Top tips for compelling PowerPoint presentations
Death by PowerPoint - dull, turgid presentations that last forever seem to be an inescapable part of business life. But it doesn't have to be that way.
13 October 2009
Each and every day, in businesses across the globe, people fire up PowerPoint. More often than not, the goal is to persuade. It might be a new product idea for your company, a sales opportunity to a client, an investment pitch to investors - any number of things.
Sadly, audiences are often less than gripped by presentations. They're dull recitals of numbing slides that go on for ages, with people agreeing with you as a result of tired submission rather than genuine enthusiasm.
It doesn't have to be that way. Creating and giving great presentations doesn't have to be that hard - but it does take some work.
Learn the craft
Most presentations are dull because the presenter has no idea about presentations - either creating or delivering them. Well, firing up PowerPoint and bashing in some bullets is easy, isn't it?
If you create presentations as part of your job, then there is one book you absolutely have to read: Slide:ology, by Nancy Duarte. Duarte's company created one of the few (in fact, possibly only) slideshows to get an Oscar - they were responsible for the slides used by Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth.
Nancy Duarte's best-selling book slide:ology:
The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations
If you're a newbie to creating presentations, or an experienced pro, this book will be a revelation. It's packed with so many ideas and insights into what works on a slide and in front of an audience that it will quite simply turn your ideas of presentations on their head. This book is worth every penny, and if you only act on one of these tips, this is the one.
Rehearse - but don't over prepare
Even the best actors rehearse - do you think you can deliver a speech better than them? Make sure you run through your presentation several times, in the mirror if you can - you're bound to spot points of repetition and irrelevance that will be embarrassing and faulting if they make it to the live performance. Too much rehearsal can be a bad thing, though, if it makes you sound like an automaton.
Write a really strong opening
Films, books and plays often start with a jolt, a mystery, a shock or a surprise. If you're trying to get someone's buy-in to a new service, start by saying 'our company is missing out on a £2 million market' for example - then lead people, who will now be really listening, into your pitch. It's a classic mistake to leave this kind of information until the end of a presentation.
Your slide is not a script
The most common PowerPoint mistake ever: writing slides, and then just reading them. There's a lot of truth in the saying 'if it won't fit on a t-shirt, don't put it on a slide'. A slide only has to convey each major point - and it doesn't even have to include text, it can be just an image or chart, with you doing the rest. Reading slides is boring, boring, boring - and will have people aching to get ahead, because they will have read the slide far faster than you.
Create eye contact
Make sure you look at, and engage with, every person in the room. Look for positive and negative body languages and adjust your presentation accordingly. Make sure you talk 'to' your audience as real people - don't talk 'at' them as if they weren't there.
Provide handouts
You don't necessarily have to give everyone copies of all of your slides - in fact, it may well be a waste of paper to do so, since most of these get filed in the bin. But a single page, or few pages, covering the key topics - along with your contact details - should be seen as an essential way to continue to be in contact after the close of the presentation.
Turn up early
Assume that something will go wrong. There might be a plugboard missing, the projector might need setting up, you name it. Turn up with easily enough time to resolve these issues - an audience might 'understand' that you weren't able to start on time, but it makes your presentation memorable for all of the wrong reasons.
Don't rely on the Web
Don't assume you will have Internet access, even if the client has told you that you will. On the day, you might find that there is no access, or the person who knows the network password is on holiday, or your laptop fights with the firewall. If you need to show websites, take screenshots. If you need to demo an application, run it on a virtual machine.
Answer questions confidently
You're going to be judged as much on how well you answer any questions as on the presentation itself. Try not to hesitate, but do allow yourself time to think before answering - when you're asked a question, give yourself a few seconds to compose yourself. This may seem like ages to you, but it won't to your audience.
Finish early
Make sure that there is plenty of time for questions. Also, respect the fact that many people will have had to squeeze you into their diaries - so they may welcome the unexpected bonus of getting away early. Plus, it shows you are both in control of your own time and that you respect others' time too.
