Influence should be your main concern when it comes to speaking before an audience–may it be consumers, employees, teammates, or potential investors. Your goal is to make an impact big enough to either change your audience’s opinion or strengthen an already existing point of view.
The point of an effective sales pitch is to persuade your audience into buying or to think about your presentation, may it be a product, service, or concept. To do so, you must appeal to the listeners and convince then that what you’re offering is the most favorable choice.
The content and design of your custom PowerPoint should work together to convince your audience.
[sg-blog-modules module=one]
The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) was incredibly influential, especially that he made significant and lasting contributions to various aspects of human knowledge. One of his concepts included the modes of persuasion, which, according to him, can be furnished by the spoken word. These are as follows:
Ethos (Credibility)
When delivering a presentation, you must assert your credibility and intelligence as a speaker. Your tone, pitch, and diction help establish this–you have to look and feel confident. Stage presence is also necessary in gaining the audience’s trust.
How do these factors translate to your PowerPoint presentation?
Include your credentials in a self-introduction slide.
Let your audience know who you are and what you specialize in, as these give your listeners a sneak peek into your expertise. If you have achievements that would help build your credibility as a speaker in the field, the better.
Leverage your credibility by quoting other industry experts.
Quoting industry experts add value to your presentation. It shows how familiar you are with the topic, boosting your credibility.
Pathos (Emotion)
The emotional content of your presentation makes it more memorable. That said, you become a better speaker when you have the ability to work with your audience’s emotions just as you handle your own.
How will you add an emotional factor to your slides?
Tell a story.
Stories can get in touch with your audience on a personal level, hence making it an effective presentation technique. The more people can relate to it, the better they understand what the pitch is all about.
Rehearse your pitch in front of other people and have them give you feedback. Remember that storytelling can either make or break your presentation so you have to make sure that the story you’re sharing is appropriate for your audience.
Evoke emotions through visuals.
Colors have the power to change or reinforce your audience’s mood in a matter of seconds. Apart from the design itself, companies that build presentation decks put the palette they use into careful consideration.
Logos (Logic)
Aristotle emphasized the appeal to logic and reasoning the most. Once you’ve captured your audience’s attention, the next step is to take action. Convince them that the change or action is within reason and in their best interest.
Survey results, market data, trends–the last mode of persuasion is the most common and the easiest to incorporate into a presentation.
How can you incorporate logic and reasoning into your custom PowerPoint presentation design?
Use backup in the form of case studies and testimonials.
When you include these into your presentation, it shows the effects of the practices, ideas, products, or services, in action.
Use common concepts as analogies and make comparisons.
Explaining complex concepts may not be an easy feat, but if you make the right analogies and comparison, those who may not know much about the subject can easily understand the topic.
While these strategies may seem obvious to many people, there are still those who are miss out on the advantages that these pointers give to the presentation itself, making them bland and unconvincing.
Hopefully, you apply these to your next sales pitch. Not only will you improve your credibility, but these will increase your confidence, too.
[sg-blog-modules module=two]
Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher, is credited with developing one of the most enduring frameworks for persuasion. His work on rhetoric, particularly the principles of ethos, pathos, and logos, remains relevant today—especially for anyone looking to deliver a persuasive sales pitch. By integrating these principles, sales professionals can engage their audience, build trust, and convince them to take action.
In this article, we’ll explore how Aristotle’s Art of Persuasion can be applied to modern sales pitches, providing you with a blueprint for crafting compelling, persuasive presentations.
Ethos: Establishing Credibility and Trust
What is Ethos?
Ethos refers to the speaker’s credibility, authority, and character. In a sales context, ethos is about building trust with your audience, demonstrating that you’re knowledgeable, reliable, and aligned with their values.
How to Apply Ethos in Your Sales Pitch
Highlight Your Expertise: Begin your sales pitch by demonstrating your experience and knowledge in the field. Share your professional background, success stories, and any relevant industry credentials to reassure your audience that you’re a credible source of information.
Example: “With over 10 years of experience helping companies in your industry streamline their supply chains, we’ve developed strategies that lead to measurable results.”
Leverage Testimonials and Case Studies: Including testimonials or case studies from previous clients builds trust. Prospective customers are more likely to believe in your product or service if others have had success with it.
Example: “Last year, our solutions helped Company X reduce costs by 25% and improve operational efficiency by 30%—and we’re confident we can do the same for you.”
Show Integrity: Be transparent about your offering’s strengths and weaknesses. Acknowledging potential challenges shows honesty and builds long-term trust with your audience.
Example: “While our platform requires an initial setup period, our clients have found that it offers long-term benefits in terms of scalability and cost savings.”
