Delivering From Visuals
When we address an audience, we often project a PowerPoint presentation on a screen or wall. Since your goal is to focus on the needs of the audience, you must create a constant connection between the audience, the visuals, and yourself. The slides are not the presentation; you are. Audience members didn’t come to the room or log onto the webcast to look at complex graphs and impressive flowcharts. They came to hear you speak—to hear your ideas and conviction. The slides are there to support you, not the other way around.
To have the greatest impact in front of the room when using slides, stand as front and center as you can. Since most rooms are set up with the screen at the center, this means you will need to stand off to one side. You don’t want to stand in the middle of the screen, since you will be both blinded by the projector and in the way of the material. Stand off to the left of the screen from the audience’s perspective. Assuming you are delivering in a language that reads from left to right, by standing to the left of the screen you are standing at the start of each bullet point and can guide the audience through your material.
Stand close enough to be able to gesture toward each bullet point as you introduce the content to your audience. Obviously, this will depend on the size of the screen and the audience, but for most presentations in most conference rooms, you should be able to stand just to the side of the screen and effortlessly reach each bullet.
Stand with your back parallel with the back wall of the room. Many people start to pivot in toward the screen, as if half of their focus is on the audience and half is on the material. It’s ALL about the people in your audience, so give them your full attention.
Some people like to present from the back of the room or wander around the room while speaking. Here are the challenges with that.
You’re trying to create the appearance of a relationship with the people sitting in front of you. You want their buy-in on an idea. They want to understand your commitment to what you are sharing. The relationship happens mostly through your ability to maintain eye contact with the audience. (We’ll discuss the application of this idea to webinars and conference calls later.) If you’re at the back of the room when the visual is projected at the front, the audience has to choose between looking at you and looking at the visual. Every time you change the slide, you challenge your audience to look at you or look at the bright light shining at the front of the room. You’ll lose to the bright light every time.
You’re trying to keep that constant connection between you, the audience, and the visual. If you wander around the room while talking, chances are at least some of your audience members are watching you. Now you reference something on the slide. They divert their attention, try to find the bullet point or place on the graph you are referring to, and then return to look at you. They’re continually swiveling their heads to stay with you and your material. You’re making your audience work too hard.
Instead, keep your feet planted in one spot, so you look more stable and confident. By keeping your toes pointed straight out toward your audience, you’ll look more present to the room. Channel all your energy into your hands, arms, face, and voice. In particular, your hand gestures are effective tools for helping tell your story.
Get Started
When you start speaking in front of the room, you want to set the right tone with your audience. Smile. Look like you want to be there. Even if you’re sharing difficult news with the group, your facial expression and body language should convey: “I’m glad to be here to help you work through this issue.” If your demeanor suggests you’re uncomfortable standing in front of this group or that you’d rather be somewhere else, you’ll create a negative environment, and it will be harder for you to connect with the audience.
If audience members like you, they will forgive an occasional slip in your delivery. If they don’t like you, they will find a reason to disagree with your idea. A presentation is not a popularity contest, but it doesn’t hurt to have a friendly audience.
Share Your Content
Communicating effectively means focusing less on yourself and more on the audience. Our natural inclination as human beings is to focus more on ourselves. Nowhere is that more evident than when someone is using visuals. At Exec|Comm, we have been helping professionals communicate for more than 35 years. That means our more than 40 instructors have coached people through literally thousands of presentations. We’ve noticed a common tendency among presenters. When most people throw a complex graph or list of bullet points up on the screen, the first thing they usually say is, “As you can clearly see. . . .” Of course the main point of the slide is clear to the speaker. He or she created the visual. And, of course, the main point is anything but clear to the people in your audience. This is the first time they are seeing the information. They have to figure out what they are looking at and then decipher its meaning.
Here’s the main concept behind effectively using visuals. Tell people what they are looking at before you tell them why they’re looking at it.
Slides with Words
There are two reasons to include words on your slides. First, they prompt your memory about what you want to say. Second, they reinforce your oral message to your audience. Our sense of sight is stronger than our sense of hearing. People comprehend and retain 20 percent of what they hear (less if they are teenagers). They “get” 70 to 80 percent of what they both hear and see.
