Open and close your business presentation with more impact – by switching off

I am going to offer a little tip that can enhance the impact you make as you open and close a business presentation.

As I have discussed before (here) ‘Firsts & Lasts’ are the most important part of any presentation because, as Rule 13 of the Rules of Magic states, ‘Firsts & Lasts are remembered’. Moreover, the way you open is crucial to engaging your audience up front; and making anything happen as a result of your presentation usually depends on a successful ‘Call to Action’ at the close.

So what’s the little tip? Switch off the PowerPoint for your opening remarks; or don’t even switch it on until you have made them. This enables you to establish yourself as a person – with all those people in the audience – before a great deal of their attention gets sucked into the screen by your PowerPoint presentation. They can look you up and down, tune into your voice and run through all the 'first impression checks’ that our brains undertake automatically. With a combination of luck and design they will hopefully decide that they like you. Then you are all set to deliver your big messages – with some support from PowerPoint if appropriate.

You can repeat this trick at the end, just prior to delivering your big ‘Call to Action’.  Think about it – you are almost certainly asking your audience to do something or believe something; you may even be seeking to inspire them. That has to be better coming direct from you – straight form the heart and with full on eye contact – rather than via a list of bullet points on a screen.

It’s actually an old show business trick. Something like a big variety show would traditionally build to a big crescendo that was literally all singing/all dancing, with the stage full of people and the band playing at maximum volume. After much applause the curtains would close for a final time and then the star of the show would come out from behind them to say one more, very personal and heartfelt goodbye to his or her audience.  

So how do you turn off the PowerPoint without powering down the projector? Again, I have discussed this (here) before. There is a little tool built into PowerPoint that many people don’t know about but is invaluable to presenters as it brings attention back to you, while also clearing away distractions. Simply press the B key and it blanks the screen; press it again and it brings the presentation back.

Impact in business presentations needs props as well as PowerPoint

The art of using props in a business presentation has become something of a forgotten art, partly because it is all too easy just to slip an image into your PowerPoint deck.

Including props as well slides in a presentation can, however, bring many advantages, not least of which is breaking the ‘media trance’ of all the attention being sucked into a screen. It refocuses attention on you and your prop and even has the potential to re-energise your presentation at a key moment.

Above all, the strategic use of a good prop adds so much more impact than an image on a slide ever can. I was once helping a very senior logistics executive in the retail sector prepare for a big presentation to his CEO. “Basically, it’s all about cardboard boxes”, he said. “Take these chocolates”, he continued, “we deliver them to stores that sell six per week and stores that sell 600 per week – all in the same-sized boxes. There has to be a more effective delivery solution”.

To illustrate his big point he put up a slide depicting some brown-ish splodges. “What’s that’? I asked. “Pictures of the cardboard boxes”, he replied. Now, certain things – such as cardboard boxes and TV sets - can be surprisingly difficult to photograph. You need very good lighting to bring out any sort of contrast or perspective; and he was proving the point very effectively.

My recommendation was as follows: Set the scene by talking about the great variance in the size of your outlets, ideally pointing to the CEO’s own local store as an example so that it is personalised to him. Use the screen if it helps, but switch it off when you come to the key moment of talking about boxes. Then, produce actual boxes from under the table and plonk them down right under the CEO’s nose – with some force if it feels right at the time. Now you will have the boss’s attention – and it will be focusing very directly on the matter in hand.  

My own most memorable use of props came when I was running my own PR company and going through the process of buying out my partners. For technical reasons my accountant advised me to apply for a new bank account but warned me that this might be difficult in the midst of a buyout. So I asked him what the bank manager would perceive as my strongest selling point. “Undoubtedly your blue chip client base”, he replied.  So I wrote a list of all my clients, most of which were in the drinks sector, on a sheet of paper. Impressive as they may have been, they weren’t exactly ‘jumping off the page’. I tried logos and that just looked a bit messy. So I went for props.

I arrived at the bank manager’s office with a sports bag that I discreetly slid under the table. When the right moment came I said: “Let me tell you who I have as clients”, as I reached under the table and produced a bottle of Cockburn’s Special Reserve. I followed up with bottles of Harvey’s Bristol Cream, Champagne Pommery, Holsten Pils, Gaymer’s Olde English Cyder, K and Babycham. When I got to the packets of Typhoo tea he exclaimed: “OK. I get the point. You can have an account”.

So, if you want to make a real impact, consider using props, but be warned: as any actor will tell you, props can be your enemy as well as your friend. Their deployment requires careful planning and practice. I shall return to this topic on another day, but for the moment, don’t even think about taking a prop and handing it out for inspection. You will progressively lose the attention of each person you are addressing and your prop will be working against you, not for you.

Adapted from Nick Fitzherbert's book  Presentation Magic