Tweet

The Key To Successful Whiteboard Presentations

Guest post by: Milly Sonneman

Article Overview: Simply grabbing a marker and running up to the whiteboard isn’t going to produce fantastic results. Here are 5 little-known pro tips to boost your skills in whiteboard presenting.

The Key To Successful Whiteboard Presentations

Simply grabbing a marker and running up to the whiteboard isn’t going to produce fantastic results. Here are 5 little-known pro tips to boost your skills in whiteboard presenting.

If you want to give successful whiteboard presentations, you must learn how to plan, prepare and perform. In short, you must make it easy for your audience to understand what you have to offer.

A good whiteboard presentation is built with the audience in mind. As in other types of presenting, relying on one generic presentation is a risky approach. When it comes to presenting, a ‘one size fits all’ is not only dangerous, it is a surefire way to kill your success.

Make it easy for people to see what you mean. Show them the distinct advantage of going with your company, your recommendations and your solutions. Whether you are presenting to external clients, your boss, or an internal team, make whiteboard interaction part of your success strategy.

Tip 1. Adapt For Every Audience

Plan your whiteboard presentation—for each audience. Do not rely on a generic plan. Avoid doing ‘what you’ve always done.’

Naturally, to adapt correctly to every audience, you must do your homework. Research trends, news and emerging issues. Find out what problems and situations are top of mind. Then, adapt your whiteboard presentation to match these needs.

Tip 2. Prepare Your Plan

As in every successful project, planning is critical. Plan your whiteboard presentation with care and attention to detail. Decide which parts of your presentation are best done at the whiteboard. Choose what to show, when to show it, and how to engage your audience.

Tip 3. Go Visual

Just about any complex problem, project or process can be made clearer with a picture. But don’t worry if you don’t know what to draw. If you feel uncertain or uncomfortable with visual thinking, ask for help.

Visual learning experts are available to help you simplify complex data into easy-to-understand diagrams. In addition, experts will show you the quick and easy ways to show these diagrams, even if you swear you can’t draw.

Tip 4. Rehearse In A Safe Environment

Many professionals find that rehearsals and practice sessions are critical for success. One of the favorite ways to rehearse is to create what many people term, ‘a safe environment.’

A few examples:

• Practice in front of your kids

•Whiteboard with a presentation coach

• Sketch your ideas in a journal, then on the whiteboard

By structuring your practice sessions, you will gain confidence and boost results for your big day.

Tip 5. Timing Works Wonders

While it’s easy to get excited about interactive presenting at a whiteboard, it’s important to pay attention to the clock. Ask a friend or colleague to time your practice session. If no one is available, set a digital timer.

Experiment with making ‘on-the-spot’ choices in case your time slot is cut short. Once you know what to shorten, you can expect to feel more relaxed should this occur when you’re in front of an audience.

Giving successful whiteboard presentations enables you to take advantage of new opportunities. The next time your client says, “show me what you mean!” you will know exactly what to do.

Related Articles
  Are Your Whiteboards Helping Or Hurting?
  Stop Losing Money With Poor Presentation Skills
  Why You Should Ignore That Whiteboard
  Ultimate Truth About Executive Presence At The Whiteboard
  Lose a Little Weight, Your Results Win Big
  Don’t Miss Out On The Whiteboard Sales Presenting Craze
  The Best Time to Sell At The Whiteboard
  Why Whiteboard Presentations Save Headaches, Time and Money
  Whiteboard Story Selling-Revealed
  How To Build Selling Skills In Minutes-At The Whiteboard
  Gain An Unfair Advantage In Your Whiteboard Presentation
  Sales Presenting - Whiteboards Are Not Just For UPS Anymore
  Stand Out In Any Crowd With World-Class Whiteboard Skills
  Present Your Way To The Top: Selling At The Whiteboard
  The Truth About Selling With A Whiteboard
  Presentation Round Up - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
  It's Easy To Be Remarkable
  Gain Competitive Selling Advantage At The Whiteboard
  Presenting and Marketing Your Business - 3 New Rules
  Interactive Storytelling: 7 Alternatives For Slide Craziness

