Building Your Credibility
In addition to grabbing the audience’s attention, your introduction needs to establish your
credibility.
Techniques for building credibility vary, depending on whether you will be introducing yourself
or having someone else introduce you.
If another person will introduce you, he or she can present your credentials so that you won’t
appear boastful. However, make sure that the person introducing you doesn’t exaggerate your
qualifications; your credibility will probably go down rather than up if this happens.
If you will be introducing yourself, keep your comments simple. At the same time, don’t be afraid
to mention your accomplishments. Your listeners will be curious about your qualifications, so tell
them briefly who you are and why you’re the right person to be giving this presentation.
Previewing Your Message
In addition to arousing audience interest and establishing your credibility, a good introduction
gives audience members a preview of what’s ahead, helping them understand the structure and
content of the message. Your preview should:
Summarize the main idea of your presentation.
Identify major supporting points.
Indicate the order in which you’ll develop those points.
If you are using an indirect approach, the preview can discuss the nature of your main idea
without disclosing it.
Presentation Body
The bulk of your speech or presentation is devoted to a discussion of the main supporting points
from your outline.
Whether you’re using the direct or indirect approach, make sure the organization of your
presentation is clear and your presentation holds the audience’s attention.
Connecting Your Ideas
If using written documents, you can show how ideas are related on the page or screen by using a
variety of design clues, such as:
Headings
Paragraph indentations
Lists
However, with oral communication—particularly when you aren’t using visuals for support—you
have to rely primarily on words to link various parts and ideas.
For links between sentences and paragraphs, use transitional words and phrases:
therefore
because
in addition
in contrast
moreover
for example
consequently
nevertheless
finally
Holding Your Audience’s Attention
After capturing the audience’s attention with your introduction, work to keep it throughout the
body of your presentation.
Remember, your audience can think and read faster than you can speak.
And with online presentations, where people in remote locations are sitting at their computers,
they may be tempted by numerous distractions.
Here are a few helpful tips for keeping the audience tuned into your message:
Relate your subject to your audience’s needs; people are naturally most interested in things
that affect them personally.
Anticipate your audience’s questions.
Use clear, vivid language. If your presentation will involve abstract ideas, show how those
abstractions connect with everyday life.
Explain the relationship between your subject and familiar ideas. Show how your subject is
related to ideas that the audience already understands and give people a way to categorize and
remember your points.
Ask for opinions or pause occasionally for questions or comments.
Illustrate your ideas with visuals.
Presentation Close
The close of a speech or presentation has two critical jobs to accomplish. Make sure your
listeners leave with:
The key points from your talk clear in their minds
An appropriate emotional state
Restating Your Main Points
Use the close to succinctly restate your main points, emphasizing what you want your listeners to
do or to think.
Ending with Clarity and Confidence
To ensure that you end the presentation on a strong note, take the following steps:
Confirm expectations regarding any actions or decisions that will follow the presentation.
Bolster the audience’s confidence in you and your message by retaining control.
Provide a clear wrap-up if the audience is expected to reach a decision or agree to take action.
Review the consensus if the audience agrees on an issue covered in the presentation.
Make the lack of consensus clear if they don’t agree.
Suggest a method of resolving any differences.
Explain who is responsible for doing what if you expect any action to occur.
List action items.
Establish due dates.
Assign responsibility for each task.
Make sure your final remarks are memorable and expressed in a tone appropriate to the situation.
Expressing confident optimism will send the message that you believe in your message and
ability to perform. Think through your closing remarks carefully before stepping in front of the
audience.
Section 3: Delivering a Presentation
Learning Objective 3: Discuss five steps for delivering a successful presentation.
Delivering a successful presentation starts well before you begin to speak; the first step is choosing the
best presentation method.
Choosing Your Presentation Method
Depending on the circumstance of your presentation, you can choose from a variety of delivery
methods:
Memorizing. Except for extremely short speeches, trying to memorize an entire presentation
is not a good idea. However, memorizing a quotation, an opening paragraph, and some strong
finishing remarks can bolster your confidence and strengthen your delivery.
Reading. On rare occasions, you may need to read your speech from a prepared script.
However, unless you’re required or expected to read your presentation verbatim, reading is
never a good choice.
Speaking from an outline or notes. Speaking with the help of an outline or note cards is
nearly always the easiest and most effective delivery mode.
Impromptu speaking. You may be called upon unexpectedly to give an impromptu or
extemporaneous speech on the spot, without any planning or practice. Take a few seconds to
identify the one key idea you want to share with the audience. If you are asked to speak on a
topic and simply don’t have the information at hand, don’t try to fake it.
Regardless of which delivery mode you use, be sure that you’re thoroughly familiar with your
subject. Knowing what you’re talking about is the best way to build your self-confidence.
