Exclusive: Business TV Experts on Obama vs McCain. Watch as they explain the first Presidential Debate in just 180 seconds!
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So the first of the four presidential debates has taken place and the pundits are dissecting the issues. YouTube is going wild. The bloggers are off the rails. And the business television networks are pulling the debate apart blow by blow. But not everyone has time to sit through this, so we’ve embled a team of non-partisan business communications experts to summarise the first debate in just three minutes.
Start the clock!
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So that can be a … So that can be a real challenge with slides being too wordy and you know sayings like, A picture speaks a thousand words, or be short and sweet, however you like to think about it you want the minimum possible number of words on a slide and I would suggest that aside from the title set yourself a very low limit like say six, eight words and think I am not having anymore than that on this slide.
I guess if you cast … I guess if you cast your mind back to the worst PowerPoint slides youve seen by anybody they will have lots of words on them, says Andy Bounds. The most terrible slides will always have lots of words, full sentences, you read ahead of the speaker, you wanted the speaker to hurry up. They say the male brain can only focus on one thing at once, so if youre a guy watching somebody talk and watching the slides at the same time you cant do both, you want the speaker to shut up.
So instead of about … So instead of about us if I headed it up why were uniquely placed to help you or how we can take your business forward Ill then go on to talk about my business, but at least that way you know why you should listen because Im bringing something which will help you in some way rather than ranting on about myself, all right.
One of the worst … One of the worst headings you can put on a slide are the two words About Us, think about it, Andy says. If youre watching a presentation about my company and I have the words About Us on the top, youll probably think, “I dont even care about you,” in other words Ive not given you any reasons to listen. A much better thing to do instead is to put a title on that, which is of benefit to you.
Okay, here comes … Okay, here comes another point. Whenever people talk about themselves, particularly in a sales pitch, but in any presentation really, very often they have a heading like, About us. The trouble with About us is in the audience Im sitting there thinking, I dont really care about you, so why are you telling it to me? Its much better to use a phrase that is of benefit to the audience when youve got a title of a presentation like that.
The reason being of … The reason being of course, summary by definition is a repetition of what’s gone on before, so in effect what youre saying is, Im about to repeat myself. The other thing of course happens with audience is, audiences always know what theyre about to do the minute you stop speaking. So when you say the word summary, two thoughts go through their mind: number one, great, I can go to the toilet; and number two, the only thing stopping me is him repeating himself.
At the end of a … At the end of a PowerPoint presentation, the last slide almost without exception is always headed out with the word summary, Andy says. But the word summary, but the word summary actually gets people to listen less and not more, and if you dont believe me, sit at the back of a seminar and watch what happens to the room when the speaker says the word summary, everybody gets up, they stop listening.
So, if you want to … So, if you want to be really good at delivering with PowerPoint, always know what your next slide is going to be and introduce it before it comes up. So that way the audience isnt reading ahead and a simple add-on to this as well is never, but never give copies of your slides out before you speak, because people will always read them, and on top of that, what they will also do is a simple bit of mental arithmetic.
When people use … When people use PowerPoint, almost invariably they use PowerPoint as a speech prompt, in other words it reminds them what theyre going to say, says Andy Bounds, UK’s leading pitching expert. Now unfortunately, if you think about it, if its prompting you the speaker, who else is it prompting? The audience. So not only do they know probably what youre about to say, but because people put too many words on slides, they know exactly what youre going to say.
The interesting … The interesting thing when you do this is, if you look at the bottom points very often you actually just cross it out because you realize its not that important at all, right.
Do you see how … Do you see how people but you see how people communicate is they normally start off a little bit bland with an introduction and build up to the main points at the bottom and the audience isnt listening anymore. So a simple quick win for you, have a look at all the points youve got on a slide, put the main points at the top; the second most important one second and so on.
Audiences attention … Audiences attention is always waited to the top of slides not the bottom says Andy Bounds, UK’s leading pitching expert. So people always remember the first thing they see not the last and so on. Now, think what that will mean if you were designing a PowerPoint slide, that would mean you would want your main points to be where the audience is most lightly to remember it, in other words at the top.
I felt some of the … I felt some of the worlds largest companies increase their sales winning multi-million pound deals and so on, says Andy Bounds, UK’s leading pitching expert. One of the things I find really interesting is the skills that I share with them to help them win sales or identical to the skills recruiters need to get the best people.
Now, this is one of … Now, this is one of the biggest problems recruiters deal with and if you could just sort this out and be able to attract the best candidates and not lose them elsewhere, well that would be worth so much for the company, and of course the recruiters would look better because theyre actually getting the best people for the job. Well, its really a simple way to solve that, which I want to share with you now.
