How to give that knockout business plan presentation

Here at business plan ppt.net we know what you are going through. I can picture it now, you get up ready to give your presentation and you can see the audience sliding down in their chairs. Are they getting comfortable or ready to go to sleep? It’s likely a bit of both and to overcome this you have to deliver a knockout presentation. Literally a powerpoint presentation that will make them sit back up right and want to know more about your business plan.

To help you we’ve put together some of our favourite secrets for giving that presentation.

Research.

You need to really know your subject. What is the size of the market, how strong are your competitors, what do customers really want. The trick here is to really do some deep research to find the unusual or contradictory piece of information that will prompt a discussion. Ways to do this are to go beyond the normal Google search and to go out and engage with customers, look up any new research in your market, trawl the business press and interview industry figureheads.

Less is more.

Do not put to much information on a single slide. Overloading a slide with information will overload your audience. An overloaded audience does not engage. As human beings we have evolved to cope with only certain amounts of information at any one time, I guess thousands of years ago you needed to know enough information to make those fight or flight calls. This still holds true today and presenting a lot of information on a slide whilst you are talking to the audience will simply be too much. You’ll be amazed at the effect of really whittling down what you put on your slides.

Presentation.

Remember that different people understand and comprehend information in different ways. Some folks like to listen to you delivering the presentation and don’t focus on the slides, others like to read the presentation and others are more visually focused, e.g. pictures and diagrams. To increase your chances of communicating with the whole audience make sure to pay attention to the balance of the three aspects.

Practice your delivery.

a knockout presentation is captivating. It makes you forget about the speaker or even why you are in the room and absorbs you into the presentation. Practice will help you remove any unnecessary distractions, e.g. make sure you know your lines / facts, get your timing right so that you are natural with the slides, check your body language and remove any awkward silences. Great presenters work the stage naturally making everyone in the audience feel like you are talking to them individually.

Avoid Comedy.

Whilst you want to make them sit up in there seat, and humour may seem a nice way to lighten the atmosphere, remember that this is a serious presentation. Comedy can polarise an audience so just don’t aim to be humorous. However it can be ok to throw in some natural lines just don’t overdo it.

Props.

If possible the use of props can really make your presentation stand out, this can be anything a timer to demonstrate how quickly something is happening or just using what you have in unique manner. In one presentation I gave about mobility I literally picked up my laptop to show the audience that the demonstration I was giving could take place anywhere.

It’s not about you.

You are trying to sell your business plan to the audience. The audience is not interested in how hard you have worked to produce the plan. The audience is only interested in how you plan helps them with their problem or pain. Make the presentation about the audience, talk them through the problem they face and how your plan will help them resolve this.

Tell a story.

As human beings we all love stories. Stories enable us to understand an idea and put it into context. Use a story to present your business plan but remeber to stay focussed on the needs of the audience. This should not be your story, although it can be about you as long as the audience can identify with this.

Drive the presentation and don’t let yourself be driven by the slides.

We’ve all been there, flicking to the next slide and reading it for a split second to remind us of what we are about to say next. This can work if a split second glance enables you to talk at length about the slide as you are clearly aware of the detail behind the slide, however it does not work if you take a few seconds to read the slide and then have very little to say about it.

Pace your delivery.

I recently watched a knock out presentation which kept me engaged throughout and I asked the speaker afterword what was their trick. I was surprised by the simplicity of it but just had to share this in this list as it was so effective. Change the pace of your presentation. The speaker had a slide which was on screen for many minutes whilst he told a story and went into some detail. Then he changed gear a bit with slides being up for a minute or two with less discussion per slide then he changed the gear up again with some charts from a survey. These slides had really neat visual information but were only on screen for 30 seconds or so but were shown in a series.

Like music he was using a change of pace in the same presentation to draw people in, then he hit us with some well presented facts and then slowed the presentation back down to its conclusion. The effect was highly engaging and is not a technique I’ve seen widely used.

PowerPoint is only a tool.

We use this tool to help us communicate our business plans with our audience.