How many slides are ideal in a sales presentation?

When I conduct a Presentation workshop for sales and marketing professionals, the one question I always get is – How many slides should you use in a presentation? 

The opinion ranges from 3 slides to 25 slides. 

The reality is that there is no study that suggests that short presentations are more successful than long presentations or vice versa. But, there are a couple of suggestions about slides to help you make clear and convincing presentations.

Suggestion 1: Don’t spread a single idea over multiple slides

I have seen presentations that drive the audience crazy by dividing a single sentence over multiple slides. What is more, in these types of presentations – the presenter keeps moving the slides at break neck speed, while reading the sentence to the audience. Unless you wish to insult your audience’s ability to read English, don’t use this method in your sales presentations. 

It always helps to put all the relevant elements of an idea onto one slide, so that the audience can see the connection. If you divide your message into multiple slides, the audience needs to strain their memory to recollect the details of the previous slides. 

Suggestion 2: Don’t put more than one idea on a slide

A slide is like a paragraph in a novel or newspaper. You should always start a new paragraph for a new thought. In the same way start a new slide to convey a new thought in a presentation. 

This ensures that audience gets the time to absorb your ideas completely, and build their understanding in gradual steps. It also allows you to use meaningful diagrams to convey your ideas visually.

So, crunching your entire sales presentation into 2 slides – is NOT a great idea.

Conclusion

When you follow these two suggestions, you will automatically come up with the right number of slides for your professional presentations. 

Remember what matters is whether you are able to influence your customers to make a purchase decision, by giving them sufficient information. It doesn’t matter how many slides you use.

Happy selling!