Strong Presentation Tips: Drive Home Your Point(s)
by Sharon Mann
Worried about your next big presentation? This article is designed to provide you with some useful tips that will help you create a strong presentation that will drive your point home to coworkers, clients, teachers and more. Specifics may vary from person to person; however, the following information includes helpful and important guidelines from which everyone can benefit.
Everyone in today’s busy world is continuously bombarded with information… from DVDs, CDs, television shows, the Internet, at meetings, in books and magazine articles, and in many other ways. As a result, it’s all but essential that your presentation must stand out and rise above the information overload we all experience every day.
Whether you’re presenting to your boss, your co-workers, your teacher or prospective clients, you need a strong presentation that is properly prepared, organized and well-written. It also needs to create an impact that’s both memorable and motivating!
In order to reach its full impact potential and to truly drive your ideas home, you must implement techniques that make your presentation stronger as well as more memorable.
Here are four tips that will help you create a strong presentation:
Strong Presentation Tip #1
Provide handouts and takeaways. While preparing your oral presentation, remember to create separate printed documents that highlight the vital objectives and benefits of what you’re presenting. Before or during the presentation, you can hand these out… providing an outline that your audience can follow along with. Also, at the end of your presentation, pass out documents summarizing the principal points of your presentation. These documents can then be taken away by your audience for future reference to make your presentation messages better sink in.
Strong Presentation Tip #2
Utilize visual aids. Flip charts, overhead transparencies, product samples and other display materials can do a terrific job of maintaining your audience’s interest during the presentation as well as helping to ensure that they better understand everything you are communicating. Laser pointers can also be very effective, but be careful not to overuse them. And remember – your nervous hands should not be your visual aids!
Strong Presentation Tip #3
Take advantage of high-tech possibilities. Today’s multimedia projection and audio technology is truly remarkable, allowing you to present your ideas in fascinating ways that include impressive use of lights, sound and moving images. Remember, however, that your message is still the single most important component in your presentation, so do not let technology become the star of your show… detracting from and overshadowing what you’re trying to say.
Strong Presentation Tip #4
Conduct a Q&A session. A smart and proven technique for wrapping up a successful presentation is to allow time at the end for questions and answers. This creates an opportunity to accomplish several things, including clarifying any information the audience may not be sure about; expanding upon certain aspects of the presentation; and reinforcing significant ideas that were presented. Also, it’s a good idea to, if you are presenting to a large audience, repeat each question so that everyone can hear it and take part in the discussion.
Sharon Mann is President of the I Hate Filing Club, a group of nearly 100,000 office professionals who hate filing but love finding new ways to become more organized. For information about how you can get new ideas, sample new products and connect with your peers, visit www.Pendaflex.com.
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