So you are standing in front of your audience, the lights go dim. You can almost hear the yawns and sounds of body movement as people adjust for a short nap. But you are not there to make them sleep; you are there to keep them interested in what you have to say. How can you capture and keep the attention of your audience in the time allotted to you? These few suggestions can help you get started.
Do your research
In order to have a good business presentation, you need to have more than just casual information at your fingertips. A good business presentation must carry that piece of unknown, relevant or even contradictory information that will make heads perk up and stimulate discussions. Go beyond the normal search and scan and do in-depth research in industry related resources.
Keep your information relevant
The easiest way to get your audience distracted or confused is to load them with unnecessary information. Overloading your audience shuts down dialogue, which is an important part of any decision making process. Taking away obscure and irrelevant information such as graphs, diagrams and words from your presentation can increase your audience ability to remember and process. Have your main point, and then structure everything else around it in an easy to understand fashion.
Body language matters
For your business presentation to be good and well received, you have to make good use of your hands and facial expression. It is important to maintain eye contain with your audience as much as possible. Your gestures and movement can go a long way in keeping your audience engaged.
Use the right tools
A presentation is only as good as the tools it is presented with. Many people in your audience can easily get turned off with yet another PowerPoint presentation. They make use of it every day and seeing another one can be rather tiring. If you want presentation to stand out, choose to be different. If your presentation contains images and pictures, and you don’t want your audience to tune out, use a photo slideshow maker.
Make it personal
Making it personal does not mean you can spend half your time talking about your personal or business achievement. Your audience is more interested in how what you have to say will benefit their business, so make it personal for them. A good presentation should carry practical applicable and relevant information or solutions for the people you are presenting to. Your presentation should carry a script that makes your audience the main character.
At the end of the day, what matters most is not how you feel about your presentation; it is how your audience feels. If you can, have a trusted colleague be available as part of the audience to observe your presentation and give you feedback. While you are busy putting your points out, your colleague can observe the audience’s reaction. This will help you review your performance to know if it went well or not. Apply these 5 suggestions in your next presentation and watch your recommendations rise.
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