I recently sat through yet another pitch event and once again was amazed that some of these folks were coached…
Here’s some of my Rules for Presentations
- Yout Bio – No one cares who you are until they care what you’re talking about. Tell us why your presentation is important. Get us interested and then give us a short bio so we know why you’re an expert on what you’re telling us.
- Jargon – Assume your audience is not schooled in the art. Actually assume you’re presenting to a 6th grade classroom of kids. Stay away from acronyms, jargon terms and spam words that include but not limited to:
- Best of Breed
- Flexible – explain what you mean by flexible and why that’s important
- Thought Leadership
- Innovative
- Imprecise Language… I just heard a CEO say “we really have some of the best guys on our team.” Try “Our team has a combined 100 years of successful experience in the field including multiple multi-million dollar exits.” In other words, tell me why they are the best. What makes them best.
- Introducing The Teams Names… A CEO presents a slide about his team which has a picture, name, and title of his direct reports… that’s it… and then read their names and titles. Wow! Those are some good-looking guys with great names and titles. I like this company… said no one ever.
- Reading the Presentation – Great way to put people to sleep. Change volume, pace, and emphasis…. pretend you’re not a zombie.
- Busy Slides – No No NO NO NO…. the fewer words you use the better (worst slide ever below).
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