I have been doing presentations since college; these include one to one, one to a few, and one to many.  Along the way I have learned a lot about presenting.  Some basics include; know your audience, know your subject, and be ready for questions. 

Presentations are fun when you do them all the time, but they can be quite nerve racking when you don’t. This feeling escalates when you are doing a presentation for your boss or your bosses boss. So how do you achieve success?

One of the best things to do is get advice from somebody who works with the C-Suite frequently. Does the VP of Sales frequently present to the CEO? That may be a great person to seek advice from on creating a winning presentation. 

What gets their attention? Is it charts and graphs or hard data? Are they a stickler for grammar; make sure you proof read. Try not to wow them with any brands or model numbers because they aren’t going to care. They are only going to care about what gets the business moving forward. 

presentation-planning

Put your presentation together and seek input. Trusted vendors may be a great resource, but doing a dry run on another internal resource can go miles. 

Last, don’t read directly from your slide deck, they can read. Summarize or dive deep, the slide supports your words, it’s not your cue card. Good luck!