Empower Sales and Category Management Teams:
Build a Presentation Toolkit to Boost Business Results and Save Time
If you’re part of a Sales, Category Management, or Insights team in the CPG world, you know the immense effort that goes into crafting retailer presentations. Whether it’s launching new products, securing shelf space, or engaging in top-to-top meetings, the stakes are always high.
But what if I told you there was a way to optimize this process and boost your chances of success?
You may want to consider building a Presentation Time-Saver Toolkit (TST). Widely adopted by many of our CPG clients, these toolkits help teams of all sizes—from 5 to 200 members—create stronger selling stories and save thousands of precious man-hours each year.
In this article, we’ll dive into the features and benefits of a Presentation Time-Saver Toolkit. Note that these ideas are also applicable to other industries and departments.
Let’s dive in!
The Time-Saver-Toolkit (TST) - What’s In It
The TST consists of 4 main modules. To show you how it works, we’re using a fictional company, YoGood, which competes in the yogurt category. Check out the modules below and their high-level purposes:
Next, we’ll dive deeper into each of the modules.
Module 1: Storytelling Tools
Enable your teams to create stronger Selling Story narratives
Think of this module as a DIY course on narrative development, story-building, and presentation design basics. When teams can apply these learnings, they’re able to craft compelling stories that boost their success with customers.
In this module, start with a storytelling framework that can be applied to most retailer-facing stories. For our clients, we go deep into the SCQA framework. Further, we recommend you show real-world Selling Stories built using the framework. Here’s an example.
To make this module more robust for learners, consider adding resources such as perfect presentation checklists, slide design standards, and before-and-after slide comparisons. Refer to illustrations in the visual.
Module 2: Master Template
Fewer, smarter, and flexible master slides to work efficiently in PPT
For your presentation master, our standard practice is to have a collection of slides as shown below.
Many companies clutter their master templates with too many slides – in essence overwhelming users. As you’ll see in our example, we suggest incorporating fewer, but more flexible and edit-friendly master slides. A master with too many preset layouts and options is rarely used as it’s not user-friendly. Instead, create a library of “best in class” slides that users can easily start from. The next module will show you how.
Module 3: Best-in-Class Real-World Slides
Think about all the slides your team regularly uses: the opening Key Messages (or Executive Summary) slide, the closing Call to Action slide, KPI slides like market share or retail sales trends, the Strategy slide with 3 to 4 pillars, and many more.
For each of these, we recommend you create a “best in class” slide design and compile them in this module. The goal is that when users need to build a deck, 80% of the time they can simply select and customize a slide from this collection instead of starting from scratch.
See below – these are examples of common best-in-class slides frequently used by Sales and Category management teams.
Module 4. Assets Library
Have you ever struggled to edit a data chart in PowerPoint only to find the data missing? Wanted a clean “waterfall” chart but couldn’t find one? Spent too much time hunting for icons that match your style?
And what about commonly used product images that your team frequently uses—are they scattered everywhere? How about brand, competitor or retailer logos?
To avoid these productivity losses, we recommend developing and collecting all these assets, and keeping them all in one place in this module.
This library can be continuously updated over time as it grows, ensuring you always have access to the most current, vast library of resources – great for both existing and new team members.
“OUTKREATE built a PowerPoint Time-Saver Toolkit for our Category and Sales teams. Since implementing them at our NSM, we’ve seen major improvements in the rigor applied to meeting prep, storytelling, and content development. Our narratives are clearer, visuals are sharper, and conversations are more impactful.”
Chris Witham, Sr. Director – Category Strategy & Insights – Nature’s Way
Save Time, Achieve More Business Wins
Over the past two years, we’ve implemented the Presentation TST (Time-Saver Toolkit) in over a dozen companies. Sales and Category Management teams of all sizes use it daily and report saving significant time.
But, that’s not the only benefit. This tool levels the playing field for your team, helps new members with DIY onboarding, and enables everyone to build stronger, more effective selling stories that drive business results. Efficiency. Check. Effectiveness and better business results. Check.
Want to develop a Presentation Time-Saver Toolkit (TST) that creates stronger selling stories and saves time for your entire team?
Schedule a Call today, or drop us a line at [email protected].
How does your Presentation measure up?
Do you have a major event or a high-stakes meeting coming up? Do you need a sharp narrative and bold design?
Let's connect and we can take a closer look at your presentations. We'll share with you actionable ideas along with real examples that you can apply to improve odds of success.