Previous Year Wrap Intro Slide

It’s that time of year again. A Sales presentation for internal eyes looms at either or both of the final get-together of the year or the sko (sales kick off) event for the next one.

Most such forums have a slide that sums up what’s gone before.

A list of highlights, logos of big wins, the numbers.

These often receive scant thinking time beforehand, but you can try and get extra memorability as well as reinforce your key messages picking your “why we’ll fondly remember last year…” commentary.

There’s the well-trodden template for ‘n things from last year we’ll remember/never forget/know drive us forward’.

Here’s one example from the bbc on The 90s.

Another, promotes the reminiscence of the gone twelve months from 2013 news events. Your own ‘100 things we didn’t know last year’ may be a stretch, but any number will do really. To keep our audience on-side, something akin to the once commonplace ’10 water cooler moments’ chartings can easily work. And the joy is you don’t even need a round number. Nine or eleven would suit just as well.

Then there’s also the tried and trusted Go Figure: The Year In Numbers, which the now defunct beeb web Magazine used to like flavours of (random sample from Feb 16).

Or you could go for a more esoteric entry angle. Summoning inspiration from any longlist for your more relevant shorter-list. 67 curses of the open plan office could for instance be switched into a more positive view of something else on your horizons.

One note on these longer listings, is they can have a winning place in pre-meeting prep.

If you did give yourself some advance time, then I’ve found it’s doable to come up with something like ’67’ points based around a useful theme. One that sets up a key direction for the selling ahead.

Simply keep a doc on your laptop or note on your phone where you jot down an idea as they come.

Then you can fill an email with a numbered list of plenty way better than would fit in a slidedeck and send it out beforehand. As part of the normal meeting admin. It can help generate buzz about the event as well as provide insight into its focus.