Presentations How To Make Yours Stand Out

Developing the Next Generation of Rainmakers Presentations: How to Make Yours Stand Out When you are making a presentation, the phrase “less is more” applies. What does it mean? Less rather than more slides. Less rather than more words on slides. Less rather than more bullet points (better yet, no bullet points). A Montreal lawyer I coached shared this story with me. I made a presentation at a conference last weekend.  I was running late putting my presentation, so I asked a junior lawyer to take my text material and create a PowerPoint slides. She did a very good job and I thought this promised to be a classic presentation, with words and bullet points on each slide. My Toronto office colleague, Will, was giving the English version of the presentation next door and he sent me his power point late Friday afternoon.  They looked far different than mine. His presentation was a mere 12 slides, with visuals on each slide and very few words.  Will’s made a few key points on each slide in a very attractive and visual way.   It struck me that Will (a Cordell coaching alum) had followed Cordell’s recommendations!! I flipped it back to the junior lawyer saying I wanted something Cordell-like.   I gave her a 5-minute crash course on what I meant!   She returned later, after finding appropriate images on iStock Photo and putting them into a superb set of slides. Both Will and my presentation were major blasts at the conference, with people telling each of us what good speakers we were! Here is an important tip. When you take the words out of your slides, your audience will actually pay more attention to you-the speaker. I practiced law for 37 years developing a national construction law practice representing some of the top highway and transportation construction contractors in the US.