Pathos: Engaging Emotions
What is Pathos?
Pathos appeals to the audience’s emotions. In sales, pathos is about making a personal connection with your prospects and understanding their needs, frustrations, or desires. A strong emotional appeal can drive decisions and motivate action.
How to Apply Pathos in Your Sales Pitch
Tell a Story: Humans are naturally drawn to stories, and stories evoke emotions that facts and figures alone cannot. Use storytelling to connect with your audience on a deeper, more emotional level.
Example: “Imagine a future where your team spends less time troubleshooting inefficiencies and more time focusing on innovation and growth. That’s what we aim to help you achieve.”
Address Pain Points: Understand the problems your prospects face and empathize with their frustrations. Use these pain points to create urgency and frame your product as a solution.
Example: “We know that managing multiple suppliers can be a logistical nightmare, leading to missed deadlines and increased costs. Our solution simplifies the process, giving you more control over your operations.”
Create a Vision of Success: Help your audience visualize the benefits of your product or service by painting a picture of what their future could look like if they adopt your solution.
Example: “Imagine how much time and money you’ll save with automated processes, leaving your team free to focus on strategic growth.”
Logos: Presenting Logical, Fact-Based Arguments
What is Logos?
Logos refers to logical appeal—using data, statistics, facts, and clear reasoning to persuade the audience. In sales, logos helps establish that your offering is not only beneficial but also practical and valuable.
How to Apply Logos in Your Sales Pitch
Use Data and Statistics: Include hard numbers and evidence that show how your product or service delivers results. Data adds weight to your claims and helps support your key points.
Example: “Our software has been shown to reduce inventory management costs by 15% in just the first quarter, according to recent client data.”
Provide a Clear and Structured Argument: A persuasive pitch should follow a logical progression. Present your product’s features and benefits in a clear, step-by-step manner that makes it easy for the audience to follow your argument.
Example: “First, we’ll implement our system to integrate your current infrastructure. Then, our data analytics will give you real-time insights to optimize supply chain operations, resulting in immediate cost savings.”
Break Down the ROI: Explain the return on investment (ROI) clearly and concisely, demonstrating how the cost of your product or service will be outweighed by its long-term benefits.
Example: “While the initial investment is $50,000, our clients typically see savings of $100,000 within the first year—doubling their return.”
Combining Ethos, Pathos, and Logos in Your Sales Pitch
The key to Aristotle’s art of persuasion is balance. To deliver a persuasive sales pitch, you must effectively combine ethos, pathos, and logos in a way that resonates with your audience. Here’s how to weave these elements together for maximum impact:
1. Start with Ethos: Establish your credibility right from the start. Build trust by showing your knowledge and understanding of the client’s needs. Share success stories and professional expertise.
2. Engage with Pathos: Once you’ve established your credibility, tap into the emotional side of your audience. Empathize with their challenges and paint a picture of success that appeals to their desires. Make the problem—and the solution—personal.
3. Back It Up with Logos: Support your emotional appeal with logic and evidence. Present data, statistics, and clear reasoning to demonstrate the effectiveness and value of your product. Ensure your pitch has a logical structure that’s easy to follow.
Practical Example: A Sales Pitch Using Aristotle’s Framework
Let’s put it all together with a sample sales pitch for a fictional software company:
Introduction (Ethos):
“As the leading provider of supply chain management software with over a decade of experience in this industry, we’ve helped companies like yours streamline their operations, reduce costs, and improve efficiency.”
Identify the Problem (Pathos):
“We understand how overwhelming it can be to manage multiple suppliers, track inventory, and meet deadlines. These daily challenges can create stress for your team and negatively impact your bottom line.”
Present the Solution (Logos):
“Our cloud-based platform offers real-time data analytics, automated reporting, and seamless integration with your existing systems. On average, our clients see a 20% reduction in supply chain costs within six months of implementation. With a projected ROI of 150%, the investment quickly pays for itself.”
Close with a Call to Action (Ethos + Pathos):
“We believe in long-term partnerships with our clients, ensuring that you have the tools and support to achieve your goals. Let’s work together to bring your operations to the next level—creating more efficiency, better results, and less stress for your team.”
Conclusion
Aristotle’s principles of persuasion—ethos, pathos, and logos—remain powerful tools for anyone delivering a sales pitch today. By establishing credibility, connecting emotionally with your audience, and backing your claims with logic and evidence, you can create a pitch that not only informs but also inspires action. When these elements are woven together seamlessly, your sales pitch becomes a compelling story that resonates with your audience and drives results.
