Anti PowerPoint Party Logo

A political party to combat PowerPoint presentations?   Read on:

“When Matthias Pöhm formed his new Swiss political party, he was determined to reach out to what he considered an underrepresented group. So in May, he created the Anti PowerPoint Party, whose stated mission is to advocate for those souls ‘who, every month, are obliged to be present during boring presentations in companies, universities, or at other institutions, and who had up to now no representation in politics’.”  Source: New York Times, September 22, 2011

We contend it’s not PowerPoint, but misuse of the program by presenters, that is the root of this problem.  Screens packed with text are boring and incomprehensible.

Typical Executive Presentation. Source: RDECOM

What’s your executive presentation IQ?  How do you rate yourself as a presenter?  Are you looking to move from fair to good, or from good to outstanding?

The questions below will help you in your self-assessment.

Executive Presentation: Five Questions

1.  Do you stand behind a lectern?  Talking heads hide their body language.  They rarely motivate or persuade listeners.  How can they—they are hiding.

2.  Do you deliver group presentations while sitting rather than standing?  Sitting never has the command presence or persuasive power of standing.  If you justify sitting because you are nervous, you are already down two strikes.

3.  Do you dim or turn off the lights?  What are you selling—information on the screen or your ability to lead, motivate or persuade viewers?  A dark room sells screens, not presenters.  Narrations or information-only presentations are best done by e-mail. It’s more efficient and saves time. Outstanding presenters request a presentation so they can persuade. That means they must be seen, not just heard.

4.  Do you stand behind a podium off to the side or work the computer sitting with the group all facing the screen?  This is a split presentation.  You force viewers to choose whether they should look at the screen or at you. The screen always wins. Viewers cannot take in both you and the text together.  A split presentation seriously dilutes your message and sells screens, not you and your message.

5.  Are your slides 50% to 100% text?  If yes, you are committing the biggest of all presentation mistakes. Text slides cripple your delivery.  Do you parrot the words on the screen?  Why?  We can read,  and we do so 4 to 5 times faster than you can talk.  Therefore, listeners are always visually way ahead of you, but not hearing you. Try concentrating on a computer screen while a coworker talks to you. You won’t hear them.  It might be OK for a kindergarten teacher to read to children.  But adults should not read to other adults in a business situation.  It’s insulting and self-defeating!

Do you hope  that viewers will remember the main points from from your text slides?  Forget it.  Retention of the text messages hovers near zero.  The mind functions far, far better at remembering faces than names.  We dream in pictures, not words. Read the many proofs of all this in Visual Selling, pages 11 and 87.

Executive Presentation Quiz Results

If you failed any of these questions, especially the last one, call me — Paul LeRoux — at 312-467-2120.  I’ll outline exactly how you can move from a fair presenter to a good one or to an outstanding speaker.

Actually, any speaker can be outstanding if he or she has the desire to do so and the time to master correct presentation techniques.  Many earn accounting, engineering, law or science degrees.  However, few, very few, ever make an outstanding executive presentation.  Yet the skill to stand and persuade listeners is highly sought, valued, praised and rewarded.

No to PowerPoint Week

At Twain Associates, we’re celebrating “Say NO to PowerPoint” Week.

We believe that the speaker, not the PowerPoint slides, should deliver the message.  Strong delivery means persuasion.  Connection.  Comprehension.  Sales.

Yes to Visual Selling

Around here, we’re big on Visual Selling, without the bullet points.  We’re talking right to you, the audience, not the screen.

As someone who taught the importance of visual selling for years, I loved the set up for this debate. All the visual elements—from the YouTube questions to the audience shots to the candidates themselves—kept TV viewers engaged. It was a visual selling feast—one that truly put the candidates’ presentation skills to the test.
See The Great American Sales Pitch, for the full critique.

I just saw a performance of Lanford Wilson’s “The 5th of July.” It’s a powerful story of friends from the 60′s who gather to scatter the literal ashes of a beloved uncle and the figurative ashes of their past lives. The main character lost his legs in Vietnam.

