business presentation definition

You know, here’s the status quo, here’s what’s going on. And then you need to compare that to what could be. You need to make that gap as big as possible, because there is this commonplace of the status quo, and you need to contrast that with the loftiness of your idea.

Storytelling , like no other tool, helps transpose the audience into the right mindset and get concentrated on the subject you are about to discuss. A story also elicits emotions, which can be a powerful ally when giving persuasive presentations. In the article how to start a presentation , we explore this in more detail.

Opening best suited for: Personal and business pitches, sales presentations, other types of persuasive presentations.

Dramatic Opening

Another common technique is opening your presentation with a major statement, sometimes of controversial nature. This can be a shocking statistic, complex rhetoric question, or even a provocative, contrarian statement, challenging the audience’s beliefs.

Using a dramatic opening helps secure the people’s attention and capture their interest. You can then use storytelling to further drill down your main ideas.

If you are an experienced public speaker, you can also strengthen your speech with some unexpected actions. That’s what Bill Gates does when giving presentations. In a now-iconic 2009 TED talk about malaria, mid-presentation Gates suddenly reveals that he actually brought a bunch of mosquitoes with him. He cracks open a jar with non-malaria-infected critters to the audience’s surprise. His dramatic actions, paired with a passionate speech made a mighty impression.

Opening best suited for: Marketing presentations, customer demos, training presentations, public speeches.

Further reading: How to start a presentation: tips and examples.

2. Get Your PowerPoint Design Right

Surely, using professional business PowerPoint templates already helps immensely with presentation deck design since you don’t need to fuss over slide layout, font selection, or iconography.

Even so, you’ll still need to customize your template(s) to make them on brand and better suited to the presentation you’re about to deliver. Below are our best presentation design tips to give your deck an extra oomph.

Use Images, Instead of Bullet Points

If you have ever watched Steve Jobs’s presentations, you may have noticed that he never used bullet-point lists. Weird right? Because using bullet points is the most universal advice in presentation design.

But there’s a valid scientific reason why Jobs favored images over bullet-point texts. Researchers found that information delivered in visuals is better retained than words alone. This is called the “ pictorial superiority effect ”. As John Medina, a molecular biologist, further explains :

“Hear a piece of information, and three days later you’ll remember 10% of it. Add a picture and you’ll remember 65%.”

So if your goal is to improve the memorability of your presentation, always replace texts with images and visualizations when it makes sense.

Fewer Slides is Better

No matter the value, a long PowerPoint presentation becomes tiring at some point. People lose focus and stop retaining the information. Thus, always take some extra time to trim the fluff and consolidate some repetitive ideas within your presentation.

For instance, at McKinsey new management consultants are trained to cut down the number of slides in client presentations. In fact, one senior partner insists on replacing every 20 slides with only two slides . Doing so prompts you to focus on the gist — the main business presentation ideas you need to communicate and drop filler statements.

Here are several quick tips to shorten your slides:

Consistency is Key

In a solid business presentation, each slide feels like part of the connecting story. To achieve such consistency apply the same visual style and retain the same underlying message throughout your entire presentation.

Use the same typography, color scheme, and visual styles across the deck. But when you need to accentuate a transition to a new topic (e.g. move from a setup to articulating the main ideas), add some new visual element to signify the slight change in the narrative.

Further reading: 23 PowerPoint Presentation Tips for Creating Engaging and Interactive Presentations

3. Make Your Closure Memorable

We best remember the information shared last. So make those business presentation takeaways stick in the audience’s memory. We have three strategies for that.

Use the Rule of Three

The Rule of Three is a literary concept, suggesting that we best remember and like ideas and concepts when they are presented in threes.

Many famous authors and speakers use this technique:

The Rule of Three works because three is the maximum number of items most people can remember on their first attempt. Likewise, such pairings create a short, familiar structure that is easy to remember for our brains.

Try the Title Close Technique

Ask a Question

If you want to keep the conversation going once you are done presenting, you can conclude your presentation with a general question you’d like the audience to answer.

Alternatively, you can also encourage the members to pose questions to you. The latter is better suited for informational presentations where you’d like to further discuss some of the matters and secure immediate feedback.

12 Business Presentation Examples and What Makes Them Great

Now that we equipped you with the general knowledge on how to make a presentation for business, let’s take a look at how other presenters are coping with this job and what lessons you can take away from them.

1. N26 Digital Bank Pitch Deck

The Future of Banking by N26. An example of a Business Presentation with a nice cover image.

This is a fine business pitch presentation example, hitting all the best practices. The deck opens with a big shocking statement that most Millennials would rather go to the dentist than step into a bank branch.

Then it proceeds to discuss the company’s solution to the above — a fully digital bank with a paperless account opening process, done in 8 minutes. After communicating the main product features and value proposition, the deck further conceptualizes what traction the product got so far using data visualizations. The only thing it lacks is a solid call-to-action for closing slides as the current ending feels a bit abrupt.

2. WeWork Pitch Deck

For a Series D round, WeWork went with a more formal business presentation. It starts with laying down the general company information and then transitions to explaining their business model, current market conditions, and the company’s position on the market.

The good thing about this deck is that they quantify their business growth prospects and value proposition. The likely gains for investors are shown in concrete numbers. However, those charts go one after another in a row, so it gets a bit challenging to retain all data points.

The last part of their presentation is focused on a new offering, “We Live”. It explains why the team seeks funds to bring it to life. Likewise, they back their reasoning with market size statistics, sample projects, and a five-year revenue forecast.

3. Redfin Investor Presentation

Redfin Investor Presentation for Business. A Technology-Powered Real Estate Company.

If you are looking for a “text-light” business presentation example, Redfin’s investor deck is up to your alley. This simple deck expertly uses iconography, charts, and graphs to break down the company’s business model, value proposition, market share, and competitive advantages over similar startups. For number-oriented investors, this is a great deck design to use.

4. Google Ready Together Presentation

This isn’t quite the standard business presentation example per se. But rather an innovative way to create engaging, interactive presentations of customer case studies .

Interactive Online Presentation example by Google, from Customer Insights. Google Ready Together Presentation.

The short deck features a short video clip from a Google client, 7-11, explaining how they used the company’s marketing technology to digitally transform their operations and introduce a greater degree of marketing automation . The narrated video parts are interrupted by slides featuring catchy stats, contextualizing issues other businesses are facing. Then transitions to explaining through the words of 7-11 CMO, how Google’s technology is helping them overcome the stated shortcomings.

5. Salesforce Business Presentation Example

This is a great example of an informational presentation, made by the Salesforce team to share their research on customer experience (CX) with prospects and existing customers.

Business Presentation Example by Service Salesforce on How to Know Your Customer. A look into the Future of Customer Experience.

The slide deck errs on the lengthier side with 58 slides total. But bigger topics are broken down and reinforced through bite-sized statistics and quotes from the company leadership. They are also packaging the main tips into memorable formulas, itemized lists, and tables. Overall, this deck is a great example of how you can build a compelling narrative using different statistics.

6. Mastercard Business Presentation

This slide deck from Mastercard instantly captures the audience’s attention with unusual background images and major data points on the growth of populations, POS systems, and payment methods used in the upcoming decade.

Business Presentation by MasterCard on Technology and Payment solutions. The Unfinished Revolution.

Perhaps to offset the complexity of the subject, Mastercard chose to sprinkle in some humor in presentation texts and used comic-style visuals to supplement that. However, all their animations are made in a similar style, creating a good sense of continuity in design. They are also using colors to signify the transition from one part of the presentation to another.