Engaging into a question and answer session with the audience is the best way for you to get feedback. Being offered their opinion about how you did and how well the whole talk was makes your presentation more engaging and further clarifies the points you’ve made. Additionally, it gives you insights on how you can make better presentations in the future.
You won’t be able to cover every detail during your business presentation, so it’s important to always anticipate questions beforehand. While the three following queries seem simple enough on their own, don’t underestimate your audience’s ability to catch you off guard. It’s a good idea to be prepared for any variation of…
Question #1: What do you do?
The beginning of your deck should include an introduction that contains your contact details and a brief primer of your company. But this kind of information isn’t enough for the audience to know what your business is all about.
Your deck should cover every possible aspect of the purpose, service, and benefit that you provide while avoiding delays caused by an overly detailed discussion. If you have to reexplain your introduction towards the end of your business presentation, don’t just assume that the audience didn’t pay enough attention.
This type of question could mean that you didn’t spend enough time to explain your purpose or that your audience simply wants to know more details. Especially with the latter, that tells of their curiosity. Aren’t you glad they’re interested?
Question #2: What’s your product?
There are several ways to phrase this question: “How does this product benefit your prospects?” “How useful is it?” “Is it worth the investment?” In other words, why should they choose you?
You should be able to answer all those questions and provide concrete reasons to support your claims. Going into detail with this particular question in mind is good since this means that your audience is curious about your brand. This is a way for you to slowly build up their trust. Knowing your product well adds to your credibility.
Seal the deal by convincing your prospects that your offer is worth their time and resources.
Question #3: How long does it take?
This type of question asks for specificity. It shows that the audience is thinking, “How soon will I start seeing results?”
Provide a financial projection that gives a realistic assessment of your project. Tell them when they can expect to see the results and only promise what you can deliver on time and on a realistic budget.
Scott Gerber, entrepreneur and angel investor, learned the hard way from being rejected by investors for his company. One of the most important lessons he learned was that venture capitalists that have seen it all can gauge the feasibility of your plans, so be realistic and avoid aiming for a multimillion investment without the experience to back it up.
You’ll know how eager your audience is when you hear them ask about your project timetable. Being asked this at the end of your business presentation usually means you’ve generated enough interest that’ll soon translate to sales.
Final Thoughts
Keep your answers short and concise since you’re nearing the end of your presentation. Concise answers are easier to remember and will help end your presentation on time.
The responses you receive will help gauge your own persuasiveness as a speaker. So don’t be content with a silent response. Get the ball going by answering some of these questions by reiterating your main points.
The success of your pitch depends on how well you respond to these FAQs. Don’t let the simplicity of these questions fool you; prepare how to answer them beforehand.
Resources:
Gerber, Scott. “6 Steps to the Perfect Pitch.” Entrepreneur. May 21, 2009. www.entrepreneur.com/article/201826
Greene, Charles. “Presentation Skills: 5 Tips to Improve Your Q&A.” CharlesGreene.com. August 27, 2012. www.charlesgreene.com/2012/08/5-tips-to-improve-your-qa-sessions
Pivovarov, Artur. “Presentation Skills. Unit 8: Dealing with Questions.” SlideShare. May 1, 2012. www.slideshare.net/ArturPivovarov/unit-8-12763217
“Conducting a Q&A Session.” Boundless. n.d. www.boundless.com/communications/textbooks/boundless-communications-textbook/delivering-the-speech-12/managing-q-a-68/conducting-a-q-a-session-268-4213
Finding the perfect topic for a business presentation is essential to engage your audience and communicate your message effectively. Here are steps and considerations to help you select the ideal topic:
1. Understand Your Audience
Why it matters: Knowing your audience’s needs, interests, and level of knowledge helps you choose a topic that resonates with them.
How to apply:
Are you presenting to investors, colleagues, or clients? Investors might be interested in financial projections, while clients may care about product benefits.
What is their level of familiarity with the topic? Tailor your subject matter to ensure it’s not too basic or overly complex.
2. Identify the Purpose of Your Presentation
Why it matters: Defining your objective guides you toward a relevant topic. Are you informing, persuading, educating, or inspiring?
How to apply: If the purpose is to persuade investors, focus on a topic like market trends or growth strategies. If it’s to inform employees, you might choose process improvements or new product launches.
3. Align the Topic with Your Expertise
Why it matters: Presenting on a topic you know well builds credibility and confidence.
How to apply: Choose a subject within your field of expertise, where you can provide valuable insights, data, and practical solutions. For example, if you’re a marketing expert, presenting on customer acquisition strategies might be ideal.
4. Focus on Relevance and Timeliness
Why it matters: Relevant topics address current challenges, trends, or opportunities within your industry, keeping the presentation fresh and impactful.
