Let's talk slide count: why less isn't always more

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In professional communications, less is almost always more.?

If you’ve ever helped someone to prepare for a major pitch, you’ve probably heard some variation of this phrase: “I’ve only got 15 minutes with the CEO, so I can only go in with 10 slides.”

Sounds reasonable, right? When time is limited, it makes sense to cut the number of slides you are using in order to keep your presentation tight.

The problem, though, is that most presenters try to achieve this simply by reducing the number of slides, not by reducing the amount of content in the presentation. The smarter (and more effective) way to prep for a short presentation is to stop worrying about slide counts altogether and focus on your story.?

So before you start randomly choosing your slide limits, consider these key tips for making the most of your message when time is short.

Tip #1: Start with your story

It’s easy to understand the appeal of simply saying “it has to be 10 slides.” With this approach, you have a built-in outline that helps to structure your presentation when time is tight. It’s a neat and tidy way to think about slides.

But your content isn’t always so cut and dried. Some ideas are important but brief, while others are more complicated and might require additional explanation. Both of those situations would require a different approach to organizing your information, with amount of detail and time dialed up or down for each.

But when you approach your story through the lens of slide count, suddenly every slide essentially has equal weight. Now, the less important background slides are getting just as much important real estate as the key ideas that form the bulk of your presentation.?

Instead, start by deciding the key points that you want to emphasize, and making sure that each is given the right amount of space. Often, this might mean you need to cut some other elements out of your presentation to ensure everything has the right amount of breathing room. But that’s a good thing! Keeping your content tight and focused is essential in a short presentation, where you want to make sure the audience is fully engaged with your content.

Tip #2: Don't say it all at once – create a leave behind

You may only have 10 minutes in the room, but there are other ways to share information that may be useful to your audience.

For longer presentations that involve lots of detailed information, it’s a common practice to create a leave behind document that is much more detailed and thorough than the slides you present. This technique is also useful for short presentations when you don’t have a lot of time to get into the secondary (or even tertiary) details.

A leave behind is where you can include the deeper dive into key details, the high-level overview of the less important stuff, and even all the stuff they may want to dive into as they read more. But it’s not just the same presentation with more slides.?

A well-crafted leave behind is written and designed differently than an in-person presentation. With a leave-behind, the audience doesn’t have the benefit of a voice over to help fill in the information gaps. That means you need to ensure each slide can stand on its own, without any additional explanation.

A leave-behind presentation can also mean dialing down the visuals for that same reason. Instead of a bold visual that helps keep the audience engaged while you speak, consider simplifying so that your visuals are more substance than style.

Tip #3: Set your style

There’s no rule that says you need to spend any specific amount of time on a slide. That means, in theory, a 10 minute presentation could have anywhere from 10 slides to 30 slides or more, depending on your content.

The real challenge with longer slide counts is that presenters still feel like there is a set amount of content that needs to be on each slide, leading them to create presentations that have too much content to get through in a timely manner.

This is an issue of expectations, rather than needs –?people will feel like too many slides will be confusing, or hard to keep track of. But what matters most is what you feel good about delivering, not following an unwritten rule that no one really believes in the first place.

In other words, trust your content, and be authentic. If a 10-slide formula helps you feel in control of your presentation, then go with it. But if you want to do something different, something that feels unique to your own story and personality, then don’t be afraid to step outside the slide and put some personality into your presentation.

The most important thing is to let the content lead. Sometimes, getting your point across clearly requires you to break up content onto more than one slide. It’s better to make your point than to follow a formula.

VerdanaBonus: One idea per slide

So you’ve read this newsletter and you’re ready to mix it up for your next short presentation. So how do you get started? How do you create a presentation that sticks to your time limit without limiting your slide count? Just use one idea per slide.

This is actually one of our favorite ways to coach presenters in almost any presentation scenario, but it’s particularly useful when time is tight. Keeping your content to one idea per slide helps you stay focused on your topic, and it helps your audience to follow along with your key ideas.?

This doesn’t mean you can’t make more than one point on a given slide, but rather that each one should focus on a single topic.

Conclusion

Whether you are giving a 10 minute pitch or an hour-long keynote, our recommendation is to think about the content first, and let the format follow. Your best presentation will come from you feeling comfortable and confident with the content, rather than force fitting it into a predetermined format.

Don’t worry about the slide count – focus on what’s on the slide.

Want more tips and advice on better business communication? The presentation experts at VerdanaBold are here to help. We offer presentation design and storytelling services, corporate presentation training, and a huge library of free educational content that’s always being updated. Contact us to learn more about how better presentations can elevate your business communications!