In the second part, the slide deck focuses on distilling the core message of what businesses need to do to remain competitive in the new payments landscape. The team presents what they have been working on to expand the payment ecosystem. Then concludes with a “title close” styled call-to-action, mirroring the presentation title.

7. McKinsey Diversity & Inclusion Presentation

This fresh business slide deck from McKinsey is a great reference point for making persuasive business presentations on complex topics such as D&I. First, it recaps the main definitions of the discussed concepts — diversity, equity, and inclusion — to ensure alignment with the audience members.

Business Presentation Example by McKinsey Company on Diversity Wins: How inclusion matters.

Next, the business presentation deck focuses on the severity and importance of the issue for businesses, represented through a series of graphs and charts. After articulating the “why”, the narrative switches to “how” — how leaders can benefit from investment in D&I. The main points are further backed with data and illustrated via examples.

8. Accenture Presentation for the Energy Sector

Business Presentation Example by Accenture on Accelerating Innovation in Energy.

The last several slides of the presentation deck focus on articulating the value Accenture can deliver for their clients in the Energy sector. They expertly break down their main value proposition and key service lines, plus quantify the benefits.

9. Amazon Web Services (AWS) Technical Presentation

Giving an engaging technical presentation isn’t an easy task. You have to balance the number of details you reveal on your slides to prevent overwhelm, while also making sure that you don’t leave out any crucial deets. This technical presentation from AWS does great in both departments.

Business Presentation created by AWS explaining how to build forecasting using ML/DL algorithms.

First, you get entertained with a quick overview of Amazon’s progress in machine learning (ML) forecasting capabilities over the last decade. Then introduced to the main tech offering. The deck further explains what you need to get started with Amazon Forecast — e.g. dataset requirements, supported forecasting scenarios, available forecasting models, etc.

The second half of the presentation provides a quick training snippet on configuring Amazon SageMaker to start your first project. The step-by-step instructions are coherent and well-organized, making the reader excited to test-drive the product.

10. Snapchat Company Presentation

Snapchat’s business model presentation is on a funkier, more casual side, reflective of the company’s overall brand and positioning. After briefly recapping what they do, the slide deck switches to discussing the company’s financials and revenue streams.

This business slide deck by Snap Inc. itself is rather simplistic and lacks fancy design elements. But it has a strong unified theme of showing the audience Snapchat’s position on the market and projected vector of business development.

11. Visa Business Acquisition Presentation

VISA Acquisition of Plaid Business presentation.

If you are working on a business plan or M&A presentation for stakeholders of your own, this example from Visa will be helpful. The presentation deck expertly breaks down the company’s rationale for purchasing Plaid and subsequent plans for integrating the startup into their business ecosystem.

The business deck recaps why the Plaid acquisition is a solid strategic decision by highlighting the total addressable market they could dive into post-deal. Then it details Plaid’s competitive strengths. The slide deck then sums up all the monetary and indirect gains Visa could reap as an acquirer.

12. Pinterest Earnings Report Presentation

Pinterest Business Presentation Example with Annual Report

Annual reports and especially earnings presentations might not be the most exciting types of documents to work on, but they have immense strategic value. Hence, there’s little room for ambiguities or mistakes.

In twelve slides, this business presentation from Pinterest clearly communicates the big picture of the company’s finance in 2021. All the key numbers are represented as featured quotes in the sidebar with diagrams further showcasing the earning and spending dynamics. Overall, the data is easy to interpret even for non-finance folks.

To Conclude

With these business presentation design tips, presentation templates , and examples, you can go from overwhelmed to confident about your next presentation design in a matter of hours. Focus on creating a rough draft first using a template. Then work on nailing your opening slide sequence and shortening the texts in the main part of your presentation when needed. Make sure that each slide serves a clear purpose and communicates important details. To make your business presentation deck more concise, remove anything that does not pertain to the topic.

Finally, once you are done, share your business presentation with other team members to get their feedback and reiterate the final design.

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How to Present Complex Concepts: A Guide for Effective Communication

If you find yourself struggling at the time of presenting a complex concept, you are not alone. We developed this guide to introduce different techniques that can help presenters effectively explain complex concepts.

What is a Business Presentation?

A business presentation is a formal tutorial or introduction of business practices or products. A business presentation is typically carried out using audio/visual presentation material, such as projectors and statistical documents created with presentation software , or more rudimentary materials such as flip charts and whiteboards .

The two most common types of business presentations are sales presentations and intra-organization presentations. Sales presentations are conducted by suppliers in front of a potential client or customer, with the express purpose of pitching their product or service. Intra-organization presentations are conducted by one or more members of an organization to their coworkers, and are often for the purpose of introducing new policies or operations.

In order for a supplier to conduct a sales presentation , he or she will first need to arrange an appointment with the member of the organization who makes the purchasing decisions. For example, a company that sells software specifically designed for engineers might approach an engineering firm and arrange an appointment with the information technology (IT) professional responsible for procuring the firm’s technology. If the supplier already has a relationship with the firm, securing an appointment for their business presentation will be easier than if they are attempting to set up a presentation by “cold calling.”

In order to make the best impression, suppliers who travel off-site to conduct business presentations are expected to dress professionally in a suit or other formal office attire and bring as many of their own presentation materials as possible. The sales presentation should begin by identifying the needs or deficits of the organization that the supplier plans to fill. The supplier should come prepared with pre-researched information on the specifics of the organization’s needs; or, in lieu of such details, statistics on the industry that the organization is a part of. The presentation should also feature an easy-to-follow demonstration of the supplier’s product or service, whether through an actual hands-on demo or a virtual depiction of the product or service in use.

An intra-organization business presentation is typically conducted by whichever department or personnel is spearheading the new operations that are being introduced to the organization. For example, if the Human Resources department is initiating a program for healthier living in the workplace, they might call a business presentation to familiarize employees with the new exercise programs and food options available to them at the office. Or, if a branch of an organization wishes to propose a new plan of operations to head office, they may pitch their ideas during a business presentation with the organization’s executives.

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Discussion Comments

Post your comments.

12.6 Business Presentation

The business presentation is the dog and pony show. One of my students asked me whether the business presentation should be informational or a pitch. It should be both, and that is the ongoing dilemma for the presenters. Including the proper mix of information and creating excitement about the business is a difficult task. The presentation should have conveyed approximately the same content as the business plan, but in an abbreviated format (see Note 12.4 "Business Plan Presentation" ). The goal is to maintain interest and communicate your ideas. The ideal number of slides for the presentation should be approximately one slide for each section. However, this can be increased if the slides are not too dense. This means that you will have to talk around the key concepts of each section. You do not want to read your slides. Just have the key concepts on the slide and talk around them. The most important thing you can do is practice your presentation and, if possible, memorize your notes. There are always limits on the length of the presentation and it is important to hit that mark within 30 seconds. Practice helps to convey the impression that you know what you are talking about and that you have the best product since sliced white bread. Guy Kawasaki suggests a 10/20/30 rule. That is 10 slides, for 20 minutes using a 30-point font. This is good advice, but it is sometimes necessary to extend the number of slides depending on the particular business context and the amount of content in each slide.

Business Plan Presentation

General guidelines for business plan presentations

Introduction of team (30 seconds)

Company overview (4 minutes)

Industry analysis (1 minute)

Marketing strategy (2 minutes)

Operations strategy (2 minutes)

Forecasts and financials (2 minutes)

What do your projections show for sales, profit, expense, growth, and investment?

Capital requirements over the next 3 years.

