5 tips to make a more Professional Company Presentation

At the end of every college year, companies start brushing up their presentations to make it more professional and interesting. Their aim is to get the best of new talent and they compete with companies from across industries for this.

Here are 5 tips on how to make your presentation really stands out and attract maximum new employees.

1.       Use professional presentation templates

Many times managers find it is convenient to use the existing presentation with modified data. Company presentations have too much space allocated to logo and color related branding. The people you present to will get their impression of your company based on the quality of presentation you use. Low quality images, poor opening slides, unprofessional ppt backgrounds etc. reflect badly on your company. Check online on sites like BuyAPresentation for professional ppt templates that truly reflect what your company is about – from title images to slide backgrounds to diagrams.

2.       Sell your company

A company presentation is not just about your company, but also about the audience. Include slides that will tell them what they can expect when they join you. This will ensure that they attend the company interviews with interest. Tell them what is unique about the company, how their career will progress. Give them examples of people who have done well with you.

3.       Dress to reflect your company

It is not just about the slides and the presentation template. You also reflect your company image.  Dress the way you would dress to work on a good day. If your company  is professional one, wear a suit, if it is about fun and being laid back, wear what feels comfortable.

4.       Prepare for question and answer questions

While a professional company presentation covers basics like salary, locations and career paths, potential employees are bound to have questions beyond that. Leave enough space in the allocated time so that you can interact with them and answer their questions.

5.       Leave behind

Those really interested in your presentation will want to follow up by looking up sources. Give them websites, books, references where they can look up to know more about your company.

As you can see, a company presentation is not a simple information presentation. The slides and the presenter need to be geared to treat it as a sales presentation.  Even if the presentation is being made internally to people who have just joined the organization, it needs to go beyond just providing information. Every company presentation is a professional sales presentation and needs to be treated as such.

5 Things a business presenter should learn from Sachin Tendulkar

What can a living legend in Cricket teach you about Business presentations? Is there any connection between sports and presentations? Read on to find the answers.

Every time Sachin Tendulkar gets on to the field, his game showcases his excellence to thousands of spectators who turn up just to watch his performance. Here are the 5 presentation tips from the Little Master’s game:

·         Never play without practice:

Sachin is considered not just as the best batsman in the world, but also as the best batsman to have ever played the sport. Yet, he spends hours practicing every day, before he enters the field. He never says, “It is after all the same ball and the same game”. He knows that every pitch is different and every bowler is different.

As a business presenter, it is tempting to make a client presentation without making sufficient rehearsals, because “It is the same presentation and the same subject”.  But, realize that your every client is different, and their needs are different. Your audience can easily spot your lack of preparation and they equate it to your lack of sincerity in solving their issues. So, never play without practice. 

·         Don’t play risky shots at the beginning:

Sachin Tendulkar probably has the widest range of shots to choose from, thanks to his unique talent and years of experience. Yet, when he begins his innings, he plays carefully. He realizes that any batsman is vulnerable in the first few overs of an innings. 

For you, this represents the first few minutes of the presentation. You either win over your audience or lose them in those few critical minutes. So, take your time to build your audience trust, in the opening of your presentation. 

·         Don’t play planned shots:

Tendulkar plays each ball by its merit. He knows that shots planned before judging the ball are risky. He achieves spontaneity of shot selection with hours of practice in the nets. 

This invaluable lesson is useful for your Q and A sessions. Answer your audience questions only after listening to them completely. You may get the urge to template your answers, if you have heard similar questions before. But, hold till you understand the spin of the question, before you start your answer. Practice answers to frequently asked questions on the day before your presentation.  

·         Don’t play the balls that are not in your ‘V’:

Tendulkar is always conscious of his playing area or the ‘V’ zone.  He knows that ‘away’ deliveries are dangerous. 

As a business presenter, be aware of the scope of your presentation. Never give lengthy answers to questions that are far removed from the topic of discussion. This not only bores your audience but also might cost you a deal.

·         Look to score a century each time you play:

Tendulkar tries to score a century each time he plays. He walks in with the same determination every time, and the passion shows in every stroke he makes.

As a business presenter, your passion is the most important ingredient that keeps your audience glued on to your presentation. Make every presentation with the intention of making it the best presentation you ever made. You may have made the same presentation a hundred times before. But, for your audience, it is the first time. So, show your passion.

Follow these 5 lessons and become a maestro in business presentations.

Happy presenting!

10 Minutes To A Great Presentation

As a business presenter, you are always faced with deadlines to create your presentations. How can you create good quality presentations quickly? Here is a simple three step process:

1.       Start creating a mind dump:

It is very tempting to spend time waiting to get inspiration to start creating your presentations. A cup of coffee to ‘get you in the mood’ turns into a chat on the phone that goes on forever. Alternatively, many presenters open up their presentation software, select a standard presentation template and wait for a flash of inspiration.

Stop wasting your time, and realize that there is no shortcut to great ideas. You need to generate a lot of ideas for your presentations reject the poor ones and go ahead with the good ones. There is no way to bypass this process. 

So, when you need to create your next presentation, here is what you do. Get a piece of paper and start noting down all your ideas on the sheet. Do not ‘think’ at this point. Just focus on exhausting all your thoughts on the subject. 

