dimanche 5 décembre 2010

15 minutes of infamy


Let’s go back in time to 1987…
A quarter of a century ago already.
Remember…


Legendary dancer Fred Astaire died that year in Hollywood.


"Star Trek: The Next Generation" made its debut on syndicated TV.


"Platoon," Paul Newman and Marlee Matlin were the winners at the 59th Academy Awards.


The young Garry Kasparov beat Anatoly Karpov to retain the world chess title

Ivan Lendl defeated Mats Wilander 7-5 6-2 3-6 7-6 to win the French Open.


IBM released PC-DOS version 3.3. Windows didn’t exist yet.


… and that was the year Bob Gaskins invented PowerPoint.
That was a quarter-century ago!!!
… and since then, 1987, we’ve had a problem.


And here are the opinions of a few communication specialists, such as Seth Godin…


And Guy Kawasaki, but we’ll come back to them later.




So… Do our sales presentations suck?
Yes, they do!!


Our sales revenue is often too low:
- When a company has a problem, it is rarely because of mismanaged costs, it is usually related to low sales revenue.
- Most companies have demonstrated that they are incapable of selling in times of crisis;


… nevertheless, they insist on trying to sell with hideous sales presentations.


And no wonder sales presentations are ugly.
 
On average, a rep spends less than 15 minutes learning PowerPoint, and an assistant spends less than one hour.


… and then they both use this meagre knowledge for the rest of their lives.


We just forget that in the quarter-century since 1987, the world has changed.