Stage of development and the implementation plan (1–2 minutes)

How much venture capital funding do you need? (1 minute)

Summary (30 seconds)

These are the restrictions I use: Questions (4 minutes): Total allowable time for presentation and questions is 19 minutes. Be sure to conduct a trial run of your presentation so that you will not go over the 15-minute presentation limit.

Be sure to illustrate a prototype or at least show an illustration of your product or service. The prototype could be an illustration, a picture, a diagram, an example report, a scenario, or a mock-up of your product or service. If you are developing a complex process that is hard to understand, then you should still try to convey the idea using some sort of flow diagram or business process diagram. The goal here is to try to get your audience to understand just what you are trying to sell and try to get them to buy your product or service. The goal is not to be vague or obscure. As noted earlier, the scenario is a very effective tool for communicating the business concept. An actual or even a fictional scenario can be a powerful tool for explaining how the product or service works. Scenario presentations can include live acting, movie clips, storyboards using clipart and drawings, simulations and even the use of stick figure animation.

The business should be pitched and presented several times before the final plan is developed. The business plan presentation along with the executive summary will help to structure the business and make it more focused, clear, and understandable. It is all part of the learning process consisting of learning-about and learning-by-doing. It is important to have someone document all the questions that arise during the presentation and then to try to understand what the questions mean. It could be simply that the business model was not communicated effectively during the presentation, or a critical issue was not considered and that it needs to be addressed. Businesses are emergent; they take time to design, build, and to be successful; and the pitch and presentation is a critical part of the growth process.

Importance, Types and What is Business Presentation

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Importance and Types of Business Presentation

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This type of presentation consists of educating the audience. It consists of status reports or summaries and starts with an overall goal that follows the action and specific plans. In simple words, a business presentation plays a vital role in the advancement of any organization.

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Chapter 18: Business Presentations

Venecia Williams and Olds College

Learning Objectives

Along with good writing skills, the ability to communicate verbally is vital to many employers today. It is an integral part of the modern business world. People in the workplace spend the majority of their time communicating. Verbal communication in the workplace takes many forms such as staff meetings, discussions, speeches, presentations, informal conversations, and telephone and video conferences. Communicating verbally is more personal and flexible than writing. It allows workers to exchange ideas, information, and feedback more quickly. Verbal communication tends to occur in person, making it easier to negotiate, express emotions, outline expectations, and build trust, all of which are important in today’s workplace. Communication can also occur between people who are not together in person. In these situations, unique skills are necessary to achieve success. Simple conversation skills are also valued in the workplace, but this does not mean using casual or informal language. Rather, what is prized by many employers is the ability to communicate important information professionally but in a meaningful and understandable way. This can be important when making spontaneous presentations as well as more elaborate formal group presentations, which are a part of many work roles today.

What Makes a Successful Speaker?

According to longtime Toastmasters member Bob Kienzle, there are a few key elements that tend to make a successful speaker:

A successful speaker can be inspired by other speeches or speakers but may fall flat if they try to copy someone else. Authenticity and passion can resonate so much with an audience that it can outweigh elements otherwise considered pitfalls. The techniques, tools, and best practices are a guideline, and it’s important to note there is no such thing as “perfection” in public speaking. “Failure” can happen in myriad ways, but it’s more helpful to see them as learning opportunities, or opportunities to make a stronger connection to your audience. The biggest failure, according to Kienzle, is to pass up opportunities to practise your skills in presenting or public speaking.

Preparing a Presentation

Develop your message while keeping in mind the format, audience, style , and tone . First, you’ll need to think about the format of your presentation. This is a choice between presentation types. In your professional life, you’ll encounter the verbal communication channels in Figure 18.1. The purpose column labels each channel with a purpose (I=Inform, P=Persuade, or E=Entertain) depending on that channel’s most likely purpose.

Figure 18.1 | Presentation Communication Channels

There are some other considerations to make when you are selecting a format. For example, the number of speakers may influence the format you choose. Panels and Presentations may have more than one speaker. In Meetings and Teleconferences, multiple people will converse. In a Workshop setting, one person will usually lead the event, but there is often a high-level of collaboration between participants. The location of participants will also influence your decision. For example, if participants cannot all be in the same room, you might choose a teleconference or webinar. If asynchronous delivery is important, you might record a podcast. When choosing a technology-reliant channel, such as a teleconference or webinar, be sure to test your equipment and make sure each participant has access to any materials they need before you begin.

Once you have chosen a format, make sure your message is right for your audience. You’ll need to think about issues such as the following:

Next, you’ll consider the style of your presentation. Analyze your specific presentation styles. Perhaps you prefer to present formally, limiting your interaction with the audience, or perhaps you prefer a more conversational, informal style, where discussion is a key element. You may prefer to cover serious subjects, or perhaps you enjoy delivering humorous speeches. Style is all about your personality!

Finally, you’ll select a tone for your presentation. Your voice, body language, level of self-confidence, dress, and use of space all contribute to the mood that your message takes on. Consider how you want your audience to feel when they leave your presentation and approach it with that mood in mind.

Presentation Purpose

Your presentation will have a general and specific purpose. Your general purpose may be to inform, persuade, or entertain. It’s likely that any speech you develop will have a combination of these goals. Most presentations have a little bit of entertainment value, even if they are primarily attempting to inform or persuade. For example, the speaker might begin with a joke or dramatic opening, even though their speech is primarily informational. Your specific purpose addresses what you are going to inform, persuade, or entertain your audience with the main topic of your speech.

Incorporating Backchannels

Technology has given speakers new ways to engage with an audience in real-time, and these can be particularly useful when it isn’t practical for the audience to share their thoughts verbally—for example, when the audience is very large, or when they are not all in the same location. These secondary or additional means of interacting with your audience are called backchannels, and you might decide to incorporate one into your presentation, depending on your aims. They can be helpful for engaging more introverted members of the audience who may not be comfortable speaking out verbally in a large group. Using publicly accessible social networks, such as a Facebook Page or Twitter feed, can also help to spread your message to a wider audience, as audience members share posts related to your speech with their networks. Because of this, backchannels are often incorporated into conferences; they are helpful in marketing the conference and its speakers both during and after the event.

Developing the Content

As with any type of messaging, it helps if you create an outline of your speech or presentation before you create it fully. This ensures that each element is in the right place and gives you a place to start to avoid the dreaded blank page. Figure 18.2 is an outline template that you can adapt for your purpose. Replace the placeholders in the Content column with your ideas or points.

Figure `18.2 | Presentation Outline

Introduction

The beginning of your speech needs an attention-grabber to get your audience interested right away. Choose your attention-grabbing device based on what works best for your topic. Your entire introduction should only be around 10 to 15 percent of your total speech, so be sure to keep this section short. Here are some devices that you could try:

After the attention-getter comes the rest of your introduction. It needs to do the following:

Once you have identified an attention-getting, it is time to develop the body of your presentation or speech. In your body, you will focus on the specific points you would like to communicate to your audience.

Rhetoric and Argument: Your audience will think to themselves, Why should I listen to this speech? What’s in it for me? One of the best things you can do as a speaker is to answer these questions early in your body, if you haven’t already done so in your introduction. This will serve to gain their support early and will fill in the blanks of who, what, when, where, why, and how in their minds.

Organization: An organized body helps your audience to follow your speech and recall your points later. When developing the body of your speech, recall the specific purpose you decided on, then choose main points to support it. Just two or three main points are usually sufficient, depending on the length of your speech. Anticipate one main point per two to three minutes of speaking.

