The Case for Presentation Management

firsthand knowledge of the client's needs, and position the product/service appropriately. Marketing should not only be aware of that content, but it should also integrate it into the mix—it's faster and cheaper than a focus group! This is the kind of content you want to make available to your organization, as this is the messaging that improves the bottom line.

Presentation Management Best Practices

In practice, presentation management is the creation, organization, and distribution of branded, compliant presentation content, within a format that allows it to be customized quickly and easily. Following are some key elements of an effective presentation management approach for your organization:

Centralized Location. All presentations, video, audio, and other documents should be stored in one location, where everyone on your team can access them easily, from anywhere inside or outside of the corporate network.

Owner(s). Delegate a person or group responsible for the content, ensuring that it is up to date, branded, and compliant.

Search and Preview. Users need an easy way to find that one slide or file among thousands. Look for a keyword search function that searches the content within the documents themselves, not just file names.

Repurpose Content. Once the user has found the slides, videos, etc., for his presentation, the next step is coming up with an easy way to move or copy them into a new deck. You want to avoid having 37 files open on your screen at once, because that's just a big mess.

Reporting. Having the ability to track who is using what content, when, where, and for how long will empower organizations to understand what is resonating in the field, identify best practices (what the top producers are presenting), and apply those practices to the rest of the organization.

No (Low) Learning Curve. No one has time to fumble around learning a new system, so make it as intuitive and easy to use as possible from the get go.

Presentation management improves the quality of presentations across the entire organization, while increasing everyone's productivity. The sales team benefits from cutting down the time it takes to create a presentation, and the marketing department benefits from assured brand and message compliance and metrics on the back end. Sales presentations can and should be what push clients and prospects over the edge to a signed deal, so they should be taken more seriously and treated as strategic marketing elements.

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AlexAnndra Ontra is cofounder and president of Shufflrr, an on-demand document management solution for dynamic presentations.

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