5 Things That Really Good Business Presenters Do

Recognising good presenters is something that everyone can do – it’s usually an intuitive feeling towards people who exhibit good ‘leadership’ skills. Precisely what it is that supposed good presenters do that makes them so memorable, however, is often a much trickier question to answer.

Here are 5 things that really good business presenters do:

1. Be Genuine

Business presentations should be performed as a piece of theatre. Presenters should be able to find changes in energy levels, engaging stories, examples of humour and fun. Crucially, however, performing is not quite the same as acting. Really good business presenters are genuine. They are themselves on stage.

Humour is often missing from business presentations. Being fun does not demean your material. Truly, it doesn’t. Let the audience see that you’re human – be the genuine ‘you’.

2. Come Prepared

An ‘integrated performance’ is a means of delivering a presentation that maximises the retention of information by the audience.

Really good business presenters carefully tune their performance to reduce the load on the audience’s working memory. They come prepared with a loose script and strong supporting graphics. They know their material. This hugely increases the chances of them being remembered by the audience.

3. Spark interest

For an audience to remember your message they have to be listening to you. For them to listen to you, they have to be engaged.

Really good business presenters deliver their message with far more energy than you would deliver a normal conversation. When they speak, more importantly, they say something that is relevant to their audience and their situation

4. Use Graphics

The average business presentation comprises far too many slides stuffed full of bullet-point lists. Occasionally a graphic of some sort (photograph/diagram) is inserted – but to what end?

Really good business presenters use supporting graphics. These have a clearly defined role and are integrated with the spoken words to send a cohesive message.

5. Be Clear

Most business presenters say too much. They over-deliver on the detail of their content, which gets in the way of the message they want to convey. The principle reason for this over-delivery is that the presenter often isn’t clear on the message that he or she wants to deliver in the first place – and so they ‘spray and pray’ in the hope that some of it sticks.

Really good business presenters are clear about their message – they say it with the bare minimum of words, using a carefully prepared and well-rehearsed script. Having done that: they stop.

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