This was originally presented as an Inman News Webinar:

http://www.inman.com/education/5-ways-to-renovate-your-listing-presentation...

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We all have this idea in our heads about what slides are supposed to look like. The corporate template with the logo on every page, the headers and bullets, you know what I mean.

And we all probably have our go-to slides. We've used them so much they feel tried and true, but in actuality they might just feel tired. Imagine showing up at a client meeting with an old, ratty pair of sneakers on. You'd never do that, right?

But your slides are part of your personal brand, just like your shoes are.

You know that feeling when you have a killer pair of new shoes? Like you could potentially rule the world? That's really how your sides should make you feel. They should help you stand out, and signal what makes you you.

So today we're going to give you a little inspiration, and show you a couple of tips and tricks you can use to get that listing presentation spiffed up.

I love this lady eating ice cream. She is just so clearly her own person. And this is really about personality.

After all, your business is built on relationships.

So I just bought a house, and I'm lucky. I have a good friend who I know and trust. I love spending time with her, we have a lot in common, so that was a no-brainer for me.

Now if I weren't that lucky, and I was trying to find an agent I could work with, it's really important for me to get a sense if who that person is. I have to tell you, I've looked at a lot of listing presentations, and after a while they all kinda start to look and sound the same.

So my advice, as the person on the other side of the table, is to let your personality shine through a bit.

So, we touched on the template earlier. Lets talk about that for a minute.

Logo on every single page
Cluttered
Signal to our brains to tune out

Kind of like the pinstriped suit. To us it sort of signals professionalism, which of course is not a bad thing.

Now you might not be able to break free entirely and show up in surf shorts and a cape, but you can look for ways to inject personality and flair, and to present yourself in an authentic way.

When you're authentic, it makes it easier for people to relate and connect with you, which of course is a great way to build your business.

So when we developed Haiku Deck, we studied the work of lots of presentation experts, and a really consistent piece of advice is to keep things simple.

Now we often fall into the trap of feeling like we have to make our slides repeat everything we are going to say, but that's also pretty much a recipe for tuning out.

A couple of really concrete things you can apply are to limit the amount of text -- twitter has gotten us used to that -- and to focus on one idea per slide. That's really all your audience can absorb.

I read recently that the average person sees literally thousands of marketing messages a day -- some estimates put it at like 30k.

So there's definitely an information overload problem--we are all experiencing that right now, right? (Side note: thank you for being here.)

The other trend that's happening is an increasing number of people viewing nearly everything on mobile devices -- I have definitely found this to be true in our own community. So just imagine for a second if you made this amazing presentation, and you e,ailed it to your client, and this poor person is trying to read pages of tiny text on a phone.

Again, sitting in the potential client chair, I'm depending on you to respect my time and filter out what I need to know deeply and what I don't; what's important and what's not.

And your listing presentation is a great opportunity to demonstrate that skill. So the simpler you make it for me, the better.

Instead of giving me the encyclopedia, give me the elevator pitch--and make it easy for me to learn more!

You can use your listing presentation as evidence that you can boil things down to what matters. This will inspire my confidence and demonstrate to me that you'll be a strong communicator if we work together.

So you'll also notice that the Haiku Deck I am presenting to you is loaded with images, and this is another of the key presentation best practices we've built the app around, to help you out images front and center.

Now as real estate pros you know so well how much images matter. If I'm looking at Zillow and the photos are really bad, or -- even worse -- if there's no photo available, you know what I'm going to do.

Now this is an amazing stat that Laura shared with me when we were prepping for this session. 60,000 times faster!

I tracked down this stat; here's the full article for reference: http://rhdeepexploration.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/visuals-60000-times-faste...

Images increase comprehension, recollection, and retention. They help us understand. They help us remember.

Images engage our imaginations and heighten our creative thinking.

Real estate is incredibly emotional. These are big life decisions, some of the biggest we face.

I also just have to touch on bullet points a little more. I mean, we've all been there, right? A presenter gets going and you see that slide full of buckets and some little part of you just dies a little.

Now I have made this Haiku Deck slide of bullets as pretty as I can, but, you know, it's still bullets.

So my advice is to think beyond the bullets. And, if you rewind a bit, remember one idea per slide?

Another idea is to think of your listing presentation as a story, and to bring elements of storytelling into it. Because everybody has time for a good story!

Let me tell you the story of how I got involved with Haiku Deck.

