Where should you place your logo on your slides?

These are questions I face in every workshop on business presentation skills: Is there a right spot to place the logo? Is it obligatory to use corporate colors in the presentation background? 

Why the obsession with logo & colors?

This obsession comes from the old marketing maxim that the logo and corporate color should be used in all corporate communication. It is okay if it just reminds your audience about your company, but it ends up having a negative outcome as well. Let me explain why.

1.       The problem of visual tolerance:

Humans have this remarkable ability to turn a blind eye to things that are repetitive and mundane. This is called visual tolerance. 

You experience this phenomenon every time you walk through a crowded street. There may be hundreds of billboards and neon signs on either side of the street but you ignore all of them. 

The same powerful phenomenon causes your audience to ignore your slides when you put logo in the presentation template. 

2.      

The problem of monotony:

Standard templates are expected to make slides of an organization look consistent. While the idea is good, the outcome is a boring slide deck. Since the human mind is wired to ignore the usual, people categorize the same looking slides as ‘usual’, and ignore the content. 

Use your logo and corporate colors only on the Title and Thank you slides:

1.       Audience attention is always high at the start and end of your presentation, so, your corporate symbols make a mark where it matters 

2.       You need not worry about wasting the precious real estate on the slide. 

3.       You have a wider option of colors to use and need not worry about the background colors clashing with a powerful picture.   

Finally, give some relief to your audience with your fresh looking slide deck!

10 unusual ways people use presentation slides

Slides are visual aids, but given the features in any common presentation software, it’s amazing how people end up using them. Here are 10 different ways people use slides, starting with the most unusual way

1.    Ultimate Animation Software
Many people complain that the animation available in presentation software is too basic. If they were to see the PowerPoint® animation competitions that occur online, they would be stunned by the result. Dedicated contestants use presentation software to create mind blowing animation that could put Flash® to shame. Of course, each slide probably takes hours and a ton of expertise to make. 

2.    Moral Messenger
Every person with an email ID has been forwarded at least one of these - a self-running ppt that talks about importance of maintaining friendships or problems with environment or the ill-effects of smoking or why soft drinks are bad for teeth but good for toilet cleaning. The ppt is saturated with the sender’s concern for your moral and physical well-being.

3.    Gaming Development Tool
With appropriate coding, a simple presentation can turn into a gaming tool, useful for trainers in the classroom and managers who want to waste time.

4.    Brain Dump
Ever seen 467 slides on one topic with absolutely everything that the author knows about it dumped onto the slides? This is a sort of mind mapping exercise and the result is a reference Bible. A training held with a presentation like this is a good substitute for sleeping pills.

5.    Multimedia Self-Learning Tool
Given the features of presentation software, a good voiceover, interactivity with simple animations, videos, internal links and reams of text, slides turn into a complete training tool.  Whether this is a use or misuse, is up to you to decide.

6.    A Resume
The basic word document is almost outdated when it comes to making creative resumes. But does the person who reads the CV really want to see the picture of applicant’s office and read in painful detail about his/her life?

7.    Product/Service Brochure
Marketing teams make up a 5MB presentation with photos and detailed explanation to forward to their customers. They think that the customer actually opens and goes through it in detail. Presentation here substitutes publishing software like Photoshop®.

8.    Greeting Card
As New year or a birthday rolls in, the Presentation kings quickly put together slides with their best wishes. It is filled with more cheer, goodwill and animation than anything a card company rolls out.

9.    Reporting tool
This is one of the most common ways to misuse slides. This type of presentation contains embedded excel sheets, documents, charts, paragraphs of explanations all cramped together in the 7.5 X 10 space. Many college and office reports are submitted daily like this and the information remains incomplete and ineffective. 

10.    Teleprompter
Presenters note down all that they are going to say on their slides and read them out like a newsreader. The only difference is that a teleprompter is not visible to the audience, whereas the slides are obviously visible.

What do your slides say about you?

Here are some pictures of people. Please take a sheet of paper and answer the 2 questions for each person below:

      1. Do you expect the person to honor his commitment.

      2. Will you trust the person with your money?

Finished writing your answers? Good.

Now, what made you to come up with those views? You haven’t seen their faces. You haven’t met them personally. Then, on what did you base your opinion?

Yes. You made a guess based on their attire. 

As a sales presenter, it is important to realize that your attire speaks a lot about you, even before you utter a word. Your customer forms his opinion about your dependability, professionalism and trustworthiness in the first few seconds of your meeting him.

If you create an unfavorable impression in your first 6 seconds with him, you need to work extra hard for the remainder of your presentation. So, what is the action point?

Spend that extra money and buy yourself a really smart outfit. It is one of the finest investments you can make as a presenter. Let your attire pre-sell for you. Let your presence build the trust. 

When you look dependable, you will sound dependable. 

Another important point;

It is not enough if YOU look professional and your slides look like they are made by an amateur in a hurry. Your slides are the outfit for your thoughts. Make them look professional.

Spend that little extra to buy a set of professional templates for your slides. It is possible for you to transform your usual bullet point slides into professional slides in a matter of 15 minutes when you use the right templates. 

 

I recommend that you visit www.buyapresentation.com and take a look at their presentation template sets. The templates are made by business professionals with exceptional design sense. They have the world’s widest range of animated concept templates for sales and marketing presenters. 

Go and explore the options. Happy selling!