Here are 8 Power Points for great presentations:

1. Rehearse, Rehearse, and Rehearse. So many executives wing their presentations or prepare them on the plane. This leads to reading the slides and not truly engaging the audience.

2. Presentation slides are not speaker notes! If you read the slides to your audience, you might as well give them the hand outs and send them to go play golf.

3. Keep it simple! When using bullets, no more than 3 bullets per slides and no more than 5 words per bullet.

4. Bring up one point at a time. This allows you to control what the audience is reading. If you bring up all the bullets at one time, the audience will read to the bottom of the list while you are still talking about your first point.

5. Make slides big and bold. Think driving down the freeway at 65 miles an hour and reading billboards. Each message is clear and concise.

6. Use large fonts. I personally avoid anything smaller than 32 points.

7. Use animation sparingly or when you want to emphasize a particular point.

8. Avoid the trap of having a unique slide up for every part of your speech. Use your logo or theme slide.

PowerPoint is a wonderful tool when used properly. The 8 Power Points for great presentations is just the beginning. Master the presentation process and you will win more business in less time and move your audience to your desired outcome.