Ebook 20 Ways To Improve Business Presentation Skills

20 WAYS
TO IMPROVE YOUR
BUSINESS PRESENTATION
SKILLS
A HOW TO GUIDE FROM BUYAPRESENTATION.COM
20 Ways to improve business presentation skills EBook by BuyAPresentation.com
Index
About the E- book .......................................................................................... 3

A) Creating content for a winning business presentation ........................................ 4
1) The power of a 10 minute analysis ...................................................................5
2) Is your business presentation Romance or Thriller? ...........................................7
3) Hunt for selling points day ...............................................................................9
4) How to create a Pitch Table ............................................................................11
5) What if your sales pitch is allowed just for 2 minutes? .....................................13
B) Creating better slides for a winning business presentation ................................ 15

6) Are you making flea market slides ..................................................................16
7) Zen slides can kill your sales presentations .....................................................18
8) What do your slides say about you? ................................................................20
9) Your childhood habits may kill your presentations ..........................................22
10) Don‟t trigger the „Scan it‟ button .................................................................24
11) The curious case of an invisible presenter ....................................................26
12) How many slides are ideal in a sales presentation? .......................................29
13) Is it possible to use Presentation Templates?................................................31
14) How to crunch your number of slides with concept diagrams? ......................33
15) Using concept diagrams..............................................................................35
16) Present with simple diagrams......................................................................39
C) Creating the mindset for winning business presentation .................................. 42

17) Are you asking your audience to throw you out ............................................43
18) Tips for a better handshake ........................................................................45
19) Don't get too close to your customers .........................................................47
20) 5 ways to sell yourself in a business presentation ........................................49
S AMPLE SLIDES FROM BUYAPRESENTATION . COM .......................................................... 51

L ICENSE INFORMATION....................................................................................... 52
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About the E- book
As business presenters, you are looking for ways to:

- Create more powerful presentation content
- Make better slides
- Make your point in a concise manner
- Add more impact and showcase the value of your product/service and
- Stand out from your competitors
- Create winning presentations
In this practical and simple e-book, let us see how this can be done with short
and easy to read articles.
About the Author:

This articles are contributed by M.S.Ramgopal who owns Metamorph Training.
He has over 15+ years experience in Sales, Sales Management, Training and
Strategy. He runs Signature Workshops on Presentation Skills especially for
Managers and Trainers. You can visit his website www.buyapresentation.com
for more articles and resources like presentation templates for business
professionals.
High-quality content from the experts:
Our presentation is a category winner in Worlds Best Presentation Contest on

Slideshare in 2010
Article content from Platinum Author on Ezine Articles
Our presentation Measure Customer Rapport in Centimeters featured on
AuthorSTEAM homepage
Our presentation Are ZEN slides killing your presentations is a featured
presentation on AuthorSTREAM
Our presentation Problem with Clever Slides is a featured presentation on
AuthorSTREAM
Our Presentation 6 ways to add humor was previously featured on SlideShare
homepage.
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A) Creating content
for a winning
business presentation
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1) The power of a 10 minute analysis
They say, “Experience is the best teacher”.

Well, it most certainly is not! If only experience
were to teach people, there would have been
no repeat offenders of any kind. The reality is
– it is not the experience itself, but the time
you take to reflect on the experience that
teaches you valuable lessons.
This is one area where most sales and

marketing professionals miss the boat. Most
of them operate like talking bill boards,
programmed to follow a certain routine like:
Present to prospsect 1 – Fail – Present to
prospect 2 – Fail – Present to prospect 3 and
so on.
If they took just 10 minutes to analyze their calls, they would move up the
learning curve much faster.
Let me show you a simple way to analyze your calls.

Step 1: Recall successful calls
Pick up a case where you have succeeded in getting business.
This might sound counter intuitive. Most people advise you to see „what went
wrong‟ in the cases where you failed. The danger is – you might find too many
answers to that question. After all, there are a million ways to fail in a sales
presentation. But, there are only a few predictable ways in which you can
achieve consistent success. So, it makes sense to learn what worked and repeat
it.
Step 2: Analyze the call in detail
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The second step is to answer these questions, keeping the success ful sale in
mind:
Analyze product benefit: How has your product made the life better for the
customer?
Was he able to minimize his errors? Was he able to save on his costs? Was
he able to feel more confident about himself? The answers will tell you
the key benefits to focus on – in your next presentation.
Analyze objections: What were the objections raised by him, before he said
„Yes‟ to your offer?
Did he compare your product with his existing option? Was he even aware
of the impact of his problems? How did you overcome his objections? The
answers will equip you for your next presentation.
Analyze the source: How did you find him in the first place?
Was he referred to you by your existing customer? Did you fix the
appointment by cold calling? What was the database used to find the
prospect? What was the script used to fix the appointment? This will help
you find more prospects with higher chances of conversion.
This simple analysis takes no more than 10 minutes. But it will help you repeat
your success consistently.
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2) Is your business presentation Romance or Thriller?
There are two types of formats in business presentations. One is the „Romance
movie format‟ and the other is the „Thriller movie format‟. The single biggest
difference in the two formats is:
Romance movies build up slowly and reach the climax. Thriller movies start
with a gripping suspense and slowly unravel the mystery.
The format you choose depends on the subject of your presentation. Let us see
how to choose the right format for the occasion.
Using the Thriller movie format:

