Business English:
How to Make Better Business Presentations
Make it Interesting!
No one wants to be bored by
your presentation - so the
number one thing to think
about is:
How do I get and
keep the interest of my
audience?
Find out as much as you can
about your audience before
you begin to prepare your
presentation.
1. Who are they?
2.
How many people will there
be?
3. What age range?
4. Men or
women? Friend or foe? Are
they there by choice?
5.
What do they want from your
presentation?
6.What
do they know already about
your subject?
7. Why
will they come to your
presentation?
The more you know about your
audience, the closer you can
pitch your presentation to
suit them.
But what do you do if know
very little in advance about
your audience? The best
answer is to try and find
out more.
However, here are
some techniques that will keep any audience
interested.
1.
Interpret your statistics.
Give them figures and then
explain what they mean. Is a
five per cent increase in
sales in China a good result
or a great result? Tell them
what you think. Put them in
a context they can relate
to.
2.
Include some fascinating
facts to illustrate your
subject. For example, as
English trainers, we often
use the little known fact
that the country in the
world where the most people
speak English is not the USA
or India, it’s China.
3.
Use one or two quotes if
they reinforce your mission.
You don’t have to name the
person who said it,
especially if they are
obscure. You can say ‘As
someone said…’
4.
Native speakers can
usually successfully incorporate
jokes into their
presentations. But, If
you are speaking across
cultures native speakers may
want to be very careful
about adding them in - and non-native
speakers often should not.
Much humor does not
translate well from one
language to another.
Jokes
sometimes require timing and
pronunciation skills that a
non-native speaker may not
have. And, different
cultures may not have the
experience background to
properly interpret the humor
- as well as the fact that they may be
offended by jokes that
native speakers find
funny.
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