Maximize listing presentations with on the go apps

Presentation software can be an effective tool if used correctly. It can also be a dangerous distraction that interferes with communication rather than facilitating it.

Adam Tratt, co-founder and CEO of Seattle-based Haiku Deck, emphasizes the importance of moderation when creating presentations. “It’s all about rethinking the pitch, telling amazing stories and sharing them with your clients,” he said.

Tratt was a speaker last month at Real Estate Connect New York City. His talk, “Rethinking the Pitch,” focused on the future of real estate presentations.

“There’s a seismic shift affecting our business. Design is important in everything,” he said. “There’s this great phenomenon that I like to call the ‘Instagram effect.’ The impact of apps like Instagram is that everybody expects more in the way of design. The challenge in the industry is that lots of companies aren’t keeping pace.”

Many real estate agents have turned to using computer tablets as a tool to provide their clients with more information. “Two years ago, not everyone had an iPad. But now, something different is happening. The real estate industry is at the vanguard of this new trend of mobile computing and using these new devices for productivity,” he said.

“We believe that the world is full of amazing stories and great ideas. The process of creating these ideas should be a joyful experience as opposed to a soul-crushing wrestling match with technology,” Tratt added.

He offers the following advice to create a great presentation:

• Keep it simple: “People can’t consume more than one idea at a time. Our instinct is to cram as much information into a slide as we can. Our partners, clients and audience just can’t consume more than one idea at a time. It’s critical to keep it simple and use one idea per slide,” he said.
• Use high impact photos: “The reality is, sometimes you have great images and sometimes you don’t. We found there’s this treasure trove of 35 million photos on the Internet that are licensed under the Creative Commons license. The problem with using these photos is they are hard to find and it’s hard to abide by the licensing agreement. There are technical things which most people don’t know about,” Tratt said.
• Style matters: “When you’re creating presentations, it’s important to always use creative style and design,” he said.

Tratt’s company, Haiku Deck, is a free iPad-based presentation tool that makes it easy to create presentations on the go. Haiku Deck provides a handful of templates that allow users to build presentations by leveraging the Creative Commons photo service. The app purposely limits the number of characters of text one can use on each slide. “It forces you, as the presentation creator, to really think about every word,” he said.

“No matter what program you use, keep your presentations simple, use an impactful image and use creative design,” Tratt concluded.