Genuine Advice On How To Give Striking Business Presentations, Section Six

Jan 17th

Genuine Advice On How To Give Striking Business Presentations, Section Six

Posted in General Business
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1. If story board is not rehearsed or discussed before hand, then do Divide and Conquer If I am sharing a stage with a speaker who I haven’t met before I normally do divide and conquer, it just means I clearly divide the portions between us. For example, the first 10 slides by me and the next 10 by the other speaker, or it will be done so that I do all the Slides and the other person does all the demonstrations. This way I avoid stepping on the other speakers shoes.

2. In the introductory slide, the hierarchy of names is very important. Generally have the first name on the slide to be of the person who is going to do the main portion of the presentation. If you are doing the presentation along with your superior, boss or client then it is common etiquette to have their name at the top, even though you may be the person doing the most talking.

3. If you are presenting along with a colleague, remember to give them adequate time to introduce themselves and talk.

4. If you have finished a segment, and the other speaker is starting, it is OK for them to say “Thank you” to you for the first time, but it need not be repeated at every change.

5. Divide the total time between you and have a pre agreement on who is going to reduce which portion if time becomes an issue.

6. When the other speaker is speaking, please don’t typing on your laptop, play with your phone or keep gesturing at your friend in the front row. Focus your attention, just like the audience upon the speaker. If you do otherwise, it shows disregard for the speaker.

7. Also, when the other speaker is doing a demonstration and forgets a step, don’t jump to his aid and help immediately. Give some time and after that try to communicate the idea as discreetly as you can.

8. Finally there can be only one captain to the ship, so agree beforehand between you that for the duration of the presentation, who is that captain. This basically means who can plot the course, when an emergency like a slideshow not working, embarrassing questions coming in, short of time, etc. Having a captain makes it easy and avoids conflicting problem resolving decisions on stage. Remember, in situation like this, you have to be able to think on your feet sometimes it may not be logical or correct and two people can never produce the same quick fix at the same time.

Questions and answers section

1. If you are new to presentations, don’t overly encourage taking questions during the talk. Announce to audience at the beginning, that you will answer any questions at the end. When you will also give out your plastic cards. Taking questions in between can interrupt your flow and regaining your position can prove very difficult you can very easily become removed from your main message. You can change this rule once you have built your confidence and become an Ace in presentations. This is because, taking questions in between your speech can create a good atmosphere of ambience, a cast of positive interaction.

2. Never get into an argument or a heated discussion – drop them after 60 seconds and take it on to the next topic.

3. There will be bands of people within the audience who ask questions simply to say something they know, or advertise their company brand or to complain to everyone that the food was bad or to insinuate that they know the subject more than you do. If you suspect the question to be along these lines, interrupt this person as soon as possible and request them to communicate the Actual question they had in mind.

4. Never let a question be answered by another member of audience. If you do this, then you will totally loose the audience and it will become a discussion, not a presentation. You have to remember that you are the boss during your presentation, so ascertain your charge.

5. If you get a question for which you are unsure of the correct answer, politely say “that is a good question” and that “ you will need to check on the facts before answering”. Ask them to speak to you after your presentation or tell them that you will find out and provide them a response. After the presentation hand out your plastic business cards.

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