Given much conventional wisdom about how to use slides, this next piece of advice may sound counterintuitive. However, we believe firmly that it makes the most sense. If you have words on your slides, read every word to your audience. The trick to being effective is in the way you read the slide. Although we like to think we can multitask, the truth is we all have certain limitations in the way we process information. We can’t hear one thing and see something else and process both. We either block out what we’re hearing, or we disconnect from what we’re seeing.
Now think about it: When you advance to your next slide and your word chart appears on the wall, what is everyone doing? They’re reading your slide. In fact, when you hit the button you implicitly told your audience: “Look at this new piece of information.” You now have three options.
- You can stand silently while everyone reads your slide. This would be, at best, awkward, and at worst, a painstakingly slow delivery.
- You can do what most people do, which is talk generally about the information on the slide or give your big conclusion about what’s on the slide. Here’s why this doesn’t work. When you show the slide, everyone is trying to read it. If you say anything other than what is on the slide when it first appears, the audience is seeing one thing—the words on the slide—and hearing something else—your main point or introduction of the content you are about to share. Either way, they can’t hear what you are saying because they are reading the slide.
That leaves option 3.
- Read verbatim what is on the slide. It reinforces what audiences see, and therefore helps them process the content. If you do this well, and as outlined below, your audience will be grateful.
Many people hate it when a presenter reads his or her slides to an audience. That’s usually because the presenter has too much on the slide and just reads it without further commentary. In that method of delivery, you might as well spare everyone the presentation and just email a memo. But if you keep your slides simple and add comments after you deliver the words on the slide, you’ll have greater impact because the audience will stay with you and get the message.
Here’s how to make reading your slides work well for everyone.
- Slides with up to three bullets: Read the heading and all three bullets. Go back to the heading. Re-read it and comment on it. Do the same with each of the three bullets.
- Slides with more than three bullets: Read the heading and the bullets one at a time, commenting after each.
You look smart in front of the room based on everything you say that isn’t on the slide. The value-add for each bullet is what makes you seem like the expert. You can accomplish this if you keep your slides simple. Follow the “6 x 6” rule. No more than six words per bullet. No more than six bullets per slide.
If there is a bullet point on your slide and you speak vaguely about the content but don’t speak the words verbatim, audience members will go back and forth between you and the slide trying to figure out where you are on your visual. They’re thinking: “Is she on point 2, or has she moved to point 3?”
In addition, if you have content on the slide that you never cover, the audience is wondering what it’s doing there. If you aren’t going to mention it, delete it. Otherwise, it becomes clutter and a distraction to your audience. Presenters often have more on their slides than they can possibly cover because the slides are also a “leave behind” for the audience to take with them. We’ll address this particular challenge later.
Remember the “Arc of Silence”
I mentioned earlier that when delivering from a visual, you should stand just to the left of the screen, close enough to reach out and touch the bullet point. From your position at the left of the screen, reach out and gesture toward your heading and the bullets, one at a time. Remember, your feet are planted firmly with your toes pointing out toward your audience, so you won’t be turning your back on the audience. You’ll just be turning your head toward the slide, grabbing one line at a time, in silence, and then turning toward your audience and delivering each bullet to a pair of eyes.
Now, access your information from the slide. Applying the “See it. Save it. Say it.” method when delivering from slides takes more practice than learning to apply the method when you use notes. It takes longer to master the skill because the arc from the audience to your materials and out again is longer when you are standing in front of a screen than when you are just dropping your eyes to a sheet of paper. Nevertheless, the method is the same:
- See it—look at your slide in silence.
- Save it—remember what the bullet point says.
- Say it—make eye contact with one individual in the audience as you state the bullet point verbatim.
Then, depending on how many bullets are on the slide, you will either look back at your slide and grab the next bullet, or you’ll elaborate on what you just read.
The arc of your eye contact from the audience to your visual and back out toward your audience again is called the “Arc of Silence,” covered in the section above on delivering from notes. With notes, the arc is down and up, from the eyes of an audience member to your notes and back to another audience member. When delivering from slides, the arc is from the eyes of an audience member in toward the screen, and then back out to another audience member. Don’t speak as you turn your head. Every sound you make should be delivered to a pair of eyes. You appear to have one level of conviction when sharing a thought and looking at someone, and a lower level of conviction when you speak while looking away.
Once, at a client’s conference, a colleague and I delivered an eight-hour program on marketing skills to partners at one of the Big Four consulting firms. About 30 participants attended. As usually happens at conferences, a number of people approached with questions or comments at the end.