How to apply: Look at industry trends, emerging technologies, or new regulations affecting your business. For example, a presentation on sustainability in business could be timely in the context of global environmental concerns.
5. Explore Common Business Presentation Themes
Popular Topics:
Financial Analysis and Forecasting: Investors and stakeholders often want insights into financial growth, projections, and performance.
Innovation and Technology: Discussing how emerging technologies like AI, blockchain, or automation are shaping your industry can spark interest.
Customer Experience: Addressing how to improve customer satisfaction and retention is highly relevant across industries.
Leadership and Organizational Change: Presenting on how leadership strategies drive growth, or how organizations can manage change effectively, can appeal to business leaders.
Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): With increasing focus on ethical practices, presenting on how businesses can integrate sustainability into operations can attract a wide audience.
6. Solve a Problem or Address a Challenge
Why it matters: Offering solutions to pressing challenges can make your presentation highly valuable and actionable for your audience.
How to apply: Identify a common pain point your audience faces. For example, if speaking to a group of startups, a topic like bootstrapping strategies or scaling a business on a budget may be highly relevant.
7. Incorporate Data and Case Studies
Why it matters: Presentations supported by real data, trends, and case studies add credibility and help illustrate key points.
How to apply: Select a topic where you can back up your arguments with statistics, industry reports, or case studies. If you’re discussing the impact of digital marketing, showcase successful campaigns or data-driven results to support your points.
8. Brainstorm and Evaluate Ideas
Why it matters: Exploring multiple ideas allows you to compare and select the most compelling topic.
How to apply: Write down a list of potential topics. For each one, ask yourself:
Is it relevant to my audience?
Does it align with my expertise?
Can I support it with data and real-world examples?
9. Test Your Topic
Why it matters: Testing the idea helps you gauge audience interest and make necessary adjustments.
How to apply: Share your topic idea with a few trusted colleagues or peers. Get feedback on whether it seems engaging, relevant, and informative.
By following these steps, you’ll ensure that your business presentation topic is not only engaging but also aligned with your audience’s needs and the purpose of your presentation.
Using charts is tricky for business presentations. More often than not, they tend to overload your slides with numbers and distract your audience from your main findings.
Similar to using spreadsheets, these are tools used to analyze data before presenting them. However, charts have one advantage over spreadsheets: They can visually compare and show relationships between numbers and information, making them more understandable for the audience. This also lets you hold their interest long enough to get your point across.
If you absolutely need to use charts, these are the four basic types that can help simplify an otherwise long and boring topic.
1. The Organizational Chart
This chart is used to explain relationships between members of a group.
Here, information is displayed in a top-to-bottom format, with the executive or manager at the top. The chart branches out to show direct and indirect relationships between staff, managers, and executives.
This gives everyone a clear picture of who reports to whom and who is responsible for what.
While the organizational chart explains structures, it doesn’t show how a company operates. You can use flowcharts to explain how your company does business with others. You can also use these to talk about any other type of business procedure.
2. The Flowchart
The flowchart is more linear, sometimes circular, in nature.
It’s best for explaining processes, especially during business presentations. The flowchart builds a clear picture of where something begins, what happens in between, and where it ends.
When using this chart, start with the first step. When an order comes in, what step follows next? Is there a step where the request is evaluated? Arrange them sequentially, and add if-and-then statements if something goes wrong with that step.
The more complicated a process is, the harder it is to illustrate with a flowchart. Stick to the basics and keep your illustration simple to avoid confusing your audience with too many numbers.
3. The Line Graph
One of the simplest to create and the easiest to understand, line graphs show progressions and can also forecast results.
If you were to track, for example, the increase and decrease of your company’s earnings per year, simply plot the period of time you need to measure on the horizontal X-axis. The vertical Y-axis will be used to measure the amount gained or lost.
After plotting the data, simply connect the points with a line to show their progression. You can even use it to compare similar types of data by using different colored lines.
Line graphs are great at comparing progressions, but if you want to accurately show increases and decreases in value, bar graphs are perfect for the job.
4. The Bar Graph
While they can also show comparisons over time like line graphs, bar graphs are used for measuring larger changes.
The two main variants for bar graphs are horizontal and vertical graphs. Both rely on rectangles to show how much one thing is worth against another. For example, if you were to measure the net worth of similar companies with a vertical bar graph, you could arrange the company names in the horizontal X-axis, and set the values in the vertical Y-axis. The higher the rectangle displayed, the more valuable the company is. For horizontal graphs, these are more appropriate for data with longer labels. The usage is the same with a vertical graph, except that the X and Y axes are reversed.
Which Chart Should You Use?
