It’s 2020 and you’re still using bullet points? Engage with this impactful alternative

As many of us now engage via zoom or teams, keeping the attention of your audience into your 3cm x 2cm box can be a challenge in itself. Presentations with bullet points often come across dull and disengaging. Key messages in bullet lists can easily be lost in a 100+ page business report.

This article will offer you a simple and effective tool that I’ve used to not only influence and win pitches, but also develop deeper relationships with my audience. Let’s get to it.

Why bullet points don’t work

To the right, you can see an extract from a business report with key facts about the Cyber market.

To put into context, let’s assume our audience is a CEO with little time to read the entire report. This is the typical approach that most sales people take; the bullets are a quick summary of points that have been extracted from much larger content pieces.

Why is this not an effective way to capture the CEO’s attention? Below are 6 key dangers of using bullet points: 

Is it really that big of a deal?

For proposals where complex or key information must be delivered, absolutely!

Readers have limited time to grasp your message, so content delivered briefly and concisely is respectful of that time. Also, well thought out delivery can improve the audience’s impression of you. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve been given as a proposal writer is that “clear writing demonstrates clear thinking”.

In the most extreme cases, a list of bullet points with no clear overarching message or structure can even contribute to death. No really, death. Check out this article.

But there are some exceptions. For example, if your content has 3-4 brief (one-liner) messages, it’s generally okay. People remember in clusters of 3 and 4, so a few short points can easily be remembered and noted down by your audience. In a zoom presentation, the audience can quickly understand your message and continue to keep their eyes focused on you as opposed to the data on-screen.

Additionally, if you know with certainty that your audience prefers bullet points over other delivery methods, then you should naturally continue with this approach. 

So what’s the impactful alternative?

As noted by Jon Moon in his book ‘How to make an IMPACT’, a simplistic and effective alternative is Words in Tables (WiT). If you have many important points to make which vary in complexity and quantity, this could be a very clever option to summarise your ideas and deliver a complete and clear message.

How does WiT work?

Well, you’ve actually already seen it. Scroll up to ‘Why bullet points don’t work’.

Instead of listing out many sentences or paragraphs on the problems of bullet points, we’ve tabulated and summarised the key messages. This is a simplistic illustration, but a worked example is shown below.

Words in Tables: Applied

Again, here’s the bullet point list from the start of this article. As you’d expect, not visually appealing, not memorable, hard to navigate etc.

Now let’s apply the WiT technique through the following simple steps:

Step 1: The current headings offer no real insight. Put your conclusion at the start. This sets a theme for the reader.

Step 2: Group any messages that are similar, order them, and strip out any non-essential content.

Step 3: Separate in columns with a summary of the point on the left, and the explanation on the right.

Step 4: Put the words in tables.

Below is the result. 

Why does it work?

Well it’s only right that I describe the benefits in a table:

Final thoughts 

Like my previous article on simple a word that has meaningful impact, this concept also does exactly that.

For business reports with tight deadlines and quick turnarounds on decisions, you’ve saved the key decision maker a bunch of time and effort. This idea has been so effective that I’ve even created 100+ page reports entirely in WiT. Audiences have loved them… at least more than the reports of my competitors.

For presentations, WiT can work really well. Slides should serve as a platform for discussion and not an endless list of items that your audience will struggle to navigate or remember. WiT can keep the audience focused on you – so that you can influence and stimulate human emotion. But please note that I wouldn’t recommend WiT for all your slides. Slides also have the ability to insert design, sound, videos etc. so too much WiT can be considered boring.

If you ‘have to' use bullet points (because your audience prefers them, or because it’s unfortunately your company’s guidelines), remember to use them in moderation. Title them with a clear message and don’t expect them to visually lift points.

In conclusion I trust you’ll agree that WiT in reports or slides work great, and that your audience will appreciate the effort. I’ve often found myself receiving call backs from key decision makers who want to learn and discuss more while having my tables on screen as a reference - mainly because the message is so clear and easy to navigate. I hope you’ll experience these results too.

Stop the snoring. Encourage the engagement.

Give it a go and let me know how it works for you!

About the author: 

Krishna Mootoosamy is an ex-Lloyd's of London market insurance broker, student of sales psychology and a 1st class Economics graduate. He serves as a Proposal Manager and Vice President at Marsh USA Inc. collaborating with risk management experts to create impactful pitches and proposals.

References:

• How to make an IMPACT, Jon Moon.
• Death by PowerPoint: the slide that killed seven people, James Thomas