Concluding on a High Note

You’ll need to keep your energy up until the very end of your speech. In your conclusion, your job is to let the audience know you are finished, help them remember what you’ve told them, and leave them with a final thought or call-to-action, depending on the general purpose of your message.

Presentation Aids

Presentations can be enhanced by the effective use of visual aids. These include handouts, overhead transparencies, drawings on the whiteboard, PowerPoint slides, and many other types of props. Once you have chosen a topic, consider how you are going to show your audience what you are talking about. Visuals can provide a reference, illustration, or image to help the audience to understand and remember your point.

Visual aids accomplish several goals:

Methods and Materials

There are many different presentation aids available. Before you decide on a presentation aid, think carefully about how you plan on using it and how it will enhance your presentation.

Using Visual Aids

Visual aids can be a powerful tool when used effectively but can run the risk of dominating your presentation. Consider your audience and how the portrayal of images, text, graphic, animated sequences, or sound files will contribute or detract from your presentation. Here are some tips to keep in mind as you prepare yours.

Designing Slide Decks

When you design your slide decks, you might be overwhelmed by the possibilities, and you might be tempted to use all the bells, whistles, and sounds, not to mention the flying, and animated graphics. If used wisely, a simple transition can be effective, but if used indiscriminately, it can annoy the audience to the point where they cringe in anticipation of the sound effect at the start of each slide.

Stick to one main idea per slide. The presentation is for the audience’s benefit, not yours. Pictures and images can be understood more quickly and easily than text, so you can use this to your advantage as you present.

If you develop a slide deck for your presentation, test these out in the location beforehand, not just on your own computer screen, as different computers and software versions can make your slides look different than you expected. Allow time for revision based on what you learn.

Your visual aids should meet the following criteria:

In Figure 18.3 the slide deck on the left has a colour combination which makes the information difficult to understand. The list is not parallel and the slide contains a grammatical error. The slide deck on the right is an improved and more professional version.

Another consideration that you’ll need to make when designing your slide decks is font. As previously mentioned, think about the people at the back of the room when choosing the size of your text, to make sure it can be read by everyone. A common mistake that presenters make is to use decorative fonts or to incorporate many different fonts in their slides. This not only creates a mixed message for the audience but also makes your message difficult to read. Choose legible, common fonts that do not have thin elements that may be difficult to see.

When considering your choice of colours to use, legibility must be your priority. Contrast can help the audience read your key terms more easily. Make sure the background colour and the images you plan to use complement each other. Repeat colours, from your graphics to your text, to help unify each slide. To reduce visual noise, try not to use more than two or three colours. Blue-green colour blindness, and red-green colour blindness are fairly common, so avoid using these colour combinations if it is important for the audience to differentiate between them. If you are using a pie chart, for example, avoid putting a blue segment next to a green one. Use labelling so that even if someone is colour blind, they will be able to tell the relative sizes of the pie segments and what they signify.

Colour is also a matter of culture. Some colours may be perceived as formal or informal, or masculine or feminine. Certain colours have understood meanings; for example, red is usually associated with danger, while green signals “go.” Make sure the colours you use align with your message. If you are discussing climate change or the natural world, for example, you’d be more likely to use blues and greens rather than metallic colours to avoid confusing the audience.

Once you have prepared your visual aid, do not forget to revise. There is nothing more uncomfortable than seeing a typo or grammatical error on your screen in the middle of your presentation. These errors can create a bad impression and affect your credibility with the audience. You want your audience to focus on your message so be sure to revise to maintain the audience’s attention and keep your credibility.

Preparing to Present

You are almost ready to deliver your presentation. What are some final elements you can focus on to ensure a smooth delivery?

To deliver your presentation to the best of your ability, and to reduce your nerves once you take the stage, you need to practise by rehearsing. As you do, try to identify the weaknesses in your delivery to improve on them. For example, do you often misspeak the same words (e.g., pacific for specific; ax for ask) or do your hands or feet fidget? Use your practice time to focus on correcting these issues. These sessions should help you get comfortable and help you remember what you want to say without having to constantly refer to notes. Try practising in front of a mirror, or even recording yourself speaking to a camera and playing it back. It’s also helpful to get feedback from a supportive audience at this stage. Perhaps a few family members or friends could watch you give your presentation and provide some feedback.

Dress for Success

While there are no definitive guidelines for how you should dress for your presentation, your appearance is an important part of your audience’s first impression. If you want them to take you seriously, you’ll need to look the part. While you don’t have to wear a suit each time you present, there are some scenarios where this would be expected; for example, if you are presenting to a corporate audience who wear suits to work, you should do the same. You should dress one step above your audience. If your audience is going to be dressed casually in shorts and jeans, then wear nice casual clothing such as a pair of pressed slacks and a collared shirt or blouse. If your audience is going to be wearing business casual attire, then you should wear a dress or a suit. The general rule is to avoid any distractions in your appearance that can distract your audience’s attention from your message.

Set Up Your Environment

Depending on the circumstances of your speech or presentation, you may have some choices to make about the environment. Perhaps you have a choice of meeting rooms that you can use, or, perhaps you have only one option. If you have some flexibility, it is helpful to think about what sort of environment would best help you get your message across. For example, if you are running a workshop, you might want to assemble participants in a circle to encourage collaboration and discussion. If you are holding a webinar, you’ll need a quiet location with a strong Internet connection and a computer system. It is imperative that you think about what facilities you need well before the day of your presentation arrives. Arriving to find that the equipment you expected isn’t available is not a nice surprise for even the most experienced speaker!

If you have access to the location beforehand, you may need to move tables or chairs around to get things just the way you want them. You might choose to have a podium brought in, if you are aiming for a formal feel, for example, or you may need to position your flip chart. Double-check that you have all the equipment you need, from whiteboard markers to speakers. It is far better if you can get comfortable with the room before your audience arrives, as this will make you feel more prepared and less nervous.

If you are using technology to support your presentation (i.e., PowerPoint slides or a projector), test everything before you begin. Do a microphone check and test its volume, view your slides on the computer you will be using, check any weblinks, play videos to test their sound, or make a call to test the phone connection prior to your teleconference. Your audience will get restless quickly if they arrive and are expected to wait while you fix a technical problem. This will also make you seem disorganized and hurt your credibility as an authoritative speaker.

During the Presentation

You’ve organized your presentation with great visuals and you are ready to present. You now have to deliver your presentation. How do you effectively deliver your presentation calmly and clearly?

Managing Anxiety

Studies have been done to assess how nervous or stressful people typically get during presentations, by examining people’s physiological responses at three intervals: one minute before the presentation, the first minute of the speech, and the last minute of the speech. They discovered that nervousness usually peaked at the anticipation stage that occurs one minute before the presentation. They further found that as the speech progresses, nervousness tends to go down. Here are some things you can do to help you manage your anxiety before the presentation:

During the presentation, there are four main areas where you can focus attention in order to manage your anxiety:

Your Body’s Reaction

Physical movement helps to channel some of the excess energy that your body produces in response to anxiety. If at all possible, move around the front of the room rather than remaining behind the lectern or gripping it for dear life (avoid pacing nervously from side to side, however). Move closer to the audience and then stop for a moment. If you are afraid that moving away from the lectern will reveal your shaking hands, use note cards rather than a sheet of paper for your outline. Note cards do not quiver like paper, and they provide you with something to do with your hands. Other options include vocal warm-ups right before your speech, having water (preferably in a non-spillable bottle with a spout) nearby for dry mouth, and doing a few stretches before going on stage. Deep breathing will help to counteract the effects of excess adrenaline. You can place cues or symbols in your notes, such as “slow down” or “smile”, that remind you to pause and breathe during points in your speech. It is also a good idea to pause a moment before you get started to set an appropriate pace from the onset. Look at your audience and smile. It is a reflex for some of your audience members to smile back. Those smiles will reassure you that your audience members are friendly.