Instead of you simply talking about information with a slide full of text, these charts can conveniently illustrate your data.
It can be about procedures, your organizational structure, or even the progressions and comparisons between information.
While these four graphs can illustrate and compare several things at once, they can overload your slides if they contain too much information. Keep only the most essential processes and state only the most important individuals in any organizational structure.
It’s best to limit your comparisons to at least three things to make your presentation easier to understand.
Check out and share our infographic!
References:
“Types of Graphs – Bar Graphs.” Types of Graphs. n.d. www.typesofgraphs.com/bar.html
“Types of Graphs – FlowCharts.” Types of Graphs. n.d. www.typesofgraphs.com/flow.html
“Types of Graphs – Line Graphs.” Types of Graphs. n.d. www.typesofgraphs.com/line.html
“Types of Graphs – Organizational Chart.” Types of Graphs. n.d. www.typesofgraphs.com/organizational.html
There are two basic steps to planning: conceptualizing, and organizing your ideas. These steps determine your presentation’s core message. After all, you won’t be able to discover what points would work and what wouldn’t without careful planning. This involves in-depth research and freewriting before you can come up with the best ideas that you can focus on.
But where do most presenters begin when planning for their pitch and deck? In some cases, most of them go digital to start the process. They use presentation software programs like PowerPoint to identify and structure their discussion points.
Alternatively, some still prefer writing down and outlining rough ideas using the analog approach. They use this method to allow their thoughts to flow naturally without the distraction of any digital devices.
You might be asking, between these two methods, where do you begin planning your business presentation? Should you think digital, or plan analog?
In this post, we’ll cover how planning analog is more effective than the digital method. But before we proceed, let’s look at how each approach varies to find out which fits your purposes.
The Downside of ‘Planning Digital’
Nothing’s wrong with going digital when you start throwing in all your presentation ideas. It actually helps you do straight edits and modifications on your slides, making your work easier.
While others may view this approach as helpful, some may not agree with putting their ideas straight to the deck. Just by doing it often might negatively affect the deck’s overall quality.
PowerPoint offers support to your performance, but it can also distract the crowd when your edits result in a cluttered slide deck. Outlining your thoughts this way limits your ideas from flowing naturally since you’re editing on the fly.
Giving in to what PowerPoint can provide makes you stay within your comfort zone. With a digital device on hand, planning won’t be smooth sailing compared to an idea generated with a pen and paper.
The Benefits of ‘Planning Analog’
The analog technique uses brainstorming as a mind-mapping strategy to dig up brilliant ideas.
It enables speakers to generate ideas on a paper, sticky note, or whiteboard, helping you to flesh out more important points for your topic.
Here are more good reasons why you should opt for this approach during the planning stage:
a. Provides Clearer Objectives
Listing down your ideas helps you determine what you want your audience to understand, even if this list was made on a simple sticky note. This involves bringing together your key points and highlighting your presentation’s main message. Also, it gives you an idea in identifying what objectives will successfully execute your plans.
In this way, you can think of effective strategies that will not only generate audience interest, but will also guide you in creating an outline that compresses your thoughts.
Focus on your goals to develop cohesive content that emphasizes your core objective.
b. Reinforces Creativity
Structuring your pitch using a pen and a paper allows you to come up with better ideas to improve your visuals. Choosing these traditional drawing tools helps you produce different concepts relevant to your subject.
Dumping your thoughts straight to PowerPoint can make your deck’s structure look haphazard since content weren’t arranged systematically beforehand.
When planning, consider going to other places where you can discover new ideas that can build up your pitch. Squeeze out your creative juices by creating a storyboard using traditional tools. This lets you sort out and prioritize your points first.
c. Saves Time
It doesn’t only unleash your creative side, but it also saves you time when creating a perfectly-designed deck. Planning analog gives you more time to categorize and specify each idea that you’ve gathered and thought of.
According to sales trainer Jerson James, arranging your ideas using a computer will only distract you with other things. These distractions include email alerts and even other office tasks, which only draw attention away from your main priority.
Time yourself when organizing your thoughts. Even something as simple as taking a five to ten-minute breather to sort out your ideas can help you arrange everything afterwards.
Let’s Go Analog!
Whether you prefer to do it on your laptop, or on a piece of paper, planning is important to deliver your message effectively. Choosing between planning digital and analog isn’t a problem. Skipping the stage can only make things worse. However, using the analog approach is more advisable since it opens a doorway of great and clearer ideas, as James wrote in his article.
Remove any barriers when planning for a visually-appealing presentation. Concentrate on drafting your pitch to produce clearer objectives that’ll help you achieve your main goal.
