8 Bonehead Ways to Blow a Presentation

Sales presentations are hard to do well but easy to screw up.  Here are eight sure-fire ways to ensure that your sales presentations fall flat:

• #1: Dump information on the customer.  Don’t blab everything you know about the product and hope that something will stick. Fix: Turn the presentation into a compelling story.
• #2: Try to impress with fancy features. Nobody is going to buy because you spent hours using all the PowerPoint gimcracks.  Fix: Make the presentation about your message, not about you.
• #3: Use a busy background template.  A snazzy format with bright colors and shapes overpowers the content on the slides.   Fix: Use a simple background that remains in the background.
• #4: Select fonts that people can’t read. Splatter your presentation with boldface, italics and UPPERCASE, in tiny typefaces.  Fix: Use Arial or Times New Roman at 24pts or larger.
• #5: Provide busy, meaningless graphics.  One picture may equal a thousand words, but only if that picture makes sense. Fix: Highlight the data point inside the graphic that’s crucial.
• #6: State opinion without supporting data.  Unsubstantiated “facts” (like “we’re the leading vendor”) destroy credibility.  Fix: Provide objective backup to every qualitative statement.
• #7: Use meaningless business jargon.  Jargon can be distracting, annoying and often communicates little or nothing.   Fix: If you’re going to use jargon, make sure it’s the customer’s jargon, not yours.
• #8: Tell an irrelevant joke. It’s fine to pace a presentation with a joke, but you’re not Jerry Seinfeld.  Fix: If you must tell a joke, make it short and make sure it reinforces your message.

The above is based upon a conversation with neuroscientist Stephen M. Kosslyn, Chair of the Department of Psychology at Harvard University and author of the recently-published “Clear and to the Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations.”

Readers: What are some other ways to screw up a sales presentation?