Use PowerPoint as a visual aid, and not to kill your presentation

“I came hoping to get some relief of my ulcer but listening to him only stressed the ulcer the more.”  This is because in his presentation, the doctor had used PowerPoint as a verbal crutch not a visual aid. Use PowerPoint as a Visual Aid

If it’s been said once it’s been said a million times. PowerPoint Slides don’t talk-the presenter does; PowerPoint slides don’t connect with the audience-the presenter does. Avoiding Death by PowerPoint should be a speaker’s Holy Grail. I am not about to delve into the correct usage of slides. No. Google and others do that better. What I am on about is knowing when to use it-if you must. Slides (or any other visual teaching aid really) must be used as a visual aid and not a verbal crutch.

Relevance

Now then. Last Sunday I listened to a doctor talking to the audience about ulcers. He had 15 minutes to present and had 19 slides! Save for the one slide that showed the diagram of a stomach, the content in the rest was better suited for medical students; it was technical. And the speaker didn’t bother to “speak in English” as I like to call it. That is, communicate in a language the audience will understand. Gastrointestinal it was on the slide and gastrointestinal it remained in his speech.

Personally, he “killed” me with his slides three minutes into his presentation. And so I drifted towards the audience whom I realized were “dead” too, glancing at their watches wondering when this pain would end. Someone who had ulcers put in best after the pain ended; he said, “I came hoping to get some relief on  my ulcer but listening to him only stressed the ulcer the more.”  The doctor had used PowerPoint as a verbal crutch not a visual aid.

Use PowerPoint as a Visual Aid

Use Power Point as a Visual Aid not Verbal crutch

A crutch is meant to support. One who has a fracture will lean on it to favour the broken leg. A verbal crutch is anything a speaker uses to “speak” for him. As an educator, I think this happens for three reasons. One, he doesn’t know how to say it. Two, it’s too much work Speaking in English. Or three, and this is more prevalent, he uses a verbal crutch, PowerPoint in this case, because other people use it. Talk of peer pressure! Further, successful Microsoft surely must know something we don’t. And so the vicious cycle continues. The artificial crutch grows in strength and the natural leg weakens, and, if unchecked, atrophies. At which point, the speaker might as well just email the presentation.

Visual aid

Now. A visual aid is used when it’s the best (if not, the only) way for the speaker to show what he is saying. For instance, a Science teacher who takes his students out of class, to see what pollination is about has used a visual aid. Also, a doctor speaking about the bone structure is best advised to come along with a real skeleton, or an image of one. Incidentally, I know of a CEO of a multinational manufacturing concern who threw out his marketing team who had come to dazzle him with PowerPoint slides of the proposed new packaging in his office. “Go bring me a prototype!”, he ordered. “I want to feel what the customer will”.

And there’s a head of department who shared the story of how he’s never sure where his CEO stands. Once he told him he wants one slide-just one. And another where he stopped him short of starting a slide presentation, with this assertion: “I can read! What I want to hear is your version”. Which reminded me of how so many interviewees stumble at the question, “Tell us about yourself”. Most start verbalizing what is already on their CV.” In effect , using the CV as a verbal crutch.

Be audience aware

Tell me. As a lay person, how would you have reacted if the doctor hadn’t come with the slides. But instead, had started off by equating an ulcer to an open wound in the stomach exposed to the acids which digest food. And equated the burning sensation to a million times that which applying spirit inflames on a wound. And continued “Speaking in English”. Would you have drifted? I doubt. I know I wouldn’t.


Check out our short courses and other services here. If you would like to have your sales team sell more, or make effective presentations, we can help. In order for us to do so we propose a free consultation meeting or a call. If in agreement, please complete the form below and we will get in touch after receiving your details, none of which will be public. Thank you.

Views – 442

About Author

Related posts

Don’t just push, pull your way to closing with ease

Pushing vs pulling in sales. Should you be pulling instead of pushing? Especially if you are in B2B selling if you are pushing with little success, try pulling. “Push. Just push”, “You’re not pushing hard enough”, and such other variants of the same are the mantra in Sales. And, yes, pushing may still be getting

Read More

Don’t overthink it! You sell in your social interactions

Don’t overthink it. At the end of the day, selling is a basic human interaction. You are selling as you go about your social interactions online and offline. It is the imagination that it’s not, that magnifies a molehill into a mountain in your mind; it’s the unnecessary painstaking analysis that freezes you in a

Read More

Sales conflict: why you shouldn’t fight over stolen sale

Sales is competitive. As with any competition, there are winners and losers.  The just concluded election, for instance, had a whopping 16,000 contestants, yet the vacancies were less than 10% of that. Selling is no different. And with competition, inevitably, conflict arises. One such is, “He stole my client” (sic). Given the labour that goes

Read More
Stay ahead in a rapidly changing world with Lend Me Your Ears. It’s Free! Most sales newsletters offer tips on “What” to do. But, rarely do they provide insight on exactly “How” to do it. Without the “How” newsletters are a waste of time.