Congratulations on getting the opportunity to conduct your business presentation! A business presentation is a great avenue to talk about something you’re passionate about. It can also be a great opportunity to make partnerships, establish authority in the industry, and ultimately increase sales.
It can be a nerve-wracking moment when you’re finally up on that stage, in front of lots of people. You start getting sweaty and fear starts eating you up. What if you forget what you’re supposed to discuss? What if you bore your audience to death?
As these thoughts cause a lot of worries, there are also a lot of ways to prevent them from happening.
Here are 4 key things that you should nail for your business presentation.
1. Master Your Topic
This is the golden rule of thumb when it comes to getting ready for a business presentation. You have to know your topic like the back of your hand. Nothing can sway you during your presentation if you’ve mastered it beforehand.
One way you can do this is to practice your presentation in front of a mirror. In this process, you’ll be starting with getting comfortable in saying your presentation out loud. It gives you confidence in delivering your presentation.
After that, you can start presenting in front of a camera. Being able to watch your presentation after you do it will help you see what you did wrong and what you did well. You’ll be able to adjust accordingly to your strengths and weaknesses.
Finally, as a last step to the process, do your presentation in front of friends or family members. Presenting in front of live people will get you used to the feeling of an audience. It helps you stay calm when you face an even bigger crowd.
If you don’t have time to practice your presentation, you can always opt for cue cards. They are great small reminders for the points you’re supposed to discuss.
If you have a particularly long presentation, you can also use a piece of paper if you have quite a lot to discuss. Hide these prompters behind customized report covers. Using these report covers can help you stay on brand and make your prompters look like they’re not even prompters. It makes you look professional and helps out in reminding you what you’re supposed to discuss next.
2. Breathe Life Into Your Presentation
Your presentation will only be words on paper or a PowerPoint presentation if you don’t breathe life into it. It will only be a collection of statistics, facts, and calls to action if you don’t make it interesting. At the end of the day, making your presentation interesting will always fall on your shoulders.
The way you talk and act during your presentation will make all the difference. Studies show that at least 93% of our communication is actually nonverbal. This encompasses the inflection of our voice, our facial expressions, and our gestures.
How to know if you have good stage presence? This means that you’ll have to practice exuding confidence and being sensitive to your audience and their needs. It helps you connect with them, establishing a relationship and making them listen to you more carefully. Having a good presentation clicker can also significantly impact your stage presence and the effectiveness of your presentation. With a reliable and well-designed presentation clicker, you can seamlessly navigate through your slides, emphasizing key points easily and avoiding awkward pauses or technical difficulties. This, in turn, allows you to focus on your delivery, engaging your audience with your words, gestures, and expressions and making your presentation both informative and entertaining.
How to know if you have good stage presence? This means that you’ll have to practice exuding confidence and being sensitive to your audience and their needs. It helps you connect with them, establishing a relationship and making them listen to you more carefully.
3. The Art of Storytelling
Data and statistics can be effective tools in delivering compelling presentations. It can help people see better, understand better, and respond better.
But data and statistics can only take you so far. These tools, when used without context, can be confusing, misleading, and downright boring. To an uninformed audience, these are merely numbers and graphs on your presentation.
What gives these tools the power to move and inspire people is presenting them through storytelling. It gives these numbers shape, context, and purpose. It helps people understand the value of these numbers and how they can affect them.
In a study conducted at Stanford University, students were asked to present a one-minute speech. The speech should contain 3 statistics and 1 story. The study showed that only 5% of the students remembered 1 statistic and 63% of them remembered the story.
Stories give life to dull data and statistics. It keeps your presentation interesting and makes it relatable. Being able to master the art of storytelling will help you communicate and connect with your audience more effectively.
4. Communicate With Your Wardrobe
The way we dress for certain occasions influences how others perceive us. But studies show that it actually helps change the way we think as well.
A study has found that the way we dress can help influence our decision-making process. Aside from that, it can also help with abstract thinking which can be helpful in addressing questions and concerns of the audience.
This is why you should be able to dress depending on the formality of your presentation. If your audience and setting are formal, make sure to dress the part. It’ll help establish trust and authority on your topic. If it’s a more casual presentation, dressing too formally may make you look arrogant and standoffish.
So make sure you know the audience, setting, and event so you can dress accordingly.
Key Takeaway
Nailing a business presentation may take quite a few tries. It’s understandable if you don’t master all of the things we have discussed in the article instantly. Some of them need practice and some may need more preparation than others.
As a summary, here are the 4 key things you need to nail your business presentation:
- Master Your Topic
- Breathe Life into Your Presentation
- The Art of Storytelling
- Communicate With Your Wardrobe
Finding an article to help you out with your presentation is a great first step. It shows you’re determined to conduct your business presentation the best way you can.
Good luck with your presentation!
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