PowerPoint is dead
Stop using PowerPoint, seriously. I’ve never used slides in my life.
Maybe it is just me but I instantly switch off when people are
presenting with the same old PowerPoint templates that I’ve seen a
thousand times before. Personally, I am a big fan of using a flipchart
and coloured pens. It allows me to be creative, think on the spot and
most importantly of all, react to what the audience is doing.
There is nothing worse than having a presentation all prepared but
then seeing the audience switching off and using their phones whilst
you’re presenting. You need their engagement and so doing things
differently will get it. If you are a fan of having technology in your
pitch, then use “Prezi” instead.
Know your audience
It is important that you spend some time finding out who is in your
audience, what their main interests are, why they are coming to listen
to you and most importantly, what value you can add to them. People are
coming to listen to you for a reason so when they leave, you want to
have given them 100 reasons to want to come and listen to you again, or
send you an email, or follow you on Twitter or even pay you to work with
them.
It’s important that you provide your audience with value, but always
leave them wanting more. Your presentation/speech is the perfect
opportunity to market what you do and develop your business so make sure
you are demonstrating your value to your audience every step of the
way. For me, if I am speaking for one hour, I will spend 15 minutes
discussing my background and then the other 45 minutes on sharing
advice, knowledge and adding value to my audience.
Call to action
So, you’ve delivered a presentation to a room full of great people
and they are really impressed and love what you do. What now? What
happens next? Whilst you have your audience hooked and listening to what
you have to say, that is the perfect time for you to make sure
something develops afterwards. There is no point in speaking to a room
full of 50 people, but you don’t give them information on how they can
contact you next.
Make sure your twitter, website and email address is given in your
presentation. Make sure you wait around afterwards for people to talk to
you, always leave five minutes in your presentation time for questions
and answers and most of all, enjoy it. When you’re enjoying it, your
audience will pick up on this and naturally enjoy it more to. There is
nothing worse than a nervous speaker as it makes the audience question
how confident you are in the content that you are delivering. Confident
presentation = confident business.
by Jamie Dunn Entrpreneur
