On the Presentation Helper Forum we get asked the same question many times: "Help, I've got a business presentation coming up next week and don't know what to do!"
In this survival guide we highlight the three skills that YOU MUST KNOW before your next business presentation.
Here we expose the three essential keys that can make your business presentation fly. Most of these are common sense, but you'd be surprised how often they are missed.
The Three Presentation Essentials
- Use visual aids where you can
- Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse
- The audience will only remember
three messages
Visual Aids
One of the most powerful things that you can do to your presentation is to add in visual aids. Research shows that if you use visual aids you are twice as likely to achieve your objectives. Ditch the bullet points - use pictures instead in your next business presentation.
Why should you use visual aids?
1. How we take in information during a presentation
Professor Albert Mehrabian did a lot of research into how we take in information during a presentation. He concluded that 55% of the information we take in is visual and only 7% is text.
There are some important conclusions that we can take in from this information:
Use visuals (pictures, graphs, tables, props) whenever you can
In a speech you are only using 38% of the communication medium
Ditch the bullet points
2. Making the presentation memorable
In a Study at the Wharton Research Centre they showed that using visual slides had a dramatic effect on message retention. The effect of using visuals is truly staggering!
The old adage that "a picture is worth a thousand words" is as true today as it has always been.
3. Achieving your objectives
If I said that I could double your chances of achieving your objectives in a presentation with just one piece of advice you would probably be very skeptical. And yet if you use visual images that is just what happens.
This study by Decker Communications showed that by using visuals in your presentation you could expect roughly to double the chance of achieving your objectives. And if you are trying to make a sales presentation or a job interview presentation, this piece of advice could have a major impact on your bank balance.
The conclusion: Use visual aids!
So hopefully by now you have got the message loud and clear. Use visual aids in your next We see no end of people who spend hours pouring over their bullet points but fail to rehearse properly for the presentation.
Rehearse!
The old adage is as true now as it has always been: "If you fail to prepare, you are prepared to fail." Rehearse your business presentation and it will get better!
Sorry to sound like a bit of an old nag. It's obvious - rehearsing - isn't it? But it's also a bit of a drag and one that is easy to forget. It is probably the most common mistake of all presentations that I have seen.
You wouldn't dream of going to see a Shakespeare play at the RSC only to find that they hadn't properly learnt the script. You wouldn't dream of going to the opera to hear the band play out of time because they hadn't got round to rehearsing properly. Yet in presentations and in speeches we see this happening all the time.
Rehearsing could make the difference between a good and an average presentation.
1. Plan to rehearse your presentation out loud at least 4 times.
We suggest that you should rehearse at least four times, and if you can get word perfect so much the better. I know that you haven't got the time, but we have seen so many presentations that have been let down due to a lack of rehearsal.
Make sure that one of your rehearsals is in front of a really scary audience - family, friends, partners, colleagues; children. They will tell you quite plainly where you are going wrong - as well as providing you with the support that you need.
2. Rehearse against the clock
If you have to give a business presentation in a short period of time then try to practice your presentation against the clock. This is particularly true with something like the five minute job presentation. You can add in parts from the script or take them out to fit the time. Allow extra time in your presentation for questions and watch out for nerves - this could mean that you talk faster on the day.
In the actual presentation you could take in a clock or take off your wrist watch and put it on the podium. This way you can see how the timings can develop.
3. Take a leaf out of Winston Churchill's book - memorize your script!
He is widely attributed as being one of the great speakers. It took him six weeks to prepare his Maiden Speech in the House of Commons and he learnt it word perfect.
4. Video or tape record yourself
A very simple trick that could help you with your performance is to video or tape record yourself. This will give you some immediate feedback and will enable you to fine tune your performance.
Videoing a rehearsal is the staple of many presentation training companies - so why not save time and money and do it yourself?
Rule of Three
This is one of the oldest of all the presentation techniques - known about since the time of Aristotle. People tend to remember lists of three things. Structure your business presentation around threes and it will become more memorable.
The rule of three is one of the oldest in the book - Aristotle wrote about it in his book Rhetoric. Put simply it is that people tend to easily remember three things.
Remember as a kid when your mum sent you down to the shop to buy a number of things. But when you got to the shop all you could remember were three things. This is the rule of three in action!
Odds are that people will only remember three things from your presentation" so what will they be?
1. The audience are likely to remember only three things from your presentation - plan in advance what these will be.
Believe it or not, the chances are, people will only remember three things from your presentation. So before you start writing your presentation, plan what your three key messages will be. Once you have these messages, structure the main part of your presentation around these three key themes and look at how they could be better illustrated.
2. There are three parts to your presentation
The beginning, the middle and the end. Start to plan out what you will do in these three parts. The beginning is ideal for an attention grabber or for an ice breaker. The end is great to wrap things up or to end with a grand finale.
3. Use lists of three wherever you can in your presentation
Lists of three have been used from early times up to the present day. They are particularly used by politicians and advertisers who know the value of using the rule of three to sell their ideas.
Veni, Vidi, Vici (I came, I saw, I conquered) - Julius Caesar
"Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears" - William Shakespeare
"Our priorities are Education, Education, Education" - Tony Blair
A Mars a day helps you to work, rest and play - Advertising slogan
Stop, look and listen - Public safety announcement
A classic example of the rule of three was Winston Churchill's famous Blood, Sweat and Tears speech. He is widely attributed as saying "I can promise you nothing but blood, sweat, and tears." What he actually said was "I can promise you Blood, Sweat, Toil and Tears." But, because of the rule of three, we simply remember it as blood, sweat, and tears!
If you have four points to get across - cut one out. They won't remember it anyway. In presentations less really is more. No one ever complained of a business presentation being too short!
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Related: Business Presentations
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