Powerpoint Presentations
Companies and individuals use powerpoint presentations for a variety of purposes, one of the most common being sales presentations and other pitches. But one of the common denominators to the great range of slide shows given is the comparative mediocrity of their Powerpoint design. It is, sadly, all too normal to sit through a set of slides that brings little or nothing (or, in the worst cases, even less) to a talk which may itself be tedious enough as it is.
One of Powerpoint’s greatest strengths is also its chief weakness. If it was difficult to use then we would think about it differently. When we need software designing, an interactive website creating – even copy written, often – we employ a professional to do it. But Powerpoint design is different. Like written copy, it is something that untrained and inexperienced people can do. Sometimes, they will do it well. Unfortunately, though, in the majority of cases the results will be amateurish. When they are deployed in the context of a key or high-stakes sales presentation, the effect is predictably disastrous: they simply do not work.
Sales pitches need to engage their audiences. They need to convince and to wow. People need to come away from them impressed, but not just by showy graphics. They need to have a clear idea of the product or service you are promoting, and of why it can do the job better than any of the competition. The more simply and clearly you can communicate this, the better.
This is why there are companies out there dedicated to creating effective Powerpoint slide shows – as well as the spoken presentations they should complement. And it is complement, rather than duplicate or, in the worst cases, being a redundant extra. The Powerpoint and spoken word should work together, rather than one propping the other up. You can communicate detail on a slide that you cannot via a verbal presentation; equally, there are things that you cannot represent well on a slide.
Really convincing powerpoint presentations are hard to create. Powerpoint design is difficult to do really well, though anyone can do it badly. If your sales presentations are lacking in that ‘wow’ factor, that will soon show up in your bottom line. On the other hand, if you employ the right consultants or pay for the training to enable you to do it yourself, you should quickly find you realise a return on investment for your time and money.
Visit http://www.eyefulpresentations.co.uk/ for more…