UNIT- 1 PREPARATION OF BUSINESS PRESENTATIONS

Structure

1.1 Objectives
1.2 Introduction
1.3 Types of Presentations Progress”
1.4 The Purpose of Presentations
1.5 Creating a Business Presentation
1.6 Visual Aids, Text and Formatting Tips
1.7 Let us Summarise
1.8 Suggested Reading and Sites
1.9 Answers to “Check your progress

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1.1 OBJECTIVES

The Unit will help you to :

Understand the need for different kinds of presentations

Develop the content for a business presentation
Understand colours, fonts and effects better

1.2 INTRODUCTION
Most presentations are made to share information. In a professional environment there
could be several types of presentations. This module introduces you to the various kinds
and enables you to create and deliver more effective presentations. Like most other skills,
making effective presentations too gets better with preparation and practice. Your ability
to create and deliver impactful presentations will be a huge asset at the workplace, so go
ahead and focus on getting that edge over your colleagues.
This unit introduces you to different kinds of presentations and their objectives and takes
you through the process of actually creating a presentation and preparing to deliver it.

1.3 TYPES OF PRESENTATIONS

There are many types of presentations and the most basic difference is between formal
and informal presentations. Some presentations are done at the spur of the moment while
others are well planned. At times spontaneous presentations are made on a chart, piece of
paper or even a black or white board.

Informal presentations are usually quite interactive and friendly. Questions form an
important part and the pace could be easy. These could happen suddenly with little or no
preparation at all. For example, a group of office colleagues gather to plan an office
picnic and some individuals walk up to the board and capture the kind of place they want
to visit. They then shortlist three or four possible destinations and compare their features

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on the board. Or a scientist is working on a particular engine design that is fuel efficient
and someone asks him how this is different from a regular design and spontaneously, he
picks up a piece of paper and draws out the engine to explain the difference. The listener
also asks him several questions which he answers using the drawing to illustrate.
These are both examples of informal presentations and happen often in non-work related
situations and the people involved usually know each other well. As a result of the
spontaneity, estimates and options are spoken of rather than specific numbers or data.
For eg. The diagram above is an informal comparison of four likely destinations for a
team outing.
Formal presentations are better planned and structured, and may have varying degrees of
audience participation. Most presentations, formal or informal, have a beginning, middle
and end, and a structured presentation makes sure these are linked together logically.
Examples of formal presentations are when the features of a new product are being
demonstrated by a salesperson or a subordinate is presenting a report to a boss. The
presenter plays a more active role and tries to explain as clearly as possible the content of
the presentation. Often there could be graphs, figures, statistics or visuals shared. The
presentation does not depend on questions but moves forward in a structured and logical
manner.
Formal presentations also use more facts and figures rather than estimates or opinions. As
these are planned in advance, they are usually brief and to-the- point. In such cases
questions usually come up at the end of the presentation. Please look at the diagram
below that captures the sales figures of a product over a four month period. You will
notice that the graph shows exact figures and has been put together before the start of the
presentation

   

100 SEPT 
90 110
80
70 AUG 
JUNE  75
60 67 
50
JULY 
40
30 48
20
10
0
NORTHERN REGION 

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS 1

a) Against each item in column ‘A’ put down whether you think it is likely to be a
formal or an informal presentation.

S.no Column A Column B

1 Research findings on links between diet and
weight gain
2 A witness describing the scene of crime
3 A football coach elaborating on positions of

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 players
4 A salesman comparing his product with its
nearest competitor
5 Your friend giving you directions to a new
restaurant

