Business Presentation

You have started a home-based-business but now you actually have to go out and talk to humans to sell your product or service.

Worse yet, you have to talk to GROUPS of humans.

That would be great except that you are VERY NERVOUS in front of people.

Let me help you out. Once you know the attributes of effective business presentations for your home-based-business you can watch your results in front of people soar.

Attribute 1: Know your product backwards and forwards

We stumble in front of people often because we do not know our product or service. You have a lot of resources including those that are in the business with you, the company itself and the internet. Remember that if you know what you are talking about, that should ease your mind.

Attribute 2: Understand why your audience is there

You got in the business because of a presentation you got. What was your mindset going in? What were YOU expecting to learn? What made YOU respond? Try to put yourself in the shoes of the audience and that will give you a leg up in delivering your presentation.

Attribute 3: Remember, people care about themselves

This sounds like a negative but it is not and it dovetails on #2 above. All of us wonder “what is in it for me,” when doing anything. You do it yourself. When you looked to buy a dining room table, for example, would you respond better to a salesperson that asked you how much you had to spend or would you respond better to one that asked you in-depth questions about the layout of your dining room, how many people you had in your family, etc.

Remember, people what to know what is in it for them, so make sure you make your presentation about THEM and not what you want (obviously, a sale). The old axiom that says “give them what they want to get what you want” certainly applies here!

Attribute 4: Be real and be you

You do not have to be a cold, hard, fact giver. People buy from people they like. You have GOT TO BE LIKED to deliver a good business presentation. You have the potential to have a lifelong relationship with the people you sell to so just be you. Be the professional you, of course, but do not be afraid to let YOU shine through.

Presentation pre-preparation is essential, but when the presentation includes data and analysis it is critical. Why? Because the information is typically complex and often numbers are involved. Get it wrong and your audience can draw the wrong conclusion. But may consultants don’t know how to prepare. Here’s my recommendation, observe professional comedians.

Last year I watched a recording of myself doing a presentation. I did a good job but not a great job. I thought that I needed to inject some humour into the presentation. So I took a course in comedy.

But the course wasn’t quite what I expected. It didn’t, for example, teach how to tell jokes or do funny voices. But it did teach what the instructor called comedy fundamentals. And what I found interesting was the fundamentals of comedy applied equally to the fundamentals of presenting with data or analysis. Here’s what I learned and what you should do too.

1. Write like you speak.

When building your presentation speak it out loud, then stop and write it down. By capturing the natural rhythm of your voice and using words with which you are comfortable, you will sound natural. For example here’s a short paragraph from a presentation I did recently.

“Last month all of your projects came in late. The key reason was that you put due dates on the tasks. Instead of doing the tasks as quickly as possible the project managers tired to time it so they came in on the due date, and often something went wrong and they were late.”

2. Rehearse out loud and on your feet.

Now reread what you’ve written whilst standing up. This time make a mark every time you take a breath. This gives the added benefit of helping you slow down and sound even more conversational. See below how I captured the rhythm of how I talk.

“Last month all of your projects came in late the key reason was that you put due dates on the tasks Instead of doing the tasks as quickly as possible the project managers tired to time it so they came in on the due date but often something went wrong and they were late.”

3. Emphasise key words.

Finally I want to emphasis key words so my audience really sit up and listen. Here’s how it looks.

“Last month all of your projects came in late the key reason was that you put due dates on the tasks Instead of doing the tasks as quickly as possible the project managers tired to time it so they came in on the due date but often something went wrong and they were late.”

Underlining helps me to modulate my voice and really make the important words hit home. And one final tip I learned was to do one hour of preparation for every minute of your presentation. If comedians take their presentations that seriously shouldn’t you do too?

Business professionals or even non business professionals use Microsoft PowerPoint to represent his thoughts, plans and innovative ideas. With the help of multimedia projector and wide screen computer monitor, presentation becomes easier. Through the slides the thoughts of the presenter expressed. Power point slides give the audience better experience since they can enjoy visual presentation. So the success of the entire presentation depends mostly on preparing good slides. So you may think what should be the best ways to prepare the slide. There is no hard and fast rule for doing this. Here I can give a brief discussion and tips about making the presentation more attractive.

First thing you should keep in mind that you need to understand about your presentation materials and your audience. The age, education level and mentality of the audience should be understood earlier. The time of the presentation is another factor you need to think before going to make a presentation slide.

