Delivery
Tips
Your
presentation is ready to rock & roll. Now, you must
deliver it. All this also boils down to being prepared.
Please find below a few tips to help you deliver your
presentation successfully. Give them conscious thought to
ensure that you can go and make your show a great one.
Get some rest
the night before
It may be
glaringly obvious, but make sure that you have rested
sufficiently before giving your presentation. Don't go to
that party the night before (but do go to the 'I've landed
a new client!'-party afterwards!). So catch an early sleep.
And, if you can have any influence on the issue, plan your
presentation at a time of day when your bio-rhythm is most
active. It will greatly assist you.
Emotional
transfer
Many
presenters think (by mistake) that it is information
transfer that happens between an audience and a speaker.
Information transfer plays only a minor part. It is
emotional transfer that counts. Do you truly believe in
what you are telling them? Because if you do, and thus
speak passionately about it, your audience will
‘feel’ this on a very basic human level. Many
mediocre presentations have been held and became still a
smashing success because the presenter was able to convey
his message with passion. Remember, your presentation is,
in the end, just wallpaper. YOU are the one they’re
coming to see. So, show your passion!
Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse
What more can
be said? If anything will help you to deliver your message,
it is in rehearsing extensively. It will uproot flaws in
your storyline, flaws in your slides, flaws that will
–only- show when you actually give the presentation.
Further, by listening to yourself talking, you will
effectively cement the argumentation in your own mind.
Also, have colleagues sit in and comment. Yes, it may feel
awkward at first, and maybe even painful, but nothing will
boost your confidence more than knowing things run smoothly
as intended and knowing what you are going to say. Know it
by heart.
Test it, and
bring a back-up
Be at the
venue with ample time to test whether the technology works
as intended. How often have you seen a presenter fumble
apologetically with his gear because it somehow does not
work? It looks unprofessional, and it is unprofessional.
Also, bring your presentation on multiple media, so next to
the one living in your laptop, bring one on a CD and on a
USB-stick. Yes, comes that day for sure that you will be
grateful that you did.
Start strong
First
impressions count. Really. The audience wants to like you,
and will give you a few minutes to establish rapport with
them. Don’t miss this opportunity. Most presenters
fail, because they ramble on for too long about
insignificant things like personal history and such. And
they do so, just to get over that initial anxiety that all
people feel when they must stand up and face the crowd. So,
be confident, step up and start strong.
Keep it short
Humans have
short attention spans. On average, a person can stay on
high alert for about 45 minutes. And the fact that you sit
down passively and listen to a speaker does not help in
keeping this high energy state for too long. Audience
attention is greatest at the opening & closing stages
of your presentation. So, deliver your presentation in a
timely fashion. You will make your audience very happy when
you are able to deliver your presentation in 25 minutes
where you said you would need 30. It will make you look
focussed, prepared and professional.
Tell them
A simple but
vital thing to do is to tell them what you’re going
to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what
you’ve just told them. Telling them what you will
tell them primes the audiences mind, because it puts a
frame of reference in place. People will know what to
expect in advance and will subliminally prepare themselves
to receive that information. Then, obviously, tell them
what you want to tell them, in the same fashion as you told
them you would tell them. Finally, recap for them by
telling them what you’ve just told them.
Walk around
Don’t
stay behind that table or podium, walk around! Standing
behind a table is just you unconsciously trying to put
distance between yourself and your audience due to anxiety.
And that’s exactly how your audience will
unconsciously feel it. So, walk around and engage the
audience. It will make you feel (and look) so much more
relaxed.
Make eye
contact, and smile
Try looking
at individual persons, and not just scan the group.
Establish eye contact, and smile when you do: a smile is
still a very, very powerful thing. Also, don’t look
at just one person during the whole presentation. He or she
will feel very awkward about it, and the rest of the
audience will feel left out. And never, ever turn your back
on the audience, for you are sure to lose them permanently.
Since you’re using a laptop, if you need to refresh
yourself on what’s on the wall behind you (and
becoming prepared and having rehearsed, you hardly will
need to), just briefly glance at the screen. And, for
heaven's sake, please understand that turning your back on
the audience and just -read- to them what's displayed
on-screen is, well, a mortal sin.
Use a remote
If you do
walk around, then a remote control device to advance your
slides is an absolute must. Otherwise, you must walk back
to your laptop every time you need to advance a slide and
briefly focus on it to find the right key to press. Each
and every time you do this, you will 'break' the connection
you have with your adience. This is highly undesirable, and
moreover, it will make you look unprepared. With a remote,
you can stay totally audience-focussed all of the time and
look very professional in doing so. So, spend that
€50.
The B & W
- keys are your friends
If you press
the ‘B’-key while your PowerPoint (or Keynote)
presentation is running, the screen will turn black. This
is very useful if you need to move off-topic for a while.
With the screen black, all attention can be focussed on
you, where it should be. The ‘W’-key does
exactly the opposite, it turns the screen white. Both keys
are toggles, pressing them again resumes the presentation
exactly where you left off.
Keep the
lights on
Most modern
projectors are bright enough for you to strike a good
balance between a bright screen image and the room’s
ambient light. Many presenters succumb to the temptation to
turn the lights off because it will make the slides look
extra good. Turning the lights off induces sleep however,
and further puts all the focus on the screen. The attention
should be on you in stead, and for this the audience must
be able to see you clearly. You may even consider using a
TV in stead of a screen when presenting for small groups.
This will ensure that you can keep most if not all of the
lights on.
Grace, at all
times
At all times,
you must remain gracious, professional and courteous. Thank
them for the opportunity to speak with them and for their
time invested in you. Thank audience members for posing a
question. And even if someone is being difficult, stay firm
and remain a gentleman or woman at all times. Deal with
them courteously, and you will see that in a while, someone
from the audience will step in for you and tell the other
to abstain. Stay cool, relaxed, in control and
professional. It is your reputation that’s on the
line.