b) Check your understanding by placing these features of formal and informal

presentations in the appropriate columns. The first one is done for you -
planned, questions are important, more participative, uses facts, spontaneous,
known people, brief and precise, easy paced, logically structured, no fixed
structure, presenter plays a more active role, the audience plays a more active role
Formal presentations Informal presentations
1 The presenter plays a more active The audience plays a more active role
role
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Additional support: Here are some websites which will help you learn more about
the art of making business presentations.
o http://www.howtopresent.com/indexgo.html
o www.cmos.ca/presentationse.html
o www.cs.cmu.edu/~mihaib/presentation-rules.html
o www.careerindia.com/careerhub
o http://www.bcschools.net/staff/PowerPointHelp.htm
o http://www.metacafe.com/watch/860966/how_to_make_a_good_powerpoint_pr
esentation
o http://in.youtube.com/watch?v = LVtWYe-rkxs
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1.4 THE PURPOSE OF PRESENTATIONS
Presentations are usually made to inform, share facts/ideas or instruct the audience. There
are different reasons why information is shared. For example, a salesperson enumerates
the brilliant features of his product to his field staff in order to promote his product; the
CEO of an organisation shares the future plans of the company with the employees to
keep them informed and focused. Presentations are also used to instruct people in using
new products whether they are physically real like a bar of soap, or services like mobile
phone connections or the internet.
In order to make a successful presentation it is very important to understand the general
and the specific purpose of the presentation, as well as certain other factors which we will
discuss shortly. The easiest way to identify the objective or purpose of the presentation is
by asking the following questions –
o Is the objective of the presentation to inform, share or instruct the audience?
o Why is the audience attending the presentation?
o What is the profile of the audience?
o What will they be expecting?
o How much time do I have to make an impact?
Once you have the answers to these questions, your task of creating a presentation is a lot
easier. Depending on the purpose of the presentation and the audience, you can tailor
your material. Let’s take an actual example to understand this better.
Rajen Mehta is to make a presentation about a digital security feature in his office. He
has three days to prepare for his presentation. He draws up a checklist of the background
information he needs and prepares to create the presentation. He takes the time to fill out
the first checklist which is given below.

Sample filled checklist -

What is the objective of the presentation
to inform, share or instruct the audience? To inform

Why is the audience attending the presentation? They have to start using the new
feature from the following month

What is the profile of the audience? Junior Engineers and HR staff

What will they be expecting? Instructions on how to use and the

advantage of using the new system
How much time do I have to make an impact? A total of 15 mins - 10 mins for
presentation and 5 mins for
questions

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How does Rajen Mehta use this information to his advantage? Now that Rajen knows
what he needs to do, he sets out to prepare for his presentation. He knows that he needs to
instruct his audience, so he should make his presentation precise and clear. The audience
will be looking for easy- to- understand steps, so he needs to prepare his information in a
few short steps.
The audience will consist of people like Junior Engineers who are comfortable with
technology. He also has to address HR staff who may or may not be familiar with
technology. He realises that he will be making the presentation 5 times with groups of 16
-20 people each time. He has only 10 minutes so he knows that he needs to prepare
Frequently Asked Questions or FAQs to anticipate questions and have accurate answers
ready.
Given that the audience will want to know the advantages of the new system, Rajen
prepares a slide comparing its features with the old system, and highlighting the
accuracy of the new system. He also knows that in 10 minutes he can present a maximum
of 4 slides, and prepares accordingly with only the most important information. Once
Rajen has done all this, he knows his chances of making a successful presentation are
more.
As Rajen has advance notice and his audience comprises people he may or may not
know, he has to make a formal presentation. He is comfortable with computers so
chooses to make a PowerPoint presentation. This is part of Microsoft Office on
computers and the most common way to make presentations at the workplace. In case
you are not very familiar with the usage of MS Power Point do try and learn it as it is
very useful.
Rajen Mehta gives it a lot of thought, draws out a plan and then makes the following
slides.
Slide 1 -Objective & Contents of his presentation
Slide 2 - Difference between the old and the new system
Slide 3 – How to use the new system
Slide 4 – Advantages of the new system
Slide 5 – FAQs

Please see below the slides of Rajen Mehta

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 Objective & Content

• Difference between old and new system

Use of system X • How to use the new system
• Advantages of new system
• FAQs
Rajen Mehta

Name of organization - EXS

Old system vs new system How to use New System

Old system
Manually sign in
attendance register
Sign in at various points Swipe at each entry
of office each day point
Only authorized team
can view attendance
New System
• You will be issued digital identity cards
Hold up identity card
• Swipe the card at entrance of building and
near card reader on your floor
• You will see the red light change on the
card reader to green
• Once this happens the door will open and
Employees and allow access
authorized team can
view attendance

Advantages of new system FAQs

• Eliminates manual sign in • What if the system does not recognise my
• Only authorised persons have access to card?
sensitive areas such as server room • What happens if I forget my card at home?
• Captures attendance instantly • How do I know which areas of the office I
• Employees and HR staff can view have access to?
attendance online • What if I forget to swipe as soon as I come
• Saves time in?

