Dear PR Matters,
I work in a PR agency and have been recently tasked to work on presentations for clients. While I have done some presentations before, it has been quite some time and feel I may have to do some updates on the way I approach this.
I will greatly appreciate it if you can share some tips on how I can make effective presentations?
Sincerely,
Ricca A.
Dear Ricca,
It is nice to hear that you are taking your new assignment to heart. And yes, a great presentation can do wonders with the way your clients perceive your agency. In fact, it can even pave the way for more projects with them.
Carmine Gallo wrote about “7 Presentation Ideas that Work for Any Topic” for Inc.com, based on 20 years of research, nine books on communication skills and countless interviews with billionaires and CEOs who are considered great public speakers.” He shares seven presentation ideas that will certainly give you a competitive advantage.
1 Build the story before the slides. Just as award-winning film directors begin by storyboarding—writing, sketching and drawing each scene—Gallo urges us to “spend time crafting the presentation’s story arc.”
“Slides aren’t stories,” he cautions us. “Slides complement the story.” He adds that “a presentation arc contains a backstory. Describe the world in which your customer does business or how your product idea came about.”
Your backstory should contain “a hero—typically your customer—and a villain, an obstacle the hero must overcome. Finally, it contains a resolution, a happy ending when your idea solves the customer’s problem.”
2 Set the main theme early and often. The construction of your presentation matters. And Gallo said it is important to always keep in mind that “a presentation isn’t a novel. Saving your conclusion for the end can make listeners expend too much energy wondering where you’re headed.”
In short, don’t bore them, confuse them or waste their time. Tell them your message early and often.
3 Eliminate bullet points entirely. Did you know that “Steve Jobs never used bullet points? Neither does Apple’s current CEO, Tim Cook. Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Tesla CEO Elon Musk don’t use them either.”
In his book, TED Talk’s Chris Andersen said, “Those classic Power Point slide decks with a headline followed by multiple bullet points of long phrases are the surest single way to lose an audience’s attention altogether.” That’s why TED Talks doesn’t allow bullet points on slides.
“The human brain doesn’t pay attention to boring things,” he said. “Bullet points aren’t nearly as interesting as pictures.”
4 Use more photos than text. Gallo shares with us a well-established rule in neuroscience: Pictures are more powerful than text.
Based on this, “If your audience hears an idea delivered verbally, they’ll recall about 10 percent of the content. If they hear the information and see a picture, they’ll retain 65 percent of the content.”
Gallo suggested we follow the 10-40 rule, which he developed after talking to the designers who worked on Steve Jobs’s presentations. This means “in the first 10 slides of a presentation, don’t write more than 40 words on the slides—total.” It’s a tough exercise, but a good way of getting your audience to pay attention.
5 Reset your presentation every 10 minutes. Gallo said that according to peer-reviewed studies, watching a presentation of medium interest (not too boring, not too exciting), “People will lose interest after 10 minutes.” This is especially true when your audience consists of very busy people who have a lot of things on their mind.
With that, he suggested ways of reengaging your audience when their interest begins to wane:
- Tell a story that drives home the theme of the presentation.
- Ask questions to get your audience involved.
- Show a product or conduct a memo.
- Invite a second speaker to deliver the next section of the presentation.
6 Build in “wow” moments. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were masters in this, Gallo said. While Steve Jobs would surprise us by ending his presentations with his nonchalant “one more thing,” this was scripted in advance and well-rehearsed.
“Jobs was a showman,” Gallo said. “His presentations were like performances, like great shows. They had twists or shockers—‘wow’ moments which people will remember long after the presentation is over.”
These wow moments are also unexpected. He recalled how “Bill Gates once unleashed mosquitoes in the auditorium during a TED Talk on how malaria is spread, and it’s all people talked about for the rest of the conference.”
After all, “everyone expected slides from Bill Gates. They didn’t expect live insects.”
7 Practice more than ever. In his annual class of real-estate developers in a highly selected executive education course at Harvard University, Gallo noted “those who practice their final presentations stand out. They’re less likely to stumble on their words, make stronger eye contact, and are more confident.”
That is why he suggested that for really important presentations, it makes a huge difference “to rehearse the entire deck from start to finish at least 10 times. Twenty is even better.”
“You can have the greatest idea in the world,” he said, “but if you cannot present your idea in a way that captures the imagination, it won’t get the visibility it deserves. The ability to deliver an awe-inspiring presentation is a competitive advantage.”
PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premier association for senior professionals around the world. Millie Dizon, the senior vice president for Marketing and Communications of SM, is the former local chairman.
We are devoting a special column each month to answer the reader’s questions about public relations. Please send your comments and questions to askipraphil@gmail.com.
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