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Why should you bother about PowerPoint presentation layouts? Do they serve any other purpose than making your slides look beautiful?
Learn the far reaching impact of a good layout in bringing clarity to your PowerPoint presentation.
The Importance a Good Layout
Let us begin by drawing our lessons from an unusual source – a shopping area.
When you shop…
Ever wondered what differentiates a flea market display from a showroom display?
Ever thought why, one feels complex and exhausting, whereas the other feels organized and reassuring?
Why it is that you feel compelled to bargain in a flea market, whereas you happily pay more to buy the same item in a showroom?
Why does it feel that a flea market vendor cares only about your wallet whereas a good salesperson in a showroom cares about YOU?
The reason is – these two visual formats give you very different psychological cues.
The difference between the 2 shopping formats
Forcing a decision versus building a relation:
A flea market display says, This is all I have got. Make a decision quickly and get out. I don’t care about you enough, to customize my display to match your needs.
A showroom says, I want to build a relationship with you, so I will take the time to show you what you want to see
Spreading the attention versus focusing the attention:
A flea marketer spreads the attention of the audience over all the items equally. So, the customer doesn’t have the time to consider any single option long enough to appreciate its value.
A showroom salesperson focuses the attention of the audience on a few items that interests him. He helps the customer to make his decision by providing the necessary information.
Naturally, the results correspond to the visual cues they provide. You may like to read about the top 5 presentation design mistakes.
Applying this to Business Presentations…
For business presenters like you, there are some valuable lessons hidden in these two layouts.
Your slides leave certain cues about your approach to audience. These cues determine the results you achieve.
Let us see the equivalent of the two formats in your slides:
Cluttered vs clear slides
We call the first cluttered slide as Flea market slide format and the second simple slide as the Showroom slide format.
Take a minute to see the cues given by these 2 slides.
- One is about my wares and the other is about your needs
- One diffuses the audience attention, and the other focuses the attention
- One makes you close your eyes and the other opens your mind.
So, choose the right PowerPoint presentation layouts to sell your value by understanding the cues given by your slides.
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