When you need to persuade an audience to make a decision, it is always
advisable to choose the Thriller movie format. Tell them the key benefits they
would derive by using your product or service. Quantify the benefit in terms of
money saved, time gained and the effort reduced. While they dream about how
their life will change for the better – show them how they can get those
benefits, by suggesting the next steps.
In a persuasive presentation, if you lose your audience in the first few minutes,
you will never get them back. By using the „Thriller movie format‟ – you make
sure that you hold their attention right at the beginning, and you never let go.
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Using the Romance movie format:

When you need to inform your audience of a complex process, or teach
someone a difficult subject – the best format to use is the „Romance movie
format‟.
In such presentations, your audience is reluctant to learn the new information.

They are afraid that they may not be able to absorb all the complex material
that might be thrown at them. By using a Romance movie format, you start
from the basics. You move from what they know, to what they do not know in
simple gradual steps. You build up the momentum as you move.
This format engages your audience and reassures them at every step of the
way. They will thank you for being empathetic. Could you see the difference in
approach? By choosing the right format, you increase the effectiveness of your
presentation by a significant measure. Try it in your next presentation
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3) Hunt for selling points day
Time to press the pause button
Recollect the day you joined your sales team. You

not only were eager to prove yourselves, but also
were quite curious to find out as many selling
points about your product or service as possible,
to bag deals. You memorized all that was taught
by your sales training team. You applied some of
those ideas and got some success.
Later, with experience on the field, you developed thumb rules of your own and
discovered some „selling points that work‟ that were not taught in your training.
Eventually those selling points became part of your standard sales presentation.
Now, it is time to press the pause button and take a day to „Hunt for fresh
selling points‟.
Why should you do this?

As sales people, over time we get complacent with our working ways, and stop
looking for new ideas. We may take the time to refresh our selling points based
on the product changes, market changes or changes in customer preferences.
The one day you spend to step back and objectively look at your selling points
can make a world of difference to the commissions you earn.
Planning the „selling points‟ day

1. Talk to colleagues: Start by spending 15 minutes with each of your sales
colleagues in an informal setting (like - over a cup of coffee), to ask
about the specific selling points they use to close deals. You might be
surprised to discover some nuggets that you never thought of. Realize
that like you worked out your own set of „selling points that work‟, your
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colleagues too have discovered their own set too. There is very little
opportunity for them to share it with you, if not for this day.
2. Talk to customers: Next, pick up the phone and call up your existing
customers. Ask them about their experience of your product. Ask them
about the specific features of your product that benefit them the most.
Talk to no less than 15 customers to populate your list of selling points.
3. Create Value Statement: Once you finish compiling all the learning for the
day, start creating a „value statement‟ for each of those points. Now, take
a print out of the value statements, and put it in your folder.
This is fresh arsenal that will work wonders to your conviction about the
product. This reflects in your confidence and words when you make the
next sales presentation.
Whenever you feel a little down, go through the list – and you will get a
fresh sense of energy to meet your next customer.
Remember, to conduct this exercise at least once in 4 months to recharge

yourself and your pitch.
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4) How to create a Pitch Table
If you have been in sales for a while, you would realize that, it is one thing to
know a lot of information about your product, and completely another thing to
know how to use that information to influence your customers.
A pitch table enables you to see your information as an answer to the 4 critical
questions in the minds of your customers. The 4 questions that a pitch table
addresses are:
1. What concerns of your customers are solved by your product?
2. What features of your product solve those concerns?
3. What is unique about the features of your product compared to the
alternatives available?
4. What is the proof for your claims?
Since these are the questions that a customer considers intuitively before
making a purchasing decision, having the information available in one readily
accessible table is extremely useful.
I have tried to construct a „Pitch table‟, for our product - „Premium Animated
Powerpoint templates for Sales and Marketing professionals‟ as an example.
To give you a quick background about the product:

Our customers are sales and marketing professionals. They have excellent
products and ideas that make a difference to their customers‟ lives. But, they
don‟t have the time, or the design expertise to create professional looking
POWERPOINT™ slides to convey those ideas powerfully, and make a lasting
impression in their customers‟ minds. With our premium, animated
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This is how the table looks:
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What the various benefits of a „Pitch table‟?
This table gives you all the information you need to convince your customers at
a single glance, so it serves as your ready reference to address any type of
customer objections.
You can even arrange the points in the table to appeal to specific segments of
your customers. That way, the information can be helpful to start a
conversation with your customers.
You can use the information to write an email to your customers, like – „The 5
reasons why our service is different and better than any other alternative.
So, start making your pitch table. It is the starting point for all your sales
presentations.
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5) What if your sales pitch is allowed just for 2 minutes?
It happens too often to ignore. You spend hours

working on your elaborate presentation. You spit and
polish your pitch with colorful charts, testimonials
and a project plan. When you reach the meeting
room, your client says, “Bob! I have to rush for an
urgent meeting. Show me what you‟ve got in 2
minutes.”
What do you say in those 2 minutes to create the

impact of a 20 minute presentation?
There is no point searching for words at that point in time. You need to be
ready with that pitch - upfront, if you want to make it big as a sales presenter.
Here is my suggestion to make your 2 minute pitch.

