5 Must-Have Presentation Skills for Entrepreneurs

By Ashish Arora

The ability to present and persuade is crucial for entrepreneurs to sustain success within their businesses. However, with each presentation, there is a lot at stake.

During the startup phase, being capable of bringing investors and customers on board is essential to your survival; in the growth phase, being able to keep your corporate vision alive and gain new and enthusiastic supporters builds on your ability to grow and prosper.

In our digital age where people are inundated with messages, you need to be able to add a “wow” factor to your presentations. To do that, you need more than great graphics and a well-modulated speaking voice. Here is a quick guide to the five essential presentation skills you need as an entrepreneur today:

1. Give value before you try to get anything.

Every presentation is arguably a chance for you to grow your business, but today’s audience will think less of you if you use their time to simply deliver an advertisement for your business. People need to receive a message of value before they are prepared to support you.

As Larry Page, co-founder of Google says, “Always deliver more than expected.” An effective way to over-deliver is to ask yourself before each presentation: “What can I give my audience that will intrigue them so much they will go out and tell somebody else about it?”

That something can be a great story, but it is more often one essential rule that will add value to a person's life if they do it. Think about your area of expertise. Think about one truth you know for sure that if everyone did it, it would enhance their lives. Present that truth in a straightforward, genuine way.

Make it more than a platitude. For example, if you are a social media expert, don’t just tell people they have to post regularly and respond to messages. Instead, tell them about four other changes they could make, one a week for a month, that would genuinely enhance their on-line relationships.

Also, make sure that what you suggest is possible for your audience. Give them new ideas to consider. For example, if you offer thoughts about the future, consider linking to Bill Gates’s musings about the world in 2030 in this video:

[arve url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RETFyDKcw0" /]

2. Establish your credibility and the validity of your point.

No matter how well established your reputation is, and how accomplished you are, never assume that your audience thinks you are credible. Say and do things that demonstrate credibility with each presentation. If you make claims that contradict how most people think, back them up with facts and figures or the background on how you reached a certain philosophy.

Part of being credible and authentic is making it clear what your agenda is when you begin to speak. If you need the audience’s support on a policy, for example, be up front about that and then make your case.

A great example of that is Bill Nye the Science Guy sticking up for his credibility when he was attacked for linking climate change with wildfire a couple of years ago. See how eloquently he makes his case in this interview:

[arve url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfsQhtEvH7g" /]

3. Shock people awake if you have to.

The late Dame Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop and human rights activist, counseled entrepreneurs to be different, and that includes in their presentations. She said, “If you’re different, you will stand out.”

It is a recurring them among entrepreneurs who are also riveting public speakers. In Dead Poets Society, the late Robin Williams summed up the approach eloquently when he announced, “I stand up on my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way.”

One of the best ways to be different is to take a common theme that people have accepted for generations as a kind of truth and tackle it from the perspective of its lack of relevance in our modern world.

People are always interested in new ways to save time and money, new ways to lose weight, new ways to succeed, and new ways to relate to the world around them. If your presentation can free itself of endless graphs and pie charts, and connect with any one of these ageless themes in a new way, it will be talked about long after the program ends.

4. Express vision and give people a reason to be inspired.

If you are giving a presentation because you are a successful entrepreneur, one of the things your audience is most interested in is how you accomplished your success. It is important if you take this route to make sure that you translate what you did into terms that are transferable to the lives of others.

For example, entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson is masterful at bringing his presentations back to these key points. The founder of Virgin Group and a philanthropist, he reminds people often that there is really no such thing as the “one” opportunity in life which, if missed, leaves you in the shadows forever.

5. Observe the standard rules of presentation etiquette.

Show up on time and present within the bounds of your requested time slot. Remember that all audiences are important and reflect your respect by being gracious and generous with your time.

Make your intent clear from the start of your address, so your audience knows whether you seek approval, funding, support, a change of minds, understanding, or the imparting of wisdom.

Be respectful of your audience by ensuring they are not subject to a boring PowerPoint with you reading all the key points to them, reduce the number of graphs and statistics you think you need by about half, and be ready at the conclusion of your remarks to answer both easy and tough questions.

Finally, remember Albert Einstein’s advice: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”