The second of a two-part article on presentations:
Last time we looked at: Read Part 1 again – http://bit.ly/L1QFlW
1. Understanding your audience and make a connection with them
2. Understanding the defined objective
3. Too much data? – less is more – try and keep to 3 points
4. Writing your presentation
Now to continue:
5. Excite your audience
- Be confident
- think about your beginning and end. Don’t leave it to inspiration on the wing.
- How can you excite?
- Confidence issues? practise and practise and master the art of deep breathing
If you’re presenting to a larger audience in a large room, then you need to check out the room first, pillars, sight lines, lights, microphone etc.
6. Death by Power Point
- more than 300 million people use PowerPoint in the world (that is a scary statistic!
- Only use to visualise your ideas
- create key points. Use to impress
- Make eye contact with audience and never read from a slide
- It must never be a data dump. Never have a slide which you have to preface with ‘I know this next slide is hard to read….. 3 – 4 lines per slide
- Try alternatives – have you played with Prezi yet? http://prezi.com/
- Including a slide specific to your audience would be great, eg if they are a particular football team fan, other sport, interest, incorporate that slide somewhere relevantly into your presentation.
- Always have a copy of your notes on paper. Just in case!
Aim to produce a presentation that makes yours stand out from all the rest and one that people will remember after the event.
7. Wrap Up
- “Just to recap, I told you at the beginning that …; then we looked at YY and ZZ”
- Collect questions as you go through the presentation and answer at the end
- If you’re asked about the competition, take great care. Never ever ‘diss’ the competition, rather reinforce your company’s benefits over your competitor’s offerings (you have done your competitor analysis, haven’t you)?.
- If a sales pitch, then a good way to end is “What, if anything, would prevent you from taking the next step with me right now?” – promotes conversation
- Repetition and reinforcement if necessary. Let’s quickly review….
- Thank for their time and for listening. Invite questions