The importance of business presentations in today’s competitive era can’t be overlooked. Whether establishing trust and credibility, improving sales, seeking partnership or funding, or communicating value – a well-designed and impactfully delivered presentation can distinguish your business, imprinting your core message in the audience’s minds.
However, business presentations are tricky because they are time-sensitive and require delivering in a professional setting with little room for errors.
If you are a newbie and have no clue how to ace your first business presentation, you will find this article helpful. Even seasoned speakers can use this article as a guide to improve their next presentations.
Read on!
What is a Business Presentation?
Business presentations are purposefully designed slides that aim to divulge key information related to a company’s plans, products, services, practices, etc., for internal or external audiences like clients, executives, investors, teams, etc.
They differ from other presentations in facets like the audience, delivery style, purpose, and type of content to be included.
Business Presentation: Objective and Purpose
The objective or purpose of a business presentation could be anything from the following or more-
- To inform or communicate important information – Presentations include team briefings, quarterly business reviews, etc.
- To persuade and drive business – Slide deck includes pitch decks to potential investors, sales presentations, etc.
- To provide support and facilitate decision-making – Includes project visions or roadmap presentations.
Presentations are designed with specific objectives iterated through every slide, visual element, spoken word, etc. The goal is to showcase the company in the best possible light.
Elements of a Business Presentation
A business presentation should be concise, professional, and persuasive. It needs to include relevant information that conveys the purpose with clarity. Mentioned below are some slides that you must include in your business presentation.
1. Cover Slide
The title slide lets the audience know what to expect from the presentation. This slide must be visually engaging to capture the audience’s attention and trigger their interest within the initial few seconds.
You can visualize a concise overview of your company, including the company’s name, topic, logo, presenter’s name and designation, etc., in this slide.
Note – If you promote a product/service, include a picture in the introduction slide to provide the best overview. Also, the title slide should have a clean, bold typeface in a contrasting background to keep it legible and professional.
2. Agenda
This slide lets you depict the agenda – what’s in the pipeline and the reasons for the presentation. Whether it’s an internal team meeting, sales pitch, or product launch, this slide clearly provides direction, making it easy for the audience to understand the presentation’s structure and flow. It also helps the audience set expectations and follow along.
Note – Keep the slide concise with quick bullet points. You don’t want to overwhelm the audience with excessive detailing immediately.
3. Problem Statement
This slide highlights the issue, problem, or challenge for which you are proposing a solution. This slide captures the essence of your presentation and helps you make a strong case for your offerings, guiding your narrative or visual storytelling. This slide also lays a foundation for further discussions and solutions.
Note – Depict the implications and impacts of the problem to help the audience understand why solving the issue is urgent and essential. It will also show that you know and are concerned about the audience’s pain points and can solve their problems effectively.
4. Solution
The solution slide lets the audience know how you plan to solve the issue mentioned earlier. The slide includes an overview of your product or service that you intend to offer as a solution to the target clients/customers. Using this slide, you can visualize the current state and how your solutions help reach the desired future state.
Note – Highlight the benefits and value proposition of your solution. You can also include information related to the market potential, demand, and validation of your solution to gain more traction.
5. Market Analysis
This slide backs your solution with crucial data and statistics. It helps the audience understand your business’s position in the industry. With the help of this slide, you can visualize market trends, size, segmentation, and growth rate. You can also present information about the target audience and competitors. In addition, you can showcase the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to your business.
Note – Use charts, diagrams, bars, tables, and animation effects to share your insights and make your information lively and interesting.
6. Financial Projection
This slide includes crucial data to highlight your business’s financial performance and health. Present information about anticipated expenses, revenue, and profit to help investors evaluate the viability and investment potential for informed decision-making.
Note – Show all the relevant information in planned stages, not as an overall picture. Also, present your budgetary requirements for all the critical stages, such as R&D, marketing, etc.
7. Timeline
A business plan without an implementation timeline is useless. Showcasing a timeframe for every stage will keep all stakeholders aligned. You can depict the start and end date, responsible team/person, resources required, key considerations, and challenges/risks associated with each stage.
This slide provides a clear direction for the future course of action, avoiding confusion and ambiguity. The use of vivid colors and readable fonts makes your content stand out.
8. Team
Introducing the team is an essential aspect of business presentations as it gives an idea about the talent and expertise of the people behind the operations. Small businesses can present an introduction of everyone, while bigger ones can visualize information about people crucial to the business or a particular project. It showcases that your business is backed by talented and expert people who aim to deliver value, building trust among potential clients.
Note – Incorporate headshots of the team members with their names, designations, and a short description of their role in the company.
9. Client Testimonials
Client testimonials are critical as they can help forge trust, show value, and persuade people to take action. Use this slide to show what your clients/customers have to say about your product/service.
Follow these tips when you include testimonials in your business presentations.
- Include testimonials that are relevant, brief, and of use to your presentation.
- Give context in terms of how your product helped the customer.
- Your testimonials should highlight measurable results.
10. Q&A
Addressing your audience’s concerns is important for a successful presentation. By incorporating this slide, you can enhance attention and retention. Since the audience knows their issues will be addressed, they will be inclined to listen more closely to your words.
Note – Anticipate the questions while preparing the presentation and formulate your thoughts in a clear, cohesive answer.
