You may have been faced with the challenge of presenting your products, services or the like to a larger audience. You were under pressure to come across really well and convince your audience. Then the carousel of thoughts began to turn: How am I supposed to do this? How should I proceed? How do I manage to convince the audience? How do I come across as confident and likeable? How can I stand out from the competition?

The most important things to increase the effect of a Presentation is the preparation! Proceed in a structured and imaginative way!

I will outline how to do this in the following. You start the preparation with the so-called Analysis . Two questions are of immense importance:

1. Who am I presenting to?

  • What attitudes and expectations do the individual people have?
  • What convinces the viewers?
  • What language does the target group speak?

The best thing to do is to put yourself in the shoes of the individual people and imagine how they "tick". Find out what convinces them and what they expect. Ask your target audience either directly or indirectly about people who know this target group very well.

Alternatively or additionally, you can use a target group analysis model, such as the MotivChart from the Presentation Booster method (1). In the model, viewers are divided according to values and motifs and a presentation is built based on this. For example, managing directors want to be informed briefly and concisely and know what makes you stand out as a provider, why the company should work with you or what special benefits you offer.

2. What is the goal of my presentation?

  • What exactly do you want to achieve?
  • For example, do you want to convince the management so that they want an offer from you?
  • In addition, you want to come across as confident, likeable and convincing.

So on the one hand, you have a goal, which is very concrete, and on the other hand, a so-called meta-goal, namely to awaken certain emotions in the viewer.

Garten_Bild1

In addition to these two questions, the analysis phase also includes the clarification of the entire framework parameters, e.g. are loudspeakers, projectors and screens available in the room to show a film, for example? Can you connect your laptop? …

Second phase: The conception

  • The core message: Prepare them first, because the core message is the central message that runs through your entire presentation. Example: "You can rely on us", "Our service is the best in the industry" or "We are the No. 1 in the region". You have succeeded if the audience internalizes it in such a way that they quote your core message on their own without realizing that they are repeating it.
  • Gather information: Now you collect all the information and material for your presentation, i.e. slides, articles, images, statistics, etc. Only then do you start sorting out where something belongs.
  • Define structure: For example, for sales presentations, you can choose a simple structure. The following structure is possible: topic, problem, solution, summary and call to action. For each section, use a slide and back up each claim or argument with evidence.

Third phase: Design

You can use PowerPoint or Keynote on the MAC for the design, as this is the business standard and is expected of you. If you still want to differentiate yourself from it, other programs also work, such as zooming presentations, 3D presentation or classic flipcharts. Sales-PresenterAnother alternative that allows for very flexible and convenient presentations is the Interactive Sales Presenter (2).

Let's assume that you are using PowerPoint. Once your slides are ready in terms of content, start designing. Since this topic is very extensive, I will give you a few special tips here:

  1. Make sure that your slides are captured and understood in 3 to max. 20 seconds.
  2. To do this, reduce sentences to keywords.
  3. Use images, statistics, charts to back up your content.
  4. Stick to your corporate design – this will create a formally uniform impression and inspire professionalism.
  5. Use at least 20-point font.

Be creative here and try something new.

Fourth phase: Training

For training, you can use a mirror or, even better, a video camera, alternatively a smartphone with a camera. Take another look at it and start exercising.

  • Play through your presentation at least 3 times beforehand. The first time it's all about seeing if the content fits. The second time, the focus is on time. Time with your smartphone. And from the third time on, it's all about transporting language, time and content well.
  • Also, do a test run in front of colleagues or friends who are well-disposed towards you and want you to succeed. They can still give you constructive feedback.
  • Let the presentation experts inspire you and inspire you with new ideas for your own presentation (3).
  • Also, do not underestimate the effect of your voice, because without the use of the voice, what is being performed becomes unconvincing and even inconsequential. Arno Fischbacher's tips can certainly help you a lot.

Finally, a tip:

It's very important to be authentic. Her real personality interests the viewers. Relax before the lecture. Just imagine yourself presenting in front of friends and explaining your product or service to them. If you go into the presentation in a relaxed and relaxed manner and you have already achieved half of the presentation success. If you then present in a structured way, with strong slides and always with reference to the core message, your audience will be very impressed and you can ultimately increase your sales success.

If you want to know more or would like support, write to me.

Matthias_GartenMatthias Garten
Smavicon Best Business Presentations
kontakt@smavicon.de or via XING/Facebook
Phone: +49 (6155) 84440

(1) Presentation Booster method is described in my presentation guide "Successfully designing and holding presentations", published by Gabal Verlag.

(2) The Interactive Sales Presenter is a presentation solution that runs on many devices, such as iPAD, PC, MAC, Android, Blackberry, smartphone, etc., and is very professionally and innovatively designed. You create the presentation once centrally and can then distribute it to all devices. PowerPoints, PDFs, images, videos and much more can be integrated. Further information can be found at http://www.smavicon.de/leistungen/interactive-sales-presenter

(3) The presentation conference in Darmstadt offers an opportunity for this. If you want to optimize your personal performance even further, take a look at the Presentation Bootcamp. For more information, please visit www.praesentationskonferenz.de . The Presentation Bootcamp can be found at www.presentation-bootcamp.de .

Read more: