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November 2002

WINNING PRESENTATIONS PUBLIC SEMINAR

Come learn how to give powerful, persuasive presentations. Enroll in my Winning Presentations Seminar on December 9 and 10, 2002, in Wellesley, Massachusetts, a 20-minute ride from downtown Boston. By the end of two days I guarantee, or your money back, that you will know how to develop, design, and deliver a persuasive, results-oriented presentation. And you'll look and sound confident! Turn those boring data sales presentations into a sales tool. E-mail me for an outline of the seminar at claudyne@wilderpresentations.com.

In this month's free e-news from Wilder Presentations, I'd like to discuss two ideas for presenters and three for designers. As always, there's a monthly challenge at the end.

FOR PRESENTERS:

STEP 8: MANAGE QUESTIONS

SET THE STAGE

Don't leave your audiences in the dark - tell them what you expect of them. For example, let's say you are explaining your department's way of doing a certain procedure to another department. Your task is to share the information; the audience's is to listen. You are not asking them to critique the procedure or come up with a new one. Make sure your audience understands this. You will set the limits of the discussion and make it easy to respond to suggestions for change. Say, "That's probably a useful suggestion, but we have decided to keep this procedure this way due to time constraints." You won't put yourself in the position of having to defend your way of doing business.

If you know you are going to hear skepticism and objections, take charge of that process. Give your talk and ask, "Based on what I've said so far, what do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of this plan?" Write down the comments in a place where the audience can see them. Then say, "After I go through another agenda item, we'll come back and add to this list. It may also change as you hear other suggestions." You are honoring people's comments and feelings at the moment, but not spending time on them yet. People know they have been heard, so they can continue listening.

FOR PRESENTERS:

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF ENTHUSIASM

Here's a true story I just heard. A friend of mine referred someone to a business colleague. After the meeting, the business colleague told my friend, "You know, I liked the process she was discussing, but I didn't like HER. She didn't seem excited about her product. She talked in a monotone. And when I asked her why she was selling it she told me, 'I make the most money selling this product.' That was not what I wanted to hear. But do you know someone else who has this product? I would like to learn more, but not from her."

What does this story mean for us presenters? It means that we better like our products and services and let people know how we feel. It means that, when asked "Why do you sell this?" we respond, "There are many reasons. One is that I believe it will help you achieve what you want." Prospects aren't all that interested in why you sell it for your own personal reasons. Be passionate and enthusiastic. It’s catching.

Every time you meet with someone, every time you pick up the phone, every time you make a suggestion, you show your level of interest and enthusiasm in your voice, words, and nonverbal language. Be sure it's what you want that person to see and hear.

FOR DESIGNERS:

WHERE IS THE THEME?

Help your audience remember your presentation by putting its theme, memory hook, and key message on the slides. For example, if you're selling a new product, you might want its name or a memory hook about it watermarked into the slide. Rather than including the company's logo on every slide, consider using the key message you want to convey.

FOR DESIGNERS:

BIZPRESENTER OFFER

Take the boring out of your PowerPoint presentations with Corbis(r) BizPresenter(tm). You've only got seconds to make an impression, so make them count. Consider the power of images. BizPresenter features thousands of premium-quality photos, PowerPoint background templates, The New Yorker cartoons, and illustrations that are sure to grab your audience's attention.

Receive a free Starter Pack-featuring three photos and one PowerPoint background template of your choice. Offer ends November 30th, 2002. Use the promotional code WP1102NL (case sensitive) and follow these instructions:

Download Instructions

1. Go to www.bizpresenter.com

2. Go to Value Packs on the menu bar at the top of the page and

then select Mixed Media

3. Next to the Starter Pack item, click the "Buy Now!" button

(as if to purchase it)

4. In the shopping cart type the promo code WP1102NL (case sensitive) in the provided field

5. Purchase the Starter Pack for 0 dollars. Read and accept License terms, create an account by providing your information, then click "Check Out"

6. Once you are logged in to your BizPresenter account, you

will be able to select your content. Simply search the images, under Editor's Picks or Quick Image Search, and then click on thumbnails of the images you like for detailed information and purchase options.

