Microsoft PowerPoint presentations are often ridiculed as pedantic and redundant. Frequently, these presentations consist of bullet points that are simply read aloud by the presenter. The PowerPoint slides are used like flash cards rather than egaging participants or adding value.
There are more effective ways to use PowerPoint, and I plan to present creative options on this blog. One of the first is an article by Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist at Apple, innovator, and venture capitalist. He lays out 11 topic slides and their relative importance in a pitch to potential investors.
Here is Kawasaki’s article, How to Create an Enchanting Pitch, and below are some key takeaways:
- Your business needs to be at a point where venture capital or outside investors makes sense. Ideally, your business will have a track record that shows viability.
- Focus on why consumers/customers want your product or service, and how you execute better than the competition.
- Your demo is more important than your slides. Put the majority of your effort in a great demo and use slides to maintain visibility of key information.
Kawasaki’s advice applies to more than venture capital presentations. It applies just as readily to project proposals and sales presentations.
You can see that the key items in the presentation relate to the business and not to PowerPoint itself. PowerPoint is how the message is delivered, but it is not the message. It is a tool; it is not the point. In future posts, I’ll show you how to use PowerPoint to communicate more effectively.
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