Public Speaking Courses – Death By PowerPoint

This article will help you stand out when you next have to participate in public speaking while using PowerPoint slides.

Public Speaking Courses - Death by PowerPoint

Public Speaking Courses – Avoiding Death-by-PowerPoint

One of the scourges of modern meetings, conference and corporate get-togethers is PowerPoint. While we all hate sitting through PowerPoint presentations, for some reason the program has not died out. The program is a success despite its lack of popularity!

There are three reasons for this:

  1. Conformity (everyone else uses it so I should too!)
  2. Inclusiveness (The auditory people can hear me and the visual people can read – therefore everyone wins!)
  3. Lack of understanding why we speak (All they want is the data)

The solution to these public speaking problems is to address the above causes, but in reverse order.

  1. The reason we speak is to reassure – not to inform. Sales managers want to be reassured that sales teams are performing. If they just want information they can read the data on what territory sold what. So don’t put so much data on the screen – reassure the Sales Manager that you are across what is happening in your territory.
  2. Forget about the auditory and visual people! The brain is a complex machine, but has its limits – it can only process one type of information at a time. We can’t hear and read at the same time – we just can’t do it!What we are very good at doing is flicking between hearing and reading with great speed and then estimating what we missed. However, when we are estimating we are guessing*. Avoid putting your script up for everyone to read (It’s called public speaking not public reading!)
  3. Be different! If you’re the same as everyone else you blend in. Just look at any shelf in the supermarket. The manufacturer’s go to great length to be different to the competition. If your presentations look the same as everyone else you will blend into the past and be forgotten just like everyone else. This is death in the world of sales. Don’t be like everyone else –  speak without slides!

The first step to increased productivity/sales is to stand out in the market, achieve greater retention of your message and have your team reassure rather than just inform. That’s what my clients are able to do.

If you need to do this as well, hit reply and let me know. I’ve got a few extra ideas you might be able to use.

Cheers

Darren

*I used to work for the Australian Bureau of Statistics. During my employment I did a 1-week course called Estimation and Imputation. This was a full-on statistical course in how to derive numbers to fill in missing data. We were told that while all the processes used are mathematically sound and well tested, you could not get away from the fact that the numbers were estimated – guessed. Therefore it was not right – in fact it was probably wrong. The same thing happens when we estimate what we could have heard when we were reading.

If you need to stand out, let me know.

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