7. You may close out of the web site before all of your content choices

are made and return at any time (within 31 days/the term of the Value Pack) to complete all your downloads.

8. When you check out with images in your cart, the download comes as a zipped file.

9. For questions, use the Help Section of the Web site.

FOR DESIGNERS:

RESOURCES FROM LAWYERS

The book PowerPoint for Litigators shows in the appendix how to do PowerPoint presentations for business contract cases, criminal cases, and personal injury cases. To preview the book, go to www.nita.org (NITA stands for National Institute of Trial Advocacy.) Ric Gass sent in this information and he also talks about an article in the New Yorker (5/28/2001) titled Absolute PowerPoint. He says that there's a difference between delivery of information and discussion. Lawyers have to be sensitive to these different tasks and must be willing to abandon slides when they need to "discuss" with a jury.

There's power in visually showing the structure of an idea rather than just talking about it and letting the listeners create the structure on their own. All of us can benefit from reading how to visually persuade others and make our points more clearly. Check out a nifty piece of software called Inspiration www.inspiration.com that Ric uses to outline and brainstorm. He imports his diagrams of arguments and logic slides into PowerPoint.

FOR DESIGNERS:

INSIDE MICROSOFT POWERPOINT NEWSLETTER

elementK puts out a great newsletter called Inside Microsoft PowerPoint that gives you lots of ideas on using PowerPoint features. For example, in the November issue, some of the articles are: "Explore the third dimension in PowerPoint with layered, 3-D images" and "Easily Create Organizational Charts in PowerPoint." Go to www.elementkjournals.com.

MONTHLY CHALLENGE:

PRESENTERS

Set your audience's expectations at the start of a meeting. Tell them what you want them to do when listening and interacting with you and your talk.

DESIGNERS

Put on a slide a memory hook, tag line or key point of the talk or company’s product. For example, if your company is all about implementation then you may want to watermark implementation into the corner of the slide’s background.

FASCINATING COMMENTS FROM OUR READERS

PRESENTATION GRAPHICS

Scott Taylor of MS Studios Engineering (scottay@microsoft.com) has this to say about presentation graphics:

Prior to working with MS Studios, I spent some 20 years in the field working for several large corporate theater production companies, and there were two problems we repeatedly ran up against regarding presentation graphics. One is the use of a typeface many times too small. It is good that you mention using sans-serif type, but oftentimes the size is completely inappropriate. When using a desktop resolution of 1024x768, the font size should be no smaller than 12 points. It is difficult for many projectors to recreate that detail reliably for one thing; and for another it is very difficult for an audience that may be 100 feet or more away from the screen to see type that small. What looks good on a 17-inch monitor that is 2 feet away from the user will be unreadable in medium-to-large settings.

The other aspect of slide production is that people create graphics with information extending right to the edge of the frame - something we used to call E-PIS, Every Pixel Is Sacred. I understand the need for wanting to use the whole canvas, but that ignores the reality of presentation and recording. Relevant information should be kept within what is called the "safe title area," which is about 10% in from the edges. Frequently text is lost because either the projectionist did not size correctly for the screen or, more commonly, the projectionist must fit video elements on the same screen and will overscan the graphics. The other reason for not taking it to the edge is that most times presentations are recorded for sale or distribution after the event for viewing at home, where all consumer TVs overscan. Please help spread the word.

Thanks for your time and keep up the fight to make presentations interesting.

POINT, CLICK & WOW! BOOK EXCERPTS

Read excerpts from my book Point, Click & Wow! A Quick Guide to Brilliant Laptop Presentations

Chapter 1:

http://www.presentationmaster.com/2002/09_sep/features/cw_pcw_chap1.htm

Chapter 2:

http://www.presentationmaster.com/2002/09_sep/features/cw_pcw_chap2.htm

Chapter 3:

http://www.presentationmaster.com/2002/10_oct/features/cw_pcw_chap3.htm

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