The Consulting Presentation Framework is a slide structure that every top-tier management consulting firm follows. \u00a0This is the structure:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Headline<\/span>. \u00a0The Headline is a sentence that appears at the top of the slide, introducing the slide.<\/li>\n
- Body<\/span>. \u00a0This is the main section of the slide. \u00a0On the top left of the Body, there is the Title<\/span> of the slide.<\/li>\n
- Bumper<\/span>. \u00a0This is in a rectangle box along the bottom of the slide. \u00a0It adds further insight into the slide and answers the “so what?” question. \u00a0The bumper is optional, though recommended.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"consulting_presentation_framework\"](\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/consulting_presentation_framework.gif\")
<\/p>\nReal Examples<\/strong><\/p>\n
Now, let’s see some examples. \u00a0Here are Flevy authors who abide by the Consulting Presentation Framework:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Team Neosi<\/a>. \u00a0Note that his author\u00a0is a team of ex-McKinsey communication specialists. \u00a0They specialize in selling training guides on corporate communication, the McKinsey way.<\/li>\n
- LearnPPT<\/a> and PPT Lab<\/a>. \u00a0This is the same firm and use the same format across\u00a0all their documents.<\/li>\n
- STRATICX<\/a>. \u00a0This is a strategy and innovation consulting firm from the UK.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Specific Guidelines<\/strong><\/p>\n
Here are specific guidelines for the Consulting Presentation Framework:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Headline\n
- \n
- Suggested font styling: Arial Narrow, 24 pt, boldfaced. \u00a0You do not need to use our suggested font style. \u00a0However, what is critical is that whatever styling you choose, it must remain\u00a0consistent across all your slides.<\/li>\n
- Two lines max\u2014if you exceed 2 lines, then reword or cut down on content.<\/li>\n
- One sentence only.<\/li>\n
- No ending punctuation (e.g. period).<\/li>\n
- Tip: \u00a0The Headlines of each slide should connect and tell a cohesive story.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- Body > Title\n
- \n
- Suggested font styling: Arial, 16 pt, boldfaced, italic.<\/li>\n
- Just the typical title (e.g. “Executive Summary,” “Approach,” “Objectives,” etc.).<\/li>\n
- Describes the body of the slide.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- Body\n
- \n
- Suggested font styling: Arial<\/li>\n
- Don’t go smaller than font size 10. \u00a0Otherwise, it becomes too difficult to read.<\/li>\n
- Place the source on the bottom left of the slide in font size 10. \u00a0E.g. “Source: Article Name,\u00a0Harvard Business Review, 2015”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- Bumper\n
- \n
- Suggested font styling: Arial, 14 pt, boldfaced, italic.<\/li>\n
- Two lines max\u2014if you exceed 2 lines, then reword or cut down on content.<\/li>\n
- One sentence only.<\/li>\n
- Do use\u00a0ending punctuation (e.g. period).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Formatting Guidelines<\/h2>\n
Formatting is absolutely crucial to achieving high sales on Flevy. \u00a0This is because, before anything else, the first thing a customer sees\u00a0is the is\u00a0the formatting–even before she\u00a0reads any of the content. \u00a0Your formatting generates the first impression. \u00a0If your formatting looks sloppy or inconsistent, it will create the impression that your content is poor and unreliable. \u00a0Consistent and proper formatting makes your document look more professional, more credible, and more expensive.<\/p>\n
Creating a presentation takes a lot of care and attention to detail. \u00a0Use these\u00a0guidelines below to help facilitate the process:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Ensure all your font sizes are consistent with the Consulting Presentation Framework (e.g. Headline is 24 Arial Narrow Bold).<\/li>\n
- Ensure everything is properly aligned (to the pixel).<\/li>\n
- Run spell check on your presentation.<\/li>\n
- Reread all the Headlines to see if it tells a cohesive, logical story.<\/li>\n
- If you can\u2019t think of a Bumper\u00a0for your slide, ask yourself\u2014do I really need this slide?<\/li>\n
- Make sure your content is legible. Is your font size too small? Rule of thumb: when using Arial, try not to go smaller than 10 pt.<\/li>\n
- For bulleted lists, indent any line wraps.<\/li>\n
- For multi-tiered bullets, use different symbols for different tiered bullets.<\/li>\n
- Try to use words like \u201cus,\u201d \u201cwe,\u201d \u201cour\u201d to build intimacy and trust.<\/li>\n
- Write in the point of view of your customer.<\/li>\n
- Use a consistent color scheme.<\/li>\n
- Use consistent punctuation.<\/li>\n
- Create all graphs from within PowerPoint. In other words, don\u2019t copy and paste an Excel graph into PowerPoint.<\/li>\n
- Whenever possible, create tables from within PowerPoint. If you need to copy and paste a very large table from within Excel, do a paste special.<\/li>\n
- To embellish anything on your slide with additional commentary, you can use a Callout Box.<\/li>\n
- Make sure your numbers are correct! One bad number can ruin the credibility of the entire presentation.<\/li>\n
- If you are using a number that may be questioned, be sure to state all your assumptions.
