For some, business presentations are boring. But with the right mindset and skills, you can create a killer business presentation that will win the crowd’s attention.

A business presentation enables you to share important information with other members of the company. It may include positive data regarding your company’s performance to the struggles your business is facing.

As the presenter, it’s your task to clearly relay the data you have to your audience. But no one can be great presenters overnight. This requires practice and experience. If you’re already experienced in creating and delivering business presentations and you feel that there’s still room for improvement, try these tips and hacks to create a presentation that everyone will remember.

Skip the Black & White Presentations

Forget the bulleted, black and white presentations full of text that no one will read. Create a presentation with slides that have visual appeal. The most basic and widely used software for creating business presentations is Microsoft PowerPoint.

This software is perfect for beginners and can be used offline. Another great thing about MS PowerPoint is that you’ll have templates that you can use to make aesthetically appealing presentations.

You can add charts, diagrams, and other visuals to represent data more clearly in your presentation. You can also make use of free PowerPoint templates available online for a more comprehensive and professional-looking presentation. Still, don’t use too many colours that’ll make your presentation an eyesore.

Don’t Include Everything in Your Slides

A business presentation involves more listening than reading. Avoid putting your entire presentation in slides since your audience will less likely be interested in them. It’s a visual aid and not a transcript of your speech.

Slides to Include in your Business Presentation

• The Introductory Slide

Begin your presentation with the title of your presentation and the logo of your company. This doesn’t need to have any other text.

• The Presentation’s Agenda

This slide will need your presentation’s agenda outline. The text should be short and direct to the point.

• The Critical Problem

Presenters avoiding to include slides about the company’s problems and issues are often faced with surprising questions from their audience. Including a few slides about the problems with solutions will make you appear as the well-equipped presenter who’s ready to face the issues head-on.

• Visual Data Representation Slides

These are the most important slides that you mustn’t forget. Slides with graphs, charts, and images will make your explanations during your presentation clearer. These slides should only have visual representations without explanations in blocks of texts.

• Summary Slide with Key Points

To summarize your presentation, a summary slide with key points is a must. This will sum up everything you talked about and it will serve as a reminder for your audience to gather their thoughts for the questioning session.

• The Question Slide

This slide doesn’t need any explanation. A simple slide with the text, “QUESTIONS?” will guide your audience to know that they can already begin asking questions.

• Backup Slides

Preparing backup slides is a great advantage for any presenter. Be ready with slides of information that may answer possible questions from your audience. These will answer their questions directly without taking too much time of your time explaining.

Practice, practice, practice!

Any award-winning performance requires intensive practice. If you want to be the best presenter out there, you need to rehearse days before your presentation.

Create a plan for your presentation. It’ll be best to ask one or two people to participate in your mock presentation. Let them ask questions and give you feedback on how you can improve. It’s also essential to time your presentation and make adjustments if needed.

Rehearsing also helps first-time presenters who need to overcome performance anxiety or more commonly known as stage fright.

Express the Goals You Want to Achieve with Your Presentation

Before beginning your presentation, share your goals for your presentations with your listeners. This could be included in your agenda slide or create a separate slide after it.

The purpose of this is to give your audience something to look forward to. The goals will give you and your audience a sense of achievement once you finish your presentation. These will also give them the idea of what they could gain from listening and paying attention to you.

Personalize Your Presentation

Adding a personal touch to your presentation will make your audience listen more attentively. You don’t need to mention your whole life’s story. Instead, include your own problems or success stories related to your presentation. This will make your presentation more relatable.

A Little Bit of Humor Goes a Long Way

Humour is a great ice breaker for any kind of presentation.  It lightens up the atmosphere when the topic becomes too serious and heavy. This will also prevent your listeners from dozing off. Jokes or humorous remarks without embarrassing anyone in the audience will surely go a long way.

However, be careful of having too much fun with excessive humour. Instead of a professional business presentation, you may end up being a stand-up comedy performance.

Be Prepared for the Q&A Session

Your presentation will go to waste if you can’t answer your audience’s questions related to it. The best way to prepare is to know everything about your presentation. Practising will also be a crucial factor for you to understand your presentation even more. Making your own presentation rather than asking someone else to make it for you will also help.

One great tip is to write down possible questions your audience will ask. You shouldn’t leave out even the most basic questions with obvious questions. When you have your list of questions, come up with smart answers and rehearse them. Don’t just memorize your answers. Instead, learn them by heart.

End on a High Note with “What We Should Do Next”

Remember to not end the presentation without clear resolutions or answering the question, “What should we do next?” This will give your audience a goal after your presentation. You should have a call-to-action list of things everyone needs to do to resolve issues or for the betterment of the company.

Express authority and positivity to create a chain reaction within your listeners. Without resolutions, your presentation is considered a failure.

Conclusion

These are only general tips and hacks for any kind of business presentation. You must still consider who your audience will be and the purpose of your presentation.

It’s fine to make mistakes especially if it’s your first time giving a presentation. The important thing is that you learn from your experience. Ask reliable people from your audience for feedback on mistakes or things they liked about your presentation. So in the future, you’ll know what to avoid and what you should improve on.

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