5 Ways to Improve Your Presentation Skills

Having good oratory skills is a strength that can help you reach greater heights in your career. The clearer you are with your communication or presentation skills, the better it is for your career. Especially true for those who are into sales and marketing, pitching your services to a client requires good communication skills. Not only that, at times, you may also have to present your organisation and its services at an event or any such level, and you need to be confident while presenting. To help you out with the same, here are the top five ways in which you can improve your presentation skills: -
1. Preparation - Research is the Key
Irrespective of whether you are presenting a sales pitch to your client or delivering a motivational speech to your audiences - research is the key to preparing well for your presentation. It is very important to know the type of audience or client you are delivering the presentation to. Knowing the requirements of your client, what their interests are and how they are looking for something beneficial for themselves will help you to deliver a presentation with more confidence. Preparing for the presentation also means that you have to plan and structure the entire thing properly. For good measure, you can curate your entire content around the likes of the clients/audience and prepare well for the same.
2. Practise As Much As Possible
You must have heard of the phrase - practice makes perfect, right? Apply it in your life and see how well your oratory skills improve. Once you have the content ready on how you are going to approach the client/audience, the next step is to practise as much as you can. Don’t memorise every single line or do parrot learning because that never really works. Rather, try to understand and come up with your points while you are presenting and note those points down somewhere. Practise the way of presenting and explain what the product/service is all about in your own but understandable manner.
3. Work on Your Pauses
Many a time, it happens that you can speak long sentences at a go without pausing in between, which may be difficult for your client or audience to understand. Especially when you are nervous, speeding up the pace of your talks is a common thing. That is why work on your pauses. Slow down, emphasize on certain points, and ensure to add pauses in between. This comes with practice, so nothing to worry about in that.
4. Keep it Interactive
Honestly, during a presentation, if you keep on talking about the product or so, it can become a little monotonous and boring for the ones present there. So, to make sure that this doesn't happen, ask questions to your clients/audiences. If you are pitching your product or service, ask your clients if they have something to ask or if they want to give some input and so on. If you are addressing an audience, ask them questions related to what you are talking about. Just keep the session interactive and interesting.
5. Be Confident
If you think you are getting scared right before the presentation starts, then take deep breaths. Try to think of nice things that will calm you down. Imagine the success you will get if the presentation goes well. Just be confident and ensure that your fear doesn’t show on your face. Smile and greet everyone before starting the presentation, drink a glass of water, hold your head high, keep your posture straight, clear your voice, and start with the session.
Last but not the least, please don’t go to the presentation empty stomach as it will make you more nervous and you might feel tired. Eat your food properly - nor overeat neither eat less. With these 5 ways to improve your presentation skills, go deliver a speech or sales pitch that you have always wanted to.