I used to work alongside many sales reps on their accounts during my days at Terramark, but there’s one trip in particular that sticks out in my mind. It is the perfect example of how personable customers should expect salespeople to be.

As you’re reading this, think of it on a more global scale than the boardroom. You can draw similar parallels between this and the sales door, or even the task of getting yourself a new deal. It’s always important to know when you should put away the slides and engage your audience one-on-one.

Have you ever been in a meeting where the presenter has made an art show of their PowerPoint slides? They have all the bells and whistles—moving animation, a strategic color scheme, and so many slides you wonder if they’ve considered writing a book. It can be exciting at first, but once you’ve sat through the first hour, or maybe even the first fifteen minutes, you are so inundated with information that you’re ready to fall asleep. Even the most disciplined among us will start to wonder what else is going on in the world. You check your phone, you lose focus, and finally, you zone out.

It is the knowledgeable salesperson who relies on slides as a tool who will be able to make a deal in a hot tub, on an elevator door, at a steakhouse, or on the hoods of cars because he or she has a deep and intrinsic understanding of what he or she is selling. My hope for you is that you will take the time to really study every inch of your business so that when the customer asks you a question, you will know your facts so well that they come out in a casual, convincing tone. I believe in conversations over presentations because it’s been my observation that many business professionals use presentations as a crutch.