As a business professional, you are expected to present information in order to persuade and motivate your audience. But did you know there are many presentation skills that make the difference between an average speech and a captivating one?
In this blog post, we'll cover 5 presentation skills that seem simple at first but often go unnoticed by most speakers. You'll gain insights on making your presentations more informative and engaging for your audience.
1. Know Your Objective
The objective of a presentation is to share information but in order for your audience to retain that information, you have to set the right tone and get them involved in your speech. The ultimate goal of a presentation is to convince your audience that what you're sharing with them is valuable, if you can't do that, why are they even listening to your speech?
First things first, don't think of a presentation as just a quick overview of who, what, when and where; think of it as an opportunity for you to sell an idea or concept. One good way how to establish your credibility with the audience is by speaking off-the-cuff. When you present your speech from an outline with bullet points, the audience will be aware of your rigid structure and may feel as though you're being forced to present.
When presenting off-the-cuff, a good way to start is by asking yourself why this topic was assigned to you. If you can answer the question by stating that information sharing is a method of transferring knowledge and building relationships between people, then congratulations, you've just established credibility.
Your presentation objectives are determined by what your audience wants from you. You need to understand what your audience expects from a presentation before starting one because it will help determine if the objective will be achieved or not.
If you're presenting information in order to gain support for a new company strategy, your objective will be different than if you're presenting for a marketing campaign. Regardless of your objectives, the main goal is to convince your audience that what you have to share with them is valuable.
3. Show Your Audience You Care
What do people want the most? What's on everyone's mind these days? What do we all need in order to feel happy and successful in life? If you guessed love and respect, then congratulations, you've just passed a test on human nature!
I know it might sound a bit cliché but presentation skills are as important as brand ambassador skills because they both involve building relationships with people. Audiences want to be appreciated and understood, but they also hate being manipulated. In order to gain your audience's trust, let your guard down and show that you care about what they have to say by asking them questions and really listen. After a while, they'll want to hear what you have to say because you're passionate about your topic.
But we all know that real life communication isn't as easy as listening or talking…there's always the chance of being misunderstood or saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and that's why it's important for companies to teach their employees presentation skills in order for them to understand how people work.
4. Be Yourself
Be yourself at all costs. I know this sounds cliché but it's very important because not only will you gain the audience's trust, but you'll also be able to relate to your audience. Relating to your audience means that when you share information with them, they will feel as though they can understand and relate to what you're saying because you're speaking from a perspective that is similar to theirs. For example, if your objective is for an investor network to support the growth of your company, then you need to share information about what investors are looking for in terms of returns and risk-reward balance in order for them to choose whether or not they want to support your company's business plan.
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