Attention to the Audience

During your speech, make a point of establishing direct eye contact with your audience members. By looking at individuals, you establish a series of one-to-one contacts similar to interpersonal communication. An audience becomes much less threatening when you think of them not as an anonymous mass but as a collection of individuals.

Keeping a Sense of Humour

No matter how well we plan, unexpected things happen. That fact is what makes the public speaking situation so interesting. If things go wrong, try to have a sense of humour and stay calm. The audience will respond better if you stay calm than if you get upset or have a breakdown.

Stress Management Techniques

Even when we use positive thinking and are well prepared, some of us still feel a great deal of anxiety about public speaking. When that is the case, it can be more helpful to use stress management than to try to make the anxiety go away. Here are two main tools that can help:

Focus on Verbal Communication Techniques

Focus on Non-verbal Communication Techniques

Coping with Mistakes and Surprises

Even the most prepared speaker will encounter unexpected challenges from time to time. Here are a few strategies for combating the unexpected in your own presentations.

Speech Content Issues

What if a notecard goes missing or you skip important information from the beginning of your speech? Pause for a moment to think about what to do. Is it important to include the missing information, or can it be omitted without hindering the audience’s ability to understand your speech? If it needs to be included, does the information fit better now or in a later segment? If you can move on without the missing element, that is often the best choice, but pausing for a few seconds to decide will be less distracting to the audience than sputtering through a few “ums” and “uhs.” Situations like these demonstrate why it’s a good idea to have a glass of water with you when you speak. Pausing for a moment to take a sip of water is a perfectly natural movement, so the audience may not even notice that anything is amiss.

Technical Difficulties

Technology has become a very useful aid in public speaking, allowing us to use audio or video clips, presentation software, or direct links to websites. But it does break down occasionally! Web servers go offline, files will not download, or media contents are incompatible with the computer in the presentation room. Always have a backup plan in case of technical difficulties. As you develop your speech and visual aids, think through what you will do if you cannot show a particular graph or if your presentation slides are garbled. Your beautifully prepared chart may be superior to the verbal description you can provide. However, your ability to provide a succinct verbal description when technology fails will give your audience the information they need and keep your speech moving forward.

External Distractions

Unfortunately, one thing that you can’t control during your speech is audience etiquette, but you can decide how to react to it. Inevitably, an audience member will walk in late, a cell phone will ring, or a car alarm will go off outside. If you are interrupted by external events like these, it is often useful and sometimes necessary to pause and wait so that you can regain the audience’s attention. Whatever the event, maintain your composure. Do not get upset or angry about these glitches. If you keep your cool and quickly implement a “plan B” for moving forward, your audience will be impressed.

Reading Your Audience

Recognizing your audience’s mood by observing their body language can help you adjust your message and see who agrees with you, who doesn’t, and who is still deciding. With this information, you can direct your attention—including eye contact and questions—to the areas of the room where they can have the most impact. As the speaker, you are conscious that you are being observed. But your audience members probably don’t think of themselves as being observed, so their body language will be easy to read.

Handling Q&A

Question-and-answer sessions can be trickier to manage than the presentation itself. You can prepare for and rehearse the presentation, but audience members could ask a question you hadn’t considered or don’t know how to answer. There are three important elements to think about when incorporating Q&As as part of your presentation:

1. Audience Expectations

At the beginning of your speech, give the audience a little bit of information about who you are and what your expertise on the subject is. Once they know what you do (and what you know), it will be easier for the audience to align their questions with your area of expertise—and for you to bow out of answering questions that are outside of your area.

2. Timing of Q&As

Questions are easier to manage when you are expecting them. Unless you are part of a panel, meeting, or teleconference, it is probably easier to let the audience know that you will take questions at the end of your presentation. This way you can avoid interruptions to your speech that can distract you and cause you to lose time. If audience members interrupt during your talk, you can then ask them politely to hold on to their questions until the Q&A session at the end.

3. Knowing How to Respond

Never pretend that you know the answer to a question if you don’t. The audience will pick up on it! Instead, calmly apologize and say that the question is outside of the scope of your knowledge but that you’d be happy to find out after the presentation (or, suggest some resources where the person could find out for themselves). If you are uncertain about how to answer a question, say something like “That’s really interesting. Could you elaborate on that?” This will make the audience member feel good because they have asked an interesting question, and it will give you a moment to comprehend what they are asking. Sometimes presenters rush to answer a question because they are nervous or want to impress. Pause for a moment, before you begin your answer, to think about what you want to say. This will help you to avoid misinterpreting the question or taking offense to a question that is not intended that way.

A final tip is to be cautious about how you answer so that you don’t offend your audience. You are presenting on a topic because you are knowledgeable about it, but your audience is not. It is important not to make the audience feel inferior because there are things that they don’t know. Avoid comments such as “Oh, yes, it’s really easy to do that…” Instead, say something like “Yes, that can be tricky. I would recommend…” Also, avoid a bossy tone. For example, phrase your response with “What I find helpful is…” rather than “What you should do is…”

Good presentation skills are important to successfully communicate ideas in business. Make sure your presentation has a clear topic with relevant supporting details. Use verbal and non-verbal communication techniques to make your presentation engaging, and don’t forget to practice!

End of Chapter Activities

18a. thinking about the content.

What are your key takeaways from this chapter? What is something you have learned or something you would like to add from your experience?

18b. Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions

18c. Applying chapter concepts to a situation

Presenting for success

Akhil works at a software development company in White Rock called Blackball Technologies. It is a medium-sized company that allows its employees to dress casually and occasionally work from home. Akhil likes this because his preference is to wear t-shirts and jeans to the office or work from home in his pyjamas.

Blackball recently created a new software program that has the potential to make a huge profit. However, they need investors to fund their latest innovation. The new software was developed using one of Akhil’s ideas; therefore, the company chooses him to present their proposal to a diverse group of investors from several countries.

Some of the investors are not fluent in English as it is their second language. Additionally, they each have a busy day ahead as they have to listen to proposals from multiple companies. Akhil fears that the investors will not understand him. He is also nervous about the presentation due to its significance to his career. If he is successful, he will get the promotion that he has wanted for the past two years and a pay raise.

What are some of the things that Akhil should consider when presenting to the investors?

18d. Writing Activity

Watch this video from TED.com on The Secret Structure of Great Talks . Summarize the video. What is the most interesting point made by Nancy Duarte in your opinion?

Attribution

Content attribution.

This chapter contains information from Professional Communications OER by the Olds College OER Development Team used under a CC-BY 4.0 international license.

This chapter contains information from Business Communication for Success which is adapted from a work produced and distributed under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA) in 2010 by a publisher who has requested that they and the original author not receive attribution. This adapted edition is produced by the University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing through the eLearning Support Initiative .

Media Attribution

Presentation icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com .

Whiteboard icon made by Phatplus from www.flaticon.com .

Handout icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com .

Demonstration icon made by Ultimatearm from www.flaticon.com .

