We all know that mistakes happen, but why not be aware of the most common presentation mistakes so that you can avoid them in the first place? Here are 15 common gaffes that can ruin you from the first moment of a presentation. Keep them in mind as you’re developing your next presentation, and your work should be 100% successful!

1. 15MOSTCOMMON
PRESENTATION
MISTAKES

2. WRITING "PRESENTATION"
ON SLIDE 1
When you buy a book, do
you see the word "book"
on the cover? No!
So simply name your
presentation on the first
slide in as few words as
possible, and list your
name, title and contact info.
1
PRESENTATION

3. 2
Saying something like, “Here I am
with a PowerPoint presentation….”
is redundant. Surely everybody in
the audience knows the reason for
the gathering. So consider the needs
of your audience and how much time
they have to devote to you.
Use a metaphor at the outset to get
everybody's attention. Make the
audience wonder, “But what does
that have to do with the topic?"
STATINGTHE
OBVIOUS

4. 3 Arrogant presenters
make audiences
uncomfortable by
trying to sell ideas
or motivate from the
perspective of a
closed mind. If you
do this, you'll be
shooting yourself in
the foot.Be humble, and
take other
people's opinions
and questions into
consideration.
BEING "MR.
KNOWITALL"

5. SAYINGYOU KNOWTHE AUDIENCE
WOULD RATHER NOTBETHERE
“I know you’d prefer to be on the
beach right now, but since we’re
here....” If you start with this line
you'll be telling the world your
presentation is just plain boring.
Believe in what you want to
convey! Make it sound
interesting, tell people stories,
make interesting connections.
4

6. 5 DELIVERING
A ONE-SLIDE
PRESENTATION
Believe it or not, it’s
common for presenters
to forget they have more
than one slide and to
reveal all their content
on the first slide.
Make sure you study
your first slide content
so you don't anticipate
all that will follow and
therefore fail to
convey your message.

7. If a presentation is not intended
to train new employees, for
example, then there's no need
for those slides. Most of the
time, extraneous information
means nothing to an audience.
If you really find it necessary,
make your audience come to
a conclusion about your
mission statement and what
are the vision and the values
of your company.
6
WRITING "MISSION STATEMENT",
"VISION" AND "VALUES"

8. PUTTINGTOO
MUCHTEXT
ON A SLIDE
7
Put only key words on
your slides. They’ll help
you remember your topic
and the flow, and they’ll
make it easier for an
audience to connect.
When there’s too much text on
a slide, the attention of the
audience gets divided between
the slide and the presenter. And
most of the time, the presenter
is not the winner here.

9. READING
SLIDES 8
Don't underestimate
your audience. No
doubt, everybody
there can read.
Rehearse your
presentation so that
you conduct the slide
show, not otherwise.

10. 9
Don't overload your slides
with animations. This will
only distract an audience,
not to mention you may be
seen as just a tad tacky!
Use only animations that
make the content seem
perceptive and that are
consistent with your speech.
PREPARING
CRAZYSLIDES

11. Don't pack your graphs with too much data.
Graphs are usually not 100% analyzed by the
audience – either there’s no way to read them
or there’s no time for it.
Check the objective of the
graph and reduce the
amount of numbers. If your
aim is to show the evolution
of something, for example,
then maybe all you need is
a date range and an upward
slanting line.
USINGTOO MUCH
INFORMATION ON GRAPHS10

12. PREPARING A PRESENTATIONTHAT
LOOKS LIKE A FRANKENSTEIN11
All of a sudden, if you’re lucky, you
realize you've gathered so much stuff
from so many other files that your
presentation has turned into “a real
Frankenstein” – you’ve got different
fonts, different languages and
unrelated images all over the place.
Develop a logical line of reasoning
for your content and standardize the
fonts and colors.

13. When the audience least
expects it, sounds start to pop
out from the animation on the
screen! Clapping sounds,
speed sounds, bouncing ball
sounds... you name it.
This is just another
way to distract your
audience. Quiet! Keep
the focus on you.
ADDING SOUNDS
TO AN ANIMATION12

14. SUMMARIZINGTHE
PRESENTATION AT THE END
After giving a two-hour
presentation you decide to sum up
everything in only twenty minutes.
But this disrespects the audience. If
you could have said everything in
twenty minutes, why did you take up
two hours of their precious time?
At the end, don't summarize:
just reinforce the main topic(s)
and message(s).
13
MAIN TOPICS

15. "OUTSOURCING"THE
TASK OF ADVANCINGTHE SLIDES14
Some presenters don't like to
advance their own slides and
keep shouting "next!" "skip this
one, I'm not gonna talk about it
today," and the like.
If you don't feel comfortable about
advancing your own slides (we do not
recommend this), talk to the person
who will do it and agree on discreet
physical cues.

16. Say "thank you" in person,
and if you find it necessary
to use a last slide, use it for
your contact information.
HAVING A
"THANKYOU"
SLIDE AT THE END
15
There’s no need to
"outsource the service"
of thanking the audience.
THANK YOU!

17. To download this eBook go to:
http://downloads.soappresentations.com/
15_most_common_presentation_mistakes
To download other Free Resources go to:
http://soappresentations.com/free-downloads/
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