Every day in the business world there are millions of presentations made. Unfortunately too many of those presentations are “powerless.” In fact, we may even be so bold as to say a majority of those presentations are “powerless” due to one or more of ten major causes. In the opinion of Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach, the major causes of “powerless” ineffective and non-persuasive presentations are:

1. The presentation has no clear focused point. The point of the presentation is obviously “missing in action.”

2. The presentation lacks a logical and clear flow of ideas and the audience becomes lost, confused and unable to follow what is being presented.

3. The presentation is so detailed, fact filled and so overcrowded with technical terms that the meaning of the presentation is lost in what has become known as a “data dump,” which is an excessive and meaningless recital of data without a purpose or a plan.

4. The presentation is too long and not sensitive to the audience’s span of attention.

5. The presentation totally fails to indicate and convince the audience of some benefit from what is being presented. It fails to tell the audience what is in it for each of them and how they will benefit from what is presented.

6. The presentation is void of enthusiasm and persuasion. There is no call to action for the audience.

7. The technology with all the bells and whistles used in the presentation overshadows and overwhelms the content of the presentation.

8. The presentation totally ignores the needs of the audience. There is no consideration for what are the interests of the audience, what do they care about, what problems do they have, what frustrations they have, etc.

9. The presentation focuses on features rather than benefits.

10. The presentation environment has serious flaws related to the technical equipment, sound system, projection screen, lighting, timing, and the attire of the presenter.

Ten Major Causes of Powerless Presentations, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
By: J. Glenn Ebersole, Jr., Chief Executive of J. G. Ebersole Associates and The Renaissance Group (TM)