Whether you work for yourself or someone else, there may come a time that you are responsible for selling your product or service to potential buyers in a presentation format.
Giving a presentation can be hugely daunting. After all, fear of public speaking is one of the most common fears among humans everywhere.
However, it is possible to get past those nerves and give your audience what they are looking for—and perhaps even wow them!
Here are ten tips that will help you stay calm, cool and collected while you close during the presentation.
1.) Bring Someone Who Relaxes You – While you may not be able to have a friend or loved on up there on the stage or in front of the room with you, it can help to have someone to give you a pep talk before you begin. Plus, you know at least one person will be clapping for you!
2.) Meet the Audience – See if you can find a few minutes to mingle with some of the people you’ll be talking to before you go out on stage. Meeting the audience will help you feel a little more familiar with the audience and will give you some ideas on how to better connect.
3.) Identify Your Flaws – Practice your speech ahead of time and figure out where your flaws lie. If you know what your problems are, you will be able to avoid them and can focus on the positive.
4.) Figure Out Why – Why are your audience members coming to listen to you? Do they want to be sold to? Are they being paid to be there? Are they there to listen to another speaker? Knowing why the audience is gathered can make it easier for you to connect.
5.) Uncover Audience Needs – If you can hope to sell anything, you have to solve a problem or meet a pain point. See if you can work some ways to learn about your audiences’ needs and wants into your speech. Not only will this make your pitch stronger, but it will also put you at ease.
6.) Fake It Until You Make It – Sometimes it can help just to appear calm—even if you are a bundle of nerves inside. Learn how to keep your arms still, avoid stammering and prevent pacing back and forth. Just doing these things will help you look calm and once you look calmer, you’ll feel calmer.
7.) Don’t Work from a Script – While you probably want some notes, or a blueprint of what your speech will look like, trying to work from a script will only make you more nervous. After all, if you lose your place, how will you ever find it again? Figure out the happy medium that will work best for you.
8.) Watch Others – Attend a few other speeches that are in the same vein as your own. Watch these speech givers. Once you have seen how easy it seems for these individuals to get up there and speak their piece, you’ll see that it is not so difficult to do yourself.
9.) Learn Your Surroundings – Giving a sales presentation is hard. Trying to walk into a place you are unfamiliar with and giving one is even harder. Spend some time learning your surroundings and you’ll find that the presentation doesn’t feel quite as overwhelming.
10.) Smile – If you smile, everyone will feel your smile. Plus, there is always the power of positive thinking! A good smile doesn’t hurt anything and will likely help you feel better about the whole presentation—practice doing it naturally if you worry!
The above tips are quite varied. That’s a huge benefit to you because it means that even if one doesn’t seem like it would work, perhaps another would.
On the flip side, don’t be afraid to try out a few different ideas—the most surprising tip could be the one that helps you succeed.
