m62 Newsletter

The importance of imagery

"I spent a thoroughly enjoyable day this month in a radio studio recording a series of interviews for Microsoft to promote their Microsoft At Work web site and it reminded me of some of my first presentation training. When I was a student I delivered a twice weekly radio show for 3 years. Not that University Radio Nottingham is in quite the same league as Radio 2 but it did teach me the importance of imagery.
 
There is an old radio story about a little girl who when asked which she preferred Radio or Television replies "Radio because the pictures are better" Trainers use this story to encourage radio broadcasters to "Paint pictures with their words" in order to help the audiences visualise the information.

In a business presentation we have the advantage of being able to actually show the audience the pictures and yet we often don't, resorting instead to the dreaded bullet point! We converse with people over the telephone without the aid of visuals. What can we do then to help them see our message?

Here are some tips that you will find useful:

1. Use positional words such as: next to, alongside, in front of, behind, ahead etc.
2. Use visual analogies; it's like a baby seeing the sun for the first time.
3. Use relational words such as: connected to, inside, outside, separate etc.
4. Use motion words such as: faster, slower, around, passing, overtaking etc.
5. Ask your audience to imagine something: "Imagine a straight road through the desert, now imagine a windy steep road in the Alps. Your current solution is in the Alps, steep, hard to climb and mostly going in circles and our solution is in the desert, shorter to the point, easier and less hassle."

In short, picture something that helps you understand your point and then describe this image to the audience, they will find this useful and  interesting. If you wish to hear the radio interviews, they  will shortly be available, via the m62 and Microsoft websites, as sound files or podcasts. Of course the best thing about the day was that I didn't have to wear a business suit to take part in the interviews and as they say; I have an excellent face for radio!" 

Nicholas B.Oulton
CEO and founder, m62 visualcommunications

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What will you be presenting in 2006? - bullets or visuals?

With over 450m PowerPoint™ users worldwide, it’s no wonder that most of the presentations you see at conferences or in sales meetings look the same. Most presenters still believe that a blue background, with white text and yellow bullets is the best format.

During a recent ‘Killer Presentations’ webinar, we conducted an online poll which showed compelling evidence between the effectiveness of bullets vs images. When over 600 attendees were asked to recall a specific message several minutes after it was presented in two formats: as bullets and text; and as a visual image.

Q How many bullets do you recall?   Q Can you recall/draw the visual?

The psychology behind visuals is compelling. The statistics we all know are that we recall 60-70% of what we see and hear. This compares with the fact that people only remember 20% of a written proposal – so this has to be three times more effective as a presentation!

Bullet points don’t help the audience remember or understand your point, they simply make you feel better as a presenter. Stop using them and your presentations will be better, more interesting and more memorable.

Bullets or visuals?

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Top Tips for Killer Presentations - Part 1

Each month, we will be sharing some of our ‘Top Tips’ to ensure that you can transform your presentations into ‘Killer Presentations’ – ones that have impact, recall and can help you win the order or influence the audience.

We begin the series with some tips which may look pretty obvious, however (and this is the bit that depresses us) they are the key points that are most often ignored by presentation authors:

• Know what you are selling: yourself or the solution?
• Know who or what the competition is
• Know what you are asking for

I have lost count of the number of times sales people come to consultancy sessions with me with presentations that sell the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time in the sales cycle. Time spent thinking through objectives and planning the sales approach is time well spent but thanks to the ability of PowerPoint to allow us to edit an old presentation and many salespeople (not normally known for avoiding short cuts) have a bad habit of rehashing old material instead of thinking through the content of the presentation first and looking for appropriate material afterwards.

How many times have you sat through a presentation and wondered if the presenter had thought about these things before producing the material?

"I do not object to people looking at their watches when I am speaking.
But I strongly object when they start shaking them to make sure they are still going."

William Norman Birkett (1883-1962)

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Remember me?

It’s likely that the audience are likely to remember you – they may have liked your tie or your jokes but equally they may have disliked something about you – your tie or even your jokes. But importantly, what about your presentation?

What key information from your presentation will they have retained and how have you helped them to recall this?

Since audience retention and recall seems to be a challenge, I’m often asked the question “Does it help to have hard copy handouts of the presentation you're giving?”

For a sales presentation I believe that handing out anything is a bad idea for several reasons. Firstly, the audience will concentrate on the handouts and ignore you (therefore not engaging) with a consequential maximum retention of message of 20% (of what they are reading). Secondly they can place their own interpretation on the material thus increasing the chances of an ‘unintended’ message. Thirdly, seeing the material in advance necessarily affects their IPD (Initial Purchase Decision) not always positively i.e. I may decide that your presentation is a waste of time and won’t listen, or worst won’t come, and I certainly won’t engage. Finally, if this is a sales presentation it contains all my competitive advantage neatly laid out. If I send this to a client, sure as eggs are white with a yellow centre and small green Martians are green with a blue centre, they will give this to my competition and bang goes my competitive advantage. Seems stupid to me; and anybody who does it (in my opinion!) is entirely worthy of the label Muppet.

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Competition

This month we’re giving you the opportunity to win one of 5 copies of ‘Killer Presentations’ by sharing your most memorable PowerPoint experiences with us.

These can be good, bad or indifferent – ideally something amusing and something that you have never forgotten! You may have been the presenter or you may have been a member of the audience – we’re interested in both views.

We will publish the winning entries next month – we promise to keep your anecdotes anonymous. You’ll know who you are!

Please email a short paragraph to anna@m62.net

Winners will also receive a free copy of the Killer Presentations CD containing templates, demonstrations and hints on improving your PowerPoint presentations.

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Commitment to pan-European businesses

With increasing demand from both m62 clients and companies in the Benelux region, we are pleased to announce the recent appointment of Koen Bekkers as our m62 represenative for Benelux. We now have a local service for Flemish, French, Dutch and German speaking clients in the region.

Koen has a wealth of experience in all aspects of effective business presentations and if you wish to contact him directly, please email your details to koen@m62.net

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PowerPoint Tip

Need to duplicate a PowerPoint shape, photograph or text box?

Use the CTRL+SHIFT drag shortcut to make sure the duplicates are perfectly aligned with the original. Whilst holding down CTRL and SHIFT, click on the object you want to duplicate. Now when you drag the cursor, it will duplicate the shape you have selected and will only allow you to move it in a horizontal or vertical line, perfectly aligned with the original shape. Easy!

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And finally...

A bad omen?
We are used to seeing PowerPoint in a business context – for sales meetings. at conferences, internal meetings ...and now it’s appearing on a Big Screen near you!

If you go to the cinema to see the recently released (and remade) film, ‘The Omen’, you’ll see that it opens with a priest making a PowerPoint presentation to the Pope about the Apocalypse. The critics have described the presentation as ‘tedious’!

Follow our advice on presentations and don’t let your audience feel the same way about yours.

email: newsletter@m62.net
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