When it comes to sales presentations, we’ve all relied on good old slide decks for years. Whether it’s a discovery call or a quarterly business review, slide decks have proven to be the tried-and-true way to build a presentation…until now.
With tools for sales team collaboration (like Mural) entering the mix, there’s a whole new way to engage your audience — and make your presentations memorable to customers.
So, what’s the better option for making your presentations informative, interactive, and memorable? In this post, we’re diving into the pros and cons of slide decks vs. Mural, and how you can use each to boost audience engagement and take your sales game to the next level. Ready to rethink how you present? Let’s jump in!
Why interactive sales presentations close more deals
Interactive sales presentations close more deals because they actively engage prospects, keeping their attention and fostering a deeper connection with your message.
Simply showing slides becomes a one-way lecture — where one individual speaks and the audience is forced to listen. This outdated method leads to significantly reduced retention from the audience. According to the Learning Pyramid developed by the National Training Laboratories, the retention rate for information delivered through a lecture (often accompanied by slides) is only 5%, compared to 50% for a group discussion.
By incorporating elements like live polls, Q&A sessions, and real-time product demos, you can better understand the customer’s needs and tailor your pitch to address their specific pain points. This personalization makes prospects feel heard and understood, building trust and confidence in your solution.
Additionally, interactive presentations help you handle objections on the spot, allowing for smoother conversations and quicker decision-making. The prospect’s involvement increases information retention, making it more likely they’ll remember key details when making their final decision. Ultimately, this dynamic approach encourages action and strengthens relationships, leading to faster, more successful deal closures.
"Slide decks are, at their core, a one-way conversation meant only to inform or persuade. Sales negotiations are conversations, and there are much better methods for involving customers in co-creating a path forward." - Mark Tippin, Director of Strategic Next Practices, Mural
How to make sales presentations more interactive
Making sales presentations more interactive is a great way to engage your customers, foster better connections, and increase the chances of closing a deal. Here are some effective strategies to boost interactivity in your sales presentations:
1. Use interactive tools
Visual collaboration tools (like Mural) allow you to engage your customers in real time by creating shared visual spaces. You can work together in the same space to brainstorm, map out ideas, or showcase product features in a way that feels less like a lecture and more like a discussion.
Platforms like Mentimeter or Slido allow you to conduct live polls or surveys during your presentation. This can help gauge the audience’s opinions and tailor the conversation based on their feedback. It also ensures they’ll stick around to hear the results if you choose to share them at the end.
2. Incorporate Q&A throughout
Instead of saving questions for the end, invite questions or feedback throughout the presentation. This approach keeps the audience engaged and ensures they’re following along with the key points.
Use Q&A software like Slido or Poll Everywhere to manage questions and ensure everyone has a chance to participate.
3. Use dynamic visual content
Rather than sticking to boring and static slides, create dynamic, visually compelling presentations for non-linear navigation. This keeps your audience intrigued and allows you to adapt the presentation based on their responses or areas of interest.
Explore Mural’s wide range of presentation templates to craft your own dynamic, engaging sales presentations.
If your product or service allows it, give live demos where the audience can interact with the product during the presentation. This hands-on experience can make your presentation much more engaging.
4. Show real-time data
Show relevant, real-time data that can be analyzed on the spot with your audience. This could include performance data, customer success stories, or live case studies that illustrate how your product or service solved real-world problems.
This also allows the audience to ask questions based on the live data and delve deeper into how your product works.
5. Make it personal
Offer ways to tailor the presentation based on the audience’s needs or interests. For example, you could use a sales platform that customizes the pitch based on the inputs your audience gives you during the presentation, whether that’s about their business size, industry, or specific pain points.
6. Interactive storytelling
Instead of focusing only on facts and data, create a narrative around your product or service. Invite the audience to participate in the story. Ask them questions like, "What challenges do you face in this situation?" or "How would you feel if this problem was solved?" Storytelling can create a more personal and deeper connection to your product.
Related: Creating data-driven sales presentations that close deals
Slide decks vs. Mural for sales teams: Which is better?
