Powerpoint presentations are here to stay.
Whatever the nature of the business meeting, you’ll find they are almost always accompanied by a slideshow. It’s particularly true of sales presentations, where winning over the audience is absolutely critical. However, Powerpoint is now treated as mandatory, which means that it’s used whether or not it’s helpful – a case of the tail wagging the dog. The problem is that Powerpoint design is frequently fairly shoddy, and serves only to put off your listeners, not win them over to your way of thinking. Thus something that can be a fantastic asset can all too often become a liability. How do you avoid this happening?
People communicate in different ways. There are those who want to convey and receive large amounts of information; they are noticeable by their habit of going into great detail and giving you more data than you typically need. There are those who tend to communicate on a more emotional level, interpreting a situation by the way they feel about it. They tend to be more emotive in their own communication, too, using means that resonate on that level – colourful language, stories and intense descriptions of their feelings. And there are those who are far more instinctive and straightforward. They tend to want to get to the root of a matter and make a decision quickly, and are interested in only the most salient details. Bear in mind that when you are communicating with a group of people, it will likely contain one or more of all of these types. Therefore you need to cater for their needs. Otherwise, you will find that you lose two-thirds of your audience, simply because you’re not communicating in a way that they find easy to engage with.
In terms of Powerpoint presentations, that means you need to tailor your slides as well as your talk. You should make sure you cover all three bases in your Powerpoint design. For your talk, give the information you need, of course. But you should mix it up with illustrations and personal stories. You should also provide a summary for those who want little more. For your slides, you can do the same. Charts and graphs convey large amounts of information. Photographs and pictures appeal to a different part of the audience and will register emotionally, giving them something to remember. For the final group, a brief list of bullet points will give them what they need. Make sure you cater to everyone’s preferences and you’ll find your sales presentations have a higher degree of success.