Pitch Perfect

Inspire the crowd by avoiding these four common presentation errors

Creating persuasive presentations is an essential part of business success. Unfortunately, it’s the rare person who does it well, and it’s ALL PowerPoint‘s fault. Well, perhaps that’s an exaggeration, but consider the world before digital slide software…

The 80’s: a medical conference watching my doctor dad present. It was him at the podium with some snapshots of surgical cases that he’d taken in the operating room. No bullet-point lists, no flow charts, no title slides. Just him, his words and his film-developed slides placed one-by-one into a Kodak carousel tray, click, click, clunk (sometimes the slides would get stuck).

Fast forward to today where digital slide software has made it easy to choose a “fancy” template, create graphics and rearrange text to your heart’s content. These seemingly useful features, one could argue and I will, have actually reduced the quality of presentations, allowing the presenter to lean on their slides rather than rely on a well-crafted and rehearsed narrative.

The lure of the digital sirens is strong, but if you’re aware and prepared for four common errors in presentation design you just may throw the coveted perfect pitch.

E1. You versus the slide

Many presenters use their slides as an outline (the ubiquitous bulleted list) that guides them as they read along with the audience.

Slides are most effective as visual aids to your message — think about the classic Steve Jobs keynote presentations. Remember, you’re trying to make a connection with your audience.

Would you rather your audience engage with you or your slides?

Get off the disabled list! Instead of using your slides as a crutch, relegate your narrative to presentation notes with bolded keywords to springboard.

A great exercise is to script your presentation without any slides. Then add supporting visuals only as necessary.

E2. One idea per slide

Presenting multiple ideas on a single slide is a guaranteed way to distract the crowd from the point that you’re making.

Rather than presenting four ideas on one slide for a minute, create four slides and spend 15 seconds on each.

The slide-time continuum:
1 slide for a minute = 4 slides for 15 seconds

While many presenters think they’re saving time making fewer slides, it’s actually much easier to create four simple slides than to masterfully juxtapose four ideas onto one. And, a faster click-through rate keeps the crowd more engaged.

Win… and win.

E3. Double header

The root of many slide-deck follies is the desire to satisfy two objectives with one presentation. On your glove hand, you want to deliver a compelling presentation to your audience. On your throwing hand, you want to send your deck out for review and it must stand on its own.

The solution is simple. Create two decks!

Sounds like double the work? Fortunately, it’s not. Combining your presentation visuals with well-formatted presenter notes will get you 80–90% of the way to a standalone, distribution deck.

E4. Anatomy of a slide deck

Many people think of their presentation as a sequence of slides to be flipped through like my dad’s Kodak slide carousel. This mindset gives you little opportunity to prioritize or create a hierarchy of information.

In reality, modern presentation software provides many opportunities to organize, layer and progressively reveal information in order to take full advantage of your audience’s attention.

The slide area
Use this area for visuals that support your narration.

Animations
Use animation to reveal content sequentially in the slide area cued to your narration to guide your audience’s focus.

Transitions
Use slide transitions to effectively increase the working area. A good example of this would be using the slide-left transition to cover a long timeline over multiple slide widths.

Hyperlinks
Create an appendix and hyperlink back and forth when you want to dive deeply into supporting content.

Presenter notes
Craft human-readable presenter notes, bolding key points as triggers for your speaking points. Migrate your presenter notes to the slide area when you’re getting ready to distribute your deck as a standalone document.

Roundup

You have an idea that could change the world, or your world at the very least. Don’t get caught leaning on your slides. Step up to the mound, plant your feet firmly and start crafting your pitch. The slides can wait.