Take a sheet of paper and answers these three questions:
1. TANGIBLE BENEFIT: What is the one most important tangible benefit
offered by your product? The benefit should be clearly measurable.
2. SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE: How is your offering significantly different
from any other such offering? The difference should be an obvious one.
3. CLEAR PROOF: What is the proof for your claim? The proof should be
credible enough for the customer to accept without question.
Your answers to these questions are the 2 minute pitch.

There is a lot of science behind those 3 questions. They directly influence the
decision making process of your customers.
Here is the caveat. Though the questions are simple and direct, the answers to
those questions may not be easy to find.
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Take the time necessary to come up with the best answers. Call up your
existing customers, visit your „Product‟ department or interview the highest
producing sales people to get the clues. The time spent on this is worth its
weight in gold.
In fact, creating this pitch should be your first priority as a sales presenter. The
process will give you a lot of clarity about your product or service, which in turn
will reflect as conviction in your voice when you make your next sales
presentation.
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B) Creating better
slides for a winning
Page | 15
6) Are you making flea market slides
Ever wondered what differentiates a flea market display from a showroom

display?
Flickr Photo by Prakhar Amba Flickr Photo by Juan Pablo Olmo
Why is it that one feels noisy and exhausting, whereas the other feels organized
and reassuring? Why do you feel compelled to bargain in a flea market, whereas
you happily give more for the same item in a showroom? Why does it feel that a
flea marketer cares only about your wallet whereas a good salesperson in a
showroom cares about YOU?
The reason is – these two visual formats give you very different psychological
cues.
Forcing a decision versus building a relation:
A flea market display says, “This is all I have got. Make a decision quickly
and get out. I don‟t care about you enough, to customize my display to
match your needs”.
A showroom says, “I want to build a relationship with you, so I will take the
time to show you what you want to see”
Spreading the attention versus focusing the attention:

A flea marketer spreads the attention of the audience over all his items
equally. So, the customer doesn‟t have the time to consider any single
option long enough to appreciate its value.
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A showroom salesperson focuses the attention of the audience on a few

items that interests him. He helps the customer to make his decision by
providing the necessary information. Naturally, the results these two
formats achieve are in line with the visual cues they provide. For sales and
marketing presenters like you, there are some valuable lessons hidden in
these two formats.
Whether you like it or not, the slides that you create for your presentations
leave certain cues about your approach to customers. These cues determine the
results you achieve.
Let us see the slides equivalent of the two formats:
I call the first as „Flea market‟ slide format and the second as the „Showroom‟
slide format. Take a minute to see the cues you give with these slides.
One is about „My wares‟ and the other is about „Your needs‟
One spreads and diffuses the audience attention, and the other focuses
the attention
One makes you close your eyes and the other opens your mind
So, choose the right format to sell your value by understanding the cues given
by your slides. Let your slides be your ally, not your enemy.
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7) Zen slides can kill your sales presentations
What do you think of these slides?
Photo by Ian Britton Photo by Josh

Simerman
Aren‟t they beautiful? Aren‟t these poetic pictures taking you to you a
whole new world? Aren‟t you so absorbed by these images that you find it
difficult to take your eyes off the slides?
That is exactly my point. Those are the very reasons why these „Zen‟
slides will kill your marketing presentation. Let me explain…
When you project these slides to your customers, what kind of questions
can you imagine popping up in their head? Here is my guess:
“Is that sunrise or sunset? Those rocks look like bar graph. Wow!”
“How are those rocks balancing so well? How are they connected to
our software? Is he subtly hinting at modular development of
software by using that image?”
“Hey! This reminds of my trip to Mauritius. I really loved that
vacation. I haven‟t called Sandy for a long time. Let me note that in
my diary.”
As you can see…none of these questions are going to help them make a
meaningful purchase decision. The amusement you see in your audience
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eyes is not because of the strength of your argument, but because of the
beauty of those „Zen‟ pictures.
Stop killing your chances of winning a deal, by using such pointless but
beautiful pictures on your slides.
Instead, create slides that will make your audience ask questions like…
“What kind of new opportunities have emerged in the market, to
support the product launch?”
“How will this software solve the issues which we currently face?”
“How does this software compare to the competition? Why should I
choose this software over any other?”
These questions when answered will help your customers make a

