Published by Niall Devitt, Btb Business Training

Presenting to a group can potentially be a daunting experience even for the most confident of sellers. It is easy for these nerves to contribute to basic mistakes so a little preparation and a few simple guidelines are key to success.

Preparation

You will have a chance to prepare, and this is crucial particularly if presenting is not one of our strengths. Try to find out what will be important to those attending and plan your structure and content accordingly.

Get there early

Arrive early so that you have a chance to set up and familiarise yourself with the layout of the room.

Introductions

When you are introduced, slow down , take time to remember each person by name. One of reasons that we don’t remember names is that we rush through this piece. Before you start , check that you can be heard and that tools can be seen. Briefly introduce your objectives, the topics and the running order of the presentation.

Delivery

Speak more slowly than you would with your friends but remember to also mix up both the speed and tone of your voice , slowing down to emphasise important points and speeding up when giving less important details.

Power Point

Most of us still rely on power point as our delivery tool. The big problem being that it is one-dimensional so much that it non interactive as far as the audience is concerned. Its up to the presenter to compensate and encourage interaction and participation.

No one wants to hear power points slides being read word for word unless they have trouble sleeping, so my suggestion is to only use it as a guide or prop and where possible use your own words and meaning to communicate the message.

Movement

Make sure that you move around. A moving person is a much more stimulating target to our eyes than a stationary person.

Body Language

Be aware of both your own body language and of those attending. Ensure that you spread your eye contact and focus involving everyone not just the DM.

Q & A

Encourage questions and in a situation where you don’t have the answer at hand, tell the person you will find out and come back to them with the answer at a later date.

Difficult Behaviours

Where one person is overly difficult or using a disruption behaviour pattern. Agree to park the issue for now by promising that you will speak with them one to one at the end of the meeting and resolve the concern.

Disruptions

If there is a disruption, e.g. someone needs to leave the room etc. Simply just stop and wait for them to return.

Finish with Actions

Before you leave, agree a next or serious of next steps tying in a time-frame. Thank everyone for their input and shake hands with all present.

Presentations to groups need not be the daunting experience that we sometimes expect. It is important to inject our own personality into the task and to not depend solely on tools such as power point. You never know, you might start to enjoy it.

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Tags: powerpoint presentation, presentation, presentation skills, presentation training, sales presentation, sales presentation training, sales presentations

This entry was posted on Friday, March 21st, 2008 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Sales. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.