20:20

Dear Presenter,

Welcome to November’s edition of our 20:20 newsletter.

This month we’re looking at how to make your presentations as clear and concise as possible.

Hints and tips are, as always, included to help you make the most of your presentations.

If you have any comments or questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Best wishes,

How NOT to bamboozle your audience

Everyone has the misfortune to hear “it”. The use of “it” is rife amongst all businesses today. “It” is jargon. Call it what you want - catchphrases, buzzwords or business speak – either way, it’s completely incomprehensible and certainly damaging to presentations.

Indeed, the use of business speak has become so prevalent that campaigns have been set up to try and prevent the use of such jargon. There is even a yearly online award for the worst offenders.

It is time to stamp it out!

Next time you write a presentation take some time to look at what you want to say. Then re-write the presentation as simply as possible. It is difficult, but you will see that a large proportion of your slides become clearer and more to the point. Most importantly the audience are more likely to understand and remember the information you present.

As a rule of thumb, if you find yourself replacing “let’s run it up the flagpole” with “without leverage we won’t synergise” then you clearly need our help! If not, read on for some common mistakes and how to tackle them.

Missing the point

Long words and incomprehensible sentences cloud your message. These tend to be used by people who are desperately trying to jazz up a presentation. Remember - the most effective way of communicating is the most basic.

The same presentation

A lot of presentations look the same these days. Corporate templates are good at providing a base, but that is all they are. It is important to put your own mark on a presentation. This helps to ensure that it has impact and people remember your message.

Over complicate & over promise

The hard sell just doesn’t work. Business people are intelligent. If you can show them the facts in a clear concise manner, they will see for themselves the benefits of your proposal.

Boredom

A presentation is about getting a message across. The more attentive an audience, the more of the message will be absorbed. Long winded business jargon only bores the audience.

Ultimately, the purpose of a presentation is to communicate.

Making your presentation as simple as possible gives you the best opportunity to get that message heard

...and how to avoid it!

One key way to simplify a presentation is lose the words.

Whether it’s a picture, a flow diagram or a graph it can help to capture your audience’s attention and communicate your message.

Not only does it break up the potential monotony of constant words, if gives you the ability to speak without repeating what’s on the screen.

A picture paints a thousand words. Also people are 85% more likely to remember a picture than they are a sentence.

More tips to follow next month. If you can’t wait that long then call us on 0845 056 8528 or drop us line.

Simple ways to improve your presentations...

Two great tips for you this month:

Animate multiple objects

There are times when you want to animate multiple objects on a slide at the same time. If you animate each item one at a time, you have to click three times to get all three items on the screen.

A quick way to get all objects on at the same time is by clicking on the first object, then holding the Ctrl key down then clicking on the other objects. Now release the Ctrl key and animate the group of objects using the normal animation task pane.

Learn keyboard shortcuts the easy way

Shortcuts are a hidden treasure and can end up saving you a huge amount of time (and clicking!)

1. Right-click any toolbar and click Customize on the pop-up menu.
2. Click the Options tab of the Customize dialogue box
3. Put a checkmark next to Show ScreenTips on toolbars
4. Put a checkmark next to Shortcut Keys in ScreenTips

To check things are working, now move your mouse pointer over one of the toolbar buttons and hold it there briefly. The usual ScreenTip text pops up, but now it also includes the keyboard shortcut for the command as well.

More handy hints for better management of your PowerPoint presentations next month. As always, if you have any specific questions, please do not hesitate to contact us on 0845 056 8528.