If you are an entrepreneur looking for investors for your next great idea or a small business owner or an employee at an organization, you are likely to need stellar business presentation skills from time to time. Here are a few tips you can use to guarantee impact wherever you are presenting, to lead you towards the best possible outcome.
1. Use a Storytelling Approach
The last thing potential investors, CEOs, or even fellow businessmen want is to hear a boring lecture especially if it is on an industry they are already well-acquainted with. While you do not need to conjure fiction, create a narrative that your audience can follow easily while you explain your key points. Sometimes a narrative or a story can make a product pitch, sales pitch, or a new business concept easier to digest and increase your chances of success. With a storytelling approach, you can also involve the emotions of your audience who are then more likely to listen to your research and sales forecasting data.
2. Curate Your Information
While you may be remarkably knowledgeable about your field or your business idea, you need to curate your information in an organized and understandable fashion. If you stuff too much information in your slides, your listeners can rapidly lose interest or even lose track. Be sure to use small phrases or sentences for each of your slides and then elaborate on the rest verbally to show your understanding of the subject. If your audience feels you are reading from the slides, they may assume you don’t know enough or are not confident in your abilities. You can always make notes or flashcards to refer to points if you feel you may forget them during the presentation.
3. Speak Like a Pro
Body language in some cases is just as important as verbal communication so be sure to dress appropriately in clothing you find appealing and comfortable and maintain a strong posture and nonchalant expression. Keep your voice even and steady, avoid stammering on words and speak rather slowly so that your speech has more weight and can be easily understood. While you must maintain a formal stance, you can let your enthusiasm for the concept or project leak through and a few well-timed jokes may also be well received. However, if you go for a very informal style that can make you lose credibility in front of your superiors. Use PowerPoint templates to make an impressive presentation and then execute it to the best of your ability.
4. Impressive Visuals
A presentation should never just be crammed full of words. Use diagrams, statistical drawings, product mockups, 3D icons, and other types of PowerPoint presentation tools (many free ones are available online and can be downloaded for presentations) to make a powerful impression and give the audience some visual appeal. You may find that using fewer words is more effective because it gives you more space and time to showcase your passion for the concept rather than leaving the audience to read a lengthy paragraph.