How good or bad are financial presentations? I wanted to hear the audience's perspective. So I conducted a survey in May and June of 2014 asking those who see financial presentations what they thought. This deck presents the results of the survey and what financial presenters can do to make their presentations more effective.

1. Results from The
State of Financial
Presentations
Survey 2014
By Dave Paradi of

2. How good or bad are
financial presentations?
As a presentation expert I
had my own ideas, but I
wanted audience
members to tell me what
they thought.
Dave Paradi
Author of seven books, four
Kindle ebooks. One of thirteen
people in North America
recognized by Microsoft with
the PowerPoint Most Valuable
Professional Award.

3. 120 people completed the online survey

4. Who were the respondents?
Mostly professionals or
managers/executives
From corporate or
government organizations

5. What annoys audience members about
financial presentations?



I gave them ten choices and asked them
to choose their top three.
Even though I asked them to choose only
three, people couldn’t contain
themselves. The average number of
selections was 3.6.

6. Here are the top four responses on what
annoys people about financial presentations
66.7%
50.8%
45.0%
43.3%
Too many numbers on the slide
Font too small
Too much information for the time
given for the presentation
Mostly tables of numbers and few
visuals such as graphs
% of respondents who chose that item

7. The results didn’t surprise me
ABC Business Unit Sales Projections
all figures in thousands
Q1 2013 Q2 2013 Q3 2013 Q4 2013 2013 Total Q1 2014 Q2 2014 Q3 2014 Q4 2014 2014 Total $ diff % diff
Product A 151 582 313 304 1350 376 387 427 533 1723 373 27.6%
Product B 151 221 252 213 837 278 148 421 363 1210 373 44.6%
Product C 460 388 279 229 1356 177 399 502 498 1576 220 16.2%
Product D 132 214 423 481 1250 450 582 199 179 1410 160 12.8%
Product E 260 183 567 126 1136 470 493 360 190 1513 377 33.2%
Total 1154 1588 1834 1353 5929 1751 2009 1909 1763 7432 1503 25.3%
I see spreadsheets on slides all the time

8. Next I gave people a free-form
area to add any additional
comments on what annoys them
about financial presentations.
They were eager to share.
Three themes emerged.

9. It’s not about the numbers, it’s about what the
numbers mean
I  #
People don’t love numbers
as much as financial
presenters think they do.

10. Don’t use terms or acronyms the audience
doesn’t understand
EBITDA under
IFRS is $12.5
million
I’m sorry. I don’t
understand the
foreign
language you
are speaking.

11. 
Don’t read the text and numbers on the slide
Reading
your slides
Explaining
why the
numbers are
important

12. I asked respondents to share
three words or phrases they hear
most often when people talk
about financial presentations.
I took all the responses and
created a word cloud.

14. I wasn’t surprised that these two words were
the most popular. When people are
overwhelmed by numbers, they tune out.

15. We also see people frustrated that their time
was wasted because they couldn’t figure out
the point of the presentation.

16. So I asked the respondents what
advice they would have for
financial presenters that would
make the presentations more
effective.
Three main areas stood out.

17. The numbers are not the story.
Numbers are used to support your message.
Numbers ≠ Story
Correct sequence:
Determine
the message
Select
numbers to
support the
message

18. Present the summary or conclusion,
not the details
Actual slide from a
presentation
The real message of all
those numbers

19. Use more visuals
Use graphs,
diagrams, timelines, and more

20. Financial presentations need a
clear message, focused content,
and effective visuals.
Here are some resources to get
you started.

21. Use a GPS approach to plan your message
Click on the map
image to read an
article that explains
how a GPS
approach results in
a clearer message

22. Focus on the insights from the analysis, not
the details of what was done
Click on the video
image to watch how
I explain moving
from data to
information to
insight in my
workshops

23. Use visuals instead of tables of numbers
Click on the
SlideShare deck
image to see ideas
on which visuals to
use
Click here to download my free e-book on
presenting Excel data effectively to executives

24. Financial presentations don’t
have to be confusing and boring.
They can clearly communicate
important messages the audience
understands and acts upon.
You can read the full report of the survey
results on my website by clicking here

25. To learn more about my
workshops or to book me
to speak to your
association or
conference, check out my
website at: Dave Paradi
Author of seven books,
four Kindle ebooks.
One of thirteen people
in North America
recognized by
Microsoft with the
PowerPoint Most
Valuable Professional
Award.
www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com