Whether you are a student or an employee in the entry level or CEO of a company, you need to give presentations pitching for your case at some point. So having impeccable presentation skills is imperative to put your message across in the right way. Often the thought of presenting yourself in front of a crowd or audience, put you in a fix. Here are few essential tricks to help you present your presentation effectively:
Introduction: Make the purpose of your presentation very clear to your audience right at the beginning. Your audience has the right to know what the presentation is all about and what benefits they could expect through it. First connect with them on the personal level by giving them a short introduction of yourself then go ahead with the theme of your presentation. An introduction is essential to warm up the audience for your upcoming presentation.
Structure Your Presentation: How you structure your presentation is very important to deliver your desired message clearly to the audience. Structure of a presentation means the flow of thoughts you want to present. From Introduction through the body of the presentation and till the end, your presentation should convey your desired message in a structured manner.
Sample Scenario:If a presentation is on ‘Tips to Improve your Spoken English’ then there must have a,
- Beginning: The beginning should present the problem people often face in their study or work place due to poor Spoken English skills
- Middle: Tips or steps to over the challenge e.g. Taking up a Spoken English coaching class, Practicing at home, Watching English movies, Reading -- newspapers, stories, magazine etc. and try speaking with friends or family in English
- Benefits: How practicing regularly helps students or employees to speak English in a fluent and effortless manner.
Communicate: While you deliver your presentation, the most important factor is putting across your desired message clearly to your target audience. How you do that? You need to stop once in a while and communicate with your audience to keep them engaged. Another very critical factor is how you deliver the message - your tone, diction and body language, all are very important to judge the quality of your presentation.
Practice is Super Important: If you want to present a flawless presentation, you need to put in that extra effort by practicing every day before your D day. How you can practice? Talk to yourself, stand in front of a mirror and rehearse the content of a presentation. Once you become expert in your practice sessions, call your friends or family members to become your audience so that you can give a demo. You can also video record yourself to check your performance.
Have your Own style: To make your audience glued to their seats and keep engaged in your message, you need to present your whole idea in an interesting way. Now you must be thinking what are the possible ways? Make your presentation time interesting by making it more interactive by asking questions in between to your audience for their opinion.
Relax: Stage fear is a real challenge for many -- whether a new or seasoned speaker. This fear has more hold on you when you are presenting your presentation for the first time. To help you ease the anxiety, you should learn to relax and take the presentation as a discussion session with your friends or people you are comfortable with.
Any Questions: Giving a presentation is not enough you need to give your audience the opportunity to ask questions to clear their doubts (if any). This enables you and your audience to be on the same page, understanding clearly what you have conveyed.
Say Thank You: When your presentation ends, do not forget to thank your audience who have given you their precious time believing you have something valuable knowledge or important ideas to convey.
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