5 Tips to Designing Presentations that Close Deals
14 February 2026, Wendy De Munari, AI Communications Consultant and Coach
We’ve all been there. You’re sitting in a boardroom (or on a Zoom call), and the presenter clicks to a slide featuring six bullet points in 10-point font. Your eyes glaze over. You start checking your emails under the table. You’ve just witnessed Death by PowerPoint.
In my coaching sessions with North Queensland founders, I see a recurring tragedy: brilliant business owners with world-class services losing deals because their presentations are acting as a barrier, not a bridge.
If you want to close deals in 2026, you need to stop using your slides as a teleprompter and start using them as a visual exclamation point. Here is how we do it at Clarity Hub.
1. The 10/20/30 Rule (With a Modern Twist)
Guy Kawasaki’s classic rule still holds weight, but with a North Queensland reality check:
10 Slides: If you can’t explain your value proposition in ten slides, you don’t have clarity.
20 Minutes: Even if you have an hour booked, aim to finish in twenty. This leaves space for the real deal-making: the Q&A.
30-Point Font: If you have to squint to read it, delete it. Your audience should be listening to your voice, not reading your screen.
2. Kill the Bullet Points
Bullet points are where ideas go to die. They force your audience to multitask - reading and listening at the same time. The human brain can’t do both effectively.
The Clarity Shift: Use one powerful image and one short, punchy sentence per slide. If you’re talking about your growth, show a graph that trends upward. If you’re talking about customer pain, show a relatable image of that problem. Let your voice provide the detail.
3. Leverage AI for Professional Polish
I’ll be honest: My perfectionist and “need for control” tendencies would drive me to spend hours nudging text boxes two millimetres to the left. I now realise that it was a waste of my strategic energy.
The Tool: As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve moved to Gamma. It uses AI to handle the aesthetic "heavy lifting." You provide the text and structure, and it provides a sleek, modern design that looks like you hired a graphic designer.
The Result: You spend 10% of your time on design and 90% of your time on rehearsing your delivery.
4. The "So What?" Test
Every slide should pass the "So What?" test. Before you include a slide about your company history or your technical specs, ask: How does this help the person across the table solve their problem? If the answer isn't clear, cut the slide.
5. Your Presence is the Pitch
The most important visual in the room isn't the screen - it's you.
In my public speaking and coaching, I teach founders that slides are secondary. Your eye contact, your stance, and your ability to tell a story are what build trust. In NQ, business is built on relationships. People don't buy from PowerPoints; they buy from people they trust.
Stop Designing, Start Delivering
If your current presentation feels like a chore to sit through, imagine how your potential client feels.
At Clarity Hub Consulting, we help you strip away the digital clutter. We combine AI-driven design efficiency with high-performance communication coaching to ensure that when you stand up to speak, the room listens - and the deal closes.
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