5 KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL PRESENTATION

Every successful presentation has five essential components. These are: 
1. Professionalism
2. Enthusiasm
3. Organisation
4. Practice
5. Visual Aids

•Professionalism
The quality of professionalism must be evident throughout your presentation. It is demonstrated by your dress and appearance, the quality of the visual aids you use, your demeanor, your preparation, and your delivery.

If you show up for a presentation wearing a suit that needs pressing or clothes that are not appropriate for the occasion, you will not be perceived as a professional.

If there are typographical or grammatical mistakes in your visual Aids, or if the lettering is sloppy, this also will not be perceived as professional.

If the way you handle yourself during the presentation indicates that you are unsure of yourself or defensive, or that you do not know what you are talking about , you will not be perceived as professional.

If things go wrong during your presentation because of an obvious lack lack of preparation, again, you will not be perceived as a professional.

However, if your presentation is clear and well-organised, if it goes off like clockwork and you are prepared to answer all questions asked, if your appearance matches your performance - then your professionalism will be obvious.

•Enthusiasm
Enthusiasm is absolutely crucial. If you do nothing else, be enthusiastic.  If you are not enthusiastic about what you did, I guarantee that your client will not be enthusiastic either. In my opinion, enthusiasm is the most important secret of making a good presentation.

What should you do if you really are not enthusiastic? First of all, it is very difficult for me to believe that you could ever become a good public speaker, consultant or presenter and not be enthusiastic about what you are doing. But if, what ever reason, you really are not enthusiastic about a particular assignment, there is only one thing you can do: pretend. If you do that, with time, you will eventually catch up.

Let's get this straight, you can act, and act enthusiastically, to make good presentation. Remember, you must do this one thing to succeed in your presentation. It is not an option. It will help carry through to a successful delivery.

•Organisation
You can't just stand up and speak without having thought ahead of time about what you are going to say. Even a terrific off-the-cut speaker would get into trouble making good presentations that way. If you try it, certain fact will be left out, and then your presentation will not be clear and logical as it woud be. If you are questioned because of this lack of clarity, the pressure on you will increase, and your difficulties will become if greater.

Proper organisation of your presentation ahead of time will prevent many problems once you are face-to-face in a formal presentation setting before your audience.

•Practice
Practice does not mean that you must read your report aloud or that you must memorise anything. In fact, the contrary is true. Reading will make the presentation boring and stilted. It is not natural. The same is true for memorisation. Even if you have the ability to memorise quickly, I don't recommend using it in professional presentation. First, the time spent in memorisation can be better used in getting your presentation together. Second, there is always the chance that, under the pressures of the situation, your timing and memory may be thrown off by a question asked out of turn or a discussion initiated by a participant.

If you don't read and you don't memorise, how are you supposed to make to make a successful presentation? It's easy! Once you have your material organised, you can either use a 3- by 5-inch file cards or visual aids to help you discuss each point. You might have one card that says, "Background of the consulting assignment and the problem." You would then simply look up at your audience and talk to them about this background. If there are any impotant statistics that you do not wish to leave out, you would put them on other cards sequentially. 

Other main ideas are also on sequential cards. However, you should not write more than one sentence on each card but rather talk to them about that one sentence. If you are using visual aids, the could display the key sentence or statistics to remind you of what you are going to talk about at that particular time.

*Controlling Time
It is extremely important as part of your practice to control the time available for your presentation. If your client wants a one-hour presentation, make it one-hour presentation. If your clients wants thirty minutes, make it that! Do not under any circumstances extent your presentation unless requested to do so. To do so without approval is disaster. Never think that time control is a small item: it is very important.

*The Practice Sequence
Here's the practice sequence I use: First, I note the time available and outline the presentation using the organisation structure I mentioned earlier. I write this information on 3- by 5-inch file cards. I then go through the presentation once, using the cards. In this run-through, I change the cards, add facts if required, and delete or change others if they don't seem to fit. I watch my time closely as I make this presentation to myself, and I make adjustments, through isertion or deletion of material, so that my presentation is several times less than the time I have been allotted . This is important, as frequently your presentation will not go exactly as planned. So a little bit of pad never hurts.

