as in the headings of this document) is easier to read for bullets on slides.

Style
A presentation that uses the default PowerPoint fonts and lots of different primary colors looks like a presentation that was slapped together with little thought. Not everyone is a graphic artist, but you can learn some basic principles and apply them to your slides. Below are a few key points, but be sure to read Robin William's The Non-Designer's Design Book for more tips.

Use a presentation template and then use the colors from the template (or ones in the same family) for all charts and graphs.

Use alignment carefully. If your template is left or right aligned, use that alignment throughout the presentation.

Remove harsh lines. Powerpoint always puts a dark line around any box that you draw. These lines make the drawings look crude and harsh. By removing the lines your eye focuses more on the content of the box rather than the boxes themselves. Additional lines and arrows don't have to be dark either, try making them thicker and lighter so that they don't draw attention away from the point of the slide.

Provide Speaker's Notes
In order to keep the bullets on your slides concise; you may want to consider providing speaker notes to people that may be giving your presentation. If you do provide speakers notes, keep them short and concise and use bullets to make it easy to read. Remember that the more text you put on the speaker's notes, the less likely the speaker is to read it before the presentation. I can't tell you how many times I have seen a presentation where the speaker says, 'I think this slide is trying to say…'. Both the speaker and the marketing group that provides the presentation look bad.

If you are using PowerPoint, print the slides with the speaker's notes so that the presenter does not get the notes out of sync with the presentation.

Provide Handouts
You will probably handout copies of the slides. It is always nice to print the slides in a format where there is room for the audience to take notes.

You may want to use handouts in addition to providing copies of the slides. Often, to keep slides simple, you may compromise the ability for the viewer to use it as a reference later or you may have charts or back-up information that has too much detail to include in your presentation. In these cases it may help to include handouts and refer to them during your presentation.

Use Themes for Group Presentations
If there are a group of people presenting it is helpful to use a theme and weave it throughout all the presentations. This provides a sense of cohesiveness to the entire presentation.

A good agenda is an important part of group presentations. You want to introduce all the speakers and let the audience know the topic each speaker will be discussing.

Mark Confidential
If the presentation is confidential, don't forget to mark it confidential. Slides often get copied at customer sites and can easily end up in your competitors' hands.

When You are the Presenter
Practice your presentation. No one ever has the time to do it, but even if you are used to winging presentations, the following are the benefits of practice:

1) Your pitch will be more powerful, polished, and professional

2) You are more likely to accomplish your objective

3) You look better

There is nothing worse then watching a presenter bring up a slide and then try to interpret it as if this is the first time they are seeing it. The slides are to support your presentation. I will often give the presentation to a practice audience within the company first before giving it to an external audience. You will get some great suggestions from people who have a slightly different perspective. This is especially true if you can give your pitch to a different department. I have found that giving a product presentation to the engineering group will provide some great insights. Before you give your presentation to a practice audience, be sure to go over the "Points to Consider" above with your audience so that they understand your objective, target audience, and that target audience's perspective.

Additionally you should add slides that talk specifically to your audience. Identify the issues and problems that they are dealing with or tell them about how their competition is doing something. Then show them how your product will provide them with a competitive advantage.

Other helpful hints:

Use gestures to make things visual and clear.

Use an expressive voice to emphasize points and show your enthusiasm for your product.

Always stand, even when you are talking to a small audience. Standing projects more energy.

Use highlights or colors on charts to emphasize an important point. (Though don't over use this, and don't use red unless you want to set off alarms.)

Use controversy - It is sometimes useful to start your presentation with a controversial statement to grab your audience's attention.

Use metaphors to help with visualization.

Make sure you have a smooth verbal transition between slides for a very polished presentation. (This is where the practice really pays off.)

Product Presentation Checklist

2.

Writing a Technical White Paper or Whitepaper
Overview and Objective
Every new technology has barriers to entry. Often times these barriers are based on myth or inaccurate facts that have been presented in the media. Some times the barriers are based on real world experience of customers using similar technologies. Other times a truly new technology comes along that addresses a problem in a different way. In all cases, it is incumbent upon the vendor to educate prospects, analysts, and the press about the technology or a new approach to solving the problem. The objective of the technology "Whitepaper" or "White Paper" is to make an argument for a technology or approach and educate the reader as to why the argument is valid.

Requirements
A white paper can be of varying length, usually from four pages to twenty. Anything longer probably won’t hold the reader’s attention.

The white paper should be formatted into small sections with clear titles for easy reading. Most white papers won’t be read from cover-to-cover but rather skimmed for information that is important or educational to the reader.

Outline
The outline of a white paper varies drastically depending upon the content. The following is an example outline:

1) Overview – The initial argument is stated in some detail.

2) Key points – A listing is provided of the

facts and statistics to back up the argument. This is where the technology is explained.

3) Examples – Real world examples of applying the technology. Examples allow the reader to visualize how the theory presented applies in the real world.

4) Summary – A re emphasis of the initial argument pulling in a summary of the facts and examples.

Helpful Hints
The following are some points to keep in mind as you build your white paper:

1) Remember your point. Identify the point of your paper before you start writing the white paper and write it down. It is easy to get off on tangents when talking about technical subjects. Remember the point of your paper, from the opening paragraph through to the summary, and make sure that each section talks to this central point

2) Use metaphors, but make sure they appeal to a wide audience. Metaphors are a good way to help make your point, but be sure they will be understood by your target audience. For example, a metaphor that references the US government may not be understood by an international market.

3) Talk to your competitors weaknesses. Though it is not necessary to mention your competitors by name, it will be helpful to your positioning if you call out the strengths of your product over your competitor’s products.

4) Don’t talk in a negative tone to your audience. In calling out problems it is easy to slide into talking negatively about the people who created them. For example, the following sentence is very negative: “Corporate bureaucrats often make their business processes far more complex than necessary.” Your audience will probably not directly relate to the sentence. Someone reading this from a company with highly complex business processes would understand that their processes are complex, but also understands that they became complex for a reason. They may feel that you don’t understand their company and they may also take offense. A better way to word this would be, "Corporations often have highly complex processes that have evolved over time for a number of varied reasons. Many of these reasons may no longer be valid, leaving business process far more complex than necessary." This is a sentence that most everyone in any company can relate to.

5) Try to control the length of the paper. Very few people will read through a 30-page white paper. They will, however, scan the headings and diagrams and read the sections that they feel are relevant to them.

Packaging
The white paper should be just that, printed on white paper and a clean format for easy duplication and the ability to e-mail as text. It should include diagrams or illustrations that help make points. It may be stapled or bound for easier reading. It should be included in press kits, used for a handout at trade shows, and be made available on the web site in both PDF format for download and html for on-line reading. PDF may also be desired if there are lots of graphics.

Process
Here is a basic process for writing White Papers:

1) Agree on objective of white paper.

2) Define the target reader of the white paper.

3) Interview key people in the company on their insights and opinions of the topic.

4) Interview customers or the target market on their issues and insights.

5) Gather data sheets, MRDs, competitive data, and functional specifications for back-up information.

6) Write a first draft.

7) Review first draft with technical resource and a sales resource.

8) Write second draft.

9) Review second draft with product manager, engineering, and management.

10) Review the draft with a customer or prospect to make sure that you are talking at the right level.

11) Write and review final draft.