High Power Sales Presentation Skills | What Makes a Great Presentation?

Many people ask themselves the question in this title –“What’s makes a great presentation”?. Is it in the way you create the content? Is it in the way you put the pieces together? Is it in the way you deliver the presentation?

I know that you’d agree that there have been times when you went to a presentation or a company meeting, only to walk away feeling that it was a total waste of time. It was not a great presentation. But why?

Actually, a great presentation is a combination of the three elements: content, design, and delivery. Let’s stay focused on the three elements and you will severely lessen the chance that your participants will walk away after one of your presentations with the feeling that it was a total waste of time.

Content, Design, and Delivery

There are three elements to a great presentation: content, design, and delivery. Content includes the research and organization of materials. Design is the architecture of the slides and the graphical enhancements. Delivery is how you voice your message. To make the presentation great, there must be synergy of these three elements. Each of these elements carries equal weight and importance. Your presentation will not be great unless you have all three of these elements.

For example, let’s say you don’t do a good job researching and organizing your content, but you spend hours designing the presentation with all the bells and whistles and hours practicing your delivery. What’s going to happen when you get in front of your audience? You’re going to run through your presentation and it won’t be interactive because you don’t know more than what’s on your slides. Your audience is going to pay attention to the next sound or wild animation.

When someone asks you questions, you’re not going to know the answers, which will severely hurt your credibility. The audience will take little or nothing back from the content of your presentation and you will look unprofessional as a presenter. By properly combining content, design, and delivery, you’ll create a great presentation!

The Process

There is a process to creating that great presentation. First, you must create your content. Then, you must design for that content. Finally, you must develop your delivery strategy and style.

Content

There are some key steps to keep in mind when creating your content. First, you do your research. Then, group the information into logical categories. Finally, you create your outline.

Too often presenters don’t follow those key steps. The night before a meeting, they’re cramming information onto slides trying to create this great presentation. They may even be adding items to their presentation at the last minute.

To avoid the problems of late preparation and last-minute editing, think of creating the content of your presentation in terms of these three steps:

1. Do your research.

2. Group your information into logical categories.

3. Create your outline.

Design

Once you’ve outlined your presentation, you’re ready to create your slides and add graphics, charts, and animation. Although there are other presentation programs. We show you how to create the proper slide, when to use images, and the proper way to use charts. We also offer insights into creating that great presentation.

Delivery

And finally, there’s the delivery. You need to know the logistics of your meeting. You need to understand how to make the participants retain your message. (Just because you’re talking and participants appear to be lis- tening does not mean there is knowledge being transferred from you to them.) You need to set clear objectives in the presentation as well as state your expectations for your audience. They need to find value in your presentation. Your presentation needs to be such that what you present and how you present it causes a change in behavior of those who attend the presentation. Maybe it’s a case of helping them to better understand the long-range vision of the company; if you can get them to see it in a way that helps them embrace change, improves morale, and increases productivity, your presentation has done the job.