Winning PowerPoint tactics

Whether you create presentations or deliver them, great presentation skills can help you achieve better results and accelerate your climb up the corporate ladder.

First – what NOT to do:
Avoid falling into these common traps

  • Text size on slides too small (10 to 12 point font)
  • As much text as possible jammed into each slide
  • Ignoring the 6 by 6 rule – 6 points down, explained in 6 words across
  • Presentation read off by the presenter (audiences will always read ahead for the simple reason that humans can read faster than they can speak.)

Remember, if they tune you out the audience stops taking your message in.

In the US where creating persuasive presentations is really big business – especially in IT, high finance and politics - these are just a few of the ways in which the top marketers are doing things:

  1. The audience is always the focus. Know their needs then explain how you will address these. Light the room so you can see the audience. (If you cannot do this and still see the screen, lose the screen not the audience.)
  2. Use bullet points like mini headlines in a font size of at least 24 points to express main benefits and promises. Add little or no text besides. This encourages the audience to LISTEN to the real meat of the presentation content, as opposed to getting ahead of the presenter. The technique also forces the presenter to zoom in on only the most important points and explain them well.
  3. If you use fly-in animation effects, bring it in from only one direction.
  4. Do not exceed 10 slides. Normal human beings cannot grasp more than ten concepts in a single session.
  5. Speak for a maximum of 20 minutes. If the occasion demands a longer session, take breaks.
  6. Engage the audience by making your presentations inter-active and multi-sensory (More on this in a future edition of INFORM)
  7. Follow this format in presentations where the aim is to reach agreement (for example, making a sale, forming a partnership etc.)

Problem (research what these are beforehand)
Your solution
Business Model
Underlying ‘Magic’/Technology
Marketing & Sales
Competition
Team
Milestones
Status & Timeline
Summary & Call to Action (KNOW your objective!)

Besides the fact that canned presentations can sound too pat because they are stale from the viewpoint of the presenter, they often end up wasting everyone’s time. Particularly if they are not tweaked to suit the specific needs of each unique audience. But if you follow the abovementioned guidelines and have a clear picture of what you ideally want to achieve with each presentation – you will get closer to achieving the results YOU want.

ITMS