Have you ever been in the middle of a presentation, looked out over the audience and realize that you’ve completely lost your audience?  It starts with the shifting in their seats and disintegrates to texting, doodling or even nodding off.  You hurry up, skip points, talk faster and faster. Watch this presentation from @EFinkelstein for great tips and examples on how to make a presentation, even if you are artistically challenged.

Perhaps your presentation materials are interesting or maybe they’re not – but any way you look at it, unless you know how to make a presentation interesting, it will be boring. (more…)

Presentations are a business staple. In fact, they are second only to email as the most commonly used business tool, and an effective business presentation separates the extraordinary from the average. So what’s the difference between a standard presentation and a great one? (more…)

It’s no surprise that successful presenters continually invest time to improve their presentation skills. Without a doubt Steve Jobs has put in some time in front of the mirror, shaving cream on his lip, practicing some aspect of his keynote speech. And I’m sure early in his career he picked off a few tips and tricks from other great presenters.

Even if you aren’t on the professional circuit, you’ll still want a plan to improve your communication skills. You can of course make a significant investment in a training course, which may be the best way for you to jump ahead. But you can also choose a more incremental approach to improve how (and what) you present to your audiences. (more…)

Looking for inspiration, guidance and tips on how to develop good presentation skills?  We’ve provided ample presentation resources to put you on course. But we heard from the presentation community that we should have included presentation books. So, here are the 7 we recommend you explore to get the critical help you sometimes need and perhaps find your long lost presentation skills coach.

What would a post about improving your presentation skills be without an actual presentation? View this creative presentation to learn more about the books we recommend. If you’re a SlideRocket customer we’re happy to share it into your account to use as inspiration or a template for you own presentations. Just follow the instructions on slide #9.

These books challenge the conventional approaches to creating a presentation. They span the creation and delivery of presentations, realizing the connection between thought, visualization and communication. Doing it right is a complex undertaking. But these books from the best presentation coaches excel at breaking down good presentation skills for us. (more…)

I find inspiration in the strangest places and last night I as I watched Grey’s Anatomy on ABC I was surprised to find myself thinking about presentations. Here’s the setup. The Chief of medicine Dr. Webber tells his heads of department that he has a spare $1M and invites them to pitch him on why their department should get the money. The jockeying and competitive head games ensue as each doctor tries to win the money and we get to watch a fantastic cross section of personalities giving presentations to the chief.

Statistics, Relevancy, Emotion, Passion and Delivery could win you $1M

(Spoiler Alert: Don’t read beyond this point if you don’t want to know how this episode turns out)

Now to take this post beyond the water cooler I’m going to ask you to visit ABC’s site and fast forward to 14m 40s to see the winning pitch by Dr. Hunt. By all means watch the whole episode but the 1m 14s of this pitch convinced me that THIS is the way to win $1M in less than 90 seconds and here’s why.

Statistics: Dr. Hunt uses statistics to highlight salient parts of his argument. He doesn’t overwhelm us with them but uses them in support of his main point, lives could have been saved.

Story: Dr. Hunt relates the specific case of a doctor who’s death could have been prevented. This makes his pitch more personal and makes us empathize with his plight. Again this story is relevant to his main argument. Doctors with disaster training could have prevented these deaths.

Relevancy: Dr. Hunt makes his story relevant to the people involved. Himself, his colleagues and the person he’s pitching too. Nothing can sway an audience more than, here’s what this means to you.

Emotion: If you’re talking about something that stirs up emotion for you then it’s ok to impart that to your audience if done in an appropriate way. We’re all human and this is the kind of thing that can make an audience go quiet and really listen to what you’re going to say next.

Passion: Although Dr. Hunt is not loud or vociferous. You can feel that this is something he’s passionate about. Honestly if you’re not passionate about what you’re presenting, you may want to ask yourself, why you’re doing it. Passion is key to creating an engaging presentation.

Delivery: This is a TV drama so the caveat is that this is a dramatic performance. Dr. Hunt pauses to make his point, sighs, reflects and then delivers the crushing question. Can you live with this? Don’t underestimate dramatic effect, it’s a powerful tool in your presentation arsenal. The challenge is not to overdo it, you need to remain authentic in your delivery.

