Presentations in Action - Jerry Weissman [18]
Television and film directors use storyboards to plan their end products, whether it is a 60-second commercial or a multimillion-dollar special-effects epic. They map out the camera angles of each scene and then envision how the individual scenes will combine into a whole sequence. The storyboard provides a 35,000-foot view.
The equivalent in presentations is the Microsoft PowerPoint Slide Sorter, a 35,000-foot view of all the slides in the deck. In the Power Presentations programs, we provide our clients with an electronic (and paper) version of the Slide Sorter view called Storyboard. You can download a soft copy of this form from our web site, www.powerltd.com. Both versions provide a panoramic view of your story.
This view enables you to see all the slides in your presentation at a glance, a perspective that minimizes your focus on details and offers a broader outlook of the landscape. It’s an efficient planning tool that helps you check the progression of your story.
You can then validate the progression by speaking your narration aloud with the storyboard in front of you. This practice method is a variation of Verbalization, the subject you read about in Chapter 13, “Do You Know the Way to Spanish Bay?” Ms. Danticat Verbalizes. As the WSJ article described it, “She makes a tape recording of herself reading the entire novel aloud ... and revises passages that cause her to stumble.”
As part of your preparation, display your slides in a panoramic view and narrate your presentation aloud. Revise your presentation until you are comfortable with the flow. By the time you stand up in front your actual audience, your presentation will be clear, crisp, and fluid.
20. Microsoft Slogans Score a Trifecta: Three Persuasive Techniques
Microsoft’s venerable slogans, “Where do you want to go today?” and “Your potential, our passion,” are successful because each of them deploys three powerful persuasive selling factors: a call to action for Microsoft, a benefit to its customers, and the most persuasive word in the English language: you.
• Call to Action. The classic sales technique of asking for the order is usually expressed in taglines or slogans that hard-sell a company, its product, or its service. “Acme: Best of Breed,” “Acme: New and Improved!” or “Buy Acme Now While They Last!” These taglines are about the vendor and not about the buyer. Both Microsoft taglines are about the vendor, too. Although they are more soft-sell than Acme’s, they still clearly indicate that Microsoft has, respectively, the capability to get its customers wherever they want to go and that Microsoft has the passion to help them realize their potential. However, both of these taglines go one vital step beyond Microsoft itself by involving the buyer—with a benefit.
• Benefit. A constant fact of life in business is that most salespersons—thoroughly schooled in their product and enamored with its features—neglect to state its benefits. Ask senior sales managers about their greatest challenge, and most of them are sure to respond that it is to remind their sales force to sell benefits. Some taglines do get it right, as in “Tastes Better,” “Costs Less,” or “Works Faster.” Both Microsoft taglines are infused with benefits. The first indicates that Microsoft’s customers can achieve instant gratification, and the second indicates that they can indeed fulfill their potential.
• You. Chapter 2, “Obama and You,” referenced an unsubstantiated Yale University study of persuasive words, with you leading the list. Yale never actually conducted such a study. The first unconfirmed and unattributed reference to a similar list is from an ad in the New York Times in 1961; only later was the list attributed to Yale—again unconfirmed. Over time, the list has taken on a life of its own, and now