Booher BanterBusiness Communication Consultant

Last week’s investor meeting in New York is still keeping me awake at night.  (See my April 18 post: “The Power of Summary.”)   Imagine what kind of flashbacks I would be having had I been a CEO-hopeful on stage, spilling my guts and glory before the roomful of investors who’d flown in from around the world to find that dazzling gem-of-a-company to fund through its next stage of growth.

In case you didn’t read my last post, my role there was corporate advisor to a client team looking for venture capital funding.  Each of the 22 companies (out of the more than 100 companies that applied) invited to present their organization to the group had 10 minutes to make themselves glitter and win the gold.

But one by one, the CEOs climbed on the platform, clicked through their presentation slides, and for the most part, committed these same egregious mistakes as we see weekly in our presentation skills training:

1. No clear-cut theme or key message
2. Too much data for the allocated time, leading to information overload
3. Absence of techniques to help listeners retain the information
4. Slides competing with (rather than supporting) the speaker
5. Too many slides for the allotted time
6. No attention-getting opener
7. Absence of a prepared, high-impact close that focuses on action
8. Low energy
9. Difficult-to-understand voice—either rapid-fire delivery or mumbling
10. Boring visuals (bulleted list after bulleted list)

Sound familiar?  If so, consider using the above as your own “thou shalt not” checklist for the next time you take stage or coach a colleague.

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