24. Peculiarities of presentations

8 Secrets to a Knockout Business Presentation You can give a great business presentation. Really.

From Darrell Zahorsky, former About.com Guide

See More About:

• business presentations

• public speaking

• using powerpoint

• slide projectors

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The presentation is starting. Dim the lights. Time for a nap. These are the thoughts of many audiences subject to yet another boring business presentation. How can you awaken the cognitive powers of your audience? Start by learning the 8 secrets of a knockout business presentation.

Dig Deep: Having an effective business presentation that will have the audience on their feet requires more than the usual factoid dropped into your PowerPoint. Find a relevant fact beyond your topic norm. Give them the unexpected. The one obscure and contradictory piece of information that will raise heads and stimulate discussion. Where do you find such information? Go past the typical quick search engine scan. Check out educational websites for new research, interview industry mavericks, or scour the business press.

Avoid Info Overload:

PowerPoint expert Cliff Atkinson, author of Beyond Bullet Points says, "When you overload your audience, you shut down the dialogue that's an important part of decision-making." He points to some important research by educational psychologists. "When you remove interesting but irrelevant words and pictures from a screen, you can increase the audience's ability to remember the information by 189% and the ability to apply the information by 109%," recommends Atkinson.

Practice Delivery:

A knockout business presentation is so captivating it makes you forget about the speaker and become absorbed in the talk. Practice your delivery over and over until you remove the distractions including nervous tics and uncomfortable pauses. Pay particular attention to your body language. Is it non-existent or overly excessive? Good presenters work the stage in a natural manner.

Forget Comedy:

Business presenters will flirt with the temptation to deliver the stand up humor of Chris Rock. Remember your audience didn't come to laugh; this is a business presentation. Leave your jokes at home. It's ok to throw in a few natural off the cuff laughs but don't overdo it.

Pick Powerful Props:

You don't need a box full of props like the watermelon-smashing comic, Gallagher. A few simple props to demonstrate a point can be memorable in the minds of your target audience. Management guru, Tom Peters, uses a cooking timer to show how quickly factory expansion is occurring in China.

Minimize You:

"Frankly, your audience doesn't care as much about your company history, as they do about whether you can help them solve the specific problems they face. Write a script for your presentation that makes the audience the protagonist, or the main character, who faces a problem that you will help them to solve," says Atkinson.

Speak the Language:

A knockout business presentation doesn't leave people wondering what you said. It might be tempting to throw in a few big words but are you alienating your audience? Always explain terms and acronyms. The number of smart executives who aren't up on the latest terminology would surprise you.

Simple Slides:

Beware of the PowerPoint presentation. Many corporate brains will turn off at the sight of yet another PowerPoint presentation. Over 400 million desktops currently have the PowerPoint application. If you want your business to stand out, don't be like everyone else. Use slides in your knockout presentation to highlight and emphasize key points. Don't rely on your slide projector to run the show.

It all comes down to what your audience walks away with in the end. Did you deliver another boring business presentation? Or did you persuade or motivate everyone to action? Apply the 8 secrets to a knockout presentation and watch your ratings soar.

PRESENTATIONS Useful Phrases Presentation Vocabulary Presentation Basics
Preparation is essential for an effective presentation. When giving a presentation, certain keywords are used to signpost the different stages. It's a good idea to memorize them and practise using them, so that they come to mind easily during a presentation.
►Starting the presentation	• Good morning/good afternoon ladies and gentlemen •The topic of my presentation today is ... • What I'm going to talk about today is ...
►Why you are giving this presentation	•The purpose of this presentation is ... •This is important because ... • My objective is to ...
►Stating the main points	•The main points I will be talking about are firstly ... secondly... next, finally... we're going to look at ...
►Introducing the first point	• Let's start/begin with ...
►Showing graphics, transparencies, slides etc.	• I'd like to illustrate this by showing you...
►Moving on to the next point	• Now let's move on to ...
►Giving more details	• I'd like to expand on this aspect/problem/point • Let me elaborate on that • Would you like me to expand on/elaborate on that?
►Changing to a different topic	• I'd like to turn to something completely different
►Referring to something which is off the topic	• I'd like to digress here for a moment and just mention that ...
►Referring back to an earlier point	• Let me go back to what I said earlier about ...
►Summarizing or repeating the main points	• I'd like to recap the main points of my presentation - first I covered - then we talked about - finally we looked at • I'd now like to sum up the main points which were:
►Conclusion	• I'm going to conclude by... saying that/inviting you to/ quoting ... • In conclusion, let me... leave you with this thought/invite you to
►Questions	• Finally, I'll be happy to answer your questions. • Now I'd like to invite any questions you may have. • Do you have any questions?