purchase decision.
I am not against using full bleed images in presentation slides. But, you
need to be sure that the pictures add clarity to your message - in an
obvious way. When your audience has to „think‟ for two minutes about
the second level meaning of the images you use – stop. When you feel
that the images will divert your audience‟s attention – save them for your
son‟s school project.
Remember! In your marketing presentation, YOU are the hero. Your slides
are your support. Don‟t let your slides dominate YOU for any reason.
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8) What do your slides say about you?
Here are some pictures of people. Please take a sheet of paper and answer the
2 questions for each person below:
1. Do you expect the person to honor his commitment?
2. Will you trust the person with your money?
Finished writing your answers? Good.
Now, what made you to come up with those views? You haven‟t seen their faces.
You haven‟t met them personally. Then, on what did you base your opinion?
Yes. You made a guess based on their attire.
As a sales presenter, it is important to realize that your attire speaks a lot about
you, even before you utter a word. Your customer forms his opinion about your
dependability, professionalism and trustworthiness in the first few seconds of
your meeting him.
If you create an unfavorable impression in your first 6 seconds with him, you
need to work extra hard for the remainder of your presentation. So, what is the
action point?
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Spend that extra money and buy yourself a really smart outfit. It is one of the
finest investments you can make as a presenter. Let your attire pre-sell for you.
Let your presence build the trust.
When you look dependable, you will sound dependable.
Another important point;
It is not enough if YOU look professional and your slides look like they are
made by an amateur in a hurry. Your slides are the outfit for your thoughts.
Make them look professional.
Spend that little extra to buy a set of professional templates for your slides. It is
possible for you to transform your usual bullet point slides into professional
slides in a matter of 15 minutes when you use the right templates.
I recommend that you visit www.buyapresentation.com and take a look at their

presentation template sets. The templates are made by business professionals
with exceptional design sense. They have the world‟s widest range of animated
concept templates for sales and marketing presenters.
Go and explore the options.
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9) Your childhood habits may kill your presentations
Take a moment to travel back to your schooldays. What were some of the
thumb rules you followed to score more marks in your school examinations?
Let me make a guess…
Rule 1: Write more

The more pages you filled the more marks you got in your exams. It
made the evaluator feel that you knew a lot. So, you learnt the habit of
fluffing up your content in presentations as well.
Rule 2: Make it look beautiful
Decorating your answers with highlighters and sketch pens got you more
marks. So, you learnt the habit of decorating your presentations.
Rule 3: Sound knowledgeable
Using jargon and acronyms made you look intelligent. By littering your
answers with some technical words, you could impress your evaluators
into give you more marks. So, you learnt the habit of using technical
mumbo jumbo as your weapon against objections.
Unfortunately, those very habits that got you more marks in your school might
be killing your sales presentations.
The rules that your customers follow to evaluate your presentations are very
different. Here are some of their rules:
Rule 1: More is bore
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Your audience is allergic to long winding presentations. The moment you

put up that bullet point slide with 6 points and 4 sub-points your
audience take a walk mentally. You need to say it in a crisp and clear
manner to score more with your audience.
Rule 2: Bling is cheap
Your audience won‟t fall for that cool animation or a „Zen‟ picture. Your
slide should make your message memorable by explaining your ideas in a
visual way. Concept diagrams are a very useful tool.
Rule 3: Jargon is rude
It is not about what you know; it is about what they learn. Jargon puts a
distance between you and your audience. Always talk at their level to win
them over.
So, play by the new rules and unlearn your old habits. You will score more in
your sales presentations.
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10) Don‟t trigger the „Scan it‟ button
How do you read a newspaper?
Do you go through every word written out there? No.
As soon as you pick up the paper, you quickly scan through the headlines. If
any of it attracts your attention, you read the first paragraph. If it still sustains
your attention, you skim through the rest of the content.
You follow exactly the same method whether it is about reading the books in
your library, articles on the net or to going through any detailed information.
Why is this information of how people read important to you as a sales
presenter?
When you present a slide that looks like this…
When audience sees a lot of information presented at once, they automatically

start scanning your slide. This is how their attention spans across the slide:
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As you can see, the detailed graphs at the end, which were probably important,
are completely ignored.
How do you avoid this declining attention span, as a presenter?
Follow this simple rule – 1 slide: 1 thought i.e. „One slide should carry just one
thought‟. This reduces the material you put on your slides. Your audience
therefore takes the time to understand and assimilate the information. Your
message gets read and retained longer.
Will you follow this simple tip?
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11) The curious case of an invisible presenter
Have you noticed that as human beings, we are wired to ignore the usual?
You enter your favorite restaurant. You feel the wonderful aroma. After a few
minutes, you don‟t notice the aroma anymore. It becomes „usual‟.
You move in to a new apartment. The constant noise of the crowded street
annoys you. After a few days, these noises become part of the background.
You change your television network provider. Their big logo in the corner of
your TV bothers you. After some time, you get busy watching your favorite
football match, and you don‟t even notice the logo.
It happens because your mind develops „Tolerance‟ to the usual. If anything

around you looks, sounds or feels the same, your mind makes it disappear from
your field of awareness.
Why should a sales and marketing professional like you learn about this?
Because, you run the risk of turning invisible right in the middle of a client
meeting, if your presentation appears „usual‟ to your audience. When you show
the same looking slides one after another, with same sounding explanation,
you vanish from the field of vision of your audience before you know it.
At the start of the After 5 minutes of

presentation presentation
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All you get to see, is that „lost look‟ in their eyes. Sometimes, the polite ones in
the audience busy themselves doodling in their note pads, just to make it
appear that they are taking down notes as you talk.
Is there a way out? How can you make your presence felt?
Here is the answer. Press the slide sorter button in your PowerPoint™ and take a
dispassionate view of your slides. If they look agonizingly same, it is time to
make some changes.
Start by ruthlessly eliminating the „blah‟ in your slides. Add some visuals.
Convert your tables into charts. Include a relevant story in the middle. Plan
questions to engage your audience. Do whatever it takes, till those slides show
some variety in the slide sorter view.
Now, you can breathe easy that you will make an impression on your audience.
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God knows that it takes a humongous effort to get all those important people
from your prospective company to attend your sales presentation. What good is
it to waste that opportunity by turning yourself invisible after 5 minutes?
Work on your slides and take care to be different.
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12) How many slides are ideal in a sales presentation?
When I conduct a Presentation workshop for sales and marketing professionals,

the one question I always get is – How many slides should you use in a
presentation?
The opinion ranges from 3 slides to 25 slides.
The reality is that there is no study that suggests that short presentations are
more successful than long presentations or vice versa. But, there are a couple
of suggestions about slides to help you make clear and convincing
presentations.
Suggestion 1: Don‟t spread a single idea over multiple slides

