© 2010 Thomson South-Western Student Version CHAPTER 12 Business Presentations

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 12, Slide 2 Getting Ready for an Oral Presentation Know your purpose.  What do you want your audience to believe, remember, or do when you finish?  Aim all parts of your talk toward your purpose.

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 12, Slide 3 Getting Ready for an Oral Presentation Identify your purpose Understand your audience Organize the conclusion Organize the body Organize the introduction

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 12, Slide 4 Getting Ready for an Oral Presentation Understand your audience.  Friendly, neutral, uninterested, hostile?  How to gain credibility?  How to relate this information to their needs?  How to make them remember your main points?

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 12, Slide 5 Organizing Content Capture attention in the introduction.  Grab listeners’ attention and get them involved by opening with a promise, story, startling fact, question, quotation, relevant problem, self-effacing story, or some other tactic.  Identify yourself and establish your credibility.  Preview your main points.

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 12, Slide 6 Organizing Content Organize the body logically.  Develop two to four main points. Streamline your topic and summarize its principal parts.  Arrange the points logically by a pattern.  Prepare transitions to guide the audience.  Have extra material ready. Be prepared with more information and visuals if needed.

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 12, Slide 7 Summarize in the conclusion.  Summarize your main themes.  Provide a final action-oriented focus that tells listeners how they can use this information or what you want them to do.  Include a statement that allows you to depart the podium gracefully and leaves a lasting impression. Organizing Content

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 12, Slide 8 Succeeding With Four Audience Types  Friendly  Neutral  Uninterested  Hostile

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 12, Slide 9 Building Audience Rapport with Effective Imagery AnalogiesMetaphorsSimiles Personal anecdotes Personalized statistics Worst- and best-case scenarios Building Rapport Like a Pro

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 12, Slide 10 Building Rapport Like a Pro Effective Imagery  Analogy – a comparison of something familiar with something unfamiliar To understand how the heart is divided, imagine a house with two rooms upstairs and two downstairs.

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 12, Slide 11 Building Rapport Like a Pro Effective Imagery  Metaphor – an implied, nonliteral comparison The old office building became a money pit.  Simile – a comparison that includes the words like or as His mind works like a computer.

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 12, Slide 12 Building Rapport Like a Pro Other Ways to Connect With Your Audience  Personal anecdotes  Personalized statistics  Worst- and best-case scenarios

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 12, Slide 13 Using Verbal Signposts to Transition As you can see, we have two primary reasons explaining... Summarizing Previewing Now let's look at three reasons for... My next major point focuses on... Let me review the two major factors I've just covered... Switching Directions I've just discussed three reasons for X. Now I want to move on to Y. Up to this point, I've concentrated on...; now let's look at another significant factor...

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 12, Slide 14 Sending Positive Nonverbal Messages  Look professional.  Animate your body.  Punctuate your words.  Use appropriate eye contact.  Get out from behind the podium.  Vary your facial expressions.

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 12, Slide 15  Allow plenty of time to set up and test equipment.  Always bring backups.  Consider transferring your presentation to a CD or a USB flash drive.  Look at the audience, not the screen.  Do not read from a slide. Paraphrase. Preparing a Visually Appealing PowerPoint Presentation Use PowerPoint effectively.

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 12, Slide 16  Leave the lights as bright as possible.  Use a radio remote control to advance slides.  Use a laser pointer to highlight slide items.  Don’t rely totally on your slides. Remember that the audience came to see and hear you. Preparing a Visually Appealing PowerPoint Presentation Use PowerPoint effectively.

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 12, Slide 17 Stage Fright Symptoms  Dry throat  Unsteady voice  Trembling hands  Tied tongue  Wobbly knees  Stomach butterflies  Pounding heart  Shortage of breath  Sweaty palms

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 12, Slide 18 Combating Stage Fright  Just before you begin to talk, take some deep breaths.  Convert your fear into anticipation and enthusiasm.  Select a familiar, relevant topic.  Prepare 150 percent.  Use positive self-talk.

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 12, Slide 19  Shift the focus from yourself to your visual aids.  Ignore stumbles; keep going.  Don't admit you're nervous.  Feel proud when you finish.  Reward yourself. Combating Stage Fright

© 2010 Thomson South-Western Student Version END