Tool suggestions to jazz up a product demonstration?

July 14th, 2016

Hope everyone is well. Looking for tool suggestions to really spice up a product demonstration. For ppt presentation portion, Prezi, Slides, and Adobe Slate have been mentioned, but would love to hear not only additional thoughts on really making a slide deck pop and be impactful from a design perspective, but outside the box thoughts on creating intuitive and immersive product demonstrations for prospects, specifically for enterprise software platforms if context is helpful.

Thanks for your time and consideration and look forward to hearing your thoughts.

JG

Sardar Habib Visual Communicator and Presentation Designer ✔

July 14th, 2016

Being a designer with over 10 years on experience in visual communication, I will just say that it is not the Gun but the man behind the Gun, that matters. Innovation, creativity and Ingenuity of mind of designer can design anything extra ordinary. You don't have to merely depend on the tools. Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

Andrea Raimondi Computer Software Consultant and Contractor

July 14th, 2016

Put the right content in it.

Aaron Schmookler Company Culture Engineer / Change Management Improv Trainer / Keynote Interactive Speaker

July 15th, 2016

You are the presentation, not your slides. The sizzle should be in your style, your content, your ability to connect with the audience, your ability to highlight the benefits of the product. If people are paying attention to your slide transitions, you've lost their attention where you need it.

If anyone says, "that's cool," about anything other than your product, you're pitching the wrong product.

Good luck!

Leah Coss Director of Franchise Development at CYI

July 14th, 2016

Perspective and context is always a great way to help conversion. Reminding them of their current struggle or problem is key. Perhaps showing a contrasting deck or demo of their current options for solving the problem and highlighting the limitations of it. Then in contrast, show them your option and how it doesn't have those same limitations.

As well, if you are in a tradeshow environment, sometimes people will walk up part way through your demo or not want to engage with you at all. They like to look around by themselves and figure it out. So while you have a demo station that you are manually running, having a reel constantly rolling on the side of the booth showing what your program does with (not audio as it can get loud in there) but text on the video for them to read about the features and benefits while getting to see how it works.

Allan Behrens Managing Director at Taxal Limited

July 18th, 2016

A few pointers from my experience. Some of these mentioned before....

1) Try and demonstrate (or plan to) something that empathises with the audience's situation or market. People like to know that it's valuable in THEIR context.

2) No jargon, acronyms etc. Just because you know the latest buzz-words or TLAs, that doesn't mean that the viewer does.

3) Plan ahead. Make it simple (KISS principle) and produce a flow that not only covers the features, but does this in a logical way.

4) It's useful to have an agenda. If that's in print/PowerPoint/Prezi etc, then use that to show what you'll be showing and why. Then show them. Then circle back to the (1 slide) that summarises what you've shown them and seek agreement on what was achieved/valuable. This acts as an opportunity to seek agreement/close as well as uncovers any open questions or objections.

5) if possible, and dependant on the context, use multiple aids. Screen/Whiteboard/Visual prompts etc. A change of focus helps to break up lengthy discussions.

6) Seek feedback and ask open questions. Basics really.

7) And so on....

I used to run a course for my engineers to present the 'art' of presentation. We called it 'presentation skills training'. Not only was it well received by our tem, we also noted a significantly higher close rate, more engaged and satisfied audience, and more focused and incited tech team. (The latter did most of our demos).

Michael Bower B2B Ecommerce Consultant and Agency Owner

July 14th, 2016

Jesse to take a quick step back, what's making you feel the need to spice up the deck? I love the idea of a really nice flashy presentation approach, but I keep hearing that the 10-20-30 rule is the best to go with -- ultra simple. Pair that with a very to-the-point demo. Am I crazy? Michael Bower

Gonzague PATINIER Looking for new opportunities in ASEAN

July 24th, 2016

The context in which you use those product presentation is also important:

Is it for at a trade show in a possibly crowded environment?
Is it a self running demo, to send via email or view form the web site?
Is it for a one on one presentation?
Is it for a conference?

In any case, make sure the aesthetic aspect does not overwrite the content/message.

I got dizzy once, just looking at a Prezi presentation

Don Holtz Group President at Phoenix Marketing International

July 14th, 2016

There are products that make ppt, docx, and pdf files interactive such as Xcelcius. Don Holtz President Phoenix Marketing

Aaron Schmookler Company Culture Engineer / Change Management Improv Trainer / Keynote Interactive Speaker

July 15th, 2016

Jesse. Received and understood. Still, I think there's a minimum design standard you want to stay above, and then you're guilding the Lilly, at best. I've seen some beautifully designed presentations built on prezi -- they served either to camouflage a poor presentation, or worse, to distract from a great presentation.

Like good film lighting design, the best presentation slide / navigation design is invisible. It goes unnoticed. If no one thinks, yuck... if no one thinks, wow... about your design... Then you've got it dialed in. Work on a platform where you can effectively create something presentable without straining to get it done.

I hope that's a useful perspective to you.

Dimitrios Papagiannis Online Colorist at The Eye Lab

July 16th, 2016

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