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS 2

a) What are the advantages of filling in the check list before making a presentation?
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b) Do you think Rajen has put together a good presentation? Give reasons for your
answer.
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1.5 CREATING EFFECTIVE PRESENTATIONS

This section focuses on the main parts of creating a new presentation.

STRUCTURE:
As a starting point plan the outline of the presentation, it is the backbone of the
presentation. It is very important for the presentation to have a logical flow and one idea
needs to lead to the next. Always remember to move from the known to the unknown.
Studies show that a good presenter does not spend over 3 minutes per slide.
Divide your presentation broadly into the Beginning, Middle and End. Depending on the
subject and duration, the number of slides in each section could vary. Here are some
things that each part clearly sets out to do.
Beginning Middle End
o Captures attention o Builds on topic o Links all the
previous parts
o Shares purpose of o Shares examples o Summarises key
the presentation points
o Shares expected o Explains how the o Closes memorably
outcomes relates to the
audience
oThis part could take
between 75% and
80% of the total
duration of the
presentation
In Unit 2 we will focus in detail on how to deliver a business presentation. In both the
Units of this Block you will find cross references between Units 1& 2, in preparing for
and actually delivering the presentation. We now move on to putting together or creating
a business presentation.

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The Beginning:
We will pay more attention to the beginning of the presentation in Unit 2 on delivering
presentations; here we stick to the bare essentials of the beginning of a presentation.
There are three important parts that one must take care of when starting a presentation.
They are –
o Greeting the participants
o Introducing yourself
o Stating the objectives of the presentation very clearly
For example-
o “Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I’m Meena Iyer from Sales and Marketing
and I’m here to make a presentation on the increase in dealership network in the
Northern Region.”
o “Good morning, I’m Amit Desai and we have assembled here to understand how
the new leave policy of our organisation will impact us.”
The next step will be to share expected outcomes and also give an indication of the time
this will take. Here are some more examples built on the two statements used above. The
newer additions are in italics to make it easier for you.
o ‘Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I’m Meena Iyer from Sales and Marketing
and I’m here to make a presentation on the increase in dealership network in the
Northern Region. In the next 30 minutes, I’ll share the details of our methods to
select dealers, names of those who have been finalised and finally the expected
increase in customer reach as a result of this move.”

o “Good morning, I’m Amit Desai and we have assembled here to understand how
the new leave policy of our organisation will impact us. In the next one hour, I’ll
explain how the new policy is different from the old one, what new elements have
been added and how these will benefit us.”
Wouldn’t you agree that it is not too difficult to create a presentation once you have the
outline and build on it bit by bit? That is exactly what we will do in this unit.
At times you may come across presenters using ‘props’ such as a relevant quotation, or a
visual such as a graph or a photograph of the proposed new office site. This is just to
capture audience attention. It is also best left to experienced presenters.
If the content of the presentation is hard to understand and the duration over 2 hours, at
times seasoned presenters use activities to stir up the group and increase energy levels.
Activities could vary from a minute or two to even 10 % of the total time allocated. This
depends completely on the content and the presenter’s comfort level. As someone who is
learning to make presentations, it is sufficient for you to know that some people use it
and recognise it if you witness it at your workplace.
Ensure that your presentation has a cover page and that you also share the objective,
contents and duration within the first minute of beginning your presentation.

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The Middle:
Once the beginning is done, the most important part from the content angle is the Middle.
This is the backbone of your presentation and you need to build it carefully. As it is the
crucial part of the presentation, move from the known to the unknown. Sort out all the
information you have into the following three sections –
Essential
Useful
Not necessary

Ensure that all the information that falls under the essential category is conveyed. The
useful section could have additional data or examples to support what you are saying in
the essential section.
Let’s refer back to Unit 1.4 and understand Rajen Mehta’s slides better. To make it
simpler for you, here is the flow of his slides once again –(please refer slides)
Slide 1 -Objective & Contents of the presentation
Slide 2 - Difference between the old and the new system
Slide 3 – How to use the new system
Slide 4 – Advantages of the new system
Slide 5 – FAQs
Look carefully at slides 2 and 3. In slide 2 he compares the features of the old and new
security systems, and in slide 3 he moves from the known, ie the old system to the
unknown, which is the new system. This is a very effective way of building on what is
familiar and taking the audience forward.
In your outline you would have decided how much information you wish to share with
the audience. Support it with evidence. The middle is also the section where you
substantiate what you are saying with pictures or data in the form of tables or graphs and
with illustrations and examples.
Depending on your purpose, audience profile and duration of the presentation, the middle
section is expected to be anything between 75% and 80% of your total content and
number of slides.
It is very important to control the pace or speed at which you deliver the presentation.
Experienced presenters carefully time the delivery of the middle section to ensure the
overall pace of their presentation. You can do this by logically transitioning from one
slide to the next like Rajen Mehta has done. The transition could happen through a key
word or a sentence that links the two sides.
Since the major portion of your slides belongs to the middle section, you will also have to
be careful about using professionally accepted fonts, colours and special effects. Section
1.6 will deal with it in greater detail. In this section we have restricted ourselves to the

