Presentations take a great part in the world of business. If you’re working in the services sector, you’re most probably obliged to make such presentations in front of your superiors or office collegues. It can seem quite obvious and an easy job but in reality it is a whole piece of art to make a presentation that will actually be effective.

So what makes one presentation effective ?

Let’s say that you’ve just finished making one for your company. Now try to answer these questions.

1. Did you say what you intended to say ?
2. Were you able to keep the audience attention alive ?
3. Did the audience find your information credible ?
4. Did you affect the audience ?

Yes ? Then you don’t need to read the following lines. No, keep reading then, and you’ll find  the 10 deadly mistakes you must try to avoid.

Mistake number 1.

It is really difficult to dispose with all this space on your slides and not use it fully. So most of the time people just write and write and write, they fill the slides with text and information and what’s the final effect ? Unreadable and over crowded slides that nobody wants to pay attention to. Don’t give too much information, your powerpoint slides are there only as a supporting material and their primary role is to help and not to distract.

Use simple colors, colors that go well together are blue and yellow, yellow and black etc.

Don’t use fancy font, comic sans cerif, verdana and arial are good enough.

Never use more than 2 fonts, 2 sizes and 2 special effects.

Don’t use the trivial powerpoint templates, they’re not good, full of errors, design your own template. Very often you can use your company default template and you’re not allowed to change it. In that case you’ll just have to stick to it.

Remember: simple, clear, elegant and effective - 4 words that caracterize your supporting material.

Mistake number 2.

Organisation is difficult. When your presentation is poorly organized, it won’t have much effect. A simple rule, first tell the people what you’re going to tell them, then you tell them, and finally you tell them what you’ve just told them. In this way you’re sure that they will remember it quite well.

1. At the beginning: Opening and Overview
2. Delivery of the information
3. Summary of most important points

Mistake number 3.

Use a spellcheck tool and a proof reader. Avoid errors, misspelling, mistakes and mix of languages. Write simple, clear and direct. Make somebody read your text before you go to avoid all this kind of mistakes.

Mistake number 4.

Don’t misuse or overuse acronyms (abbreviations), jargon (a specific industry language) and slang (everyday language).

Mistake number 5.

Always visit the room or place where you’re going to make the presentation. Have a look and try the equipment available. Remember Murphy’s law: “Everything that can go wrong will go wrong”.

Mistake number 6.

You’re allowed to take notes with you, but only as a support. Don’t read from those notes, put them on a desk next to you. Don’t read from the screen, don’t even think about standing in front of your laptop and reading from it!!! Don’t be boring and monotolic when you speak !! Remember that the audience are your friends and they’re not going to eat you. Speak for them and to them, not to the screen or the laptop.

Mistake number 7.

Have you ever paid attention that you’re actually avoiding the audience and you’re trying to look everywhere else but not the people you’re supposed to talk to ? That’s normal, you’re just nervous, everybody is don’t worry. People have two eyes, and you must have eye contact with them. With every single person in the room. Turn left, right and look at everyone. If you find it really difficult looking in the eyes, just stare on their front, it has the same effect on them.

Mistake number 8.

Don’t grab things in your hands that you’re not going to use. Dont’t distract the audience, they’re already half asleep from your monotonous presentation. Don’t distract them with your pointer too much either. If you’re going to use it, just turn yourself for a brief moment towards the screen, don’t speak, and point what they’re looking for. Then just stop using it. Don’t look for coins or something else in your pockets….

Mistake number 9.

Innappropriate use of humor. Remember, we’re all the same, we don’t talk against races, sexes etc.. The first thing to do when you start a presentation is to tell the joke and make everyone laugh. But remember, do it if you’re a good joker… a good joke well told … and it must be consistent with what’s going to come next, i.e. your presentation.

Mistake number 10.

Respect your time limit. Don’t waste your audience’s time, they won’t appreciate that.

So now we’re all ready to go, practice, practice loud and practice. I hope these small advices can help anyone that needs to improve his presentational skills. We never know, maybe your whole career depends on that.

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