Practicing Your Delivery
Practice is key to the success of presentations, no matter how much experience you have. Practice
helps ensure that you appear polished and confident, and it lets you verify the operation of visuals and
equipment.
A day or two before you’re ready to step on stage for an important talk, consider the following
questions to make sure you and your presentation are ready:
Can you present your material naturally, without reading your slides?
Is the equipment working, and do you know how to work it?
Could you still make a compelling and complete presentation if you experience an equipment
failure and have to proceed without using your slides at all?
Is your timing on track?
Can you easily pronounce all the words you plan to use?
Have you anticipated likely questions and objections?
With experience, you’ll get a feel for how much practice is enough in any given situation. Practicing
helps keep you on track, helps you maintain a conversational tone with your audience, and boosts
your confidence and composure.
Preparing To Speak
In addition to knowing your material thoroughly and practicing your delivery, make sure that your
location is ready, you have everything you’ll need, and you’re prepared to address audiences from
other cultures, if that applies.
Whenever you can:
Scout the location for your presentation in advance.
Check the seating arrangement to make sure it’s appropriate for your needs and the
audience’s.
Verify the availability and operation of all the equipment and supplies you’re counting on.
Make sure you know how to get the file from your computer or other device to the projection
system, if applicable.
Consider using an interpreter if you’re addressing audience members who speak a different
native language.
Send the interpreter a copy of your speaking notes and visuals in advance of your
presentation.
Team up with a sign-language interpreter if your audience is likely to include persons with
hearing impairments.
Take into account cultural differences in appearances, mannerisms, and other customs.
Overcoming Anxiety
Recognize that nervousness is an indication that you care about your audience, your topic, and the
occasion. These techniques will help you convert anxiety into positive energy:
Put yourself into a positive frame of mind.
Stop worrying about being perfect.
Prepare more material than necessary.
Practice, practice, practice—the more familiar you are with your material, the less panic
you’ll feel.
Visualize yourself in front of the audience, feeling confident, prepared, and able to handle any
situation that might arise.
Breathe slowly and deeply to maintain a sense of calm and confidence.
Be ready with your opening line.
Dress appropriately but as comfortably as possible.
Take a three-second break if you sense that you’re starting to race; pause and arrange your
notes or perform some other small task while taking several deep breaths.
Concentrate on your message and your audience, not on yourself.
Maintain eye contact with friendly audience members. Eye contact not only makes you
appear sincere, confident, and trustworthy but can give you positive feedback as well.
Keep going. Things usually get better as you move along, with each successful minute, giving
you more and more confidence.
Preparation is the best antidote for anxiety; it gives you confidence that you know your material and
that you can recover from any glitches you might encounter.
Confident delivery starts as soon as you become the focus of attention, before you even begin to
speak, so don’t rush. As you approach the front of the room:
Walk with confidence.
Breathe deeply.
Stand up straight.
Face your audience.
Adjust the microphone and other equipment.
Count to three slowly, and then scan the audience.
Make eye contact and smile.
Look away, count to three again.
Begin your presentation.
If you are nervous, this slow, controlled beginning will help you establish rapport and appear more
confident. Make sure your nonverbal signals also send a message of confidence. Use silence instead
of meaningless filler words; silence adds dramatic punch and gives the audience time to think about
your message.
Class discussion question: What steps have you taken in presentation or public speaking situations to
boost your confidence and reduce your anxiety level? Have you been able to convert anxiety into positive
energy? Have you ever had a full-on disaster with a presentation or speech? If so, how did you recover?
Handling Questions Responsively
Handing questions from the audience is often one of the most important aspects of a presentation.
Depending on the circumstances, you may answer questions as they come up, or you may have a
designated question-and-answer (Q&A) period near the end of your presentation.
Answering questions gives you a chance to:
Obtain important information.
Emphasize your main idea and supporting points.
Build enthusiasm for your point of view.
Whether or not you can establish ground rules for Q&A depends on the audience and the situation.
Don’t assume that you can handle whatever comes up without some preparation. Learn enough about
your audience members to get an idea of their concerns and think through answers to potential
questions.
When people ask questions, take the following steps to maximize the opportunity:
Pay attention to nonverbal signals to help determine what each person really means.
Repeat the question to confirm your understanding and ensure that the entire audience has
heard it.
Ask for clarification if the question is vague or confusing.
Give a simple, direct answer.
If you are asked a difficult or complex question, avoid the temptation to sidestep it:
If you don’t know the answer, don’t pretend that you do. Instead, offer to get a complete
answer as soon as possible.
Be on guard for audience members who use questions to make impromptu speeches or to take
control of your presentation.
If a question puts you on the hot seat, respond honestly but keep your cool:
Look the person in the eye.
