We’ve all sat through them, half awake or multi-tasking: the dull, droning presentation. The speaker/company as the subject. Slides so text heavy you could feel them weighing down the spirits of every audience member.

Everyone knows that’s not how to give a presentation. Then why are so many presentations like this? We shouldn’t have to take it anymore!

I offer three simple tips to make your presentations an order of magnitude better. No, wait. ‘Order of magnitude’ is jargon, an over-used mathematical term business people use to make comparisons. Instead, follow these three tips to make your presentations better.

1. Make your audience the stars of your presentation. If it’s a sales presentation, show how your audience will benefit, not how your company has all these cool products and services. I recommend this article, “Presentation skills on the slide” that appeared in the London Financial Times. Great ideas on how to focus on your audience.
2. Use less text, more graphics. Presentations are visual in nature; slides are a visual medium.  Wherever possible, replace text with a graphic image that represents the main point of the slide. People will remember it more than they will a list of bullet points, which they will read while you are speaking.
3. Determine three takeaway messages for your audience. Do this before you develop your slides and it will help you structure your presentation. Keep those takeaways in mind at all times and develop your message around them.