Tweet

Upgrade Your Business Presentations In Minutes

Guest post by: Milly Sonneman

Article Overview: What’s the secret to professional, polished and persuasive presentations? As there are never enough hours in the day, it’s essential to have a specific plan to upgrade your presentation in minutes. Find out how right now.

Upgrade Your Business Presentations In Minutes

What’s the secret to professional, polished and persuasive presentations? As there are never enough hours in the day, it’s essential to have a specific plan to upgrade your presentation in minutes. Find out how right now.

No time to lose? Big sales presentation this afternoon? If you’re under the gun for your next big presentation, use this fast upgrade to be ready for anything—instantly.

Last week I coached ‘Mary,’ a busy professor. She was trying to get ready for an important conference…and was seriously in need of presentation upgrade. Naturally, she also had 16 other urgent appointments. So, we rolled up our sleeves and dove in.

If you’re feeling like there’s not enough time to make a difference, think again. These quick changes will spruce up tired presentations—and you’ll come out a winner.

Here’s the 5-steps we used. Try them out right away if you have a presentation looming on the calendar.

Step 1. Start With Your Conclusion

Kind of counter-intuitive, right? Wrong. You’re the tour guide and your audience wants to know where you’re taking them. Set clear expectations at the start.

Of course, skip all the gory details. Just give a high-level ‘here’s where we’re going’ to let people know what’s ahead. Just like when you get on a plane, the pilot or flight attendant announces, “this plane is heading to San Francisco.” Do the same for your audience.

This sounds like a simple, no-brainer thing to do. But you’d be shocked how many professionals skip this step.

Why it matters: set clear expectations and you’ll win attention.

Step 2. Frame Your Message

Speaking to clients in the food industry? Use a menu to frame your message. Speaking about sales? Talk in terms of sales cycles, pipeline and speed. Talking in your client’s language helps people understand what you’re saying—and appreciate the value.

Why it matters: don’t make people think. Take the extra step to put your data, statistics and insights into a message that is easy for your clients to ‘grok.’

Step 3. Simplify With A Story

Organize your information in a story. It’s the fastest way to make an instant improvement to your presentation. Stories are emotional, engaging and very easy to remember.

Why it matters: your audience is already chock full of information. Pierce the veil with a lively story. Hint: make your story easy to understand and easy to retell.

Step 4. Think On Your Feet

Transform a dull presentation into a dynamic one. How? Ask questions. Answer questions. Get your audience involved and interacting. Many presenters avoid impromptu participation because they consider it risky. Not you. Guide ad hoc discussion and stay fluid.

Why it matters: your audience is paying attention to how you communicate. When you’re agile and flexible, it says a lot about your company, your offer and your brand. Interaction is the key to successful business communication.

Step 5. Focus On A Single Easy Action

As hard as this is, resist the temptation to give a fan-deck of options. Focus on one action. The very next step. This helps overloaded audiences know exactly what to do. The end of your presentation is a time to guide and give clear directions.

Why it matters: people appreciate knowing what to do next. Remember your beginning? You started with the end in mind. Now it’s time to help people take the next step.

I bet you’re wondering about Mary, the busy professor. She used these 5 steps and was thrilled. She went from a dizzy swirl of ideas to a clear, concise presentation. Her audience loved it. Your audience will too.

Related Articles
  AoM Presentation: Studies on Developing Leadership / People Skills
  The Two-Hour Sales Presentation Vs. A Seven-Minute Attention Span
  When should I upgrade my wordpress site?
  Focus on the WIIFT for a Powerful Presentation
  5 QuickBooks Myths - The Real Story
  Sales Training for the B2B Sales Team
  Sales 3.0 - Is it Time to Upgrade the Sales Force?
  QuickBooks 2010: Will I Lose My Data if I Upgrade?
  Understanding the Differences Between QuickBooks Upgrades and QuickBooks Updates
  Can Laptops Be Upgraded Or Will You Always Have To Purchase A Brand New One?
  Affordable Web Hosting
  Upgrade Your Selling Skills
  Social Monkee - Webmasters Secret to Building Backlinks
  Ten Major Causes of Powerless Presentations According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
  Avoid These Presentation Pitfalls
  The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint
  “Tips On Effective Business Presentations From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
  The importance of networking
  5 Text Message Marketing Tips for Pet Spas and Groomers
  Application Reengineering

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



Related Forum Posts
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Exclusive: Interview with Results - Hi Forum Members, I'm helping start up a Business Coaching and Consulting company here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a Subsidiary of RSC Business in Los Angeles). As a Research and Development Intern I am required to practice my listening and interview skills by surveying Small and Medium Businesses on thier Business. This Survey is designed by RSC Business to also assist the Business being interviewed more insight into their own business. I am looking to interview about 30 businesses across North America over the span of 3 months. At the end of these interviews I will be publishing a report of the results and they will be made available for free to the Interviewees. The Report data will include responses from a minimum of 100 interviews. I would like to extend this opportunity to members of the Forum. If you would like to have this short 20-30 minute interview conducted on your Business and you reside in North America please send me an email or PM. Please contact me at andy[at]jvprosperity[dot]com to arrange our interview and to get free access to the results when they are published.
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?
Why should I hire a virtual assistant for SEO purposes? - Do you find it hard to find time for rest because of promoting your business or your website all by yourself? Well, perhaps it is the right time for you to hire the services of an SEO virtual assistant. Virtual assistants for SEO services will help you on the process of improving your rankings within search engine results to achieve an increase in natural traffic. The higher your site in the search engine results page, the more traffic and sales conversions you will obtain. Using the services of virtual assistants (VAs) certainly is the best method to move in order immediate results and in reduced operational charges. This provides a great answer especially for a small business owner whoever company is actually considerably expanding, and the jobs have normally doubled. Here are some of the services that a virtual assistant can do for you: • Traffic Geyser • Main Street Marketing • Data Entry • Web Research • Market Samurai • Managing Facebook • Managing Twitter • SEO • Local Business Listing Robot • Traffic Revolution • Infusionsoft • Senuke • Angela’s Banklink • Linkjuicer • Blogging • SMM • Virtual Assistant • Personal Assistant • Article Writing • Spinning Article • Press release • Email Response Handling • Online Order Processing • Word Processing • Forum/Comment Posting • Social Bookmarking • Video Editor • Internet Marketing • Email Marketing • Link Building • Powerpoint Presentations • Web Development • Other Administrative Support
Re: HOw to market a B2B consulting company - [quote="zohahunt77":428owzbi]Hi, I was wondering if anyone can tell me the difference between B2B and B2C. I don’t know about b2b marketing but I have done marketing so know things about it. I will suggest you to take online services which will spread your business all over web network. Online marketing is the best way to market any business.[/quote:428owzbi] B2B = Business to Business - You are marketing to other businesses. B2C = Business to Consumer - You are marketing to consumers.


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

10 Golden rules to survive the Global Crisis

Hypotheticals, Scenarios and Foresight

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.