I have seen presentations that drive the audience crazy by dividing a single
sentence over multiple slides. What is more, in these types of presentations –
the presenter keeps moving the slides at break neck speed, while reading the
sentence to the audience. Unless you wish to insult your audience‟s ability to
read English, don‟t use this method in your sales presentations.
It always helps to put all the relevant elements of an idea onto one slide, so that
the audience can see the connection. If you divide your message into multiple
slides, the audience needs to strain their memory to recollect the details of the
previous slides.
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Suggestion 2: Don‟t put more than one idea on a slide

A slide is like a paragraph in a novel or newspaper. You should always start a
new paragraph for a new thought. In the same way start a new slide to convey a
new thought in a presentation.
This ensures that audience gets the time to absorb your ideas completely, and
build their understanding in gradual steps. It also allows you to use meaningful
diagrams to convey your ideas visually.
So, crunching your entire sales presentation into 2 slides – is NOT a great idea.
Conclusion
When you follow these two suggestions, you will automatically come up with
the right number of slides for your professional presentations.
Remember what matters is whether you are able to influence your customers to
make a purchase decision, by giving them sufficient information. It doesn‟t
matter how many slides you use.
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13) Is it possible to use Presentation Templates?
Every presentation is unique. The ideas are unique. Is it possible to use

readymade presentation templates to make your slides?
First, take a moment to get back to your childhood days. Do you remember how
they used to make wooden furniture those days?
A team of carpenters would cut, drill and polish individual pieces of wood, to
make a table or chair. It would take days of hard work. It was impossible to
imagine making furniture any other way.
Nowadays, when you order a table over the internet, the table arrives in a
cardboard box. You unpack and fit the various pieces in the boxes, to create a
table in minutes. Modular furniture has changed our living rooms, our kitchen
and our lives.
In the same way, it is possible to create high quality presentations by

assembling relevant templates in a meaningful way. It only requires you to see
your presentation as a set of „modules‟. That is all.
Take a look at the slide decks you prepared in the last few presentations. You
will notice that you used a set of standard „modules‟ to make your presentation.
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You used an opening slide, an agenda, a process flow, a timeline, a transition

slide etc. The content may have been different, but the modules remained more
or less the same.
When you realize this simple fact, you can reduce your time for preparing your
presentations and produce professional slides in a matter of minutes.
How to use templates in your presentations?

It is very simple. Start with your usual bullet point slides. See the way the points
are related to each other. Is the relationship a process flow, a time line, a list?
Then, choose an appropriate template from the template set. „Cut – Paste‟ text
from your bullet points to the simple diagrams in the templates.
Since the templates are professionally animated already, you can present your
ideas in stages to avoid information overload. The whole process of
transforming your bullet point slides into professional slides using templates -
doesn‟t take more than 15 minutes.
But, the results are stunning. Look at the videos at

http://www.buyapresentation.com/apps/videos/ to see how easy the process is
and the kind of change you can make.
Needless to say, you need to use premium templates from a trusted source. I
recommend you to use www.buyapresentation.com. They have a wide range of
unique animated PowerPoint® templates for sales and marketing presentations.
You can explain your concepts and ideas easily using their diagram templates
(which is the best in the category). You can learn about how to express your
ideas visually by downloading their free „180 degree shift‟ e-book.
Take a minute to visit the site, and you will never make slides the same old
boring way again.
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14) How to crunch your number of slides with concept diagrams?
Is it possible to reduce the number of slides by representing the ideas visually?

The answer is a resounding „Yes‟. Here is the proof.
While I was browsing through the net yesterday, I came across a presentation
on „The right way to conduct meetings‟. Here are a couple of slides from that
„typical‟ presentation:
Let us make this over with our „concept diagram principles‟ step by step.
Step1 : Reduce the „blah‟:

If you read through the content carefully, you will see that there are 4 main
points covered:
Rationalize the agenda based on criticality of the issues
Rationalize the number of participants based on their ability to take
action post the meeting
Give participants sufficient time to prepare for the meeting
Conclude by assigning clear responsibilities to members
Step 2: Divide the points into objects and relationships

Objects are in blue and the relationships in red…
Rationalize the agenda based on criticality of the issues
Rationalize the number of participants based on their ability to take
action post the meeting
Give participants sufficient time to prepare for the meeting
Conclude by assigning clear responsibilities to members.
Page | 33
Step 3: Represent the relationship visually
Here is the result of doing this…
Thus, with a concept diagram we not only reduced the number of slides, but
also made sure that the slide is clearer and visually appealing.
Page | 34
15) Using concept diagrams
A few months back I met up with one of my friends who sells mission
critical software to financial institutions. His pet peeve is that in his
industry sales cycles are very long and the competition is tough. It is
difficult to get the decision makers to sit through a presentation.
As my company is into presentations, he discussed his problems with me.

