A badly designed PowerPoint presentation or lack of planning can dissolve any message - no matter how strong. The purpose of this slideshare is to highlight some simple steps that you can take to make your presentation more professional, which leads to an audience that are more likely to trust, respect and listen more intently.

1. How to Deliver a
Powerful Presentation
Including Top Tips on PowerPoint

2. Introduction
A badly designed PowerPoint
presentation or lack of planning can make
a good message get lost. Here are some
simple steps you can take to make sure
that you engage and educate your
audience.
Follow these tips and you could be on the
way to getting the kind of feedback that
wins you new business and builds your
reputation.

3. Your Target Audience
Make sure you understand your audience before you plan your presentation. Use the
wrong language or pace and you could be at risk of either patronising your audience
or going to fast. Consider your:
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Language – be mindful of jargon or phrases that may not be understood
Pace – make sure it suits the level of expertise in the room
Subject Matter – why should they care about this? Give them a reason
Call to Action – provide links and resources for them to visit when they leave
Feedback – ask them why they are here and what they want to know early on

4. PowerPoint Structure
Looking
Good!
A PowerPoint presentation should:
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Be a prompt with bullet points - not a script
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You can have a full script in front of you rather than on the screen
Help engage the audience with visual aids
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Use good imagery to convey your message or keep the audience interested
Entertain the audience with interactive video
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Include an appropriate video if possible to help break up the impression that you are ‘talking at them’
Include a good introduction, agenda, reminder for a break and opportunity for questions
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Explain what is going to happen, give them plenty of breaks so that they can fully focus and answer their questions
Explain What’s Next…
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Finish your presentation explaining that you will email everyone with the presentation and an opportunity to provide
feedback

5. Professional Design
There is a reason why companies spend a lot of money establishing their brand. It doesn’t
matter what you say, if your audience is looking at a badly designed PowerPoint they simply
won’t take you seriously. A consistent and professional PowerPoint design will help to convey
the professionalism of your company or services and build your reputation.
Your design should:
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Be creative
Be clean and simple
Include your company logo
Follow your company colours
Include good quality images

6. Example PowerPoint Design
If you don’t have a designer on
hand there are plenty of
templates to choose from or
resources online teaching you the
basics of PowerPoint
I have provided an example of a
simple PowerPoint template
(right).

7. Include Breaks & Interaction
Keeping your audience engaged and interested is the biggest battle for any presenter. It is nothing personal, us
humans just can’t focus on one person talking for too long and some say that our attention span lasts no more
than five minutes! These are the ways you can avoid your audience whiting out on you and doodling on their
notepad:
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Include a short break for refreshments mid way through the presentation
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And tell them they are going to have one in the agenda
Have at least one interaction exercise
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i.e. they could speak to the person on their left about a given subject
Encourage networking
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Have some networking time at the beginning of your presentation so that they all feel more comfortable in the surrounding
Start the presentation with a white board shout out
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I.e. ask people to raise their hand and give you one question they want answered today
This will help make them feel listened too and ensure that you answer those questions before they leave

8. Getting Feedback
As explained earlier, it is a good idea to send all
attendees a follow up email with the presentation
and a request for feedback. In the email you
should:
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Thank them for attending
Attach a PDF version of the presentation as
promised
Include a request for feedback using audience
response systems
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These help to analyse your performance with easy
to use feedback forms

9. Proof Read Your Presentation
There is nothing more embarrassing than someone pointing
out a spelling error during your presentation.
In one swoop you have erased the effort and time you spent
preparing it.
Ask a friend or colleague to look over it or practice the
presentation on someone beforehand.
Review
Practice
Get Feedback

10. That’s It!
Follow these tips and you should be on your way to delivering powerful
presentations. The last tip I would like to leave you with is…
Listening to your audience is the best way to improve your
presentation skills. So get feedback and use it to get
better at delivering powerful presentations.