We all have to make and give a presentation to clients or senior internal management from time to time. However, creating and delivering an excellent presentation is an art and here are some tips that you can follow to improve on your work presentations.
Make your presentation easy to follow
You can plan and break down your presentation into three sections: introduction, body and conclusion. Don’t have too many slides; stick with ten slides even if your presentation is 30 minutes long. Have a compelling introduction to hook your audience, a body section with all the facts, findings and evidence and a conclusion section with key takeaways and action areas.
Be very precise and concise on each slide
When it comes to a good presentation, less is more relevant. The audience’s attention span per slide is minimal, and they can’t process too much information per slide. Marketing Guru Seth Godin quotes, ‘we should have just six words per slide’. Data is processed better if you have bit-sized information, videos, and pictures to present a fact.
Don’t overlook design details
A well-designed presentation can sometimes make all the difference. For example, when it comes to colours, don’t use too many colours; use colours relevant to your message and keep the colour theme consistent across the presentation. Further, use one font and one font size throughout the presentation. Lastly, ensure the texts are aligned, and the pictures are not badly pixelated or off size.
Go through the final version several times
Once you have put all your initial ideas and conclusions on the slides, edit them quite rigorously. This means you reread everything multiple times and edit before you feel that it’s the final version. Please don’t stop there and get someone else to reread it. Sometimes fresh eyes can bring out some excellent suggestions or catch something that you missed.
Plan a smooth delivery
Always have a mock presentation the night before. Present aloud, record video, if possible, to see and correct the delivery. While presenting, always face the audience and use a remote or clicker to navigate through slides. Also, time your presentation so that you can emphasise each slide and have time left for questions. Finally, have back upsides to being ready if something doesn’t resonate with the audience; this helps you feel more in control.
And when you are concluding, always leave your audience a core message and emotional solid impression. A perfect presentation should drive the audience emotionally towards change.
