How To Make An Impressive Presentation

"Genius, a power that dazzles humans, is oft but perserverence in disguise." H. W. Austin. I would also add the word 'preparation' to that quote from one of Britain's successful tennis players back in the 30s.

Often the difference between a successful presentation and an unsuccessful one is the level of preparation that comes before. So it is imperative you prepare, and indeed very important when attending an interview or presenting to a prospective client.

You may be familiar with the Dragon's Den, the tv series which has entrepreneurs present their business plans and ideas to already highly successful business men and women who form a panel of judges deciding on whether to invest in the products/services being shown to them. Well, i had a thought about what was the main difference between those that got what they came for, which was the investment of cash into their business and those that did not do so well.

And you probably guessed, those that managed to get the cash they needed were those that had prepared thoroughly before coming onto the show, making sure they knew their business inside and out, numbers included. After all, if you are going to ask for an investment of £100,000 or more, it makes sense to prepare in advance.

There is no difference when attending a job interview or when making a speech in front of an audience, the differentiating factor is the preparation. You must do your research, find out about the customer, as i have said in the past you are the product, a solution to their problem, and so how can you solve their issues if you do not know what it is. How would you react if you went to see a doctor, and he/she without asking you or knowing your problem or at least attempting to identify the problem the doctor just by sheer looking at you suddenly gives you a written prescription! Would you be doubtful of such act? Ofcourse you would.

Any interviewer is not going to be impressed and is going to have doubt in you if you have not done your research about them, if you do not have an idea about their business, their problem, their issues, what they do etc etc...You see, as we use to say a few years ago when i worked in the financial markets industry, my boss back then would say, stoploss, stoploss, stoploss as this was important for investors to take heed if they did not want to lose their shirts trading in the risky business of the stockmarket. And so, i will coin something similar, you may have heard this before, but success in an interview or any presentation is down to 3 things: research, research, research. Nothing more, nothing less.

I myself have noticed the difference in my presentations, in the early days when i made a speech to an audience i did not prepare as perhaps i should have done, and my performances in my opinion have not been up to what i would have liked. But since i have begun to put more work and preparation into my research and presentation i feel i have got more confident, amazing how this works, and there is another tip for you, confidence comes from preparation.

So when next you have to make a presentation of any kind, make sure you have done your research beforehand and you too will soon notice the marked improvements in your new found confidence.

Femi Yusoof