Seth Godin wrote a blog this week called Ten Words per Page. This applies to ads and memos and emails, but it also applies to your presentation (your slide deck). What point are you trying to make?
People listen about 8 minutes per hour. Or rather they only hear about one nugget per hour. And if their ass is numb even less.
Presenting is also about entertaining. Mary Meeker’s Internet Report made a point: “Images are increasingly the means by which people communicate.” That means social media has tuned people into images instead of words. So no more than 10 words per slide. Or even better no more than 10 words per deck!!! Have a script that you read if you want — but that slide deck should just be highlighting the ten words you want people to remember!!
What one nugget do you need people to take away? Repeat it. Highlight it. Everything should point to that nugget.
EXTRA NOTE specifically on UCaaS:
Had a discussion with a UC channel director yesterday about this very subject. About how the company has 3 product offerings – HCS, BSFT, CCC – and how to discuss it with partners. Pick one. Then pick another one. Then pick another. For each, be concrete, be specific. For example, we often sell our HCS offering to companies that want a whole Cisco experience and have 100-199 seats.
Chuck Piazza did this at Smoothstone, repeatedly saying that 75+ seats was where they played. Then describing the Help button and the customer service department (level 1 and level 2). You need to be THAT specific.