Presentation Tips...For Those About To Talk

Based on more than 20 years of sales and corporate work experience, I estimate I have seen well over 1,000 hours of live, PowerPoint presentations.  Unfortunately I’m recalling that around 950 of these hours have been spent watching clumsy, mediocre speakers stumble around trying to find something interesting to say. 

I don’t like being so critical, yet I fell victim to a few more hours of super-lame presentations at a recent technology conference that compels me to write down a few pointers for those about to present.

Whether you are a startup asking for money, a corporate citizen just trying to do a nice job, or a professional presenter, here are a few basic reminders of how to do it right.

1.  Practice makes perfect. While this is an old cliché, it’s still great advice considering you are literally in the spotlight when giving your presentation. Practice every aspect of your presentation and plan for technical difficulties, boot times, incompetent slide operators and more.  Know what you are going to say and practice it again and again.

2.  If you are presenting as a team, practice as a team and dress alike or wear something that identifies you as a group.  Look and be cohesive.

3.  Summarize.  Remind your audience of what you want them to take away or remember.

4.  Similar to summarizing, if you want something from your audience, don’t be ambiguous about it.  Ask or declare.  Be clear, concise, crisp, direct.  If you want your audience to buy widgets, ask them to buy.  If they are supposed to remember a sales fact or figure, tell them to “remember this number.”  Remember that when you are presenting, people are looking for cues as to what is important.  So tell them.

5.  Keep moving along.  A faster paced presentation is ALWAYS better than a slow one.  It is by far better to have someone tell you that you went to fast than to realize you were going to slow.    And if possible, try not to reveal how many points you want to cover unless you are going to move them along at a fairly crisp pace.  If point one has taken 20 minutes, the audience will be dying if they know you have five more, ten more points, etc.

6.  Consider the right tool for your job and know how to use it.  Should you present using Powerpoint, Prezi, Keynote, a whiteboard, a short video?  Sometimes your medium can be part of the message.

7.  Keep it simple.  I can’t believe how many tiny words, bullet points and senseless garbage I see on presentations.    It is far better to have fewer words and one big picture than to cram a lot of stuff on one page.  If you have a lot of stuff to cover, put fewer things on more pages and keep the show moving along.

8.  If uncertainty or live demonstrations will wreck your presentation, avoid them.  Convert uncertainty into guaranteed success by creating synthetic demos or simulations to get your point across.  In many cases it’s totally fine to show a video of a successful demo.  At least by showing the pre-recorded video, you know you will have success.

9.  Get introduced if you can. I find that just about every presentation I have ever seen goes off better when the speaker is introduced.  There are a variety of reasons for this, so if you can get the intro, embrace it.

10.  If you are an entrepreneur asking for startup money, be sure to cover the topmost basics like who you are, your value prop, how you’re different and can survive and make money despite the competitive landscape.  It’s amazing how many times large swaths of basic territory are left untouched in startup presentations.

11.  Move around while presenting. Try not to remain in one place or behind anything for too long.  The best presentations seem like conversations, not lectures or preaching.

12.  Try to make references to things, people or events that are off-stage.  This trite-sounding request will actually help you connect with your audience because you are making indirect reference to the fact that something or someone other than you is involved in your material.

13.   Don’t ever go over your allotted time.  Stay on pace and on track.  Whether you have 10 minutes or two hours, don’t exceed your time limit.  It’s ok if you finish early, but never be late.

14.  Advance your slides with graceful invisibility.  Whether you discreetly press a button or have someone else do it for you, if your slides seem to magically advance as you speak, you will come across as a pro.  Of course this tip is self-fulfilling because if you’ve practiced, you will more than likely come across as a pro.

While these tips were not exhaustive, these seem to cover the topmost errors from the last few weeks.  And finally, don’t forget to cover the foundational basics of knowing what you are talking about in the first place.   If you are truly a subject matter expert—I mean the true, down and dirty know it all about your subject matter—you are at least half way there in delivering something compelling.

Good luck in your future presentations!

Ashley