TJ Walker advises that there is no fixed ideal number of PowerPoint slides. Instead, the perfect number equals the number of slides the audience remembers and understands after the presentation. He recommends practicing the presentation with colleagues beforehand and keeping only slides that audience members recall and associate with the intended message.
How many slides should you have in a PowerPoint presentation? Five? No. 10? No. 7? That's not the issue. You're asking the wrong question about wanting a specific number. The perfect number is the number of slides your audience remembers after you've given a presentation. So if you're giving a PowerPoint presentation to 30 business prospects on Thursday, practice in front of a couple of colleagues Tuesday at lunch, any slide they remember and they remember the message associated with it works. Keep it even if it's 100. Any slide they don't remember and they don't remember the message associated if they didn't remember the slide. By definition, doesn't work. If you had only two slides and they don't remember the messages and they don't remember what was on it, then throw both of those slides in the trash can. You had two too many. The perfect number, the number your audience remembers and understands.
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