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When it comes to a sales presentation, nothing beats a good PowerPoint.  The problem is, so few people know what a good PowerPoint presentation is.  Let’s take a look at what makes a strong presentation.

 To begin, PowerPoint is not a crutch or a leave-behind.   Too often speakers develop a 30-page presentation with countless bullet points, cute clip art and copy flying in and out from every possible angle.  Presenters end up reading the slides word-for-word.  Their audience follows along for a few minutes before mentally checking out.

 A strong PowerPoint presentation is nothing more than a series of highlights or exclamation points.  Most people can read for themselves, and studies have shown most have trouble digesting more than ten concepts in a meeting.  So limit presentations to no more than 10 slides and keep the content short and simple.  No full sentences and nothing over produced.  A good rule of thumb is to keep fonts at 30 points or larger.  This limits the amount of content fitting on one slide.  Animation and movement should be limited to one short video, and only if it’s extremely relevant. 

 How do you eliminate all of those other slides?  You can start by looking at yourself.  In most cases, you don’t need six slides about you or your company. You probably don’t need any.  This information can be in the leave-behind.  The audience usually isn’t interested in you.  Rather, they want to know what’s in it for them.  With a little organization most presentations can be broken down into an outline.  From the outline, the important points can be boiled down into a few key words and phrases.  Don’t question the need of a slide, but if each piece of a slide is absolutely necessary.  If the answer is “no,” take it out and begin condensing.

A powerful PowerPoint isn’t the focal point of a presentation.  People seldom arrive at a meeting intrigued about a slide presentation.  They come to see and listen to the presenter.  A PowerPoint adds structure, emphasizes specific points and is a support mechanism for the program.

 Microsoft and others have created programs to make a slide presentation do everything but serve the meeting refreshments.  But a good presenter knows “less is more.”  A few well chosen phrases, strategically selected images, and maybe a video, will almost always outperform the 50-slide über-presentation.  And a strong first showing will almost always lead to a second meeting where all of the secondary details can be explained.