A presentation should be as close to a conversation as possible – people respond to being talked with, rather than talked at. And sometimes the presentation gets in the way, rather than facilitating that conversation.

Ask yourself some questions:

• Am I meeting with more than 3 people?
• Do those people all have different buying motives?
• Are there visuals or data that I need to show, that I can’t do without a screen?
• Am I sure I wouldn’t rather just talk to them?

If the answer to any of these is an honest ‘no’, then don’t bother with slides. Have a bit of a chat. Like people. You’ll find that when they start talking, they start buying. In a presentation, especially a sales presentation, it’s the goal to get them to that point as fast as possible. So, if you can, rather just start there. Shorter, more effective, human-driven meetings are the way to go.

As an added bonus, now that you don’t need to pull together this monster slide deck for tomorrow’s meeting you can, with a clear conscience, get back to scrolling on Instagram.

You can become a better presenter with our EPIC presentation Training Series. CHECK IT.