Chapter 18: Business Presentations by Venecia Williams and Olds College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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BUSINESS PRESENTATION: Meaning, Types, and How to Start Example

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A business presentation is an excellent tool for attracting new clients and investors to a firm and informing them about its services. When starting a new business, a good business presentation should take place from the start so as to grow. This article talks about an example of how to start a business presentation and its types. It also talks about the McKinsey business presentation specialist and gives examples.

Business presentations are slideshows or demos that convey useful information about a company’s history and services to potential clients and customers. Businesses utilize presentations to assist their customers in comprehending how their products or services can meet their demands or solve their problems.

A firm presentation is a focused summary of critical information about your company’s plans, products, or procedures that is intended for either internal or external audiences. Among the most popular sorts of presentations are project proposals, HR policy presentations, and investor briefings.

Business presentations that are compelling are essential for expressing vital ideas, convincing others, and introducing new products to the public. As a result, one of the most universal abilities for any professional is corporate presentation design.

Businesses utilize presentations to assist their customers to comprehend how their products or services can meet their demands or solve their problems. Companies can, however, utilize presentations to announce business successes to partners and executives, as well as to draw the attention of potential investors. With a powerful company presentation, you can demonstrate to others how your firm has excelled and won new clients while increasing sales and revenue.

A company’s presentation is often delivered utilizing audio/visual presentation materials such as projectors and statistical documents generated with presentation software, as well as more basic materials such as flip charts and whiteboards.

A warm, conversational tone, as well as light jokes, might help you keep your audience’s attention. However, be aware that it is a business presentation. When presenting, don’t utilize too much humor, your audience will not take you or your presentation seriously. Only use comedy if you are naturally skilled at it.

Business Presentation Examples

The following are the top examples of business presentation systems for your consideration. There are some;

One of the examples of a business presentation is the Redfin. If you need a “text-light” business presentation sample, Redfin’s investor deck is ideal. This straightforward deck masterfully employs iconography, charts, and graphs to dissect the company’s business model, value proposition, market share, and competitive advantages over other firms. This is an excellent deck design for numerically minded investors.

The Salesforce team created this instructive presentation to share their findings on customer experience (CX) with prospects and existing customers.

The slide deck is on the longer side, with 58 slides in total. However, larger themes are broken down and reinforced by bite-sized figures and quotations from company executives. They are also enumerating the most important points in memorable formulas, detailed lists, and tables. Overall, this deck is one of the excellent examples of a business presentation of how to construct a captivating narrative utilizing various statistics.

This Mastercard PowerPoint deck immediately attracts the audience’s attention with interesting background visuals and important data points on population growth, POS systems, and payment methods used in the coming decade.

Snapchat’s organizational model presentation is funkier and more casual, in keeping with the company’s overall image and attitude. The PowerPoint deck then discusses the company’s financials and revenue streams after briefly reviewing what they do.

Snap Inc.’s business slide deck is straightforward and devoid of flashy design features. However, it has a strong united subject of showcasing the audience Snapchat’s market position and predicted vector of business expansion.

The business slide summarizes why the Plaid purchase is a sound strategic move by demonstrating the total addressable market they may enter post-acquisition . Then it goes over Plaid’s competitive advantages. The slide deck then summarizes all of Visa’s potential monetary and indirect gains as an acquirer, which is also part of the examples of the business presentation.

This isn’t a typical business presentation example of how to start a business presentation. Rather, it is a novel approach to creating interesting, interactive presentations of client case studies.

The short deck includes a short video clip from a Google client, 7-11, who explains how they leveraged the company’s marketing technology to digitally alter their processes and provide a higher level of marketing automation. The narrated video segments are punctuated by slides with catchy statistics that contextualize difficulties that other firms face. The video then shifts to explaining, in the words of 7-11’s CMO, how Google’s technology is assisting them in overcoming the stated problems.

Types of Business Presentation

There are various reasons why a business presentation could be done. They significantly differ with regard to the content and purpose. The followings are the types or examples of business presentation systems below;

The purpose of this style of presentation is to persuade your audience of your point of view – to persuade them of what you consider to be correct. Creating business presentations of this grade necessitates a bit more copywriting expertise as well as public speaking expertise. Your goal here is to persuade the audience and persuade them to take the desired action.

This part of the business PowerPoint presentation type is intended to aid decision-making by explaining how we can get something done. The overarching goal here is to describe the overall “action plan.”

The purpose of this style of presentation is to educate the audience. It is made up of status reports or summaries and begins with an overarching aim that is followed by action and detailed plans. In other words, a business presentation is critical to the success of any corporation.

The group presentations communicate a team’s findings. In general, these presentations are informational in nature and strive to persuade individuals to accept new programs and tactics.

Presenters nowadays employ computer applications such as Flash and PowerPoint to enhance their presentations. Even a simple chalkboard can enhance corporate presentations by capturing audience input and queries. It is also among the types of business presentations.

How to Start a Business Presentation Example

Knowing how to begin a business presentation is a smart first step. It prepares you for the outcome. The example of how to start a business presentation is as follows below;

Making a plan for what you want to achieve and how you want to do it is the first step in developing a great business presentation. It’s usually a good idea to identify a target that you wish to accomplish during your presentation and then create a plan to accomplish it. A business presentation plan outlines your presentation and decides what message you want to express as well as the important points and arguments you want to include. This is one example of how to start a business presentation.

Select a professional-looking slide deck that corresponds to the tone of your presentation. Choose colors that complement your brand’s or product’s hues, and avoid using too many showy colors. Also, choose a font and font size that complements your brand or company.

Make careful to choose your presentation slide decks based on the subject, such as utilizing professional or neutral slide decks for financial data or research themes and colorful slide decks for informal topics.

It is critical to establish your credibility right away when beginning a presentation because people are more likely to listen to you if they are convinced of your authenticity. Here’s where you can use a little humor to make them laugh and put them at ease by setting a pleasant tone. This will assist you in engaging with the audience, establishing a personal connection, and providing a memorable basis for your presentation.

If your slides only contain text, numbers, and tables, your business presentations may become tedious. Not only does it make it difficult for your audience to read and listen to your presentation at the same time, but that is also why you must include visual elements such as photographs, charts, graphics, GIFs, and others.

Including strong quotes, full-screen graphics, and videos will stay with your viewers and help keep their attention throughout.

You may have built your credibility through a tale or an anecdote, but if you truly want to project an authentic image, you must back up all of your assertions during your presentation.

So, don’t be hesitant to utilize a lot of supporting resources. This implies you provide figures and facts, cite studies, or provide evidence to back up your claims. This will aid in proving your trustworthiness and honesty.

When all of the questions have been answered and all of the conversations have concluded, you must provide a brief closing statement in your presentation. Make a concise statement that includes your core message, key points, and last call to action. It is also an example of how to start a business presentation.

This team, or specialist, assists McKinsey consultants globally in the creation, design, and structuring of electronic business presentation systems. These business presentation systems are critical for specialist McKinsey consultants to communicate with our clients. The vast majority of presentations are made using a customized version of PowerPoint.

McKinsey’s Business Presentation Design Services is a service line of McKinsey Specialist Global Services India Private Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of McKinsey & Company in India, with offices in Bengaluru, Chennai, and Trivandrum and over 1,400 colleagues working in various teams 24×7, supporting over 20,000 firm members worldwide. For more information about the McKinsey business presentation specialist check here .

The following are the types of presentations to be applied in business below;

The PowerPoint 10/20/30 rule is a simple concept: no PowerPoint presentation should have more than ten slides, last more than 20 minutes, or use fonts lower than 30 point in size. Guy Kawasaki coined the rule, a tool for marketers to generate effective PowerPoint presentations.