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content of a presentation.
Remember that the language you use in your slides needs to be geared to the level of your
audience. Do make sure that you keep it simple and straight.
Preparing for FAQs –
Once your content and outline are ready, think of questions that might come up from the
audience. Make a list of 10 likely questions and give them a rating of 1 to 5, with 1 being
the most likely and 5 being the least likely. Make a slide showing the top 5 questions on
it.
Before you put these questions up you could tell the audience that these are probably
some of the questions on their minds. Once you put these questions up, you need to also
share your answers to them. Decide the best way to answer all 10 questions, gather any
data or extra information you need to answer these satisfactorily and practise responding.
It is a good idea to use the FAQs slides after the middle section of your presentation and
before the end. You could also go on, complete your presentation including the end, and
then take the FAQs page too. Find out what you are more comfortable doing and follow
that approach. There is more information on handling audience questions in the next
section, Unit 1.4. Please refer that section as well.
The End –
Now that you have the content of the presentation, let’s focus on closing the presentation
effectively.The last section is equally important and links all the ideas that have been
expressed in the middle section. The last section usually summarises all the key points
and sometimes explains what the next steps are.
This section could also include Frequently Asked Questions ( FAQs) or invite the
audience to ask questions. Some presenters leave the audience with a memorable
anecdote or quote. Let’s take the example of Amit Desai’s presentation, an example you
saw in the section on beginning presentations. He started with -
“Good morning, I’m Amit Desai and we have assembled here to understand how the new
leave policy of our organisation will impact us. In the next one hour, I’ll explain how the
new policy is different from the old one, what new elements have been added and how
these will benefit us.”
Let’s now assume that Amit Desai has explained the difference between the old and new
policies and he starts the end by saying – “So, in the last 50 minutes, we have gone
through the main points of our old leave policy and compared it with our new policy. We
have also understood how this impacts our divisions and teams. We now know that the
new leave policy allows us 12 floating and 3 fixed holidays as against the earlier policy
which did not make that distinction. It allowed us to take 15 holidays. As the next step,
let us choose and mark our individual holidays, so that at any point, the organisation can
continue working as usual. Of course the 3 national holidays are fixed and the office will
remain closed.”
Some presenters also close with a quotation or a short acronym to make a session
memorable. For example, an effective way of closing a presentation is by using the
principle of the three ‘Ts’. They say making a presentation can be simply put as –

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1) Tell the audience what you are going to tell them
2) Tell them
3) Tell them what you just told them!
The principle of the three ‘Ts’ summarises all of the above and encourages you to wind
up your presentation with a bang.
Once you have covered the beginning, middle and end of your talk, invite questions if
you have not already done that before the end section through a slide on FAQs. Factor
enough time to answer five questions at least. In the next section on delivery of
presentations, we can have greater clarity on the actual process of making an effective
business presentation.
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS 3
o You are a cricket fan and are putting together a 30 minute presentation on Anil
Kumble’s contribution to Indian cricket for a group of young students. Share the
salient points, number of slides and the structure of your presentation.
o Create a 10 minute long presentation on the need for adhering to new rules that
prevent employees of an IT firm from bringing in food from the canteen / cafeteria
to their workstations.
o You are a doctor and you are talking to a group of citizens in your locality on the
need for the public to maintain hygienic disposal of waste from homes. You think it
will take 30 minutes to do this. Prepare a presentation for your talk.