Article Tags: business presentation skills, online presentation skills training, online presentation training, presentation skills, presentation skills online, presentation skills training, total presentation skills training, total training, whiteboard presentation skills online, whiteboard selling, whiteboard selling online



Related Forum Posts
Re: What's 1 word to describe what your business will be in 2012 - Successful.
Books for Women Entrepreneurs - There's a thread for good books in the Resources folder, but it doesn't target books for businesswomen particularly, so I figured I'd start such a thread here. It doesn't matter how successful you are in your business - it's always possible to learn something new. In subsequent posts I give Table of Contents and brief descriptions for various titles - most of them devoted to the businesswoman - and sometimes a review. If anyone else has read a review, or has read the book and found it useful, please comment! 1. The Old Girl's Network 2. Mother's Work 3. The 7 Greatest Truths About Successful Women 4. Pitch Like A Girl 5. Workplace Warrior 6. Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the Modern Consumer 7. Contingency Planning & Disaster Recovery 8. She Wins, You Win 9. Napoleon On Project Management 10. Why Good Girls Dont' Get Ahead, But Gutsy Girls Do 11. Comeback Moms: How to Leave Work, Raise Children, and Restart your Career even If you Haven't Had a Job in Years 12. The One Minute Millionaire 13. Talking From 9 to 5 14. Soloing: Realizing Your Life's Ambitions 15. 101 Best Home Based Businesses for Women: Everything You Need to Know About Getting Started on the Road To Success 16. Work With Passion: How to Do What You Love for a Living. Revised and Expanded 17. Fail-Proof Your Business: Beat the Odds and be Successful 18. Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End 19. Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide 20. Millionaire Women Next Door: The Many Journeys of Successful American Businesswomen 21. Start Small, Finish Big: Fifteen Key Lessons to Start - and Run - Your Own Successful Business 22. Rewired, Rehired or Retired: A Global Guide for the Experienced Worker 23. The Martha Rules: 10 essentials for achieving success as you start, build or manage a business 24. The Essentials of Entrepreneurship: What it takes to create Successful Enterprises 25. Net Ready: Strategies for Success in the E-conomy 26. The Promotable Woman 27. Leave The Office Earlier: The Productivity Pro shows you how to do more in less time and feel great about it 28. The Work At Home Balancing Act: The professional resource guide for managing yourself, your work, and your family at home 29. Secrets of Six-Figure Women
Yugma - MAC & PC - Shri, This online tool is great for the following: - Webpage walk throughs or showcasing a website and it's functionality - Demo something on your Computer - Presentations of your powerpoint slides You can have a number of users online at the same time and you are given a free teleconference line (may be long distance to the callers or you have the option of a toll fre number). you can now have customers from across the continent - including overseas at a presentation. No need to book rooms, AV equipment, snacks etc. etc. You can also record the conference to be replayed at a later time. So do a conference once and make it available on your site. does anyone use a similar tool (gotomeeting or webex) in other creative ways?
Re: Does Anyone have any New Ideas for a Business - An idea is only the beginning. The solution is the key here. I really like the term "turn key solution" and in fact use it as many times as I can in my life. Successful franchises and businesses know exactly what, who, how, where, when and why prior to ever dropping $1 in the bank account. This is what makes people millionaires. Harvest ideas into well oiled machines. A business needs to run itself and sustain itself. If you can show this on paper and show consistent growth in a real world scenario, you will always have a winner. Sounds easy, doesn't it? I'm still working on that myself. It's amazing how many difficult to answer questions come up. Persistence is then key.
Re: Are you an Opportunity Addict? - [quote="LoveInventions":1is64ff5]Successful inventors are the people who have one or two o.k. ideas in their life time but they execute them and make millions from them. Unsuccessful inventors are those that have 100 GREAT ideas daily but spend all their time coming up with ideas.[/quote:1is64ff5] Hi LoveInventions, So how do you or those successful inventors that you know decide on which "one or two o.k. ideas" to pursue?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Are You An Accidental Consultant?

RULE YOUR BUSINESS LIKE A SHINE STAR

Convening a focus group for a niche product

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.