Outside salesman

[orion]

I know it sounds outdated but, I figure this is something I can try and just get the experience for.

I sell life insurance and generally I do referral marketing to get most of my sales calls. The good thing is that they are already interested but with many of these older couples I visit, the more complicated insurance plans take some explaining.

I was thinking maybe bring my own projector for powerpoints; I'm hoping visual aides can help guide their understanding.


i wanted to see if anyone else had a complicated product to sell and how they overcame that hurdle.

[vangogh]

Before you start lugging around a projector everywhere, have you considered a smartphone (or maybe tablet) that can act as a projector. If you do a search for "smartphone projector" or similar you should find some. I keep seeing the Samsung Galaxy Beam mentioned. You should be able to use the phone to beam your presentation on to a wall in you customer's home. Worst case is you bring something that can act as a small screen, but still easier than lugging around a projector.

You might also want to use a tablet instead of a projector. You wouldn't be able to show as many people at once your presentation, but you should be able to get one or two people around you to look at the tablet with you.

Either is probably a better option than dragging around a projector and setting it up in order to show a presentation to customers.

[billbenson]

Will they let you connect to their TV if they have a flat screen? Will they let you change the settings on the TV to use it?

I'd think about getting a small suitcase on wheels. Put a laptop with a big screen in there as well as a 24" monitor and cables to hook to their TV if they will let you.

Worst case you do the presentation on your laptop, Better you set up the 24 in monitor so they can see better. Best case you use their TV. All your carrying around with you is the roll around suitcase. You are equipped for all options.

I don't see a projection device working in most home environments. You don't want to take more than a minute or two to set up or the customer will probably start to get annoyed.

It goes without saying that your presentation needs to be good for those mediums as well.

Oh, and get a wireless keyboard and mouse. You don't want to be reaching in front of them and clicking on the laptop keyboard during the presentation if its on the laptop..

[vangogh]

Good idea Bill. Taking it back to my thoughts above, the latest smartphones and tablets can often connect to a tv. The tv probably needs to be HDMI and you would need an HDMI cable with you just in case. I know both the iPhone and iPad can do this and I assume many Android phones and tablets can as well.

If you have to go the laptop route the 11 inch Macbook Air and the 11 inch Asus Zenbook are both easy to carry around with you. I'm sure there are other ultrabooks that would work too.

[billbenson]

Since a large part of his customer base is elderly, I would think you would want to go larger than the 11 inch laptop. Both for sheer impact on the customers and you probably don't want them squinting on a small screen. If you use a touch screen device, your hands are constantly on the screen. That would distract a lot of prospects watching the presentation. Since every situation is potentially different, I think you need to be prepared for all environments. That's why I like the roller suitcase idea. You can adapt very quickly to the environment and customer.

As a backup, you could also put the presentation online. That way you could also use the users computer for the presentation if that was appropriate.

Also you could put it on a dvd. Customer might have a home theater all that seems unlikely.

[vangogh]

I was thinking you'd connect the 11 inch laptop to the tv and view everything on the tv. The reason for the 11 inch was it would be easier to carry around. With everything we've mentioned my thought is the viewing surface would either be the tv or projected on a wall.

A touch screen could actually be used to get the customer involved. If you create an interactive presentation and let the customer be the one interacting I bet you generate more sales.

[orion]

Wow lIm glad to see that there has been so many good suggestions here. I appreciate all the input. You guys had mentioned that a tablet or a laptop connected to the tv might be appropriate. Those definitely are more accessible but trouble I have had bringing my laptop is when bigger groups get involved. It works with just one or two people but 3 or more, it gets crowded and not everyone can see. It gets easier to build consensus once everyone is on the same page. The TV is a good sugestion, I just need to make sure I have the right cables, but another pitfall of that idea is really just how accessible it can be or if I can operate it.

These were things I considered but I've been seeing smaller and smaller projectors and bringing my own would reduce variables. aaxa-m2-led-portable-projector-review.jpg

I like the suggestion of posting presentations online. Recently, I've been looking at this website called Prezi.com which lets use their presentation software and upload it to their cloud. Very cool stuff.

[vangogh]

With a projector that small that might be as good as anything we've suggested. Seems easy enough to travel with. I hadn't realized they'd gotten that small, though I probably should have.

Maybe the best solution is to come prepared with several methods. You could bring a projector or get a phone or tablet capable of being its own projector. Bring some common cables for tvs. And also put something online. You can decide when the time comes which would be most appropriate given the setting and the number of people.

You're going to be creating a presentation in any case and you should be able to create something that can be stored and viewed on your phone. If you move it online through Prezi or wherever and carry a projector and some cables you're covered for several different presentation possibilities.