You use business networks like LinkedIn and Xing, possibly run a blog, and may have even launched your own podcast. They use different ways to become visible and build expert status. But have you considered that your public PowerPoint presentations can become a valuable business card for you and help you make contacts?
Today, countless pieces of information are sent through a wide variety of channels every day. We live in a market increasingly crowded with data and facts. Entrepreneurs and many employees are trying to find competitive advantages in order to make contacts. Some executives focus on pricing policy, product improvements or market research. But a key advantage is building a strong network of relationships with customers, partners and investors. One key to building good networks is public presentations.
Good PowerPoint presentations inspire confidence in the audience
What is the purpose of a presentation? It is about the transmission of information. In doing so, the individual messages are to be passed on in a powerful, convincing and confidence-inspiring manner. Professionally delivered presentations convey knowledge to the audience, demonstrate competence, and build trust. All good relationships, whether private or professional, are based on trust and good communication. Trust and communication are at the same time the prerequisite for a good and solid business relationship.Presentations are mostly attended by real prospects
You may have noticed that it’s not always easy to get your message across to your target audience. You may have written the most brilliant social media post of your life. They diligently distribute the post on all possible channels. Then you find that far fewer users than you had hoped read the article and hardly anyone leaves a comment. It doesn’t have to be up to you. There’s just too much info on too many channels. Business owners and workers are constantly bombarded with messages. For some, that starts with breakfast TV, continues with phone calls, social media, emails, newsletters, meetings, etc. With this flood of data, your contribution then quickly gets “under the wheels”. Your prospects may overlook your post completely, or discover it when they have completely different things on their mind. Bad luck. Wouldn’t it be perfect if you could determine when to deliver your messages to the people and have the recipients listen at that exact time because the topic interests them? In a presentation, you have these requirements. The participants in your presentation have chosen to listen to you. They have signed up, have no other plans for the appointment, and are waiting to hear what you have to say to them. Imagine what that means for you:- Your audience is gathered to listen to you
- they want to receive information from you
- You are trusted with the necessary expertise
- if you are convincing, people will follow your recommendations
6 tips to make the most of presentations for making contacts
Whether you are an “old hand” at presentations or still have little experience, our tips will help you to decisively expand your network and make useful contacts.Tip 1: Be authentic
People usually have a keen sense of whether a person is just playing a role, or is exactly how they present themselves in public. If you are perceived as a phony or a pretender, no matter how top-notch the content of your presentation, the audience will not trust you. You should always be yourself as a presenter. Small weaknesses are human and are much more likely to be accepted by your viewers than phony posturing. If you want to build a trusting relationship with customers or business partners, you need to show who you really are. So you’d better not try to conceal possible weaknesses with effort. It will be difficult for you to succeed anyway.Tip 2: Your presentation should have a high benefit for your audience
Instead, focus on the needs of your audience. What could they wish for? What problems, needs or goals do they have? What information can you convey that your audience can really use? What concrete benefit can your presentation give? If your PowerPoint presentation shares useful expert knowledge in an understandable way, they will quickly be seen as a valuable contact for your audience’s respective network.Tip 3: Arouse the emotions of your audience with your presentation
It’s important to make your audience smarter. Valuable information should be the basic framework of your PowerPoint presentation. But for a truly successful presentation, simply reciting facts is not enough. You also need to move your audience on an emotional level. Facts and figures are important, but to really win over your audience, you need to evoke emotion. Encourage your audience to believe they can make a difference in their lives or careers. For example, if you create strong feelings of joy, confidence, or even desire, this will automatically make you interesting to your audience. You will receive many contact requests after your presentation and will be able to make new contacts.Tip 4: Be a good storyteller
The best way to people’s feelings is through a good story. If you can wrap your message in a great story, you will quickly captivate your audience. Our brain simply cannot resist a good story. The speaker’s story comes to life in front of the listener’s inner eye. Your audience should recognize themselves in the storytelling successfully and be captivated. But how do you get a great story? With some topics, good stories are just waiting to happen. With supposedly dry topics, this is not quite so easy. But even with a PowerPoint presentation about accounting software, a suitable story can be found. You may have to search a little longer. If you’re in danger of getting stuck in a dead end, ask a presentation agency for a little help. There, they specialize in discovering interesting stories even from unwieldy topics.Tip 5: Prepare carefully for your presentation
Maybe you can still remember your first driving lesson. You were probably a little nervous about having to pay attention to several things at once that you weren’t familiar with. Later, when you had gained enough experience driving a car, I’m sure you were quite relaxed behind the wheel. It is similar with PowerPoint presentations. As long as you don’t have all aspects of your presentation down pat, you’re going to be a little nervous. The good news is: you will be much less nervous if you are prepared. These questions about preparation should be clarified:- What important messages do you want your audience to take away? Is the message clearly formulated?
- Does the storytelling work?
- Are all slides checked for errors?
- Does the technology work?
- Have you rehearsed the presentation aloud several times, ideally with a practice audience?
- Are you prepared for possible questions?