Use traditional tools to reinforce creativity that offers fresh, new perspectives that’ll entice the audience. Plan analog to save time and keep you from any distractions that’ll put the entire presentation at stake. Once you’re done, then you can open your PowerPoint and execute your plans to craft a winning deck.
Need a well-designed PowerPoint presentation? Contact the SlideGenius team now to get a free quote!
James, Jerson. “Preparing for a Presentation? Think Analog.” LinkedIn. July 13, 2014. Accessed October 19, 2015. www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140713181747-35264839-preparing-for-a-presentation-think-analog
As we’ve seen in stories, zombies are drawn to loud noises. This lets them swarm you and prevent you from reaching whatever goal you have set. Applying this in our line of work as presenters, there’s no better way to infect the audience with zombie-like expressions than letting noise interfere with your own pitch.
It’s impossible to get your message across if the crowd can’t hear you properly, but this isn’t limited to sounds that your audience can hear. Noise can also come in the form of unnecessary interruptions that get in the way of your business presentation. Technical glitches, distracting colors, inappropriate pictures, unreadable fonts, even a malfunctioning air conditioner can all count as noise.
Simply put, anything that makes your listeners uncomfortable is a potential hazard. These can prevent you from convincing them to invest in your proposal, which means lost partners and potential profits. Fortunately, there are two types of noise and three ways to immunize your clients from it.
In a post written on Public Speaking Tips, professional speaker and author, Lenny Laskowski, states that noise comes in two forms: external and internal.
External Noise
The first type may come from your surroundings, disrupting effective communication with your listeners. An unsilenced phone going off, a tall person blocking the view of another behind him, or an unexpected update notification flashing in the middle of your presentation can get in the way of delivering a successful performance.
Parts of your audio-visual aid might even unintentionally distract your audience. For example, if the speaker volume isn’t high enough, any narration that might be embedded won’t be heard. The same thing applies to your visuals if the screen is too bright or too dark.
Using colors can also be a distraction. If the setting or topic requires formality, using bright colors isn’t ideal to complement a formal presentation. The same goes for times when you need to put on an energetic personality and fire up your audience but end up using dark colors in your slides.
The venue itself is also a factor. If it’s too hot, too dark, or uncomfortable because there aren’t enough seats, people may have trouble listening to you. That’s why you should always check out the area beforehand.
Internal Noise
The second type, internal distractions, are worse because these come from within and may include your own negative thoughts and feelings.
You might be emotionally distracted by being too enthusiastic or possibly tired, which can affect the energy you have for your presentation. A lack of energy or sounding too serious can give the impression that you just want to get your speech over with. It may be fine to sound enthusiastic, but too much of it, like in an investor’s presentation, might make you sound too biased if you make promises without backing them up with hard facts. Alternatively, if you become too serious in an event that needs a more casual and friendly setting, this can send the wrong impression to your clients and infect them with that same lack of interest.
On the other hand, the audience might also be biased or have misgivings about your topic, especially if you present any new unproven products that have yet to enter the market. While skepticism may be unavoidable, you need to prepare for possible contrasting opinions during your Q&A section if you have one.
Here are three things to consider when combatting both types of noise to safeguard your presentation’s success:
1. Detect the Source of Noise
Damon Verial, a professional writer and contributor for various Web sites, including eHow, tackles the importance of finding the source of noise. He explains that depending on the importance of the situation, noise should be eliminated through various means.
Careful preparation is what helps you avoid unwanted interruptions, but despite your best efforts, some unexpected circumstances are still hard to prepare for. For example, your laptop might randomly shut off, or your slides could suddenly freeze while presenting. In times like these, you need to have backup devices that have copies of your presentation, if possible, so you can pick up where you left off immediately.
Before striking back, identify the root of the problem to find an immediate solution. Was it lack of preparation that disgruntled you? Or was it a problem with the venue that disturbed your presentation? The former can be taken as a lesson for what to prepare for next time. The latter can be resolved with some help. In this case, ask for the organizer’s help to take control of the situation and minimize any disruptions.
For technical problems, politely ask the coordinator to help you fix any issues so you can continue your presentation. This will help you handle the situation and put everything in place. Lighting problems, sound systems, microphones, and even power cables are things that they should be ready for.
2. Sharpen Your Listening Skills
Your job isn’t limited to speaking; listening is also vital to dealing with your audience. With the end goal of delivering a message, improving your listening skills is an essential part of the process. You need to know what concerns your clients will have when you bring your proposal to the table. These aren’t limited to prices. Timelines, implementation costs, and possible benefits are also factors to determining how feasible your proposal can be.
