4 Steps to Becoming a Strong Presenter in Business

Business presentations can be difficult and nerve wracking for anyone. Participants are often in a hurry to leave and bored with the presentation. Below highlights four steps to becoming a skilled and strong business presenter.

Solid Preparation

Preparation is often discussed, but many presenters forget minor, yet important things. Avoid starting out a meeting while waiting for a slow laptop to boot up or projector to get warmed up. Know exactly how many people will attend and their general background. Have an adequate amount of handouts and material ready. Avoid having to photocopy handouts for latecomers. Make sure that the room and seating is properly arranged. Avoid having to unstack seats during the meeting for latecomers. Proximity plays an important role in how people interact and learn.

Adaptability

It is important to be flexible and always have a backup plan. Confirm how many people will actually be participating. Often times a presenter is caught off guard when there are either less or more participants than expected. Be prepared to adjust the presentation to different group sizes and needs. Also, be prepared to ready to radically adjust the presentation. Many presenters make the mistake of treating audience interaction like an interruption. Avoid stopping a lively discussion in order to “get back to the PowerPoint.” A skilled presenter will guide the comments and questions while touching on the major presentation points. Make sure that you have already mentally run through different possible scenarios and how to adapt to them.

Group Activities

The biggest reason why most people dread going to presentations is because they are too long, predictable and boring. Social psychology teaches that the larger the group, the less likely individuals are to speak up. Skilled presenters should mingle with participants before the presentation begins to find out informally engage the participants while finding out who is extroverted and who is not. It is very important to identify a few outgoing people to interact with at the beginning. Otherwise, the presenter will be enthusiastically smiling and asking questions to a silent crowd. Warm up the audience with an attention grabbing activity at the beginning. Once people start participating, focus on alternating between material presentation and brief group activates. Group activities are essential to every presentation because they allow people to relax, express their opinions and engage in the presentation material.

Humor

Humor is the most misunderstood and least utilized of all business presentation skills. Watch any TedTalk and you will find that most accomplished people are witty and funny. Understandably, some meetings, such as an employee benefit reduction meeting, will have a somber and serious tone. However, using humor is one of the best ways to relax people, maintain audience interest and encourage audience participation. Humor builds a bridge between the presenter and the audience. If someone’s cell phone rings during the presentation, make a funny comment instead of scolding the person. Laugh at yourself if you make a silly mistake. Setting an informal tone encourages the outgoing participants you have connected with to be talkative and humorous. Participants will probably respond faster to a humorous remark from a fellow coworker than the presenter.

In the end, careful preparation, being flexible, using group activities and humor will all make you a better business presenter.

Jonah Engler is a finance expert who hails from NYC.