5 Presentation sins to avoid

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Selling your great idea ON YOUR FEET @PresenterMentor

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4th Grade Science Quiz Dinosaurs: Genesis and the Gospel 1. The earth is billions of years old. False 2. Dinosaurs lived millions of years ago. False 3. On what day did God make dinosaurs? The sixth day 4. Dinosaurs lived with people. True 5. Which one ﬁts the Behemoth described in Job 40? 6. The next time someone says the earth is billions of years old, what can you say? WERE YOU THERE? In primary school you get points for neatness. That stops in secondary school, where you can only lose marks if you are not sufﬁciently neat. The same holds true for presenting. You’ll only know it wasn’t good enough when it doesn’t have the desired effect. This is particularly obvious in the case of a presentation where your objective is to SELL.

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Great idea Great execution Great team Great record Great preso The presentation itself is rarely the element that clinches the sale. It’ll be you, your team and your fabulous idea that does all the heavy lifting ...

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Great idea Great execution Great team Great record Great preso But, just like the neatness problem in school, a poor presentation will lose you marks – and probably the entire sale, even if the other elements are pretty solid.

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And let’s not forget that even a great presentation won’t save you if your idea or your execution is ‘off’. Remember Apple’s Ping? Didn’t think so ...

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4th Grade Science Quiz Dinosaurs: Genesis and the Gospel 1. The earth is billions of years old. False 2. Dinosaurs lived millions of years ago. False 3. On what day did God make dinosaurs? The sixth day 4. Dinosaurs lived with people. True 5. Which one ﬁts the Behemoth described in Job 40? 6. The next time someone says the earth is billions of years old, what can you say? WERE YOU THERE? But how neat, cool and groovy your presentation is, is in your control. A below-par preso is a terrible reason to lose a sale. And ‘pretty good’ is rarely good enough any more ...

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The problem is, the bar has been raised

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People have been spoilt by greatness

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And they expect greatness from you

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“Hey, that wasn’t that bad,” is absolutely not good enough now. Meh

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So what kind of feedback do I hear from audiences and customers after less-than-stellar presentations? (I offer other people’s views because my feedback for these kind of mistakes is deeply unpleasant and my mother might see this talk some day.)

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“ What exactly was his point? The most common thing I hear from audiences – overload.

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COHERENT

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COHERENT Too many sales pitches are brain-dumps. Too many clever, articulate – even brilliant – people simply cannot express themselves coherently, so they tell you everything they know, in the hope that you will take something out of the resulting mess. Do. Not. Do. This. Decide what you want to say. Distil it. Then say it. Clearly.

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There was this girl. And a shoe! And de prince! They got married Cos the shoe - the glass slipper - and it totally fitted! But not on the ugly sisters And there was a fairy godmother - wit de shoes And a meanie stepmother She couldn’t go to the ball - loadza yucky jobs Totes miserable! And de midnight - and de bong bong bong Cinderella!

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Don Draper is an amazing salesman because he can sell - really sell - when he is on his feet. He does this by telling a beautifully coherent, massively considered, story that resonates with the audience in front of him.

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It’s not called the Wheel. It’s called ‘The Carousel’

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Hersheys ... is the childhood symbol of love

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Joan Q Scientist @ScaryBoffin A human foot washes up on the shore. How long has it been in the water? A marine bacterial molecular clock provides the answer. How concise can you make it? Get your core message down to its shortest form. We got some hapless scientists to distil the essence of their PhD research down into a tweet.

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Johnny Genius @ModestBoffin Driving our athletes to eat well so they can play harder, longer and smarter. Fuelling those Ferrari engines as well as possible.

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“ The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated

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“ The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated And all this effort is about the only people who matter – your audience. Demonstrate understanding and appreciation of them by preparing a cogent, coherent message

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“ Meh – interesting idea, but not really relevant to me... Feedback #2 – misjudging the message for this audience

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So get stalking – you need to know your audience!

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“ If you wish to persuade me, you must think my thoughts, feel my feelings, and speak my words.

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“ That looked interesting, I’d like to have been able to see it. Feedback #3 – and this is something most presenters are completely unaware of ...

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From the back of the room, the vast majority of detail in your presentation simply cannot be seen.

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Can you read this?

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How about this?

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Can you read this?

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How about this?

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Well now, that’s not too many words onscreen at once ... is it?

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Well now, that’s not too many words onscreen at once ... is it?

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Go to the back of the room and check this out - when does it start to get all squinty on you?

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So make sure everything you show is crispy and visible!

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Zoom in and use callouts to focus their attention

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Better yet, mask off any distracting elements

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Once you have established the provenance ...

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ZOOM IN!!

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ZOOM IN!!

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“ What an asshole! He read out his frickin’ slides to us! Feedback #4 – Another one your audience won’t bother to tell you, because they hate you!

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So, this is a stunningly and meticulously rendered representation of each stage of human evolution, over 600 million years, okay?

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And that yellow dot is the period in which we, homo sapiens, have used language. (Actually it’s about 50 times too big, but I needed to make it big enough so you could see it, okay?)

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So stop using text on your goddamn slides!* Human brains don’t like text. And grown- ups really don’t like being read to. Where possible, illustrate your point. Show, don’t tell. * All right, all right, I know you can’t avoid text altogether, but could you at least stop putting entire sentences up on your slides? Please?

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The march of time ...

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Tell a story ...

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Pepsi did – so well

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So did Sydney Zoo

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Sergey Larenkov does

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Tell a story ...

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Tell a story ...

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Tell a story ...

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At a glance ...

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At a GLANCE!

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“ What exactly was his point? ’Cos he pretty much fell apart ... Feedback #5 – Underprepared and under- rehearsed – the true signs of the amateur.

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Professionals rehearse Amateurs do not Any questions?

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“ That sounds like an awful lot of work ... The thing I hear most frequently from clients who want to be more effective on their feet, as they begin to understand what is going to be involved in achieving that.

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“ I had no idea how much work it takes to get any good at this! The thing I most frequently hear from clients who have noticed a dramatic improvement in their pitches and speeches.

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1. I didn’t get what you were trying to say 2. I got it, but I didn’t care 3. I couldn’t really see, so I lost interest 4. You read your fricken slides so you can f**k right off! 5. I could see you were making it up as you went along So what’s my point? If I was to distil it down to a tweetable point, what would it be? 5 feedbacks you never want to get ...

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RESPECT One-word answer

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Respect for your audience Respect from your audience Or, showing rather than telling ...