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12: Developing and Delivering Business Presentations
12-11
Is the equipment working—and do you know how to work it?
Completing several practice runs will help you:
Stay on track.
When delivering an oral presentation to people from other cultures, you will need to adapt the
Delivering a Presentation
These techniques will help convert anxiety into positive energy:
Don’t worry about being perfect.
Know your subject.
Practice, practice, practice.
Visualize your success.
The question-and-answer period gives you a chance to:
Obtain important information.
To handle questions responsively, be sure to:
through potential answers.
Pay attention to nonverbal signals to help determine what each person really means.
12: Developing and Delivering Business Presentations
12-12
Conclude your presentation on time.
During many business presentations, audiences use Twitter and other electronic media to carry
Effective presenters remember to do the following:
Embrace the backchannel.
Integrate social media into the presentation process.
Monitor and ask for feedback.
Establish expectations with the audience.
Online presentations have benefits, such as:
traveling
Letting a project team or an entire organization meet at a moment’s notice
Online presentations have challenges, including the layer of technology between you and your
audience, which blocks those “human moments” that guide and encourage you.
Consider sending preview study materials ahead of time.
Keep your presentation as simple as possible.
viewing.
It is also important to avoid getting lost in the technology, and instead focus on getting the
12: Developing and Delivering Business Presentations
12-13
OVERCOMING DIFFICULTIES STUDENTS OFTEN FACE
Some class members may have completed a speech course as part of their curriculum; others
Although students should by now be familiar with audience analysis, stress its importance. Give
Stress the importance of the introduction. Students often forget to introduce themselves, build
their own credibility, or provide an overview of their talk for the audience. Review the ways a
paragraphs, and major sections.
An otherwise effective presentation may suffer from an ineffective closing. Discuss strategies for
Students commonly have difficulty limiting the number of visuals. They often prepare 15 or
12: Developing and Delivering Business Presentations
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slides. Even if all students indicate they have used the software, they may not apply good design
Students often think that audience handouts of electronic slides are the only handouts to consider
using. Discuss other options and emphasize the strengths of each option you identify. Invite
class.
Students may have limited experience with delivering presentations online, so practicing can
SUGGESTED CLASSROOM EXERCISES
1. Interviewing a Businessperson Who Delivers Presentations. Assign students to interview
presentations. Have students share their findings with the class.
2. Critiquing Speeches. Have students attend a presentation on campus or within the community
class discussion in which students identify the presentation’s strengths and weaknesses. This
3. Planning and Composing an Oral Presentation. Ask students to plan a short presentation on
steps are completed, ask students to prepare an outline of the presentation. Students should
4. Critiquing Visuals. Because students often face challenges in preparing effective visuals,
provide examples of both effective and ineffective visuals. Be sure to include a variety of
12: Developing and Delivering Business Presentations
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audience.
5. Preparing Visuals. Students typically enjoy working with presentation software. If computers
provide animations, and so forth. Critique the students’ results.
6. Giving and Critiquing Presentations. Have students choose a topic and prepare a brief
presentation (5–10 minutes) to be delivered before your class. Require visual aids (a type
of topic, effectiveness of the opening and closing, logic of body organization, effectiveness
of visuals, enthusiasm for topic, eye contact, gestures, voice, language skills, presenter
critiques.
7. Connections Beyond the Classroom. It’s important to note that oral communication in all
settings—family, school, and in public—is critical to outcomes. You may have only a few
minutes to dissuade a family member from taking a certain action that has severe
consequences. A judge will only allow you five minutes to persuade him or her of your
TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
12-1. Oral presentations, delivered in person or online, offer important opportunities to put all of
communication)
12-2. Linear presentations follow an established path from start to finish, similar to reading a
oral communication)
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12-3. During an introduction, a speaker should arouse the audience’s interest in the topic,
communication)
12-4. Some techniques for getting the audience’s attention include:
Uniting the audience around a common goal
Telling a compelling story
12-5. During the close of a presentation, a speaker should restate main ideas, describe next steps,
12-6. To deliver an effective online presentation, speakers should:
Consider sending preview study materials ahead of time.
Keep the presentation as simple as possible.
APPLY YOUR KNOWLEDGE
12-7. Limiting your scope ensures that your presentation fits the time allotted, and that it meets
etc. (LO 12.1; AACSB Tag: Written and oral communication)
12-8. Students will probably mention using color to affect an emotional response (e.g., warm
colors such as orange or red to activate audience members, cool colors such as blue or
As always, with persuasion, the ethical boundary usually rests with the presenter’s
motivation. If design elements are manipulated to deliberately conceal, dishonestly portray,
(LO 12.3; AACSB Tag: Ethical understanding and reasoning)
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12-9. Speaking from notes is usually the best choice because it gives you something to refer to
communication)
PRACTICE YOUR SKILLS
Activities
12-10. One of the more important aspects of this exercise is ensuring that students have a clear
writing. (LO 12.1; AACSB Tag: Written and oral communication)
12-11. Help students succeed and learn from this exercise by reminding them of the guidelines
communication)
12-12. This exercise guides students through the analysis of an actual speech. Students may
point out, for example, that the introduction should preview the main points,, and that the
looking for transitional phrases may find some hard to detect. This is an opportunity to
discuss whether subtlety is a wise choice in a speech and how transitions contribute to the
importance of transitions? (LO 12.2; AACSB Tag: Written and oral communication)
12-13. When evaluating the content of students’ slides, look for:
One topic focus per slide
art
Use of arrows and highlighting techniques to direct audience attention to key points
Clarity (Can the message be grasped in 5—8 seconds?)
12-14. Students’ responses will vary depending on the slide presentations they evaluate. They