He said, “These sales presentations are killing me. I just don‟t have the
time to sit and make „good looking‟ slides.”
He is quite an expert in his field and knows his banking and software
inside out. But his problem is in translating that knowledge to slides that
convince his audience.
This is what I told him.
First off, most presenters don‟t realize that, creating a presentation

involves two very different types of activities that demand two different
skill sets:
1. Ideating the content for your presentation
Page | 35
Ideating effectively requires a strategic bent of mind, a thorough

understanding of the situation at hand, practical ideas to suggest
alternatives, and a clear vision to drive execution.
2. Translating the content into effective slides

Slides need to hold your audience‟s attention and influence their
purchasing decision.
To translate effectively, you need visual thinking, design sense,
knowledge of the presentation software and loads of time
As you can see, the two are very different skill sets, and it is not fair to
expect a presenter excel in both.
But, unfortunately – the market doesn‟t care about that reality. A lot of
wonderful ideas get completely ignored by the audience, just because the
presenter could not translate his ideas into an effective presentation. On
the other hand, beautiful „Zen slides‟ may entertain the audience, but not
deliver the results.
Let us try to address this problem.

If I look at the above two skills – ideating and translating, it seems your
job is more to do with ideating than translating. You are paid to think
about the strategies that work, anticipate the moves of your competition
and devise plans to counter their attack.
The second part of the work, is about translating and requires specialized
technical skills and time. Unless you have years of specialized experience,
it is not possible to create professional and clear slides in a short time.
Page | 36
My friend agreed to this and said, “I realized the issue, so I hired a

graphic designer to rework my slides. But, it didn‟t really work out. The
slides looked good, but the message was lost. “
For which I said:

There are 2 ways in which presenters try to address this translation issue:
1. Hire graphic designers: There are 2 issues with this.
a. They are expensive and time-consuming
b. There is always a huge gap between what you have in mind,
and what a graphic designer comes up with on his slides.
Though the slides look „beautiful‟, they do not help you make
your point effectively. This is because; most graphic designers
specialize in print media. The rules that apply to print are very
different from the rules that apply to slides.
2. Get free presentation templates: The issues here are different:

a. These free templates are in reality just some gaudy
backgrounds. The designs are not very professional.
b. They add very little in terms of providing clarity to your
message
My recommendation to him and to you is to visit our site

www.buyapresentation.com and take a look at the concepts and diagrams
templates. They offer value to you because:
1. Created by professionals, for professionals: The templates are
created by professionals with years of corporate experience and a
flair for design. They understand what you need as sales and
marketing professionals to make your presentations effective.
Page | 37
2. Unique templates with diagrams and concepts to help add clarity:

There is a whole range of templates to help you explain all the
concepts in your presentations. Each template is professionally
animated and is editable to save you time.
3. Reasonably priced: They are very reasonably priced at a $1 or less
per template.
When you make a onetime investment on the Mega Pack and download
the folder to your desktop, you can create insightful presentations
quickly and for years to come.
Isn‟t that a smart thing to do as a sales and marketing presenter - use

someone else‟s technical expertise with your ideas? Go try it.
Page | 38
16) Present with simple diagrams
Here are two slides that make the same point. Which one appeals to your
emotions better?
Photo by Dave Gingrich
The first thought that came to your mind on seeing the text heavy slide
was, “It looks COMPLEX". You hesitated to read through the text. Even if
you did, it wasn‟t easy to process it straight away.
The second slide gave you the idea instantly. The image of the dead bird
triggered your emotions. You were compelled to read the caption. You
were absorbed in the slide.
The reason is - as humans, our mind thinks in the language of visuals.

We learnt to draw long before we learnt to speak.
www.hmc.org.q
Even now, our mind translates words into visuals
a before processing its
meaning.
What does this information mean to you as a presenter?
Page | 39
Yes. When you present your idea visually, it gets understood faster, and
retained longer than when it is presented just with words.
Even better – show your ideas in visuals, and support them with verbal
explanation. This way, you engage multiple senses of your audience,
which increases the retention of your message by as much as 65% (as per
Cognitive load theory).
However, there is a slight hitch here. Using visuals in your slides is easy.
But, using the RIGHT visuals is not. I know of so many cases where
presenters have killed their presentations with inappropriate visuals.
Since visuals attract the attention of your audience faster than words,
wrong visuals can directly lead you to disaster.
I have seen a lot of people use it the wrong way, read this article to see
why.
How to use visuals – the right way? You‟ll learn the answers to all these
questions in my subsequent posts.
Page | 40
Page | 41
C) Creating the
mindset for winning
Page | 42
17) Are you asking your audience to throw you out
Do you know that there is a label stuck on your forehead that only your
audience can read? Your audiences behave just the way you instructed them to
behave. Let me explain that to you a bit more in detail.
What is written on the label is „what you think about yourself‟ at a given point
of time.
If you feel „confident‟ inside – the label reads, „I have got something valuable to
share. So, sit up and listen‟.
If you feel „shaky‟ inside – the label reads, „I am not sure if it is worth the while
for you to listen to me‟.
Naturally, the audience behaves as you instruct them.
What is the solution?