The outlines of the presentation should be given at the beginning so that audience can be aware of the themes of the entire slide show.

1. The background color of the slide should not be to light or too dark. Don’t use too many color in a slide. This will make the slide uglier. Dark background gives eye pain to the audience since it would be difficult for them to see and understand the slide properly. Try to use white or other bright background color and it should be tested if you are going to use multimedia projector.

2. The size of the font should not be too small or too large. Try to limit within 2/3 font styles. Make sure that your slide can be seen from the last corner of the room. You should select such font that can be easily readable. Normally you can use at best 7 lines text in one slide and font size should between around 32.

Don’t fill up your slide with too many texts. Use points to make the slide more understandable and easily grasped by the audience.

3. Try to use capital letter in the title or heading. It is unwise to use capital letter for the entire slide. Use the word that is commonly used and easily understood.

4. You can use picture, videos and screen shots in the slide. It will give better viewing experience to the audience.

5. You can use animation to your slide. But using too much animation is also disturbing for the audience. I suggest you not to use much animation.

6. In professional presentation, it is not wise to use too many slides. If the number of slide is large, the viewers get bored and exhausted.

Success of any presentation depends on lots of factors. If you follow the above guidelines I belief you can make a good slide and reach the audience easily. And by practicing you can also develop better mechanism and ways to make your slide more attractive and unique.

Spiral binding is a great and simple way to create great looking business presentations. Here are a few tips to get you started.

Creating the Presentation:

There are a few different programs you can use to create your presentation, depending on what the purpose of your document is. In some cases, you can use MS Word to create your pages. If you are adept at any of the layout programs, however, such as Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress, that may be a better way to go. These programs let you import photographs and other graphics with ease, and give you a lot more creative freedom to make your pages really look great. If you are comfortable designing the pages yourself, great, if not you can hire a pro or get someone in your graphics department to do it for you.

Printing and Punching:

Use the best printing capability that you have, or take your pages elsewhere to get them printed in very high quality. For the most part, with spiral coil binding, you will want to use standard 8.5 by 11 sheets. You can either find the pages pre-punched, or use your binding machine to do the punching yourself. If you are using pre-punched sheets and are doing the printing yourself, make sure that you place the sheets with the holes to the left side of the printer. You may want to print a test sheet to make sure you have your orientation correct.

If you are punching the pages yourself, make sure that you stay well within the manufacturer’s stated sheet punching capacity. Staying within that number will help ensure that you get the cleanest punch, and will make the binding process a lot easier as well as making the finished product look more attractive overall. Punch your covers if need be, or pick up some pre punched covers.

Organizing and Binding:

Place your pages in order and put your covers in the correct places. If you have a machine, place the book and spiral coil in the rollers and let them do the work according to the specific instructions on your binding machine. If you are using a kit, or there is not a spiral coil inserter on your machine, place the book on a table with the holes off to the side and start to wind the coil through them (depending on the type of spine you have chosen, this may be as easy as placing the spine in the holes and snapping them together).

Once the coil is through the holes make sure that you crimp the ends of the wire to ensure that is will not spin its way out of the booklet during normal use. This is a simple step that many people forget, but one that is very important if you want a booklet that stays together. If you are going to be doing a lot of this type of binding, it may be worth your while to pick up some special crimping pliers that were created just for the purpose of securing spiral bound documents

If your business requires you to travel internationally, or meet regularly with people of other countries, are you aware of what your gestures and body language are communicating? We all know that different cultures have different gestures and different levels of comfort with certain body language, but do you know the specifics for the nationalities you deal with? You should, as your trustworthiness and credibility may be at stake. Here are a few tips to remember about your body language in your next international meeting.

Don’t use “signs” with your hands- You may have no idea what your commonly used symbol means in other countries. Here are some examples – the ok sign so commonly seen in the US means worthless or zero in France. Worse yet, in Brazil it is considered vulgar, so you might get slapped if you flash it to a woman from that country. The thumbs up symbol that is widely recognized in the western world as a positive sign means “get stuffed”, or something very close to that in Bangladesh. At best, your audience may have no clue what your gesture means; at worst it may be offensive. Best bet – just keep any signs for your fellow countrymen!

