Perfecting your pitch can be challenging. Communicating valuable information in a short period of time can overwhelm top tycoons and business legends. When you’re an expert on a topic, it’s easy to get carried away. How can you ensure your presentation will be heard and respected? The 10-20-30 rule.
What is the 10-20-30 Rule?
A presentation should be this simple:
- No more than 10 minutes
- No more than 20 slides
- No less than 30 point font
Your goal is to sell your pitch to the room, and the way to do that is to keep things concise and direct. Smoke and mirrors won’t get you anywhere in the era of Google, so your best shot at convincing a room lies with the facts. That’s all there is to this concept.
Why Under 10 Slides?
Ten slides: it sounds short, right? You may think it’s not enough. Here’s why that’s not the case. If you can’t effectively describe your message in under ten slides, you won’t retain the attention of the group. Whether you’re pitching your colleague or a group of strangers, you can’t expect the audience to stay focused on your presentation if the slides keep coming. If you’re struggling to condense your message, think about your pitch as if it’s a story. You need to introduce the basic concepts, talk about what needs to happen, and end on a call to action to wrap things up. Ten slides will suffice.
Why Under 20 Minutes?
It’s unrealistic to expect to get the undivided attention of an audience for an hour. The smart move is to keep it short and sweet so you’re not struggling to captivate people. Twenty minutes is enough time to deliver your pitch and keeps you from rambling if you happen to get nervous. This rule allows you to keep things moving even if something pops up or if there are questions. Don’t be afraid to time your speech and rehearse it as needed to stay within the 20-minute limit. Additionally, practicing with an audience helps too, even if it’s just a roommate or a canine companion.
Why 30-Point Font?
Presentations are conducted through PowerPoint or Prezi or your preferred medium for a reason: You want a gripping visual representation to aid your message. A presentation rookie will forget that you still are responsible for getting your message apart. Any pitch master or college professor for that matter can tell you that you don’t need to stuff your slides with tiny text. This detracts from your purpose of keeping folks interested. More words are not always a good thing. Keep your text concise, and make sure it’s clearly visible to everyone in the room.
Abide by this concept and you’ll keep people on the hook every time.
Work With a Top Staffing Agency in Chicago
For more insight on how to exhibit next-level leadership, contact Davis Staffing. As a top staffing agency in Chicago, we can help you take your professional resources to the next level. Check out our website today to learn more.
