Ditch the Logos

How many times have you seen a sales presentation where the slides were plastered with so many different logos and designs that you feel like you’re watching a car race? The marketing people will hate me for this, but I recommend that you remove your corporate logos whenever possible from your sales presentations, because they don’t do what you want them to do and they can even sap your persuasiveness.

The unspoken premise behind prominently featuring logos is that there is some correlation between persuasiveness and the number of logo-to-eyeball strikes. What can it hurt to have your corporate name imprinting in their minds while you’re talking? That kind of reasoning is why the average Westerner sees 3,000 corporate logos a day, according to The Economist. If that ubiquity worked as intended, why would a recent poll involving 700 brands reveal that over 90% of them could disappear and no one would care?

The same article noted that trust in brands has been diminishing for three decades, which in my opinion is caused by the sheer overload of commercial art on our consciousness. It has to spark some sort of unspoken resistance. The minute someone starts touting themselves we go into a defensive mode. Sure, there are some brands that buck the general trend, but chances are yours isn’t one of them.

In addition, Richard Mayer’s studies have shown that the removal of extraneous visual elements can improve retention and transfer up to 105%.[1] So if you want your listeners to remember and act on your message when they make a decision, it might help, and it certainly won’t hurt, to take off anything that does not directly contribute to the message you intend to deliver.

If your logo can’t convey a brand identity during your presentation, what can? Here’s a novel idea: how about the presence, professionalism and knowledge of the presenter?