presentation powerpoint

presentation powerpoint

The Power of Persuasive Presentations

1. Introduction

Business today is in reality cut-throat, and the businessman doing presentations more often than not thrives or fails on the efficacy of his or her ideas. The move inside organizations to smaller decision-making units consisting of people from different areas within the company has just exacerbated the problem. That is, people less familiar with the proposal’s content are increasingly likely to have a say in whether the proposal is implemented. Thus the need to cover all bases and leave no stone unturned. This is generally achieved by thorough presentations. Marketers and product managers frequently cite the need to communicate effectively with all the various stakeholders as the major reason for undertaking presentations. That is, explaining a diverse set of ideas to a diverse set of people. This is a hard ask and requires a very special set of communication skills to be done effectively. So being a competent presenter is an increasingly valuable asset in the industry. The total value of resources consumed on presentations is staggering. Whole teams spend hundreds of hours working on proposals to only get knocked back at presentation time. Often a decision to accept or reject an idea is not based on the idea’s merit, but the vigor with which it is presented. And on a grander scale, PowerPoint might just be the Modern Day equivalent of the Athenian written constitution. So a book dedicated to mastering a valuable business skill is not without its market. This book sets out to be a practical guide for people aiming to master the art of persuasive presentations. In particular, we hope to arm you with a set of tools and methodologies that will be both useful and valuable. And we will aim to do this in a concise manner, as we understand your time is precious and better spent on other things. So enough of the persuasion, here’s where we intend to take you.

2. Crafting an Engaging Opening

If you terrorize your IT staff with yet another orientation on new security features, you may begin, “I apologize, really I do. But the threats that I am learning about every day won’t apologize to their victims. And the perpetrators won’t go back to their old tricks because a security professional said ‘no thank you’. Our work is very important, and if we don’t gain an understanding of these security features, we might as well buy a guard dog and hope it can learn karate.” This portrays the software as both necessary and useful, a potential solution to a security problem. The speaker assumes the software in question is worth learning about (problem-solving assumption of risk) and also gives the audience a specific intention that they can understand, a rare and important thing. The need for understanding the features has been created.

First, begin your lectures with a compelling opening related to the subject that will create a need for information. Audiences view you as a problem solver (why else would giving the presentation be necessary). At the point of a presentation, the need should be in the forefront of the audience’s mind.

3. Structuring your Presentation for Impact

The key point is to think carefully about what you are trying to achieve with your presentation, decide what is the best way to construct your argument, and align your presentation pattern to this. This way, your ideas will be delivered in a logical and compelling manner.

A clearer pattern can be shown in the example of a presentation with the thesis, ‘Marketing is the most important function for a company’ which was successful in persuading its audience. The presenter introduced what marketing is, then gave several reasons why he thought it was the most important function, following each reason to a policy of ‘show more and tell more’ ending in a video on the marketing scheme of a Kotkin and a comparison of its results with competitors. This led to a recommended cause of action in marketing finances allocation, leading to a summary of reasons and a direct response to the initial question posed by the thesis. This pattern contained signposts and had delivered the ideas in a clear and convincing manner.

In a study of presentations by students, the following structure was found to be the most common: a series of reasons, with pros and cons for each, with an open question in the middle of the presentation to be answered at the end. This structure is not bad in itself, but the students had generally done little to signpost movement between points, and the lots of pros and cons can lead to information overload.

The structural pattern of your presentation is the skeleton framework that holds it all together. It is the foundation upon which you build your ideas and present them to the world. There is no one right way to structure, only a right way to think about structure. The structure is the guide that enables the audience to follow your argument and hopefully be persuaded by it.

4. Utilizing Visual Aids Effectively

When used properly, a visual aid can increase understanding and retention by 40%. The value that visual aids have is often underestimated. As a presenter, you should make sure you use visual aids for a reason, whether it is a complex diagram to explain a point or simply a picture to prove what you are talking about. The use of transparencies has become obsolete and PowerPoint is now the presenter’s best friend. Not only are they easy and cheap to produce or reproduce, but there are so many options available to the presenter. They provide an outline of the presentation to the audience and they can be interactive. However, every statement in this topic must be carefully read. Slides are often used by presenters as a guide and a reminder for the audience when the audience should be listening to the oration of the presenter. This can simply be achieved by printing the slides, then cutting and pasting them into a handout for the audience. A PowerPoint slide should be clear and concise in its content and layout.

5. Closing with a Compelling Call to Action

The conclusion to a persuasive speech often mirrors the introduction. Using the example of a lawyer arguing his case in front of a jury, these are the closing arguments is the call to the jury to action. This is the time to reinforce the validity of your point of view and the action you wish the audience to take. Repeat the main points of your call to action. Offer evidence that the action you are asking your audience to take is in line with their values and beliefs. Then, link this action to their self-interest. Tell them what is “in it for them.” After all, your goal is to get your audience to do something. You will have a much better chance of accomplishing this if you can show them that they will personally benefit. Finally, address the issue of practicality. If your audience doubts that your call to action is feasible, they will not do it. So, you must convince them that it can and will be accomplished.

An effective persuasive speaker closes a speech with a call to action that asks the audience to accept your position or to take some action that you have been promoting through the entire speech. In a purely logical argument, you can usually close with an appeal to reason; there is not much difference between a conclusion that restates your position and one that urges your audience to accept it. But a persuasive speech is an entirely different matter. Your goal is to get your audience to change their beliefs or to take action. That calls for a finale that is more forceful and motivational.

When IBM began launching personal computers in the 1980s, Steven Cannon was the advertising manager responsible for their market success. After two years of ad-launching effort, he looked at his boss and said, “You know, I don’t think we ever once asked them to do anything.” When leading to a persuasive presentation, a call to action should close every single effort. The campaign can cause the audience to do anything persuasive.