Answer the question as well as you can.
Keep your emotions under control.
Defuse hostility by paraphrasing the question and confirm that you’ve understood it correctly.
Maintain a businesslike tone of voice and a pleasant expression.
Prepare the audience for the end of the presentation when your time is almost up.
Summarize the main idea of the presentation.
Thank people for their attention.
Conclude with the same confident demeanor you’ve had from the beginning.
Section 4: Incorporating Technology in Your Presentation
Learning Objective 4: Explain the growing importance of the backchannel in presentations, and list six
steps for giving effective presentations online.
Like most business communication, presentations have become high-tech affairs in many companies.
Two such aspects you will most likely encounter on the job are the backchannel and online presentations.
Embracing the Backchannel
Many business presentations these days involve more than just the spoken conversation between the
speaker and the audience.
By using Twitter and other digital media, audience members often carry on their own parallel
communication during a presentation via the backchannel.
The backchannel presents both risks and rewards for business presenters. On the negative side,
listeners can:
Research your claims the instant you make them.
Spread the word quickly if they think your information is shaky.
Gain more leverage, sometimes leading to presentations spinning out of control.
On the plus side, listeners who are excited about your message can:
Build support for it.
Expand on it and spread it to a much larger audience.
Provide valuable feedback during and after presentations.
Follow these tips to make the backchannel work for you:
Integrate social media into the presentation process.
Monitor and ask for feedback.
Review comments to improve your presentation.
Automatically tweet key points from your presentation while you speak.
Establish expectations with the audience.
Giving Presentations Online
Online presentations have become a routine matter in business communication.
They are conducted via internal groupware, virtual meeting systems, or webcast systems designed
specifically for online presentations. Therefore, your audience members will view your presentations
on a variety of devices.
The benefits of online presentations are considerable, by providing the opportunity to:
Communicate with a geographically dispersed audience.
Save significantly on the cost of travel.
Allow a project team or an entire organization to meet at a moment’s notice.
However, the challenges for a presenter can be significant due to the added layer of technology
between you and your audience.
To ensure successful online presentations, keep the following advice in mind:
Consider sending preview study materials ahead of time.
Rehearse using the system live, if at all possible.
Keep your presentation as simple as possible.
Ask for feedback frequently. Visual feedback is limited, making it hard to know when
audience members are confused, and many online viewers are reluctant to call attention to
themselves.
Consider the viewing experience from the audience members’ point of view. Will they be able
to see what you think they can see?
Allow plenty of time for everyone to get connected and familiar with the screen they’re
viewing.
Don’t get lost in the technology. Remember that the most important aspect of any
presentation is getting the audience to receive, understand, and embrace your message.
HIGHLIGHT BOX: COMMUNICATING ACROSS CULTURES
Making Sure Your Message Doesn’t Get Lost in Translation
1. Remind students of the importance of avoiding the use of colloquialisms when speaking with those
from another culture.
2. Suggested two-word/one-word verbs include:
Turned down/Lowered Made up/Reconciled
Put up/Tolerated Decided on/Selected
Turned out/Arrived Drop off/Decline
Bring about/Caused Break Down/Analyze
Call off/Cancel Play down/Minimize
HIGHLIGHT BOX: THE ART OF PROFESSIONALISM
Recovering from Disasters
1 This question has no simple answer, unfortunately. If the presentation is about to fall apart, it’s
probably wise to bring it down for a graceful “crash landing” in a controlled way, rather than hoping
things will magically work out. For instance, a speaker could explain that she mistakenly brought an
old copy of the slides but that she knows the material well enough to proceed (assuming that is the
case—which it should be). If you have prepared well and practiced thoroughly, in most cases, you
should be able to get through equipment glitches or other troubles with relative ease and grace. If you
can “wing it” without confusing or misleading your audience, you may not have to let the audience
know you’ve hit a rough patch, but it’s a risky strategy.
2 Anyone with experience giving presentations knows that sooner or later, something is bound to go
wrong. (Overhead transparencies may be clumsy and old school, but they never just disappear or
refuse to load.) Depending on the available resources, presenters can take several steps to ensure
backup: create a copy on a USB flash drive, email a copy to a colleague or a host at the presentation
site, or even bring a second laptop or tablet as a backup for important presentations.
COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES AT BARNETT INTERNATIONAL
Individual Challenge
As students construct outlines for a compelling story with a distinct beginning, middle, and end, they
should pay attention to both the professional and personal sides of Calhoun’s journey. Lots of
entrepreneurs have created successful companies based on products they felt were missing in the market,
but not all of them are able to build companies that so accurately reflect their values and personalities.
Team Challenge
The Red Ants Pants website (http://redantspants.com/) has lots of photographs that reflect the company’s
vibe while showing its products and customers in action.