I’ll be the first to admit that developing PowerPoint presentations (or any other kind) isn’t my strong suit. But as a Comms major in college, standing up in front of a roomful of people has never been an issue – big surprise, I know.
For me, words are infinitely more important than slides – so treating them as accoutrement to the topic – not as the star of the show, is important. Less is usually more (and better) and clean, simple and direct is rarely a bad strategy.
Al Bonner, a friend and frequent collaborator, however, is a presentation pro. I’ve really learned a lot from him in the past year, as I’ve watched him build his company, Presentation Transformations from an idea into a successful business.
After sitting through more presentations than I can count, I know this to be true – most of them suck. And most lack an element that really wows the audience. Presenters often cram too much information onto a slide, making them boring, overwhelming and sometimes even impossible to read. Do you find yourself zoning out in the middle of the majority of the presentations you’re sitting through? I know that I do – and sometimes they’re presentations being made by people who know better – they just don’t know how to create a compelling visual presentation.
There’s no better way to illustrate the difference between an okay presentation and a killer one than to show you, so here it is. Below you’ll see two presentations. The first is the original developed by my other friend and frequent collaborator, Alex Greenwood of AlexanderG PR. Alex is a terrific communicator and sought-after PR pro but, like most of us, his forte is not in developing slide presentations.
We put the above presentation into Al’s capable hands and here’s what Alex’s presentation ultimately morphed into. Pretty impressive, isn’t it?
My advice: rethink your strategy as well as the slide decks you’re using for your presentations. Make sure that when you’re creating them, your focus is on simple, yet effective. Make sure you’re giving your audience a WOW Moment.
Also think about how important your presentations are to you. If you’re regularly using presentations as part of your new business development tools, if they are designed to bring you new clients and/or help you make more money, maybe you need some professional help to whip them into shape. You might find that your time (and money) would be better spent having someone who really knows what they’re doing give your presentations a makeover than to figure out how to do it yourself. You might even find your close rate goes up if your presentations had some professional help. I know that mine has.
And if you do, ping Al on Twitter or at Presentation Transformations — he’ll be happy to help.
Shelly Kramer is a Principal Analyst and Founding Partner at Futurum Research. A serial entrepreneur with a technology centric focus, she has worked alongside some of the world’s largest brands to embrace disruption and spur innovation, understand and address the realities of the connected customer, and help navigate the process of digital transformation. She brings 20 years’ experience as a brand strategist to her work at Futurum, and has deep experience helping global companies with marketing challenges, GTM strategies, messaging develoment, and driving strategy and digital transformation for B2B brands across multiple verticals. Shelly’s coverage areas include Collaboration/CX/SaaS, platforms, ESG, and Cybersecurity, as well as topics and trends related to the Future of Work, the transformation of the workplace and how people and technology are driving that transformation. A transplanted New Yorker, she has learned to love life in the Midwest, and has firsthand experience that some of the most innovative minds and most successful companies in the world also happen to live in “flyover country.”
