Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi,

I am hoping for some good advice. In a week I am meeting with a national company who are offering me a great collaboration - and I need to make a powerpoint presentation to show them who I am and how I can meet their needs.

3 years ago I started my own heavy appliance repair service company and I have the best prices in the area and offer service from early morning to late evening. I have am always booked out well in advance and the company is thriving economically.

I have been contacted by a large quality brand of heavy appliances with an offer to handle their warranty cases for the entire state.

How would you go about selling your company?

What points should I remember to include in the powerpoint presentation?

I have never done this before, and want to go about this professionally. I am capable of taking on this collaboration and just need to convince this company too? How...

Put yourself in their shoes. Make a list of the top 5 or ten concerns that you think they may have. Capacity to handle their volume? Customer satisfaction? Turnaround times? For each of their concerns, make a slide that shows your strength in that area. Be sure to include a proof statement. For example, if the concern is "get it right the first time" your proof statement could be "Completed xx% of repairs on the first service call over the past 12 months." If they have given you any criteria or hints in their correspondence with you, start there.

Also, remember that the general rule for PowerPoint is one content slide per 3-5 minutes of presentation time. So, if you have 30 minutes, you should aim at no more than 10 content slides. Your first slide should be a title slide with the name of your company and your name (correctly spelled -- ask me how I know about that one! LOL). Your last slide should be a Questions? slide or a repeat of your title slide so you have something on the screen during the discussion time.

Good Luck!

Molly Donaldson

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Start Here. Go Far. LaunchX

Hi Molly

Thanks for the great tips. I will use them. If you think of anything else, feel free to let me know. Same goes for others.

I want to stand out, not only to convince the company to this collaboration, but also because they have called in another competitor of mine who will present why he should get the collaboration.

I know my company is capable and will do the better job, but getting that message through is what I am not experienced with, so your help is appreciated :)

You mentioned that you know your competitor will be presenting, and you feel you can do a better job and are generally more capable.  Thinking about them specifically what are the points they would highlight.  How specifically are you better or what can you amplify about your Company that your competitor is missing.  You know some of the messaging that will likely come from your competitor so use that to your advantage.

Also, think through why specifically you think you are better.  Are you prepared to provide guarantees?  Do you have a scalable configuration to deal with capacity issues?  Do you have a "Large Account" program, e.g. those special customer service features you would target to them to ensure their satisfaction since they are such a significant account.

Also, when small/young Companies are selling to larger/established Companies, the buyer wants to feel comfortable that the vendor is stable, provides quality and has safeguards in place if things go wrong.

Good luck on your presentation!

Creating a powerpoint presentation can come off to be a hard process. The above tips are great. Another thing that you'll want to ensure is that the slides are visually appealing and attracting the attention to the right areas. You do not want them getting bored or annoyed by your slides. Keep things professional, yet interesting.

You want them to look at your slide with acceptance. This is going to be the visual to the inside of your business and how you can do great for them. Do trial runs to ensure everything runs smoothly, without any glitches or they may think that you just whipped things together last minute. This could look bad on your business.

Good luck! Hope everything works out great.

Hi Lisa,

Sounds great to look at the competitors and use that as inspiration to find our 'we can do better' points.

Yes, I agree - I need to find ways to explain how we are a safe bet as well. I have some ideas. In this deal, I am David and the other potential collaborator is Goliath. But I am also certain, that I will be able to provide them with a better solution.

I don't know quite what you mean by: Do you have a scalable configuration to deal with capacity issues?

Thank you Christine. I will run through the power points and check things over as well as practice.

Cannot thank you guys enough for helping me out.

We got the contract and it will open so many doors for us. Larger market, selling spareparts, tons of industry information etc. I am now going to hire more people. It feels wonderful!

Thanks again :)