In our industry, we are so worried about selling ideas that we tend to forget the basics. Some people think that because they’ve written a PowerPoint, they have a plan. Or, because they’ve built a nice spreadsheet on Excel, their business will grow strong and profitable.
Just because it looks great in PowerPoint or Excel, doesn’t mean that it is actually great.
We spend so much time selling our idea that we forget to dedicate time to the IDEA itself.
We spend so much time trying to make our plan look good; that we don’t spend enough time in making sure the plan IS actually good.
We spend so much time in getting approval; that we forget about our OWN approval.
Use your common sense.
Focus on what’s important, instead on what looks important.
And then, only then, go and play with your PowerPoint or Excel.
I find the following exercise very insightful. Chose a couple a projects. Then check the time spent on selling the idea versus on developing the idea itself. Please share your conclusions.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Great points. – Powerpoint is more often than not just a big checklist that the job is finished – not necessarily proving that you have accomplished something. I will challenge myself and my colleagues on my next project to think more before thinking about bullet points.
Good one.
The need of PPT (the evil, hour-eater, machine-crasher, uninspiring Microsoft program) comes right from the reasonable need of the audience to have a nice, safe, entertaining (really?) organized and logic “I-need-to-present-it-to-my-boss” format. The unreasonable part is that all these slides and smart headlines are actually trying to say one simple and annoying thing: Buy me.. And who wants to be sold to, right?
I think most of the time we (miss)underestimate clients and think that we need to come up with a my-pet-goat presentation that magically turns clients into devote admirers who throw money to us. So, most of the time is spent in trying to look smart and guide clients to the cash registerer, while we sing nice lullabies in their ears. Why don’t we try to make THEM smart instead? If not, next time they come to our offices they might just say “I’m just looking, thanks..”
Mary, I like the concept that we tend to see PPT as a checklist. Yes, we all need to question what we want to say before rushing to write “valuable” bullet points.
Federico, LOL with your evil, hour-eater metaphor. While trying to seduce/ please clients, we miss that they are smarter than we think.
About ideas and the need of spectacular presentations, I heard an interesting point of view…
We had enough of ideas… We need to go back to the “doers”. ?!?!?!? (People that do…)