Guest Post by Kristy Olinger, Communication Consultant
When it’s time to share your business idea with others to get them on board, it’s time to build a slide deck. The use of slide decks is common practice for good reason. When you supplement your verbal communication with a deck, it improves the ability of the audience to understand and remember what you said. It also demonstrates that you’ve thought through your idea… you aren’t just winging it in the moment. My Instagram friend Kelly Duggan (@yourplaceatthetop) says, “Slides are the corporate currency for selling your ideas,” and I couldn’t agree more.
As I’m sure we’ve all experienced, some slide decks are better than others. To make sure you’re bringing the best deck possible, review these three presentation deck mistakes and how to avoid them.
Mistake #1: Too much information
It’s tempting to include all of the relevant information that you have on a topic, but this quickly overwhelms the audience. If you’re familiar with the Pareto Principle, you know that in most situations 20% of the causes drive 80% of the outcomes. Apply this logic to deck development and recognize that only 20% of the information you have is needed in order to convey the story.
One of the best ways to avoid using too much information is to start with an outline or a storyboard. From there, as you consider information to include, ask yourself “How important is this to the story that I’m telling?”
Mistake #2: Visual Clutter
When slides are cluttered it’s a distraction from your message. Nothing stands out. Some common causes of visual clutter are too many words on the page, inconsistent fonts and bullets, and lack of white space.
The interesting thing about decks is that the copy doesn’t need to be written in complete sentences. Streamline phrasing to use the fewest and most powerful words possible. Follow this business writing tip: If you can take a word out and it means the same thing, take it out.
For fonts, a good rule of thumb is to use a maximum of two sizes and types and to keep them consistent throughout the document. For example, all slide headers should be the same font in type, size, and color. The bullet types should be similarly uniform. A best practice is to establish a standardized font type, size, and bullet structure using a template. This takes the guesswork out and creates consistency across your company.
The age-old advice for resume writing to “ensure there is enough white space” is applicable to your presentation decks as well. A reader’s eyes will fatigue if every inch of a slide is filled. If you’re struggling to create white space, know that the solution IS NOT to make the font smaller. Consider instead if the slide should be broken into two slides or if there is information that is not critical to the slide’s message that can be removed.
Mistake #3: Boring Slides
Slides without visual interest fail to keep people’s attention. If the audience isn’t paying attention, your ability to have an impact is non-existent.
Words are more palatable when accompanied by visuals, like icons, infographics, and photography. At a minimum you can use those included in presentation deck software, or you can create custom graphics that can have multiple uses even beyond your deck, like your website or social media. A word of caution is that for these elements to be effective and helpful they have to be relevant to the content. Don’t add an icon just because you like it, use it because it is a visual representation of the point you’re trying to make.
Visual display of data in the forms of graphs and tables requires thoughtfulness or else it drives confusion. The biggest mistake I see is sharing data without the context for the audience to understand why it matters. Be sure that your audience can answer “What is this data telling me?” just by looking at your data visual.
Mockups are a powerful visual tool that you can use to help convey something that feels abstract. Most people struggle to mentally create a picture of what is being described. 65% of people are visual learners. This means that a simple mock-up of what you’re trying to build can be a powerful tool for understanding.
Conclusion
There is a running joke about the people who tinker through double-digit versions of a deck before a presentation. They are called deck monkeys. While I discourage over-working or monkeying around with a deck too much, striving for perfection is understandable, particularly when it’s for a C-suite executive, the board, or your biggest client. When it matters most, consider working with a designer to put your best foot forward. As long as you’ve avoided these major mistakes, you can have confidence that your corporate currency will pay off.
Kristy Olinger is a communication consultant and host of the podcast, The Opposite of Small Talk. A 20-year career in the banking industry has taught Kristy that even the most innovative ideas are useless until you can communicate them in a way that inspires others into action. Kristy’s ability to tell the business story propelled her to lead the credit card product strategy of some of the country’s largest banks.
Now Kristy teaches strategies that help corporate professionals to communicate better at work to make work easier and more fun.
Kristy hosts The Opposite of Small Talk, a podcast for curious people interested in personal and professional growth.
Kristy lives in Wayne, Pennsylvania with her husband and two daughters and is an active member of the community, currently serving on the Board of Trustees for the Radnor Memorial Library.
Learn more about Kristy at:
Website | @ko.communication | LinkedIn | TikTok
