Five Things to Consider When Making Business Presentations

Joe Weinlick
Posted by in Management & Business


 

Your company is likely to rely on its management professionals to make clear and impressive presentations. Knowing how to make a presentation is a key management skill. Managers who excel in getting their messages across have greater opportunities to train and educate new employees in their departments. Those managers may also be asked to develop presentations for external clients or customers. Management professionals who know how to make presentations are more likely to excel in their fields due to the versatility they display to employers. You should consider five key elements when making a new presentation.

 

Managers with effective presentation skills often have an innate sense of their audiences. This is a two-fold consideration: first, you should consider the relative knowledge of the audience, and second, the level of experience that attendees have regarding the subject matter in the presentation. New employees may lack both knowledge and experience, while veteran workers brought in to learn new skillsets may need only specific information on how new opportunities differ from their current roles. Many managers with effective presentation skills learn their own secrets for effective presentations, but paying close attention to audience composition can help make your training or persuasive meetings far more productive.

 

The third key element is the message itself. It's important for you to determine not only what knowledge and experience an audience possesses but also what the key messages of the presentation should hold. Discovering how to make a presentation for a specific audience provides the angle, but you must also determine the content. For training presentations, evaluate the information yourself and note which data seems difficult to grasp or inherently different from what is currently expected or normal in the industry. When pitching in persuasive demonstrations, you need to show that you can make a presentation matter to the attendees. This means including information that answers the questions of attendees before they arise.

 

Two other major considerations need to be dealt with when you determine how to make a presentation. The first is the type of tools to use. Software like PowerPoint, SlideShare, Keynote and Prezi allow you to use templates and formats that clearly communicate your message. When you are using professional templates to get your points across, the key messages of the presentation should be headers used frequently throughout the session. Consider other options, such as videoconferences and whiteboards, as well. The final consideration is how to deal with follow-up questions. A question-and-answer session at the end of the presentation may be ideal. Also, consider making the offer of an email or other contact point for questions that later arise.

 

Management professionals need to know how to make a presentation stand out. Whether you are addressing customers or employees, a solid presentation can help get information across clearly and reduce confusion in the workplace. The ability to communicate effectively is an important tool, and understanding how to evaluate your audience, gauging attendees' levels of knowledge and experience, properly forming your message, choosing the right tools, and offering follow-up options can help make your work all the more compelling and show that you understand how to make a presentation.

 

(Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net)

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