Present like a Professional
The ability to make great presentations is a skill every new manager or business owner must have. Presenting a perfect project plan is a failure if the audience did not understand your presentation or if they were not convinced by your words. One of your major jobs as a manager is to sell your ideas to your superiors and to your colleagues. Your presentation skills could determine your success within the organization.
Making your first presentation as a new manager is one of the most dreaded moments of our corporate lives. But with a little training you can develop your presentation skills. I remember a friend of mine who was mortally afraid of speaking in public. He would always beg off or he would not show up if he knew he would have to speak. But, after some training, he developed his self-confidence and began to speak. Today our challenge is to take the mike away from him.
Four things you need to know
There are at least four things you need to make great presentation. Of course there are many others, but for now let’s concentrate on these four:
Have a Framework to follow
Great presentations are planned and designed to be great. They are not the result of plain good luck or fall from heaven as you sleep. They usually involve a large investment of time and lots of hard work.
Use images or visual aids or convey your Ideas
The old adage “A picture is worth a thousand words” certainly remains true. Perhaps, an additional requirement for this generation is that you need to be able to email it or forward it with your mobile. So, do use a visual aid.
Deliver your presentation with confidence
This can happen only with practice and training. So rehearse and rehearse again.
I recently had the opportunity to provide presentation skills training to a group of senior sales engineers in Saudi Arabia. Surely these sales veterans with at least 5 to 10 years to sales experience did not need to be taught the basics of making presentations. But the management of this multi-national company thought otherwise. So we went through the basics, practiced, and practiced again. At the end, many participants were very happy to have gone through the training. They realized that they had fallen into bad habits and short cuts. The workshop helped them sharpen their presentations and gave them a lot of confidence.
Survive the Q&A with a smile
For many speakers this is the toughest part of the presentation. Many are known to have closed their notes and run off without a word. This is really bad form. The audience is there because they want to hear what you have to say. They may want to have some points clarified. Of course there will be the blowhards who just want to hear themselves speak. But there really is no need to fear. So relax and answer the questions as best you can. You are the expert aren’t you?
If you want to hone your presentation skills, give us call. RMP Consultancy will conduct a workshop on Presentation Skills this Tuesday 15 February 2011 at the RMP Training Center, Rm 204 Languages International Bldg, 926 Arnaiz Ave, Makati City. Pre-registration is required. Please call Chili at Tel. (632) 697 0767 or Text her at +63(920) 918-7358 and Fax. (632) 373-2544. Email us at seminars@rmpconsultancy.com to make a reservation. A registration form can be downloaded from our website at http://rmpconsultancy.com/en/downloads/
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