Forget Bullet Points

Posted on 03. Jan, 2010 by Antonella Stellacci in Trends

Even if you’re not an Apple fan boy, you have to admit that Steve Jobs is one of the most captivating speakers of our days. He has been able to attract a cult-like following based on his public speaking abilities.

In The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience , Carmine Gallo slices and dices Job’s presentations to reveal the “secret” techniques of his storytelling. Gallo’s main message is that anyone can deliver an “insanely good” presentation: or for the average presenter, at least one that is not deadly boring.

It’s a nifty little book with many ideas to help reshape your presentations; and it’s worth a read, as long as you’re willing to accept an extra-dose of Jobs’ worship. Even if you’re not into public speaking, the book is a good exercise for your product marketing skills. It will challenge you to get over yourself. To learn to sell a Dream. Nobody really cares about your product. They only care about how your product or service will improve their lives. Make your brand stand for something meaningful. When Jobs introduced the iPod in 2001, he said, “In our own small way we’re going to make the world a better place.”

: Image via Wikipedia

The nitty gritty of the presentation skills.

In any speech – answer the one big question, why should the audience care about your product. Have 3 points – supporting the one big question. Be passionate. And keep it simple. Simplicity is key in telling your storry. In Jobs’ own words, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”.

A presentation is like a movie, with a storyline, three topical moments, an antagosit and a memorable moment.

Storyboarding with pen and paper. Like a movie director, Steve Jobs “storyboards” the plot of his speech. Before even opening PowerPoint, spend time whiteboarding your ideas: you’re delivering a story. Pen and paper help being creative and getting over the bullet point void of ideas.
One sentence headlines. Steve Jobs creates a single sentence description for every product. The MacBook Air is “The world’s thinnest notebook”. If you can’t condense the product/service description in a tweet, stop and start again.
The drama. Create an antagonist to allow the audience to rally around the hero—your product. The antagonist can be a direct competitor or a problem in need of a solution.
The rule of 3. Every Steve Jobs presentation is divided into 3 parts. Your audience is only capable of holding that much in short term memory. Rather than go into the technical specifications on each product, Jobs often invites his audience to go to the website and in so doing he drives traffic to it and commits them to buy through their online store.
Forget bullet points! There are no bullet points in Steve Job’s presentations. Instead Jobs relies on photos and images. This technique is called “Picture Superiority:” information is more effectively recalled when text and images are combined. Add demos, videos, video clips. Make it interesting and entertaining.
Put your numbers into a context. In every Apple presentation, big numbers are put into context. The bigger the number, the more important it is to find analogies or comparisons that make the data relevant. 12 Gigabyte means nothing to the audience: enough music to travel to the moon and back is a number which will resonate.
Simple words. Steve Jobs speaks in plain English. He described the speed of the new iPhone 3G as “amazingly zippy.” Jobs’ language is simple and direct. Amazing, cool, are frequent words in Job’s language. If you don’t convey passion about your products, why should your audience and customers do so?
Build Momentum. Every Steve Jobs presentation has one moment called “Emotionally Charged Event.” For example, at Macworld 2007, Jobs built up the drama to introduce the Iphone. “Today, we are introducing three revolutionary products. The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough Internet communications device…an iPod, a phone, an Internet communicator…an iPod, a phone, are you getting it? These are not three devices. This is one device
Practice. Steve Jobs spends days rehearsing. Nobody is born knowing how to deliver a great presentation.