Most quotes in business presentations are cheesy cliches uttered by people you never heard of. What can you do to avoid falling in this trap?
- Decide whether your story actually needs a quote at all. In many cases the answer might be “not really”. That workplan deck for a major cost cutting project does not get any more cheerful with a happy “let’s do this together” quote at the end.
- If you want to give it it a try, make the quote very specific to your situation. Googling “inspirational business quote” will definitely not get you a specific phrase. Generic inspirational quotes have been used so much that they might actually have the opposite effect of firing up people to do something passionately. Quotes with a touch of humor or self-mockery could work much better.
- To weed out the business book best seller authors, search for quotes by specific people, either because they are in a relevant field or maybe because you admire them. Oscar Wilde produced many for example.
- Make sure you get the exact, correct, original version of the quote by doing a bit more research than the first Google result
- Place the quote on a nicely designed slide.