Comments on: Exclusive: Business TV Experts on Obama vs McCain. Watch as they explain the first Presidential Debate in just 180 seconds!

By: businesstvmark

businesstvmark — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:32:06 +0000

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This is a really cool video.

By: yourBusinessChannel

yourBusinessChannel — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:32:06 +0000

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.

By: yourBusinessChannel

yourBusinessChannel — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:32:06 +0000

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.

By: yourBusinessChannel

yourBusinessChannel — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:32:06 +0000

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.

By: yourBusinessChannel

yourBusinessChannel — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:32:06 +0000

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.

By: yourBusinessChannel

yourBusinessChannel — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:32:06 +0000

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.

By: yourBusinessChannel

yourBusinessChannel — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:32:06 +0000

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.

By: yourBusinessChannel

yourBusinessChannel — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:32:06 +0000

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.

By: yourBusinessChannel

yourBusinessChannel — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:32:06 +0000

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.

By: yourBusinessChannel

yourBusinessChannel — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:32:06 +0000

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.