Chuck Terry’s Blog

Some of you may be old enough to remember the thrilling days of yesteryear when you sat in a darkened meeting room while a speaker, only partially visible through the half light, regaled you with transparencies on an overhead projector.  It is no wonder that when Microsoft introduced PowerPoint as a replacement to the antiquated art of transparency assisted presentations the popularity of the program sky rocketed throughout the 90’s. In 2009 it is hard to visit a conference room in almost any company that isn’t equipped with an LCD projector and computer monitor cable that is routinely used for PowerPoint driven presentations.

In the early days of PowerPoint it was incredibly cool. The color, the back ground visuals, the clip art, etc. was very captivating and it really helped out presenters. Then we got crazy with it. If 10 slides were good 100 slides would be better, if clip art was good moving clip art was better, if pictures were good more pictures were better. Pretty soon the message was getting lost and people started checking out during the presentations. It became PowerPoint for the sake of PowerPoint and both the speaker and the message were sometimes lost in the process. In many companies launching a PowerPoint presentation became a trigger reminiscent of Pavlov’s Dog where attendee’s eyes glazed over and they checked out. It was metaphoric death by PowerPoint.

So why do we still use the popular presentation program to sell everything from jet airplanes to cough drops? Although it is no longer either new or very cool PowerPoint can still be a very effective medium for supporting sales presentations. It just shouldn’t be the star of the show.  Here are a few guidelines to help you keep your PowerPoint sales presentations from becoming lethal.

1)      Use a consistent background format. Keep it professional and don’t try to get too cute with the templates. Develop one that is unique to your company and avoid the stock background formats that come with every edition of PowerPoint that are sold.

2)      Don’t use too many words or statements on the slides. Far too many sales presentations use the PowerPoint slides as a crutch to remember what to talk about rather than a tool to “punch up” what is being discussed. Don’t just read the slides to your customers.  See rule #10 –  Vision Trumps all other Senses at brainrules.net

3)      Limit the number of slides in the presentation. I recently participated in a 90 minute presentation by a rep that was accompanied by 244 slides. Are you kidding me? In a 90 minute sales presentation anything more than 20 to 30 slides is overkill and could prove to be a fatal dose of the medium. As one of my buddies said, “I don’t mind people glancing at their watches during my presentation; I just hate it when they start shaking it to make sure it is still running”.

4)      Don’t face the slides while you present. I see far too many sales presenters that turn and face the image every time they clear the previous slide. Try this trick; use your computer as a stage monitor. When you set up the presentation have your computer screen facing the front of the room so you can quickly glance down at the slide without turning away from your audience. A little rehearsal with the presentation will greatly assist in this area as well. Another good tactic is to occasionally go to a black slide that allows you to shift the focus away from the screen and work from a flip chart, etc.

5)      Plan for flexibility. Too often I have seen sales professionals engaged in a PowerPoint presentation taken off track because the client wants to talk about something else, the solution isn’t quite right or something has changed. They just keep on plowing through the presentation because that is what they had planned and quickly lose everyone. Be prepared to adapt on the fly and modify the presentation when you hit bumps in the road. There is nothing more painful than hearing a sales professional continue to drone on to a disinterested audience.

All in all PowerPoint can be great sales aids just don’t overdo it. A little moderation and a little common sense go a long way. In the hands of a skilled presenter it can be magical but take care not to allow any deaths by PowerPoint in your next presentation.

For more reasons and ways to avoid “Death By Power Point”, take a look at Seth Godin’s free e-book Really Bad Power Point (and how to avoid it) or check out these free  resources from Brainy Betty…

Backgrounds
VIDEO for PowerPoint
Flash in PowerPoint
Music for PowerPoint
Tutorials, tips and tricks
PowerPoint utilities
Other PowerPoint goodies

Chuck Terry is the Executive Vice President and CSO of Carew International and is regular contributor to Carew’s blog – Executive Insights

Carew International is a leader in sales training and leadership development; specializing in comprehensive, proven training programs for sales, sales management and customer service excellence. For over 30 years, Carew has earned its reputation of delivering increased productivity and profitability to our valued clients world wide.