When talking about partners, avoid the dreaded “shaking hands” clipart

Two of the hoariest clichés used in PowerPoint presentations for analyst briefings are a slide full of partner logos or using clipart showing shaking hands as a sign of partnership.

The partner slide is an important component of many presentations made to IT industry analysts. Unfortunately, too many vendors use these clichés and miss the opportunity to communicate real information that supports key messages.

A better way to design the partner slide is to use text names instead of logos and organize the name listings in a way that adds information (see the second figure). The organization of the names should support the key strategic messages of the current briefing. A key message-centric slide is much richer than a logo-centric slide and more partners can be listed. In addition, by organizing […]

Presentation Tip: Watch out for the notes on PowerPoint slides

If you send industry analysts PowerPoint files of your presentations, do make sure that you review the text in the Notes section of each page. You’ll want to delete any text that is inappropriate to give to the analysts. This is a step that is easy to miss and which will give you great heartburn. Add this step to your standard presentation critique checklist — you do have a presentation critique checklist, right? — is a simple way to avoid reaching for the antacid pills.

BTW, sending PowerPoint and Word files is a best practice that AR managers should consider using. Providing content in Microsoft Office format makes it easier for analysts to repurpose your content. No, silly, this is not “stealing.” It is called […]