No One Wants a PowerPoint Presentation

No one wants a PowerPoint presentation. No one wants to watch or listen to you speak to 100 slides in your slide deck. No one wants to sit passively while you treat them to an interminable monologue.

But that doesn’t mean the PowerPoint presentations aren’t valuable. On the contrary they’re extraordinarily valuable in helping you give your clients what they really want.

• Your clients want to understand why they should change, how they should change, and why they should choose you to help them change. Your deck should speak to the “why” of change.
• Your clients also want to understand what their needs really are and how they best obtain better outcomes and they’re getting now. Your presentation should speak to understanding needs.
• Your clients and prospects want to understand what options are available to them in achieving those better outcomes. They want to know what the trade-offs are. There are always choices and trade-offs, and you create value in helping explain those trade-offs.
• Your clients want to know what the risks are. They want to know how to deal with those risks. They want to know how to avoid anything that might cause them more problems and more pain than they have now. Your presentation can mitigate risk.
• Your clients want to know how you would approach their project and why you would make the choices you make in helping them. They want to understand your values, your ideas, and what it might be like to work with you. This is what the outcomes that your PowerPoint should support.

I once walked into a clients office and he told me not to open my laptop because he didn’t want to presentation. He had 18 questions he wanted answered. The truth is that my PowerPoint would have provided nice visuals to accompany my answers. But he was making his determination as to whether or not to give me the business based on my looking him in the eyes and answering his questions.

It’s important to remember the real purpose of your PowerPoint presentation isn’t to provide a PowerPoint presentation.

Questions

What is the real purpose of your PowerPoint presentation?

Are you delivering to meet those needs?

What needs to change?