PowerPoint Myths

I recommend you read a recent article by Nilofer Merchant, CEO of Rubicon Consulting titled “Eight Great PowerPoint Myths” (click here to read the article). What I liked about this article is that it takes an audience perspective, not a presenter’s perspective. Why is that so important? Because far too many presentations are all about the presenter, not about the audience.

What I would add to Nilofer’s comments is the order in which you should undertake the tasks that it takes to create a great presentation that uses PowerPoint as a supporting tool. Here’s my list in order:

1. Decide on the goal of the presentation – what do you want the audience to know, do or feel after you are finished?
2. Analyze your audience – who they are, where they are coming from, any underlying feelings or assumptions you need to take into account.
3. Outline your main points and supporting information so that you logically move the audience from where they are now to where you want them to be at the end of the presentation.
4. Plan how you will open the presentation, interact with the audience so it is more of a conversation, and close the presentation
5. Create persuasive visual slides that have a headline and a clearly designed visual that you can speak to in order to make your point.
6. Rehearse your presentation so you smooth out the awkward parts and it flows as easily as a casual conversation with friends on the weekend.
7. Reap the rewards that come to those who stand head and shoulders above the normal presentation that consists of reading bullet paragraphs off the slides.

You can get more information on my five-step KWICK method for creating persuasive visual slides in my book “The Visual Slide Revolution” by clicking here.

Quick $1.99 "How-to" videos

You've seen a great slide, maybe one where the pie chart has a picture used as the fill instead of a solid color. How'd they do that? It can be done in PowerPoint, but you'd search for hours in most books that are 400+ pages long. I've got a 5 minute video that shows you exactly how to fill a shape or pie slice with a photo. It is one of the videos I have that you can download for a bargain price of $1.99. Go to http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/ppthowtovideos.htm to see the list of videos and get the ones you want. There's even one free video for you to download so you can see how useful the instructions are.

When stories don't work in a presentation

Earlier this week I attended a full-day conference with a number of speakers on the agenda. I advocate using stories, but not the way two of the speakers did so at the conference. Both of the speakers started their presentation with a story - not a bad idea. But each of the stories lasted at least seven minutes and were mostly about how great they are. We didn't see a hint of content in the first seven minutes. They were only speaking for 45 minutes each, so they spent the first 15% of their time telling us how great they were. Not a good way to connect with the audience.

One of the speakers continued to use stories, but started a few by saying, "This happened in the 80's." Telling your audience that your illustration comes from over 20 years ago does not inspire confidence. It is because the ideas only worked once so the speaker doesn't have any more recent examples? Is it because the ideas no longer work today? I'm not sure, and so I discounted that point. And it gave me cause to be concerned about the other points as well.

Stories are a great way to illustrate your point, but make sure they are focused properly. Use recent examples that everyone can relate to and see that it is relevant to today's world. Use examples of similar situations that they might find themselves in so they can relate to what you are saying. And remember that the presentation is all about the audience, not about you the presenter. If you need the audience to know about your credentials, put it in your introduction, not the opening 15% of your presentation.

PowerPoint Tip: Learn From Great Presentations

One of the best ways to get better at presenting is to watch other presenters who are better than yourself. It is a time-tested principle that is true in many endeavors, be it sports, music or business: watch the best and learn from them.

Today I want to point you to a web site that contains the audio and many times a written transcript of what scholars have deemed to be the top 100 speeches of the modern era. The web site is http://www.americanrhetoric.com/newtop100speeches.htm and is a great source of material for being inspired at how spoken words can literally change lives.

I encourage you to visit the site, bookmark it and visit regularly to spend time listening to the greatest speeches of our time by people like Martin Luther King, John F Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, FDR and many others. As you listen to their speeches, pay attention to the following as points to remember and incorporate when you speak.

The first thing you will notice about every one of these speeches is the passion of the speaker for the topic they are speaking about. Not all of the speeches are inspirational, a number were made on sad occasions. But the one thing that is common with all is the passion. When you next present, how passionate will you be about your topic? By speaking on those topics you are most passionate about, you will become a better presenter.

Second, listen to how they have phrased what they said. Great speeches have carefully chosen words, ones that are not complex, but are simple yet powerful. When you prepare your next presentation, what words will you choose? If you don't rehearse what you are going to say, your word choice is left to chance. By rehearsing your presentation, you have a chance to select the best words to make your point. Words that have an impact and will be remembered.

Finally, in the speeches that are inspirational in nature, listen for how the speaker has carefully structured the message to build to the conclusion they need to reach. Too many presentations are haphazard, rambling from one place to the next with no clear path to a destination. Learn the lessons of these great speeches in structuring your persuasive presentations to reach a clearly defined goal at the end.

Delivering a great PowerPoint presentation should not be primarily about the slides. They can play an important supporting role, but what you say and how you say it is far more important. Today's resource will help you take your speaking to the next level by learning from the greatest speakers of our time.

