Ideas pop up when you least expect them - on a walk, in the shower, while cooking dinner, or brushing your teeth. You plan every step of how to bring your fantasies to life. However, the idea itself is not everything - no matter how good it is, it may not even be considered if it is not presented in the right way. And here comes the question - how best to share your proposals? How to catch the attention of the audience enough so that they listen to us from beginning to end and understand our message?
The most popular means of communication is to create a multimedia presentation, for example, in PowerPoint or another program designed for this purpose. Now that you have ideas for a presentation, what's next? How to create a business presentation? How to prepare for it? What programs to use? To get the answers to these questions, we have prepared a compilation of 10 tips that you may find very useful.
1. Clearly define your presentation idea or a goal and stick to it
Having a presentation idea is not enough, you also need to set a goal that you want to communicate to the audience. Often under stress, we wander around the subject. We skip the most important message and focus on unnecessary details. It’s for this reason that it’s a good idea to outline a specific and clear goal at the very beginning and make every step of the presentation show it. This will also give the viewer a chance to stay on top of the presented material and refer to specific parts.
2. Highlight your credibility
As humans, we like to know who or what we are dealing with. A brief introduction of yourself at the beginning can make people more willing to listen to you. Tell them about what you do for a living, your experiences, and your successes. In this way, you will also highlight your credibility. If you are presenting yourself as a specialist in your field, you need to make a case for it in some way. In addition, the audience will be more interested if they think you know what you are talking about. Especially when giving a business presentation, you must be taken seriously, so that's also how you create yourself.
3. Presentation plan
It is also essential to have a carefully thought-out presentation plan. As you know, people remember best the information presented at the beginning and the end, so what you convey at these moments is crucial. This is why it is a good idea to include an introduction in your presentation, where you will have the most relevant information about what you will be talking about, including your purpose.
It is also a good step to insert a table of contents so that the audience will know from the very beginning what content you want to share. It's also a good idea to remember the summary, which should take place after the questions - this is the time to put together everything you've talked about into a few summary sentences, remind the audience of the most important points, and thank them for their time.
4. Avoid whole slides of text
While still in high school or college, how many times have you found yourself dozing off or immersed in your thoughts listening to a professor reading a thick, boring textbook? You can't let such a situation happen at your presentation. People lose interest quickly, and a full-text slide can result in zero interest right from the start.
Remember that the information on the slide should only summarize what you have to say or present the most important information on the topic. The recipient is much more likely to listen to what you have to say if you convey your knowledge in a more accessible way, instead of overwhelming them with paragraphs of text.
5. Maintain contact with the audience
A conversation always seems more enjoyable when the recipient maintains eye contact with you. It works both ways - when presenting, it's best to look at your audience so that they feel your words are directed to them, not to your sheet of notes. Speaking of notes - it's a good idea to have them, but more in the form of key points, you need to cover in your presentation.
It's also not about learning the entire text by heart. It's best to tell the story in your own words, it gives your speech a more natural and relaxed tone. Maintaining contact with your audience gives you a better chance of being heard. You should pay attention to them, and it's also a good idea to ask seemingly directed rhetorical questions - they will then stay alert and not sink into their musings.
6. Test alone is not enough
Minimalism is important, but remember that you also need to grab the attention of your audience. Very often a picture - in good quality, of course - can be better than the slide title itself. This will interest the recipient and attract their attention. Various types of charts and infographics can also be a nice addition, but the charts must be clear and understandable. As for the color scheme of the presentation - subdued, calm colors, it is best to focus on a few leading ones, possibly their shades.
Various types of presentation templates can be helpful for this. You can find many business presentation templates that will take care of the aesthetic side of the presentation. Ready-made suggestions can be found in programs for creating presentations. Most people create their presentation in PowerPoint, it is a very pleasant and easy-to-use program. Other well-known sites are Prezi, Google presentations, and Canva. Aesthetics of execution is a big step towards positive reception of your idea.
7. Do not distract attention with unnecessary embellishments
The content you want to convey, and an adequately chosen template are usually sufficient, but effects and slide transitions should not be completely excluded. Just remember that an excess of them can lead to distraction or irritation of the viewer. That's why, with effects or other embellishments, it's a good idea to keep them in moderation and not litter the entire slide with them. You should consider highlighting the most important points of your presentation to make sure that the recipient will pay attention to them.
8. Keep it consistent
We have already presented many tips on how to make a professional business presentation. Another one is consistency. The entire presentation should have a common element that characterizes each slide. This can be a bar of the same color, a geometric figure - a distinctive sign showing that our work is one whole. When each slide looks different, it can seem unprofessional and carelessly prepared, so it is good to stick to a fixed key. An additional advantage is to use the same type of font, which is easy to read. Consistency has a positive effect on the aesthetics of our presentation and makes it pleasant to look at.
9. Space to ask questions
After presenting your proposal or idea, you should give the audience time and space to ask you questions. You must be prepared for this and try to answer as clearly as possible. Clarify ambiguities, and be specific.
10. Confidence is the key to success
Walking into a room full of people waiting for your presentation, it's hard not to show stress. However, it's worth breaking through, putting your best smile on your face, and surprising your audience with confidence and positive energy. It's better to listen to a person who sounds like they know what they're saying and why they're saying it. It's also good to get a sense of what kind of audience you're dealing with - you can weave some jokes into your speech or set a tone in your presentation that fits the environment. But most important of all is being confident in yourself and what you are talking about.
We hope that the advice we have gathered has answered your question: about how to create a business presentation, and will help you create one in the future.
