Level up your slide game

Slides get a bad wrap (not just in sales). The reason: most people don’t know how to use them.

• Slides are a wonderful tool – like a hammer
• Used correctly, it can drive things home
• Used incorrectly, people get hurt

Here’s a few tips that may help:

1. Your presentation should address your audience – e.g., client-focused
2. Use images to make your point – they speak more than 1000 words
3. Tell a story, e.g., a problem, a solution and then a clear next step
4. If it’s a long presentation, use separator slides for each section
5. No black text – use next color down, easier on the eyes
6. Don’t have too many bullets – I try to max out at 3
7. No word walls please – slide are not for reading
8. Use high quality images with no watermarks
9. Use images of people whenever possible
10. Be careful with too much animation
11. Use large fonts for easy reading
12. Make one big point per slide
13. Use easy-to-read font
14. Ensure white space
15. Don’t read bullets
16. Don’t bore