Presentable Presentations

While not all businesses employ presentations as part of their marketing.  For those that do, presentations may be very important to the business - prospect relationship.  Presentations, in that context are intended to inform in an interesting way and move the audience from prospect to client. 

To have an effective presentation it's important to be well informed about the audience.  What do they already know about the topic?  Why would the topic be of interest or of value?  What do you want them to do as a result of the presentation?  Why would they not want to do that?  The audience, for the presentation to be effective,  needs to know why they should think you are credible and qualified.  To augment the connection, building a rapport through common interests is a real asset.

The job of the presentation is to take the audience through the process of seeing the current situation and then understanding what could be.  Even if the audience has the information they need to make a decision and it's presented in an interesting, credible and persuasive way, without a call to action, the audience may not understand what the next step should be.  Some call to action tools, may be spelling out a time line for the next step.  Having appropriate paper work on hand and asking for the desired action is another way to go.  People with a sales background reading this will recognize this step.

Some nuts and bolts things to keep in mind include making sure that there isn't too much detail on one page.  The audience won't be able to take it in.  If possible, use photos or images to illustrate your message.  If you use a template or a logo on each page, observe that this takes up a large part of area that could be used for clean simple lettering and images.  The audience will comprehend the message better with less information per page and one clean sharp font used in a limited number of sizes. 

Before your presentation, go through it with someone you trust to give you an honest opinion.  Walk through it in your mind until you are comfortable with the flow and how it relates to the audience.  Hopefully these tips will help you create and deliver more effective presentations.