Say It with Presentations: How to Design and Deliver Successful Business Presentations, Revised and Expanded

For over 45 years, McKinsey And Company's Gene Zelazny has been showing McKinsey consultants and professionals around the world how to plan, design, and deliver effective business presentations and how to improve and expand their repertoire of presentation skills.

Now in this revised and expanded edition of Say It With Presentations, Mr. Zelazny brings together his years of valuable communication experience to show managers—even those with little or no presentation experience—how to prepare winning presentations using his proven methodology and the full range of PowerPoint techniques.

Written in a clear, highly engaging style, this essential business tool covers everything from defining the situation to developing the right mix of visual aids to interest your audience without overpowering them. Say It With Presentations features a wealth of practical information on:

• Selecting the best medium—traditional standup presentation, discussion meeting, video conference, or virtual presentation.
• Designing your presentation—knowing what to put in and what to leave out.
• Determining your message—how to make it clear, direct, and appropriate for the intended audience.
• Writing the presentation—crafting the most effective story line, introduction, and ending.
• Making the most of visuals—including computer-driven onscreen presentations with animation, scanned images, sound, video, and links.
• Creating charts, text visuals, and storyboards—to produce the most attractive and convincing presentation.
• Projecting confidence, conviction, and enthusiasm—to hold audience attention and generate interest in your ideas.
• Rehearsing the presentation—to search out imperfections and make the event as compelling as possible.
• Setting up facilities and equipment—to ensure that everything is working smoothly and geared for a first-rate presentation.
• Applying your delivery skills—putting together all the oral, video, and audio effects and delivering them at the right pace.
• Getting used to answering questions—by preparing for and anticipating post-presentation queries from the audience.

Filled with scores of helpful illustrations, this wide-ranging sourcebook also explains how to take humor seriously and incorporate it into a presentation and how to use the Audience Bill of Rights to focus clearly on the needs of the audience.

Comprehensive and completely up to date, the new edition of Say It With Presentations contains all the skills-building information, methods, tips, and pointers that business professionals need to win over clients and reap greater financial rewards.

About the Author

Gene Zelazny is the Director of Visual Communications for McKinsey & Company.

Since joining the firm in 1961, Gene’s primary responsibility has been to provide creative advice and assistance to the professional staff in the design of visual presentations and written reports. This includes planning the communication strategy; structuring the story line; interpreting the data or concepts and recommending the best visual formats in terms of charts, diagrams, and so on; designing storyboards; and rehearsing the presenters. Also, he has designed and led communication training programs throughout the firm.

On behalf of the firm, Gene regularly presents his ideas on Making the Most of Your Business Presentation at business schools including Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Darden, Harvard, Haas, Kellogg, Michigan, Sloan, Stanford, Tuck, UCLA, Wharton, Washington, in the United States, and INSEAD, LBS, and Oxford in Europe.

His book, Say It with Charts, is in its fourth edition in the United States and is available in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.