Lessons for Presenters from Tiger’s Coach

I recently had a chance to hear Hank Haney speak. Who is Hank Haney you ask? He is the swing coach for Tiger Woods, the greatest golf player on the planet right now (and possibly ever). It is always a treat to listen to those who help top performers get even better. Here are some of the lessons he shared and my interpretation of how these golf lessons can apply to the world of business presentations.

Read the rest of the article here ...

More audience feedback on PowerPoint

I read this article in The Charlotte Observer today. It talks about what buyers dislike about how salespeople interact with them. One observation is that buyers don't like to sit through canned "lectures" of PowerPoint slides. Take heed of this observation. No audience, whether big or small, likes a presentation that is generic and read to them. What can you do?

If you are in marketing, don't create decks that you send to the sales force and expect them to deliver it as is. That approach doesn't work - for the sales person or the prospect. Instead, create a library of slides that the sales professionals can draw on in each situation to create the bulk of their presentation. Then, train the salespeople on how to create persuasive visuals for the 20-30% of the slides that need to be customized for each situation.

If you are in sales, stop reading prepared decks to prospects. Stop whining about the PowerPoint files that your marketing department produces. Work with the marketing staff to create a library of the common messages you need to deliver. Educate yourself on how to pick from that library and add new visuals to create a custom presentation each time. Commit the time to prepare each presentation properly with audience analysis so you can select the right messages for them.

The result: A consistently customized set of visuals that are delivered in a conversational manner. Prospects are engaged, ideas and solutions are shared and relationships are strengthened. Now isn't that what we all want?

Need to know how to create persuasive visuals? Check out www.VisualSlideRevolution.com and www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com for books and training workshops.

Will you join The Visual Slide Revolution?

You've had enough of the overloaded text slides that most presenters use. You've seen a few people use visuals instead of bullet paragraphs and it is so much more effective. But you figure that you'd need some graphic design training and thousands of dollars of software and equipment to create visuals for your presentations.

Not so.

There is an easy five step method that will show you how to create persuasive visuals using the software you already have. Get ready to join The Visual Slide Revolution.

As one of my blog readers, you know the valuable ideas I share with you regularly. Now I've captured the process I use for transforming overloaded text slides in a new book, The Visual Slide Revolution.

In this book, I walk you through my five step KWICK method that will have you looking at your presentation slides in a whole new way. You will have the knowledge to transform your current presentations and create new slides that drive your message home like never before.

When I present the KWICK method during my workshops, people are able to use the ideas immediately. They've told me that after hearing these ideas, they have changed their approach and their presentations are much more powerful than ever before. You now have that opportunity.

Go to http://www.visualsliderevolution.com/ to check out all the details. I am even letting people read one chapter for free because I am convinced that once you grasp the power of the ideas, you'll realize your long search for a better way to present is now over.

Because some of you prefer a printed book and some prefer an electronic book, I am publishing The Visual Slide Revolution in both printed and e-book formats. Go to http://www.visualsliderevolution.com/ now to get your copy.

PowerPoint Tip: Using PDF files during presentations

In my latest article that has been posted to the web site, I talk about how we can increase interaction in our sales presentations. I talk about the difference between a lecture style of presentation (one-way communication only) and a more interactive presentation. I then give four ways to get the audience involved to have more of a conversation. One of the ideas is to hyperlink to a PDF document, and that's what I am going to expand on today. The full article is at: http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/articles/increasinginteraction.htm .

When you display a brochure in the Adobe PDF Reader, it usually opens showing the full page, which is usually far too small to be able to read or explain. So what you will need to do is zoom in on the area that you want the audience to focus on. You can use the percentage zoom drop down list, but the zoom is focused on the center of the page, which may not be where you want to zoom in on. Instead, click on the zoom-in magnifying glass tool and then you can click on the portion of the page you want to expand (you may need to click there more than once to make it readable). It allows you to show what you want quickly during your presentation.

Your PDF document will usually have multiple pages, since it is usually a brochure that you are showing. You will need to jump to the page that you want to show. Instead of scrolling down or using the Page Down key to jump through pages, use the feature to go directly to the page you want. Click in the page number field at the bottom of the screen and simply type in the page number you want to show. The software will jump directly to that page and you save time getting to what you wanted to show the audience.

You also have an option in Acrobat that can help give the audience more context when looking at a multi-page document. In the lower right hand corner of the Acrobat screen, you will see a number of icons that represent the different ways that the display can be shown. If you want to give people a context of where they are in a multi-page document by showing facing pages as if they had opened a brochure on their desk, select the icon that looks like two pages beside each other. Then, when you want to zoom in, select the icon that just shows one page.

With more documents being created in PDF format, use these ideas to bring a PDF document into your presentation for added impact. If you aren't familiar with adding hyperlinks to documents and PDF files, check out the Guide to Advanced PowerPoint Techniques, which has complete instructions to follow. Get more info at: http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/guidetoadvppt.htm