Fake it till you make it.
Practice the first 90 seconds of your presentation thoroughly. I know of so

many seasoned presenters who memorize their first few lines, so that they
could focus their attention on engaging their audience with eye contact.
Interestingly, it is these extensive rehearsals that make them look spontaneous
on stage.
Page | 43
Once you convey confidence in your first few minutes, audience will give you all
the attention you need from thereon. When you find your audience enthusiastic,
you will feel enthusiastic too, and the spiral continues.
So, when you take control of what is written on the label on your forehead, you
will take control of your audience.
Page | 44
18) Tips for a better handshake
The first impact we make
We interact with people at different levels. Starting from an email – where the
connection between individuals is no more than a few electronic pixels, to a
warm hug – where the connection is friendly and personal.
You would notice that the closer we get to an individual; the better is the level
of engagement (of course, getting too close before knowing the person
sufficiently well, invades the personal space of the other individual).
If we represent the distance between people, based on our different methods of
engagement, this is how the continuum looks:
As you can see, a handshake is the closest you get in a business relationship. In
trying to remember the tips on handshake etiquette, it is important not to
forget this basic purpose.
A good handshake sets the expectation for a presentation. So, how to shake
hands to achieve the best level of engagement with your customers? Here are
the 5 tips:
1. Look into the eyes and smile before you shake hands:
Nothing builds a better engagement than a genuine smile and sincere eye
contact. A handshake merely adds to the connection.
2. Say your name and a greeting while you shake hands:
A good handshake lasts not more than 4 seconds. The time is just enough to
say your name and convey your happiness in meeting your prospect. It is not
the time to recite your bio data or your company‟s history.
Page | 45
3. Volunteer your hands by getting up and walking towards your prospect:
When your effort to engage with the prospect is genuine, the prospect
always responds warmly. Do not wait for the prospect to extend hands. If in
a rare case, the prospect doesn‟t extend hands – lower your hands while
keeping the smile and eye contact. The warmth is still conveyed.
4. Use only one hand if it is your first meeting:
Adding your free hand to the shake conveys intimacy. If you use both your
hands, you may look artificial and over eager.
5. Let your handshake be a handshake:
Whether you are a woman or a man, the handshake should be firm, with
your full hand (not just your fingers) and pumped 3 or 4 times. Be warm and
be genuine. Everything else is just details.
I hope these tips help you make a better connection with your prospects, the
next time you make your sales presentation.
Page | 46
19) Don't get too close to your customers
Have you observed that the physical distance between people, when they meet
personally, tells a lot about the extent of their relationship?
That is the reason why, when someone unfamiliar stands too close to you and
starts a conversation, you automatically take a few steps back. Just like poles
repel in magnets, people repel when their space is invaded. There is even a
study on this subject. It is called „Proxemics‟.
This is important for a sales presenter to know. You wouldn‟t like to start off by
making your customer uncomfortable, would you?
What is the ideal space?

As per the study conducted by Edward T. Hall, the space around a person can
be classified as:
Less than 1.5 Ft is intimate Space

1.5 ft is Personal Space
4 Ft is Social Space
12 Ft is Public space
What does this mean to you as a sales presenter?
Page | 47
When you meet a customer for the first time, don‟t be too eager to get too
close. He might feel you are invading his personal space. You might scare him
off.
Here is the secret to build a good rapport quickly.
Give sufficient space to your customer and be eager to learn about him and his
concerns. Interestingly, the more the customer talks about himself, the closer
he gets to you. You will see the distance closing naturally as the customer leans
forward to talk to you. In fact, you can even measure your rapport with the
customer - in centimeters.
When you are sufficiently close to your customer, suggest your solution. There
is every likelihood that he will buy from you.
Go ahead and try this in your next sales presentation.
Page | 48
20) 5 ways to sell yourself in a business presentation
In a business presentation, YOU are the

package that carries Your message- the
content of your presentation. When YOU show
nervousness on stage, it reflects on the quality
of your content.
So, how to make the right impression on your

audience even if you are nervous?
How do you make your audience feel at ease,

even if your knees are shaking? Read on to
find the answers.
Fake it till you make it:
A business presentation is not the easiest thing to do. Your nervousness is

