ClearSlide brings analytics to a long-ignored aspect of B2B sales: the slide deck

In B2B sales, there is a problem with the traditional presentation deck, a nagging issue that has been solved in almost every other area of sales.

A lack of useful data.

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Salespeople across the world are, right now, using PowerPoint, Keynote, and other presentation tools to deliver the same deck, time and time again, in person and over the Internet to prospective clients.

But few managers know how engaged the prospect is, whether the salesperson is delivering the presentation effectively, or how different contacts within a target account are reacting to the slides.

In announcing its new “Engagement and Follow” solution, ClearSlide is attempting to solve this issue once and for all.

I asked Raj Gossain, VP of product for ClearSlide, via email to explain why ClearSlide thought this problem needed solving.

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“We saw that sales professionals really didn’t have the tools they needed to be successful,” Gossain said. “We built a sales engagement platform that enables sales to drive great conversations with their buyers — over email, over the web or in person — and achieve better results.”

Having been at the sharp end of sales myself for many years, I understand the value of accessing quality data that can help deliver an edge over the competition.

ClearSlide provides the platform via which the salesperson delivers the presentation. In that sense, it isn’t a far cry from tools like WebEx and GoToMeeting. However, while some of those webinar tools do provide broad engagement statistics — such as whether an attendee had the presentation window open 55 percent of the time — ClearSlide goes much further.

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I wondered how ClearSlide determined whether someone is engaged or not, and if the system takes into account those presentations that encourage the user to go to another screen, such as when you ask them to tweet something, or take notes.

“We are able to determine what windows they’re focusing on, where their mouse is, and more,” Gossain said. “We combine those insights into a composite score that determines their level of engagement in a meeting.”

More than that, a graph shows exactly which slide is gaining attention, where the audience drops off, and can replay exactly what the salesperson was saying at that point.

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Within the ClearSlide platform, managers and other users can now follow team members, receiving updates when they present. The combination of engagement data, the transparency brought on by allowing staff to follow those who present on behalf of the company, and the ability to replay the content is a boon for managers, marketers, developers, engineers, and more.

In addition, ClearSlide can synchronize presentation data with Salesforce and other CRM solutions, allowing sales leaders to accurately see how their staff engage with customers, where things can be improved, and how to optimize content to best engage target prospects, directly from their CRM record.

As anyone who has ever been in sales knows, high-quality data can be the difference between closing the deal or losing out. It might not yet be the perfect solution for the lack of presentation-related data, but ClearSlide is certainly the most complete I’ve seen to date.