This feels like an important thing you could include in your own listing presentation. What brought you to this business? What do you love?

When I'm working on a presentation, I'm always thinking about how to make my points vivid and full of life, in a way that my audience can understand and relate to.

Here's one example. I talked before about simplifying your message and limiting text on a slide. Most experts recommend limiting text to about six words per slide. I've looked for different ways to illustrate that idea...what clicked for me was the concept of words on a slide being like oysters--well chosen and precious. Too many more than a half dozen, and you're going to get a stomachache.

So for you. I'd say think about the things you find yourself trying to get potential clients to understand, and see if you can find some nugget of story that makes it relatable and clear.

Here's another way to tell a story: with a chart or a graph. This is from an "About Me" Haiku Deck that I made, that shares some of my favorite things. I also have one of my least favorite things, which is stuff like black licorice and being cold.

Now this is kind of a lighthearted example, but you work with data and numbers all the time, and it's a good skill to kind of find the story in the numbers, and to make that real for your potential client.

A particularly powerful type of story to work in is a story told about you by someone else--the testimonial. These are like gold and, especially if I don't know you, incredibly important for earning my trust.

Here's a quote from our amazing users. (See more here: http://www.haikudeck.com/p/OuQDKbxXCb/haiku-deck-love)

Now if I tell you this, you may or may not believe me, but when you see real quotes and stories from real people, it makes a huge difference. So find a way to work in those kinds of stories.

Now fun. Is not a word that. Most of us associate with presentations, but it's one of our core principles. Honestly, we don't see why sharing these kinds of stories shouldn't be fun.

Now of course you'll be professional and inspire trust, but you can be amazing at what you do and still have fun, too -- and wouldn't that be the kind of person you'd want to work with?

Another tip I have is to leave yourself a little time to get inspired creatively, and everything will flow. Lots of time we end up spending our time on the wrong things -- fiddling with spacing or fonts and stuff like that.

Now Haiku Deck is specifically built to encourage this, but even if you aren't using it, I'd suggest giving you a little time to think about your story first.

Here is a typical slide from a listing presentation that we mocked up.

It has some great information, but it's so dense it's overwhelming. It's really a combination of the information and the script.

Using the techniques we just explored, one method would be to frame the complex concept of market value in something that the listener is likely to understand.

In this case, I've used a shot from the Pike Place Market, because the basic idea is that every time you go, the prices are going to change. It depends on a lot of factors -- the season, the availability, the quality, etc. Pricing for houses is not so different.

Another technique would be to pull out the MOST IMPORTANT point you want to convey for your slide, and speak to the other important information.

If the #1 point is that buyers determine the market value, put that front and center.

As you're talking, you can mention the things that *don't* determine market value -- how much the seller paid, the assessed tax value, etc.

One thing that was mentioned in the "before" slide was the fact that buyer's agent would be doing a market analysis to help establish value.

It would be helpful to show a specific example to help me picture what that looks like.

Here's another sample "before" slide.

Whoa, that's a lot of bullets.

One approach is just to simplify the message to the three key things that affect the market (again, filling in more detail as needed during the conversation).

Another approach is to stay true to the "one idea per slide" suggestion we talked about, and communicate one key concept at a time.

I often use a solid color slide like this to indicate a section or grouping within my deck.

To really illustrate the point about location, I chose an image from my own neighborhood, where being close to Lake Washington is particularly desirable.

Here, I'm illustrating the point about competition with an aerial neighborhood shot to drive home the point that you have to think about all the house around you, not just your house.

And here, I'm using some metaphorical thinking to talk to timing. It's kind of like weather -- you can't control the marketing conditions or even manipulate them, you can only interpret them and deal with them.

Here's another sample "before" slide with a graph.

A good thing about this graph is that it's pretty straightforward and simple -- sometimes they get so complex they are almost impossible to understand.

But there might be an even more powerful and memorable way to communicate the overall point that the "hot" time to sell is right after the listing goes on to the market.

Maybe even using an ice cream cone would do the trick -- the longer things stretch out, the messier and stickier it's going to get. This is why pricing a property correctly is so critical.

If you'd like to learn more about using Haiku Deck for real estate (or any other field), this is a great place to start:

http://blog.haikudeck.com/real-estate-marketing-inspiration-the-ultimate-re...

I also welcome your feedback and questions, whether you attended the webinar or not!
Contact me any time at catherine@haikudeck.com.