Presentation Skills Top Tips

This is an extract from the Inspirational Seminars Ltd web site on "Top10 tips" about making presentations in public or to a group. Please request the full article by clicking here


1 Why Am I Giving This Presentation?

This might sound simple but is not as simple as it seems. Many people when faced with having to give a presentation grab their laptop and march off to ‘do’ their presentation. It’s one that they have done many times before and they plan to ‘do’ it in the same way they have always done it.

They have overlooked that although it is the same presentation the audience is different! Every presentation needs to be tweaked for different audiences otherwise you will find yourself putting the emphasis on the wrong things. For example, one of the main reasons for buying a product or service in the business world, is saving money. If you don’t know why you are giving the presentation beforehand you might not know that this audience doesn’t care so much about saving money as much as they care about reliability and a good service. So ask yourself ‘what do I want my audience to do or feel or say after they have listened to my presentation?’

2 Get Ready

Try to write your presentation yourself. Do your slides later not now. Imagine you are standing in front of your audience, what do you want to say and how will you say it? Think it through and write it down as you would like to say it. This will show you the complete picture and help you bridge any gaps in the logic of your argument. Plus it begins the process of helping you to remember. From this you can create your ‘speaker notes’ as well as relevant slides.

Get to know as much as you can about your audience: who’s going to be there, what they want to know, how much do they know already and so on. Then try to get to the venue before your audience (even if it’s your client’s premises) so you can set up and be happy that all equipment is working ok. This also gives you much more control as you will be the one welcoming everyone as they enter the room!

3 Talk To People

4 Believe What You Say

5 Like Your Audience

6 Speak Up

7 Look ‘em in the eye

8 Control Yourself

9 Open and Shut…

…properly. “Today I want to talk to you about…” is not a good opening so don’t use it. Think of something like “when we met last month, you were kind enough to tell us of your requirements…” See how much better that is?

And when you close, avoid finishing with “any questions?” Listen to what this type of closing says to your audience: “I have not prepared a really memorable close so I shall resort to a bad finish with this real wimp of a question”. So don’t use it. Instead look for something like: “let’s remind ourselves of the benefits to you…” And then itemise them.

10 Wag your own tail

Tails do not wag dogs, dogs wag tails. If you let PowerPoint take over from you to such an extent that you couldn’t do your presentation without it, I am afraid it is a case of the tail wagging the dog. In Tip 2, I suggested you should write your presentation as you would like to say it. If you do this you will find it much easier to create slides.

Here are the rules: If you can show the real thing – do. If you can’t but can show a model – do. If you can’t then show a picture and if it is not possible, then by all means use word but make them few and interesting.

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