Armed with a basic knowledge of PowerPoint and a rough idea of what needs to be said, the average presenter today is quite capable of producing a barrage of visuals to support a typical presentation.

So why is this significant? Because with ease of slide production, we have seen a change in the way people interact with presentation visuals. Today visuals invariably act more as a projected prompt card for the presenter than being designed as an aid for the audience.

In days gone by, visual aids (as they were then termed) were primarily for the audience’s benefit. Could it be that a more relaxed pace of business back then, gave presenters more time to rehearse and consequently less need to rely on their visuals to prompt the presentation dialogue?

There are lessons to be learnt from this evolution. The visuals we use and the way we interact with them, aren’t necessarily better … just because PowerPoint is packed full of amazing typefaces, graphics and animation.

If pace of business demands that our slides become a serious prompt for our dialogue, then we better learn to interact with our visuals to add a heck of a lot more value than simply projecting what ends up being a reading lesson for the audience.

Let’s start by looking at how we interact with a simple text-only visual. If there are sentences on the slide, we are doomed from the outset. The audience will groan inwardly, whilst outwardly attempting to keep up the appearance of being interested. Secretly the word ‘moron’ has crept into their minds … quite rightly too!

Five seconds after our slide hits the screen, the audience have scanned it … got a sense of what’s being said, and are already beginning to formulate an opinion. Now, we insist on reading the slide to them … line by line. What option do we have? If the slide has sentences on it, we are compelled to read each one to them … it would almost seem awkward not to.

We can’t ignore the slide and babble away on a different concept (actually some people do!) and we can’t dive in and out of each of the sentences picking up snippets, leaving the audience battling to understand what point we are referring to.

Solution …. ban sentences (but let’s not go to the other end of the spectrum and present slides with just a single word on them either … the word 'supercilious’ will now get added to ‘moron’ !!)

The truth is that we all know we should just use key words on slides … but often it’s hard to edit our presentation script to reflect the right key words. By right, I mean right for the audience’s level of comprehension and right from the presenter’s point of view … enough of a prompt to trigger the correct dialogue.

There is no perfect answer. Our personal presentation style will have a significant influence on how our audience connect with each visual. I’ll talk about this a little later.

For now let’s focus on creating slides that work both as a prompt for us and an aid for the audience.

Typically slides have three main components, a title, bullet points and graphics. The title may well appear on several slides in sequence… for example, ‘First quarter marketing plan’. Because we tend to think of slides as ‘projected printed pages’ it seems logical to give each slide a heading so that the audience know where they are. But titles (or headings) do little to prompt the presenter… triggering a natural flow of dialogue.

Try replacing titles with a key prompt at the top of each slide. Pick a few words that establish the overall concept of what you are about to present. These words become a ‘link phrase’ so that your opening dialogue flows naturally into the main bullet points. At the end of your slide, consider the value of adding a lead out … a word or words that wrap up the concepts you have just presented. The bottom line of your slide then becomes the ‘bottom line’ of what you have just said … creating an overall reinforcement of your points.

FIRST QUARTER MARKETING PLAN

1. Ensure product penetration in middle income market.
2. Develop stock pressure in all leading retail outlets.
3. Use a combination of Radio and Press advertising.
4. Have in-store demonstrators to show true value of product.
5. Use a combination of all of the above to build awareness.

Imagine yourself having to present from this slide … can you hear yourself saying “ladies and gentlemen I would like now to talk about the first quarter marketing plan. The first point I need to make is that we need to ensure that new product penetration happens in the middle income market. Secondly, blah … blah…blah.

Apart from editing out all the superfluous words … our new layout could really help make the dialogue more compelling to listen to.

So what’s the main concept of this slide … it’s certainly not the marketing plan.

It would be reasonable to assume that the audience know this is a presentation about marketing from the outset. By getting straight to the point and talking product penetration … middle income market should be enough of a clue for the audience. In this fictitious company presentation, let’s assume that they have products, not services, and markets are typically segmented in their research around income groups.

The overall concept being presented therefore could be captured in three words … ‘middle market penetration’. It would be reasonable to assume the audience would naturally interpret this as middle income … and product penetration. More importantly, middle market penetration’ is a great prompt for the presenter to set the scene and flow naturally into the main points of the slide.

middle market penetration …

• stock pressure … leading retailers
• Radio and Press advertising
• in-store demonstrators … product value

… build awareness

Now imagine yourself presenting from this slide. Your dialogue should now start to flow more easily, you’re not locked into repeating the words verbatim and you have license to build your story around each bullet. … adding value and holding interest in the process.

The plan for the first quarter focuses on middle market penetration. From past experience we know that stock pressure is the best way to get our leading retailers to give our products prime positions on their shelves. With greater visibility we have more chance of reaching the middle income group, who don’t yet know the product by name.

By combining radio and press advertising, we can reach the middle market and trigger their initial interest. Thereafter it will be up to our in-store demonstrators to make sure this new customer base understand the real value of the product and close the sale. Our success in this market is all about first building awareness.

In the old slide, the same story may have come across eventually, but the presenter would have been locked in to a pattern of reading the bullet point word for word and then explaining what the bullet point meant. This repetition usually takes longer to deliver and is invariably too clinical. To get our dialogue to flow and to project a more conversational style, we need to put our points across as a story … not a reading lesson for the audience.

So to break the mould, we need to focus on how the slide is initially laid out...

• ban sentences
• replace titles – look for a lead in (link) phrase
• use key prompts …
• look for a possible lead out - the bottom line

... and then focus on how we interact with the slide telling our unique story prompted by a few bullet points.

One final thought… if a picture is worth a thousand words… why all text? Next session we’ll talk about using graphics.

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