Almost everyone who has done presentations has used PowerPoint at one point or the other. It is an easy to use, yet powerful program for visual presentations. In the business world, PowerPoint is one of the programs that can make all the difference between success and failure. That’s because, presentations are important in visually passing information to all concerned parties, within and outside an organization. If you get it wrong on presentations, you may fail to achieve your potential to the optimum. To help you better understand the importance of PowerPoint in business, here are some of its benefits that you can leverage on in your business.

1. It makes your visual presentations more powerful

Whether you are pitching your idea to an investor or presenting to your board of directors, the quality of your presentations can impact on the outcome. One way to make your presentations more powerful is to make use of visual graphics. PowerPoint is one of the most powerful programs on this front. It has amazing tools that can turn even the simplest of presentations into a masterpiece.

2. It allows for teamwork in business presentations

In business, teamwork is key to growth. It’s only through efficient coordination between different players in an organization that objectives are met. PowerPoint enables you to create presentations and share them with all your team members. Below are the steps to take for you to share your PowerPoint presentation with your colleagues, investors, or any other party of interest to your organization.

• First, create your presentation.
• Click on file at the far left corner of your PowerPoint document. One of the options under file is, Share.
• Click on share, then select Invite people.
• Under invite people, there are 3 options namely: Email, Present online and publish slides. The option you choose is up to you, or the policies of your organization. The key thing is that, with these options, you can use PowerPoint to either work on a presentation together, or share your presentations in real-time, with every one of interest.

3. It allows for customized slide shows

In business presentations, there are certain aspects to the presentation that always carry more weight than others. For instance, when pitching to investors, you might need to spend more time on the financials. You might also need to visually link these slides to other slides, such as those focused on your business strategy. PowerPoint allows you to do this through customized slide shows. A customized slide show is a series of slides that are adapted to a particular section of your audience, and can be used for detailed technical presentations. Here is how to create a customized slide show:

• Create a slide show with multiple slides.
• Go to the menu bar and select slideshow. Under this, you will find the tab, custom slide show. When you click on it, a dialogue box will appear asking you to either customize an existing slide, or select a new one.
• Once you have created your custom slides, you can present them to your audience. For more detailed presentations, right-click on your custom slides and select hyperlink. Link your slide to other slides that provide reference points to your presentation.

4. It allows you to make use of animations in your presentations

One of the most powerful techniques in business presentations is the use of animated objects. Not only does it make your presentations more sophisticated, but it also makes them more interesting to watch. PowerPoint has the right tools for creating them. Creating animated presentations with PowerPoint is easy.

To animate an object, right-click on the word or image you want to animate. You will get several animations to choose from. You also have the option to choose the effects that add to your presentation. It’s a tool that can make all the difference in the quality of your presentations.

5. PowerPoint is fast 

When doing presentations, you need a program that can execute commands quickly. The last thing you want is for your visuals to lag in the middle of a presentation. PowerPoint is powerful, and its latest versions are almost instantaneous in execution. Due to its advanced features and capabilities, PowerPoint also performs exceptionally well, even when doing team presentation, whereby multiple people add content to the presentation.

6. It has lots of external support

PowerPoint, is a part of Microsoft Office, and has been around for a while. This has seen lots of supportive services develop around it. For instance, some services offer customized PowerPoint templates for business. With these templates, you achieve two goals.

Firstly, these services help you save time, since they are made specifically for your business needs. Secondly, they help you do more professional presentations. That’s because, they are designed by professionals, specifically for business purposes.

These support tools are affordable due to their ease of accessibility. You can even find free versions of such professionally made templates on the internet. This is the beauty of PowerPoint, one that makes it an unmatched leader when it comes to professional business presentations.

Conclusion

PowerPoint is an awesome program for business presentations. However, to reap maximum benefit from it, invest some time in learning it. You will discover many of its tools, and how you can apply them in your business. Just like everything else, you perfect the art of visual presentations through practice.