By Peter
To make the opening of your presentation its most effective, you need to do more than capture the interest of your audience. The optimal Opening Gambit goes further by linking to your Point B.
In every one of the examples above, the presenters continued beyond the Opening Gambit, and then hopped, skipped, and jumped along a path that concluded with Point B. To help you do the same, you’ll need two additional stepping stones: the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and the Proof of Concept.
- USP. This is a very succinct summary of your business, the basic premise that describes what you or your company does, makes, or offers. Think of the USP as the “elevator” version of your presentation: the way you’d pitch yourself if you stepped into an elevator and suddenly saw that hot prospect you’d been trying to buttonhole. But please, make it a four-story elevator ride, not a 70-story trip!
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By Peter
The final option, the Opening Gambit Analogy, is my personal favorite. An analogy is a comparison between two seemingly unrelated items. In the introduction to this book, I drew an analogy between a massage therapist and an effective presenter. I hope that got your attention.
A well-devised analogy is an excellent way of explaining anything that is arcane, obscure, or complicated. If your business deals with products, services, or systems that are technologically complex or require specialized knowledge to understand, look for a simple analogy that can allow audiences to grasp the essence of the story.
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By Peter
Advanced Presentation Tools Collection 4.72 is other software developed by Sirius Computer Consultants Limited.
Dynamic Web Page Effects contains several products which allow a variety of effects and controls to be added to web pages. The effects and controls allow more information to be placed within an area of a web page and at the same time provide visitors with a dynamic and interactive experience.
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By Peter
An aphorism, or familiar saying, can make for an excellent Opening Gambit. But be sure to select one that relates naturally and credibly to your main theme, and to your Point B.
Here are a few examples of Opening Gambit Aphorisms: I once worked on a biotechnology IPO with a company that was being formed by the merger of three smaller companies with related sciences in cancer research. They launched their presentation with the following: “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” The original axiom from Euclid, the founder of geometry, is: “The whole is equal to the sum of its parts,” but the biotech presenters gave the familiar saying a little twist. In doing so, they instantly identified the synergies that the new company would enjoy by combining competencies and resources.
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By Peter
Another option is the Opening Gambit Quotation. I don’t mean a quotation from William Shakespeare, Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, or even Tom Peters … unless one of them specifically said something about your company. But if you can provide an endorsement or positive comment about you, your products, or your services from The Wall Street Journal or the industry press, then the quotation provides relevant value. An endorsing quotation can capture your audience’s interest and give you credibility at the outset of your presentation.
Please resist the temptation to go down to your local bookstore or library and get one of those Ten Million Quotations for All Occasions books. Most often, all those quotations turn out to be inappropriate for any occasion.
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By Peter
Since ancient times, people have organized information into tablesrows and columns containing a number or bit of text in each cell. By now, you’d think working with tables would be a no-brainer.
It’s not. Adding a table to your slideshow is easier in PowerPoint 2007 than it was in earlier versions of the program and the results are more impressive looking. But thanks to the overwhelming number of choices PowerPoint 2007 gives you, the process of adding a table can cause more headaches then ever. You start with four ways to create a table, plus you have dozens of ways to tweak every imaginable table element, from the lines that separate your columns to the shading that appears in your rows.
But nothing lets your audience compare figures better than a table. So eventually, you must create one. This section shows you the easiest way to create a table. Then, you’ll see how to add the basics: data, a title, column headings, and so on. Finallyif you have a bit of spare time on their handsyou can apply special effects and formatting to your table. Read more »
By Peter
Microsoft really upped the ante when it comes to using diagrams in your presentations. PowerPoint 2007 lets you create more types of diagrams than earlier versions of the program, they look snazzier, and they’re easier to create and update. In some cases, when you tweak one section of a diagram, PowerPoint automatically redraws the rest of it to match.
In this section, you’ll see two ways to create a diagram: by choosing a diagram type and filling in the text, or by converting an existing text list into a diagram. Then you’ll learn to add a quick, professional-looking style to your diagram andfor diehard perfectionistshow to tweak each individual diagram element manually.
Note: After you’ve created a diagram, you can add further visual punch by animating it. For example, you can tell PowerPoint to display each step of a process diagram one at a time (to give you ample discussion time) instead of all at once.
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By Peter
You can talk numbers until you’re blue in the face, but when you really want to get your audience’s attentionand get your point across in the shortest time possibleyou need a chart.
Sometimes referred to as a graph, a chart is nothing more than a visual representation of a bunch of numbers. The ubiquitous pie chart (Figure 6-1) breaks up a circular area into easy-to-understand, color-coded wedges, each of which represents a numerical quantity. PowerPoint 2a007 lets you add punch to your presentations with the same bar charts, line charts, scatter graphs, and so on that PowerPoint 2003 offered. Only now they’re better looking, since Microsoft Excel has replaced PowerPoint 2003’s Microsoft Graph program.
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Figure 6-1. Charting is an art unto itself, as all liars and statisticians are well aware. PowerPoint doesn’t care whether the numbers you chart are accurate or whether your chart makes your conclusions dangerously misleadingit leaves those judgments up to you. |
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Note: You don’t need to have Excel installed on your computer to create charts. If PowerPoint 2007 finds Excel on your PC, it uses Excel. Otherwise, it falls back on the built-in graphics program, Microsoft Graph.
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By Peter
You can add any recurring text to the top or bottom of every slide in your slideshow, every handout, and every page of your speaker notes. One way to do this is to add a text box to the top or bottom of your slide, handout, or notes master (see page 36).
But PowerPoint gives you a more efficient way to add recurring information to your presentation: built-in header and footer placeholders. And here’s the best part: Simply by turning on a checkbox, you can choose to hide or show your headers or footers when you go to print your presentation. In other words, you don’t have to go into a master view and edit your master every time you want to turn your printed footers on or off, the way you do when you add your own placeholders. Read more »
By Peter
By an Opening Gambit Anecdote, I do not mean a joke. I like a good joke as much as anyone, but my professional advice to you, and to every single person I coach, is never to tell a joke in a presentation. No one can predict its success or failure. Even if it does get a laugh, in most cases, it will distract from rather than enhance your persuasive message.
What I mean by an anecdote is a very short story, usually one with a human interest angle. Its effectiveness as an Opening Gambit lies in our natural tendency to be interested in and care about other people. An anecdote creates immediate identity and empathy with your audience. An anecdote is a simple and effective way to make an abstract or potentially boring subject come vividly to life.
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