*The Formal Practice
The formal practice presentation is done as if it were real. In fact, I insist on doing it in front of someone who can give me a sincere feedback. Usually, this is my wife, but it can also be a colleague or someone else who was not involved in the presentation itsel. You must present it to an outsider who is not part of the presentation team.

*The Demonstration
If there is some demonstration to be done as part of the demonstration, I insist on a practice demonstration. This is essential to make sure that it fits into the time and that results of the demonstration are as anticipated. You will find that in actual presentations everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Therefore, you must anticipate and eliminate potential problems before they actually happen. Don't assume that something will as planned. Actually do the demonstration as part of your practice.

•Visual Aids
Visual aids are also essential to a good presentation. In general, you have six options for good visual aids: (1) flip charts;j (2) overhead transparencies; (3) 35mm slides; (4) handouts; (5) blackboard or whiteboard; and (6) computer presentations

*Flip Charts
Flip charts are large charts connected at the top that are flipped over as one is used, the main advantage of flip charts is that they require any type of projector. However, since they are large, they are sometimes difficult to transport. And depending on the size of your audience, you may not be able to make the lettering large enough to be seen by everyone in the room.

*Overhead Transparencies
‎Overhead transparencies require the use of an overhead projector. Transparencies themselves usually have a viewing area of approximately 8.5 by 11 inches. Today, you can make transparencies instantly on your computer's printer or copier. Even if you own neither, many office-suppy stores, printers, and sometimes hotels have facilities where you can do these yourself. This is really wonderful, because in the old pre-high-technology age, a graphic artist made your transparencies. You always had to allow sufficient time to correct typos. Moreover, these overhead transparencies are very expensive. Nowadays, making these are a piece of cake, and they are less expensive.

*Handouts
Handouts can be typed on a piece of paper and reproduced and photocopied. They can be used for either small or large groups, and the expense depends on the number that must be reproduced.

For smaller groups, it is fairly easy to carry around the handout with you. However, for a large group and a lengthy handout, this visual aid becomes cumbersome and expensive.

One additional disadvantage of printed handout is that your audience may read ahead of you; if you have some dramatic point to make, it could be spoiled by your audience's getting there first.

*Blackboards
You can use blackboards, but the boards may be green or some other colour. Also, there are smooth white boards in which you can write in washable colours. I like the latter: no more scratching sound as you write, and no more chalk dust on your hands and clothes. 

As long as you have something to write with and some means of erasure, there isn't much that can go wrong as with electronic gadgetry.

*Computer Presentations 
Computer presentations with multimedia sound, movement, and a wide assortment of bells and whistles are available and affordable. Probably, the most popular one on the market is Microsoft PowerPoint, although there are others.

What's the bottomline? Computer presentations are wonderful, but don't think they solve all your problems, because they don't. Whatever option you select for visual aids, make sure you keep these points in mind:

1. Use Large fonts. The print must be large enough to be visible. If your visual aids cannot be read, you may as well not use them

2. Keep It Simple. Don't put too much information on a single slide, transparency, chart or page of a handout. The information should only be keys to remind you of your major points and to reinforce these points with your audience. Entire explanations, facts, figures, and so forth can be inncluded as an appendix to your written report. If you put too much information on a single visual, you will only confuse your audience.

3. Allow Lots of Lead Time. While handouts can be changed fairly easily, flip charts, transparencies, and slides sometimes take longer time. Plan to have them completed a couple of days before the presentation itself. Typographical errors are common, and they must be corrected before the presentation. Even a simple spelling error leaves the thought in your client's mind: If this consultant has made this error and allowed it to pass, what else is messed up in this delivery.