Your Designer PowerPoint Presentation Is Like a Business Card on Steroids

In the days when beepers and business cards were the main connectors between the sales force and future sales, beepers were hit and miss, and business cards were informational without adding much to your presentation resources.

Along came the smartphone and digitized business cards. Smartphones now have the computing capacity many thousands of times in excess of what NASA used to go to the Moon and back, and you can dispatch a personal and company business card at the speed of light via e-mail. You can also launch an online link to your professionally-designed PowerPoint presentation via Twitter, Linked-In and Facebook -- a business card on steroids.

Out with the clunky 

In fact, your business presentation tools -- a PowerPoint deck of professionally engineered slides, for example -- have matured from the clunky carousel projector to a totally portable, scalable and shareable resource.  

The connection between the seller and the customer

Your sales rep might have picked up on the customer’s good, neutral or negative vibes during a PowerPoint sales presentation. However, even the most experienced sales rep is no mind reader, all that smartphone and sales presentation technology notwithstanding. Badly designed presentations cluttered with too much of everything reflect poorly on you and your product and could be a tie-breaker when the customer has a tough choice between you and a competitor.

PowerPoint is still a player

PowerPoint may be the platform that people love to hate, but it remains an important and accessible tool in your marketing tactics. Visuals and content are key and can be the difference between a glassy-eyed, no-sale stare and a successful sale.

Contact us and we’ll show you how to leverage all your great marketing and sales presentation work into a PowerPoint presentation that will you and your customers will actually love.

Build Dynamic Presentations Using PowerPoint

A dynamic speaker does not need a tool to get his point across. Yet, the right tool can engage his audience with images illustrated by stories that create a longer lasting impact.  

How do you make this happen? Build a strong, professional PowerPoint design that include personal tales as part of the message. PowerPoint is a device to illustrate and provoke thoughtful ideas. 

PowerPoint As A Story Teller

Taking a cue from the TED Talk expert, Carmine Gallo, in his Forbes article, Gallo advises speakers to use PowerPoint to tell stories with pictures and possibly even a small bit of animation. Facts go down easier with entertainment and humor. Unleash the inner Mark Twain when creating your PowerPoint design.

Ask Questions

Dynamic speakers engage the audience, not just by "speaking at them," but by bringing the audience into the presentation. To accomplish--or breach--the gap between the audience and speaker, reach out. Ask a question or two that will grab the audience.  Use PowerPoint slides to enlist participation. This will strengthen the relationship between the speaker and attendees. 

Create Alternative Conclusion Slide

Create a "What if?" slide.  The wonder of an unexpected conclusion is just too delicious to ignore. Elicit opinions from the audience. 

Make It Personal

Insert a personal story that relates to the subject matter. Nothing connects so well with an audience as an intimate anecdote. A slide from the speaker's home library brings the audience closer still. 

The power of a visual aide to illustrate a message is an excellent opportunity make an impact. Take advantage of the moment to reach into the hearts and minds of your audience. 

Be sure to contact us about how we can help you get your message across. 

3 Do's and Don'ts of PowerPoint Design

The interesting thing about PowerPoint design is that there are no set rules or standards. Regardless, we've seen some practices be more effective than others and decided to write down some Do's and Don'ts of PowerPoint design. We'll start with the Do's:

Create continuity

Your PowerPoint shouldn't change its tone with every other slide. You should have one general theme that creates continuity in your presentation. A great way to do this is to choose an appropriate color scheme and stick with it. 

Include several elements

The great thing about PowerPoint is that you can add several different design elements. Consider adding videos and pictures to give your audience a break from written content. 

Aim for a minimalist design

We'll get to this point later with some of the Don'ts of PowerPoint design, but we really can't stress it enough: keep things simple and organized. A minimalist PowerPoint design helps keep your thoughts clear and understandable. 

Now, let's talk about some of the Don'ts of PowerPoint design:

(Don't) Go overboard on effects

There's nothing worse than ruining an otherwise great presentation by overloading your PowerPoint with bells and whistles. Not to sound rude, but nobody cares if your headlines and pictures spin or fade in. 

(Don't) Use a distracting color scheme

There's a reason why PowerPoint offers built-in color schemes. That doesn't mean you have to use them, but you should at least take a page out of their book. Don't use a color scheme that features an all black background with yellow text. 

(Don't) Do anything that takes away from your content

This point is a little more general, but it should always be present when you design your PowerPoint. You've got great information, so don't do anything that's going to take away from it. The only thing your PowerPoint design should do is help your audience understand your train of thought and argument. 

To talk more about PowerPoint design, or anything else, please contact us. Thanks.