Is it possible to persuade with a PowerPoint? Of course it is. Those of us in sales use PowerPoint to walk a prospect thru the features and benefits of our products every day. In his new book, Harry Mills provides six strategies to optimize persuasive impact in Power Points! How to Design & Deliver Presentations That Sizzle and Sell. Here is a brief recap:
Align PowerPoint with the brain. We all receive information via two channels --- visual and verbal. By combining limited graphics with verbal support, we can assure the best comprehension of the material. Don’t overload either channel, or you risk a missed connection on one or more of the points you are trying to make. Your presentation should also encourage “active processing”…allow your audience to select, organize, and integrate information somewhat on their own, interacting with them (if possible) thru questions or commentary during the presentation.
Segment your presentation into visually digestible bites. Avoid too much information too fast; try to limit each slide to dealing with a single point (or perhaps several closely related points). Pace yourself at two to three minutes per slide (i.e. 10 slides in 30 minutes). Use handouts as needed to provide more depth or clarification to some points.
Create context and “location” with graphic organizers. Give your audience a sense of time, place, and direction by incorporating a graphic organizer into your presentation, such as a timeline, pie chart, matrix, or a variety of other choices to organize and content. Discretely use PowerPoint's "Build" and "Color" features to enhance your information and process. Beware, however, that you can have too much of a good thing!
Persuade with visuals wherever possible. Visuals move audiences. Research has shown that presenters who use visuals are more persuasive than those who don't. Visuals also increase message retention. Tip: minimize text on each slide. “Small bites” of text are much easier to digest and remember. And consider converting words into visuals or graphics whenever possible.
Eliminate all but essential text and audiovisual effects. We all know that “less is more” with PowerPoint, but are often so excited by the cool tools in PowerPoint that we often go overboard. Realize that many of the "extras" that that you add to presentations (clip art, sounds, music, and animation) can sometimes REDUCE persuasion. Remove anything that does not DIRECTLY support your central message. Be overly critical with your own presentations, removing superfluous corporate logos (except for title page) and minimize on-screen text that you intend to narrate.
Sequence complex visuals. Nothing can confuse and irritate an audience more than complex diagrams. Presenters needing to use complex visuals should present its component parts as separate slides (or a slide that appears to build each part). Remember, it takes the same amount of time to present five points on a slide, as it does to present one point on five slides.
Six simple, yet effective, PowerPoint tips for improved presentations. See how easy that was?
“A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people." --- Will Rogers, American comedian, humorist