Have you ever attended a business conference where many of the presenters were qualified, yet when given the spotlight, their presentations were lacking? You know what I'm talking about. You're sitting with hundreds of other people in a large room. The presenter stands front-center, articulating what he or she believes to be an oratory masterpiece, when in actuality what occurs is similar to a classroom scene from the early Peanuts cartoon movies (muah muah, muah muah muah muah). The sound of people text messaging on their BlackBerrys increases at a steady pace. Papers begin to ruffle as attendants flip through the pages desperately trying to discover when the next coffee break begins. A few people are even sleeping, only to move when their heads nod so lowly, they wake themselves up, reset, then repeat the process ad nauseum. When did we get so poor at public communications? It all began in 1990, when Microsoft bundled PowerPoint in their Microsoft Office suite of applications for the first time in corporate history.

Let me be absolutely clear - Microsoft PowerPoint is a great program. It allows people to present compelling, clear, dynamic presentations when used properly. But herein lies the problem. Most people don't know how to use PowerPoint in order to achieve maximum audience retention and deliver engaging, relevant information. Instead, many presenters rely on the software to actually give their presentations for them, loading the slides with endless, small-sized text and totally ignoring the value they bring as engaging individuals. Fortunately, there is a cure for this sickness. Let's start with three prescriptions:

• Always have a residual message - Did you know that the average audience only retains 5-10% of the information delivered in a good presentation? It's just the natural state of our existence - we tune in and tune out at regular intervals. Therefore, make sure your presentation has one, strong, crisp, clear residual message. And say it often! Themes like, "Is GM a good stock to buy?" aren't effective. On the contrary, anchors like "GM shows poor long-term potential for investors" are effective.  See the difference?

• Keep it structured - Your audience wants to know where you're about to take them for the next thirty minutes. Nobody likes walking blindly. Set up a table of contents slide that reinforces your residual message. The most common structure is "Problem, Recommendation, Benefit." Additionally, each point serves as its own mini-residual message. Using the GM example again, perhaps the structure looks like the following:

• Problem: GM's P/E ratio is sharply declining, hurting consumer confidence in the company's future.

• Recommendation: Investors should invest in Toyota instead since their P/E ratio is increasing smoothly.

• Benefit: Investors can expect 15% greater returns investing in Toyota versus investing in GM.

• Be sensitive to your audience - WIIFM. What's in it for me? What's in it for your audience? Why is your message relevant to them? Make sure you keep this point in mind and express it throughout your entire presentation. Otherwise, you may lose them and never gain them back.

We live in a world where value is the name of the game, a word to some that is inherently difficult to define and demonstrate to our customers. Fortunately, effective presentation communications is a skill that can be improved with great concentration and practice. In the next part of the series, I will focus on messaging, preparation and how to implement these basic techniques in your own sales force's presentations.

I still think Charlie Brown is going to outsmart Lucy and kick that football one of these days...