Powerful Pointy Presentations

This guy is so underwhelmed, he's reading his emails!

PowerPoint, Keynote, Impress and other programs are just presentation tools – methods of producing slides for projection, nothing more, and you need to keep that in perspective. Just as the carpenter’s tools are not the house, PowerPoint is not the presentation. Too many presenters overuse the gimcrackery that comes with powerpoint to the detriment of their message. It’s like wanting to use every feature of your mobile telephone to make a call. It’s just not appropriate.

How many slides should be in your deck? Only enough to get the message across.

Overuse of powerpoint, especially to display text, suggests a lack of preparation by the presenter and insults the audience. You’ll know you’re well prepared if you wouldn’t panic over a power failure. If you’re reliant on the powerpoint, you haven’t done enough preparation. The unofficial mantra of the US Marine Corps  is

improvise, overcome, adapt

and as a presenter your preparation should be rigorous enough to do this. Be prepared to draw your slides on a whiteboard if necessary. The powerpoint slide should only enhance the presentation, not be the presentation.

You are the presentation.

General Principles of Using Powerpoint

• Construct your presentation on paper before you even think of using PowerPoint. This is the most important rule.
• Only use a powerpoint slide to illustrate a point, not to act as a prompt.
• More pictures fewer words
• No less than 30 point font (thanks Guy Kawasaki)
• Never, ever, ever read the screen
• Don’t reveal items one by one; the audience may feel as if they’re being manipulated.
• Don’t use cheesy animations, graphics or sounds that come with the program. In fact steer away from animations altogether unless you’re showing a video. Most animations are crass. Most people can live without the typewriter sound.
• Use quality graphics, not clip art
• Don’t use powerpoint templates that come with the program.
• Don’t hand out printouts of your slides. If you’ve followed the principles above they won’t be of much help. Prepare a detailed written handout if necessary.

This is only a start!

If your presentation looks anything like this then you’re in deep trouble. There’s lots of problems here, but guess what – I’ve actually been forced to watch presentations like this. Most of the information given rates as “Care Factor – Zero”. Are you unwittingly boring your clients and ruining your chances of making a sale?

Difference Between Subject and Theme

- Subject

The subject of your presentation should be fairly straightforward to define. It could be something like:

• sell widget solution to Aardvark Enterprises
• say no to the Traveston Dam
• an analysis of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 2

It is the broad general topic you are speaking about and should be known to the audience beforehand. Just because you have a subject or topic doesn’t necessarily mean that your presentation will stand out.

- Theme

A  theme is a single idea; a continuous thread or recurring segue. It should be short, simple and memorable, up to to ten words that you repeat, repeat, repeat throughout your presentation.  It is the angle or direction of your presentation, the glue that holds it together. The theme is the one message you want the audience to take back with them. Much like theme music in movies. Very few people can hear the theme from The Godfather without being transported into the narrative.

Returning to the subjects here are some hypothetical themes:

• sell widget solution to Aardvark Enterprises – Theme ” Our widgets never fail”
• say no to the Traveston Dam -  Theme “Better alternatives are available”
• an analysis of Tchaikovsky’s symphony No 2 – Theme “Russian folk songs dictating symphonic form”

A good place to use the theme is at the beginning  of the presentation, the start or end of  each  of each major point, and  the conclusion.

Questions you can ask  to discover your theme are:

What is the compelling benefit of my product, service or solution?

95% of the time we will fix your problems before you even know you have them.

What is the major effect of the problem I am presenting?

$300 billion will be spent on illegal drugs today

You can also use the “journalistic six” to develop your theme.

Good advice is not to have more than one theme – it will confuse the audience.

If you don’t have a stated theme, the audience may  ask themselves, “what was that about?”

Download Theme WorkSheet