Time is short for everyone. Fewer people are being asked to do more and more work. Information overload has hit us hard. The tools to produce jazzy, multimedia presentations are ever stronger.
All of the above suggests that presentations are therefore even harder to make memorable. No one has the time to listen to you drone on and on about something you think is terribly important, but keeps them from the next meeting.
In other words, the multimedia overload called the Internet has not changed a fundamental, time-immemorial fact — stories , not effects, hold people’s attention during and well after a meeting. A story is hard to tell, but hugely powerful.
Even though the book “Beyond Bullet Points” has been out for years, I remain amazed that every person who makes a presentation does consider this as important as bullets to a hunter.
Here are some of the key highlights you need to follow if you want to make a memorable presentation.
- Write your script first in one-two sentence headlines. No graphics, no bullets.
If it does not make sense and flow in words, it will certainly not flow with graphics. - Think of your presentation as a 3 act play and follow the well-understood notion of the purpose of each Act.
Stories are stories regardless of where they are told. - Be purposeful about your presentation tenor or tone
Do you intent to make the tone of your presentation informational, advisory/consultative, forward-looking, retrospective, decisive, inspirational, etc.? Pick one and be consistent in your script. Keep in mind #2 so that you are deliberate about when you hit the high point. For example, informational suggests the high point comes at the end compared to a decisive, action-taking message where the high point is early. - Support each headline with facts, not more theories
The best way to confuse your audience is to try to prove a theory with another theory. You will take your audience down a rat hole and off of your message very quickly to the point that your audience will have no idea what your original point was. - A picture is worth a thousand words
Avoid bullets and use pictures instead. Finding the right picture that conveys your headline is hard but invaluable. People remember pictures. We rarely remember words. - Make sure you have a smooth transition between each point/slide.
Nothing is worse than silence between slides. It shows that you do not have mastery over your subject — you are a slave to the bullets. And that tells your audience — “I don’t need to listen to him/her. I can just read the bullets myself. - Understand up front how much time you have in the meeting and how much time you want to devote to the presentation.
There is an old saying — Do the demo, lose the sale. The more you talk, the less likely you will be to close any business. If the prospect is not doing the talking, then you will not have a good handle on what they need and might seek from you. you might as well go to Vegas and throw dice — your odds might just be better there.
Storytelling is an art form. The best story tellers could use any medium to convey their message. Understand that the tools at our disposal can actually make the job harder because our audience can be awed by a visual or audio effect the first time they see it.
So if you were the first person that uses video in a presentation you might be in luck, but probably not. They will say “That was really cool” Which is code for “Very interesting presentation but I have no idea how I would use your product or service. ”
Be a story teller. Its a lot more fun.