The trouble was of … The trouble was of course they were brilliant candidates not just for us but for everybody else who were selling their house, and unfortunately we lost the sale, they went to buy someone elses house instead. It reminded me of what its like in the recruitment market – youve got a job and think its great like I thought my house was great and you have this brilliant candidate who comes like a first time buyer, but unfortunately they dont always buy from us they dont always join our company.
Andy Bounds, UK’s … Andy Bounds, UK’s leading pitching expert gives an example: I remember last year when we were selling our house there was someone who came to have a look around who really liked it and they were first time buyers, they had the money, it was perfect.
Now of course well … Now of course well theyll then say, if you will you can do this, this and this then thats going to be sizeable value to us. So straightaway youre in a good bargaining position because in a fact theyve said its worth ₤105,000 to us if this job goes well. So its much easier to say, Well, if you just pay me a 100 you get a 5% return on investment.
So, you say things … So, you say things like, you know, what would success look like here, if I was to come along to do a great job, to tickle your boxes, what would that look like for this business, and the guy youre speaking to, the interviewer will then tell you, well, it was like this, this, this. Then you say Because Im new to this business, could you give me some flavour about how valuable that would be, just so I can see how valuable you perceive the job to be.
If theyre going to … If theyre going to invest x pounds in you, they need x pounds plus something else back or why should they employ you? So if you want to go for a killer deal, the first steps of that is to think and discuss about the value youre going to bring to that company.
If you think of any … If you think of any investment that anybody ever makes, they always want to get a bigger return than the money they put in, says Andy Bounds, UK’s leading pitching expert. If you think of anybody in any walk of life, if they invest money in anything they always want a bigger return than theyve invested. So you put a ₤100 in the bank, you want a ₤105 back. If you invest a ₤100 million in shares, you want a $105 million back. Its very similar with the employers.
A much better start … A much better start to a sales presentation would be, Thanks for seeing us today, weve had a look at the figures youve sent us, weve done some analyses and we can quite clearly categorically state we know that we can save you a million pounds. What were going to do in the next half hour is tell you how we can do that.
Now, when you think … Now, when you think about it from the customers point of view, the most interesting thing at all is the million pounds theyre going to save, the fact that you were founded in 1922 is not really that interesting. Now, we all know that you only get one chance to make your first impression, so if I was to say to you, do you want to tell me how old your company is or that you can save me a million pounds, I mean where are you going to start to engage my interest to start with.
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[Comment from ...
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You re having the last word
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This is a really cool video.
So that can be a …
So that can be a real challenge with slides being too wordy and you know sayings like, A picture speaks a thousand words, or be short and sweet, however you like to think about it you want the minimum possible number of words on a slide and I would suggest that aside from the title set yourself a very low limit like say six, eight words and think I am not having anymore than that on this slide.
I guess if you cast …
I guess if you cast your mind back to the worst PowerPoint slides youve seen by anybody they will have lots of words on them, says Andy Bounds. The most terrible slides will always have lots of words, full sentences, you read ahead of the speaker, you wanted the speaker to hurry up. They say the male brain can only focus on one thing at once, so if youre a guy watching somebody talk and watching the slides at the same time you cant do both, you want the speaker to shut up.
So instead of about …
So instead of about us if I headed it up why were uniquely placed to help you or how we can take your business forward Ill then go on to talk about my business, but at least that way you know why you should listen because Im bringing something which will help you in some way rather than ranting on about myself, all right.
One of the worst …
One of the worst headings you can put on a slide are the two words About Us, think about it, Andy says. If youre watching a presentation about my company and I have the words About Us on the top, youll probably think, “I dont even care about you,” in other words Ive not given you any reasons to listen. A much better thing to do instead is to put a title on that, which is of benefit to you.
Okay, here comes …
Okay, here comes another point. Whenever people talk about themselves, particularly in a sales pitch, but in any presentation really, very often they have a heading like, About us. The trouble with About us is in the audience Im sitting there thinking, I dont really care about you, so why are you telling it to me? Its much better to use a phrase that is of benefit to the audience when youve got a title of a presentation like that.
The reason being of …
The reason being of course, summary by definition is a repetition of what’s gone on before, so in effect what youre saying is, Im about to repeat myself. The other thing of course happens with audience is, audiences always know what theyre about to do the minute you stop speaking. So when you say the word summary, two thoughts go through their mind: number one, great, I can go to the toilet; and number two, the only thing stopping me is him repeating himself.
At the end of a …
At the end of a PowerPoint presentation, the last slide almost without exception is always headed out with the word summary, Andy says. But the word summary, but the word summary actually gets people to listen less and not more, and if you dont believe me, sit at the back of a seminar and watch what happens to the room when the speaker says the word summary, everybody gets up, they stop listening.