11. Conclusion
The closing slide of your presentation must leave a lasting impact on the audience. A good slide incorporates the summary of the presentation, key takeaways, and a strong CTA (Call to Action).
Note – As this is the last slide of the presentation, make it gripping to ensure the audience drives home with your message.
Steps to Create a Business Presentation
(i). Create an Outline
An outline will serve as an anchor point defining the flow of your presentation. Build it around the key points and information you want to deliver, covered in sections like opening, content, statistics, data, and closing.
Tip: You can start with introductory remarks, three things you want people to remember from your presentation, followed by concluding remarks. Then, work on the core by adding subpoints to the main point.
(ii). Choose a Template
Select a template that matches your presentation’s style and tone. Consider the following factors:
- The Content
What content do you want to showcase – your offerings, an overview of a project proposal, or a business report?
Choose the template that matches your content type and present it in the best possible light. Make sure the template has the relevant visuals to complement your data, statistics, or information.
- Your Personal Brand
If you are known for humor or a conversational tone, a template with a more friendly font and color will be suitable.
If storytelling is your forte, a deck with fewer distractions and a neutral tone would be more suitable for your style.
- Your Company’s Guidelines
One easy way to zero in on a template is to refer to your company’s guidelines regarding branding standards, which include color palette, fonts and typography, and logo. Also, go through content guidelines, which will help you source images, embed videos or animations, and choose language and tone.
(iii). Incorporate Charts and Graphs
How uncomfortable would it be for the audience to look through a hundred numbers on each slide?
The mess would ensure they are distracted from listening to you and unable to read anything from the slides. Diagrams and charts, images, and graphs would save you from that situation.
It would make your content more digestible, comprehensible, and engaging, keeping the audience’s focus intact. Avoid stuffing all your information in limited slides. Use some images to make your point and drive your message home.
(iv). Add Interactive Elements
Constantly listening to something can put your brain into a lullaby mode. It zones out your mind and distracts you from the message, which can be avoided by adding interactive elements to your presentation.
Make people move by trying the following things –
- Ask questions and let people respond by raising their hands.
- Interactive quizzes.
- Make them interact with the person sitting next.
- Ask them to come to the stage and share their insights.
- Have them move around the space with some physical activity.
The movement can infuse the room with fresh energy and instantly make people attentive. It will keep your presentation engaging and interactive, letting you progress smoothly.
(v). Edit and Proofread
You don’t want to sit in front of executives delivering the most crucial presentation of your career with spelling mistakes on screen.
The best presentations can fall flat if they contain errors. Proofread your presentation thoroughly to get rid of any errors. Preferably, have other people run through your presentation to catch hold of mistakes you didn’t notice.
While looking for errors, ensure your slides are consistent in the color palette, typeface, formatting, and tone.
Business Presentation: Best Practices
1. Make It Visually Consistent
Visual elements like charts, graphs, diagrams, etc., help in making complex information comprehensible and interesting. Choose a clean, minimalistic visual design that is consistent and delivers your core message effectively.
Also, remember not to overload your slides with visuals, as it can clutter your work and cause people to lose interest.
2. Limit the Number of Slides
Don’t stuff your slides with unnecessary data and information that doesn’t serve your purpose directly.
Filtering your information will ensure a limited number of slides, as excessive slides can overwhelm the audience. Keep your slides and information succinct, relatable, engaging, and to the point.
3. Ensure Professionalism
Choose a cohesive design across all slides to demonstrate consistency and professionalism. Your brand’s colors and typefaces should reflect your brand and be easy on people’s eyes.
Professionalism in your design will ensure that people have their focus on you and not on understanding the layout of your design.
It will also establish your credibility as a speaker and let people take you seriously.
4. Tell a Story
Storytelling is one of the most potent tools to ignite interest and engage the audience. It makes complex information relatable and digestible and facilitates retention.
In your speech, incorporate real-life examples, anecdotes, analogies, metaphors, etc., to elicit emotions and make your point. For instance, you can start your speech with a customer success story or an inspirational story of how your idea got realized.
According to a professor at Stanford, storytelling makes information 22 times more memorable, highlighting its importance. Design your business presentation like a novel, wherein, like chapters, each section contributes to the overall narrative.
5. Consider Cultural Differences
Think of a chef serving food to a global audience.
They will be conscious of the dietary preferences and restrictions to serve a meal that resonates with all. That’s what a successful delivery will be.
Presentations are similar.
To drive your message home, you need to be more mindful of cultural expectations and differences.
For instance, a presentation catered to people in Japan might require more subtle persuasion, which might not be the case for people in other countries, where a more direct approach or assertion might be required.
6. Practice and Refine the Delivery
Practicing ensures comfort with the content. Consistent rehearsals will build your confidence and enable you to deliver with ease.
You can refine your work with each practice, ensuring polished slides. Also, the practice helps you shift your focus from remembering the information to crucial delivery factors like nonverbal communication.
Have multiple practice sessions before your final delivery in front of people for feedback and further improvisation.
Conclusion
A business presentation is not just a set of slides but a carefully designed communication tool to inform, persuade, and encourage actions.
Following the tips provided in this article, you can create a compelling and impactful business presentation within hours.
Remember to prepare well. Understand your people, structure your content and delivery, and you will have a successful, result-driven presentation ready.