However, passive listening isn’t enough. To be an effective listener, actively seek out and attend to people’s concerns. This lets you better understand what they mean when they ask questions about your topic. After all, noise works both ways too: you need to ask for clarifications if clients voice out their concerns in order to prevent any misunderstanding and give appropriate responses.
By being an attentive listener, you get to answer in a constructive and engaging manner while showing your audience respect. This gives the impression that you genuinely want to know what others need, as opposed to simply pushing your products out and hoping someone will be willing to invest in them.
Aside from convincing them to voice out their opinions, give your viewers a chance to help you clarify anything that needs to be addressed. This prevents any possible misunderstandings that can divert their attention.
3. Harness the Power of Repetition
Never underestimate the power of repetition when combatting unwanted noise. People remembering your pitch after it’s over can make the difference between success and failure. If your prospects remember what you want them to, and you give them the means to contact you afterwards, you’re halfway to converting more leads to sales.
Simply having excellent speaking skills isn’t enough. You also want your listeners to remember the best parts of your performance. That’s why audience recall is important in any presentation. Keep your points simple enough to repeat them for emphasis but not so much that you endlessly reiterate each one. Are there aspects of your proposal that you can reduce into one to three words? Use these to reinforce your speech and support your facts so that the audience will remember exactly what you stand for.
A simple way to improve recall is to repeat your main points during vital breaks or at the end of your pitch. This highlights important takeaways for the audience, emphasizing your thoughts and stressing relevant information for your listeners to make your pitch memorable.
Done right, it makes your pitch sound more entertaining and convincing.
The Takeaway: Always Stay Alert
Always anticipate an onslaught of diversions. These can come from the venue, your equipment, your slides, or even yourself or the audience. Consider the appropriate tools to use and have backups in place when technical breakdowns happen. It won’t hurt to coordinate with your organizers for any contingencies you can use in worst-case scenarios, too. This lets you stay focused to avoid further distracting your listeners.
Instead of immediately going on the offensive, strengthen your defenses against disturbing noises that can ruin your performance. At the same time, maintain a solid feedback line for communicating with your audience. They may not always understand you, but if you take efforts to understand their side of things, you’ll be able to find out exactly what causes the noise on their end. You’ll also come across as someone who wants to build better business partnerships with other people rather than a typical salesman who simply talks about their own products without considering if it’s the right fit for his customers.
Don’t let negative thoughts or circumstances overwhelm you. Combat them by detecting the unnecessary noise, enhancing your listening skills, and reiterating your ideas to make sure everyone gets the point. Once you’ve got unnecessary noise under control, you’ll have the audience focusing on the most important things: the benefits that you can give them, and why they should choose you over the competition. This’ll prevent spreading blank stares to the audience and help you convert more leads for your business.
References:
Laskowski, Lenny. “Aspect 6 – The Noise.” Public Speaking Tips, May 22, 2015. www.ljlseminars.blogspot.com
Verial, Damon. “How to Overcome Noise Barriers in Communication.” eHow, n.d. www.ehow.com/how_8031308_overcome-noise-barriers-communication.html
PowerPoint may be a user-friendly tool, but its functions go beyond templated slide designs and bullet-point lists. You don’t have to stick to plain slides and clunky graphics. Instead, why not improve your deck and create a design that’s suited for your presentation?
Here are some PowerPoint hacks to help you do just that:
1. Be Creative with Your Images
It’s no secret that the leading cause of Death by PowerPoint, or complete audience boredom, is a slide overloaded with too much information.
Replace blocks of text with images or keywords you can expound on. This leaves you free to talk more and keeps the audience’s attention fixed on you. However, some presenters use this as an excuse to insert random images in their slides in an uninspired layout.
Make your deck more interesting by being creative with your use of images. Instead of copy-pasting a stock image to the middle of your deck, why not crop and edit it first? Crop images to your desired size by dragging the crop handles that will appear around your picture once you format it. Creatively incorporating and tweaking images to perfectly fit your deck lets you illustrate the essence of your core message without boring your audience.
2. Enhance Design with Animation
Depending on how you use them, animation and transition can make or break your presentation.
Some presenters have been criticized for their excessive use of slide transitions and animations. For example, business presentations may require no more than a simple wipe. Overdoing it with a dramatic transition like Fracture or Dissolve may lessen your professional credibility.
Fortunately, Microsoft’s presented a solution to that problem and released one of PowerPoint’s latest features, Morph. The add-in allows users to create seamless and impressive animations that can also be used as a slide transition.The Morph option can be found under Transitions, and it lets you animate your desired slide element, which can be in the form of objects, text, or images.
