You vs PowerPoint: Who Speaks for Whom?

If you were born before 1980, you probably remember how much trouble it used to be to prepare a business presentation. It took hours to print your transparencies and real muscle to cart around those bulky overhead projectors. Today, however, with presentation software programs like PowerPoint, you can carry hundreds of digital presentations on a thumb drive, which plugs directly into a projector smaller than a tissue box controlled with a hand-held remote. Easy.

In fact, maybe a little too easy.

PowerPoint presentations are intended to be visual support for you, the presenter. Slides enhance your spoken message, illustrate your trends and comparisons, and create a picture of what you have to say.

When used effectively, PowerPoint helps your audience follow you. It shows them where you are and indicates transitions between ideas. It helps you to introduce new information and builds a sense of anticipation for your audience.

Studies conducted by 3M, the people who make your Post-It notes, have indicated that PowerPoint makes presentations more interesting, more entertaining, more impactful, and more persuasive. How much more? Up to 43% more.

In short, PowerPoint’s job is to make your presentation visual. Many presenters, however, use PowerPoint to do everything.

PowerPoint slides should not speak for you. You are there to speak for them. Wordy, overly-detailed slides are designed to help you remember everything you have to say, but these take the audience’s attention away from you. If you need an outline to help you remember your details, got in on a separate piece of paper and get it off your slides. Design your slides for your audience’s benefit, not for yours.

Also, when you close your presentation, saying ‘thank you’ is your job, not PowerPoint’s. When you reach your last slide, turn PowerPoint off with your remote or by pressing the letter “B” on your keyboard. Face your audience and tell them, ‘thank you.’ Wait for the applause to die down, then politely invite them to ask their questions. If you have a ‘thank you’ slide and a ‘Q&A’ slide, get them out of your presentation. ‘Thank you’ is much more sincere if it comes from you.

Remember, your business presentations are not about PowerPoint, they’re about you. And if your audience likes you, they’ll love your presentation.