Tips For A Successful Corporate Presentation

When it comes to corporate presentation, the way in which your brand is perceived and communicated will say a great deal more than the slogan or advertising message itself. When your presentation is through advertising media and promotional services or through trade shows, conferences and presentations to clients in person, your message will be clearly heard, regardless of what you say.

Often it is how something is said, conveyed or expressed which carries more weight than what it is that is actually said. Think of our politicians. We hear the words they say, but often this is heard with a cynical ear, and we ignore a great deal of what they say since most of it seems to be vague and a combination of half-truths and spin. Generally, we tend to judge the reliability of politicians more on the way that they express themselves than on what they are actually saying.

Do they spend time criticizing the opposition rather than promoting their own policies? In advertising and the world of business, constantly criticizing your opponents or competitors might seem like a good idea, but to others it appears negative, critical and unproductive. It is not uncommon to visit a trade show or a business or product presentation during which competitors, or alternative products or services, are criticized in comparison with that being presented. Use sparingly, this can be effective, but it is a fine line and being overly harsh or critical is more likely to win favour for the opposition! It is the same psychology that leads people to 'support the underdog'.

Another aspect of effective corporate presentation to be aware of is the phrase 'show, don't tell'. People dislike being told, but enjoy being shown. This applies to a huge range of media and forms of communication. Even in writing, good novels tend to show the reader what is happening through action, interaction and dialog, and the best and most popular radio plays allow listeners to hear what is happening rather than simply narrate the action to them.

If you have the opportunity to showcase a product or present your business's services to a potential client, don't make the mistake that too many make, of standing there for forty minutes listing the benefits, describing the tools and services, comparing them to other options and listing the many satisfied customers you have already, and so on.

People will simply switch off. Instead, try as far as is possible to demonstrate the product or service. Often a demonstration, in whatever form that can take, will save a huge amount of time. They say a picture can paint a thousand words - so why not use a few? Flash presentations and video clips can be used as tools to help to extend this further.

However, one aspect of successful corporate presentation strategy that works most often, and more productively than any other, is diversity of media. The more diverse the range of ways in which a message is communicated, the more likely it is that the message will be received, understood, and remembered. In the case of a presentation made in person, as opposed to distance presentation techniques that involve remote media such as promotional literature, television, radio or static advertising, you have an advantage that these methods do not, namely interactivity and involvement.

If showing rather than telling is far more successful, then doing rather than watching is even more so. This can often be achieved through websites, interactive kiosks at trade shows, and in person if you have the opportunity to visit a potential client. Try to consider ways in which your corporate presentation can be perceived as highly understandable, highly memorable and highly engaging. In this way, you are more likely to secure sales.

A personal presentation enables you to use a variety of media, whereas a radio, TV or newspaper ad does not. It could be argued that all of these together combine to form a multimedia promotion, but each is being carried out distinctly separately, while it is the simultaneous combination of all the senses - touch, hearing, sight and in some cases even taste and smell, that imprints the product in the brain and stimulates its recall all the easier.

Perhaps you have been given the opportunity to present your business to a potential client - what do you do? Do you put together a PowerPoint presentation, grab a handful of leaflets, arrive at the client's premises and spend twenty minutes configuring a computer and projector, forty minutes lecturing the client, and then dump a handful of leaflets on their desk before heading back to your office for a coffee?

Clearly, this is the kind of presentation that is highly unlikely to succeed. Even if your product or service is astonishing and cutting edge, you must think about the whole way in which your business is presented from the clients' point of view. PowerPoint was a great tool a few years ago, but most of us are sick and tired of seeing the same badly designed slides and themes, and we dislike being lectured - we had enough of that at school.

For a truly successful corporate presentation, consider employing an agency to design and develop a slick presentation which involves a range of media and ways of conveying the message succinctly and clearly. Perhaps even employ specialists who can carry out these presentations for you in a professional manner. Consider the range of ways in which your message can be conveyed, and remember that what people will generally recall best from your presentation is not what you said, but how you said it and how you demonstrated its effectiveness.