One of the partners approached and said, “I just want to thank you for not reading your slides to me. I hate it when people do that.”
I wasn’t sure of his intent with his comments, so I asked sincerely, “Are you being facetious?”
“No,” he replied. “I hate it when people read their slides to me. It drives me nuts.”
“We read every word on every slide to you,” I replied.
“No, you didn’t,” he insisted. “I was watching you.”
“I promise you,” I said, “we read every word on every slide. It’s what we teach people to do when we teach presentation skills.”
He looked puzzled. “I didn’t see that at all,” he insisted. “I felt like you were just talking to me.”
He didn’t see us reading the words because, if you follow this approach, people pay attention to your content and not your delivery. They aren’t distracted.
Slides with Graphs and Charts
Most business slide presentations involve graphs and charts. PowerPoint makes it easy to create both. Graphs and charts convey data through pictures that put the information in context for the audience. They show the data points in relation to each other and to the whole. They are very helpful, if delivered well. If not delivered well, graphs and charts overwhelm most audiences because of the sheer volume of information conveyed.
To deliver graphs and charts, apply the same approach as when you deliver slides with bullet points. Tell audience members what they are looking at before sharing why they are looking at it. For slides with bullets, that means “read and comment.” For graphs or charts, that means “preview and explain.” Preview what they are observing, and then explain the key points.
Time and again, when coaching participants on their delivery skills, I watch a presenter throw a graph up on the screen and start with the words, “As you can clearly see. . . .” He then delivers his main point and advances to the next slide. This usually leaves me and the rest of the class thinking: “I don’t even know what I was just looking at.” It was delivered too fast for it to have any impact.
In the case of charts and graphs, RIDE the slide:
- Read the heading.
- Identify the type of graph.
- “On this bar graph you see. . .”
- “Here’s a pie chart showing. . .”
- “Here’s a map of the world representing our regional hubs.”
By telling people what they are looking at, you are giving them a chance to orient themselves. This is especially important when some of the audience members are attending the meeting remotely. It gives them time in case there are any delays caused by technology.
- Define the parameters and main points.
Start with the vertical and then the horizontal, since the vertical is usually on the left of the screen and the audience is reading from left to right. You don’t need to say the words “on the Y axis” or “on the X axis.” It sounds too clinical. Instead, your hand gestures guide their attention as you say, “Here we have the sales volume and here we have the months of the year.” If some of your audience members are attending remotely and can’t see you or you are delivering a webinar, say, “On the vertical (or horizontal) we have. . . .”
Once you define the parameters, highlight the key points:
“You’ll notice in the third quarter last year we saw a decrease in sales.”
“Let’s focus on. . . .”
“Notice how. . . .”
All of those steps are part of “Preview.” In the first three steps, you’re telling listeners what they could figure out on their own, but you are making sure they all finish reviewing it at the same time and that they all see the most important points. When finished, you can draw your conclusion without leaving anyone behind. You’ll deliver the entire slide using the Arc of Silence discussed earlier in this chapter.
Now they’re ready to hear your key message.
- Explain why you are showing the audience this information.
Draw your conclusion. You’ve told them what they are looking at. Now tell them why they are looking at it.
Let’s see how this plays out using the Acme’s Performance example.
Read the heading:
“Acme’s Performance”
Identify the type of graph:
“Here we have a bar chart showing our sales performance compared to goal for last year.”
Define the parameters:
“Along the vertical, we have the sales in millions from $0 to $50 million. Along the horizontal, we have each month. The shaded bars represent our sales goals for each month. The solid bars represent our actual sales.”
Explain the most important data points:
“For the first six months, we exceeded our goals. In the second six months, we had mixed results.”
Tell me the “so what” of your slide.
“We’re here today to make sure we start this year strong and avoid the pitfalls we experienced in the second half of last year.”
If you “RIDE” the slide, the audience is ready to hear your main point. It stays with you the whole time. There is no disconnect between the audience, the visual, and you.
Combination Charts: Slides Containing Both Bullet Points and Visual Information
When you have both bullet points and a graph on a slide, break down the information into pieces easily digested by the audience. Walk them through the slide one step at a time. The bullet points should add value to the visual information, not repeat it. The Our Business visual provides an example. Here’s what to say as you present the slide:
“Our Business. Product Mix. Opportunities.
Product Mix.