Glossary
Assembled – gathered
Seasoned presenters – experienced presenters
Witness – see, observe
Substantiate – build upon, detail out, expand
Evidence – proof, supporting data

1.6 VISUAL AIDS, TEXT AND FORMATTING TIPS

Visual aids are used to support and supplement the information being shared by the
presenter. They offer details and help to hold the audience attention.
Some of the possible visual aids are –
o Black or white board
o Flip charts
o Transparencies for Overhead Projector ( OHP)
o PowerPoint slides
o Audio tapes or video film clippings

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o Graphs, charts
o Photographs and pictures
VISUAL AIDS MUST BE
o Well prepared
o Carefully chosen and
o Very clear
Visual aids must be visible and easy to read. Make these keeping in mind the size of the
room, number of people present and the lighting. Typically, if you are writing on a flip
chart, it’s best to write the salient points in upper case or use figures on the board. You
could also use drawings and take advantage of colours to break the monotony of mere
listening.
If you are using computer slides, do make sure to use a font size of at least 33 so
everyone in the room can read. There are certain basic do’s and don’ts in preparing
PowerPoint slides which are commonly used today.

Here are a few pointers –

o Use an appropriate background such as light blue for slides. Colours such as pink or
yellow appear weak in a presentation.
o Use a classic blue or black and white combination. On a dark background such as
blue or deep red, use light fonts in white or cream for best visibility. On a light
background ensure that fonts are in deep blue or black for appropriate contrast.
o Avoid using very bright colours such as deep pink or dark yellow or fluorescent
green as these are not professional and also jarring to the eye.
o Make sure that your slides are not cluttered. Ideally three or four bullet points help
guide your speech, but you could have a maximum of seven bullet points per slide.
o The bullet points should have key words or phrases and not whole sentences. The
bullet points merely serve as guiding points for the presenter. Ensure that your
audience can see the slides but do not have to read completely off them.
o Some fonts such as Tahoma, Times New Roman and Arial are used more
commonly than Comic Sans and Book Antiqua and are considered more
professional. Of course, a lot depends on the topic of your presentation and the kind
of audience it is meant for.
o Use graphs, clip art or pictures discerningly to break the monotony.
o Avoid the over-use of animation as it could be distracting. Of course, if the topic is
not serious and the audience comprises of a group of peers, animation effects on
slides can provide some change
o If the presentation is long or has serious content, ensure that every 20 minutes there
is a break in the rhythm. This could be through a related anecdote, quotation, visual
etc.

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o When putting up a slide, allow the audience to read and for the message to sink in,
before moving on to the next slide .
o Ensure that you do not put up a flip chart or slide before you want to talk about
it,and do make sure that you take it off after you have finished with that point.
o Once you have finished the presentation, do make sure that you switch all the
equipment off.
Remember, of all the visual aids present in the room, the presenter is the most important.
All the other material whether they are slides or flip charts only support the presenter.
Unit 2 discusses what a presenter should keep in mind when delivering a presentation. Do
pay close attention to those details.

1.7 LET US SUMMARISE

This unit dealt with the body of the presentation and we looked at the importance of
structuring the content into a beginning, middle and end. We also evaluated putting in
essential and useful information, leaving out the unnecessary information.
In the section on beginnings we looked at starting effectively and ensuring that you greet
your audience and have a cover and content page to your presentation. You would also
need to share the duration and structure of the presentation.
Once you have set audience expectations, you get to the main body of the presentation in
the middle section. Here again you deal with not just important information but sequence
it logically as well. This section could well take around 75% of the total time. We also
learnt to insert the FAQ section and be prepared to answer audience questions.
To close your presentation effectively, you’ll need to summarise the key points and leave
the audience with a memorable quotation or clearly outline the next steps for them.

1.8 SUGGESTED READING:

o Successful Presentations for Dummies (Paperback)by Malcolm Kushner (Author),
Norman R. Augustine
o English for Business Communication – Simon Sweeney – Cambridge University
Press
o Professional Presentations – Malcolm Goodale – Cambridge University Press

1.9 ANSWERS TO “CHECK YOUR PROGRESS”

Check Your Progress 1

a) Against each item in column ‘A’ put down whether you think it is likely to be a
formal or an informal presentation.
Sl.No Column A Column B
1 Research findings between diet and weight gain Formal
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2 A witness describing the scene of crime Informal
3 A football coach elaborating on positions of Formal
players from rival team
A salesman comparing his product with its nearest
4 Formal
competitor
5
Your friend giving you directions to a new
restaurant informal

Sl.No Formal presentations Informal presentations

The presenter plays a more active role The audience plays a more active role
Planned No fixed structure
Uses facts Questions are important
Brief and concise More participative
Logically structured Spontaneous
Known people
Easy paced

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