1500! I did some rough math and estimated that over the years in various sales and business development roles I’ve done over 1500 client presentations. Many of them were face-to-face, and many via remote presentation tools such GoToMeeting or Join.me.
And since I’m a student before anything else, I watch many webinars and presentations in order to learn and broaden my knowledge about skills and topics, and technologies that interests me. But often find that as compelling as the presentation topic sounds, its delivery can put the audience to sleep or cause them to lose interest. We’ve all been there…
That is why, if you are presenting, selling, or marketing anything of value and don’t want to lose your audience, you must bring some AWESOMENESS into your presentation!
Here are some basic tips for bringing awesomeness to your next presentations:
1. Grab the attention!
Instead of starting with “Company History”, start your presentation with a thought provoking question or two, interesting/funny story, surprising statistic about your topic, or an interesting quote from an industry thought leader.
2. Keep your presentation clean.
Most people already know that bullets kill – both in life and in slides. But for some reason, I see slides that pack a ton of ideas and are very overwhelming to digest. Adding slides doesn’t cost you anything so ensure each slide represents just one idea – One thought. Less information on the slide means more attention on you – the presenter.
3. Keep your presentation moving.
If you stay on one slide too long (more than 30 seconds), people will lose interest and start checking their email (if viewing remotely) or start thinking about how much work they have to do after the presentation. Keep the audience engaged – especially if they are viewing your presentation remotely.
4. Provide clear call to action in the end.
A presentation without a call to action is (almost) a waste of time. Be sure to have one clear and specific call to action that is relevant to the ideas you have just presented. What do you want the audience to do next?
5. Use AWESOME presentation technology: PowToon.
I recently met with the PowToon team for some LinkedIn consulting. PowToon is a truly great tool for keeping presentations engaging and clear. As a Saas (software-as-a-service) product with thousands of users worldwide, PowToon is a game-changer for presenters! You can create presentations very quickly and have a professional design and look to it with various themes. PowToon is especially great for creating a short video for your website at a very low-budget.
Check out the science behind the technology below – created with PowToon of course, and sign up for free at www.Powtoon.com
How to YOU bring AWESOMENESS into your presentation? What are your presentation tips?