When it comes to choosing between traditional slide decks and Mural for sales teams, it depends on the type of engagement and collaboration you’re aiming for. Both tools have their advantages, but they serve different purposes when it comes to sales presentations and workshops.
Slide Decks: the traditional choice
Pros:
- Familiar and easy to use: Slide decks, especially in PowerPoint or Google Slides, are well-known and widely used by sales teams. Most people are familiar with the format and can easily create and share them.
- Structured presentations: Slide decks are perfect for delivering structured, linear content, which works well when presenting product details, statistics, or case studies.
- Polished and professional: With the right design, slide decks can look sleek and polished, making them ideal for formal client meetings or presentations where first impressions matter.
Cons:
- Limited interactivity: Traditional slide decks can feel stale and lack the engagement that modern sales presentations need. While you can add animations or transitions, they still tend to be one-sided and don’t allow for much interaction.
- Passive engagement: Because slide decks are often linear and passive, audience engagement can quickly wane, especially in longer presentations.
- Difficult to create from scratch: Without any templates related to the type of presentation you’re giving, it can be tedious and time-consuming to create presentations from scratch.
Mural: the interactive, collaborative tool
Pros:
- Highly interactive: Mural is designed for collaboration and engagement. It allows sales teams to create dynamic, interactive workspaces where participants can contribute ideas, vote on solutions, or explore product features in real time.
- Better for workshops & collaborative sales meetings: Mural is ideal if you’re looking for sales discovery workshop tools. It’s great with interactive sales workshops, brainstorming sessions, and sales discovery meetings. It helps bring ideas to life with visuals and sticky notes, promoting creativity and sales presentation engagement among team members or clients.
- Real-time collaboration: Multiple people can work on the same board simultaneously, making it easy to gather feedback, run polls, vote, brainstorm, or co-create presentations with the team or client during the session.
- Templates galore: Mural has hundreds of presentation templates at your disposal that make it easier to visualize and build.
Cons:
- Learning curve: Unlike slide decks, Mural requires a bit more learning, especially for people who are not familiar with interactive whiteboards.
- Less polished for formal presentations: Hey, we get it. Some people just like what’s familiar. While Mural is fantastic for collaboration, it may not have the same polished, formal look that a slide deck can offer, which could be a disadvantage in some client-facing scenarios.
So, which is better for sales presentations?
For formal presentations: If you're presenting a formal, well-structured pitch that is primarily meant to inform and not understand, slide decks are the go-to. They’re simple, clean, and easy to follow, making them ideal for showcasing key points or walking through a sales deck with a client.
For collaborative sessions: We may be biased, but Mural is the better option. It fosters real-time collaboration, allowing your sales team or clients to interact with the content, brainstorm, and contribute their ideas. It’s perfect for discovery calls, QBRs, strategy sessions, or creating a more engaging, hands-on experience.
It’s not necessarily about which one is better overall, but which tool suits the specific type of sales interaction you’re planning. For formal, one-way presentations, stick with slide decks. For interactive, collaborative, and engaging sessions, Mural is the way to go. In fact, many teams use both tools depending on the stage of the sales process!
Reimagine your sales presentations with Mural
While slide decks have served as the backbone of sales presentations for years, the rise of collaborative tools like Mural offers a refreshing way to take your sales game to the next level. Mural’s interactive, real-time collaboration features help you move beyond passive slides and transform your presentations into dynamic, engaging workshops that capture your audience’s attention and drive deeper connections.
If you're looking to foster real-time interaction, handle objections in the moment, and co-create solutions with your clients, Mural is the ideal tool. It offers a level of engagement that slide decks simply can’t match, making it perfect for discovery calls, strategy sessions, and team workshops.
While slide decks will still have a place for formal, structured presentations, Mural’s ability to encourage collaboration and personalization makes it the ultimate choice for sales teams looking to close more deals and make lasting impressions.
Ready to ditch the one-way presentations and embrace a more interactive approach? Request a demo to see how Mural can transform your sales presentations into engaging, memorable experiences that convert.
