Julie Hansen — January 10, 2018 — January 10, 2018
Ana_J / Pixabay
I love snack size foods. They’re cute, they’re portable, and they create the illusion that I’m eating lighter. I say “illusion,” because I usually end up eating more than the equivalent of a full-size portion – especially if it’s a candy bar!
Snack size foods have exploded in the last five years for those very same reasons. Smaller packaging gives customers a relatively low-risk way to sample a product — without making a full investment in money, time or calories.
In a selling environment where customers show an ever-increasing reluctance to invest their time and energy to sitting through – or sifting through – long presentations or product demos, it’s time to think about going snack-size as well.
Customer’s Love Affair with Snack Size Content
The majority of people consume content today in snack size portions. We get our news and entertainment on demand, read or watch only so long as we’re interested. Gone are the days of reading a newspaper from top to bottom (or reading a newspaper at all!), watching a show from opening to ending credits. Instead, we fast forward through commercials, click in and out of articles, and skim multi-paragraph emails (Or simply reply “TLDR.”)
Perhaps we love snack size content because our attention spans have dropped to a record low. Regardless, most presenters ignore this growing trend and continue to push long stretches of content on inattentive customers. While just ten years ago a customer may have sat or clicked through a thirty-minute sales presentation, today’s customers are much more likely to disconnect – mentally or physically — the second their interest wanes.
Think Snack Size Presentations
This hunger for snack size content has big implications for the success of your presentation today. Presenters need to stop trying to get customers to pay attention longer than they are able. Instead, they need to align presentations and content with customer’s shorter attention spans. In other words, serve up snack-size portions, rather than the King Size bar. Let your customer guide you on how much they’re hungry for.
Here are some tips for delivering snack size portions in your presentation.
How to Serve Up a Snack Size Presentation:
- Break your presentation down into two-three minute chunks of content. These chunks could be based on a topic, a feature, or the value they provide to the customer.
- Create a deck that allows you to seamlessly jump to a particular slide or new section within a given presentation when you sense your customer’s attention is dropping. (P.S., good sales engagement solutions like Clearslide make it easy for you to access this type of on-demand content customization and jump to it when needed.)
- Allow the flow of the conversation to guide you. Take real-time direction from your customer. Do they seem “sated” on this particular topic, ready to look at something else? Be alert to both verbal and nonverbal cues. (Actors are great at this, check out their reading body language tips here.)
- Give customers a choice. Snickers or Mounds? Lays or Sun Chips? Provide a menu of options for your customer to choose from and give them just enough information to whet their appetite. (But have the full-size ready just in case they want more!)
To successfully engage with today’s busy customers, adapt to the way they consume content today and serve up snack-size portions in your presentation. Customers will be more attentive, engaged, and end up craving the full-size!
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