The 66 rule is a more minimal guideline in the land of ideal slide text. The 666 rule recommends a maximum of six bullet points on each slide with a maximum of six words per bullet. Some argue that there should only be one word for each bullet or six words overall per slide.

The following are the types of the business presentations below;

Speeches and powerpoints by themselves are insufficient to captivate and motivate your audience. Everyone has endured a boring presentation that only managed to reach one ear before disappearing entirely. In fact, using PowerPoint can cause you to lose your audience in as little as 10 minutes.

Business presentations, especially business presentation videos, depart from the conventional presentation format. They provide your audience with practical imagery that they may refer to repeatedly even after the lecture is ended. They not only hold your audience’s interest, but they can also make you a stronger, more certain presenter. You can use business presentations as a road map to keep on course and foresee future events. You can stand out from the crowd and leave a positive impression with the appropriate presentation.

The audience, timing, purpose, and content of your business presentation will all change. No matter the subject, the following components should be mentioned:

Fortunately, sharing a business presentation doesn’t require being present in person. These days, video presentations can be made and shared online. To communicate more effectively and with less potential for misunderstanding, they can even add screen and webcam recordings.

In order to be successful, a business presentation must address the wants and goals of the audience in a direct and personal manner. Your objective is to educate your audience on the manner in which your product or service will assist them in resolving their issues or realizing their ambitions.

Engaging, memorable, and motivational are the hallmarks of a successful presentation. They do not present an overwhelming amount of information to the audience, but rather they provide distinct takeaways that can be processed or put into practice right immediately. Check out these presentation templates for some outstanding illustrations as a starting point.

Engage with the people you are speaking to rather than just talking to them. You can make your presentation more interactive by including surveys, question-and-answer sessions, and asking participants to provide examples or experiences, exercises, or even games. Your presentation is sure to have a greater impact on the audience if the interaction is pertinent to the subject matter being discussed.

Some new upcoming business organizations are not growing the way it supposes to. In growing a business a good business presentation is the best to do that. It helps in meeting your target customers and clients. This article teaches about “business presentation.”

However, all corporate presentations should, at the very least, include:

Businesses and professional firms utilize presentations to inform, educate, motivate, and persuade internal and external audiences.

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Whether you are giving a presentation management, colleagues, a venture capitalist at a conference, meeting or sales demo – here are some basic tips that will help you wow your audience. These useful tips will turn your next corporate presentation from ‘good’ to ‘great’ and make you a winner.

Corporate vs. Academic Presentation: What Is The Difference?

All of us had to make presentations in university, but a presentation for business is different . Why? In most cases the goal of the business presentation is to deliver certain idea, message, sell a service or a product. This means that presentations made for corporate companies revolve around one goal or core message. Meanwhile academic presentations are created to deliver information about a certain subject.

Corporate presentations should be created with strong focus on your audience and key message, resulting in certain structural and delivery technique differences.

Our advice draws upon the extensive experience of our corporate professional presentation designers and experts, bridging together advice that cover a whole range of areas and useful tips for making a powerful business presentation.

Preparing For Your Corporate Presentation

Focusing solely on presentation design will not get your message across. Instead you should spend most of your time preparing your speech, delivery techniques and process. While well designed slides are important for your presentation, it should not be its main focus.

Plan Your Strategy & Concentrate On Core Message

Before sitting down at the computer to make your presentation, answer the following questions:

The main focus when planning the corporate presentation should always be its goal and core message. Therefore, strategically planning out your overall marketing efforts will keep you focused on the goal rather than the process itself. Regardless of how you deliver the presentation, be that in person or virtual presentation , the most important point is what effect it will have on your audience at the end.

Have a clear understanding of what you want your audience to understand, feel and do. Strategic thinking will allow you to define the mindset of your audience and deliver the presentation that supports your core message and marketing efforts.

Before you start:

Define your core message, goals and effects:

Use sticky notes to define your core message, goals and effects. These will help to keep you on track with what matters most throughout the entire process.

Summarize the key message you want your audience to take away at the end of your presentation:

Try to summarize the key message you want your audience to take away at the end of your presentation. Our experts recommend the ‘30 seconds’ or ‘15 words’ rule: you should be able to brief the core message within 30 seconds or summarize it in no more than 15 words.

Capture Attention & Set Goals

Face-to-face interaction with your audience is one of the most important and influential factors for spectacular presentation as it leaves the strongest and the most lasting impression. If you don’t gain the trust of your audience or fail to get their interest, no matter what facts you present to them – it will not make the difference.

Therefore, as surprising as it may seem, the very beginning of your presentation can become the ‘make-or-break’ part of it. This is the time for you to convince your audience to listen to the rest of your presentation with interest.

Establish Credibility

Remember that the beauty is in the eye of the beholder and so is your credibility. So you have to make a special effort to establish your credibility right from the start. The fact is, you are more likely to get what you’ve come for if you have the trust of your audience. It does not mean that you have to recite a cover letter from your resume. Instead, you can simply share a short story highlighting your experience related to the main topic of your presentation or perhaps a personal experience capturing their interest and curiosity.

Set Goals Early On In The Presentation

presentation. When you share the purpose of your presentation right from the get go, your audience will perceive the rest of the information keeping that goal in mind.

This approach will make it simpler for you to get the desired action or outcome at the end. Aside from that it will keep you focused on your goal, helping you unwrap the supporting material around your core message and not the other way around.

Need Awesome Business Presentation?

Know Topic Thoroughly

Knowing the topic you are going to cover in your presentation is one of the most important elements that will help you succeed. And ‘knowing’ means being able to naturally and conversationally discuss your presentation.

Make Your Speech Natural

Most of the times questions arise during or after your presentation, and this is another important reason why you should thoroughly study the topic. Be prepared for the most difficult objections, concerns and questions that may rise during your presentation. That way you won’t be caught off guard and will always stay on track with your goal. Consider your audience, the experts that are going to be present during the presentation and the questions they might have. You should be able to speak freely about any aspects without any visual aides.

Do Not Stress & Speak Openly

It is hard to sound confident if you are stressed. To connect with your audience, speak persuasively and make your presentation engaging you need to be relaxed and at ease. There are various techniques that will help you overcome your anxiety and let your expertise shine through.

Pick A Listener

Before you start your presentation, pick a friendly person among your audience and imagine you are speaking to a friend. Imagining yourself talking directly to someone instead of the whole room full of people will release some of your anxiety especially if you have fear of public speaking.

Tell A Story

Memorizing your presentation may seem like the best option to keep your stress levels down. However contrary to this belief reciting a memorized text can easily derail you during a presentation. Imagine if someone interrupts you or you forget the next sentence?Instead, try to memorize certain cues for each slide that will prompt you to discuss it. Imagine that you are telling a story describing each ‘picture’. That way, if you are suddenly interrupted, lose pace or simply get nervous you can get back on track without any hesitation, as all you are doing is telling a story and will be able to easily mix and match as you go along.

Make Powerful Statements

Regardless of what you say during your presentation, it will make a stronger impression if you support it with some credible sources. You can present statistics, provide quotes or reference a credible research. Start your audience with some surprising facts, even if it is not the main point of your presentation and you are sure to get the attention you need.

Making Your Business Presentation: Techniques & Structure

Now that you are all clear about the delivery style of your presentation, there are other important aspects that deserve special attention. The software you use to make your presentation, the way you design it, and most importantly how you end it are all important factors to consider.

