How to Prepare an Impactful Business Presentation in 8 Steps
For non-native speakers, giving a business presentation in English can be a scary experience, especially if you don’t do it often or feel insecure about speaking English in front of others.
Over the years, I have helped a range of professionals prepare for business presentations, as well as training teachers to prepare their students for presentations when I ran my own language school in Brazil.
During this time I constructed a very effective approach that can be used if you are preparing for a business presentation but do not have a coach or trainer to guide you.
In this post, I’m going to share with you this proven approach which consists of 8 steps.
Step 1: The Foundation to Your Business Presentation – Goal, Audience, Past Experience
This first step is essential for a successful business presentation, as it sets the foundation for the rest of your preparation.
Ask yourself what exactly it is that you want to achieve with this presentation. In other words, what is the goal? What do you want to communicate and how do you want the audience to react or take action?
In addition to this, consider your audience. How many people will you be presenting to? Do you know the audience personally or are they unknown to you? What will they be expecting? Are there any cultural differences you need to be aware of? For what reasons are they listening to your business presentation?
lastly, if you have given business presentations in English before, reflect on your experience. What were your main challenges and how will you face them this time around? What improvements do you need to make?
I prepared an executive who once told me that he froze up when he was stopped to ask questions during his presentations. He was worried about whether he was going to understand the questions correctly, as well as being capable of giving a good answer under pressure.
For this, we worked on how to ask for clarification if he wanted to make sure he understood the questions, and then we wrote down all the possible questions he could get asked and rehearsed the answers.
This reflection and extra preparation helped the executive to overcome his nerves and anxiety for his next business presentation.
Step 2: Prepare the Slides with Minimum Text
One of the biggest mistakes I see people making when putting their slides together is including too much text. Or even worse, their speech is the text which is written on the slides.
If there is too much text, three damaging things can happen.
First, the presenter spends more time reading the slides and doesn’t look at the audience enough. This makes it difficult to establish a connection with your audience.
Secondly, good eye contact can communicate confidence and authority, which helps the audience to agree with or believe your message. Therefore, spending too much time looking at the slides can affect how confident or authoritative you look, which will consequently weaken your message.
Thirdly, it confuses your audience because they don’t know whether to read the slides or listen to you. Both, they cannot do. And potentially they could miss important parts, let alone diminish engagement.
So ask yourself these questions when preparing your slides: Is there too much text? Could the slides be better summarized? Could there be more images?
The slides should really be as condensed as possible using
Step 3: Record Yourself from Beginning to End
Before writing down your speech or doing any rehearsals, record yourself (audio or video) giving the business presentation from beginning to end.
Your presentation will be unpolished and rough, however, this exercise will give you some immediate and useful insights on how you present and what you need to improve.
When playing back the recording try to look out for the following:
- the parts of the presentation you are finding difficult to explain,
- if you are being objective enough or taking too long to explain something,
- how often you use filler words, such as “erm”, “um”,
- whether you are using a variety of linking phrases between parts,
- if there are any grammar mistakes you can recognise.
These insights will help when you start working on your speech, which is the next step.
Furthermore, you can compare this initial recording with future recordings. This will help you perceive your progress, which will build confidence.
Step 4: The Introduction
Next, you’re going to focus on the separate parts of the business presentation, beginning with the introduction.
The introduction normally includes a few sentences to welcome the audience, say a little bit about who you are, communicate the objective of the business presentation, and then give an outline of the main parts of the presentation.
I recommend writing down the script and memorizing the introduction word for word, as it is only going to be a few sentences. You can write it in the ‘notes’ section at the bottom of the PowerPoint slides.
Memorizing the introduction will strengthen the delivery of it, and a strong intro will not only calm down your nerves
Practice out loud a few times then move on to the middle section.
Click here for introduction phrases for a business presentation.
Step 5: The Middle
Just like the introduction, write down the script for the middle part. However this time, the reason for writing the middle section is to make your speech more objective and straight to the point, rather than memorizing it word for word.
I suggest working through your business presentation part by part. Write the script for a specific section, practice saying it aloud a few times, then move on to the next part.
An important part of the middle section is how you link all the different parts and slides together. Make sure you use a variety of linking phrases to join everything up and maximize presentation flow.
Here’s an example of a linking phrase: “Ok, I’ve explained how ABC works. Now I’d like to change direction and talk about XYZ.”
Linking phrases help you move through the business presentation smoothly and the audience will be able to follow it easier.
Once you have written your speech, a useful exercise is to run through the presentation only saying the linking phrases. This will help you identify if you are using enough variety and it will cement the structure of the presentation in your mind.
Click here for more linking phrases for the middle section of a business presentation.
Step 6: The End
For the ending, use the same method as the introduction and middle section – writing the speech and then practicing it orally.
Just like the intro, the ending is normally quite short and consists of a summary or conclusion, followed by questions, then thanking the audience.
Click here for expressions to help you with the ending of a business presentation.
Step 7: Practice and Repeat from Top to Bottom
Practice and repetition is the most important aspect of preparing for a business presentation.
By now, you have edited your slides, written your speech, and practiced each section individually a few times. You have also chosen a variety of linking phrases to improve the flow of the presentation.
At this point, you need to practice the presentation aloud as many times as you can from beginning to end. I suggest that you record yourself every now and again, listen to the playback and note down where you think you can improve.
Go back to that very first recording and compare yourself now. Your progress will be visible and this will increase confidence. As you continue to practice, you’ll find that your fluency level will improve.
If possible, practice in front of work colleagues and ask them to give you feedback. This will give you experience presenting in front of people, and there’s always something which we miss while other people notice.
Alternatively, look for a coach or trainer to help you. I offer this service online. Apply for a free evaluation here.
Step 8: Anticipate Audience Questions
When you are feeling comfortable giving the presentation, the next step is to anticipate questions that your audience might ask. Write down how you would like to answer these questions and practice them orally.
You will either invite the audience to ask questions after you have finished the business presentation or in some cases, the audience will interrupt you during the presentation.
It is more challenging when you get interrupted because it breaks the flow. An effective way to prepare for this is to get somebody to ask you anticipated questions during specific slides as you are practicing the presentation. This will help you get used to being interrupted, answering the question, then resuming the presentation again.
Conclusion
By following this 8 step approach, you will find that your confidence and fluency will improve significantly at giving business presentations.
The crucial part is the practice. You can never practice too much.
Be disciplined enough to define a practice routine and follow through with it. When you feel comfortable, practice a few more times. You’ll see that it is worth the effort after receiving praise for delivering a successful business presentation.