Don’t wave your arms – Talking with your hands is common – and nearly expected in Italy, but in many Asian cultures it is considered distracting, a sort of meaningless chatter. Your best chance of having your speech or presentation have worldwide appeal is to keep your arm movements to a minimum.

Keep your distance, maybe – Knowing what is expected in the culture you’re visiting or working with is important. For instance, in the UK, Canada and the US, we’re most comfortable with somewhere around 18-24 inches distance between us when we talk. In other parts of Europe, they prefer to be a bit closer, about 14-16 inches difference. In Asian countries, they like even more distance – as much as 36 inches in Japan. But, in Middle Eastern cultures, standing 24-36 inches away from your associate would make you seem very untrustworthy. They prefer a distance of around 8-12 inches between parties when talking.

Your body language is crucial when conducting business. International negotiations can be difficult enough without having your body unintentionally send insulting or inappropriate messages. So take care… and maybe sit on your hands!

Right off the bat I’m going to make this process fifty percent easier for you. Never write a Top 10 list. Make it a Top 5 because:

First, it’s hard to come up with 10 really funny things. The only reason David Letterman gets laughs all the way through is he has a band punching it up with rim shots and musical cues.

Second, audiences have really short attention spans. When I started customizing Top 10 lists for clients it was apparent from the very first one that 10 was too much of a good thing.

Third, it’s much easier!

Jeff’s golden rule for Top 5 lists is, “End on the funniest, begin with the second funniest and put the other three in the middle.”

How to write it:

1. Pick a subject (ie, Rolling Stones) and make a list of everything you can think of regarding this subject, especially nouns or phrases,. In this case, that would include song titles.

My list would include the following, plus much more. (The more the better):

Brown Sugar

Jumpin’ Jack Flash

Big Lips

Drugs

Can’t Get No Satisfaction

Rock and Rollers

Start Me Up

2. Now pick an adjective that describes your subject. The first one that comes to mind for my example of Rolling Stones is “old”.

3. Now make another list of everything that you can think of that has to do with getting old, such as:

Walker

Bran

Polygrip

Senile

Social Security

Medicare

Viagra

Geritol

Respirator

Catheter

Gas

4. Now choose one item from each group and put them together with a little exaggeration to form your idea. In this case, it will be titles for their 2008 tour. Write 15 or twenty and pick your best 5.

The Top 5 names for the Rolling Stones tour are…

5. Big Lips and Polygrip tour.

4. The Brown Sugar and Bran tour.

3. Hey, you get off my Catheter tour.

2. Jumpin’ Jack flash has gas, gas, gas tour

1. Start me up with Viagra tour.

In my corporate workshops, I teach the group how to write Top 5 Lists on subjects meaningful to them like,

“The Top 5 things you’d never hear from a customer, the government, accounting, management.”

They come up with, “Could you please keep me on hold longer? I was enjoying the Musak.” or “The budget is just a suggestion.”

The groups must write their own lists to present at the end of the session. After the laughter subsides, I point out that if they reverse the Top 5 list they’ve identified five negative things they actually do hear from their customers etc… Then we spend time developing humorous and appropriate responses for when those situations occur.

So give it a shot. Pick a subject and an adjective that describes your subject, make your lists and see what you laughs you can create.

by Jeff Justice

Many of you might be misunderstood that being funny on stage means you have to dress up as a clown or a court jester in order to please your audiences. It has to be ardently funny, elegant and professional when you present your business ideas to your clients as a method of seeking close rapport with your audiences.

Therefore, you are required to levitate your sense of humor by expressing it via your presentation slides. There is one pioneer in making laughter via PowerPoint in stand up comedy – Tim Lee; who is making use of his science background to twist abstract theory into thought provoking comedy.

It is indeed interesting to flourish your slides with this comical approach that can attract your audiences’ attention in such a serious and intense condition. Sometimes, you need to create a stress-free environment in any business meetings – regardless formal or informal meetings.

Is it hard to become a talented stand up comedian like Tim Lee?

The answer is yes. But you do not have him to win your audiences. You can review his slides during his performances as your main reference.

Start with simplicity

In most of his performances, you will realize that his presentation slides are practically simple and clear in which he used simple slide layouts with plain white slide background.

Notice that he used the classic-black-and-white theme (plain white background with black colored fonts) in his slides.

In some certain extent, it takes a little effort to make people laugh due to simplicity of his slides. In addition, he used the same approach for displaying other visuals such as graphs and tables. In other words, he does not have to use additional visuals – videos, flash, and audios to mesmerize his audiences.

