How to Polish Your Presentation Skills

Your ability to give persuasive presentations is just one of the skills you need to possess if you want to capture the gold ring on the corporate carousel. As the workplace becomes more complex, the need to communicate ideas effectively grows exponentially. A presentation requires great content, but at its heart, it's a performance.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Research your audience. Knowing the background and interests of the people to whom you'll be presenting helps clarify your content and approach.
2. Think about last things first. Define--clearly and concisely--the results you want from the presentation. Remember that a presentation is a call to action: an appeal for investment, a solicitation of sales or an attempt to have specific information incorporated into future actions.
3. Clarify your story. Define the essence--and the excitement--of your product, project or service. "Getting your story right is the critical factor in making your presentation powerful," says Jerry Weissman, author of Presenting to Win.
4. Connect with your audience emotionally--find a hook and introduce it early in the presentation.
5. Stress benefits rather than features. Remember that your audience members care more about positive solutions to their problems than about how the solutions occur. Emphasize how much your solution will cut costs, increase profits or better serve clients, for example, rather than detailing the many steps leading to these results.
6. Arrange a logical flow of content from beginning to ending. The type of structure does not matter--chronological or geographical, modular or matrix; use any form that fits the material. Choose just one, however, and stick to it throughout the presentation.
7. Keep the presentation as brief as possible while still covering the essential material. It's more important to be compelling than to be all-encompassing. Avoid piling on too many details lest you confuse your audience--or put it to sleep.
8. Plan the audiovisual aids. Decide whether to use PowerPoint slides, video clips, flip charts, handouts or a combination.
9. Borrow the storyboard technique from filmmakers. Before creating any slides, write your core ideas on cards or sticky notes. Experiment and rearrange them to get the most persuasive order.
10. Create an ending that circles back to the beginning. Your moments of strongest impact are the first few minutes of a presentation and the last few. Make sure they work together.

Tips & Warnings

• To handle a heckler, try to diffuse the emotion by simply repeating his question in calmer language. Then either answer it or ask the questioner to speak with you later.
• Finish your presentation earlier than the time stated on the agenda. You'll feel an aura of gratitude emanating from your audience.
• Hire a coach who's experienced in your business sector to polish your presentation techniques. If your job includes giving frequent presentations, why not spend as much time and effort on improving them as you would on perfecting your golf swing or tennis serve?
• Many presentations rely too heavily on PowerPoint. Be careful that yours does not fall victim to slide-overkill syndrome. Don't let the medium overwhelm the message.

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