m62 Newsletter

Killer Presentations, A bird with two stones - May 2006

"Last month, I wrote about presenting to an audience in a foreign language. This month I thought I would mention the most frequent objection I get to what we do, and it is this:

'My presentation needs to sell in other rooms! Therefore it needs to be self explanatory; ideally I want the headings to tell the story so that at a glance the audience can get the gist of my presentation.'

Where to start? Firstly let’s talk about the selling in other rooms i.e. a copy of the presentation will get passed to the decision maker and they will make their decision without me present. As a sales manger, I would be tempted to fire the sales person who did this. The object is to get to see the decision maker yourself and not hope that an internal sponsor can sell your product or service for you. If you absolutely have to leave something behind, I would leave a document or brochure rather than a presentation.

Secondly, if the audience can get the gist of the presentation by reading the headings, what is the point of them listening to what you present? By attempting to solve the problem created by poor sales skills (decision maker not present) you in fact create a more pressing issue in the actual presentation, they fall asleep and will only remember 15% of the presentation.

Bottom line: presentations are presentations, and we should design the material to maximise the impact of these opportunities. Solve the other problems with other solutions, thus killing one bird with one stone rather than risking missing two with a badly aimed stone."

Nicholas B.Oulton
CEO and founder, m62 visualcommunications

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Slides should be non self-explanatory

By designing slides that do not present an instant message but initially intrigue and then help the audience to visualise the argument, you encourage the audience to pay attention and, by increasing their engagement with you, make it more likely that they will retain more of the message for longer.

In this way, what the presenter says – ‘patter’ – becomes an integral part of the overall flow of information: a seamless part of the whole.

Why not register to join one of our webinars to see how this might work for your organisation ?

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The Reasons Why Bullet points don’t work

1. We only remember a small amount of what we read from a screen.
2. We are forced to ignore the presenter so we can read without distraction.
3. They look boring – and we are all fed up with the same old slides.
4. Alternatives work far better. We can learn something from a poor presentation – we all have. But visually engaging slides that use visuals and presenter together are so much more effective

Yes, the above is a list. When you have time to read in your own time, and the author can’t be there to present, a list makes sense. But if I was in the room with you, distracting you by reading a list aloud – well that would be a wasted opportunity to explain my ideas. Most presenters make that mistake.

There’s a far more effective way as shown by the bullet point approach (left) and the visual approach (right):

To illustrate this, take a look at the following example from Scottish & Newcastle (one of the world’s leading beer-led beverages companies). Read the bullets on the first slide: the key information is about the timing of the programme'. Hence the revised slide has a timeline with activities shown at the appropriate time, the rest is patter (words said by the presenter while the slide is on view). The end result is not only more attractive but actually increases the audience's engagement and interest levels. The first slide is written for the presenter (‘What shall I say?'), the second for the audience (What do they need to see?).

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Using Video Clips

I am often asked about the addition of video clips (testimonials) in company presentations. Do they add value?

I believe that video can add quite a lot to a presentation, it can be used as a Soft Break (break of attention span) and can be used to manipulate attention. However, people mostly use it because they think it’s impressive in its own right, which it isn’t. So if it adds value, great - but the watchword is minimalism. Our guidelines are: video clip with no sound - 5 seconds is optimum, with sound - 10 seconds, with narrative - 20 seconds, with music - 90 seconds maximum.

Sounds short, right? Trust me, it’s not. Video in PowerPoint is definitely a case of “Less is More”.

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So you think you know PowerPoint?

Thanks to everyone who replied to last month’s competition to win a free copy of the ‘Killer Presentations’ book and CD. We had an overwhelming response and are going to run the same offer again! So, be one of the first 10 readers to reply to this link and receive your copy of the book and accompanying CD by post!

Last month’s lucky winners were: Marne Marshall, Ashe Windham, Dave Simas, Jed Mole, Peter Myers, Paul Corrigan, Jim Reid, Gary Weinstein, Stephan Phillips and Leo Stigter.

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PowerPoint Tip

This month, our designers share a couple of simple tips that we know will save you lots of time when working with text changes in PowerPoint.

If you need to change your text from upper to lower case (or vice versa)
Just select the text, depress the ‘Shift’ key and keep pressing F3 to scroll through different cases.

For a quick way to change the point size of your text
Just select the text, depress the ‘Ctrl’ key and keep pressing ] to increase and [ to decrease text size.

"Whoever invented the meeting must have had Hollywood in mind. I think they should consider giving Oscars for meetings: Best Meeting of the Year, Best Supporting Meeting, Best Meeting Based on Material from Another Meeting."

William Goldman (b. 1931)

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And finally...

We normally associate PowerPoint presentations in a business context – sales pitches, company presentations, training and so on... so we were very interested to learn that one of the candidates for the role of England Football Manager had delivered a PowerPoint presentation during his recent ‘pitch’ to the interviewing board.

We’ve since learned that he was not offered the job but believe this had more to do with his track record than his bullet points!

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