Top Ten Mistakes in Business Presentations.

1. Lectern Lurching – The public speaker hangs onto the lectern for dear life. Both hands forcefully clutching the sides of the lectern with straight arms and locked elbows. The lectern has also become the speaker’s anchor point and protector.

The presenter seems to feel that they can hide behind the lectern, either from glaring attack, or to hide their body or bad dress sense.

They never move a step away from the protection and separation the lectern affords. NO possibility of audience connection here.

2. Death by PowerPoint - If there is one aspect that really indicates the amateurish inability of a public speaker, it’s when they insist on reading the PowerPoint /overhead slides to the audience verbatim… at 10% to 20% of the speed that they have already been read.

I have seen many an eye glaze over in the audience as the ill prepared speaker plods haltingly through each slide, word for word, syllable by syllable.

Support tools like PowerPoint are there for reinforcement, not to replace the public speaker or presenter. The slide should have bulleted points, with the presenter talking around these points.

Even when using a digital support tool, cognizance must be made of font choice, size, colour, and layout, along with the volume of detail on each slide.

Each slide should have around 4 to 5 points with no more than 3-6 words per point. Clean, simple and professional layout. Provide more detailed follow-up notes later, not on the screen.

3. No-Notes-Noddy - I find it distressing when the presenter spends most of the time head down, reading their notes. Their reading ability is often below par, akin to a stilted Grade 6, mispronouncing and re-reading abysmal content.

Occasionally they may tentatively glance up and look at one small segment of the audience to see if they are all still there. It’s not long before the attention levels of the listeners drop.

This type of presentation creates a distinctly unprofessional image, with the resultant disconnection of the addressees and bad impression of the associated Brand.

It’s easier to use small cards and anchor points for content stimulation or as a reminder. A mind map is another helpful tool that can help a presenter stay on track.

4. Eyeball lock – I have had occasion in a small presentation of 10 people when the presenter never looked at me, acknowledged me, or interacted with me through any eye contact for the entire presentation.

He focused solely on one side of the room, and completely ignored the side I was sitting on. I felt left out and totally unconnected to the session. Maybe he had a sore neck. I certainly didn’t connect, and thus felt his message was of little real value. I left without any intention becoming part of their business, or connection to his message.

5. Boring Brad – Ever been to a talk where the presenter droned on incessantly in the same monotonous tone and lacklustre tempo? With no variety in tone or tempo, very little emotional contact can be made, and very rapidly the audience’s minds wander onto more stimulating things, like the paint drying on the wall, or the antics of a dying fly.

There is absolutely no valid reason to be seen as an uninteresting or boring public speaker. Vocal variety and pauses add impact, gain attention and enhance the speaker’s appeal and secure message delivery.

Even a little body movement can create some interest. Boring gets tuned out very rapidly, and because you may be the boss who is speaking, it worsens the situation even more. Engagement levels crash when a speaker is boring and dull, and retention drops dramatically.

6. Um…Um…Um…! – For me, there is nothing more off-putting, and irritating, than a speaker who does not know what they are going to say, or what is meant to come next and fills the awkward voids of silence with incessant ums and ahs.

On one occasion I counted a presenter’s ums and they outnumbered the words he intended to say!

Often this is a strong indicator of nervousness or simply a blatant lack of preparation. This is simple to rectify on both accounts. Get a professional Speaking Coach if this is your weak area.

7. Audience Bonding – Frequently the presenter neglects to build any kind of rapport, engagement or emotional bond with the viewers. This prevents them from participating fully, leaving them feeling distant and disconnected. There are some presenters who are totally unaware of the audience’s attitudes or state.

If a presenter is going to persuade or inform, they need to build a connection, create credibility and evoke interest before launching into their talk.

Good audience bonding creates and sustains credibility. It promotes openness to the message and creates a friendlier audience energy and attitude with greater interactive potential.

8. Info Overload – We are all experiencing info overload. Still I often see the presenter will have 50-100 slides, each with volumes of detail and information.

Many times, within 5 -10 minutes of being on the receiving end of the presented information, people are already into mental overwhelm. The presenter cannot afford to be ignorant of the body language or state of the audience.

Often the presenter provides an overdose of “numbers stuff” and too little useful information, graphics, meaningful visuals or shared insights.

Many times presenters are bombarding the audience with Facts and Figures, when they could achieve greater results if they explored better ways to get the message across.

Remember “Facts Tell, Stories Sell”. Stories are remembered long after the facts have faded.

9. Weak Willy – Open and close – The opening and closing segments are the greatest opportunities a presenter has to get, and retain, attention, set the mood and call the people to action.

A weak opening indicates a poor and boring presentation to come, and causes people to tune out right in the beginning. On the other hand, a powerful opening gains the audiences’ attention, sets the tone and tempo, and frames the rest of the presentation positively.

A weak close is just as bad. Being let down in the end, invalidates much of what has preceded, regardless of how interesting it may have been.

10. Muttering Mike - The final sin of presentation and public speaking is bad or incorrect language use, incoherent speaking and pronunciation. Make sure you know how to pronounce the words BEFORE you stand up and present. For example, if foreign names comprise a part of the presentation, do some research on their pronunciation, before running the risk of offending others.

Each time a person stands up in front of an audience, they have an unbelievable opportunity to build credibility and passion, to educate, inform or persuade.

If they work for a corporate brand, they also either enhance or demean the brand's promise. The emotional association the audience has with the brand is based on, and influenced by, each and every utterance the presenter makes, how they show up, their demeanor and what the listener gained from the event

It is commercial suicide to send out weak and unprofessional speakers as brand ambassadors, especially to paying audiences.

In seconds, the brand image associated, becomes irrevocably contaminated by the unprofessional delivery of the speaker.

Why not consider ongoing professional training and speaker coaching for your speakers, managers, and leaders, or even contract professional presenters to keep your brand promise strong in the presentation and the public eye?

If you would like to explore ways of ensuring your that you and staff become professional powerful presenters, please give Tony Dovale of LifeMasters Executive Coaching South Africa a call on +27 (0)83-447-6300 or 011-467-1763 or email [email protected]