Say It with Presentations: How to Design and Deliver Successful Business Presentations [Hardcover]

Gene Zelazny (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0071354077 | ISBN-13: 978-0071354073 | Publication Date: December 21, 1999 | Edition: 1

Organize a powerful, effective business presentation and deliver it with style! Say it with Presentations helps you define why you're giving the presentation and the audience you need to convince. This compelling, comprehensive presentation toolkit tells you when, why, and how to use humor, and, yes, silence to get your points across...how to make the most of visuals...set up facilities and equipment...and rehearse to communicate your confidence, conviction and enthusiasm, and much, much more.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Use these tips and techniques to organize a powerful, effective business presentation-and deliver it with confidence. You've been asked-or more likely told-to give a business presentation. Say It With Presentations will quickly replace your confusion with confidence, and give you the insights and techniques to make your presentation interesting, inspiring, and, most of all, effective. Tapping decades of experience, Gene Zelazny will help you put together an impressive presentation-one that delivers a focused message and gets the desired results.

This presentation primer includes Zelazny's secrets for success:

The audience's Bill of Rights-Strategies to keep the needs of the audience first and foremost in your mind.
Designing Charts for the Zen of It-Anyone can design dynamite charts, including you. This section shows you how.
Take Humor Seriously-Learn when, why, and how to use humor to get your points across.

Successful presentations can propel you and your business forward. Knowing how to communicate effectively to large and small audiences can enhance your reputation and create exciting new opportunities. So relax, clear your mind, and let the hundreds of valuable tips and pointers Say It With Presentations guide you through your next presentation-and ultimately further along your chosen career path.

About the Author

Gene Zelazny is director of Visual Communications for McKinsey & Company, where he works with the professional consulting staff to create, design, and rehearse presentations. Zelazny frequently shares his ideas at many of the world's major business schools, including Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, Kellogg, INSEAD, London Business School, Oxford, Sloan, Stanford, Tuck, and Wharton. His bestselling Say It with Charts has been translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 153 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (December 21, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071354077
• ISBN-13: 978-0071354073
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #444,526 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gene Zelazny is Director of Visual Communications for McKinsey and Company, and has over 40 years of experience working with colleagues and clients to design powerful management reports and presentations. In addition, Zelazny frequently presents his ideas at the world's top business schools, including Chicago, Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Wharton, Haas, MIT, Oxford, Kellogg, Stanford, Tuck, INSEAD, and others. He also is author of the how-to classic Say It With Presentations.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real help for you, the presenter, January 24, 2000

By 

Peter Keusgen (Seoul, Republic of Korea) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Say It with Presentations: How to Design and Deliver Successful Business Presentations (Hardcover)

Say It With Presentations steps beyond the "How to give a speech" story of its peers. Gene shows us what works, why it works, and, most importantly, how we can all make it work. I have not seen a better book for giving business presentations than this and don't expect to find one.

The secret is simplicity.

Following his own advice, Gene makes the book simple and has simple examples and arguments for ideas that are soooooo tempting to complicate.

This is not a book to read. It is a manual to review, a guide to follow, a resource for self help, and a reminder of the rights of the audience.

Most importantly, it is fun to refer back to constantly both before and after presentations.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Common-sense guidelines to cut through the presentation fog, January 14, 2000

By 

Robert Lakin (Cleveland, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Say It with Presentations: How to Design and Deliver Successful Business Presentations (Hardcover)

Gene Zelazny has once again proved that by following a few common-sensical guidelines, no one needs to create a business presentation that bores their audience. In an age where too many business communicators rely on Powerpoint to fog their ideas and confuse their audience, Zelazny's advice is in great need. Perhaps if all of Sun Microsystem's employees were required to read this, there'd be no need to ban Powerpoint.

In this follow-up to the successful "Say It With Charts", Zelazny continues to ask the reader to focus on the needs of the audience, to use the presentation to create a dialogue with the listener, and to use the presentation to support the message. He provides much needed guide to use of new media and proves, once again, that in the communication of complex ideas, less is more.

Buy several copies! Keep one for yourself and have one handy for the next business presentation that puts you to sleep. That presenter will thank you.

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Useful, but just for beginners, August 23, 2001

By 

Javier (Majadahonda, Madrid Spain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Say It with Presentations: How to Design and Deliver Successful Business Presentations (Hardcover)

I am a strategic consultant and I founded the book too simple. It is highly recomended (together with "Say it with charts") if you are brand new in a consultancy firm or, because of your job, you occasionally have to do professional presentations and you want to acquire a basic methodology. It is a good book for starters, but presentations is kind of an art and it is a skill difficult to get.