If you’re running a business, you’ll have to give a business presentation at some point. No matter if you want to attract an investor or land an important client, the way you give your presentation can mean the difference between success and failure. The most important thing to remember is that there’s a big gap between a good presentation and a great presentation. With that said, you should keep coming up with ways to give a more powerful business presentation. And to help you, we came up with five tips that are guaranteed to help you do that.
1. Establish your credibility at the beginning
Let’s face it; your presentation will be more effective if your audience finds you credible. But you can’t just start going through your PowerPoint slides and hope you seem trustworthy enough. Instead, what you need to do is come up with a way to establish credibility. We recommend starting with a short story about your background or an experience that convinced you that becoming an entrepreneur is a good idea. You can also use infographics that will lay the groundwork for what you’ll talk about later. Practice your intro and think about how credible you’d find someone who started their presentation that way.
2. Choose the right fonts and colors
You don’t have to be a graphic designer to make your presentation visually appealing. PowerPoint is an easy tool to use and as long as you know your way around a PC, you’ll have nothing to worry about. The most important thing to do is create a visual consistency that’ll keep your audience engaged. This means you need to choose the background picture and font you’ll use in your presentation and stick to them. When choosing colors, be sure to create enough contrast so that your text is easy to read. Instead of guessing, you can use a color contrast calculator to see what would look best in your presentation.
3. Give effective presentation handouts
The whole point of giving a presentation is to send a message to your audience. To make sure your presentation is effective, you can give everyone in your audience a handout so they can take notes. The best thing about it is that it’ll help you show your audience that you care. Just get a ballpoint pen and a piece of paper with your contact information for everyone in your audience and you’ll be good to go. They’ll be more relaxed as they can take notes and prepare questions for your Q&A sessions at the end. If you cite any research in your presentation, include references in your handouts as well. Learn more Effective Presentation Training Tips here.
4. Don’t forget to practice
Creating your presentation at the last minute isn’t going to do you any good. The worst part is that you won’t have enough time to practice it. No matter how confident you are, sitting down and thinking about what exactly you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it is critical to giving a good presentation. Ideally, you’ll be able to find someone who’ll listen to your presentation and give you their honest opinion on it. Practicing your presentation is also the only way to check your timing and ensure it doesn’t last longer than your allotted time.
5. Prepare for a Q&A session at the end
Answering questions is a big part of giving a presentation. Don’t give your audience a chance to ask you questions and nobody will take you seriously. However, if you’re going to have a Q&A session at the end of your presentation, knowing how to deal with questions is a must. Firstly, bear in mind that nobody in your audience will ask questions to trip you up. They’ll do it because they genuinely want to hear your answer, which means that there’s nothing to worry about. Also, deal with the fact that you can’t anticipate all the questions you get. Just know your facts and you’ll do fine.
Giving a good presentation isn’t as easy as some people would have you believe. But even if you’re not a natural-born speaker, you can still do it. Follow the 5 tips we’ve talked about earlier and there should be nothing stopping you from acing your next business presentation.
