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Morgan Allen ‘Makes It Happen’ at UNL Quick Pitch Competition
Courtesy Photo Morgan Allen, a Cross County graduate and senior at UNL, receives a check for $1,000 after winning the four-year college division of the “Make It Happen – Student Quick Pitch Competition”.

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Within BNI (Business Networking International) Indigo Chapter every week a member has to give a ten minute presentation about their business. This article is written with 9 years experience of these presentations, though the fundamentals work for business, education, sales and commercial presentations. BNI Indigo members get training on how to make effective sales presentations which is all part of the BNI Indigo ethos of ‘givers gain’.

Presentations are an umbrella term for importing information from one or more people to one or more people. In essence it is that simple. What differentiates a presentation from a conversation is the lack of a two way interaction. For some people this is what makes presentations difficult.

Preparation is the key to a successful presentation. That is taken as read and the point will not be labored here. However with the advent of computers and projection screen technology most people use some sort of aid when presenting which rather than augmenting the presentation, it acts as a barrier between speaker/s and audience.

What we tell people at BNI Indigo is it is YOU doing the presentation and not the computer.

The 5 best tips we have come up to help the BNI Indigo members put their point across are:

1. Non Verbal Communication

If you have ever been to someone’s house when the TV is on you’ll notice everyone will be watching the TV. Even if they hate what is on, they’ll sit there and watch it.

Great! You think. Everyone will be looking at my presentation! This is a double edged sword, yes people will be looking at the screen but they will not be looking at you. Much of our ability to communicate with people comes not from what we say, but our body language and eye contact. This is something you lose when using a large screen and a computer presentation.

If you have been to any weddings, think how bad the Best Man’s speech would have been using a presentation instead of him standing up and talking to the audience. Sure he was probably a bit nervous, but he shared that with you giving some connection between the person and what was being said.

2. Slides as Notes

If you have prepared correctly you should not be using slides as notes. Notes should be kept on index cards and only you should be seeing them. Slides should be used to show key points of information from your own notes.

Information which might not be easy to express verbally will need to be shown on the slide (such as a photo, diagram or chart).

Simply put “What you are saying should explain what is on the screen, what is on the screen should not say what is in your notes.”

3. Multi-tasking

They say that men cannot multi-task. Well unfortunately neither can women when it comes to reading and listening.

Because your audience is naturally drawn to the screen they will be trying to read what you have put up there while trying to listen to what you are saying. This is impossible to do as by definition they will not be concentrating on one or the 100 percent. You might as well have left out half of the information of each, at least that way you would be controlling the bits they were taking in.

Remember to talk about a subject and illustrate it on the presentation, not copy it verbatim or have different information on there.

4. Not Enough Time

Remember that people have a limited concentration span. It is physiological. They only have a finite amount of chemicals in the neurons and they will not fire for ever. A good rule of thumb is 40 minutes. Anything much over this people will get restless, need a drink, want to use the toilet or will simply stop listening.

In essence, keeping it short and to the point is probably one of the hardest skills in presenting. It is also one which most people ignore.

5. Too Much Information

There are two points of contention when writing or presenting. Not enough information and too much information.

If you have ever written an essay for college you will have encountered this issue. At first you think you will not be able to get close to the word limit. After five hours in the library you realize you could write double the word limit.

Distil what you need to say into key points for your notes. Illustrate the points with diagrams. It is possible you can give these diagrams out after the presentation (so people do not need to draw them). The danger of giving them out during the presentation is people will read ahead and will not be listening to what you are saying.

Conclusion

BNI Indigo’s take home message for effective presentations are to engage your audience with a significant amount of information, in a reasonable time frame using simple notes which are augmented by the presentations slides. End the presentation by reviewing key points and having a question and answer session. Sometimes the question and answer sessions give pointers of what to include or remove in the next presentation.

When you have finished the presentation do not be afraid to ask the audience (on a one to one basis) what they thought of it. This feedback makes the audience feel that what they think is important and means you can engage them on personal level. It also allows you to reiterate any “take home” messages (e.g. sales messages).

BNI Indigo is the North West’s Premier BNI Chapter and provides Training for all its’ members on many aspects of business networking. Get in touch now to find out how we could help you. www.Bniindigo.com