\nIf you\u2019re stuck on a slide, it helps significantly to draw out the slide on paper. Don\u2019t just immediately go into PowerPoint when you don\u2019t have clear conceptual vision of how the slide will be designed.<\/li>\n - Don\u2019t overload a slide with text.<\/li>\n
- When possible, use a diagram instead of just text. \u00a0Download our Free PowerPoint Toolkit<\/a> to have a ton of these diagrams at your disposal. \u00a0See the next section for more PowerPoint\u00a0resources.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Your document is a reflection of your own brand and\/or firm’s image, so make it’s as close to perfect as you can make it!<\/p>\n
PowerPoint\u00a0Resources<\/h2>\n
Flevy offers our authors a lot of free resources to expedite the slide design\u00a0process. \u00a0Here are our 2 main tools:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Flevy’s Free PowerPoint Toolkit.<\/a>\u00a0 This is a collection of 100+ business diagrams. \u00a0You can just copy and paste them into your own slide and edit the content accordingly. \u00a0All the slides in this toolkit already abide by the Consulting Presentation Framework, as defined earlier.\n
- \n
- Download here:\u00a0https:\/\/flevy.com\/download\/flevy-powerpoint-toolkit-86<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- Flevy Tools (PowerPoint plugin).<\/a> \u00a0This is our free PowerPoint plugin\u00a0(supports both Windows and Mac). \u00a0It\u00a0creates a new toolbar in your PowerPoint, where you can generate 10 common types of business diagrams in a few clicks. \u00a0Go to the page below for more information, including screenshots. \u00a0These diagrams abide by the Consulting Presentation Framework, as well.\n
- \n
- Download here:\u00a0https:\/\/flevy.com\/powerpoint-plugin<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Here is an article on PowerPoint shortcuts:\u00a0https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/tips-from-a-consultant-some-not-so-obvious-powerpoint-shortcuts\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n
If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments or contact us at support@flevy.com<\/a>. \u00a0Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Are you selling a PowerPoint presentation on Flevy? \u00a0Great! \u00a0That is our best selling format and can generate a lot of recurring sales–but only if you\u00a0design it right. This guide\u00a0is focused on the “science” of presentation design that is optimized for Flevy sales. \u00a0You can have the most\u00a0compelling content on Flevy, but that won’t lead… Selling on Flevy: Presentation Design<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":70,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[1010],"class_list":["post-2139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flevy-news","tag-selling-on-flevy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2139"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14615,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139\/revisions\/14615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Flevy Tools (PowerPoint plugin).<\/a> \u00a0This is our free PowerPoint plugin\u00a0(supports both Windows and Mac). \u00a0It\u00a0creates a new toolbar in your PowerPoint, where you can generate 10 common types of business diagrams in a few clicks. \u00a0Go to the page below for more information, including screenshots. \u00a0These diagrams abide by the Consulting Presentation Framework, as well.\n
- Download here:\u00a0https:\/\/flevy.com\/download\/flevy-powerpoint-toolkit-86<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- Flevy’s Free PowerPoint Toolkit.<\/a>\u00a0 This is a collection of 100+ business diagrams. \u00a0You can just copy and paste them into your own slide and edit the content accordingly. \u00a0All the slides in this toolkit already abide by the Consulting Presentation Framework, as defined earlier.\n
- LearnPPT<\/a> and PPT Lab<\/a>. \u00a0This is the same firm and use the same format across\u00a0all their documents.<\/li>\n
- Body<\/span>. \u00a0This is the main section of the slide. \u00a0On the top left of the Body, there is the Title<\/span> of the slide.<\/li>\n