Presenting in front of many professionals can be a nightmare when you think you aren’t fully prepared. Even worse, when someone like your managers, boss, or investors are in the room together with you.
If this is your case, then don’t worry, because we have found the right tips for you.
Today, we are going to show you seven tips to help you create the ideal business presentation.
7 tips for making the best business presentation
1.Know what you are talking about
Now, this may sound really obvious, but before you ever present anything to anybody else, you have to initially know the whole idea of the product or service or whatever you are presenting is all about.
Whenever you present in front of an audience, you want to be sure you aren’t trying to read off the slides, looking like you have absolutely no clue what you are talking about. This will make you look unsure and maybe even boring during the business presentation.
In case someone asks you a question, you will quickly know how to reply to their question. Whichever slide you are presenting, back it up with a logical answer and statistics.
2.Organize your data and information
The sooner you find out who your persona is, the sooner you will be able to find out how to organize the correct data needed in your business presentation.
Data is undoubtedly the best resource you can have to convince an audience to buy your product or service and persuade investors. So, pay close attention and choose carefully the kind of data you will be using in your business presentation.
The better you are at gathering data for your audience, the easier it’ll be for you to face any challenges when answering questions. The sharpness of the data you include will also influence your audience’s decision-making and make sure their attention is at the maximum level.
You can try using Pitch’s software that allows you to create your first presentation in the fastest way possible. The best part is that this presentation maker is free of charge!
3.Include the goals of the business presentation early
According to a study done, the average maximum attention span of an adult is roughly 20 minutes. If your audience knows their purpose from the beginning of the presentation, then they are more well-informed of what your whole idea is while you go through the business presentation.
This influences decision-making at the end, whether you are trying to change their minds or come to an agreement with them.
Focusing on the goal earlier in the presentation will also help you focus on it as a primary purpose instead of going astray from what the overall business presentation stands for.
4.Include the credibility along with a story
Whatever you include in your business presentation, you must establish the necessary credibility in everything you are saying. Instead of only seeking to present all of this material, back it up with information that supports what you are saying and gives it credibility. For example, you show a picture of stats on how investors will profit from you in the next two years or something else.
Additionally, you can reference research and even try including quotes that will support your presentation.
Alright, now, let’s use the power of telling a story. It can be a story of the brand or even about your customers.
Let’s take Steve Jobs as an example when he first introduced the iPhone in 2007. He told a story about Apple and how his innovation of the iPhone changed the entire smartphone industry.
You can use the same tactics as highlighting the issues within an industry and how your product or service will solve this problem. Back in 2007, no phone was like the iPhone, so this phone looked like gold compared to the rest. Even before Steve Jobs ended the presentation, he already had everyone wanting to buy the iPhone.
Also, let’s not forget that Steve Jobs wasn’t getting too technical, but instead of stating the amount of storage the phone had, he just said it could fit 1000 songs. Brilliant!
The goal here is to establish some emotional connection with your audience, so your message hits a home run. Don’t get boring, but make people go wild about your idea through your story.
5.Use visuals
Visuals help your audience remember information much faster than they would without them. According to a study, people will remember 80% of what they see compared to 10% of what they hear and 20% of what they read.
Pictures, videos, and even art are great forms of content you can share on your PowerPoint slides to present to your audience. For instance, visual flowcharts can help break down and discuss complex topics.
Other than that, you could consider using data visualization that includes different types of charts like pie and bar charts to make numbers and stats look more attractive to your audience.
Whenever you are doing a business presentation, something important to remember is that you shouldn’t aim to always overload slides with a bunch of text. Everyone gets bored of overloaded information, so visuals make it enjoyable, short, and simple to explain.
6.Use the 10-20-30 rule
Guy Kawasaki is an American marketing venture capitalist and marketing specialist who came up with the 10-20-30 rule for presentations back in 2005.
The American venture capitalist kept listening to many presentations and concluded that most of them were just boring and repetitive. To avoid this and have people’s attention at all times, he came up with the 10-20-30 rule.
10 represents the number of slides that should be included in a business presentation. At the same time, Kawasaki stated that it was enough to avoid information overload and avoid issues like your audience losing focus.
20 stands for the number of minutes an average person can actually pay attention while they are listening. Beyond that, their minds will start to wander off, and this is where it will influence decision-making in the end as well. Kawasaki mentions that the last 40 minutes of a presenter’s hour should be set up with a Q & A session.
30 stands for the font size that should be used in order that everyone is able to read the presentation, even those that are in the back of the room. Additionally, Kawasaki states that because of the font size used, presenters can use less text and make the presentation more interesting.
Moreover, we understand that sometimes you might have to present more information, which may not apply to your case, but carefully revise this rule and try to incorporate what you can.
7.Don’t forget to add some humor and smile
When a presentation is long, nothing can make it more relaxing and exciting than someone who makes you laugh.
Everybody loves to laugh, and having a serious tone throughout the presentation isn’t something you want. Have a friendly conversation and make light jokes that can help retain the attention of your audience.
But don’t forget that this is a business presentation, so you don’t want to start making heavy jokes and becoming a comedian where people won’t take you seriously.
If you just aren’t good with humor, then don’t force it. It isn’t necessary, but what you can do is to smile. You aren’t a robot, so smiling is something everyone loves to see. Your audience will respond better once they see you are personalizing interactions with them while presenting.
Try to include eye contact with most of your audience and smile at them. It’ll also make them feel good. This way, no matter how the business presentation ends, you left a good impression!
Wrapping up your 7 tips
That’s about it for this article. Hopefully, it helped you clarify the methods you can start using to increase the quality of your business presentation. Remember, leaving a good first impression is vital for a successful business presentation.
This article goes in-depth on how important personalized interaction is with an audience while presenting. If there’s a specific tip we mentioned that caught your attention, then we recommend you sit down and spend time researching and analyzing it. The overall chances are that you will be able to improve the quality of your presentation through that tip.
Use the resources you have, along with the tips we gave you, and see what you can do to improve your presentation. Include great visuals, write engaging text, use an interesting tone of voice, don’t be boring, and we are confident that your audience will love to hear everything you have to say throughout the presentation.
