Rethink Everything

 

The partners at InterSlice have spent years researching and understanding why companies have trouble distinguishing their solutions in highly competitive selling situations and have solved the problem by rethinking everything.

Our solutions are a combination of processes, technologies and common sense and are not likely to be imitated through the efforts of large company support organizations trying to drive large scale, strategic sales.

We boldly say our solutions are not likely to be imitated because the solutions are born of a fresh perspective.  We contend that the support organizations inside large companies do not have the right perspective or skills to solve the problem effectively.  One might even argue that they are invested in perpetuating the status quo in that their very existence depends on more of the same.

This fact dawned on one of the founders of InterSlice years ago when actively involved in a large scale pursuit and the head of the graphics team working on the orals presentation came into his office at 8:00 at night and told him what color tie to wear so it matched the presentation.  It was then that he realized PhotoShop isn’t the most important skill required to win this deal.  Maybe we need to re-think this.

 

 

 

Design

 

When building the sales collateral, whether it is a written proposal or orals presentation, the pursuit teams need to pay attention to design principles.  When we say design, we are not taking about “prettification” but rather access to content.  How do you want to provide access to content so that your audience can consume it in a way that is meaningful to them?

 

A presentation (or written proposal) needs to do more than convey facts.  Facts aren’t necessarily a good thing when taken to excess.  Presentations need to organize, and provide access to, facts in an elegant way.

 

 

 

Story

 

Storytelling is the new marketing.  There is a growing trend (just pay attention to TV commercials) towards storytelling in the arena of competitive selling.  Advertisers find it more compelling to tell a story of how their customers (real or otherwise) have used their product or service to solve some problem as opposed to spouting features and benefits.

 

If you believe we have moved beyond the Information Age to the Conceptual Age and everyone gets the same information at roughly the same time (making the value of information approximately zero) then it stands to reason that story is what bridges the gap between facts and understanding those facts.

 

 

 

Symphony

 

Symphony is the ability to see the big picture, connect the dots, combine disparate things into something new.  There is something powerful in being able to see the big picture.  Your orals presentation or written proposal needs to allow the audience to see the big picture and connect the dots.

 

 

 

 

 

Putting It In Practice

 

InterSlice has created a discipline around helping companies win in competitive selling situations.  The discipline is as practical as it is effective.  To bring these concepts to life, we follow these key ideas.

 

 

 

Repeatable Process

 

Have you ever thought that there really is no process for building a presentation or complex document?  If you embark on building a house, you first design it and then build it.  Likewise with web sites; design first, then build. 

 

However, when building a presentation, there is no such concept as designing first. Generally speaking, we begin to accumulate slides from prior presentations that might be applicable.  We never “design” the presentation.  InterSlice spends great care in designing the message, designing the navigation of the presentation and designing access to the content. 

 

 

 

Re-usable Assets

 

When websites first emerged they were built by web developers as custom projects.  Once built, if you wanted to change your content, you had to hire the programing staff again.  The advent of Content Management Systems and the ability to update and re-use content is commonplace now in web design.  However, there is no such corollary in the presentation and document world.

 

InterSlice has pioneered the concept of re-usable, customizable complex content in presentations and documents. 

 

 

 

Campaign

 

Unless you’re talking about a low cost item on the end cap display in a grocery store, not many products or services are purchased based on one exposure to the message.  Why is it then that we will risk millions of dollars on how well we deliver our orals presentation or written proposal?

 

Because of our use of re-usable assets, on-line authoring technologies, message design and story creation, InterSlice helps our clients design multiple exposures for their selling message.  Whether supplemental print pieces or micro websites, repetition helps your prospective client both understand and retain your message.  We create campaigns not simply proposals or presentations.

 

 

 

Authoring Technology

 

We do not use any proprietary software in the authoring of our final deliverable.  PowerPoint is the most commonly used authoring and delivery tool for presentations so that is what InterSlice uses.  We will deliver to you a PowerPoint file or other standard formats; you will not need any additional software to run our solutions.