Monday, October 20, 2014

The 5th Immutable Tip for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations

3 comments :

PowerPoint is the easiest platform to use. It is the de-facto software for presentation most businesses use. However, many people are still unaware of its full potential. (Attend our seminar to master the art of creating and delivering effective PowerPoint presentations.)

Here, I am going to present to all my readers the 5 immutable tips you can use to enhance the effectiveness of your PowerPoint presentations (with a step-by-step approach).

Now, let’s first have a look at #Tip 5. In case you missed the #Tip 4, it’s here.

#Trick 5- Turn Square Images Into Custom Shapes

We all know how important it is to use photos in your marketing (maybe you downloaded our recent stock photo collection, perhaps?), but do you know how to customize them? Make them fit into your favorite shapes in PowerPoint -- all with just one click.

Crop-to-Shape:
1) Click on the image and select 'Format' in the options bar.
2) Choose 'Crop,' then 'Mask to Shape,' and then choose your desired shape. Ta-da! Custom-shaped photos.

What other PowerPoint tricks do you keep up your sleeves? Share them with us in the comments below!

Also attend our seminar on “Creating and Delivering Effective PowerPoint Presentations”. Hope to see you there! | Know more



The 4th Immutable Tip for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations

No comments :

PowerPoint is the easiest platform to use. It is the de-facto software for presentation most businesses use. However, many people are still unaware of its full potential. (Attend our seminar to master the art of creating and delivering effective PowerPoint presentations.)

Here, I am going to present to all my readers the 5 immutable tips you can use to enhance the effectiveness of your PowerPoint presentations (with a step-by-step approach).

Now, let’s first have a look at #Tip 4. In case you missed the #Tip 3, it’s here.

Trick 4#- Having trouble aligning all your items at the right place? Here’s the key!

You can manually try to line up your images, but we all know how that works out. You're trying to make sure all of your objects hang out in the middle of your slide, but when you drag them there, it still doesn't look quite right. Get rid of your guessing game and let PowerPoint work its magic with this trick.

How to align objects to each other-
1) Select all objects by holding down 'Shift' while clicking on them.
2) Select 'Arrange' in the top options bar, then choose 'Align or Distribute.'
3) Choose the type of alignment you'd like.

How to align objects to the slide-
1) Select all objects by holding down 'Shift' while clicking on them.
2) Select 'Arrange' in the top options bar, then choose 'Align or Distribute.'
3) Select 'Align to Slide.'
4) Select 'Arrange' in the top options bar again, then choose 'Align or Distribute.'
5) Choose the type of alignment you'd like.
Click here to discover The 4th Immutable Tip for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations.

Want to learn more on conceptualizing, creating and delivering effective PowerPoint presentations? Register for our seminar | Know more

Hope to see you at the seminar!


The 3rd Immutable Tip for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations

No comments :

PowerPoint is the easiest platform to use. It is the de-facto software for presentation most businesses use. However, many people are still unaware of its full potential. (Attend our seminar to master the art of creating and delivering effective PowerPoint presentations.)

Here, I am going to present to all my readers the 5 immutable tips you can use to enhance the effectiveness of your PowerPoint presentations (with a step-by-step approach).

Now, let’s first have a look at #Tip 3. In case you missed the #Tip 2, it’s here.

Trick 3#- Having trouble with pesky background problems? Save only the slide components

One of my clients wanted to make a presentation for a brand. However, he was facing trouble when he tried to save every slide as an image. Doing this he found unwanted background colors and other background problems. Hence, it deterred the process of making versatile images in the PowerPoint presentation. I suggested this tip and it worked well!

Save as image-Follow the steps below:

1) Select all items by holding 'Shift' while clicking on the items.
2) Do right click; select 'Grouping' & then 'Group.'
3) Do right click on the entire group and then choose 'Save as Picture.' Boom, no white space at the back!
Click here to discover The 4th Immutable Tip for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations.

Want to learn more on conceptualizing, creating and delivering effective PowerPoint presentations? Register for our seminar | Know more

Hope to see you at the seminar!



The 2nd Immutable Tip for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations

2 comments :

PowerPoint is the easiest platform to use. It is the de-facto software for presentation most businesses use. However, many people are still unaware of its full potential. (Attend our seminar to master the art of creating and delivering effective PowerPoint presentations.)

Here, I am going to present to all my readers the 5 immutable tips you can use to enhance the effectiveness of your PowerPoint presentations (with a step-by-step approach).

Now, let’s first have a look at #Tip 2. In case you missed the #Tip 1, it’s here.

#Tip 2- Having trouble making everyone understand your presentation’s theme? Use the Slide Master

Many have complained about how difficult it is to have everyone on same page. For instance, many of my colleagues expressed difficulty to get the marketing team understand the core theme or idea while developing slide shares for a brand. Well, here’s the key to let your branding commence without any hassles.

The Slide Master! Follow the below steps-

1) Choose 'Themes' on top navigation bar.
2) Click 'Edit Master on far right, then click 'Slide Master.'
3) After making changes of your choice, click 'Close Master.' Now all your current as well as future slides will use the template you’ve selected. (This will make it easy for everyone concerned to understand the core theme or idea of your presentation easily!)
Click here to discover The 3rd Immutable Tip for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations.

Want to learn more on conceptualizing, creating and delivering effective PowerPoint presentations? Register for our seminar | Know more

Hope to see you at the seminar!



The 1st Immutable Tip for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations

No comments :

PowerPoint is the easiest platform to use. It is the de-facto software for presentation most businesses use. However, many people are still unaware of its full potential. (Attend our seminar to master the art of creating and delivering effective PowerPoint presentations.)