Dr. Hunt won the $1M for delivering an impassioned and convincing pitch in 74 seconds. Why aren’t all presentations like this?

Many presenters, particularly novices, struggle to find a presentation style that works best for them.  Luckily, throughout the years, after much trial and error, many successful techniques and methodologies for presentation creation and delivery have emerged, giving speakers a variety of existing approaches to “borrow” from.

From top left: Lawrence Lessig, Masayoshi Takahashi, Seth Godin, Mino Monta

Here, we’ll describe and evaluate some of the most famous – and popular – presentation methods.

1. The Takahashi Method
This extremely unique method calls for the use of very, very large text.  The goal is to use no more than a handful (preferably, less than three) of easy-to-understand words, or a single image or photo with no accompanying words, on each slide, to deliver a very clear, very high-impact message in a very short period of time.  Many believe that this approach forces the audience to listen to the speaker, since the slides alone do not demonstrate all the content to be delivered.

2. The Lessig Method
Based on the style of Stanford Law professor Lawrence Lessig, this method is quite similar to Takahashi’s approach in its simplicity.  Presenters who use this technique incorporate only a brief quote, a short sentence, or a photo with a caption onto their slides, and spend only a few seconds on each.  But, while Takahashi-style presentations are often rather short – usually ten slides or less – Lessig presentations are often quite long, sometimes hundreds of slides that are passed through very quickly.  The idea behind this method is that the rapid-fire pace of delivery prevents the audience from growing bored or getting distracted.

3.  The Godin Method
Although not yet formally recognized by presentation pundits, this method, made popular by best-selling author and marketing guru Seth Godin, focuses mostly on the element of presentation slide design – particularly, how to select accompanying visuals to enhance messages appropriately.  Godin promotes the use of bold fonts, contrasting colors, striking images, and other clear, compelling visuals to better convey thoughts and ideas.

4. The Monta Method
Like the Takahashi approach, this technique originated in Japan.  Introduced by a knowledge worker in the tech field, it emulates the personality and charisma of a popular game show host.  Presenters are encouraged to use questions and answers on all their visuals.  When the question is posed to the audience, the answer is kept covered or hidden, only to be revealed once attendees have tried to “guess”.  The advantage of this approach is that it is highly effective at keeping the audience interested and engaged, and thus, their attention is less likely to wander.

This is the continuation in a series of Incredible resources for presentations. If you have an idea for incredible resources or want to add one of your own just add a comment below this post or see the whole incredible presentations series.

Find more great tips and resources at the Presentation Skills Launch Pad.

This is a guest post by Vivek Singh. He is a marketing manager by profession. He is also the author of the popular blog  www.allaboutpresentations.com. Visit his blog for useful tips on presentations.

If your CEO remembers the top 3 things you said during the presentation, you've done a great job.

Making a presentation to top management is very different from making a presentation to the middle/junior management. Today we will try to understand what exactly this difference is and how to successfully present to top management.

Present the conclusion at the very start
In school you would have written a précis. A précis is a summary of the main points of the story. You need to do the same thing for your top management. First you make the presentation the way you normally do. Then add an empty slide at the very start (let’s call it the summary slide). Run through your presentation and put down the main points on this summary slide.
Top management is not here to listen to the complete story. You cannot afford to build the argument gradually and reveal the conclusion at the end. Instead put the conclusion at the start. Then go on and explain how you arrived at this conclusion. Your audience will ask for explanations and details wherever they need. You need not provide too much information. Remember, less is more with the top management.

Time is money
Be short and sweet. Do not be slow and do not repeat your points. Your CEO is always busy and cannot manage to sit through hour long presentations. Neither does he have the time nor the attention span. You need to share everything you have to say in crystal clear terms and then leave the questioning to the CEO. Whenever he seeks explanation, you can go in-depth.
The success of your presentation can be measured by a simple question. “If your CEO remembers the top 3 things you said during the presentation and why you said those things; you have done a great job.”

