One of the most important and often scary parts of any small business owner’s daily tasks is to give a business presentation.
Sometimes this presentation could be for the sake of your investors in order to secure more funding for your expanding business.
However, more often that not, you’ll need to make the perfect business presentation for potential clients in order to win the contracts.
Another way that owners may give a business presentation is at such things as free seminars in universities or local community organizations. This can lead to effective word-of-mouth marketing and provide lots of qualified leads.
Not only can public speaking be very scary in and of itself, but it also has the added stress of the responsibility of the success or failure of your business possibly resting on your shoulders now.
There are a few important ways you can learn how to give the best business presentation and expand your business skills.
Preparing for the business presentation
Great preparation will make for a great presentation. You should make sure to:
- have a great structure: this usually means you’ve got a clearly identifiable introduction, main body and summary
- decide what message it is you are trying to get across and make sure you have in-depth knowledge of that
- research the audience you’ll be presenting to and create a custom-fit presentation to keep their focus, interest and energy up
- rehearse the business presentation as many times as you can before the day of the presentation
- come up with probable questions the audience may ask and find at least two ways to answer those questions
- make sure you use simple, everyday language and leave the jargon at home
With these tips, you’ll have taken care of your bulletproof preparation.
When you give the presentation
The actual presentation is now about delivery and body language.
You’ve already done all of the research, so now it’s up to you to make sure you connect with your audience and keep them engaged.
You should use the following methods:
- make eye contact with your audience and have a pleasant face (smile)
- make sure you vary up your voice so that you avoid the boring, sleep-inducing monotone voice that many speakers are guilty of
- make sure you don’t read complete sentences from your notes; instead, have short notes and fill in the rest from memory
- try to involve the audience through questions or jokes
- make sure your body language is positive and appropriate
- try not to stand in one place like a tree; walk around for even a few inches to get a sense of the stage and appear more relaxed
When you get the hang of these simple principles, you’ll see just how simple it can be to give a fantastic business presentation.
The most important thing…
Although I’ve already mentioned it, one of the most important things you need to do is to make sure that you are 100% prepared by getting all the in-depth information, resources and research before you begin your presentation.
When something speaks about something they know nothing about, it shows, and it can have serious consequences for your reputation and your business in general.
With a great business presentation, however, you’ll be reaping the benefits – more customers, better word-of-mouth and increased reputation.
Good luck!
