Latest posts
Below are the most recent articles or resources I’ve published. If you are looking for help on a specific topics, it would best to look at the topics in my Articles archive as I have grouped my recent and best articles by topic there.
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Create a sliding timeline visual in PowerPoint to show many time periods or events
If you have many time periods to show in a timeline visual or you have many events to show on a timeline and cramming it in on a single slide would look too crowded, consider splitting the timeline across two slides. In the video below you will see how to create a sliding timeline that…… Continue reading
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Quantifying prospect pain or cost of the problem on a virtual sales call using a spreadsheet
One of the key parts of a consultative selling approach or the Sandler Selling System is to quantify the cost of the problem the prospect is having. By getting clear on the cost of the problem, it allows the prospect and sales professional to determine if the solution will provide a positive ROI for the…… Continue reading
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How to create a time scale in PowerPoint for timeline visuals, Gantt charts, and other time-based visuals
A timeline visual is a generic term used to describe any time-based visual. It consists of the time scale for the desired period of time and shapes or text that indicate the events during the time period shown. A Gantt chart is a specific type of timeline visual often used in project management. Here is…… Continue reading
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Timeline visual templates in Excel from Microsoft
Microsoft makes downloadable timeline templates available at https://templates.office.com/en-us/timelines. Note that some of the templates are classified as Premium templates (denoted by the diamond icon) which are only available to those who have a subscription to Microsoft 365. When looking at these templates, be careful to select a template that creates an accurate time scale. Most…… Continue reading
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Why a shared PowerPoint or Google Slides file is a better whiteboard option in a Zoom meeting
One challenge of virtual and hybrid meetings has been collaborating with the other attendees. Instead of standing around a whiteboard in a meeting room, Zoom offers a whiteboard built into the meeting platform. I think you should use a shared PowerPoint or Google Slides file instead of the built-in Zoom whiteboard because a shared file…… Continue reading
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Are people multitasking during your virtual presentation? Yes. And here’s why that’s OK
According to a recent State of Virtual Meetings report from polly.ai, 43.8% of meeting attendees say they very frequently or always multitask during virtual meetings and an additional 40.3% multitask occasionally. That means that almost three-quarters of the attendees could be multitasking while you present! In the days of in-person meetings nowhere near that percentage…… Continue reading
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Process to reset Microsoft Teams that could fix problems you experience with Teams meetings
Teams is a great meeting and collaboration tool from Microsoft that many organizations are using as part of their Office 365 subscription. If you’ve had the experience where parts of the functionality disappear or the app acts strangely in a meeting, you may be able to fix it by resetting Teams. This won’t fix the…… Continue reading
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Present a PDF of your PowerPoint, GSlides or Keynote slides in Zoom, Teams, GMeet (Windows or Mac)
Why present using a PDF and not PowerPoint? If given the choice, I suggest you present using PowerPoint with your own laptop. You get all the advantages of PowerPoint and you are familiar with the setup. Unfortunately you aren’t always in a situation where this is possible. In a hybrid meeting setup you may be…… Continue reading
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11 ways to use PowerPoint to incorporate consultative selling in a virtual or hybrid sales meeting
Consultative selling is an approach that discovers the prospect’s needs before providing a solution (read more about the approach in this article by Hubspot). It involves asking questions to better understand the situation and the needs. The sales professional lets the prospect lead the conversation. I’ve used this approach in my business for years without…… Continue reading