Powerful PowerPoint Tips for Perfect Presentations at NBG
What is the single most powerful piece of advice on using PowerPoint for presentations? Don’t! However, if you insist, then a presentation, naturally on PowerPoint, offered some excellent advice at Newbury Business Group this morning.
Few have ever had formal training on how to use the software, let along training on how to present properly using PowerPoint and while I do not think there has ever truly be a ‘Death by PowerPoint’ I can recall many turgid hours I will never get back and I’m sure you can!
Professional speaker Steve Jones of Focal Point Negotiation is a long standing member of the foremost networking group in West Berkshire and a sales and negotiation expert (Google ‘Negotiation Expert and see who comes top!) and he gave us ‘The Four Ps and PowerPoint Mistakes’ and has kindly allowed Morgan PR to share it here on our blog.
You can watch the PowerPoint presentation here courtesy of Slideshare, but alas it is missing his witty and wicked narration. He had clearly prepared and told us to do the same, from comprehensive familiarity with your slides, through to understand the technology.
To recap, the Four Ps of effective presentations were:
- Position What is the current situation or background?
- Problem What is the current problem (from the customer’s point of view).
- Possibilities What are the opportunities – may include doing nothing.
- Proposal What are you proposing – action based close!
He threw is a further P, effectively gives us 20% free:
This is a particular bugbear of Steve’s. Too many people forget to even ask for the sale at the end of a presentation or even a sales pitch. He was scathing about “Well, I’ll leave it with you to think about” and urged us to ask instead: “What would you like to happen next?”.
Taking us through an array of mistakes, ranging from reminding us people are selfish and care more about themselves than us, through to more technical advice like avoiding the dreaded transitions, excessive bullets and reading out verbatim the words on the screen.
There can be few of us not left shifting uncomfortable in our seats thinking how many of the mistakes that Steve revealed we had been guilty of. However, so powerful was this presentation that I doubt we will make the same mistakes again!
Steve also stuck to his allotted time and urged others to be courteous and do the same. If it is a 10 minute presentation, make sure it is a 10 minute presentation. Likewise the one minute presentations given at networking events like Newbury Business Group should be... one minute at the most!
It will be interesting to see who at the group is prepared to use PowerPoint in their 10 minute presentation anytime soon. Or if they are prepared, will they be brave enough.