Showing slides today? So What?
Weâve all heard the term Death by PowerPoint. Weâve all sat through presentations that drone on and on â viewing countless slides that seem to add little value to the conversation. In fact, how many times have you heard someone open a sales meeting with âallow me to run through a few slides before we beginâ? BEFORE we begin? So, these are just meaningless slides that youâre going to torture us with so you can check some corporate box, and THEN weâre going to get into the heart of the conversation?
What about you? Letâs be honest. Have you ever had slides in the presentation you were delivering because you were told they HAD to be included in any presentation? By corporate? By marketing? By your boss? Of course you have. WE ALL HAVE!
How did it go when you had to present slides that werenât necessary your own? More importantly what was the feeling you had while you were delivering them? Probably not great. You were probably thinking to yourself âlet me just get through these slides as quickly as possible, so we can get into the real conversationâ. Sound familiar? Consider this. If you were uncomfortable imagine how your audience felt â how much more unpleasant and distasteful it was for them!
Weâve all been there. Weâve all been given slides and told that they were part of the corporate messaging that HAS to be delivered. So how do we handle this? How do we follow corporate guidance and not become that person who is rushing through corporate slides just to get through them?
MAKE THEM YOUR OWN!  What do I mean by that? Am l saying change the slides? Not necessarily. (Although Iâve never been shy about adding some animation here and there or cleaning up some of the words or even dressing up the slides to make a finer point. But I digress.) What Iâm really talking about here is know your message and make it your own.
On every slide, make sure you understand the key point that is trying to be made be sure to phrase it in a way that is natural and comfortable to you â so long as you donât violate or contradict the corporate messaging.Â
Be sure you can pass what I call the âSo What?â test. Ask yourself, whatâs the âSo what?â on every slide. In other words, know the key point intending to be made on every slide and BE SURE to make it.Â
On EVERY slide?
YES. On EVERY slide. There should not be a SINGLE slide in your deck that doesnât have a point. There should not be a single slide in the deck that you donât completely and fully understand â at least at a fundamental level. Please do not show slides that you donât understand. Please donât show slides for which you cannot pass the âSo WHAT?â test. Do not try to fake it. When you do, itâs as obvious to your audience as the day is long.Â
OK. Youâve convinced me. Iâm not going to be that person who just runs through the corporate slides because thatâs what Iâve been told. But what now? Because thatâs the situation I find myself in right now. Iâve got a slide deck Iâve been told I need to use, and I donât feel comfortable with (or worse, agree with) the message.
Get help. Thatâs what your sales enablement team is there for. Itâs what marketing is there for. If theyâre not available, take it to your manager. Have the difficult conversation if necessary â especially if you legitimately have a problem with some of the slides. Yes, you could just remove them from your presentation, but that might get you in trouble with the boss â or worse, might get your boss in trouble with corporate. Iâm certainly not suggesting that. But somehow you need to figure out a way to make them your own. Come up with at least ONE POINT that you can make on every slide â even if it takes less than 10 seconds to deliver that point â and move on. Whatever the case, please do not put your customer through a presentation that youâre either uncomfortable with or ill-prepared to deliver.
You might be asking yourself do I need to do this EVERY time in EVERY meeting? My answer is pretty much YES!  If you are speaking to a group â whether itâs a prospect you are meeting for the first time, a long-time customer or an audience at a cont or webinar â EVERY one of your slides should have a purpose and be an important part of the message â EVERY time. And you should know what that is on every slide, or it should be left out. Your audience shouldnât have to sit through one single meaningless slide.
Remember. Slides are tools.  Designed to help you tell a story, or steer a conversation, or articulate a valve proposition. They are a means to an end. They are NOT to be used as a crutch.  They should not be a mandatory box to check. Â
Know your slides.  Make them your own. And remember in most cases, less is more.
Final thoughtâŠÂ During the pandemic, in which almost all sales presentations are being done over web meetings, it is THAT MUCH MORE IMPORTANT that our slides are concise and on point. Brevity is king when delivering a message in a remote meeting. We need to work that much harder to keep our audience engaged. Expert tip: increase animation in your online presentations to make them more visually engaging.

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