{"id":38260,"date":"2018-04-04T15:32:47","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T13:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oxfordhousebcn.com\/?p=38260"},"modified":"2019-03-18T12:46:28","modified_gmt":"2019-03-18T11:46:28","slug":"business-skills-how-to-deliver-a-convincing-presentation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oxfordhousebcn.com\/en\/business-skills-how-to-deliver-a-convincing-presentation\/","title":{"rendered":"Business skills: How to deliver a convincing presentation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love them or hate them, at some point we all have to give a business presentation. Occasionally we have to deliver them to small teams of people and other times we have to stand on a stage<\/em><\/span> and look out at a huge audience<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Understandably, many people get anxious and try to avoid them at all costs<\/em><\/span>. But it doesn\u2019t have to be this way. Just ask your teacher, they have to present to a class every single day!<\/p>\n

So we have put together 11 top tips from our expert Business English teachers to help you the next time you have to do a presentation in English.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Before you start<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. Know your audience<\/h2>\n

Make sure you really understand who you are presenting to. This will help you decide what they need to know, how complex your presentation should be and what sort of questions to expect. Knowing what your audience wants to hear will also help you feel much more confident and better prepared.<\/p>\n

2. Prepare your slides<\/h2>\n

The purpose of your slides is to guide your audience, help them understand what you are saying and keep them interested. For this reason, less is more when it comes to making a slide presentation.<\/p>\n

So make sure that you don\u2019t include too much text, or your audience won\u2019t be listening to you, they\u2019ll be reading instead.<\/p>\n

3. Practice<\/h2>\n

You don\u2019t have to learn every word of your presentation, but you should certainly practise it a lot. This will help you feel more confident and appear more knowledgeable. If you\u2019re worried about forgetting something, write some notes to carry with you – but don\u2019t read them, just use them to jog your memory<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n

You should also get a friend or colleague to watch you, or film yourself doing the presentation on your mobile phone. That way you can get feedback and see what you are doing well and what you are doing badly. Perhaps you need to speak more loudly, use more gestures – or even smile more!<\/p>\n

4. Think about your voice<\/h2>\n

Watch some other famous speakers and see how they change the speed, volume and tone of their voices during their presentations.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s very important that you do this, or your audience will get bored – no matter how interesting your subject material is. Also make sure to speak clearly at all times.<\/p>\n

\"Business<\/p>\n

During the presentation<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

5. Introduce yourself<\/h2>\n

Tell people who you are, why you are presenting and what qualifies you to do so. People will listen more attentively<\/em><\/span> when they consider you an expert. If you\u2019re presenting in front of your colleagues, this is less important because they probably already know who you are and what you do.<\/p>\n

6. Explain why your audience should care<\/h2>\n

Before you go too deeply into your presentation, tell people why your subject is important. How it affects them, and what they are going to get out of it. This will focus their attention and make the subject matter more interesting. Remember, grab<\/em><\/span> their attention right away!<\/p>\n

7. Support your arguments with evidence<\/h2>\n

Make sure that you support your ideas with evidence. You might want to include quotes from other people, case studies, or even a few statistics. This will help people understand what you\u2019re saying and trust you more at the same time.<\/p>\n

8. Use images<\/h2>\n

People get bored quickly and images really help to break up your presentation and make it more visually interesting. Be careful not to include anything irrelevant or overly distracting though. If you\u2019re not sure where to find good photos, have a look at unsplash.com<\/a> – there are lots of high quality free pictures to use.<\/p>\n

9. Get feedback<\/h2>\n

Don\u2019t just speak, listen! It\u2019s an excellent idea to ask the audience questions while you speak. You can even get them to talk to each other and with you, if you are comfortable with it and you are sure that you won\u2019t run out of time.<\/p>\n

A tip: sometimes questions from the audience can be long, boring and irrelevant<\/em><\/span>. It\u2019s a good idea to to give parametres<\/em><\/span> when asking for questions in the middle of your presentation.
\nAsk the audience \u201cDoes anyone have a question on X?\u201d or \u201cDo you have any doubts about X?\u201d<\/p>\n

That way you can control the types of questions people ask and be sure they won\u2019t stray<\/em><\/span> off topic. If someone then does ask something different, you can tell them you will address it at the end (just don\u2019t forget).<\/p>\n

10. Have a clear conclusion with action points<\/h2>\n

It might sound obvious, but you need to leave on a strong note. Include a conclusion that summarises your main points and offers advice, action points, or something for the audience to think about and do.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After the presentation<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

11. Be prepared for difficult questions<\/h2>\n

Make yourself available for questions from the audience. If people are quiet, read from a list of prepared questions – or have someone you are working with ask you in order to get the ball rolling<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Have you done any presentations recently? What were they about? Or perhaps you\u2019re excited for an upcoming talk in English. Tell us about it in the comments!<\/p>\n

\">
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<\/div>\n

Glossary for Language Learners<\/strong><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

Find the following words in the article and then write down any new ones you didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

Stage (n):<\/em><\/span> very old.<\/p>\n

Audience (n):<\/em><\/span> a belief in something that has no basis in fact.<\/p>\n

Avoid at all costs (v):<\/em><\/span> another, cute name for a rabbit.<\/p>\n

Jog [your] memory (v):<\/em><\/span> to do something symbolic to celebrate a special moment.<\/p>\n

Attentively (adv):<\/em><\/span> to take something that isn\u2019t your and use it for a new purpose.<\/p>\n

Grab (v):<\/em><\/span> describing an ancient, pre-Christian religion.<\/p>\n

Irrelevant (adj):<\/em><\/span> covered in something.<\/p>\n

Parametres (n):<\/em><\/span> bad things that you have done in your life.<\/p>\n

Stray (v):<\/em><\/span> a country\u2019s traditions, practices and history.<\/p>\n

Get the ball rolling (exp):<\/em><\/span> a piece of cloth you carry to clean yourself.<\/p>\n

\">
<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>\n

Key<\/strong><\/p>\n

n = noun<\/p>\n

v = verb<\/p>\n

adv = adverb<\/p>\n

exp = expression<\/p>\n

adj = adjective<\/p>\n

\">
<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>\n

Study English at Oxford House Barcelona<\/h4><\/i>Interested in taking a Business English course at Oxford House Barcelona? Take a look at our Business course<\/a> and contact us<\/a> for more information.<\/div>
<\/div><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Love them or hate them, at some point we all have to give a business presentation. Occasionally we have to deliver them to small teams of people and other times we have to stand on a stage and look out at a huge audience. Understandably, many people get anxious and try to avoid them at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":38261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_joinchat":[]},"categories":[268],"tags":[178,2951,983],"yst_prominent_words":[1332,2529,2934,2938,2935,2936,2944,1079,2943,2913,2910,2895,2912,2911,2931,2572,1080,2905,2937],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhousebcn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38260"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhousebcn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhousebcn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhousebcn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhousebcn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38260"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhousebcn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40142,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhousebcn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38260\/revisions\/40142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhousebcn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhousebcn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhousebcn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhousebcn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38260"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhousebcn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=38260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}