What are the 7 Cs of Presentations [How to use them]

Last month, while we were designing a leadership pitch deck for our client, Joe, he asked us a question more people should be asking.

"How do I make sure people actually get what I’m saying in the presentation?"

Our Creative Director answered without missing a beat:

“Stick to the 7 Cs. If your content ticks those seven boxes, you’re already ahead of most presentations out there.”

As a presentation design agency, we work on many corporate decks, sales presentations, and product launches throughout the year. And in the process, we’ve observed one common challenge: clients often come in with strong ideas, but their slides are unclear, inconsistent, or just plain hard to follow.

So, in this blog, we’ll talk about what are the 7 Cs of presentation are & how to use them to make sure your slides actually do their job.

What are the 7 Cs of PowerPoint Presentations

Let’s get one thing straight. PowerPoint doesn’t ruin presentations. People do. Usually by stuffing too much into slides, rambling off-topic, or throwing in a chart that even they don’t understand. That’s where the 7 Cs come in.

Here's what they stand for:

1. Clear

   Your message has to be understood without explanation. If someone needs you to decode the slide for them, the slide failed. Clear slides don’t need a narrator.

   
   

2. Concise

   Every word counts. Every visual serves a purpose. This isn’t the place to show off your vocabulary or cram three ideas into one bullet. Get to the point. Then stop.

   
   

3. Compelling

   Information is easy to ignore. A message that connects to the audience’s goals, problems, or desires? Much harder to ignore. Good presentations speak to something bigger than the content itself.

   
   

4. Credible

   Facts. Proof. Logic. No vague claims. People can smell fluff a mile away. Your ideas need backup: data, case studies, quotes, whatever proves you know what you're talking about.

   
   

5. Consistent

   Design, tone, and flow need to feel like one story. One voice. One brand. One experience. Switching fonts or changing tone mid-deck is like changing the genre halfway through a movie. Confusing and jarring.

   
   

6. Creative

   Not for the sake of being “cool,” but for the sake of attention. If the design feels flat or generic, you’ve already lost half the room. Creativity helps your story stand out—visually and narratively.

   
   

7. Customer-focused

   Or audience-focused, really. The content isn’t about you, it’s about what they care about. Your slides should reflect their world, their priorities, their language. Otherwise, you're just talking to yourself.

   
   

You don’t need to memorize these like a high school exam. But if your slides don’t hit at least six out of seven, you're probably leaving clarity, credibility, or conversion on the table.

How to Use the 7 Cs in Your PowerPoint Presentations

The 7 Cs aren’t a finishing touch. They’re a foundation. So, if you’re serious about making your PowerPoint presentations work for you, not against you, here’s how you actually use each of these Cs in the trenches.

1. Clear: Start with one idea per slide

We’ve seen slides with five graphs, two quotes, and a confused presenter trying to “walk people through it.” If you’re walking someone through a maze, you’ve already lost them.

Clarity starts with intentional focus. Strip down every slide to one main idea. Ask yourself, “What do I want the audience to take away from this slide?” If you don’t know, they won’t either.

What this looks like in practice:

• Use short headlines that make a point, not just state a topic. Bad: “Market Overview "Better: “Our Market Share Has Doubled in 2 Years”

• If your slide has a chart, highlight what matters. Don’t make people interpret. Annotate the insight directly.

• Cut out the “nice to have” details. If it’s not moving the narrative forward, it’s in the way.

  
  

You’re not dumbing it down. You’re doing the heavy lifting so your audience doesn’t have to.

2. Concise: Ruthlessly edit yourself

Concise doesn’t mean incomplete. It means efficient. Every slide is prime real estate. Don’t waste it.

Here’s where people get it wrong—they try to put everything on the slide. That’s not what slides are for. Slides are support. You are the message. The slide should help you say it better, not louder.

Some ways to get there:

• Use fewer words. One powerful sentence beats a dense paragraph. Always.

• Bullet points? Limit them to three max. More than that, and you’re creating a reading list, not a slide.

• Visuals should replace text, not compete with it. If a picture says it better, use the picture. Don’t explain the picture and keep the text.

  
  

Being concise is not about minimalism. It’s about choosing what matters and dropping everything else.

3. Compelling: Make your message matter

We see this all the time—decks filled with information but no emotional anchor. No tension, no stakes, no “so what?” moment.

A compelling slide doesn’t just tell you something. It makes you feel something. And that only happens when you connect your message to the audience’s reality.

Here's how:

• Lead with the problem your audience cares about. Not the one you want to talk about.

• Use real examples. People respond to specifics, not abstractions.

• Frame benefits in terms of what it means for them. Not what it means for your team, your roadmap, or your success metrics.

  
  

Compelling means relevant, urgent, and framed in their language. Because nobody leans in for facts. They lean in for meaning.

4. Credible: Prove it like you mean it

We’ve sat in enough boardrooms to tell you—if your claim isn’t backed up, someone in the room is silently poking holes in it.

Credibility doesn’t mean loading your slides with charts and reports. It means showing just enough evidence to make the point stick, without overwhelming people with data for data’s sake.

Here’s what we recommend:

• Use one strong piece of evidence per point. Quality over quantity.

• If it’s a quote or testimonial, use the real name and title. Anonymous praise doesn’t build trust.

• If it’s a chart, show the source. Make it easy to believe.

  
  

Also, the way you design your slide affects credibility too. Poor alignment, inconsistent fonts, pixelated images, these things subconsciously erode trust. People don’t say it out loud, but it affects how seriously they take you.

Credibility is as much about presentation as it is about proof.

5. Consistent: Create a system, not a patchwork

You’ve seen them. The decks where slide one looks like a keynote, slide two looks like a Word doc, and slide five randomly has Comic Sans. It screams DIY.

Consistency doesn’t just look professional. It helps your message travel further without visual friction.

Here’s how we keep it tight:

• Use a grid. It’s the invisible structure that keeps everything aligned. Most people skip it. Don’t.

• Define a color palette and stick to it. One accent color is enough. Two, max.

• Keep font usage simple. One typeface, maybe two weights (bold and regular). That’s it.

• Reuse layout patterns. Create slide “families” so the deck feels cohesive, not like a Pinterest board of ideas.

  
  

You don’t need to be a designer. You just need to make fewer design decisions and repeat them.

6. Creative: Make it worth looking at

Creativity gets a bad rap in business presentations. People assume it means being flashy, gimmicky, or unserious. That’s not what we mean.

Creativity is about making your content memorable. And in a world of identical corporate decks, creative design is what breaks the scroll.

Here’s how to be creative without going overboard:

• Use metaphors. A good metaphor makes a concept instantly understandable.

• Break the mold with layout. Not every slide has to be a title and three bullets.

• Use high-quality visuals. Stock photos are fine if they don’t look like stock photos.

• Animate with intention. Motion should reinforce hierarchy or clarity, not distract.

  
  

Creativity helps people feel the message. When used right, it’s not decoration. It’s communication.

7. Customer-focused: Talk to them, not at them

This is the most overlooked C. The one people nod at but don’t practice. Because honestly, it’s hard. It requires stepping out of your own agenda.

When we say customer-focused, we mean every slide should serve the audience’s interest, not just the presenter’s.

Here’s what that looks like:

• Reframe your points in terms of what the audience gains or avoids. Example: Instead of “We’ve improved our backend systems,” say “You’ll now get faster response times and fewer errors.”

• Use their language. If they say “clients” and you keep saying “customers,” you’re creating distance.

• Anticipate their objections and address them before they ask.

• Don’t assume they care about your process. They care about outcomes.

  
  

When your presentation speaks their language, respects their time, and solves their problems, you stop being a vendor. You become a partner.

Example of a Presentation Designed Using the 7 C's

You can refer to this investor pitch deck, where we applied the 7C’s consistently from start to finish, delivering a truly impactful presentation.

Read Full Case Study: BOCACO Pitch Deck

Implementing the 7 Cs in Your Presentation Delivery

The 7 Cs are just as important in delivery as they are in slide content. Speak clearly and get straight to the point, highlighting the most important numbers or insights. Make your story compelling by emphasizing challenges, solutions, and results. Credibility comes from knowing your data inside out, so you can present confidently without hesitation. Consistency in tone and structure keeps the audience oriented, and creativity in visuals or explanations helps make complex data easy to understand.

Being customer-focused means keeping the audience’s perspective in mind at every moment. Watch their reactions and adjust your pace, ask small questions, or clarify points when needed. Concise delivery prevents overwhelm and ensures your main message lands. When you integrate these 7 Cs into how you present, your presentation becomes engaging, professional, and memorable.

Why Hire Us to Build your Presentation?

If you're reading this, you're probably working on a presentation right now. You could do it all yourself. But the reality is - that’s not going to give you the high-impact presentation you need. It’s a lot of guesswork, a lot of trial and error. And at the end of the day, you’ll be left with a presentation that’s “good enough,” not one that gets results. On the other hand, we’ve spent years crafting thousands of presentations, mastering both storytelling and design. Let us handle this for you, so you can focus on what you do best.

How To Get Started?

If you want to hire us for your presentation design project, the process is extremely easy.

Just click on the "Start a Project" button on our website, calculate the price, make payment, and we'll take it from there.

We look forward to working with you!

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