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    You are here Home » leadership

    How to Create Persuasive Presentations with PowerPoint

    Last updated on Aug 8, 2014 by Dan McCarthy · This post may contain affiliate links

    Guest post by Laura Brown:

    According to
    one estimate, 30 million PowerPoint presentations occur every day throughout
    the world, and most of us are pretty jaded by now. PowerPoint was originally
    conceived as a persuasive tool; in a 1986 marketing report for its predecessor,
    an early program called Presenter, developer Robert Gaskins writes
    enthusiastically about the "very large number of businesspeople" who
    regularly make presentations to "persuade others to make a decision, to
    approve a course of action, or to accept a result."i In
    the wrong hands, however, PowerPoint can become a real demotivator, as anyone
    who's ever experienced "PowerPoint hell" or "death by PowerPoint"
    can attest. All is not lost, though. These tips can help you create a truly
    engaging PowerPoint and harness the persuasive power of the world's most
    popular presenting tool.


    • Think from your audience's point
      of view, and build your presentation from there.
       You may be really excited
      to tell your listeners all about your new idea or product, but you'll
      serve your audience better if narrow your material based on their needs.
      Put yourself in your listeners' shoes as you consider length, scope, and
      level of detail. How can you solve their problems? What questions are they
      likely to have? Be willing to trim content if necessary. Focusing on the
      needs and expectations of the audience can transform the way you plan and
      build your presentations, and it can mean the difference between a
      presentation that's engaging and persuasive and one that makes your
      audience want to jump out the window.

    • Be very clear about what you want
      your audience to do. 
      Presentations
      are often used in the sales process, but ask yourself this . . . do people
      make the sale with the presentation alone? Typically not. If the
      presentation doesn't clinch the sale or the decision, what exactly is it
      doing then? How does it move the decision process along, and what is the
      next step you'd like the audience to take? Is there a demo to try,
      customization options to explore? A persuasive presentation contains a
      call to action, even if it's just to invite the audience to learn more
      about the product or idea. The clearer you are about the role of the presentation
      in your overall process, the more successful you'll be at creating a
      presentation that persuades your audience and inspires them to act.
      


    • Create memorable slides. Your slides have two purposes: to
      act as prompts for your presentation (see the bullet below), and to
      reinforce the points you want your audience to remember. Choose four or
      five main points from your talk that you want your audience to retain --
      studies show they are unlikely to retain more than that, so be judicious.
      Then create graphically clean slides that effectively frame and reinforce
      your chosen points. The eyes of your audience should be able to light on
      your slides and register the meaning instantly without any conscious
      effort at processing the information -- and without diverting their
      attention from you. Don't clutter your slides with lots of content. You
      want your audience to remember having seen your concepts as well as heard
      them: experiencing the content visually aids in retention. Slides that are
      heavy with text and images are harder to take in than streamlined slides
      that feature lots of white space. If you have detailed information that
      you want your audience to have, you can create a leave-behind version of
      your deck with more complete content.
      


    • Engage with your audience, not
      with your slides.
       When
      it comes time to give the presentation, your attention should be focused
      on your audience, not on the screen behind you. Never, ever stand there
      and read your slides. Your audience can read faster than you can speak;
      they will read ahead of you and lose interest waiting for you to catch up.
      Use the content on your slide as prompts for your talk, to keep yourself
      organized and on track. A presentation is a kind of performance: to
      succeed, you must rehearse and become thoroughly familiar with your
      material rather than leaning heavily on your slides for information. If
      you take the time to get truly comfortable with your content, you'll exude
      confidence and form a real bond with your audience, rather than limping
      along constantly looking back over your shoulder. It's the dynamic human
      connection, even more than the quality of your information that creates
      real persuasive engagement during a presentation.

    Thirty years
    ago, a software genius named Robert Gaskins had a vision of helping millions of
    business people create persuasive presentations easily and inexpensively, and
    PowerPoint was born. Despite its misuse over the years, PowerPoint still has
    terrific potential to engage audiences because it can combine both verbal and visual
    information with real live human interaction. Creating and delivering slides
    with your audience's experience in mind can help you exploit that potential and
    move your listeners to action. 


    Author Bio 

    Laura Brown, PhD, author of How to Write Anything: A Complete
    Guide
    , has taught writing to just about everyone -- from corporate
    executives to high school students. She has more than twenty-five years'
    experience providing training and coaching in business writing, and she has
    also taught composition and literature at Columbia University. Her expertise
    encompasses instructor-led training, individual coaching, classroom teaching,
    and e-learning development. She has worked with clients such as Morgan Stanley,
    AOL Time Warner, Citigroup, DHL and MetLife. 

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