Quick Fix #2: Escaping the PowerPoint Jail: win customer pitches in 18 minutes

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THE PROBLEM: You’ve seen it happen. A customer blocks out 60 minutes. Your team spends weeks preparing a comprehensive 45-slide deck covering every technical specification, every capability, every certification. But 15 minutes in, you watch engagement evaporate: phone checking, email responding, eyes glazing over. Yet you keep clicking forward because “we spent three weeks building this deck.”

This is PowerPoint Jail—when preparation time becomes a psychological prison that prevents you from actually connecting with customers.

THE FRAMEWORK: Drawing on neuroscience research from John Medina and TED curator Chris Anderson, Stéphane introduces The 18-Minute Rule: a discipline that forces brutal prioritization and transforms customer presentations from monologues into meaningful dialogues.

YOU’LL LEARN:

• Why the sunk cost fallacy destroys B2B sales conversations
• The Stopwatch Challenge: A practical test for your next customer deck
• Why shorter presentations lead to longer, richer customer conversations
• How to prioritize what customers need to hear vs. what you want to tell them