15

MOST COMMON
PRESENTATION
MISTAKES
1 WRITING "PRESENTATION"
ON SLIDE 1
When you buy a book, do
you see the word "book"
on the cover? No!

So simply name your

PRESENTATION presentation on the first
slide in as few words as
possible, and list your
name, title and contact info.
 STATING THE
OBVIOUS 2
Saying something like, Here I am
with a PowerPoint presentation.
is redundant. Surely everybody in
the audience knows the reason for
the gathering. So consider the needs
of your audience and how much time
they have to devote to you.

Use a metaphor at the outset to get

everybody's attention. Make the
audience wonder, But what does
that have to do with the topic?"
3 BEING "MR.
KNOW IT ALL" Arrogant presenters
make audiences
uncomfortable by
trying to sell ideas
or motivate from the
perspective of a
closed mind. If you
do this, you'll be
shooting yourself in
Be humble, and the foot.
take other
people's opinions
and questions into
consideration.
4 SAYING YOU KNOW THE AUDIENCE
WOULD RATHER NOT BE THERE

I know youd prefer to be on the

beach right now, but since were
here.... If you start with this line
you'll be telling the world your
presentation is just plain boring.

Believe in what you want to

convey! Make it sound
interesting, tell people stories,
make interesting connections.
 5 DELIVERING
A ONE-SLIDE
PRESENTATION
Believe it or not, its Make sure you study
common for presenters your first slide content
to forget they have more so you don't anticipate
than one slide and to all that will follow and
reveal all their content therefore fail to
on the first slide. convey your message.
 WRITING "MISSION STATEMENT",
6 "VISION" AND "VALUES"
If a presentation is not intended
to train new employees, for
example, then there's no need
for those slides. Most of the
time, extraneous information
means nothing to an audience.
If you really find it necessary,
make your audience come to
a conclusion about your
mission statement and what
are the vision and the values
of your company.
 PUTTING TOO
7 MUCH TEXT
ON A SLIDE
When theres too much text on
a slide, the attention of the
audience gets divided between
the slide and the presenter. And
most of the time, the presenter
is not the winner here.
Put only key words on
your slides. Theyll help
you remember your topic
and the flow, and theyll
make it easier for an
audience to connect.
 Don't underestimate
your audience. No
doubt, everybody
there can read.
READING
SLIDES 8 Rehearse your
presentation so that
you conduct the slide
show, not otherwise.
 9 PREPARING
CRAZY SLIDES
Don't overload your slides
with animations. This will
only distract an audience,
not to mention you may be
seen as just a tad tacky!

Use only animations that

make the content seem
perceptive and that are
consistent with your speech.
 USING TOO MUCH
10 INFORMATION ON GRAPHS
Don't pack your graphs with too much data.
Graphs are usually not 100% analyzed by the
audience either theres no way to read them
or theres no time for it.

Check the objective of the

graph and reduce the
amount of numbers. If your
aim is to show the evolution
of something, for example,
then maybe all you need is
a date range and an upward
slanting line.
11 PREPARING A PRESENTATION THAT
LOOKS LIKE A FRANKENSTEIN

All of a sudden, if youre lucky, you

realize you've gathered so much stuff
from so many other files that your
presentation has turned into a real
Frankenstein youve got different
fonts, different languages and
unrelated images all over the place.

Develop a logical line of reasoning

for your content and standardize the
fonts and colors.
12 ADDING SOUNDS
TO AN ANIMATION

When the audience least This is just another

expects it, sounds start to pop
out from the animation on the
screen! Clapping sounds,
speed sounds, bouncing ball
sounds... you name it.
way to distract your
audience. Quiet! Keep
the focus on you.
13 SUMMARIZING THE
PRESENTATION AT THE END

After giving a two-hour

presentation you decide to sum up
everything in only twenty minutes.
But this disrespects the audience. If
MAIN TOPICS
you could have said everything in
twenty minutes, why did you take up
two hours of their precious time?

At the end, don't summarize:

just reinforce the main topic(s)
and message(s).
 Some presenters don't like to
advance their own slides and
keep shouting "next!" "skip this
one, I'm not gonna talk about it
today," and the like.
"OUTSOURCING" THE
14 TASK OF ADVANCING THE SLIDES
If you don't feel comfortable about
advancing your own slides (we do not
recommend this), talk to the person
who will do it and agree on discreet
physical cues.
 HAVING A
15 "THANK YOU"
SLIDE AT THE END
THANK YOU!
Theres no need to
"outsource the service"
of thanking the audience.

Say "thank you" in person,

and if you find it necessary
to use a last slide, use it for
your contact information.
To download this eBook go to:
http://downloads.soappresentations.com/
15_most_common_presentation_mistakes

To download other Free Resources go to:

http://soappresentations.com/free-downloads/

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