When you give a business presentation, the information you are presenting is important but not always the most interesting. You may have monthly meetings to update your team on a routine batch of figures. Regardless of the information you transmit, you know it will be boring.
How can you take a presentation for those basic facts and figures and turn them into something that your listeners will enjoy? The following are six ideas for a not so boring business presentation.
1. Transform Data into Images
If you must give a data-heavy presentation that will be comprised of a bunch of numbers, try to use imagery to describe the data. Just looking at a bunch of numbers is sleep-inducing, especially if there is not sufficient context describing what the numbers mean and why they are important.
You can prevent your audience from zoning out by giving them something to visualize. Think, for example, about the last time you listened to a weather report. The meteorologist did not give you the circumference of the hail that was falling. Instead, they said golf ball size hail or softball size hail. This makes the information presented relatable and memorable. You can do the same during your business presentations by paying attention to your business presentation design. The goal is to design business presentations that make you succeed.
2. Context Is King
Your presentation might come across as a dull because there is only a slight numerical change from the last time you presented information. For example, if you are required to present a report on market shares and you have the same market share since the last time you gave a presentation, why not give more context about the recent figures?
Discuss factors that influenced your company’s market share. Growth is the goal. However, there may be concrete factors that inhibited growth. Maybe there is a new competitor, so in that context holding onto the same market share from one quarter to the next is a positive thing. Or maybe your market share represents 60 percent of the market. These are positive pieces of context you can add to breathe life into your presentation.
3. Create an Aha Moment for Your Audience
Business presentations can seem boring if they are regurgitating information that the audience already knows. If you can give your audience something new, such as yet to be revealed insider information or the details of a conversation with an influencer in your field, your audience walks away with something of value. Even if the industry that you work in would be classified as boring, there are still ways that your presentation can engage your audience. The idea is offer more than just facts and figures.
4. View Your Business Presentation like a Sales Pitch
If you approach a business presentation from the standpoint of being the messenger, your presentation will be boring. However, if you see yourself as a salesperson, either pitching your idea or setting up the audience for a future pitch, you are likely to hold onto your audience’s attention.
As a salesperson, you are doing more than just rattling off features or benefits. You want to help your audience understand the purpose and the benefits of the information you have for sale. You want to stir emotion and motivate your listeners to action.
5. Make Tactful Use of Animation
There is a little bit of controversy with the use of animation in business presentations. Some see it as a distraction, and others view it as a powerful tool.
Most agree that if animation is used, it should be done precisely. Animation should give your audience a moment of visual interest. But you should be able to get your audience’s attention back on you and the message you are delivering. If you use too many flying objects, spinning objects, and moving objects, you might distract your audience from your message and lose their interest. However, when used sparingly, animation can make your presentation memorable.
6. Create Great Content
Overconfidence causes some presenters to become lazy. Instead of writing out what they will say and planning their words carefully, they just speak from the heart. They just end up rambling and lose the ability to control the presentation strategically.
If you create good content that is well-thought-out and meaningful, you prevent yourself from becoming a distraction. This means that you need to research your idea, write your idea, come up with presentation design, and then rehearse and practice it.
Giving a presentation might not be your favorite thing to do. However, if you can improve your presentation skills, you will improve your career. By using the above-mentioned steps, you can prevent your presentation from being boring.