Here’s a pie chart showing our product mix for our business with our relative sales volume of our four products A, B, C, and D. The pie chart shows that C accounts for a huge percentage of our sales. If we can increase our sales of other products to the same level as C, we’ll increase the size of the pie.
Opportunities.
We have two ways we can approach expanding the pie.
Increase Marketing—By marketing A, B, and D the way we do C, we can increase consumer awareness of those products.
Improve Distribution—We apply best practices to Product C. We should apply the same strategy for our other products. We need to make this a priority this year.”
Pull It All Together
Here are some helpful pointers to make everything move smoothly for your next presentation.
Familiarize Yourself with Equipment and Room
At Exec|Comm, we delivery literally hundreds of seminars each month. Our instructors teach and deliver from PowerPoint slides every day. Yet, we never take for granted that things will go smoothly. We arrive at our venues at least an hour ahead of time to prepare the room and make sure we’re familiar with the set-up and comfortable with the equipment. Not every laptop and projector combination behaves the same way. The distance from you to the audience and from the audience to the screen will be different each time. You’ll be more comfortable in your delivery if you have a few minutes to practice using your material in the specific setting in which you’ll be presenting.
Have Your Material Open to the First Slide
You don’t want the audience to arrive and see your desktop image projected in the room with all of your program icons and your background picture of you and your family in their bathing suits. Have the first slide content ready and then black out the presentation with the “B” key. If you’re in “slide show” mode, the letter “B” will turn the screen to black. Hit any key to bring the slide back. Then, step forward and engage the audience, up front and center.
Remain Face Forward
When you move forward toward your equipment and then return to be closer to the screen, stay face forward to your audience. It’s usually only two or three steps. Don’t speak on the way to and from the machine, just as you maintain the Arc of Silence when turning your head back and forth to your visual. Those pauses are important. They say you are confident, and they give the audience time to digest the information.
Use a Remote “Clicker” Only When You Need to
You will be better off if you change your slides by stepping forward and back to your laptop. Almost everyone talks too fast when presenting. The pause as you step forward to your laptop and back up again will force you to slow down and catch your breath.
That said, some room set-ups are too awkward for you to step back and forth to your machine. In those settings, use a remote. Just be conscious of finishing whatever you are saying on each slide before you hit the button. When you change the slide, everyone stops listening to you and starts reading the next slide. If you’re still talking about the earlier slide, no one hears you.
Unless you are using antiquated equipment, your remote will work on a radio signal. You don’t need to point it at anything—the slide, the projector, your laptop—to make it work. Just press the button.
If you are going to talk for a long time about a slide, you can slip the remote into a pocket or place it on a nearby table so that it doesn’t become a toy that you play with while you speak to the audience. By getting rid of it, you free your hands to gesture more naturally.
Avoid using a laser pointer. Use words and your hand gestures to reference the details on the slide to which you are referring. If you use the laser pointer and you’re the slightest bit nervous, any shaking in your hands will make the screen look like a laser light show.
Webinars
Let’s say you’re presenting your slides on a webinar or on a videoconference where the audience can see your visual but not you. In those settings, it’s even more important to be very direct with people about where you are on the visual, either with regard to your bullet points or your graphs. If it’s a mixed audience, where some members are present in the room with you and some are attending remotely, speak to the remote attendees directly every few slides to keep them engaged. You can even direct your comments to them when the point is for everyone attending. It doesn’t take much. Just a simple, “Everyone attending remotely, as you can see. . .” or “Those of you in the London office, you’ll notice. . . .” Mentioning people by name, in this case, their location, or means of attending makes them feel included and highlights that you haven’t forgotten about them.
Your “Delivery Tool” vs. Your “Leave-Behind”
Your slides are not a complete recitation of the content you want to convey: that’s called a memo. Think of your slide deck as a “delivery tool” that keeps the audience focused, allows you to remember what you want to say, and helps reinforce your message. When presenting information orally, most of the content comes from you, not from the slide. A “leave-behind” has to be complete on its own. If you try to use one document to serve both purposes, you will struggle. You will either have a delivery tool that’s too crowded and detailed or a leave-behind that’s too sparse to have any value.
Yet often, audiences expect to be given the slides before the meeting to prepare, or after the meeting as a reminder. In either case, you should prepare the leave-behind first. Flesh out all of your content. Save that document as the leave-behind. Then, reduce the content to a simple delivery tool that includes the key points and only the key points. The rest of the material comes from you as the expert.