Words on Presentation Slides

Words on Presentation Slides

Why is it that whenever we sit through a presentation whether that’s an internal one or one at an event or one in a sales pitch format do we more often than not have to encounter slides that are largely packed with lots of words?

And when I mean lots of words, I mean more than five or six words on a slide.

In this episode of the Better Presentations More Sales podcast I want to talk about words on presentation slides.

I believe that we should minimise the words on the slides. I ran a poll on LinkedIn recently asking the question ‘what was the purpose of having words on slides?’

Almost half of the respondents said the words were there as a prompt for the presenter which suggested to me that most people think as a presenter the slides are there for you to read from

So what does that say?

If you’re reading the slides I think it says one or both of these things:

Firstly you’ve not done enough practice so you need the slides to tell you what to say

And secondly you might not know about the subject so you read the slides to sound as though you do

Either way that’s not great.

So folks here’s the challenge for you next time you deliver a presentation

Start with one word and then add to it if you really need to.

Please please please avoid slides with loads of bullet point sentences!

So come on folks help me rid the world of presentation slides cluttered with loads of words!

Find out more about my work with business presenters

I’ve got two more autumn webinars coming up – 20 fast paced minutes and free – all you need to do is register by clicking on the title of the webinar:

Tues. Oct 29th: 5 Ways to Transform your Business Presentations

Thurs. Nov 7th: 5 Ways to Win More Sales Pitches

They all start at 9:30am UK time

Click on these links if you want help with a key presentation or sales pitch

This is the online course  ‘Transform your Business Presentations‘ that I mention in the podcast. I’m seeking three business people who are looking to enhance their presentation skills to try it for free – it retails at £397. In return I’ll be looking for feedback and ideas to tweak / enhance it.

Drop me an email to podcast@trevorleemedia.co.uk and I will send you the code to access it for free.