3 Tips for How to Give a Killer Presentation

3 Tips for How to Give a Killer Presentation

We’ll start with the good news - fantastic presenters aren’t born, they’re made. So anyone can become a top public speaker by learning some techniques and putting in the time.

Here are my 3 top tips for creating and delivering killer presentations:

Know Your Audience

The best way to give any message is to tailor it for the person you’re talking to. With public speaking you usually have a larger crowd, so you need to do some preparation beforehand to think about who’s in the room, why are they there, what are their motivations, and crucially, what’s their current attitude towards the subject you’re talking about? This will really help you plan the best way to deliver your message.

The other benefit of knowing your audience is that you can speak to them more personally, using examples they’ll understand and building a connection that will help win them over.

Be Genuine

People are driven by emotions, as well as by thoughts and ideas, so you need to appeal to their feelings as well as just their minds. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to make them laugh or cry (though it wouldn’t hurt), but if you show real feeling, people will absorb it. For example, if you’re talking about an injustice and you appear genuinely moved by it, then you’ll be that much more able to move your audience in the same way.

And the same is true if you’re trying to sell a product or solution - the most convincing thing in the world is an enthusiastic person speaking with real conviction, so if you want your audience to be excited about an opportunity - you guessed it; you have to feel that excitement yourself, even if you choose to display it subtly.

Less Is More

When people present, particularly using slides, there’s a temptation to cram a lot of information and visuals into a deck and dazzle your audience with a range of powerful material. Unfortunately, people can’t read, think and listen at the same time, so my final top tip is to keep it simple. It’s much more effective to stun your audience with a single concise fact, then pause to let them absorb it, than it is to reel off 10 points at top speed.

Crucially, try to tell stories - people have been conditioned to listen to stories for hundreds of thousands of years and it’s a powerful way to command attention. Keeping it simple also means there’s less for you to worry about, so you can stay relaxed, focussed and natural throughout.