3 Responses

1. You are the most valuable visual aid

   Hi Sareeta

   I wonder if you are relying too much on the PPT slides? Slides (or any other visual support such as flipchart) should be there to support your presentation, not to BE your presentation. They want to hear and see you – if that wasn’t an important part you could just send them a copy of the slides by email and wouldn’t need to visit at all!

   So, I think I would stand up, rather than sit down – shows you mean business and are "in charge". Use the slides as a prompt and as mile stones, rather than the main focus. Use the B or W keys to blank the screen (B makes it go black, W and it goes white) so that you can engage them in conversation – press again to return to your slide.

   You could sit down if you want to have a proper chat – it is a good indicator that you are expecting something from them.

   There are loads of other things you can do – it is difficult to discuss without knowing more about your presentation. I am very happy to chat on the phone if you think that would be helpful – or to take a look at your slides and make any suggestions. You could send me a private message or find my contact details on my profile page.

   Look forward to hearing from you.

   Jenny

    

2. “Presentations to clients”

   I agree with Jenny – what is ‘presentations to clients’?  Is it sales, training, knowledge transfer, etc?  The context of the meeting will impact on which style of presentation I use – I’d rarely take a ppt slideshow to a meeting with 2-3 people unless there were specific examples of training activities I wanted to display.

   It raises a recurring question in my mind again – how did Powerpoint take over?

3. Data PPT

   Thanks for your reply, Andrew.

   My PPT has data about training; screenshots of documents, Excel sheets, calendars, lists, etc. This information is difficult to convey unless shown. They are business development meetings. Most of the time, the meeting rooms are small, hence there is very little scope of standing. I will record the meeting and upload it next time, I guess. What open ended questions should I ask the client when I meet the client the first time, to pitch for a new training program?

   I appreciate your views.

   Thanks,

   Sareeta