If you’ve ever given a presentation, you’ll know how nerve-wracking it can be. There’s often an awful lot riding on business presentations. And so it’s important to get them right. We’ve all see how amazing speakers can wow their audiences on TED talks. So how do they do it?
Start With A Story
The best way to get your audience to switch off is to launch straight into dry, boring facts and figures. Unless your audience is obsessed with the detail, facts and figures rarely excite. A much better approach is to start with a story. Stories are great tools because they have both a human element, a climax, and a purpose. That means that they are able to motivate everything else in your presentation. They provide context that suddenly makes all your facts and figures relevant and important.
Plus, there’s evidence that people are more likely to trust people who tell stories over facts. They’re seen as more interesting, more likable and even more intelligent. When you tell a story, you more fully engage another person. They imagine themselves in the world that you’re creating. And it suddenly opens them up to possibilities they would never see had they just been presented with a graph.
Vary The Presentation
Having a presentation that is visually stunning is an excellent way to generate interest and excitement at a business presentation. Don’t just stick to the usual formats and formulas. Experiment a bit with fonts, styles, and themes. You could even contact presentation design services for some professional input.
Mixing things up a bit makes your presentation punchy and exciting. Your audience will be far more engaged by simple, yet beautiful slides, than boring slides full of text.
Segment Your Audience
In any audience, you’re going to have a mixture of introverts and extroverts. Usually, it’s about a 50/50 ratio. And they all have different needs. Introverts are more likely to want to sit through long lectures full of detail. Extroverts, on the other hand, want to interact with people and do things like workshops. If you go down one route but not the other, you end up alienating half of your audience. So next time you hold a presentation, make sure you mix it up. Do some lecturing, but also do something that’s collaborative and hands on. The introverts will love you for the lectures. The extroverts will love you for the workshops.
Never Forget, You’re Selling An Idea
These days companies aren’t so much selling products as they are selling ideas. Just look at what companies like Fitbit are doing. Nobody buys a Fitbit because they want a rubber digital watch. They buy Fitbit because they want to get fitter. Whether Fitbits are wristwatches or blood-cell sized tracking devices doesn’t matter. What matters is the idea that they represent.
The same goes for your product. You’re not trying to sell the product itself. Rather, you’re trying to show your audience the possibilities that your product allows. This is how you engage the imagination of your audience.
