Style
Let us now turn to the stylistic dimension of presentations and let’s begin with a discussion of graphics.
Graphics should support, not fight the content and the theme of the presentation.
Don’t be a power-point junkie. Power-point is a great presentation tool, but it can be easily over-used and abused; this is particularly true with animation. Animation, for those who cook, is like tarragon. Tarragon is a wonderful herb but it’s also really strong. A little bit of it goes a long, long way. Graphics should be tested against the following question: Is this mostly an aid to an audience learning or in presenter presenting? They ought to aid the listener and add to the learning moment. Speaker notes should not be on the screen either; these should be used as podium memory aids or committed to memory, but not on the screen.
The
power of rehearsal can not be over stated. Nearly every person I talk with about this point agrees that it should be done, but that they also assert that they do not need it. Let me tell you something – don’t kid yourself, you need it, we all need it!
One of the finest speakers of the English language of the twentieth century, perhaps ever, was Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill would rehearse before every speech and before every question period in Parliament. One often hears from rookie sales people, “I don’t want it to sound memorized.” Guess what, some of the greatest moments in western civilization oratory, were committed to memory before delivery. If Churchill did it, you can do it and your staff can do it.
When you are developing your talk it is not enough to simply think of the words that you will be using. That’s fine for a written sales proposal; but it’s not good enough for an oral presentation or a speech. You must
say it out loud; work on
word choices; work on
phraseology; work on
timing; work on
diction.
Mark Twain once said that the difference between the perfect word choice and a good word choice is like the difference between lightening and a lightening bug. He was absolutely right! One of the finest oral presentations, an absolute gem of oratory was the speech that Franklin Roosevelt gave to Congress, on December 8th, 1941. It was, of course, the Declaration of War against Japan. He wrote it long hand, without a speech writer on the evening of December 7th, after the horrible events of that day. Prior to delivering it to Congress he asked his trusted aid and advisor Harry Hopkins to review the speech. He did so, and in the entire speech, he only crossed out only two words and in place of those two words, he inserted a single word.
Harry Hopkins crossed out ‘world history’ and wrote, ‘infamy’ in the sentence “Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan”. The next morning many newspapers were already referring to it as ‘the day of infamy speech’. That is the importance of the perfect word choice. From that day, to the
present, this speech has been known as ‘the day of infamy speech’. That notoriety was only achieved because Harry Hopkins, as a consummate communicator, was extremely aware of the difference between lightening and a lightening bug. ‘World history’ is a lightening bug, ‘infamy’ is lightening.
Is it OK to repeat in a presentation? Everyone tries to avoid this, we are taught early not to be repetitious; not to say things over and over again. I suggest that it’s bad to be repetitious, but
repetition is perfectly OK as long as it is linked back to the unifying theme.
Let provide two illustrations. Remember those twenty seven reasons the Declaration of Independence gives for independency of the thirteen colonies? It turns out that those reasons are contained, in only thirteen sentences and eight independent clauses. Each of those sentences and clauses begin with only two words, ‘He’ and ‘For’. Do you think that Jefferson didn’t have a bigger vocabulary to come up with a few different words? Not likely. It begins with ‘He’ or ‘For’, in order to make a point; in order to be convincing. Jefferson understood the power of repetition. In those pre-internet, pre-mass media days, the principal method of dissemination was the printed word which was then spoken from town halls, from balconies, from village greens all over the thirteen colonies. Repetition of the spoken word can be among presenters most powerful tools.
Music provides another illustration: Ludwig Von Beethoven’s first four notes of his Fifth Symphony. That four note rhythmic theme is repeated dozens of times over the course of all four movements of the piece. It was composed in 1808 and it has been the subject of hundreds of scholarly criticisms over the last two hundred years. Yet it has never been called repetitious. The reason is simple. It does a brilliant job of linking back to the unifying theme. Repetition can be a powerful presentation technique as long as it is linked back to the unifying theme.
Finally, as it relates to your style, do you really know it;
do you know it well enough to teach it? It’s a great test of how well you know a subject. Can you teach it to others?
The tone and manner of a presentation and of its delivery, matter a lot. Try to
err on the side of formality. Why should you do that? If you go informal and you sense that you have stepped over a line, it’s very difficult to go from informal to formal. If, however you begin in a more formal presentation mode, it is very easy to become informal, so it’s a safe bet to be formal in your tone of delivery.
Try to
be instructive but not chatty. You are not there to gossip or to kibitz. It’s not a mahjong party. The listeners are there to learn, they are there to be convinced, so try to be instructive. You know you have connected when the post presentation comments are phrases like, “I learned a lot; I was informed; I came away with a lot of things I didn’t know”.
Use variety – classical music provides another wonderful illustration of this. Over a classical composition the various movements: allegro; andante; adagio serve to change the timing, the tempo, and the mood of the piece. Even with a brief presentation, a monotonic delivery, regardless of the quality of the substance, can quickly kill a listener’s attention.
Tell a story. It is no accident that virtually all of the key teachings of Christianity are contained in parables. Jesus of Nazareth used parables or stories to illustrate points of humanity, of social justice, and of wisdom. Stories are memorable and are repeated. Third year law students learning case presentation are always taught to set out a story in the delivery of opening arguments. They outline a story around which the evidence is going to be presented. By so doing they are giving the jury a framework to learn, and to understand the presentation of the facts of the case.
Avoid slang, avoid colloquialisms, avoid jargon and avoid profanity. Too often presentations, particularly those of a technical nature are filled with jargon and acronyms. Sometime, this can not be avoided but it should be minimized unless the alternative is totally unacceptable.
The ability to develop and deliver high-impact sales presentations is not an innate quality but rather a skill that can be learned and perfected. Excellent sales presentations are highly substantive and they are logically structured and artfully styled. History, literature and music all have much to teach us about how to be better at a craft that is all too frequently relegated to the end of salesmanship courses or selling self-help books. Every salesperson who aspires to excellence can improve their presentation skills. Aristotle told us: “We are what we repeatedly do; excellence therefore is not an act, but a habit”. Take my advice, regardless of your position, perfect your presentation skills. It will become habit forming.
All the best,
Ray
