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******************************************************************* Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Tip Issue #146 October 30, 2007 Published & Copyright by Dave Paradi of ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com Circulation 8,529 ******************************************************************* Please forward this newsletter to sales executives and professionals who want to achieve greater sales rep productivity and deliver presentations that close more sales. If this newsletter has been sent to you by a friend, sign up to get your own copy at http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/newsletter.htm . ******************************************************************* In this issue: Workshop Recording Now Available Why Use A Standard PowerPoint Template? PowerPoint Tip - Text Heavy Slides Annoy Audiences Survey Says Best of the Blog - How NOT to switch between presenters Dave's Travel Schedule ******************************************************************* Workshop Recording Now Available Due to your requests, I recorded the workshop I did a few weeks ago in Seattle as a screen capture recording. You get to see my slides and hear me explain how to create effective slides. The recording has been edited and is now available. Go to http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/powerpointseminars.htm and scroll to the bottom of the page to preview one of the segments and order your copy. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Why Use A Standard PowerPoint Template? One of the comments that came up more than once in the survey reported on below, is how annoying people find it when they have to look at the same templates every presentation. Think it's hard to create your own unique look? It's not. Get all the instructions in my e-book "Create Your Own PowerPoint Template" at http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/customtemplate.htm . ------------------------------------------------------------------- PowerPoint Tip: Text Heavy Slides Annoy Audiences Survey Says In the third Annoying PowerPoint Survey that wrapped up a week ago, the major conclusion is that we are suffering through an epidemic of overloaded text slides - and we are not happy about it. The survey results point to the need for presenters to increase the use of relevant visuals to replace text and allow more of a conversation with the audience instead of a recitation of the slide text. When asked to select the top three things that annoy them about bad PowerPoint presentations, the respondents cited the following as the most annoying: The speaker read the slides to us - 67.4% Full sentences instead of bullet points - 45.4% Text so small I couldn't read it - 45.0% While the top ranked issue has not changed in the three surveys (previous surveys were done in 2003 and 2005), what stood out clearly this time was that the top three annoyances all relate to overloaded text slides. And the rest of the annoying characteristics were ranked well behind these top three. It is clear that our audiences are getting sick and tired of having reports read to them and it being called a presentation. The results are to be taken seriously, as 62% of the 604 people who participated in the survey indicated that they see over 100 presentations per year. One-third of the respondents said that they see annoying elements in over half of all the presentations they see. Survey participants also had the opportunity to write in comments and over 360 did so. After analyzing the comments, here are the other top concerns. 1. A lack of presentation skills by presenters. This ranges from not knowing how to use PowerPoint or presentation equipment, to not being familiar with their presentations, to a general lack of preparation and a focus on the slides instead of the content. 2. Poor slide design and layout, including poor color selection and layouts that are inconsistent throughout the presentation. 3. Reinforcement of the desire for more visuals and less text on slides. So given these results, what should you do? My suggestion is to redouble your efforts to think visually about ideas you want to present. One key way to do this is to start paying attention to the words or phrases that you use to describe your ideas. If you hear words or phrases that describe relationships, such as "when this... then ...", "subordinate", or "component parts", you should be thinking diagram. If you are telling a story, describing a place or event, or referring to a person, use a photograph. The same goes for graphs, charts and screen shots. It is not easy at first, but once you start paying attention, you will start to see the visual potential in many ideas. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Best of the Blog - How NOT to switch between presenters Switching between presentations when a new presenter comes up to speak seems to be one of the single most difficult things to do well according to my experience and those who write to me. A recent conference was a perfect illustration. The second speaker came up and needed to switch to his presentation from the one that was left on the screen from the previous speaker. So he hit Escape and dropped into the program mode of PowerPoint. He started searching for his presentation and it took a while for him to figure out where it was. It took so long in fact, that the audience started to chat with each other. Then, audience members started shouting out advice on how he could find the file and get the presentation started. He finally loaded his presentation and started speaking. All of this can be easily avoided, but it seems like most conference organizers have no idea how to do so. By simply setting up a single slide that has hyperlinks to the different presentations, the switch between speakers can be smooth and simple. If you are responsible for a session with multiple speakers, please use this advice to make the session so much more enjoyable for the audience. Other recent blog posts at http://pptideas.blogspot.com : Proofread your slides - please! ------------------------------------------------------------------- Dave's Travel Schedule I work with sales teams who struggle with the quality of their sales presentations and the productivity of the sales reps in creating the presentations. Sales executives would like their sales reps to easily create presentations and deliver a customized and consistent message every time. My research based PowerPoint Presentation Effectiveness System helps my clients achieve greater sales rep productivity and deliver presentations that close more sales. You can save money by booking me to speak to your organization or conference when I am close to your area for other clients. Here's where I will be in the next few months: November 6 - Oakville, ON November 14 - Toronto, ON November 19-20 - King City, ON November 22 - Oakville, ON December 6-9 - Halifax, NS January 23-24 - Cincinnati, OH E-mail me at Dave@ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com to discuss how my Think Outside The Slide(tm) sessions can help your organization be more productive and improve communication throughout the organization. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Privacy Policy: I will never sell or distribute your e-mail or information to anyone. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Need articles for your newsletter? Check out my many articles at: http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended tools I use in my business: KickStartCart shopping cart system: http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/default.asp?pr=31&id=42487 Credit Card Processor PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/row/mrb/pal=8ADSGLU62YXWW Webinar provider GoToWebinar: http://snipurl.com/webinarhost ------------------------------------------------------------------- Check out the books, e-books and other learning tools at: http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/resources.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you want to read back issues of this newsletter, click on the following link to go to the Archives: http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/archives.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------- Microsoft, PowerPoint, Windows and other terms are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. 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