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November 6, 2007 Issue 013 : Return to Articles : Printable Version

10 Tips for Great Presentations

Greatness might be overstating it a bit, but the difference between a remarkable presentation and the average is huge. And if your presentations aren't remarkable, they're forgettable. So, why bother?

Presentations are necessary. You want something from a group. You schedule a meeting. You present your case. You develop a rationale so your audience will take the action you want them to. That's what great presentations can do.

However, if your presentation is not great, it'll fail every time. That's why forgettable presentations are called Death by PowerPoint. Because they're used in the wrong way, for the wrong reasons, at the wrong times.

I stopped committing presentation felonies years ago, but was still guilty of misdemeanors. Until just recently. Then I took the plunge, and changed to great presentations. It was scary, but also liberating.

The results were remarkable. Audiences were now listening to every word I said. They had to (see tips #4 & #5). And I achieved my presentation goals.

There's been a lot written about bad PowerPoint presentations. The best is Seth Godin's "Really Bad PowerPoint". I've added several observations of my own to his.

That's our Revenue-IQ article for this month, 10 Tips for Great Presentations. Take the plunge, the water's fine.

Good luck,

Chris Arlen, President, Service Performance

Here they are, the top 10 tips for creating great presentations.

Take note, there are presentations that don't need a speaker. Typically, autorun slideshows. These tips aren't for those presentations.

However, for every in-person presentation these are absolute requirements.

#1 It's a Presentation - Not a Report

Word docs are for presenting dense information. Presentations are for getting a group to take the action you want.

Don't confuse the two.

If you're going to dump tons of data on your audience, save their time. Put it in a report and email it. Don't ask for a meeting to make them sit in resentful silence.

Getting people to do what you want requires communication. Communication takes an emotional connection. You have to be there to connect. Use a presentation for that.

#2 Leave Behind the Details

Put your audience at rest at the start. Tell them they don't need to take notes. You'll provide a detailed report of the presentation. Word is a good tool for this, not PowerPoint.

This is not a printout of the presentation.
As you'll see in tips #4 and #5, the presentation doesn't make sense without you there to explain it.

Heads up! There's more work to produce a presentation and a printed report. But the results from great presentations are worth it.

#3 Leave the Leave Behind When You Leave

Don't hand out your leave behind report until you...leave.

If you hand it out first, you'll break the flow and lose your audience's attention while they read it.

#4 Use Images to Support Your Story - Not Screen Text

This is a scary one to swallow.

It's about attention and retention. Your audience has to pay attention first, before they'll retain anything you present.

Slides without text require the audience to listen. Your audience looks at the image and has to pay attention to what you're saying to figure out what's going on.

Use a single image or chart to convey the essence of your story on each slide. Select one that addresses the key thought in that particular story/slide.

You'll speak the details of the story.

And your audience is getting your report at the end, so don't worry if they don't remember the details now.

Heads up! Selecting the right image or chart is harder than it seems. It takes time and thought.

#5 Minimalist Text - 6 Words Max per Slide

This works with tip #4. Why six words and not seven? Well, you've got to stop somewhere. And your title can eat up most of those six words.

So, what's your text about? Think of it as an enigma. A written enigma that your spoken story explains and makes clear.

Heads up! This is easier than it seems, but it does take thought.

Here's an exception. Once in about 250 slides a quotation works. Include the quote and image of the person the quotation is from. Use very rarely.

#6 Break Audience Expectations

If you've been a proseletizer of brand consistency, as I was, you'll find this sacriligious. But once you've tried it, I'm sure you'll come around too.

Vary each slide.

Not just the title and image. But change the background. Change the location of the title, image and text. Don't have a header or footer with a consistent placement of your logo.

And once your audience comes to expect that kind of variance, then break that expectation by repeating several layouts. Then change back again to varying every slide, every other slide.

The presentation is about getting a group to take the action you want. And that requires their attention. So keep them slightly out of balance. They'll need to pay attention to see what's coming next.

It's not about burning your logo into their retinas for an hour.

#7 Design a Conversation - Not a Monologue

83 slides of you droning on is more effective than a handful of Ambien to put your audience asleep.

Design your presentation for interaction. Schedule points where you ask their input, such as the next topic, their understanding or interpretation of what they've heard, or questions in general.

You'll need to present enough of your pitch for them to know where they're at. But give them the chance to talk. When they're talking they're not sleeping.

#8 Lay Off the Cheese

Skip the PowerPoint animation builds and distracting slide transitions.

Choose one minimal slide transition and use it for all slides.

Avoid animating anything on the slide. That means the title, text and image are all there at the beginning.

Exception alert! Once in a great while you may need to build text or images on the slide. Animate with the minimum, one at most.

Again, this is rare, probably no more than one out of 10 presentations.

#9 Give 'Em Your Best Side

Face the audience. You can't connect audience unless you see their eyes. Remember tip #1.

#10 They Can Read

Your audience can read, trust me. And you no longer have a lot of text, see tip #5, but for Heaven's sake don't read what little you do have.

Cognitive Load Theory says that if you do read the text, you're likely to minimize your audience's retention.

The brain stores auditory and visual information in separate places. And your brain can only hold so much. When you speak (auditory) and they read (visual) the same thing, chances are they're not getting it all (cognitive overload).

Besides, give them some respect. It's only six words after all.

Summary

That's all there is to great, remarkable presentations. I'll bet it's different than you're currently giving. Give it a try. You'll love the results.