Memorize Your Sales Presentations - Here’s Why!

I always tell my kids to use notecards. It's SO much easier to memorize stuff with notecards, rather than just looking at it on a piece of paper.

And it occurred to me when I first started my training business that I should really be practicing what I'm preaching.

Sure, PowerPoint has a handy presentation feature, where you can take notes and only you (as the presenter) can see them. Yet, when was the last time you saw someone giving a presentation, where they had to stop and consult the notes before continuing on, and you thought, "What a great presenter!"

No, the best presenters are the ones who :

👉 Minimize the words on slides (thus, don't READ them)

👉 Don't stumble over words or say things like, "Okay, let me just make sure I covered everything..."

👉 Speak effortlessly throughout the presentation

To do this, we MUST memorize our content. If we want to tell a story about it, have it memorized. If you want to quote where the statistic came from, know it off the top of your head. I'm not talking word-for-word memorization, but know and remember your content deeply so you won't be saying later, "Dang it. I meant to tell the story about that and totally forgot."

This is especially important for me, as I do training in all kinds of different industries, and I need to know their business inside and out, but it's also very important for YOUR CUSTOMERS. They need to feel that you know their business inside and out too.

Print out your slides. Take notes on the back and quiz yourself like you're back in high school again. It'll pay off and your kids will think it's cool. Maybe.

What are your favorite presentation tips? Share it with us in the LinkedIn comments!