Buyers are on overload with PowerPoint presentations. Once novel, they are now largely too long, too wordy, boring and typically delivered as monologues. It is time to replace “Show and Tell” with “Engage and Involve.” Here are five ways to do that:

  1. Avoid the word “presentation.” It turns listeners off (“Another presentation? Just what I need in my busy day!”). The word sends people into a passive mode. It also tends to separate you psychologically from your listener. Instead, use language like, “In our discussion today, we will look at...” “In our meeting today, we’ll be covering...” Your inclusive plural pronoun and characterization of the get together instantly set the expectation for interaction. audience engagement
  2. Ask questions. After each logical block of information, stop and get a reaction. “How does this sound?” “Is this what you were expecting?” “Thoughts? Reactions?” “How would you use this?” “This is how we see X. What’s been your experience?”
  3. Invite them to choose. Services and ideas generally include various options. Rather than you, the speaker, describing these options in the order you wish, it is more meaningful and engaging to say to your listener, “Scan your eye down this list of options. Which one(s) do you want to know about first?” Your listener has to think, speak, and is suddenly, and naturally, in a dialogue with you.
  4. Get them to imagine. As you are explaining the different features of your offering or idea, help them see themselves using your services or products. For example, say, “Imagine how this would affect your...” “Think how you would use the money you save on... elsewhere.” As you describe how you work with clients, casually ask, “Who on your team would be involved?” Make your listeners active participants in your presentation.
  5. Remember, “Less is more.” Only show slides that truly illustrate a point and which lend themselves to discussion: graphs, charts, diagrams, images, examples. Keep the detailed explanations in an Appendix. It is easy to engage around a visual. It is virtually impossible to engage around text. Old Chinese proverb: “I tell you, you forget. I show you, you remember. I involve you, you understand.” The best presenters play at the “show and involve” levels, not at the “tell” level. The more your presentation becomes a conversation, the greater the odds for getting agreement.
— Anne Miller, author, “Metaphorically Selling”