Steve Jobs: 8 presentation strategies:

Focus on Benefits

Your listeners are asking themselves one question: Why should I care? Steve Jobs sells the benefi t behind every new product or feature—and he’s very clear about it. Why buy an iPhone 3G? Because “it’s twice as fast at half the price.” What’s so great about Time Capsule? “All your irreplaceable photos, videos and documents are automatically protected and easy to retrieve if they’re ever lost.” Even the Apple Web site focuses on benefi ts with top ten lists like, “10 Reasons Why You’ll Love a Mac.” Nobody cares about your product. They only care about how your product or service will improve

their lives. Make the connection for your customers. Don’t leave them guessing

Stick to the Rule of Three:

Nearly every Steve Jobs presentation is divided into three parts. When Jobs returned from a health-related absence on September 9, 2009, he told the audience he would be talking about three products: iPhones, iTunes and iPods. Along the

way he provides verbal guideposts such as “iPhones. The fi rst thing I wanted to talk about today. Now, let’s move on to the second, iTunes.” The number “three” is a powerful concept in writing. Playwrights know that three is more dramatic than two; comedians know that three is funnier than four, and Steve Jobs knows that three is more memorable than six or eight. You might have twenty points to make about your product, but your audience is only capable of holding three or four points in short term memory. Give them too many points and they’ll forget everything.

Sell Dreams, Not Products

Charismatic speakers like Steve Jobs are driven by a nearly messianic zeal to create new experiences. Steve Jobs doesn’t sell computers. He sells the promise of a better world. When Jobs introduced the iPod in 2001, he said, “In our own small way we’re going to make the world a better place.” Where most people see the iPod as a music player, Jobs sees it as tool to enrich people’s lives. Of course, it’s important to have great products. But passion, enthusiasm and a sense of

Create Visual Slides

Apple products are easy to use because they eliminate “clutter.” This design philosophy applies to every Steve Jobs presentation. There are no bullet points in his presentations. Instead Jobs relies on photographs and images. Where the

average PowerPoint slide has forty words, it’s diffi cult to fi nd seven words on ten of Jobs’s slides. The technique is called “Picture Superiority:” information is more effectively recalled when text and images are combined. For example, when

Steve Jobs unveiled the Macbook Air, Apple’s ultra-thin notebook computer, he showed a slide of the computer fi tting inside a manila inter-offi ce envelope. That image was worth a thousand words. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,”

Jobs once said. Be sophisticated. Keep it simple

Make Numbers Meaninful

In every Apple presentation, big numbers are put into context. On September 9, 2009, Apple VP Phil Schiller said that 220 million iPods had been sold to date. He placed that number into context by saying it represented 73% of the market. He broke it down even further—and took a jab at the competition—by saying Microsoft was “pulling up the rear” with its 1% market share. Schiller learned his technique from Jobs who always puts large numbers into a context that’s relevant to his audience. The bigger the number, the more important it is to fi nd analogies or comparisons that make the data relevant to your

audience. For example, when the United States government bailed out the U.S. economy to the tune of $700 billion, it was too huge a number for most people to comprehend. Journalists tried to put it into context. The one example that seemed to capture the attention of the press—$700 billion is like spending one million dollars a day since the day Christ was born. Now that’s a big number!

Use Zippy Words

Steve Jobs speaks in plain English. In fact, he has fun with words. He described the speed of the new iPhone 3G as “amazingly zippy.” Where most business presenters use words that are obtuse, vague or confusing, Jobs’s language is remarkably simple. He rarely, if ever, will use the jargon that clouds most presentations—terms like “best of breed”

or “synergy.” His language is simple, clear and direct. Legendary GE CEO Jack Welch once said, “Insecure managers create complexity.” Exude confi dence and security; speak simply

Reveal “Holy Smokes” Moment

Every Steve Jobs presentation has one moment that neuroscientists call an “Emotionally Charged Event.” The emotionally charged event is the equivalent of a mental sticky note that tells the brain, “Remember this!” For example, at Macworld 2007, Jobs could have opened the presentation by telling the audience that Apple was unveiling a new

mobile phone that also played music, games, and video. Instead he built up the drama. “Today, we are introducing three revolutionary products. The fi rst one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough Internet communications device…an iPod, a phone, an Internet ommunicator…an iPod, a phone, are you getting it? These are not three devices. This is one device!” The audience erupted in cheers because it was so unexpected and very entertaining

One More Thing: Practice, a Lot

Steve Jobs spends hours rehearsing every facet of his presentation. Every slide is written like a piece of poetry, every presentation staged like a theatrical experience. Yes, Steve Jobs makes a presentation look effortless but that polish comes after hours and hours of grueling practice. Steve Jobs has improved his style over time. If you watch video clips of Steve Jobs’s presentations going back twenty years (available on YouTube) you will see that he improves signifi cantly  with every decade. The Steve Jobs of 1984 had a lot of charisma but the Steve Jobs of 1997 was a far more polished speaker. The Steve Jobs who introduced the iPhone in 2007 was even better. Nobody is born knowing how to deliver a great PowerPoint presentation.
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