Unlike the previous animation options for PowerPoint, this transition type requires you to draw out a work path for the object you want to animate. You can just drag the slide element in the direction you want it to go. When you view your presentation, the object will move on its own without needing a prompt, like a mouse click. This frees your hands and lets you further use body language to emphasize key points and connect with the audience instead of having to focus on operating a clicker.
3. Have Your Pitch in Mind
Everything on your deck should contribute to your pitch.
That said, the greatest PowerPoint hack is to always keep your pitch in mind when you’re crafting your slides. Extraneous elements will only distract the audience from your main point. Before adding anything, think about why you’re putting it there and whether it will enhance your spiel.
Keep an outline of your content to remind you of your slide order. Highlight key terms you want to emphasize in your visual aid so you’ll know what to include and what can be saved for verbal elaboration.
Decide whether you should plug in your data as text or whether you can improve on it by presenting it creatively. For example, diagrams, charts, and other visual representations may make hard information more palatable to your audience.
Content, delivery, and visuals should all go hand-in-hand, so don’t leave out one for the other. Make sure you develop each of these elements equally for an overall winning presentation.
The Takeaway: Take Advantage of PowerPoint’s Features
PowerPoint is a constantly growing software, rich with new features. Improvements in the presentation tool make it possible to improve your deck without too much hassle. To summarize:
Be creative with your deck design and experiment with image layout and position. Crop and edit pictures before putting them on your slides so that they can work together with your overall design to get your message across.
Make use of PowerPoint’s latest features, particularly Morph for animation, to make your deck more attractive and interactive.
At the same time, always align your deck with your pitch. Good design used inappropriately can still lead to a confusing presentation.
Craft a winning deck with these PowerPoint hacks, or contact our SlideGenius experts today for a free quote!
References:
“PowerPoint 2013: Formatting Pictures.” GCF Learn Free. www.gcflearnfree.org/powerpoint2013/17
“Using the Morph Transition in PowerPoint 2016.” Office Blogs. www.support.office.com/en-us/article/Using-the-Morph-transition-in-PowerPoint-2016-8dd1c7b2-b935-44f5-a74c-741d8d9244ea
Have you wondered why it seems difficult to deliver your message clearly and effectively? Things such as noise can negatively affect your business presentation, making it impossible to get your message across since they can’t easily understand what you’re trying to say. According to eHow contributor, Damon Verial, noise also acts as a communication barrier that stumps your overall performance.
Learn how noise disrupts your success as a presenter, preventing you from conveying your point clearly.
Two Types of Noise
Your job doesn’t end after preparing your PowerPoint slides and crafting your pitch. In fact, your actual performance begins when you might experience unexpected slip-ups. One of those is noise. There are two kinds of noise which presenters often face:
1. External Noise
This includes distracting sounds such as:
audiences laughing
background noise
any accidents that affect your overall performance
This type of noise is sometimes unavoidable, since these are outside factors beyond your control.
2. Internal Noise
This kind of noise involves your own thinking and that of your audience’s. It includes being uncomfortable about your topic, worrying about how your audiences perceive you, or failing to recognize their needs. While these can be controlled with careful practice before you present, mistakes are still possible even with the strictest rehearsal.
There are three ways to combat this kind of noise and effectively communicate with your audience:
a. Determine the Cause of Noise
Internal and even external noise can be controlled to a certain extent. Identify its source to find an immediate solution. If the problem is in the venue, you can adjust by politely telling the organizer to resolve the particular distraction.
For example, if it’s technical problems or any physical noise, ask them to fix it so you can proceed with your message. You might not be able to remove it entirely, but you can prevent further distractions that may affect your performance.
b. Enhance Your Listening Skills
As a speaker, you need to understand that speaking isn’t your only job. Since your objective is to make your audience understand your message, listening is part of the process. Keep them engaged by asking them to participate and giving them a chance to speak up.
It also prevents any misunderstandings, which are also considered as noise.
c. Use Repetition for Emphasis
This reminds your audience of significant ideas from your pitch, especially if they were unable to understand your point. Reiterating your thoughts enables you to highlight what you want them to learn and to focus on providing them with memorable information.
This shows that you respect the time they spent listening to your pitch, and you want to give them something in return.
Conclusion
Noise prevents you from giving your message clearly. While it’s true that it can be controlled to a certain extent, learning how to fight this distraction will help you communicate effectively with your audience. By identifying the source of noise, you’ll be able to solve that particular problem and lessen any negative effects.
Listening also helps you to easily understand your audience and avoid being misunderstood. Repeating your points allows you to emphasize what you want them to learn. It also shows that you care about your audience.
Applying these will give you a more effective and successful presentation. To help you with your PowerPoint presentation needs, let SlideGenius experts assist you!
