Bad sales presentations can be found in every tier of business and government. There are several very simple points that are well-accepted – in theory – to improve Powerpoint design and create winning sales presentations. In practice, though, people don’t seem to be able to adhere to them. That has a major negative effect on the outcomes. A speech that could have captivated and enthused an audience instead leaves them bored thanks to a convoluted, amateurish or nonsensical slideshow. A sales bid that could have resulted in a high-paying contract is dead in the water. Reputations are eroded; leaders who are skilled at speaking lose their listeners.

It’s no wonder that firms are turning to professional outfits to put together their presentations, complete with Powerpoint slides: these consultants are skilled at creating an overarching narrative in which your Powerpoint presentation complements the spoken content – not distracts from it or undermines it. They will also train your employees to do it themselves, if you prefer.

If you are putting together your own slides, bear in mind a few basic points. Keep things simple. You’re not looking to duplicate on the screen what the audience is hearing from the stage. Summarise information in short, pre-digested chunks – bullet points are good for this. Don’t be tempted by some of the flashier effects Powerpoint offers: it’s all too easy to use them, thanks to the software’s relative simplicity, but in practice they hardly add value. They just end up as a distraction.  And don’t just limit the amount of information on any one slide: limit the number of slides too. If your presentation is so complicated that it needs a long series of slides to make it clear, something is amiss anyway. You can’t expect your audience to leave with the total content of your talk in their heads. What you do want is for them to take away a  handful of clear, meaningful points. That’s far more effective than overloading them.

Effective sales presentations is about choosing what to show visually. Many sales presentations overlook this and do not distinguish between information that is communicated aurally and visually. Powerpoint presentations are very well suited to simple, graphical communication – even if those visuals conceal a wealth of complex detail, as in the case of graphs and charts. They are not suited to large volumes of text. Short captions and summaries are fine, but don’t assume your audience will take in much more from the screen.

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