Go up there and give a killer presentation!
Conferences and trade fairs offer a great way for your company to speak one-on-one with key industry players. Presentation events and product demonstrations are an essential part of every exhibition, and one of the easiest ways of engaging potential buyers who are visiting your booth.
However, we all know that looking out into a sea of faces while standing on a stage alone can be pretty intimidating…
In order to make things easier for you, we collected a list of tips that will help you give a killer presentation on your next event:
- Be prepared. Many people underestimate how much time they need to set aside to prepare for a presentation. Practice your speech until it comes out naturally. You can do it in front of the mirror or in a small group… Confidence is a key ingredient!
- Who are you giving this presentation to? Investors? Prospective clientes? It is crucial to know your audience and deliver a presentation that meets its needs and expectations.
- Draw attention to your booth and presentations by using special lighting, bold signage or other eye-catching techniques.
- The introduction to your presentation is crucial. Since it is your first point of contact with your audience, you have to make it memorable and engaging.
- Keep it simple: focus on one idea or concept. Avoid bulleted lists and complex data. According to studies, a presentation slide should take three seconds or fewer to process.
- Use gestures to make things more visual and clear. Use an expressive voice to emphasize your main points and show your enthusiasm.
- Thoughtful images will keep your audience engaged and make a lasting impression. Therefore, use images intelligently, and go for those that create an emotional response.
- When presenting a product/service, always focus on your product’s benefits, not just features. Explain and show how your product solve problems and/or improves outcomes.
- Let prospects interrupt. What the prospect has to say/ask is always more important than what you have to say. Be prepared and show enthusiasm when faced with a question or comment. An interactive atmosphere makes everything better!
- Humor keeps your audience relaxed and attentive. It can also make a presentation more memorable. We all agree that it feel good to laugh!
- Use examples and success stories. Tell the audience how other customers have benefited from the product/service. Examples help to illustrate your points and provide a frame of reference.
- A "Thank you so much for coming" will be very appreciated. It is courteous to thank the audience at the end, so don't skip this little detail!
Whether you’re an executive trying to conquer new investors or simply trying to sell your firm’s products and services, public speaking is one of most important skills to excel at.
A tested structure that always works is the “tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you’ve just told them” format. Be clear, perceptive and enthusiastic - it will be just fine!
And remember: only experience leads to perfection. Public speaking is a performance, and as any performance, it has to be practised... quite a lot!