Choose The Right Software For Business Presentation

With many options available on the market today, it might be difficult for you to settle on the best software to use for your presentation. While the outcome of your presentation still depends on the content and the way you present it, making a wise decision will certainly help you succeed.

Some options are quite costly while others are free. So before you dig into the slides, make sure you do your research and choose the software that will suit your needs best. If your presentation is perhaps a team effort, you should use Google Slides: being cloud based it is easily available for real-time collaboration. Maybe you need a fun animated presentation or even a video: then Powtoon is the right tool for you. Whatever software you choose, do your research before settling on one and make an informed decision.

While there are endless possibilities when it comes to business presentation software, here we will discuss the two most widely recognized softwares for corporate use: PowerPoint and Prezi.

PowerPoint For Business Presentation

Advantages of microsoft powerpoint.

Microsoft’s PowerPoint is one of the most popular presentation softwares available. You might have used it either in high school, university or throughout your career. PowerPoint still remains a great tool for making presentations with the most popular uses being teaching and sales.

PowerPoint software offers some animation effects, readily made layouts, designs, fonts, backgrounds and graphics making it easy to make presentation ‘from scratch’.

PowerPoint is a fairly user-friendly software, although to make a truly impressive and professional presentation you will need to dig deeper, perhaps use some add-ons and avoid overused graphics and designs.

PowerPoint slides can be easily printed or saved and are compatible with most computers as almost everyone has the software installed as part of the Microsoft Office package.

Disadvantages of Microsoft PowerPoint

While PowerPoint offers many advantages for its users, there are certain drawbacks. You have to scroll through the entire presentation to get to a certain slide. This could pose some difficulties, especially during Q&A part, when you might want to go over a certain point again.

PowerPoint does not leave a lot of room to make your presentation creative unless you possess designer background. The amount of premade layouts is very limited, while the overused clips, arts, only vertical or horizontal image uploading can make your presentation look just like the one your audience saw a week ago at another meeting.

Need Professional Business PowerPoint Presentation? We will design a corporate PowerPoint presentation using the best and the latest practices

Using Prezi For Business Presentation

Prezi is one of the most popular alternatives to PowerPoint. Recently Prezi Classic was replaced by Prezi Next. Prezi Next uses nonlinear format for the presentations as opposed to PowerPoint linear approach. Prezi works on HTML5 browser player.

Prezi Next Advantages For Business Presentation

Prezi zooming user interface (ZUI) lets users easily jump from one point to another within the presentation. Your presentation will look like a canvas with topics and subtopics, meaning that you will not have to scroll through the entire presentation to get to a certain topic. Instead, you can simply zoom out of one topic and zoom into the next one, letting you jump from one subject to another with ease.

Prezi gives you more freedom when it comes to design options for your presentation. For instance, you can upload any photos, videos, clip arts. You can position the elements at any desired angle, reshape, resize and format any way you choose. There are various options for customizing the presentation pages.

Prezi Next presentation starts with a template and features plenty of ready-made templates for you to choose from. Moreover you have an option of viewing two screens at the same time on your computer: one with your actual presentation and the other Presenter View screen with your notes.

Prezi is a web-based software which means it can be accessed from any computer that has internet connection. Presentations can be easily embedded into any webpage or blog.

Disadvantages Of Prezi Next For Business Presentations

Prezi is a fairly user-friendly program given the amazing result you can get without any special designer training. However it is not as widely recognized as PowerPoint therefore will require you to study and gain some basic knowledge before working with Prezi.

When Prezi launched its new version Prezi Next, it received its share of criticism. For instance a lot of Prezi users note that previous Classic version allowed more room for creativity. For instance Prezi Classic starts with a blank canvas, while Prezi Next starts with premade template. Moreover Prezi Next does not give the control over the zooming movement unlike Prezi Classic. However many experts see it as a good thing as it gives more structure to the presentations and prevents all the excessive spinning and zooming.

Voiceover and music cannot be added. Prezi Classic cannot be converted to Prezi Next. However if you are tech-savvy there are various additional programs and softwares that will help you convert Prezi Next to video, add music or voice-over and convert Prezi Classic to Next.

We design professional Prezi presentations for companies and businesses across the globe

Use The Right Design & Formatting

When you’ve settled on the software you are going to use for your presentation, it is time to discuss the design you are going to choose. The colors, fonts, images as well as overall design will play an important role in how your audience will perceive you, your presentation and your message. You don’t need to have any prior training in graphic design to make visually appealing presentations.

Choose Colors Wisely

Before you start, settle on a standard look and color scheme that you will use throughout your entire presentation. The right color can motivate your audience and increase concentration levels. When deciding on design, background and text color ensure that the background and the text have enough contrast.

Dark background with light text will work best. However if the room where you will be presenting will be light then go for light background with dark text. Light text on dark background tends to wash out in the lighter room. Therefore if you are planning to present in a fairly light room then choose the light background with contrasting text.

Choose Fonts Correctly

Font is an important element of your presentation. Consider the topic, the template design and settle on a font that is best suited for your presentation. Just like the color scheme, you will use it consistently throughout your presentation.

Sans-Serif fonts (Arial, Calibri or Gill Sans) are easier to read on the low resolution presentation screen than Serif fonts that were designed to be used on small screens in documents. Of course it all depends on the type of the presentation screen as well as the size of the room. Whatever font you choose to use in your presentation, make sure it can be easily read from the furthest end of the room. Make sure the font corresponds with the topic you are going to present and looks professional.

The size of the font usually depends on the size of your screen in proportion to the size of the room. However 24-32 point size text will usually work fine.

Limit The Text

A lot of the times presenter feels that it is necessary to squeeze as much information into the slides as possible. However the research shows that too much text on the slide has a very negative impact on your presentation. Firstly, your audience have come to listen to what you have to say and feeling compelled to read through too many points and listen to you talk at the same time is annoying. Secondly, you want your audience to stay focused on your speech rather than your slides.

Try using at least 30/70 text to image ratio and opt for visual aides when you can, rather than words. To demonstrate your data use graphs, however avoid including unnecessary details. For instance if you are using pie charts, limit it to 4-6 slices while for vertical bar charts to show changes in quantity over time, use 4-8 bars.

Pay close attention to the images you use for your presentations. Make sure that the images are high resolution quality photography images. If possible use professional stock photography images. Low quality images will make your presentation look rather unprofessional.

Using real photographic images will help your audience get an emotional connection with your presentation as opposed to graphic or cartoon-like images. Avoid using PowerPoint Clip Art in your presentations as your audience has probably seen it many times.

10-20-30 Rule

Guy Kawasaki from Apple suggests an easy-to-remember rule you should try to stick to when working on your presentation. The presentation should contain no more than 10 slides, last no longer than 20 minutes and the text should be not smaller than 30 point. Keep in mind though that this is just the general guideline and there can always be exceptions.

Create Good Summary, Suggest Next Steps & Set a Goal

The way you end your presentation is just as important as the way you start it. If the beginning of your presentation should encourage your audience to listen to you, the end should encourage them to act.

Call To Action

Summarize the core message of your presentation again and use it as a chance to drive your message home. Your summary should include a strong call to action and encourage your audience to act. It is your chance to get your audience to think about your presentation once it is over and discuss it later.

Call to action should be clear, spelling out exactly what outcome you expect out of this presentation. Not including a call to action can fail all your prior efforts.

Leave some time for a quick question and answer session at the end of your presentation. Use it to your advantage by demonstrating additional information you have not included in your presentation.

If nobody asks any questions you can still use this time to strategically drive the message across. For example you can say something like “You might still be wondering if…”.

Author: admin

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