Soon, you will reach a point where you either start repeating your points or draw a blank. That is the time to pause and take a look at all the thoughts you have noted down. 

2.       Club related ideas under various headings:

You would see that a number of points in your thought dump are related in some way. Start clubbing them together by giving each group a headline to represent the nature of the points. For example – features like push back seats, ample leg space and thick cushion can all be clubbed under ‘Seating comfort’. 

3.       Arrange the headings into a coherent story:

The last step is to arrange your various headings into a coherent story. This story is the ‘outline’ of your presentation. Start noting down the relevant data and the images you need to explain each heading. Once you have the outline, it doesn’t take much effort to convert it into slides. 

This method helps you to see the big picture first, before you start creating your slides. So, your presentation will have a clear flow.  I recommend you use professional presentation templates to reduce your time even further. BuyAPresentation.com is one such site that provides templates to help sales and marketing presenters to reduce time. 

You can crash the time for creating your presentation, from many hours to a few minutes.

The additional benefit is that you can get all your approvals for your content based on your outline, instead of your slide deck. Thus, you avoid the painful rework of your presentations. 

Hope you found the method useful. Happy presenting!

How To Practice Before A Presentation - BuyAPresentation

How To Practice Before A Presentation - BuyAPresentationIt is important to actually write detailed presenter notes for each slide and practice it with slides and without slides, so that even a software glitch does not bother you. The most common advice a presenter gets is to practice. But no one says what constitutes a good practice session. Here are some ways in which good presenters practice and also evaluate themselves critically.


You could select suitable one that works for you.
1. Voice or Video Recording:
Almost any device today has a voice recorder. Pick up your mobile or computer or mp3 player and run through the slide and run through the presentation as if you are in front of an audience. You can flip the presentation slides as you would normally. You can then play it back and evaluate the way you deliver the presentation as well as the quality of the presentation itself.
If you are really concerned about body language, a video recording is a suitable option. Just watch for strongly distracting gestures and weed them out.
2. Mirror technique
This was the tried and tested technique before video and audio recorders became so common. It helps you practice really presenting to an audience with critically analyzing yourself as you present.
3. Friendly review:
This is useful for presenters who are still not very confident about themselves and need constant feedback and moral support. Get your friend or colleague to the meeting room and run them through the presentation. Ask for specific feedback and observations to get maximum value out of this exercise.
4. In the mind:
Visualizing is a technique that almost all great sportspeople use. You sit with your eyes closed and run through the entire presentation word for word in your mind. You see your audience smiling and nodding positively as you speak. This method of practice helps reduce any presentation jitters.
5. Slide overview:
This is a technique that only presenters who are very quick on their feet can carry off. They simply look at the slide and note in their mind what they would more or less say in each slide. With less confident presenters, this method of practice would cause them to grope for words and stammer.
6. Stage practice:
For very critical presentation, very high profile presenters use this method. They get on to the actual presentation platform and practice slide by slide, pausing to check for impact at every stage. They have few trusted people give them feedback and practice multiple times to achieve perfection. When they are actually making the presentation, all this practice makes it all look effortless.
If you are looking for more on making better presentations, I would suggest that you look up BuyAPresentation.com and download the eBook on how to completely change the way you present – using diagrams.

Top 7 common errors when opening a presentation

 

Presenters themselves set the tone for the way the presentation will proceed. Given that audience attention is the maximum at the start of the presentation, it makes sense to introduce them to the topic. 

But sometimes presenters start on the wrong foot. Have you heard presenters say any of these classic lines at the start up and thus goof up their own presentation? 

1.    I know this presentation is boring. But please bear with me, I have to cover this.

Since you have told the audience what to expect, I can guarantee you that they will be bored. 

2.    I will take only 5 minutes of your time

Saying this sets the expectation that what you have to say is not all that important and can be covered quickly. If it is not covered in 5 minutes, the audience get restive even if the subject is interesting. 

3.    I am sorry about being late 

This tells the audience that the presenter is going to be overly conscious of errors. It gives them the leeway to do the same.

4.    I know that the fonts are not really visible

What do the audience understand with this? They understand that the presentation is not important enough for the presenter to make the visual aids properly.

5.    Sorry about my laptop, it has crashed

Audience feel that they will get less your best because you have support missing. Crashed laptops and corrupt files will happen one time or the other. Many people suggest having a backup. Sometimes backups taken of a corrupt file does not work either. 

6.    I have a sore throat, so you will have to bear with me

Like Murphy’s law, a sore throat will occur just before a critical presentation. But is this the right line with which to start a presentation? 

7.    I would like to share with you this interesting story ( a very long story follows)

The poor audience have no clue why they are listening to a convoluted, long story which may or may not be related to the topic of the presentation.

A good presentation starts with clearly telling the audience what to expect in the presentation. The one thing common with all these openings is that the presenter is focused on himself, his own faults, his story, faults of his laptop etc. Any presentation can be turned around if the focus is on the audience. 

Asking audience what they expect from the presentation, asking audience what they know about the subject, letting them know that you will cover the usual material in a different way – will get them to focus the attention on the contents of the presentation, rather than on your mistakes.