Use Back up Slides
When you present to the top management use what is called a ‘Back up Slide’. Suppose you are presenting on cost cutting. You have done a lot of study and your presentation talks about your 5 findings; the areas your organization is losing money and how to cut costs in these areas.
You have made detailed calculations to arrive at these findings. Your presentation has these findings and then you go on to recommend cost cutting measures. You are not going to present these detailed calculations (which led you to the findings) else the presentation will stretch for hours.  In such a case, keep these calculations ready on a slide (place it after the last slide). You might be asked to prove your findings, in which case you can open these back up slides. These slides support your findings. They are to be presented when your findings are being questioned and investigated in details.

Do not try to show you have worked hard
There is a strong urge in managers to show to the CEO that they have worked hard. Because they get to spend less time with the CEO they make their best efforts to impress him. This behavior leads them to fill their presentation with minute details. The number of bullet points is treated as directly proportional to work done. The more the bullets, the harder you have worked.
This needs to stop. What will impress the CEO is a simple presentation which shares the crux in a few slides and is backed up by solid reasoning. If your presentation gets your point across clearly, the rest will take care of itself.

Give a Handout
Your CEO will be busy with his/her Black Berry most of the time. He will check his mail and get urgent calls. Understand that there are more important things for him to do. It would be great if you carry a print out of the main points of the presentation. Make it no longer than one page. If you HAVE TO share some data/charts to back up your main points, then use Annexure. In the annexure, share the chart/graph; give a suitable heading and a one sentence summary of the chart.

To read more presentation tips visit Vivek’s blog All About Presentations or read other tips in this SlideRocket blog series.

You’ve just finished giving a Webinar – and it was clearly a winner!  But, you invited thousands and only a hundred showed up.  What can you do to maximize the value of all your hard work?  Post it to the Web, where other members of your target audience can easily access it.

Many people prefer on-demand web seminars since they can watch at their own convenience

In fact, many people prefer the on-demand approach, since they can watch at their own convenience, or pause the presentation if something urgent arises, without missing any important points. But once your on-demand presentation has been made available, how do you let people know it’s there?   And even more importantly, how to you encourage them to download or view it?

Here are some of the best ways to market your on-demand presentation:

1. Go Back to the Base
Just because only a fraction of those you invited actually attended, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the others weren’t interested in what you had to say.  They may have wanted to participate, but prior commitments prevented them from doing so.  So, once you post your on-demand presentation to your Web site, be sure to go back and inform those who were previously invited.  You’ll be surprised at how many of them take the bait.

2. Make it a Call to Action
Many experts believe that the reason most marketing campaigns fail is because they lack a compelling call to action.  Unless you give recipients a solid reason to respond – for example, by offering them something of perceived value – they simply won’t reply.  Using the download of your on-demand presentation as a response mechanism is a great way to drive traffic to your Web site, and boost campaign response rates.

3. Leverage Industry Resources
No matter what market you work in, there are likely Web sites that serve as resource portals for potential buyers.  These are great places for vendors to post not only pre-recorded presentations, but white papers and other promotional materials as well.  The site administrators may even help you promote your session, to help drive additional downloads.

4.  Alert the Media
Try issuing a media alert or a press release when your session has been posted.  Perhaps you don’t think an on-demand presentation is “newsworthy”, but many publications will, indeed, make mention of these types of resources.  Editors and writers may even view the presentation themselves, to educate themselves on your product or service, or your company.

You can also form relationships with bloggers and other online journalists, who can make mention of your on-demand Webcast when they publish posts and articles on related topics.

5.  Use Social Networks
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media outlets provide an open venue for you to share information with people who are interested in similar topics or ideas.  By setting up profiles on each of these sites, you can find people who are seeking certain types of information. And, those you connect with are probably those that are most likely to download your on-demand presentation.

Want more valuable tips on effective presentation creation and delivery? Review our archive of presentation tips and check back every week for new posts.

Investors hear, on average, five to eight presentations each day from entrepreneurs looking to obtain financial backing for their new business ventures.  But, only a fraction of these startup companies will get the funding they want.  How do you make sure yours is one of them?

Investors hear, on average, five to eight presentations each day.

Here are some valuable guidelines to follow when preparing your pitch to venture capitalists, angel investors, and other financiers.

