Generate Results with PowerPoint

By Janine Kurnoff, Principal and Founder, The Presentation Company, LLC

If the answer to any of these questions is “no,” then consider mastering the ‘Golden Rules of PowerPoint.’ Follow these simple guidelines and you could be on your way to creating more effective, audience-engaging PowerPoint presentations that sell your solutions and tell your story.

“Show Don’t Tell”

Too often in PowerPoint, we want to “tell” our story by using bulleted text points to explain a concept or highlight a new product feature. As a result, we end up with countless presentation slides cluttered with more text than our audience can absorb. Try using the “Show Don’t Tell” approach where instead of using text to deliver your message, leverage some of PowerPoint’s visual tools to illustrate your ideas. For example, AutoShapes and Free Form objects, although not a designer’s dream, can be effective when used appropriately. (See Exhibit A for before and after examples). Ultimately, our goal as presenters is to have the audience walk away remembering a few key concepts. If illustrated in a compelling manner, they will not only understand the concept, but also be able to recall it, and better articulate the value of this offering. A key benefit when trying to close a deal!

Exhibit A - Before	Exhibit A - After

“Less is More”

This is pretty self-explanatory, but when in doubt, “less is more!” When it comes to creating visually appealing, audience-engaging presentation slides in PowerPoint, remember your audience. Your audience will never criticize you for simple, non-cluttered slides, but they will tune out if you crowd your slides with too much data or simply have too many slides. Most of us are guilty of creating 30 slides for a 30-minute presentation. STOP! This is a sure way to overwhelm your audience and not successfully ‘tell your story.’  As a good measure, take the amount of time you have to present and divide it by two. This is how many slides you should create for your presentation. If you follow this simple rule (give or take), and the lessons from “Show don’t tell,” your audience will walk away remembering your story and message. Don’t panic if you don’t tell them everything in one shot. There is nothing wrong with leaving your audience wanting more. So, the next time you put together your presentation slides, challenge yourself to get rid of unnecessary information!

When creating presentation slides, how many of us actually stop to ask ourselves, “Is this presentation for me, the speaker, or is it for my audience?” It’s not an easy question to answer, especially when we feel compelled as presenters to provide as much information as possible. Worse yet, we don’t want to forget anything, so we typically tend to put more information on a slide than is needed, resulting in clutter, confusion and lack of focus. “It’s not about you” is an essential concept worth mastering to ensure your message is clearly articulated and understood, by any audience.  If you have lots of information to tell, put that extra data in the Speaker Notes and use it for rehearsing beforehand. And constantly ask yourself, is this really relevant for selling the value of your product or service? Remember, if your presentation does not resonate with your audience, you won’t generate the results you want.

Brand Your Presentation”

Ever find yourself sitting through a PowerPoint presentation, wondering, “Is this a presentation by Company X or Company Y…they both look the same!” Unfortunately, this scenario occurs too often and can be detrimental for companies looking to gain a competitive edge.  Too often, we fail to recognize that our presentations must be branded, and carry a central theme. Your audience should always walk away remembering ‘who you are’ and ‘what you stand for.’ This theme should be evident and consistently expressed throughout your presentation, whether it’s reflected through a custom design template, or illustrated in the visuals and graphics used to present your ideas. Most importantly, this theme should accurately reflect your company’s value and corporate brand. For example, in Exhibit B, Company X is in the healthcare industry, specializing in medical consulting. Their PowerPoint design template has been developed to accurately reflect their corporate identity and brand. Additionally, all graphical elements shown are consistent, in both color and style, with the look and feel of this organization. 

Exhibit B - Title Slide	Exhibit B - Body Slide

By following these simple Golden Rules of PowerPoint, you will be on your way to generating the results you want from your next presentation. Most importantly, you will be able to better convey your value, and hopefully close that deal much faster! 

Learn more about Janine Kurnoff and The Presentation Company, LLC in our Contributors section.