If you want to be successful with your presentation, you need to prepare very carefully. Most speakers do not take the importance of good preparation seriously enough. If you already start badly with this, you have almost no chance to give a good presentation. We give you the 10 best tips on how to prepare a professional presentation.
When I experience a good presentation, I know exactly how much work the speaker has put in. Top speakers can boast a lot of experience, but even they have to put a lot of energy into preparing a talk. The right content, timing, choice of words, transitions, etc. have to be pre-planned very carefully so that the end result is convincing. What seems to be performed with playful composure must be planned and rehearsed with hard work. I also notice very quickly when a speaker has made no effort with the preparation. He seems uncertain; his presentation is bumpy, illogical in parts, and lacks dramaturgy. If you prepare a good presentation, the audience can be convinced. Poor preparation leads to a poor result.
Poor presentation preparations do not save time, they lead to time wasting
We all know the enormous time pressure that arises in the modern working world. From gatekeepers to management, the daily demands continue to increase. Then one day there is also a presentation date. Ideally, a professional presentation agency will be hired to prepare and create a professional presentation after the proper briefing. In the case of very good agencies, the speaker also receives preparatory training so that he or she can present the slides convincingly. Often, however, some employee has the “buck” and has to take it, in addition to his or her many other issues. So he will somehow still squeeze the extra task into his busy schedule and try to get to the finish line with as little time as possible. But with that, he almost automatically lost. Unfortunately, creating and moderating a good presentation takes a lot of time. If you try to reach a result quickly, you can save yourself the trouble. It’s wasted time. The audience will not be convinced by a poor or mediocre presentation. My personal tip at this point would be to postpone the presentation to a later date to get more time to design it, or better cancel it altogether.
If you want a good presentation, you need a lot of time or professional help
No layman would think of performing as a dancer or musician at a public event after a short preparation. Especially when the melody and choreography have to be worked out by yourself. It is clear that this requires a lot of practice and professional support. Even a successful presentation needs extensive preparation, otherwise the result will disappoint. If you want to succeed with your presentation, you better consult a presentation agency. As a result, you get results in a short time that are far beyond what the average marketing department employee can achieve with a lot of work. Should you want to manage the presentation with your own resources, create the necessary large periods of time to prepare professionally.
The advantages of having the presentation created by an agency are shown in our blog article ” Having presentations created by an agency and presentation experts: the advantage in time and quality outweighs the cost
Here’s what you need to keep in mind when preparing a presentation
Here come ten tips you can tackle when preparing a presentation.
Tip 1. never start with the slides, but first get clear about your goal
Most successful writers don’t start a novel by writing wildly. It is similar with presentations. Steve Jobs, a true presentation genius, first used pen and paper to sketch out what he wanted to accomplish. Before even one slide was described, he had developed a storyboard of sorts and laid out the flow chart. At the beginning there is an idea or a task. From this, you should develop an idea of what you want to achieve with your presentation in the first place.
Tip 2: Think about the key messages you want to convey
If you are not aware of what the important messages of your presentation are, then you have little chance of achieving your goals. Be clear about the main information you want to give to the audience. What do you want your viewers to know? What do you want you to see more clearly/differently through your presentation? What benefit do I offer with my information?
Tip 3. do research about your target audience
It makes a big difference whether you are giving a presentation to a professional audience or to people with little knowledge of your topic. What level of education do your viewers have? What do you already know?
Tip 4. work out a schedule
Try to structure the flow of your presentation precisely. The outline can contain the following points, for example: Welcome, short explanation of what will happen in the next 20 minutes, introduction to the topic, main part, conclusion with “call-to-action”, Q&A session, farewell.
Tip 5. Become aware of how to get the attention of the audience
Just like a successful Hollywood movie, be clear on how to captivate your audience and keep their attention throughout. Perhaps make an announcement at the beginning of the presentation that your audience will learn something very important in the next few minutes. Or possibly you are making a provocative thesis that you want to prove in the course of the presentation. In any case, it is important to arouse the curiosity of the audience. If I want to know what happens next, I’m much more likely to listen.
Tip 6. Use modern foil design
The way of designing and using foils changes practically every year. This has not only to do with fads, but with changes in the way information is prepared and processed. Overloaded slides with text deserts and umpteen graphics are no longer in demand today. Imagery, little text and overall few slides are contemporary today. Unfortunately, this does not mean that it is less work. The slides need to be planned much better if the key messages are to be conveyed in just a few slides.
Tip 7. what tools can you use?
Is there perhaps visual material that could help you with the presentation? Sometimes models can be useful to describe an object more vividly, such as a building or a car. Sometimes it is also necessary to make abstract numbers comprehensible. For example, how could the distance from the Earth to the Sun be visually represented on the stage? Can a magic trick be incorporated? Could pieces of music or film sequences be helpful for you? Think about this while you are still preparing a presentation.
Tip 8. prepare for critical questions
If you allow questions from the audience, be prepared for critical questions as well. It would be a pity if you had mastered the presentation with flying colors, but then failed because you reacted incorrectly to an audience member’s question.
Tip 9. the technology must work
If the computer, beamer or microphone go on strike, this is very annoying for the audience. Even if you are not solely to blame because you are performing in someone else’s location, the unprofessional process will be blamed on you. A good presentation can quickly leave a bad taste in the mouth of the audience. Therefore, check the technical equipment very carefully.
Tip 10. practice, practice, practice
Preparing a presentation also involves intensive practice of the entire process. This is where a particularly large number of mistakes are made. Often the speaker relies on the fact that everything already goes smoothly. Presentation is practiced only once, sometimes not at all. But even professionals do many rehearsal runs until they master the entire presentation with all its processes almost in their sleep. Use colleagues, or even friends and relatives, as a test audience. At first, this feels unfamiliar and also somewhat uncomfortable. But it becomes even more uncomfortable when you lose your train of thought in front of an audience of strangers.
A good presentation is a very complex process that absolutely needs time and meticulous planning. Even if you have a lot on your plate, you should still put in the necessary work by preparing your presentation.
Learn which mistakes to avoid for a successful presentation in our blog post These 12 Mistakes Will Ruin Any Presentation.
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