1. What’s the Goal?
You won’t know if you were successful, unless you know exactly what you were trying to achieve in the first place.  Whether you’re looking to secure a funding commitment, or simply spark enough interest to schedule a follow-up meeting, clearly define your objective ahead of time.

2. Sum it All Up at the Start
You’ve got one minute to grab an investor’s attention.  So, a pitch that gets off to a slow start is bound to fall flat.  Kicking your presentation off with a dynamic one to two sentence summary that highlights your idea and its potential value will help you get them interested.

3. Back it Up with Details
In order to win the confidence of investors, you’ll need to show them that you have more than just a winning idea.  In addition to explaining your high-level vision, be sure to provide some details about how you plan to execute, such as a go-to-market strategy.

4.  The Proof is In the Numbers
Venture capitalists and other investors like numbers, particularly “mega trends”. So, back your ideas and theories up with as many industry benchmarks, statistics, and metrics as you possibly can.  The more reputable the sources, the better.

5.  Leave the Spreadsheets at Home
Your audience wants to see anticipated return on investment in the form of revenues, profits, or market share.  But, boring, dry spreadsheets or profit and loss statements are not the most effective way to do this.  Instead, wow investors with charts, graphs, and other exciting visuals that clearly convey expected value.

6. Speak with Passion
If you don’t show conviction in your idea, it will be very hard to get your audience excited about it.  Strong voice inflection and dramatic hand gestures are just a few of the ways you can demonstrate your passion for your concept, and your belief in its viability.

Want more valuable tips on effective presentation creation and delivery? Review our archive of presentation tips and check back every week for new posts.

Find more great tips and resources at the Presentation Skills Launch Pad.

Many speakers follow up their presentation with a demonstration of their product.  Whether it’s a software application, a piece of mechanical equipment, or a small appliance, the demo is the presenter’s chance to put their words into action, validating the claims they made during their slide deck.

The demo is your chance to put words into action.

Yet, most presenters are so focused on the quality of the presentation itself, they forget to fine-tune the demo.  As a result, they build up audience expectations, then fall flat when it really counts.

Here are some great tips for giving an amazing product demonstration.

1. Differentiate Yourself
Chances are, the prospective customer already has evaluated similar products, or will be speaking to other competitors in the near future, before making a final decision.  Since time will be limited, don’t waste it walking them through all the “me too” features.  Instead, highlight the characteristics of your product that make it unique and/or superior.

2. Customize It
Every product has countless interesting features and functions, but you’ll only have time to demonstrate a fraction of them.  So, it’s best to gather a little intelligence in advance.  Find out what the customer is trying to achieve through the use of your product, and focus on those capabilities that will help them get there.

3. Make It Interactive
Keep your audience engaged at all times, especially if the product you are showing is complex in nature.  Allow them to ask questions, or even select an audience member to participate “hands on”.  This will not only prevent their attention from wandering, it will give you the opportunity to capture valuable information about what they want to see, so you can structure the demonstration accordingly.

4.  Keep It Simple
Always remember that your audience doesn’t have the same level of technical or mechanical savvy that you do.  To avoid confusion, whenever possible, steer clear of technical or engineering jargon, and present the features of your product in layman’s terms.

5.  Be Flexible
Scripting and practicing your demo ahead of time is a wise idea.  However, you need to leave some room for “on the fly” change, based on audience response.  For example, a prospect may request to see a certain feature that you weren’t planning to show.  Or, they may ask a question that requires you to go back and re-explain functions that were already covered.   While preparedness is important, you also need to be able to “go with the flow”, so the audience is satisfied.

6.  You Need a Plan B
You’ve finished delivering your slides, and you’re getting ready to show your product.  But, you discover that it’s broken.  Now what?  Make sure you always have a backup plan in case of such emergencies.  For example, if its equipment you’re demonstrating, bring a second piece, just in case.  Or, keep a brief tutorial video on hand, so you can convey how certain features work.  If you’re showing software, be sure the room has a Web connection.  If your laptop fails, you can simply access the application via the Internet.

Want more valuable tips on effective presentation creation and delivery? Review our archive of presentation tips and check back every week for new posts.