As a sales professional, you know the importance of giving a great presentation to share your ideas with your co-workers or clients. Having the ability to get your points across can make or break your career. Whether you want to talk about how social media improves sales or how to leverage storytelling, your ability to speak in public is going to be paramount to the success of your career.
The presentation that you make speaks a lot more than you think about your working style and your personality. Making a great and effective presentation is a goal best set for even the great sales guru who aims to put across his or her ideas with conviction. And the presentation is not just about putting across the ideas or expertise you have in any manner.
To make it effective it should be arranged and put across in a systematized and simple manner that even a child can understand. And that is what is a great and effective presentation. Just a few simple tricks can actually make your presentation from just good to great:
Let it sail smoothly-
- Begin confidently- A work begun effectively is work half done. It is extremely important for you that your presentation is attractive and entertaining as you start through. If you can manage to grab the attention of your audiences within the first 5 minutes then you are good to go. Try going in for a story or an entertaining gig to grab the attention of your audiences.
- Stick to 10-20-30 Rule- This rule simply suggests that:-
- The presentation should not have more than 10 slides;
- It should be no longer than 20 minutes;
- The font size used should be at least 30 points or above that.
This whole approach helps in avoiding “ Death by PowerPoint”. The whole idea is that the slides should be a slide show to the presenter and should contain only the most important information in the slides. If you want to provide any detailed or additional information, distribute handouts to the audiences after the presentation is over.
- Passion is your best friend- The foremost important part of your presentation is to connect to your audiences. Be honest in your approach and let your passion speak for you. Approach your audiences with full enthusiasm and honesty, and believe us they will connect with you wholeheartedly.
- Audience’s needs- Focus on the needs of the audiences, on what they want and need. Prepare the presentation according to that and even while giving the presentation focus on their needs.
- Keep your core message crisp- Keep your key message very crisp and clear. Either stick to conveying it in 15 words or within 30 seconds by summarizing it. Either way, convey it very crisply so that the message is embedded in the mind of the audiences.
- Connect with the audiences- Smile, it’s the best thing you can do to make your presence felt. And maintain eye contact with the audiences as much as possible as it conveys a positive body language and helps build trust among the audiences to believe you.
Making presentations does require research on the subject but presenting it across the audiences effectively is an art. And if you want to sharpen your skill and art, make use of the above tips to effectively communicate with your audiences.
