A seasonal business sells products or services that are in high demand during specific seasons, school terms, or religious and public holidays, meaning their sales fluctuate significantly depending on the time of year.
For example, retailers selling holiday decorations will see a surge in sales during Christmas and Halloween, whilst those selling gardening or pool maintenance services will see their sales spike in summer.
For seasonal businesses trying to boost how many of their products or services they sell out of peak trading season, your sales representatives will need to boost engagement with prospects and work twice as hard turning them into customers during this time. This is where a sales deck comes in.
This article will explore five ways a seasonal business can leverage a sales deck to boost customer engagement during their off-season.
Table of Contents
What Is a Sales Deck?
A sales deck is a series of presentation slides (usually created in Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides) that give prospective customers more information about the features, benefits, price, and value proposition of a product or service they may be interested in. It is essentially a sales pitch.
Your sales team can present their sales deck in person to an audience room or on a video call, or they can send the presentation via email to those who want to read it at their own pace. It acts as an add-on to their sales capabilities.
It is essential that your first slide contains a cover image which grabs your audience’s attention and represents the product or service you are trying to sell. Then, your sales deck should address a problem the prospect has and then prove how your product or service can solve the issue. Finally, your sales deck should finish with a direct call to action (CTA), leading them to the next steps.
The social proof used through your sales deck can come in the form of:
- Data. Charts, graphs, and infographics are good ways to support your sales pitch. You can gather this data from third-party sources or from your own sales dashboard.
- Customer testimonials. Real-life quotes from happy customers will act as social proof to back up your data.
- Case studies. Success stories from previous customers will encourage your prospects to make a purchase.
5 Ways Seasonal Businesses Can Leverage A Sales Deck To Boost Engagement
Whilst crafting a sales pitch, ensure to maintain brand consistency by using the same colors and fonts you use throughout your website and social media. It’s also a good idea to include your brand logo somewhere.
Here are five ways you can boost engagement and turn prospects into customers during the off-season:
Use compelling visuals
91% of consumers prefer interactive and visual content over written content, highlighting the importance of enhancing your sales deck with compelling visuals.
Some of the visuals your sales deck can include are:
- High-quality images or graphics that showcase the product or service you are selling.
- Clear charts, graphs, and infographics that visually illustrate data and summarise key points, making complex information easily digestible.
- Customer testimonials and reviews that include photos or videos.
- Product demonstration videos will showcase the benefits of your product to the prospect.
A visually pleasing sales deck will engage your prospects and hopefully convince them to buy your products or services out of season, turning them into customers.
Address customer concerns
You should proactively address your prospects’ concerns early in your sales deck to set a positive tone, demonstrate transparency, and create a trustworthy relationship with them.
For seasonal businesses trying to make more sales, you should address customer concerns by explaining how your prospects will benefit from buying your product or service out of season.
Here are some benefits for customers buying a product or service out of season:
- The product or service could be less expensive due to seasonal sales or discounts. For example, a seasonal business could hold a New Year sale (January to February) even if they sell summer products.
- Products may have more availability options for sizes or colours because demand is lower. For example, a popular summer dress might be out of stock in some sizes during the summer months.
- Services may have more availability options for appointments because they have fewer customers to fit in.
- Customers can beat the seasonal rush and start a trend. This encourages a customer’s friends and family to purchase the product or service out of season.
For example, a salesperson from Snapchat would add user statistics to their sales deck in order to convince a company that is targeting young adults to buy their advertisement services. This is because Snapchat is used mainly by 18-to 24-year-olds.
By addressing out-of-season concerns and increasing trust, your sales deck will boost customer engagement and sales.
Keep it short and simple
A Microsoft Corp study revealed that humans generally start to lose concentration after 8 seconds – lower than that of the infamous goldfish – so you need to keep your sales deck short and simple.
You can keep your sales deck shorter by reducing the number of slides and simpler by using visuals or bullet points over long pieces of text and eliminating unnecessary industry jargon that prospects may not understand. Remember, not all of your prospects will be professionals in your niche.
For example, each page of this Tealet sales deck uses very little text. Instead, it uses images and infographics to create a visual sales pitch. It is likely that Tealet hired a graphic designer to help with this sales deck as it includes custom graphics and looks highly professional.
In addition, the tea wholesaler has thought carefully about their colour choices. Green is one of the easiest and most calming colours to look at, so it will likely better engage their audience.
(Image Source: Slideshare)
Tell your brand’s story
Humans are known to have a deep relationship with storytelling because stories move us, teach us, and persuade us – the latter of which is great for a sales pitch.
Your sales deck should begin with a story that resonates with your audience and focuses on the product or service you are trying to sell. This will set the tone and capture the audience’s attention, encouraging them to pay attention to the rest of your sales deck and remain engaged.
For example, a seasonal gardening business could tell the story of an existing company who purchased their services out of season, and benefited from being able to choose a time that suited their work-from-home hours so the lawn mower didn’t distract the customer from any meetings.
This example will engage customers who are in a similar situation and can never seem to sort out their garden due to their work commitments clashing with the gardener’s busy, peak-season schedule.
Include CTAs
Finally, the last slide of your sales deck should include a clear call to action (CTA), guiding and encouraging your prospect to take your desired conversion. This is usually purchasing the product or service your sales deck has been based on.
However, it could also be a link to book a follow-up meeting or the option to download further product or service information – both of which keep the engagement going beyond the pitch.
When adding CTAs to your sales deck, it is essential that you have a well-crafted website to direct prospects so they remain engaged with your brand.
No matter what your chosen CTA is, ensure it is prominent and easy to follow. A top tip is to consider the colour, as HubSpot reports that red CTAs outperform green CTAs by 21%.
The Bottom Line
Whether hiring a graphic designer or letting the sales team create it themselves, your sales deck needs to tell a compelling story about your brand’s offerings, address your prospects’ concerns about buying out of season, and include social proof. In addition, a successful sales deck will consist of visuals and a clear CTA.
A robust sales deck will help your brand close more deals and make more sales out of season, helping with evening out your fluctuating revenue.
0 Comments