You must be able to present convincingly if you want to persuade potential customers to purchase your products or services. When you want to show managers or other stakeholders the added value of your ideas. But also when you delegate tasks and you want to inspire your team and encourage them to take action. Some people naturally give impressive presentations and for everyone else there is good news too; You can learn to present convincingly.
10 tips for a strong, convincing presentation
How to present a mediocre plan convincingly? That can just give you an assignment. And vice versa: a watertight plan with a weak presentation can actually cost you a project. With the following 10 tips you always ensure a strong presentation with a story that sticks. Guaranteed.
Tip 1: Keep it short and simple
Certainly with business presentations: less is more. Chances are that your audience also has something else to do and don’t have the time (or inclination) to listen to you for half an hour. It is therefore important to keep your presentation and message compact. To the point. To put it concisely. Communicating is dosing. And to present convincingly is to be clear.
Tip 2: Use an unexpected twist
If you want to get your message across quickly and effectively, it is important to get attention right away. You can do that by incorporating a surprising twist into your intro. By creating a mystery. Or by just doing something unexpected. Just make sure it links to your topic. That way, your audience is directly involved with your presentation with their eyes and ears.
Tip 3: Make it concrete
To put it briefly: people are often not that interested in what you have to say … but in what your product, service or idea specifically means to them! So make the strengths concrete for your target group. Provide insight into the benefits for your target group and tell them what it really benefits them. It is nice that your product is maintenance-friendly, for example, but that you save time and money is much more interesting.
Tip 4: Show!
Presenting convincingly = showing things. People are visually oriented. They simply remember visual information better, because the brain can process it more easily than language. So give a performance. A demonstration of how something works rather than explaining it. Show what your message is and -if possible- immediately show the result.
Tip 5: Entertain your audience
It’s also important to entertain your audience. To tickle the senses. That breaks your story a bit and gives your audience the chance to reset for a while, so that they can focus on your presentation again and remember your story better. Use whatever you want for this, but make sure it’s relevant. It’s not meant to distract from your subject.
Tip 6: Make your presentation interactive
Sit and listen. You often don’t get that much out of it. If you want to present your idea convincingly, you will have to involve your audience in your story. For example, ask questions, present a strong statement or use tools to hold live polls / create a word cloud (just test beforehand). This way you immediately know how your audience thinks about the subject of your presentation. Might be convenient!
Tip 7: Increase your credibility
You can present so convincingly and yet the result of your presentation ultimately stands or falls with your credibility. If people don’t believe you or your message, nothing will happen. Nope. nada. So substantiate your story with facts and figures or appeal to your authority (or that of someone else). This is how you turn empty slogans into strong arguments.
Tip 8: Play on the feeling
The whole idea of ​​convincing presentation is that your story sticks. That it prompts action. And for that you need emotions and feelings. They provide the strongest memories and act as motivation to do something. Make it personal and let your audience think about their problems themselves (for which you offer a solution with your presentation). Good to combine with tip 6!
Tip 9: You can laugh
Humor is a strong weapon in the arsenal of a good presenter. With humor you can do something unexpected (tip 2), entertain your audience (tip 5) and respond to the feeling (tip 9). It takes the cold out of the air. And having a laugh also ensures that you are a bit more relaxed in front of a group. Also not unimportant. But use humor in moderation: you don’t want your presentation to become a comedy show.
Tip 10: Fine-tune your story
Yes, convincing presentation is also about body language and appearance. But it’s mostly about what you have to say. For your story. So refine that story until it’s perfect. Until it is exciting and inspiring. Write it down, leave it for a while and see if you can incorporate some of the above tips later. A good story gives you the confidence to be able to present convincingly at all.
