(It’s all about the visuals)

If you hate building, using or watching presentation slides, you’re not alone. While the technology to help us build those presentations has improved dramatically, little has changed in the inability of many presenters to bring them to life. Before giving up on them entirely, consider these suggestions

to make your presentation a standout.

1. Put the show back into Show And Tell

Your slide deck is your story board. It’s there as a VISUAL AIDE to your storytelling. Look over your slide deck. Is it a visual representation of your story? Is it memorable and understandable?

2. Is your slide deck there for you, or for your audience?

If your slides exist to help keep you (the presenter) stay on track, take them out and work harder on knowing what you want to present. If the slides are there for your audience, leave them in. The purpose of your slides is not to provide you with a script. It’s to visually help your audience connect with the story you’re telling. Don’t make your audience do the work to figure out what you’re saying or how it relates to them.

3. Your slides aren’t the presentation. You are.

Slides can’t compensate for a bad or even a mediocre presenter. Even if you’re delivering data heavy presentations, it’s you, not your slides that will make the difference with your audience. To avoid competing with your slides, consider creating two versions: one version to present orally and one with more detail and text for a hand-out to be referred to by the audience later. You want audience focus on you, not the slides they’re trying to read.

4. It’s the MOVIE, not the book.

If you’re in front of people, you’re the focus. No audience has come to read or be read to. Think of your slide deck as a movie, the version designed to give your audience a high overview of your ideas that encourages them to keep a dialogue going. (For the additional book version, see suggestion 3). No one will complain you had too few slides or that you were too understandable.

Of course, we hope you’ll seek some professional training to help you make the most out of every presentation. You can however, improve your own performance by remembering why your audience is there, what they’re hoping to get from you, and how you’re going to meet and exceed their expectations.

For more tips and techniques, visit www.thepincusgroup.com to align the power of your ideas with effective communication.