Normally, pictures are placed in the middle of the slides. If you are a serious type of person and persist in giving out conventional presentation, it is preferable that you include funny pictures that are related to the text-contents.

How to make yourself a ’stand up comedian’?

Being a comedian has no shortcuts. However, if you are a rigid person and you have a low sense of humor, being funny at suitable times able to develop a close and quick rapport with your audiences. These are the simple steps on how to put a smile upon your audiences’ faces.

Step 1: Start to identify your own distinctive type of comic

There are several of well-known comedians that have their respective type of comic. For example, Jim Carrey is belongs to physical comics category whereas Jay Leno belongs to topical comics category. Other comic categories are character, observational, prop and gimmick comics; and impressionists and improvisationalists.

Step 2: Write and practice

After you have identified your type of comic, it is time to list out the points that you can make your audiences burst with laughter. Write every single point on your notepad. You will soon improvise these funny ideas in front of your family and friends before you start performing a stand up comedy in front of your audiences.

Step 3: Decide your distinctive stage persona

Once you have observed the behavior patterns of several stand up comedians, innately you will develop your unique personality onstage though there will be some resemblance of these well-known comedians. Eventually, it will definitely make your Powerpoint presentations more entertaining to watch.

Smart business owners have a keen understanding of the things that matter. If you are going to run a sustainable business over the long term, then you will need to focus on a few key concepts. A good business will present itself well to prospective clients and other businesses. When you get a chance to showcase your products or make a pitch to some other business, it is important to put on a quality presentation. What makes a solid presentation? Preparedness, professionalism, and the willingness to use technology to your advantage are three important starting points.

Technology is your friend

Whether you are a business marketing a new fire pit or some kind of medical equipment, the simple fact remains the same. The way that you present your company will go a long way to determining if people pay attention to you. If you are willing to use technology, your presentation can take off. Audio and visual elements give prospective clients a much better idea of what you have going on. They can actually engage in the presentation, rather than just sit and watch. When they are engaged, you have a much better shot at getting your company’s point across.

The confident approach

You must know, without a shadow of doubt, that your fire pit is the best on the market. Even if there are better products out there, you must exude confidence that is readily apparent to your customers. They will take cues from you on this point. When giving a presentation, the way you carry yourself impacts perception of your message. If the audience believes that you are a good person and if they identify with your core values, then they will give your message a chance. If you lack this confidence, people will know it and your fire pit won’t get the reception that it deserves.

Ultimately, being prepared and approaching the presentation with confidence is a huge part of the battle. When you know what you intend to say and you believe in your message, people will feel that. Add in some good technology and your presentation can go from mundane to influential. The idea is to convince people and using the art of persuasion will win major points. Be excited, put your best foot forward, and chances are good that your prospective fire pit idea will receive a positive reception from those in your audience.

Business professionals spend a reasonable amount of time giving presentations communicating new and existing ideas, proposals for investors, clients, etc. PowerPoint presentations has become a ubiquitous tool for these varying types of business presentations. At times though, I find that the technical aspect of the tool gets overused, misused, and the audience tends to walk away with an unclear message of the presentation. Here are some solutions to assist with getting your message to land with your audience when using PowerPoint:

Just like a speech, you must have an opening, body and conclusion. First, determine how much time you have for your presentation. Next, create the outline of your discussion. After you create your outline, you create the content within your presentation. This is a sample of how a 30-minute presentation would be structured:

Slide 1: Title (1 minute)

Slide 2: Agenda (2 minutes)

Slide 3 – 9: Body (Keep it focused on your audience) (14 minutes)

Slide 10: Summary (Recap Presentation) (3 minutes)

Q&A (black screen): 10 minutes

**20 minutes for you presentation which gives you on average 2-minutes per slide and 10 minutes for Q&A.

Here are some key takeaways when using PowerPoint for your business presentation:

Do:

o Rehearse your content

o Use it to support your topic/ discussion

o Summarize the slide or the main point

o Take time to introduce the material

o Keep your bullet points to 5 per slide

o Keep eye contact with your audience

o Use graphics and illustrations that support your topic

o Avoid jargon

o Allow enough time to set up and check your equipment. (make handouts as a back-up if equipment does not work)

Don’t:

o Use animation (it takes away from your talk and tends to distract your audience)

o Read from the slides

o Forget what’s in it for the audience (WIIFM)

o Place your back to the audience.

o Cruise through slides. If information is not relevant, then don’t display it. (unless giving handouts)

o Panic if the equipment fails

Black or White

Another way to add value to your presentation is the “B” or “W” key. When you need to elaborate on a point during your presentation and would like to take the focus off of the screen and back to you, the “B” key makes your screen black and the “W” that’s right it makes the screen white. Not shift or control key needs to be used in combination with the “B” or “W” key.