Seeing him struggle around the stage with crutches made me recall a poster I owned when I was a disillusioned naval officer during Vietnam. The poster’s image was similar to the two shown here. The title read “The Army Builds Better Men.” That poster drew me in again and again, feeding my anti-war sentiments.

Effective Images for PowerPoint Presentations

For me now, it is also the essence of an effective image. By itself, the image carries one literal message. But when a presenter speaks words that add a layer of meaning, the visual becomes unforgettable. “Visual Selling” is all about creating images that convey the gut benefit of your proposal, product or idea and speaking words to impress it indelibly on the prospect.

Crafting Images for PowerPoint Presentations

In sum, images for PowerPoint Presentations should be crafted carefully.  The image expresses one message, and the presenter suggests further meanings.

As I was posting a PDF file of “12 Top Mistakes” on my website, I ran my eyes down the list. In doing so, I had three quick observations.

First, these mistakes are pervasive. Most presenters commit at least two out of the 12 errors.

Second, none of the mistakes ruins a presentation. But they’re like a glaring pimple on your chin – they sure don’t enhance the impression you make.

And third, these mistakes are all “sooo” easy to correct. We’re not learning a new skill here. Rather it’s as simple as knowing not to hike in high heels.

Here’s the quick list of 12 Top Mistakes, with a link at the right for those interested in remedies:

Mistake #1: Overlooking “Murphy
Mistake #2: Delivering Split Presentations
Mistake #3: Positioning Yourself Incorrectly
Mistake #4: Choosing the Wrong Screen Size and Position
Mistake #5: Seating Decision Makers in the Wrong Chairs
Mistake #6: Dimming the Lights
Mistake #7: Promoting the Screen
Mistake #8: Playing with Pointers and Other Toys
Mistake #9: Blocking the Screen
Mistake #10: Holding Remotes or Clickers
Mistake #11: Positioning the Lectern to the Side
Mistake #12: Reading Someone Else’s Text Slides

Which ones will you correct in your next presentation?

Whether you are 6 or 60, the exhibits are engrossing and visually compelling. One life-size exhibit showed a slave mother being torn away from her child and husband. While I looked at the wax figures, I also read the statistics on the number of slaves sold, year by year. Beside me a child was mesmerized by the raw drama that the figures embodied.

Artifacts, movies, wax figure displays, live actors, and holograms bring the dry details of history into vivid reality. Even if you’re a reader, as I am, you find yourself drawn to a video that starts just because it is colorful and kinetic. In contrast, the Lincoln Library next door has many important, framed documents, but none of the imagery or excitement.

What’s the take-away for business? What insight does this museum offer a presenter? That in speaking to a group, a presenter walks the fine line between information and entertainment. Strong images (instead of PowerPoint text slides) make information come alive and pull in the viewer. And it’s just plain entertaining as well.

Since its April release I have been passing out my new book, “Visual Selling”, to all my friends. Now they are reporting back to me on all the bad presentations they see. Yesterday my buddy described a terrible talk that he attended last week, where the presenter:

• passed out handout first so that everyone was reading during the pitch, ignoring the speaker
• read slides word for word, as if the audience was composed of illiterates
• stood in front of slides so viewers could not see them, negating their use
• failed to rehearse, so when his plan to bring points onto the screen one at a time failed, they all came on at once, giving his surprises away!

Where and when shall we hang this speaker?

Join the revolution. Share stories of bad presentations you’ve seen.

Blair, by contrast, appeared positive, open and forthright. He stood straight without using the lectern as a crutch. His gestures appropriately emphasized his messages. His eyes were open and his gaze was expansive, looking both up and out. Even leaving aside his intelligence and his command of the English language, he is a stellar example of a confident and polished speaker. He appears to speak from the heart.

It’s enough to make you want to join the Commonwealth.