How To Give Effective Business Presentation

When delivering presentations to a general audience, senior management in your company, and even venture capitalist, a successful presentation is not about the power point slides you create it's about much more than that.
Most business presentations range from most boring too, well...just plain boring, I am sure you have a few offenders within your own team.
It does not have to be this way, though.
Here are some ways to make certain that your presentations hold your audience's interest and help them make the decision you want to make them.

Preparation

• Build a story

Presentations are boring when they present scads of information without context or meaning. Instead, tell a story, with the audience as the main character (specifically heroes). 

• Keep it relevant

Audiences only play attentions to stories and ideas that are immediately relevant. Consider what decision you want them to make, then build an appropriate case.

• Cut your introduction

A verbose introduction that that describes you, your firm, your topic, how you got here, only bores people. Keep your introduction down to a sentence or two, even for a long presentation.

• Begin with an eye-opener

Kick off your talk by revealing a shocking fact, a surprising insight, or a unique perspective that naturally leads to your message and the decision you want to be made.

• Keep it short and sweet

When was the last time you heard someone complain that a presentation was too short? Make it half as long as you originally thought it should be.

• Use facts not generalities

Fuzzy concepts reflect fuzzy thinking, Buttress your argument, story and message with facts that are quantifiable, verifiable, memorable and dramatic.

• Customize for every audience

One size fits all presentations are like one size fits all clothes; they never fit right and usually make you feel bad. Every audience is different; your presentation should be too.

• Don't get too fancy

You want your audience to remember your message, not how many special effects and visual gimcracks you used. In most almost cases, simpler is better.

Presentation

•   Check your equipment in advance

If you must use powerpoint or plan on showing videos or something, check to make sure that the setup really works. then check it again. Then one more time.

• Speak to the audience

Great public speakers keep their focus on the audience, not on their slides and notes. Focusing on audience encourages them to focus on you and your message.

• Never read from slide

Guess what? Your audience can read. If you are reading from your slides you're not just being boring you're also the insulting intelligence of everyone in the room.

• Leave humor to the professionals

Unless you are really good at telling jokes, don't try to be a comedian. Remember: when it comes to business presentation, polite laughter is the kiss of death.

• Avoid obvious wormholes

Every audience has hot buttons that command immediate attention and cause every other discussion to grind to a halt. Learn what they are and avoid them.

• Practice and rehearse

Creating your presentation at the last minute is not a good idea because it does not allow you to rehearse and practice. Practice is when you sit with your presentation and mentally review that you are going to say and how you want the flow to the work. Practice is not enough although many presenters's think it is sufficient. You must always rehearse presentation by standing and delivering it as if it was for real. This is the only way to check your words, your visuals and whether the message is as clear as you want to it to be. It is also the way to check your timing to make sure you do not run over the allotted time.

• End your presentation with Next steps

In my opinion, the single worst way to end your presentation is with a slide that has the word Questions?? in bold text on it. This type of ending invites your audience to question everything you have just said and does not move them the last step towards the goal you had set for your presentation, so always end your presentation talking about the next step that you want the audience to take to use the information you provided. Invite discussion of the next steps if there is time, but end with a strong call to action so the audience is clear what they are to do next. Without a call to action, the audience is likely to do nothing further, and your presentation goal will not have been achieved.