Picture Perfect PowerPoint - Presentations That Sell

When it comes to putting together the PowerPoint slides for sales presentations, presenters usually sit down and type in everything they want to say. When it's all there in black and white, they pass their slides on to a colleague or team member who will also share the stage. That person adds a few slides--making sure to include all the text, all the graphs, all the charts, and all the bullet points they don't want to forget.

But that's not all. Marketing is alerted and they send you a few more essential slides. Then your manager reminds you to please include the one you used last summer at the meeting that everyone loved. Before you know it, you've got a presentation that grew like Topsy--without consistency, without flair, and without a coherent message.

PowerPoint slides are a visual aid intended to support your oral delivery--not to replace it. Good slides are good pictures. They are a visual representation of what you are saying, attractive to look at and easy to understand just by glancing at them. They are an enhancement, a simplification or an addition. They don't require interpretation, explanation or reading.

A presentation is a performance and you are the star. Your slides should help you tell your story--not tell your story for you. That means you must cull your slides; eliminate all but the most essential. Any slide that is just a bunch of text must go. Any slide you've included "just in case" must be discarded. Delete any slide that needs a long explanation, a slow read or a magnifying glass. If you must include some text, eliminate full sentences and use key words only. Use bullets sparingly and make sure they are grammatically parallel.

The fact is, you are the presentation; your slides are not. If everything you want to say is on your slides, you lose your animation, your spontaneity and your ability to connect with your audience. What's worse, your audience loses you--so you lose the sale.

Of course, it's important to pick an appealing background and here are some suggestions to help you get it right.

Professional tips for high-impact slides: 

• choose a dark color--never use a white background
• look for a background image that adds dimension and depth to the screen
• use pictures that are a metaphor for your message
• photoshop an appropriate image and use it as background for the whole slide--not as a little insert
• use the biggest font you can--72 points is best, 36 points is minimum
• don't use cheesy clipart images
• aim for consistency--pictures that help you tell a coherent story
• get professional help or buy professional images when professionalism is important to you.

Too many people spoil a potentially good presentation with too many words. Good slides are simply an artistic visual that captures your words in a compelling image. Just picture it.

Author, consultant, trainer and coach, Fern Lebo is also president of FrontRunner Communications, adjunct faculty at Auburn University and a frequent keynote speaker. A respected communications expert, Lebo focuses on presentation and writing for sales. For nearly 20 years, she has helped Fortune 500 companies create and deploy star sales performers. Whether it's reinventing a sales presentation, discovering how to write strategically, or improving presentation delivery, Lebo's clients learn the secrets that set them apart; they master the professional techniques they need to achieve outstanding success. Find out more at http://FRcommunications.com

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Professional PowerPoint Presentations With the Rules of Six and More

PowerPoint and all the bells and whistles that come with are being used more and more in business and other presentation venues. Before presenters became so attached to computers for visual aid production, a few rules existed for proper visual design that was often adhered to by the graphic design folks who built slides in the days before the personal computer. Now with everyone having access to a computer, those rules are often ignored during slide design. The result an unprofessional look and information overload. A return to some of the old rules, referred to as the rules of six, is in order. Also new rules are needed with the computer to keep slides with graphics and animations appropriate for professional use. Below are a few rules to consider when designing slides in PowerPoint.

Rules of Six for Slide Creation

• Use meaningful titles as introduction and summary of slide contents. Be sure to limit the number of words in title to no more than 6.
• Have no more than 6 bullets per text slide. Sub-bullets should be included in this count. Also it is preferable to have no more than 6 words per bullet.
• For tables of data, plan no more than 6 rows of data on a table to make it easier to read. However, for most audiences charts or graphs are better than tables. No more than 6 data points (bars, slices, lines) should be on a graph or chart.
• In relation to talk time on each slide consider for a 30 minute presentation to use 6 (5 minutes of talking per slide) slides or less that only highlight the key points of presentation. Or no more than 12 slides (averaging 2- 3 minutes talk time per slide) where you want to provide some details that might be hard for audience to capture in notes.

Rules for Graphics and Animation

• Only use images and graphics that summarize key points as a replacement for text, such as charts and graphs. Mixing too much on a slide only makes it crowded and confusing. Remember cute cartoons, silly photos, or movies typically don't add much to a professional presentation.
• Use animation and sounds wisely and sparingly. A consistent transition between slides does not fall under the animation caution. Transitions help the audience get ready for what is coming next. Also consider design template to get a more professional look with little effort. If the template has a distracting movement in it or the color is not desirable, go to the master slide view to remove the animation or change the background.
• Remember when it comes to a professional presentation, less really is more. The less the slide has on it, the more the presenter can illuminate on key points. The less words used, the more white space included, which marketing folks say readers find pleasing to the eye. The less the audience has to try to read on the screen, the more attention they can give to the presenter. If that is not convincing enough, consider that note-taking by audience, to supplement the slide contents, actually increases their retention of presented points by as much as 40%.
• Presenters should consider the black screen option for discussion or activity times, which do not require referencing a slide. To turn black screen on, press the letter B on the computer keyboard during a PowerPoint presentation, the screen will go dark. When ready to continue with the slide show, press B again and the show will return to where it was before.

Please consider utilizing the above rules when designing slides in PowerPoint on the computer to give a more professional appearance to slides and presenter. Remember, just because the makers of PowerPoint include lots of bells and whistles with the software, that doesn't mean that you have to use them. Reduce the chance of information overload on the audience by returning to the old rules of graphic design and adding the new rules offered here.

Shirley Fine Lee, author of "R.A!R.A! A Meeting Wizard's Approach", has worked as a training and development specialist since 1986, and an independent consultant since 2000. She has extensive experience, helping organizations with their team building, training development, meeting facilitation, presentation delivery, and other communication needs. This work involves developing productivity tools, presenting workshops, and writing. For instance, she has authored numerous training manuals and guides, on a wide variety of topics. Her programs include time management, getting organized, problem solving, and team building. Find out more about her and options she provides on her website.

http://www.shirleyfinelee.com

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Public Speaking With PowerPoint - Let Go of Your Fear

It is common knowledge that public speaking is the biggest fear. When you think about it, there are other things we should be scared of. Going up in front of an audience and sharing some information should not be high on our list of fears.

Public speaking with PowerPoint is a great way to get through your fear. It may not erase it completely, but there are certain features that PowerPoint provides that can make it easier for you.
The main idea when using public speaking with PowerPoint is that the attention will be off of you and onto the projecting screen. When you know that the eyes are off of you and focused somewhere else, it will be easier to speak and let your information be known the the audience.
Here are a few pieces of advice to follow. Pick and choose which ones will help you the most. Some people prefer one or two, other prefer to use them all. The point is to create a comfort level that will ease the fears that you have when speaking in public.
Make the PowerPoint interesting to look at. Don't go crazy and use overly distracting colors and styles, but make it seem worth while. Choose an interesting theme when public speaking with PowerPoint. This will get the audience looking at the slides.
On the slides, put various media. If you can find relevant video files, audio files, images, and other media, it will be interesting to the audience members. Don't place too many media files on one slide. In fact, to help you fear of public speaking with PowerPoint, it might be best if you used one media per slide.
Another thing you can do is to provide the audience members with enough data. Make graphs and charts to place on your PowerPoint. This is information that the audience will want to know and will have their eyes on that instead of you.
If it is possible, provide your audience members with outlines of your speech. Make it very general. Most audience members will take notes on the outline that you have provided. If you combine the outline with the data that you provide on your PowerPoint, it can help you feel more relaxed.
Don't forget to keep your content interesting. We have all been through boring presentations and even worse PowerPoints, but you can do better. If it makes you feel any better, you can have someone look over your content and provide feedback on how interesting it is.
When public speaking with PowerPoint, it is important to practice, practice, practice! Your fear will not get any better if you don't try. You can start out with a small group and work your way up to larger crowds. Who knows, maybe one day this will help you be rid of that fear.

P Abbey owns and operates http://www.makingpresentationseasy.com
Making Presentations

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