completely understandable. But, the fastest way to control your nerves is to
fake confidence.
Smile, even if you don‟t feel like smiling. Shift your eyes from the screen to
your audience – even if it feels intimidating. These signals reassure your
audience, and they begin to reciprocate your warmth. Soon, you start feeling
better and you show even more confidence. The spiral continues.
Walk towards your audience:
Don‟t stand rooted to one place if you want to connect with your audience.
Slowly walk towards them as you make your point.
As you move closer to them physically, you reduce the mental distance
between you and your audience. When you look at the screen standing close
to them, you give a subtle signal that you are „with them‟ in trying to find
the right solution to their concerns. When they connect to you, they start
connecting to your message too.
Page | 49
Raise your voice to reflect your conviction:
Have you noticed that, when you say something you „believe in‟ strongly,
you automatically raise your voice? That is an invaluable cue to convey
confidence in your presentation.
When you are nervous, your vocal chords get stiff and you sound „weak‟.
Take the effort to raise your voice consciously. Raise it to the point that it
reflects the conviction in your product. You will start seeing a new sense of
energy flowing in the room.
Occupy space on stage:
Do you know, the space you occupy reflects your ego? That is why, you see
footballers running all around the ground, with their hands spread like
wings when they score a goal.
The freedom of your movement is seen as your comfort with your audience.
So, move around stage. Unfold your hands and use them to reinforce your
ideas.
Make your audience a part of your presentation:
A presentation is not about you. It is about your audience. The more they are
involved, the more are your chances of winning them over.
A simple way to involve them is – to ask polling questions. Ask simple
questions that would invite them to raise their hands or share their opinion.
Build on those answers.
Plan the questions you would ask in your presentation, instead of just
planning the text that you would rattle off for each slide.
These simple tips make your audience LIKE YOU as a presenter. When they like
YOU, they start liking your product too.
Happy presenting!
Page | 50
SAMPLE SLIDES FROM BUYAPRESENTATION .COM
Page | 51
L ICENSE INFORMATION
The Ebook - 20 Ways To Improve Business Presentation Skills (Ebook) by

BuyAPresentation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
COPYRIGHT , LEGAL N OTICE AND DISCLAIMER
All rights are reserved including resale rights: you are not allowed to sell this EBook to
anyone else. This EBook has been shared with you free for information and
promotional purposes. You may share this EBook „as is‟ in a suitable professional site /
manner.
If you bought this publication or found any derivative works, you've received a copy not
authorized by us. Please contact us via buyapresentation.com and notify us of the
situation.
Please note that much of this publication is based on personal experience, extensive
reading and anecdotal evidence. Although the authors have made every reasonable
attempt to achieve complete accuracy of the content in this EBook, they assume no
responsibility for errors or omissions. Also, you should use this information as you see
fit, and at your own risk. Your particular situation may not be exactly suited to the
examples illustrated here; in fact, it's likely that they won't be the same, and you
should adjust your use of the information and recommendations accordingly.
Any trademarks, service marks, product names or named features are assumed to be
the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no
implied endorsement if we use one of these terms.
Nothing in this EBook is intended to replace common sense, legal, medical or other
professional advice, and is meant to inform and entertain the reader.
© 2010 BuyAPresentation
Authored by: M.S.Ramgopal
End of EBook
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20 WAYS

About the E- book .......................................................................................... 3

2) Is your business presentation Romance or Thriller? ...........................................7

3) Hunt for selling points day ...............................................................................9

4) How to create a Pitch Table ............................................................................11

5) What if your sales pitch is allowed just for 2 minutes? .....................................13

B) Creating better slides for a winning business presentation ................................ 15

7) Zen slides can kill your sales presentations .....................................................18

8) What do your slides say about you? ................................................................20

9) Your childhood habits may kill your presentations ..........................................22

10) Don‟t trigger the „Scan it‟ button .................................................................24

11) The curious case of an invisible presenter ....................................................26

12) How many slides are ideal in a sales presentation? .......................................29

13) Is it possible to use Presentation Templates?................................................31

15) Using concept diagrams..............................................................................35

16) Present with simple diagrams......................................................................39

C) Creating the mindset for winning business presentation .................................. 42

18) Tips for a better handshake ........................................................................45

19) Don't get too close to your customers .........................................................47

20) 5 ways to sell yourself in a business presentation ........................................49

S AMPLE SLIDES FROM BUYAPRESENTATION . COM .......................................................... 51

About the E- book

As business presenters, you are looking for ways to:

About the Author:

High-quality content from the experts:

Our presentation is a category winner in Worlds Best Presentation Contest on

1) The power of a 10 minute analysis

They say, “Experience is the best teacher”.

This is one area where most sales and

Let me show you a simple way to analyze your calls.

Step 2: Analyze the call in detail

2) Is your business presentation Romance or Thriller?

Using the Thriller movie format:

Using the Romance movie format:

In such presentations, your audience is reluctant to learn the new information.

3) Hunt for selling points day

Time to press the pause button

Recollect the day you joined your sales team. You

Why should you do this?

Planning the „selling points‟ day

Remember, to conduct this exercise at least once in 4 months to recharge

4) How to create a Pitch Table

To give you a quick background about the product:

This is how the table looks:

No Feature Benefit Difference Proof

5) What if your sales pitch is allowed just for 2 minutes?

It happens too often to ignore. You spend hours

What do you say in those 2 minutes to create the

Here is my suggestion to make your 2 minute pitch.

Your answers to these questions are the 2 minute pitch.

6) Are you making flea market slides

Ever wondered what differentiates a flea market display from a showroom

Flickr Photo by Prakhar Amba Flickr Photo by Juan Pablo Olmo

Spreading the attention versus focusing the attention:

A showroom salesperson focuses the attention of the audience on a few

Let us see the slides equivalent of the two formats:

7) Zen slides can kill your sales presentations

What do you think of these slides?

Photo by Ian Britton Photo by Josh

These questions when answered will help your customers make a

8) What do your slides say about you?

Finished writing your answers? Good.