I was working on a presentation for a customer today – they asked us to address their assembled IT staff about some of our tools that are used internally. I had to prepare for over an hour to discuss how we have helped them. I figured I would slam together a PowerPoint presentation and thrill them.
As I looked on my hard drive for PPTs, I realized that I have not done one longer than 5 slides in over 1 year. As a team, we have just eliminated doing these complex PPTs. We spend a lot of time now talking, showing some software, or even running pre-recorded videos. I had to go to a webinar to find a meeting where we showed a lot of slides. Even that one had just about 10.
When I was working with a new VP of Sales back in the day, he said to me, “Oh, you’re a lazy salesperson – you use PPTs so much.” I think I finally got to the point that these slides are useless.
In any meeting or demo now, I have one simple goal: get a conversation started. The best “tool” that works to do that is my set of ears. Just listen carefully a lot, and you will never need slides again.
I completely agree! Using slides can easily become a crutch for the person who is running the demo. It’s tricky actually to make sure any PPT slides used are not just about (and for you) that they are not inhibiting discussion and conversation.
PPT’s should be used sparingly and with thought to how these slides will benefit your audience.
But I think this video says it all:
http://www.davidairey.com/how-not-to-use-powerpoint/
- Paul