As kids, telling stories was exciting. Show-and-tell. Spooky campfire tales. Willing, pleading to get called on and share our point of view. But when it’s a mandatory part of our job description, it becomes something we dread — writing yet another presentation.
Often times, we don’t know where — or even how — to start. How do we keep our audience engaged? How do we use data to our advantage?
We felt the same. So we’ve identified what we’re calling “the seven deadly sins that can ruin any presentation.” It’s our bag of tricks to bring the fun back to sharing stories with an audience, presentation style.
1 – Neglecting to define—UPFRONT—the why of your story
A presentation is a story with a goal. Its success will be measured by how much your audience “buys into” that goal. Diving into a deck before defining what it is you want your audience to do after they hear your story is a massive time and effort-waster.
To start, decide what is the key takeaway you want to leave for your audience:
- The time to launch your new product is now
- The job closed, you saved the client a truckload of money, the client should assign you more jobs
- You’ve been a fantastic kid. Now mom and dad should take you to Disneyworld.
Define the why of your story, and the rest of the presentation will be much easier to create. Don’t do it, and risk losing your audience.
2 – Forgetting to set the context
Your story must have a context. Provide information such as what it is you want to discuss, define why it’s important now, outline your goals and the rationale for those goals, provide an overview of an effort prior to sharing results, or simply explain the issue at hand.
What is the background or starting point:
- You’re launching a new product because no others exist, or they exist but are not as good
- Client expected to spend $200K, you did it with $100K, while other agencies might have done it for a minimum $300K
- You’re getting (almost) straight A’s. You’re kind to your little sister. Mom got a promotion.
Including the context makes it much easier to take your audience on the presentation journey you intended. Without context, you’ll get puzzled looks and lots of questions.
3 – Asking others to contribute without a pre-defined template
If you need people to create slides for your presentation, and don’t want to end up with a “Frankenstein” deck, give them parameters, in these easy two-steps.
Explain to contributors up front what story you want to tell:
- The need for your product launch
- Your ability to produce below estimate
- Why you deserve this trip
Outline the needed content, so all that is required of your contributors is to fill in the requested information:
- “Please just give me the product specs that reinforce the need to launch now”
- “Write one slide with a bullet point list of successful cost saving techniques”
- “Give me a paragraph about that time when I walked the dog for you because you were sick”
This will ensure that everyone is sharing the same level of detail and the presentation is cohesive from one section to the next. Otherwise, you get a disjointed monster of a deck.
4 – Omitting the “So What”
Never assume your audience will draw the conclusion you want them to. If you include data, which can be fascinating, it will have little impact without clearly indicating why it proves your point.
Tie it up to your takeaway:
- Example: 50% of customers dislike their current product. THEREFORE, we are launching ours
- Example: Colorful images in emails increase click-through by at least 3x, and promotion trend lines show consistent sales drop off after the first 3 days. WE ANALYZED THESE TRENDS, planned for them, and achieved 60% savings in all campaigns
- Example: 90% of my friends have already gone. THUS, we should go, too
When reviewing a presentation, go through each page and ask yourself if it is clear what the “so what” is. Without it, you’ll get either an excess of questions, or confused looks and loss of interest.
5 – Packing it with too much content
A good presentation is a story, not a book. Favor visuals over words. Use as few words as possible. For an oral presentation, plan ~3 minutes per slide. This will allow time for comments and questions from your audience. So, if you have 30 minutes, keep your presentation to 10 slides or so. And, very importantly, never tell more than ONE story.
Keep reminding yourself of the story that you want to tell. Don’t wax poetic on a tangent:
- Save your thoughts about your next product launch for a future presentation
- Limit your backup data to what you can reasonably present in the time allotted
- This is not the time to ask for a new Nintendo console, rock-and-roll summer camp, or front row tickets to Justin Bieber
Staying on point will keep your audience focused on what you want them to do. If you digress, if you give them too much information, you’ll have a hard time bringing them back to your main point.
6 – Having too many people to weigh in
It is often helpful to get feedback from others. Make sure you let them know what story you are trying to tell, so everyone is providing feedback from the same lens.
Think carefully who will be your best contributors:
- Ask your boss or a co-worker who has been involved in a similar project
- Ask a team member or even someone from finance, since your presentation is about saving money
- Definitely ask your siblings and the cousin who’s itching to tag along on your trip
It is key to ask only a manageable number of people for their thoughts. 2-3 people is good, otherwise, it could turn into an opinion-fest.
7 – Forgetting the final “ask” or takeaway
What is it you want your audience to think or do as a result of your presentation? In your summary, pull together your major points but end with the final “ask”. Do you want their support? Are you looking for feedback? Or are you asking for their help? Be very clear about it.
Remember, this should coincide with the first thing you told them:
- Let’s launch!
- Sign us up for a new marketing program!
- Let’s go!
By now, they should stand up, applaud, and give you anything you want. If you don’t bring your ask home, however, you’ll be lucky to get a shrug.
These seven deadly sins kill presentations. By avoiding them, you will greatly reduce churn, shorten the time to produce your presentation, and increase its quality.