Let’s be honest; business presentations can be nerve-wracking—and when you’re presenting on behalf of an SME, the stakes can feel even higher.
There’s no corporate safety net to fall back on. As a small business owner, when you’re delivering a presentation, you’re not just representing your business—you are the business.
But here’s the thing. Delivering a winning presentation that gets results isn’t rocket science, and it doesn’t require a degree in marketing or a full corporate team backing you up.
It’s all about having the right preparation and mindset.
1. Understand Your Audience
The quickest way to lose your audience’s interest is to deliver generic, or even irrelevant, information. Take time to discover exactly who you’re presenting to, as they’ll all have different expectations and priorities.
For example:
- Investors care about ROI, growth potential, and market strategy—your headline for them might be “Our finance platform offers a 30% ROI and targets a $15B fintech market growing at 25% annually.”
- Clients are looking for solutions to their problems—your core message might be more along the lines of “We help businesses streamline financial reporting, reducing errors by 70%.”
- Industry peers might be more interested in innovations and best practices, such as “Our predictive analytics feature is shaping the future of finance analytics, increasing forecasting accuracy by 40%.”
2. Tell a story
People remember stories, not spreadsheets. We’re not suggesting you need a degree in creative writing—turning your presentation into a story can be as simple as giving it a clear beginning, middle, and end.
For example, if you’re delivering a sales presentation about a CRM system, rather than launching straight into the product features, your ‘story’ might look something like:
- Beginning: You want to start with a hook that grabs their attention. You could ask a thought-provoking question like, “What is a business capability, and how can it drive competitive advantage?”
- Middle: Highlight the specific problem your product solves. Support your points with data, visuals, and real-world examples.
- End: Wrap up with a strong conclusion that emphasises how adopting your product can help. Include a clear call to action, such as scheduling a demo.
3. Keep It Simple
You might be tempted to try to communicate as much as possible in the time you have, but if you overload your slides with text or try to cram in too much information it can have the opposite effect.
Your audience might struggle to keep up or stop listening to you while they try to read everything on the slide. If you overwhelm them with information, your key message could get lost.
- Stick to one idea per slide: Each slide should focus on a single concept.
- Use bullet points sparingly: Limit yourself to three to five points per slide. If you’re selling a learning management system that has ten features you want to present in bullet point form, just use two slides with five bullet points each instead of cramming all ten bullet points onto a single slide.
- Make visuals count: Use high-quality images, charts, and graphs to visualise data and illustrate your points.
4. Practise, Practise, Practise
You can have the best slides in the world, but if you stumble through your delivery, your message won’t land. Practising is key to building confidence and refining your presentation skills.
- Rehearse out loud: Your presentation might look great on paper, but until you actually say it out loud, you won’t know how it flows. So, close your office door or get a friendly colleague to be your audience.
- Use a timer: You don’t want to run out of time or find yourself rushing through your final slides, so stay within your allotted time by practising with a stopwatch or built-in timing tools available in enterprise meeting software.
- Get feedback: Ask for constructive criticism after practising your presentation out loud for other people.
5. Master Your Delivery
There’s nothing worse than watching someone present who’s just reading word for word off their slides.
Of course, nerves can play a part, which is why it’s so important to practise until you feel confident delivering your presentation. But even the most compelling story will fall flat if delivered badly.
- Make eye contact: Look at individuals; don’t just scan the room or, worse, stare at your presentation.
- Use gestures: Natural hand movements can emphasise key points and make you appear more confident—even when you don’t feel it!
- Pause strategically: If you’re feeling nervous, you might find yourself rushing through your presentation or talking too quickly. Make a conscious effort to pause strategically and give your audience time to absorb information and emphasise key points.
6. Prepare for Questions
You might breathe a sigh of relief when you reach your last slide, but your job’s not over yet! A strong presentation often leads to a Q&A session, as your audience will be keen to know more.
This is where your earlier homework of getting to know your audience can pay off. Be prepared for tough questions by thinking about what your audience might ask in advance.
7. Use Technology
When presenting for a small business, you might not have access to an extensive pool of resources—but don’t let that hold you back.
You don’t need a dedicated marketing team or an in-house graphic designer. You can use design templates and tools like Canva, PowerPoint, or Keynote to easily create professional-looking slides.
You can also include:
- Animations: Use animations sparingly to highlight key points.
- Videos: A short video can add variety and keep your audience engaged.
- Interactive elements: If you’re presenting virtually, it can be easier for your remote audience to get distracted. Keep their attention by using interactive tools like polls, live Q&A platforms, or Teams direct routing. Features like real-time transcriptions can help your audience follow along more easily.
Wrapping Up
Preparing for a winning business presentation doesn’t have to be stressful. The more you practise and refine your presentation, the more confident you’ll feel—and confidence is half the battle.
So go ahead, take a deep breath, and show them what your SME is all about. You’ve got this!