If you have 24 …
If you have 24 slides and you spend 10 minutes on the first one, theyre thinking, Thats 240 more minutes Ive got to listen to this.
So, if you want to …
So, if you want to be really good at delivering with PowerPoint, always know what your next slide is going to be and introduce it before it comes up. So that way the audience isnt reading ahead and a simple add-on to this as well is never, but never give copies of your slides out before you speak, because people will always read them, and on top of that, what they will also do is a simple bit of mental arithmetic.
When people use …
When people use PowerPoint, almost invariably they use PowerPoint as a speech prompt, in other words it reminds them what theyre going to say, says Andy Bounds, UK’s leading pitching expert. Now unfortunately, if you think about it, if its prompting you the speaker, who else is it prompting? The audience. So not only do they know probably what youre about to say, but because people put too many words on slides, they know exactly what youre going to say.
The interesting …
The interesting thing when you do this is, if you look at the bottom points very often you actually just cross it out because you realize its not that important at all, right.
Do you see how …
Do you see how people but you see how people communicate is they normally start off a little bit bland with an introduction and build up to the main points at the bottom and the audience isnt listening anymore. So a simple quick win for you, have a look at all the points youve got on a slide, put the main points at the top; the second most important one second and so on.
Audiences attention …
Audiences attention is always waited to the top of slides not the bottom says Andy Bounds, UK’s leading pitching expert. So people always remember the first thing they see not the last and so on. Now, think what that will mean if you were designing a PowerPoint slide, that would mean you would want your main points to be where the audience is most lightly to remember it, in other words at the top.
I felt some of the …
I felt some of the worlds largest companies increase their sales winning multi-million pound deals and so on, says Andy Bounds, UK’s leading pitching expert. One of the things I find really interesting is the skills that I share with them to help them win sales or identical to the skills recruiters need to get the best people.
Now, this is one of …
Now, this is one of the biggest problems recruiters deal with and if you could just sort this out and be able to attract the best candidates and not lose them elsewhere, well that would be worth so much for the company, and of course the recruiters would look better because theyre actually getting the best people for the job. Well, its really a simple way to solve that, which I want to share with you now.
The trouble was of …
The trouble was of course they were brilliant candidates not just for us but for everybody else who were selling their house, and unfortunately we lost the sale, they went to buy someone elses house instead. It reminded me of what its like in the recruitment market – youve got a job and think its great like I thought my house was great and you have this brilliant candidate who comes like a first time buyer, but unfortunately they dont always buy from us they dont always join our company.
Andy Bounds, UK’s …
Andy Bounds, UK’s leading pitching expert gives an example: I remember last year when we were selling our house there was someone who came to have a look around who really liked it and they were first time buyers, they had the money, it was perfect.
Now of course well …
Now of course well theyll then say, if you will you can do this, this and this then thats going to be sizeable value to us. So straightaway youre in a good bargaining position because in a fact theyve said its worth ₤105,000 to us if this job goes well. So its much easier to say, Well, if you just pay me a 100 you get a 5% return on investment.
So, you say things …
So, you say things like, you know, what would success look like here, if I was to come along to do a great job, to tickle your boxes, what would that look like for this business, and the guy youre speaking to, the interviewer will then tell you, well, it was like this, this, this. Then you say Because Im new to this business, could you give me some flavour about how valuable that would be, just so I can see how valuable you perceive the job to be.
If theyre going to …
If theyre going to invest x pounds in you, they need x pounds plus something else back or why should they employ you? So if you want to go for a killer deal, the first steps of that is to think and discuss about the value youre going to bring to that company.
If you think of any …
If you think of any investment that anybody ever makes, they always want to get a bigger return than the money they put in, says Andy Bounds, UK’s leading pitching expert. If you think of anybody in any walk of life, if they invest money in anything they always want a bigger return than theyve invested. So you put a ₤100 in the bank, you want a ₤105 back. If you invest a ₤100 million in shares, you want a $105 million back. Its very similar with the employers.
A much better start …
A much better start to a sales presentation would be, Thanks for seeing us today, weve had a look at the figures youve sent us, weve done some analyses and we can quite clearly categorically state we know that we can save you a million pounds. What were going to do in the next half hour is tell you how we can do that.
Now, when you think …
Now, when you think about it from the customers point of view, the most interesting thing at all is the million pounds theyre going to save, the fact that you were founded in 1922 is not really that interesting. Now, we all know that you only get one chance to make your first impression, so if I was to say to you, do you want to tell me how old your company is or that you can save me a million pounds, I mean where are you going to start to engage my interest to start with.