How to pick the right Presentation Designer for your Sales Presentation?

You have decided to outsource your sales presentation. How do you go about choosing the right presentation designer? The following infographic will help you make the right decision and ask the right questions.

What is your Objective?

If you are happy with the message of your sales presentation and only want to improve its look and feel any good designer will be able to help you.

On the contrary, if you want to improve your message or you may want to know if your message is clear and powerful, you MUST engage what I call a Consultant cum Designer. These designers have strong work experience in sales and marketing or in management consulting. They understand how sales works and use their experience to give you critical feedback on your sales presentation. They are also good at making professional looking presentations.

How to evaluate a Presentation Consultant cum Designer?
APPROACH - It is important to understand how the consultant wishes to approach the creation of your sales presentation. It is good to get onto a quick Skype call and chat about this. What are the steps he wishes to take to develop a new sales narrative for your company?

SALES & MARKETING EXPERIENCE - You would ideally want a consultant with strong sales and marketing experience to work on your B2B sales presentation. Understand what professional experience does he have. While knowledge of how sales works is desirable, you do not need someone who has been in the same industry as yours.

 

CLIENTS - Find out the names of clients the consultant has worked with. You may even want to enquire what did the consultant do for some of the big names in his client list. 

CASE STUDIES - The presentation consultant cum designer has made sales presentations before. Ask him to take you through one example. What was the client's problem? Was there an existing sales presentation before the consultant was hired? How did the he approach the project? What was the result? Find out how much time did he take to create this?

TIMELINE -  Agree on timelines. Always share how long is your sales presentation going to be and take a commitment for delivery. Some sales presentations are 3 minute long and some are 30 minutes long. The time to prepare them will surely be different. Keep in mind that after the consultant has delivered the work, you might need changes. Factor this while discussing timelines.

COST - Cost matters a lot but remember that quality also comes at a cost. Your sales presentation is very important for your company and spending money on it makes sense. Choose a presentation consultant who is qualified and competent. 

FREE DIAGNOSTICS - To increase your confidence in the presentation consultant you can always ask him to share his views and feedback on your existing sales presentation. What are the areas where the sales presentation is weaker and how can they be addressed? Of course you should be comfortable sharing your presentation with him.

NON DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT - All presentation consultants will be ready to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) if you want to. While most clients do not worry about the NDA, some clients do. If an NDA gives you peace of mind, do ask the presentation consultant to sign it.

CHANGES - How many changes are free and when do they start charging for changes? Can you make as many changes as you want till you are satisfied? Most consultants will keep working till you are 100% satisfied.
 
How to hire a Presentation Designer?
WORK SAMPLES - You should ask for few work samples to judge the designer. You may or may not ask for sales presentations specifically. Looking at samples wil give you a good idea of the taste and style of the designer.
 
TIMELINES - Agree on timelines. Always share how many slides is your sales presentation and take a commitment for delivery. Keep in mind that after the presentation designer has delivered the work, you might need changes. Factor this in while discussing timelines.

COST - Cost matters a lot but remember that quality also comes at a cost. Your sales presentation is very important for your company and spending on it makes sense. Choose a presentation designer whose work is good.

CHANGES - Some designers will ask you to pay for additional changes. Be clear before you award on the project. How many changes are free and when do they start charging for changes? Can you make as many changes as you want till you are satisfied?

FREE SAMPLES - If you want to check the quality, you can always share a few slides with the presentation designer and ask him/her to touch up any 2 slides for free. Most presentation designers would love to do this to showcase their quality.

EDITABLE PPT FILE - Clarify with the designer if his output to you will be in a PPT file which can be easily edited by you. You do not want a PPT file which you cannot edit and you have to rely on the presentation designer every time. It will be very inconvenient for you.

CLIENTS - Take a look at the type of clients that the presentation designer has worked in the past.

There are a few more things to take care like sharing company branding guidelines, logos, special fonts, and images. But these are things that come after the designer is onboard.

Outsourcing work to a professional presentation designer offers many benefits. You can read about the four main benefits in an earlier post of mine. How do you make your Sales Presentation more Powerful? Choose the presentation designer that meets your needs and see your sales presentation become outstanding.