Career Success For Accountants

Presenting: 7 Top Tips For Delivering A Great Presentation

It is claimed that some people fear giving a presentation more than death. 

Now in many respects this is crazy.   A presentation really isn’t life or death.  More of a slightly more presssurised communication.

So what are my top tips for delivering a great presentation?

  1. Be clear about what you want to achieve as a result of your presentation – start with the end in mind.  Know what you want to happen as a result of your presentation.  
  2. Know your audience, their level of knowledge and level of interest and any preferences that they have.  Also remember what I refer to as the “Golden Rule”.  What’s the Golden Rule?  The more senior people are the shorter your presentation needs to be.
  3. Brainstorm a long list of potential content.  All of the things that you could potentially cover in your presentation.  Do this on paper and don’t hold back.
  4. Shorten your list of content to focus on those areas that are going to help you achieve the result you want.  Remember you will always have more content than you have time.
  5. Focus on your opening and your first few lines.  Most presenters will tell you to avoid learning your presentation word for word.  Many will suggest you memorise your opening line.
  6. Have the meat of the presentation in the middle.  This is where you have the detail.
  7. Have a short closing and clear call to action on what you want people to do next.   Remember to thank your audience for their attention too.

If you are looking for more, check out my free course on Being an Effective Presenter on Udemy

About the Author Duncan Brodie

Since 2006 I’ve worked with in excess of 8,000 accountants and professionals in workshops, seminars and one to one helping them land their next jobs and become better leaders, presenters and business partners. Before that I spent 25 years in accountancy climbing the career ladder from Payments Clerk to FD. I’m a CIMA Fellow, Certified Professional Coach and Team Coach Facilitator.

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8 comments
Richard Charon says 25 September 2009

Give permission for interactive questions. Allows new avenues to be explored. If presenter gives same material to different audiences, similar questions aways come up and so anwering becomes easy and looks authoratative.

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ecommerce says 22 June 2010

Really nice read thanks, I have added this to my Mixx bookmarks.

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ecommerce says 23 June 2010

Digged, nice read

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