After the summary slide, this is great time for Q&A. Use the “B” or “W” key to make your screen blank, so that people know you have completed your presentation and to focus their attention on you.

Speaker Notes

There are a few ways to make notes on what you would like to say on each of your slides. The easy way is to print your entire presentation and write notes on each page. You can also click the View menu, click Notes Page. The notes section will appear under your slide. You can type notes in this section. To view your printed notes, click on the File menu, click Print. Under Print what, select notes pages and click okay. You now have a clean presentation with notes to do your practice run.

Note: When you display your presentation, the audience will not see you notes section.

Keep It Simple

While all the bells and whistles may look nice, keep in mind the message you’re looking to convey to your audience. Outline the message you want the audience to walk away with at the end of your presentation. The bells and whistles will not sell an idea that has not been thoroughly researched and thought out. Keep the presentation simple and focused directly to your topic.

One of the most common excuses that executives use before they deliver presentations is that they are not prepared. The board of directors are filling up the meeting room before the annual strategy review session. The financial director comes up and says he doesn’t think he is prepared for the presentation. What impact does this have on his credibility? Business presenters often spend hours preparing PowerPoint slides only to deliver a low-energy dull presentation in front of the people who will be deciding their promotion prospects later in the day. Executives can learn from the theater world with these five steps to guarantee a winning presentation:

Script read through

At the start of rehearsals, actors read through their scripts, first alone, and then with the other actors. Script mastery is just the first step in their performance preparation. Most business presenters struggle to get to this step, often unable to have a coherent presentation on the day of delivery. The presentation must have a clear overall message, and the content clearly separated into distinctly different ideas. An opening that sets the context and engages the audiences by addressing their most pressing concerns. A body that divides the content into separate sections or to use a theater word “scenes”. A closing that brings all the content together into a clear outcome, reinforces the overall message and moves the audiences into the next part of the meeting, often the question and answer session. An important tip to remember is that at this stage the script or outline does not need to be perfect. There is still opportunity to modify during the next steps.

Run – throughs

With an outline in hand it’s time to have a run through. This should be rehearsed until the content is memorized. Find blocks of rehearsal time. Instead of going to a restaurant at lunch, grab a sandwich and take a walk in the park. While walking around, talk through the presentation without looking at notes. Speak it out while driving into work, or book a meeting room to practice the delivery. The key here is that it should be spoken aloud as new ideas will arise while the delivery becomes smoother. Don’t use a computer or any slides at this point. The aim is to be 100% comfortable with the flow and content.

Cue-to-Cue

Always plan a technology check for all types of presentation. For smaller conference room presentations, go at least a couple of hours before to connect your computer to the projector, test the sound and video and ensure the mouse clicker works. For larger settings, arrive the day before and work with technicans in the venue. Spend time on the stage and walk around planning where to start, how to move on the stage and where to finish. Rehearse a couple of sections of the presentation with a microphone to hear what vocal volume is needed to fill the room.

Tops and Tails

The two most important parts of a presentation are the opening and closing. Both parts attract the greatest audience attention and are the best opportunities to deliver a takeaway message. They are often delivered at a higher level of authority and punch. Take the opening two minutes and rehearse as a stand-alone section. Record it and while listening to the recording, look for ways to make the delivery more impactful. Use crisper and sharper words. Make a closer connection to the audience with words they relate with. Likewise, repeat this approach with the closing. This is the final chance to convey the message and leave the audience with a positive impression.

Dress rehearsal

On the day, regardless of what time the presentation is due to start, schedule a time for a dress rehearsal. Rehearse in the same room if possible using all the technology planned and microphones needed. This final run through boosts confidence for the live version. The second delivery of the day will be smoother and appear more natural.

Better presentation skills enhance executive credentials. Executive presenters can learn from these five techniques employed in the theater to make their presentations more powerful.