From pitching an idea to leading a meeting, summarizing information to seeking investments—most professionals need to give a business presentation at some point.
And the difference between a good and bad presentation is both obvious and impactful. A strong business presentation helps you:
- Convey information clearly and concisely.
- Persuade or convince your audience towards your ideal income.
- Engage and inspire colleagues or employees for greater work performance.
Not only do these benefits help achieve business or career goals, but mastering the process can help you save time, become more efficient, and communicate better.
Here are eight tips and tricks to take your business presentations to the next level.
8 Impactful Business Presentation Tips
Whether you need help creating better visual aids or just get nervous speaking in front of people, there are effective presentation techniques you can learn today.
Here’s how to elevate your business presentation skills for maximum impact.
1. Know Your Audience
The first step in mastering your presentation skills is to know your audience—who’s on the receiving end? This is important because you can customize your approach to a specific group rather than a general one, which is always most effective.
Think about:
- Demographics: This includes things like positions, roles, interests, and other characteristics of the people you’re presenting to. Consider how you will tailor your presentation to align with those things.
- Expectations: What does your audience expect to receive from your presentation? How can you ensure that happens?
- Frustrations: Consider any pain points or challenges your audience is coming in with. How can you preemptively address questions or concerns?
2. Focus on Clarity and Impact
Clarity is key for an effective business presentation. Clear communication leads to greater impact because it ensures everyone is on the same page and knows how to move forward after the presentation.
Here are two key business presentation tips for clarity and impact:
- Use a logical structure: Make sure your presentation follows a sequence, such as “introduction-body-conclusion” or “problem-solution-benefit.” This helps everyone follow the same roadmap.
- Choose a simple design: Make sure your visual aids (i.e., PowerPoint, Google Slides) are simple and easy to follow. Use bullet points, numbering, or simple graphics. Don’t cram too much information in, but ensure it’s easy for everyone to follow.
3. Use Visual Aids Effectively
Visual aids can help you get your information across clearly and effectively. They can also enhance your presentation and make it more compelling. Here are some business presentation tips to try:
- Use high-quality images: Don’t settle for blurry graphics or too-small text. Make sure you are choosing quality visual aids. Unsplash and Pexels are both great for high-quality stock images.
- Practice with your visual aids: Do at least a quick run-through of your presentation to ensure seamless integration and timing. This also makes sure everything works properly (i.e., a video loads quickly).
- Be creative: Depending on your audience, it may be appropriate to use out-of-the-box visual aids like memes, gifs, or videos. Don’t be afraid to have some fun with it!
Remember that your visual aids are meant to enhance a verbal presentation, not replace it.
4. Engage in Storytelling
The most engaging business presentations are those that use the art of storytelling to some degree. Stories create emotional connections that help your audience relate to your message.
In a business context, stories can include:
- Anecdotes and stories: Share past experiences with clients or partners that are relevant to your presentation and audience.
- Personal experiences: Give your audience a glimpse into your own thought process, what you’re learning, or what you’re excited about. It helps people connect with you on a deeper level, which invites participation and buy-in.
- Big picture: Set your presentation in a broader context—what’s the purpose of this presentation? How does it lead to the next steps? What are the goals you want to achieve?
5. Practice Your Delivery
Mastering presentation skills requires practice. Unless you’re naturally a great public speaker—and some are!—you’ll need to spend time practicing. Here are some effective presentation techniques to work on :
- Vocals: Be mindful of your tone and pitch when you give a presentation. Are you varying it to create interest? Do you speak slowly and clearly?
- Body language: Consider your natural body language and what message it may give off. Look for opportunities to increase eye contact, use hand motions, and stand straight. These all project confidence and help you better connect with your audience.
- Flow and pacing: Think about the length of your presentation and what you want to communicate. Make sure your pacing is spot-on so you have time to get through everything on time and are not too rushed in the end.
Practice is effective because it can help you overcome nervousness and anxiety. As you practice, you’ll gain confidence by knowing the material better and ironing out all the small issues.
If you’re still nervous after practicing, take some deep breaths before you start. Remind yourself that it’s normal to feel that way and you’re still capable and competent to give a great presentation. You’ll fall back on your knowledge and practice once you start—so take a deep breath and go for it!
6. Foster Engagement through Questions and Conversation
Most presentations are more engaging when there is an opportunity for discussion or engagement with the audience. You can encourage participation by:
- Preparing discussion questions: Deliberately set aside time for participants to discuss relevant topics to your presentation. Build it into your allotted time so that you can still get through all your main points.
- Being open to feedback and encouraging questions: Don’t be so rigid with your presentation that you’re closed off to feedback. If someone has something to contribute, stay open and address it; you may not have time to delve into their questions at that time, but you can always follow up later.
7. Choose the Right Environment
Another key consideration for your presentation is where you’ll host it. Depending on your workplace, you may not have much choice. But if there is some flexibility, consider choosing a location that supports the goals of your presentation.
Here are some things you can think about:
- Room size and layout: Does the space comfortably fit all the participants? Is the layout conducive to your desired outcome? For example, if you want to facilitate conversation, group tables together.
- Comfort: Consider your audience and what will make them most comfortable and, therefore, engaged. This could be things like chairs, natural lighting, or some coffee and snacks.
- A/V equipment or other supports: Does your space have adequate technological support for your presentation? Make sure you test any equipment in advance.
Remote teams may be accustomed to giving presentations online, but there’s a strong case for the benefits of in-person meetings. A coworking space offers flexible, on-demand meeting rooms equipped with A/V tools, comfortable seating, and on-site support.
8. Leverage AI and Other Tools
Once you’ve got the basics of effective presentation techniques in place, you can think about leveraging AI or other tools to take things to the next level. Some AI programs can help you increase efficiency or generate ideas. Here are some things to look into:
- Idea generation: ChatGPT is a great starting point to generate ideas or content. You can go back and forth with the AI to get ideas for a presentation, write sections, convert large paragraphs into bullet points and so much more.
- Presentation: Many AI programs can create attractive, creative, and effective presentations. Check out Beautiful.AI, SlidesAI, or Slidebean to get started.
Mastering presentation skills is possible for any professional. Look through these business presentation tips and tricks to find what will help take your next presentation to the next level!
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