Product and feature updates

PointDrive Presentation Templates for Each Stage of the Sales Funnel

Editor's Note: As 2020 approaches, we're looking back at some of 2019's most popular posts on the LinkedIn Sales Blog. This one ranked No. 8.

Sales success, more often than not, comes to us when we create win-win scenarios. Our ideas always make sense to us, but traction only occurs when our proposed changes start to make sense from the prospect’s point of view.

Sales technology works the same way. To assist the selling process, technology must hold clear advantages for both buyer and seller, and that’s what makes LinkedIn PointDrive so effective.

If this is your first time hearing about PointDrive and you’re not familiar with how it works, I recommend checking out the two-minute overview video below:

For sellers, the benefits of using PointDrive are abundant. LinkedIn’s own sales team relies heavily on this feature – a few team members drew from their experience to help us highlight the many advantages PointDrive provides to sales pros. It’s also never been more vital to meet buyers “where they are” because they expect us to engage them in the right context. To this end, PointDrive brings otherwise hidden insights into plain view.

As for what makes this feature a win-win, here are a few reasons why PointDrive makes sense from your buyer’s perspective as well:

  • Nearly three out of four buyers want vendors to make it easier to access their content. PointDrive provides your prospects and customers with a convenient, streamlined experience that email simply can’t match.

  • Buyers can easily and safely share your PointDrive presentations with other stakeholders (and you’ll be alerted when they do).

  • It’s all too common for a content experience to look terrific on one device and horrific on another. Your PointDrive presentations will look great no matter which device your buyer accesses them from. This is important as more B2B executives are using their mobile devices to make purchasing decisions.

  • Buyers can easily view several content formats without needing to open attachments or navigate to different URLs. For example, an event-based PointDrive presentation might include a video, a map, a PDF brochure, and a PowerPoint presentation.

Now that we’ve established why PointDrive makes sense on both sides of the sales equation, let’s dive into when and how to best use this LinkedIn Sales Navigator feature. You can leverage PointDrive for almost any scenario. And of course there are certain sales situations that are tailor-made for PointDrive.

The challenge for many B2B sellers is that the exact “situation” isn’t always apparent. We simply know that our prospect is in beginning, middle, or later stages of a deal, and to meet our goals, we need to expertly guide these potential buyers to and through the next stage of the sales funnel.  

PointDrive Presentation Templates for the Top, Middle, and Bottom of the Sales Funnel

This is where PointDrive comes in handy for both buyers and sellers. Buyers need access to the right information to aid decision-making and advance an agenda for change. Sellers need insight so that they can engage the account’s various stakeholders in the right context. Specifically, sellers need to know who those stakeholders are and the interests of each. A single PointDrive presentation can give both sides what they need.

Top-of-Funnel PointDrive Template

The goal here is to build trust and establish expertise. Sellers can accomplish this by packaging up non-salesy third-party content around the prospect’s areas of interest.

Think about your success stories: your sold-and-satisfied customers. What sparked their initial interest? Did they gain a fresh perspective from a particular influencer in your industry? Are they seeing industry research that’s driving their motivation for change? Are they seeing a particular piece of your company’s content before they express an interest?

Also, why did your customers trust you enough to include you in their buying process? How did your customers’ perceptions of you or your company differ from those who didn’t end up buying from you? How or where did your customers form these perceptions?

You likely won’t have exact answers. That’s quite alright because PointDrive will ultimately help you substantiate your findings over time.

For now though, asking yourself these questions can help you come up with three to five content assets to share in a PointDrive presentation for early-stage prospects.

Here’s what a top-of-funnel PointDrive presentation might look like:

  • A “big idea” article that tends to get prospects excited about the possibilities of change

  • A thought leadership article that conveys you or your company’s expertise in this area

  • A video that demonstrates your company’s unique approach to solving problems (Ideally, viewers of this video will come away feeling like they know and trust your company more for having watched it.)

  • An infographic that makes a point in a visually compelling, highly shareable way

Middle-of-Funnel PointDrive Template

Now that you’ve established that the prospect is in the market for a solution like yours, you’ll want to share content that helps them with their research, but doesn’t come off as extremely biased. Objective review sites, factual data sheets, and “how to” videos that demonstrate your solution but don’t shove it on people can be particularly effective in this stage.

Here’s what a middle-of-funnel PointDrive presentation might look like:

  • An article from (or link to) an objective review site

  • A data sheet that empowers prospects to more easily compare solutions

  • A video that showcases how your “power users” take full advantage of your solution and how they accomplish key objectives because of it

  • An article that overviews all the criteria a company might consider when deciding upon a solution such as yours

Bottom-of-Funnel PointDrive Template

Here you can start to rely more on your own persuasive first-party content as you try to push a prospect across the finish line. Customer testimonials and success stories, peer recommendations, feature lists, and cost-justification tools can be especially effective at this stage.

Here’s what a bottom-of-funnel PointDrive presentation might look like:

  • A PDF packed with customer testimonials

  • An article that demonstrates how your company is committed to meeting customers’ future needs

  • An Excel ROI calculator

  • A video that prompts the prospect to imagine a better life with your solution

Don’t get hung up on creating the perfect PointDrive presentation. Just get started because the sooner you do, the sooner you’ll have access to engagement insights that will help you optimize future PointDrive presentations. For instance, after sharing your top-of-funnel template with two prospects, you might notice that both prospects viewed and shared the same two articles but didn’t touch the other content. Using this info, you might test replacing the unused content with something else.

Also, “perfect” is highly relative when it comes to sales presentations. Whenever possible, tweak your PointDrive templates so that they meet the specific needs of the prospect or account you’re sharing it with.

For more ways to achieve win-win scenarios alongside your sales prospects, subscribe to the LinkedIn Sales blog.

Join the Buyer First Movement. Right in your inbox