Business Communication: Successful Oral Presentations

1. Business Communication:
Successful Oral Presentations
Susan H. Irons
Business Communication
Kenan-Flagler Business School

2. Your Goal
To develop strategies and skills for
delivering effective and
professional business
presentations
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

3. For a successful presentation:
Analyze the situation
Organize your ideas
Develop effective delivery techniques
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

4. Analyze the Situation
Speaker: What is your relationship to
your audience?
Purpose: What is your goal? (To
inform? To persuade? To entertain?)
Audience: Who are they? What do
they know? How will they react?
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

5. For a successful presentation:
 Analyze the situation
Organize your ideas
Develop effective delivery techniques
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

6. Organize Your Ideas
Opening
Purpose
Preview of main ideas
Development of main points
Review/summary
Closing
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

7. Organize Your Ideas: Opening
Gain attention (unusual fact)
Give bottom line
Show benefit(s) to listeners
Introduce yourself
Show your qualifications
Clarify topic
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

8. Organize Your Ideas: Purpose
Develop a purpose slide
Explain your purpose orally
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

9. Organize Your Ideas: Preview
Offer a table of contents, an agenda, an
outline
Make this preview slide your “moving
blueprint” for the presentation
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

10. Organize Your Ideas: Main
Points
Each point needs an oral signpost
Now that I’ve discussed the salary increase, I want to
move on to health care options.
The last point I want to make involves implementing
the flex-time policy.
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

11. Organize Your Ideas: Main
Points
Each point needs development
Support your generalizations with
specific information
Use logically persuasive tools to shape
opinions (such as facts, history,
analogy, appeals to needs and values)
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

12. Organize Your Ideas:
Conclusion
Provide an oral signpost
“In conclusion . . .”
“To summarize . . .”
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

13. Organize Your Ideas:
Conclusion
Review/summarize your main points
Then--
Refer to opening
or
End with actions steps
or
Refer to audience benefits
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

14. Organize Your Ideas
Why so much repetition?
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

15. Organize Your Ideas
PowerPoint Presentations
Font
Design: 6X6 rule
Visuals
Handouts
Remember: YOU are the presentation!
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

16. Organize Your Ideas
Use visuals that enhance your message
Visuals should
relate to your message
help make your point
be consistent
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

17. Organize Your Ideas
Effective PowerPoint slides are
simple
uncluttered
consistent
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

18. Organize Your Ideas
Audiences understand your point an
average of 25% faster when
communicated via a graphic
representation than a text version.
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

19. For a successful presentation:
 Analyze the situation
 Organize your ideas
Develop effective delivery techniques
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

20. Develop Effective Delivery
Techniques
Eye Contact
Non-verbal communication
Speaking voice
Notes
Handling questions
Team Presentations
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

21. Eye Contact
Effective eye communication
5 seconds
x and z patterns
Avoid:
Eye dart Gazing out the window
Slow blink Lighthouse scan
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

22. Develop Effective Delivery
Techniques
 Eye Contact
Non-verbal communication
Speaking voice
Notes
Handling questions
Team Presentations
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

23. Non-verbal Communication:
Posture
Upper body posture
Lower body posture
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

24. Non-verbal Communication:
Movement
Eliminate barriers
Do the 2-step
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

25. Non-verbal Communication:
Gestures
Use appropriate hand and arm gestures
Be natural and open
Avoid these pitfalls:
Figleaf Sisters of Mercy
Parade Rest Jangler
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

26. Non-verbal Communication:
Facial Expressions
Look pleasant
Smile whenever appropriate
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

27. Non-verbal Communication:
Energy
Start strong
Show enthusiasm
End with high energy
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

28. Develop Effective Delivery
Techniques
 Eye Contact
 Non-verbal communication
Speaking voice
Notes
Handling questions
Team Presentations
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

29. Speaking Voice: Inflection
Affects Meaning
Effective communication is essential to
organizational success.
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

30. Speaking Voice: Pace
The most effective rate of speed for a
presentation is between 175 and 190
words per minute.
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

31. Speaking Voice: Volume and
Clarity
Articulate well
Don’t swallow ends of sentences
Don’t drop voice at end of presentation
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

32. Speaking Voice: Verbal
Clutter
Uh
Ummmmmm
Er
You know
Like
Okay
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

33. Develop Effective Delivery
Techniques
 Eye Contact
 Non-verbal communication
 Speaking voice
Notes
Handling questions
Team Presentations
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

34. Notes
Format
Appearance
Do not use the screen as your notes!
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

35. Develop Effective Delivery
Techniques
 Eye Contact
 Non-verbal communication
 Speaking voice
 Notes
Handling questions
Team Presentations
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

36. Handling questions
Acknowledge audience members
explicitly. Why?
Repeat the questions. Why?
When answering, don’t look just at
questioner.
What if you don’t know the answer?
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

37. Develop Effective Delivery
Techniques
 Eye Contact
 Non-verbal communication
 Speaking voice
 Notes
 Handling questions
Team Presentations
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

38. Team Presentations
Transitions and cues
Handling technology
Handling questions
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

39. Remember Basic Logistics!
Check out your presentation space
Confirm the presentation time length
Ask about the size of your audience
Prepare a back-up plan
Practice!
Arrive early
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations

40. For a successful presentation:
 Analyze the situation
 Organize your ideas
 Develop effective delivery techniques
Susan H. Irons Successful Oral
Presentations