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Your
Presentation Success Is Our Passion
Present It Right...The First Time! 
FIND
OUT WHAT YOUR AUDIENCE THINKS ABOUT YOUR SLIDES This
month's audience quiz concerns your slides. If you have ever done a questionnaire
like this, I would really like to know the results-send me an e-mail. And if you
use this one, please let me know the results. From all the feedback I have heard,
many people basically put a word document into PowerPoint and use too many slides.
Besides the issue of too many words on a slide, the word document is usually not
organized, and that disorganization comes across when the slides shine brightly
in front of an audience. Take
a chance and get some feedback. You may discover your audiences don't want so
many slides. In that case, you can save yourself some time. What you consider
good colors may not be.
SLIDE
QUESTIONNAIRE
Please take a moment to fill out this questionnaire.
Thank you! Overall,
how would you rate my slides in terms of readability?
1. ___Excellent-easy
to read with text and diagrams big enough
2. ___OK
3. ___Need work-could
not read some of the text or see the diagrams How
were the colors of the slides?
1. ___ Great-easy on my eyes; color helped me
understand certain points/images
2. ___ OK
3. ___ Need work-colors not pleasing
and not used well to illustrate points How
was the amount of text on my slides?
1. ____Great-you didn't put all too much
text on the slides
2. ____Acceptable-you could have fewer words and still get
your point across
3. ____Too many words-I prefer to read all that detail later,
in the handout How
were the diagrams and pictures I used?
1. ____Really helped me understand
your messages
2. ____OK
3. ____Too many
4. ____Not enough-a few more
would make your points clearer Would
you have preferred fewer slides?
1. ____No-you had just the right number of
slides
2. ____OK-but you could have done it with a few less slides
3. ____
Yes-too many slides
4. About how many slides do you think I could eliminate?
______
WHAT
TYPE OF QUESTIONS DO YOU ASK YOUR AUDIENCE? Let's
assume for a moment, that many of you do not give a presentation without some
audience feedback. Perhaps you want to engage your audience more. One way is to
ask your audience questions during, not just after, the presentation to determine
if you are maintaining their interest and understanding. Visual,
Auditory and Kinesthetic Questions
In your audience you will have people
who process information visually and want to see pictures. You will have people
who just want to hear the information in a logical manner. These people will remember
the numbers. And you will have people who need to interact with what you are saying.
They usually start asking questions before you discuss two slides. As you try
to engage your audience, be sure you ask the types of questions that will encourage
them to respond. Here are different ways to be sure you can elicit a response
from your audience. Why consider these? If you don't, due to the way you process
information you may only ask one type of question. For example, always focusing
on how people see the situation you are explaining. For
visual people ask: How do you see this situation I'm explaining? What
are you looking for in carrying out this project?
For auditory people
ask: I'd like to hear your view of the progress we've made. Let's spend
some time discussing this issue. Who wants to begin?
For kinesthetic
people ask: How do you feel about this new product? What sense
do you have about the direction we need to go? If
you don't want to be specific, use these types of words. You may only
ask
these types of unspecific questions, which may not encourage certain
audience
members to respond. If
you don't want to be specific, ask these types of questions. Open
and Closed Questions
Whether your questions are visual, auditory, or kinesthetic,
do you really want a yes or no answer to them? Most of the time you want people
in the audience to say more than a single word. How do you get them to do that?
For a start, don't ask questions that make it easy for them to give a one-word
answer. The above
questions encourage a dialogue. They are open questions allowing the person answering
some leeway in how to answer. Closed questions, on the other hand, restrain the
answer. (And sometimes you might want that.)
| Here are examples
of closed questions: | | | - Would
you like to use the first or second option to solve the problem?
- When
will you be adding to your product line?
- What
date is reasonable for us to set for delivery of the new system?
- Do
you have a financial advisor?
|
| Choose
your questions carefully. My clients keep telling me that the more their audiences
talk, the more they pay attention and process the information being presented.
No one wants to sit quiet and still for 45 minutes, so make your talks interactive.
Of course, there are presentations in which you are expected to just give your
talk. Then do it with style and enthusiasm. And, like the slides at the end of
this newsletter, engage your audience |
CUT
BOTH SENTENCES AND WORDS "Too
much text!" Was that the feedback from the last presentation you designed?
Here are some tips for cutting down on sentence length and word number. Before:
We are giving one special reward, called "Expertise in Action,"
to
employees whose expertise comes across in team meetings, their reports
and presentations to senior management.
After: "Expertise in Action"
rewards
Why? You can say the rest as a speaker Before:
Presently in our company four different generations may now be sitting at the
same conference table with different values, work ethics, and behaviors.
After:
The "Four Generational Experience" at the conference table
Why?
This gives the speaker the opportunity to talk about how each generation views
the world. "Four Generational Experience," an interesting turn of phrase
that gets people thinking, could be the title of a slide. Before:
When looking at the future of ZTH we see the company growing by 5%, with exceptional
growth internationally and 3% growth in Australia.
After: ZTH poised
for growth
* 5% internationally
* 3% Australia
Why? Numbers are
easier to read when you line them up. The other words are extra. Now the speaker
will have to think about what to say about this slide, as it's easy for people
to see the percentages. PICTURES
TO USE
Here is another place to look for photos. With Indezine Photos you can
download as many images as you need, and use them for as long as you would like!
They are always adding new images. Some images are super sized up to 4000x3000.
All the photos are subject to a single licensing agreement. http://indezine.shutterstock.com/
Small: $7.95
Medium: $8.95
Huge: $11.95
Supersize: $12.95
Vector:
$12.95 FOCUS
ON THE CLIENT Go
through a typical slide presentation. Look at how many slides have questions to
ask the audience. How many times are words included that show the audience you
know what they want? Finally, does the talk end with a slide focused on what most
interests your audience? These
slides were created for a presentation for Corporate Fulfillment Systems, Inc.
located in Massachusetts.
 |  | Slide
1 is a good example of how to put audience questions on a slide-at the start of
the presentation. Point number 5 is an auditory question. Point number 6 is a
visual question. |
 | | Slide
2 directs the message to the client's interests. These are all the points you
know are making the prospect look for another vendor. |
 | | Slide
3 provides the audience with a list of services. This may be important as the
prospect may not realize all that you can offer.
|
 | | Slide
4 lists the client's "hot-button" issues. |
PRESENTERS
Use the slide questionnaire to find out what your audience really thinks.
DESIGNERS
Redo some of your slides using far fewer words. 
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