How to Make Your Pitch Powerful Using PowerPoint
Engage your audience with words only when necessary
I start a lot of my talks with “I didn’t bring any PowerPoint slides because ‘PowerPoint’ comes from an ancient Greek word that means ‘sleep inducement.’” That generally brings a lot of laughs, but also a lot of heads nodding in agreement.
When you think about it, that’s sad. Microsoft PowerPoint (so says Wikipedia) is a presentation program “originally designed to provide visuals for group presentations within business organizations, but has come to be very widely used in many other communication situations, both in business and beyond.”
The article also states, “The impact of this much wider use of PowerPoint has been experienced as a powerful change throughout society, with strong reactions including advice that it should be used less, should be used differently, or should be used better.”
It’s a real shame because, used correctly, PowerPoint is one of the best computer tools ever invented.
If you look at the history of PowerPoint, you would see it was actually developed to replace overhead projectors. (Remember those? As a teacher, I placed transparent plastic pages on them and wrote notes for the class, projecting them on a screen behind me.)
PowerPoint was initially designed as a picture tool — as in “very little text, lots of graphics and photos.” Oh, how we have strayed from those humble beginnings! Now we clutter slides with gimmicky videos (that work sometimes — and sometimes they don’t), cute emojis (seriously, I saw a presentation last week with smiley and frowny emojis), tons of text put on slides, and font so small you’d need a magnifying glass to read it.
I’ve perused many an article in the past several months (several on Medium; that is my shameless plug for the folks who have published some of my musings) regarding “How to Construct the Perfect PowerPoint Pitch” (or something to that effect).
Unfortunately, most of the instructions dealt with the mechanics of beautiful slides — slide backgrounds, fonts, formatting — rather than how you should use PowerPoint effectively. I must say, while having lovely slides is important, it’s the content that counts!
Employ the “slide rule”
As to format, I’m a firm believer in the “Guy Kawasaki Slide Rule” from The Art of the Start. Kawasaki is a Silicon Valley icon who calls himself a secular evangelist. He preaches about products he’s behind (currently, Canva, a graphics design company). He’s written 15 books and gives more than 50 keynote speeches each year on innovation, enchantment, social media, entrepreneurship, and more.
“A good rule of thumb for font size is to divide the oldest investor’s age by two, and use that font size,” Kawasaki famously said. I agree. I admit I am biased about Guy. I’ve heard him speak, and I used his book The Art of the Start as a college class textbook for many years when I was teaching. If you haven’t read it, you should read the chapter on “The Art of Pitching,” if nothing else. It has awesome tips for delivering the message you want to deliver to the appropriate audience.
When I use PowerPoint, I always prefer, if possible, just a picture or diagram or chart or graph on a slide. One image. If I show one of those and then I explain it, the audience listens to me. If I put tons of text on a slide and then try to clarify the text, the audience reads the text and ignores me, for the most part. Multitasking is a myth — reading while listening doesn’t work unless the speaker is also reading the slide. And that’s plain awful. (More on multitasking in a future tome).
If I must put text on a slide, I use it sparingly. If I put a lot of text on a slide (more than three lines), I have to make the text very small. (I was going to put that in a very small font, but, of course, then you couldn’t read it, which would have made my point, actually.) If I create slides heavy with text, 1) you can’t read it, so you get out your phone and start doing emails, reading the news, playing a game; or 2) you get bored reading it, so you get out your phone, etc.; or 3) you fall asleep (yep, that’s actually happened).
That means I’ve LOST MY AUDIENCE — and, alas, my pitch is not a pitch at all, just an exercise in futility.
Put power in your PowerPoint
So let’s re-evaluate the use of PowerPoint, the sleep inducer, and focus more on the POWER of getting to the POINT. (Ha! I just thought that up!)
If you’re working with entrepreneurs, give them examples of great pitches. (Here’s a clever one: Manpacks; here’s another: Swipes.) You can find numerous outstanding pitches available on the web.
Have your entrepreneurs practice, practice, practice — in front of you, in front of their peers, in front of advisors. Have their peer entrepreneurs pitch in front of them. (They will quickly learn what works and what most certainly doesn’t work by doing that!)
Review their pitches for them, several times. Emphasize the message rather than the medium. Have them pitch with slides and then without slides. Help them clarify some basic principles — knowing their audience, repeating their key points, making the ask.
And, as my preacher father used to say, “No one ever complained about a short sermon”! Keep them brief and to the point (again, I’m thinking the “maximum 10-slide rule”). They can always expound on the virtues of their business when asked.
PowerPoint can be what it was created to be. You, the speaker, can keep people awake, alert, and engaged. Help your entrepreneurs overcome “PowerPoint Syndrome,” so they can get back to the basics and present their company — not an entire novel.
PowerPoint can work for you. Aim for 10 slides, use pictures more than text, make your text large if you must use it. And practice, practice, practice! The slides are a tool. Use them well.
