For anyone with a day job—meaning your job title isn’t Serial Presenter—those presentations you’re planning may, more often than not, be a Frankenstein of scrap resources and time. It’s common for the occasional presenter to find themselves getting the deck together in the 15 minutes here or there between meetings, conference calls and “actual work”.
At the same time, the significance of a successful delivery is almost always disproportionately high compared to the amount of time invested in it. Almost every presenter we’ve ever spoken with about this subject has conceded that, yes, in fact, it makes more sense to “phone in” the next conference call than it does to phone in the creation and preparation for a key sales deck.
There’s no short cut to success in any field, and presentations are no different. One of the most common issues we see with presentations is the speaker’s default to common presentation cliches. These range from jokes we’ve all heard to presentation structures that ruin the ending (“I know where this is going…”) to failing to provide any kind of new information during the entire talk. That last one might not be a cliche, technically, except that it’s kind of like meta-cliche. Ultimately, there’s nothing worse than relying on the same old tropes, stories and information to get a key message across. It’s not that it physically hurts the audience; it just ensures that they’re not listening when you do happen to drop the worthwhile hint or tip or point.
To avoid purposefully or mistakenly falling into the cliche trap, you have to intentionally develop a presentation that is not cliche. That means exploring new perspectives on the subject—what might the most vehement critic of your product or service or solution say if they got on stage…and why are they wrong? As is the case with most forms of creative expression, originality is often found residing in the same place that courage and open-mindedness live.
If you want to stop delivering cliche presentations, it starts with a decision: make a commitment to originality. Make a commitment to finding new and unique ways of cutting through the usual expectations, the things they’ve heard a thousand times, the same old jokes and lines about the business. These things may make for a comfortably passed hour, but you’ll never advance your cause. Throw them a curve ball. Go out and be original.
Question: What is the most unique presentation you’ve ever seen?
