Research repeatedly has shown that image, not content, is king in presentations. Clip art and bad animation are guaranteed to project the wrong image whether you are presenting your findings to a supervisor or pitching that new account.

Large corporation employees or small company owners can unleash the power of good presentations to kick-start their careers and boost their acquisition of new business, or ignore the basics of presentation and spiral down into oblivion.

Let’s learn a few key elements of good presentation by watching three different presenters from three companies.

The first presenter, Phil Aslide, uses his slides to display every word he intends to say to his audience. In fact, the slides often have many more words than he intends to say. Sometimes it is hard for him to even read the words on the screen, but he knows what they mean, so that’s OK. Right?

Do you know Phil or someone like him?

And maybe you know someone like the second presenter, Annie Mate. Every item on the slide is animated whether it is discussed or not. Each bullet and piece of clipart flies, swirls or spins onto the screen with screeching tire sounds panging from the laptop speakers. Annie feels that this displays her commanding knowledge of PowerPoint’s many rich features. Sounds reasonable… if you’re Annie.

The third presenter, Tim Topnotch, has a different approach than Phil or Annie. Before he creates any slides, he assesses the needs of his audience. Then he organizes his content into a succinct outline of his speaking points. From there, he creates slides that support those points. His slides use a clean, simple design that is easily understood by the audience. He animates only the items that need animation to make a point.

All things being equal, which person would you choose? Who made the best impression? Which person will you remember as knowledgeable and buttoned up? We’ve all seen these presenter types. After all, presenting to an audience can be unnerving. It helps us personally to put more words on the slide as a guide.

Unfortunately, many of us have a dash of Phil and a sprinkle of Annie in our presentations. If you’re a small business, your presentation is, in many cases, your only image-generating medium beyond your web site. You don’t do glitzy ad campaigns to promote your company, so a bad presentation ruins your attempts at creating a positive image.

Phil and Annie should have followed these 4 rules of thumb when they developed their presentations:

1. Understand your audience – Learn as much as you can about your audience before presenting to them. What is their general function within the company? What goals do they need to fulfill by hiring you or your company? What is it about your product or service that will appeal to them?
   
2. Outline your thoughts – Pulling together a swirl of information into a concise presentation is not an easy job. It is important that you outline key areas you need to discuss, and if at all possible, arrange that outline around the key needs of your audience.
   
3. Use a consistent visual template – Your image is paramount to making the sale. A well-done visual template can give you the professional look you need. PowerPoint offers many canned templates, but your competitor may be using the same template… talk about audience confusion!
   
4. Slides support your speech; the speech doesn’t support your slides – Slides are meant to be visual aids that help the audience more clearly understand your point. By all means, do not put every word of your speech on your slides. This distracts your audience and generally creates unreadable slides. Slides should create a meaningful picture of your key points. When possible, use simple charts, succinct bullet points or pointed images to support your talking points.

So, unleash the power of good presentation skills and reach your career or business goals.

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