Aim to reach and inspire your audience. Remember these seven tips.

1. Maximise the opportunity.

Know your audience – what do they care about and what do they want to know? Make sure you can deliver a presentation that meets their needs.

That means taking the time to research your audience’s concerns, prepare content that answers their questions with appropriate visuals to maintain their interest..

Prepare for questions after the speech, as well. Consider what concerns the audience, what more will they want to know? What are the worst possible questions they could ask? There’s no better way to ensure you can deal with possibly tricky questions than to do adequate preparation.

2. The most powerful speeches educate, entertain and motivate.

Don’t just deliver a list of boring facts and while you may be passionate, remember few care about your products (except you).  Plan a framework for your presentation, keep content short and focused, throw in amusing stories directly related to the situation and talk about achievements, and how by following your recommendations, the audience can benefit too.

Finally, give your audience something to do, motivate them to act. At the end of your pitch, ask for something concrete. Outline specific steps that should be taken.

What will you say to motivate your audience with your next speech? B&A can help you find the right words.

3.  Concentrate on one key message.

If everything else you say is forgotten, what is the one thing you want your audience to remember? This must be the focus of your presentation.

At best you can have two to three lesser messages as well but no more (unfortunately no-one will remember them). You can, and should, explain your message, but keep your key points very clear. And you should try to be brief and dramatic.

4.  Effective presentations are conversations, not lectures.

Focus on the human contact, if you treat the audience as if they are receptive you are more likely to have a positive result.

Tell stories - even boring topics will come alive with a personal story of someone struggling to overcome a problem, creating dramatic tension.

You can inspire your audience with a quest – is your organisation or team working towards a goal (like increasing sales, reducing defects in production or communicating a particular message)?

Perhaps it’s the story of a valiant struggle against the odds– are you meeting/overcoming obstacles (like combating aggressive competitors or a challenging environment that is unfamiliar territory)?

Is there a hint of romance – two heroes meet, fall in love, perhaps discover more about each other’s strengths and weaknesses, but live happily ever after? A successful merger between two companies has similar qualities.

5. Keep the audience’s interest

Use questions (“so why should we do this?”) or short lists (“there are three key points – 1, 2, 3.”)

Watch your language. You may understand emotionless technical jargon, but few in the audience will. You’ll get a much better response with emotional expressions and hyperbole. If you pitch your presentation too far above the audience, they either won’t understand or they will lose interest.

6. Think visually

Don’t simply read the slides on your presentation. This won’t keep audience interest, especially with excessive text. But entertaining visuals that reflect the meaning of the presentation are more likely to engage the audience.

7. Ensure your body language and voice reflect your message

Always practice the presentation so it meets the timeframe and you feel comfortable delivering your message.

Good posture and gestures should reflect your authoritative and convincing voice tone. And by practising aloud you can change the words you’ll fall over or that sound odd.