Chapter 12 Lecture Notes ● 1
Chapter 12 LECTURE NOTES
Business Presentations
CHAPTER SYNOPSIS
Chapter 12 provides students with techniques for preparing effective business presentations.
Students learn how to organize traditional and multimedia presentations and to consider their
purpose and their various audience types. The chapter describes techniques for establishing
rapport with an audience, including using effective imagery, providing verbal signposts, and
sending appropriate nonverbal messages. Students learn to design and use effective visual
aids, including multimedia slides, handouts, overhead transparencies, and speaker’s notes.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Recognize various types of business presentations, and discuss two important first steps in
preparing for any of these presentations.
2. Explain how to organize the introduction, body, and conclusion as well as how to build
WHAT’S NEW IN THIS CHAPTER
The authors made the following changes and improvements:
• Reduced the number of learning objectives to streamline the chapter material and improve
student comprehension.
• Addressed changing technologies in business that include zoom presentations, and
exposed students to best practices in creating impressive multimedia slideshows.
Chapter 12 Lecture Notes ● 2
• Updated models of PowerPoint slides to reflect current workplace practices.
• Improved coverage of oral presentation strategies before, during, and after an oral
presentation to provide to students with step-by-step instructions to practice and rehearse.
LECTURE OUTLINE
I. Preparing Effective Oral Presentations (p. 389)
A. Speaking Skills and Your Career
• Good presentation skills are needed by business communicators at all levels
within an organization.
B. Understanding Presentation Types
• Briefing
• Report
Figure 12.1 Types of Business Presentations
C. Knowing Your Purpose
• What do you want your audience to believe, remember, or do?
• Aim all parts of your presentation toward your purpose.
D. Knowing Your Audience
• Friendly, neutral, uninterested, hostile?
• How to gain credibility?
Figure 12.2 Succeeding With Four Audience Types
II. Organizing Content for Impact and Audience Rapport (p. 392)
Step 1: Tell them what you are going to tell them.
Step 2: Tell them.
Step 3: Tell them what you have just told them.
Chapter 12 Lecture Notes ● 3
A. Capturing Attention in the Introduction
• Capture listeners’ attention and get them involved by using one of these
techniques:
1. A promise
2. Drama
3. Eye contact
• Identify yourself and establish your credibility.
• Preview your main points.
Figure 12.3 Gaining and Keeping Audience Attention
Figure 12.4 Outlining an Oral Presentation
B. Organizing the Body of the Presentation
• Develop two to four main points.
• Streamline your topic and summarize its main parts.
• Arrange the parts logically by a specific pattern:
1. Chronology
2. Geography/space
3. Topic/function/conventional grouping
4. Comparison/contrast (pro/con)
C. Summarizing in the Conclusion
• Summarize the main themes of the presentation.
D. Establishing Audience Rapport
• Establish a bond with the audience.
• Entertain as well as inform.
• Use verbal and nonverbal techniques to connect with their audiences.
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E. Effective Imagery
• Analogy: a comparison of something familiar with something unfamiliar
• Metaphor: an implied nonliteral comparison
• Simile: a comparison that includes the words like or as
Figure 12.5 Engaging the Audience With Effective Imagery
F. Verbal Signposts
• Previewing
In this segment of my presentation, I will present last year’s sales figures.
• Summarizing
G. Nonverbal Messages
• Look terrific.
• Animate your body.
III. Understanding Contemporary Visual Aids (p. 398)
Visual aids can add interest to a presentation and can enhance audience understanding
and retention. Business communicators have many types of visual aids from which to
choose, each with its pros and cons.
A. Multimedia Slides
• Pros: professional effect, graphic options, easy to make and update
• Cons: requires costly equipment and practice to use, equipment may fail
B. Zoom Presentations
• Pros: interactive, cinematic, and dynamic
C. Videos
Chapter 12 Lecture Notes ● 5
D. Handouts
• Pros: encourages audience participation, enhances recall
• Cons: risks unauthorized duplication and loss of audience control
E. Flipcharts or whiteboards
F. Props
• Pros: increase audience participation with close observation
• Cons: expense to transport; limited use with larger audiences
Figure 12.6 Pros and Cons of Visual Aid Options
Figure 12.7 Prezi Zoom Presentation
IV. Preparing Engaging Multimedia Presentations (p. 400)
Multimedia slides have become a normal and expected part of professional business
presentations. Business communicators must learn to prepare effective and
professional slides that add value to a presentation.
A. Adjusting Slide Design to Your Audience
• Blue connotes credibility and is the background color of choice for many
business presentations and social media sites.
• Use a light text on a dark background for presentations in darkened rooms.
• Use dark text on a light background for presentations in lighted rooms.
Chapter 12 Lecture Notes ● 6
3. Introduces or reviews your key points
4. Provides a transition from one major point to the next
5. Illustrates and simplifies complex ideas
Figure 12.8 SlideRocket Presentation
Figure 12.9 Revising and Enhancing Slides for Great Impact
Figure 12.10 Designing More Effective Slides
Figure 12.11 PowerPoint Slides That Illustrate Multimedia Presentations
Figure 12.12 Seven Steps to a Powerful Multimedia Presentation
V. Polishing Your Delivery and Following Up (p. 406)
Once you’ve organized your presentation and prepared visual aids, it’s time to start
practicing it. Careful practice can help overcome the common symptoms of stage
fright.
A. Choosing a Delivery Method
• Avoid memorizing your presentation. Memorize only significant parts – the
introduction, the conclusion, and perhaps a meaningful quotation.
B. Before Your Presentation
• Prepare thoroughly.
• Rehearse repeatedly.
• Time yourself.
• Dress professionally.
Figure 12.13 Conquering Stage Fright
C. During Your Presentation
• Begin with a pause.
• Present your first sentence from memory.