How to Nail Your Next Business Presentation

Love them or hate them, presentations are inevitable in any work-related environment. Public speaking or presentation is something that many people dread. And, unfortunately, it is a skill that is not taught in high schools. Nonetheless, you’ll never know when your boss will appoint you to give a presentation at the next meeting. For some employees, this isn’t much of an issue, but to others, it may require lots of preparation.

If you are in the latter category, here are the things you can do so you can have an excellent presentation at the next meeting.

1. Know The Participants and What You’ll Need

What is expected of you? Before you work on your presentation, you must know what will be expected from you, and what you’ll need to have. Will you need a projector, a PowerPoint presentation, a whiteboard, or will it just be verbal communication? If you aren’t sure of what is required, you can talk with your supervisor or your fellow employees.

At least some of them may have done some presentations, and they know how to go about it. After talking with them, you can come up with a list of requirements that you can use for your preparation. For example, you may need a laptop loaded with a PowerPoint slide master to prepare well for your presentation.

Apart from those requirements, you also must know your audience. Get to know their background and personalities so you’ll have a fruitful engagement.

Knowing their background is necessary to prepare relevant content. For example, if you are making a sales pitch, the content should be much about the company, the products you offer, and how the product can benefit the customer.

If you are pitching to investors, you can discuss the viability of your company, the reason you need financing, and how much you feel is adequate.

Service company

Knowing your audience will also help you feel comfortable before them.

2. Have a Well-Structured Presentation

In high school, you must have been taught how to structure your essays. The same skills will be required when preparing a presentation. You need to come up with an introduction that will capture the attention of your audience so they can be glued to your presentation until the end.

A poor introduction can put your audience off, and what follows the introduction may not matter at all to them. So you need to come up with catchy phrases in your introduction. Even the first sentence matters a lot.

Once you build a good introduction, move to the body of your presentation. Here is the part that you discuss what your presentation is all about. Just like in an essay, break it down into parts, with each part building on what you presented in the previous part.

It would help if you keep your audience engaged by asking questions, or cracking some jokes relevant to your topic. At the end of your presentation, you need some concluding statements. This is where you summarize what you’ve discussed and put emphasis on the areas you feel are important.

If possible, you can give room for the audience to ask questions. This would mean that you have to prepare well before the presentation.

Presentation

3. Practice and Practice

You might feel you have the content that will awe your audience, but on your presentation day, your mind can go blank. That’s why you need to practice a lot before the actual presentation day. Just prepare everything you need plus the content, then invite some of your colleagues and practice your presentation before them. At the end of your presentation, you can give them room to criticize you so you can make changes.

If you can’t get an audience, you can even practice alone at home. You can also visit the venue of your presentation ahead of time so you can be familiar with the place. If the place is far away from your workplace, you can call the organizers so they can describe the venue for you.

You also need to work on your voice. a good tonal variation is the best way to ensure your audience follow your presentation to the end.

Final Word

On the day of your presentation, ensure you carry everything you need. Come up with a checklist list early enough to ensure you don’t forget anything. In the course of your presentation, try to stay as calm as possible, and keep eye contact with your audience.

visiting the venue by yourself before the presentation day will be more beneficial because you’ll get to see the presentation space and decide which equipment can fit in.


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