Getting your message across at sales conference time.

Yep, it’s coming round to that time of year again. The Annual Sales Conference. Like an end of year exam, it’s an entire year’s planning crammed into a half hour presentation. So don’t waste it! A great strategy communicated badly is like playing Chinese Whispers. Rather than ‘Focus on the needs of your customer’, you could end up with ‘Porpoise only feeds on your fast hummer’. And no one wants to see that.

Here are four things to keep in mind in preparing for your sales conference.

1. Be empathetic

It’s easy to get caught up in corporate tactics. How and why are the company doing this? Of more value is, why should our staff do this? What’s in it for them, professionally and personally. Like branding your company, a well considered and designed brand for your conference should establish an empathetic connection with your colleagues, motivating them to follow through on your strategy for the next 12 months.

2. Keep it short, clear and impactful

Ten minutes is as long as most people can hold their attention on any one thing (brainrules.net). So it’s important to keep them emotionally invested in your presentation. One way to do this is to use produced video to pull at their heart strings, or make them want to leap out of their chair with excitement. Punctuating presentations with an emotional trigger through video or imagery can spare your colleagues conference whiplash*. 

3. Use visuals rather than text

When people hear information, three days later they’ll only remember 10% of it. Add a relevant picture and they’ll remember 65% (brain rules.net).

Take the time to generate relevant visuals to reinforce your message. Remove all but the key words from your powerpoint slides - or remove them all together and just show a clear infographic or image.

4. Wash, repeat

Ever heard of a theory called ‘Spaced Repetition’? It’s about repeating things at increasing intervals to cement long-term memories. You can use it to remember peoples names, but you can also use it to cement your key messages in the minds of your colleagues. Use soundbites on gameday, then follow up with the same relevant, branded content to ‘repeat’ the message. Emails, leave-behinds, even merchandise, can drive your messages home long after the last after-party canapés have been devoured.

– / –

Now’s the time to get in touch if you’d like us to give your strategic messages a boost, with event theming, presentations, video production, sales collateral or promotional items.

* Jolting of the neck muscles due to sudden awakening from sleep during a presentation.