Here, I am going to present to all my readers the 5 immutable tips you can use to enhance the effectiveness of your PowerPoint presentations (with a step-by-step approach).

Let’s first have a look at Tip 1.

#Tip 1- Having trouble with distorted images? Get your background customized!

Have you ever felt the pain of creating an infographic and then it does not fit correctly in the slide’s default size? Probably yes. Now you can easily unhinge yourself from such clutches of PowerPoint slides by embracing customized background of your choice.

To change the background size, follow the steps below-
1) On the slide’s top-left corner, select 'File.'
2) Choose 'Page Setup.'
3) Type in the required height as well as width of the background you need. Click 'OK.'
4) Click 'OK' again as the dialogue box appears.
5) There it is, your customized background is ready!

Note- It’s good to resize your slides prior to adding any objects, otherwise your objects will appear distorted.
Click here to discover The 2nd Immutable Tip for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations.

Want to learn more on conceptualizing, creating and delivering effective PowerPoint presentations? Register for our seminar | Know more

Hope to see you at the seminar!


Thursday, October 16, 2014

How To Identify and Strengthen The Financial Benefits of Your Solution?

7 comments :
Take help-
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Take help from your sales representatives and marketing teams for existing ROI case studies, calculators, graphs or other related material to get started.

Keep it easy-
The proposal should be compelling as well as easily understandable. I recommend creating a spreadsheet containing maximum 7-15 rows. Above this limit, it becomes confusing to anyone except the most technical buyers.

Attain an agreed analysis-
Both parties must co-author see eye-to-eye on the potential financial benefits. The analysis need not be perfect, nor should it be binding.  However, it does need to estimate the financial benefit to give your buyer a clear understanding of the magnitude of the benefit of your exclusive solution.

Consider all the possible scenarios-
This refers to considering all the possible worst scenarios. It helps to enhance your value proposition which is the value created from your solution. You’re able to enhance your solution’s value proposition by examining the entire “pain chain” from the buyer’s perspective. This pain chain refers to the all the possible chain of incidents or events which may occur if things go wrong.

Illustration-

For instance, in future there can be a missed shipment of auto components to a supplier. As a result the supplier may fail to provide the required components to the respective auto company thus causing a rippling effect.

However, even in such adverse scenarios, you give the buyer an assurance of a back-up plan which will prevent the client from the ripple effect. For instance, in the same example, if the supplier has multiple suppliers of the same components then there won’t be any such hassles!

This kind of approach will take you a long way in building a credible, trusted and valuable client base which will act as a rich source of revenues for any business!

Attend IAM’s seminar to enhance your various professional skills | Know more

The 2nd Immutable Rule Of Sales Negotiation To Remember

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Attend IAM's seminar to master the art of sales negotiation and selling | Know more
After several years of working around sales negotiation, I have come to realize 2 essential rules of sales negotiation which I want to share with you.
In this article, I am going to reveal the 2nd immutable rule of sales negotiation. You can browse through the 1st immutable rule of sales negotiation here.

Note- This is also applicable to all kinds of business negotiations other than sales negotiation.

After reading this article which includes easy-to-understand illustrations you’ll be able to achieve a win-win negotiation deal!

#Law 2- Knowing the financial benefit of your solution-

Unawareness of the financial benefit that your solution will provide to the other negotiating party will put you in a defensive situation. It will make you the underdog thus forcing to defend your price by offering discounts to enhance value. However, no negotiating party whether in sales negotiation or other type of negotiation would enjoy being in such a vulnerable position.
Hence, it’s essential to determine your solution’s financial benefit to prevent yourself from such losing situations.

Remember- Numbers talk. When you know the financial benefit you’ll be able to achieve a win-win deal by driving a compelling reason of profitability to both the parties.

So how is this done? You’ll understand as you read forward.

How to present one’s financial benefit of a solution?

There are 2 proven methods of conveying a solution’s financial value which you can use-
#Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) –

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) conveys, “My solution will cost less in terms of usage and implementation than the competitors.”

TCO focuses on cost factor and not your solution’s unique value which it creates. Now there’s a catch! You do not want your buyers to compare your solutions in terms of TCO. This may put you in a situation where you no longer compete based on the value proposition of your solution.

Hence, the buyer will make decisions based on cost. And the best manner to enhance the TCO is by lowering the price further, a situation nobody wants to be in.
#Return on Investment (ROI)-

ROI terms to be a better option as it focuses the attention on the value proposition. By quoting a yearly or a monthly benefit to buyer, you assure him a payback within certain period of time. This is much more appealing due to the predictable and measurable factors it consists of.
Illustration-

Say your solution helps the client to save or earn $25,000 every month. Your total solution cost is $100,000. Therefore, the payback period is 4 months. In this way you present a measurable solution which the client will always feel safer to go with!

The major salient feature of the ROI system is that you’re able to convey how much value will be created through your solution over a period of time. This shortens the sales or business cycle. The buyer actually realizes the gains after a period of time which makes sense to any negotiating party.

Note- If you show your solution’s ability to give a payback within less than 1 year, the buyer will usually allot your funds from his operating budget than the capital budget. This requires fewer approvals and shortens the business cycle. Also it’s easier to close!

Stay tuned for my next article on How To Identify and Strengthen The Financial Benefits of Your Solution?

Till then you can browse through useful business and management related articles to get useful tips to enhance your business related skills and management efficiency.

Attend IAM’s seminar to enhance your various professional skills | Know more