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I notice the author mentioned "leave-behind Powerpoint decks." I had a short stint in consulting after getting my MBA, working with enterprise software clients
by ben1040 16y ago
I notice the author mentioned "leave-behind Powerpoint decks." I had a short stint in consulting after getting my MBA, working with enterprise software clients. Within that job I've never once seen a Powerpoint deck that was useful after the fact unless you were in the room when the talk was given.
All it took for me to forget nearly everything I learned in business school communication classes was a seminar led by Edward Tufte, where it dawned on me that Powerpoint is no substitute for an appropriate executive summary of your content that can be passed around and referred to long after your talk is over.
- jaf12duke 16y agoLeave-behind decks are for when the deliverable is the deck. It can be a useful tool for the company because the content is conveying information that they need for whatever project their working on. While working for a consulting firm, I did a marketing analysis for a grocery chain--it was a 150 slide deck packed with data about each of their geographies. It's something they'll refer to hundreds of times in the future. As entrepreneurs, we're rarely delivering data in this way. it's usually our job to distill all the potential data points down to the 1 or 2 most important. It comes down to whether you're persuading or informing. For persuasion, Tufte>MBA every time.
- babar 16y agoLeave-behind decks are used in enterprise sales to allow your internal champion to present to their colleagues and superiors to go through whatever process is necessary to move the sales cycle forward. If you can give them the deck using their own corporate template you save them some time and they are more willing to advocate for you when you aren't onsite or in the meeting.