Today, the business world develops fast and implements various techniques to operate successfully. A business presentation is one of the effective ways to stand out and manifest your strength. Entrepreneurs, marketers, and business owners deliver presentations to connect with their employees or collaborate with partners. Moreover, it is crucial for making a sale, forming a partnership, and raising capital.
Statistics show that 65.7% of presenters prefer to design presentations on their own, so it’s vital to master the art of efficient business presentations. Many are afraid of this routine task and public speaking, but no one will present your project better.
In this article, you will find the most useful presentation tips to support your ideas visually.
Significance of Business Presentations
Companies widely implement business presentation practices mainly to inform and motivate staff. It serves as a means of authority and trustworthiness in an entity’s engagement with clients and investors. An excellent business presentation ensures a strong corporate image and proves your professionalism. If you demonstrate a presentation for engaging with potential customers, it’s an effective decision-making tool. The manner of your presentation and striking visuals greatly influence the audience. You structurally present information about your product and services that allows it to be a universal communication tool. Moreover, you can use the presentation for paid-content platforms. Now you understand how important business presentation is for your company’s success.
The 10-20-30 Rule
Guy Kawasaki, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, has formulated the “10-20-30 rule” that is one of the fundamental presentation tips. It’s quite straightforward and requires your presentation to have ten slides, last about twenty minutes, and contain text written in thirty-point font size.
Ten slides in a presentation will allow participants to comprehend the message you deliver fully and not get tired. You can use this best slideshow maker or a standard PowerPoint tool. The time of presentation delivery should not exceed twenty minutes to have enough time for discussion. This timeframe is perfect for focusing on main presentation points and not including unnecessary facts.
Try not to overwhelm your slides with a lot of text, as it is hard for people to visually perceive data. Thirty-points font enables the speaker to deliver a presentation and engage with the audience successfully. Presenters usually add much text to their slides if they do not know the topic well and want to read text from the presentation. Once you use this font size, it allows you to add points containing the most important information and make your speech natural and interesting to follow.
4 Tips to Create a Great Business Presentation
Designing a business presentation requires careful planning and forethought. It’s not complicated if you understand what you are doing, for which purpose, and have a guide in front of you with clearly outlined steps. You can create in a few steps a beautiful presentation if you follow the guidelines listed below.
#1 Create Presentation Template
There are plenty of slideshow templates on the Internet, but how to choose the most appropriate for your presentation? If you plan to deliver presentations regularly, it’d be great to have a ready-made template that represents your company. It`ll facilitate the preparation process as you’ll have key elements to include in the presentation. So you should always have slides with a company logo, title, introduction, content, main data, FAQ, call to action, and thank you slide.
Take into account that people pay most attention to slides with the main content. Other slides may require insignificant modifications for specific presentations. We suggest some ideas for slides: for example, use the image as the background for all slides. Make sure it is transparent enough so that the text is visible. A chessboard is an example of a stylish business presentation.
Your presentation should not be solely textual, as images, tables, charts, and graphs are important for better data perception. They help to present numerical data accurately and make the presentation lively and memorable. You should always use backup software to not risk crucial data for your presentation.
#2 Thoroughly Study the Topic and Learn About Your Audience
It’s important you have an excellent command of what you present to the audience. When you fully understand the topic, you will confidently deliver the message, persuade people, and are not nervous about questions they may ask. Mind that with the proper equipment, you can avoid many challenges and focus on the message you deliver.
We recommend exploring the target audience and their interests. If you deliver a presentation for representatives of the younger generation, consider including bright images or memes concerning the topic. In order to gain their interest, you need to present the information they need. Tailor it to their preferences, and you will get impressive results.
#3 Plan the Structure of Your Presentation
Preparing a plan and reviewing different ideas for slides is a must for a successful presentation. Planning the structure of your presentation will help you stick to the topic and avoid missing important details. Some aspects will take more time, and some may need sub-paragraphs. Structuring considerably facilitates the process. You may use it in the table of contents in the presentation and send it to the meeting participants.
#4 Prepare for Potential Questions
It’d be great to prepare notes for questions from the audience so as not to get confused. You can understand the topic well but know more than you tell and cover in the presentation. Prepare answers to several popular questions and keep them in front of you. You may also back up your answers with data in your presentation, so write down the number of main slides and what they’re about.
Preparing to Successfully Deliver Your Presentation
These business presentation tips will help you prepare for the speech and organize crucial data in the best possible way. You will not have to worry about the audience being distracted, information useless, and speech unimpressive. We hope you learn how to do your best and achieve success.
Rehearse Your Speech
You should prepare the speech in advance and rehearse it many times to be more confident. Besides, it will allow you to see if you fit the timeframes. Make sure you have time for delivering the main information and answering questions. The tone, speed, and pitch of your voice influence listeners, so lower and raise your voice to emphasize the core message and influence the audience.
Establish Eye Contact
Personalize your interactions with people with the help of eye contact. Look at people’s eyes to understand whether they get the message you try to convey. Look at people’s reactions to see whether they nod and agree with your statements.
Meeting the eyes of every person, so they see every individual is important for you. Do not keep long eye contact as a person may feel uncomfortable. It is recommended to look in the person’s eye as long as one sense from your speech lasts.
Eye contact shows emotions and interest, that’s why it’s crucial to interact with the audience visually. If you feel too nervous, focus on several people you know and look at them for enhancing confidence. Look at different people, from left to right and vice versa, not look predictable and stuck at one point.
For instance, learn your audience before presentation as for some cultures, it is inappropriate to look in the eyes, especially for representatives of the opposite sex.
Use Your Enthusiasm
Show your interest in the subject to convey your passion to the listeners. If you are reluctant about the presentation topic, anyone will pay attention and like it. The tone of your voice and body language indicate your enthusiasm.
Before delivering the presentation, take the power posture with your arms extended to feel more confident and free. Do vocal preparations to attract the audience’s attention at once.
It’s also essential to be full of energy and relaxed. If you are tired, there will be no enthusiasm in delivering the presentation. Thus, avoid making the presentation the night before the speech.
Interact with the Audience
Use creative ideas for slides and make the presentation dynamic and versatile to keep the audience awake. It’d be great to ask a rhetorical question before presenting the material. It’ll warm up the audience and make them focus on what you deliver.
Try to build your speech the way to answer this question in the course of the presentation. It’ll look informative, useful, and engaging. Involve people in the discussion by asking simple questions or their opinion. They may also raise their hands if you ask them to agree with specific ideas.
Another interesting way to interact with people is to address their experience, for example, “we all know that using” or “everyone was in the situation when”, etc. Tell your life stories connected to the subject or even jokes to clear the air.
Final Thoughts
Many great speakers delivering their presentations adhere to these tips as an element of successful communication. They assist in elevating personal and company status as well as attracting clients or investors. Choose a good tool to create slideshows online, establish eye contact, interact with your audience, be enthusiastic, and make use of the best template for a successful presentation. If you follow these presentation tips in the business environment, it will make a lasting impression and people will address you over and over again.
