Numbers don't come to life without some help

With the exception of perpetual Sesame Street groupies, most people have accepted the fact that numbers can't talk. Of course, you'd never know that from the looks of most data-assisted sales presentations. Quantitative information is at the heart of business, and hard facts are ultimately used to drive most serious management decisions. Unfortunately, much of the useful information that can be obtained from business data goes undetected. Worse yet, for people who are uncomfortable with data, confusion about what you are presenting can turn into annoyance pretty quickly. That's when your sale starts to evaporate.

It's their first time

Astute business people spend years mastering the art of reading financial statements and learning how to extract the critical information that they need to know. That's why accountants are trained to use the same format and the same terminology when they prepare financial documents. In essence, the standardization makes it easier to draw conclusions about the data. In a sales presentation, however, you are trying to say something unique. That means that you don't have that luxury of uniformity. In fact, your audience will probably be dealing with everything -- your data and your presentation format -- for the first time. Unless you work hard to tell the story, you'll lose them in the digit clutter.

Use your data sparingly

Getting rid of the clutter is the first task at hand. A common mistake is to assume that more is better when it comes to data. Nothing could be further from the truth in the selling process. If you add anything beyond the most essential information, you will create a distraction for your target audience. As the saying goes, always leave them wanting more. If you can get people to ask for more information, then you probably have their attention. That's a good thing.

Call attention to opportunities for action

Now crank it up to the next level. Any good sales presentation goes beyond getting attention. The idea is to get the buyers to TAKE action. Look at the last table of data that you presented to a customer or prospect and ask yourself what action you were trying to encourage. OK, here's the hard question. How in the world was anyone supposed to know what you wanted them to do? Even when you are presenting data in person, you need to have specific written callouts that prompt people to take the actions that further your sales objective. Forget the one-word labels, and move to more descriptive, action-oriented captions and compelling graphics. Your numbers may not talk, but your presentation will definitely sing.