Open up your latest company presentation, no matter what you’re using it for or where it will be delivered. Where is the “About Us” summary slide located within the presentation? If you’re like most, it’s right at the beginning of the deck, maybe a slide or two away from the header.
It makes sense, right? If you are delivering a presentation to an audience that doesn’t know anything about your company, an “About Us” slide is kind of like a handshake and an introduction. “Hello, we are Company X and we do such-and-such.” It makes sense to get this out of the way in the beginning, or at least it does for most presenters. Then you can move past the company overview and into all of the good stuff: industry stats, investment information, etc.
Frankly, this is the wrong approach. Here’s why.
The audience comes first.
Your presentation should solve a problem for the audience, whether it’s an investor pitch or a catalog of desserts. By putting their needs first and speaking to the problem you solve, you prove to the audience that their concerns are valid and that you already know about their current situation and/or struggle. Using the example of a dessert catalog presentation, you might open with a question such as “What’s missing from your bakery display case?” It’s simple and it hits right to the core of what your audience would hope to get out of the presentation. Address your audience first; they are the most important element of your speech.
Narrative matters.
Starting a deck with an “About Us” slide leaves no room for creativity. There is no narrative, there is no context, there is no mood setting …it’s dull. It is abrupt and jarring to see a slide with a column of text about how long you’ve been in the industry before the audience can understand what the industry is like. If you care about building a narrative or setting the right mood, you’ll move that pesky slide until later in your presentation.
“About Us” is meaningless without context.
When your audience sees that you’ve been around five years and have fifteen team members on staff, why should they care? If it’s the first slide in the presentation, it means nothing. But if you move this slide to later in the presentation after building up context about your business, then the About Us slide becomes a supporting statement of credibility. They can better understand why those years of experience matters, and why your team size is perfectly suited for the market. If all presentations were judged by their “About Us” slide alone, the economy would collapse. Make sure to use this overview properly, only when the audience needs to see it for context or support.
Moving your “About Us” slide deeper into your presentation is an easy way to strengthen the overall narrative. This change can mean the difference between a presentation that feels like: “Me first!” to something that says: “My audience is the most important.” Make the switch today.
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