I’ve checked, and its not a law or regulatory requirement, but for some reason the majority of sales presentations, especially from cross-vertical vendors, have a slide similar to the one above, usually within the first five minutes. (This is a mock up)
The question
“Does having a slide of nothing but client logos help you in a sales presentation?”
You can leave a comment, or email your reply to sales.wars@gmail.com
7 responses so far ↓
kevin cahill // May 2, 2008 at 10:00 am |
I’d have to say no.
If the intent of a slide like that is to demonstrate a wide range of services and capabilities in different areas, it muddies the waters.
Most corporations will have multiple buying agents, and may have many different systems running simultaneously, potentially diluting your message:
“Oh, so whom are you dealing with at MegaCorp?”
“Yeah, well, um, we provide a web service-based application for their regional janitorial services group…” (*not to denigrate any janitorial services groups out there*).
In my vertical, legal services, each company deals with the majority of AMLAW 100 firms. Much more effective to say:
“Our client list is confidential. However, lets talk a little about the challenges you’re seeing in your litigation group. Our experience helping litigators prepare for pharmaceutical 30 b (6) conferences will interest your firm…..”
kc
Michael Kreppein // May 3, 2008 at 11:47 am |
This is absolutely one of my top 2 slides to present. Since I like working for small IT software companies, it’s very important to share our customer list to give the prospect a sense of security in choosing us as their new vendor. They’ve not heard of us before but they’ve heard of our F1000 customers. I use this slide as a starting point in the discussion of how we’ve helped customers in the same industry solve the problem faced by the prospect. I agree with Kevin’s sentiment in his last paragraph above but I think launching that discussion from this slide is very powerful.
I discussed the power of just 2 slides, one of which is the customer logo slide, in my blog.
http://inquisix.com/blog/2008/04/05/customer-one-line-success-stories-as-your-selling-keys/
Koka Sexton // May 6, 2008 at 5:07 pm |
I disagree with Kevin. Having a slide that showcases your top customers can go a long way when trying to persuade a new customer to come on board if you are a underdog in the industry. I wouldn’t go as far as to get into details about each customer but leaving it at “Here is a snapshot of some of the customers we work with on an ongoing basis” shows that you have some credibility.
Some companies do not want to have their logo plastered on presentations and we need to be aware of who those are and keep their information confidential but that’s not the point of your question.
I have this type of slide near the tail end of my deck after talking about the products/services we offer as an anchor to my presentation.
David Brown // May 8, 2008 at 10:55 am |
As with any presentation, it depends on the audience and goals of the demo. I also think it depends on who you work for. If it is IBM or Microsoft a customer slide does not seem like a good use of time. If not the customer slide can often validate who is using your product and create a mental association for the prospect with customers they recognize. I am also not a fan of ONLY discussing customers in the prospects industry and the customer slides shows the diverse customer base we have.
The great thing about sales is everyone has their own process and as far as I can tell no has nailed a 100%. If I am wrong please point me to their book. Great post though, always good to hear what is working for others.
Dave Stein // May 8, 2008 at 12:01 pm |
I run a industry analyst and research firm that covers, among other things, sales training companies. I’m on the receiving end of these Powerpoints, but I’m not a customer.
I see the same customer logos on slides from different sales training companies, all trying to convince us they are at the top of the heap because they’re working the top accounts. When we start to drill down to find out when they did training, with what division, in what region, etc., the conversation sometimes ends quickly.
So I rarely take the logo slide seriously. And yes, we have a logo graphic on our website. We expect you to take THAT ONE seriously!
nate // May 28, 2008 at 3:42 pm |
Great closing Dave Stein. I think you nailed it in a few sentences.
It’s like a brochure at a trade show, if you don’t have one people get antsy, “gee, they don’t even have brochures to hand out. Is their marketing team crazy? Broke?” Though the brochures they did take typically end up in the wastebasket of the hotel room.
So with the customer slide, I say treat it accordingly. Don’t pour a ton of sweat into it, but don’t leave it out either. You’d be better off insuring you have references and quotes from those customers on your web site.
kdsasser // June 1, 2008 at 7:57 am |
Here’s how the logo slide has bit me in the butt a few times:
Our company’s logo slide was full with 40+. A lot of the logos where from international companies with whom I was not familiar. Advice – if you dont know who the company is, take them off your slides.
I become conditioned not really to notice what logos where on the slide. My bad. So I got these:
1. Hey, they went out of business. With the prospect pointing at some funky bird-centric logo in the far left corner.
2. Hey, that same logo has been on 2 of your competitors slides. There are some govt depts and Fortune 500 that have one of everything.
3. And the worst, HEY THATS OUR LOGO. I had an international company buy a license in the UK, before I joined the team. No one shared that little tidbit with our team before we showed up. 5k in travel down the drain.
My advice – take 3 clients that you can relate to your current prospect – and just do a one-slide, 3 bullet point case study on each. Its far more effective.