Part 5: Oral and Employment

Communication
Chapter 11: Oral Presentation
Business and Professional Communication
CBACom223

2nd Semester A.Y. 2022-2023

BSBA 2nd Year
Learning Outline
• The Role of Business Presentation
• Planning the Presentation
• Organizing the Presentation
• Planning Team and Online Presentations
• Developing Visual Support for Business
Presentations
• Practicing and Delivering the Presentation
The Role of Business Presentation

You may have heard that one of Americans' top fears is public
speaking—perhaps it's one of yours. But presentations are
inescapable in business for training employees, winning new
business, and getting support for an idea.

Just about everyone in business will give at least one major

presentation and many smaller ones each year to employees,
clients, managers, and colleagues. Your presentation skills will
also be useful for your personal life—for volunteer
organizations and at meetings. use, meaningful visual support,
and strong delivery skills.
The Role of Business Presentation

Whether you're a CEO addressing thousands of shareholders or

a first-line manager speaking with a small group of employees,
the costs of ineffective presentations are immense.

Weak presentations waste time and money and reflect poorly on

the speaker. Investors lose confidence, training programs fail,
sales are lost, and good ideas aren't Implemented.

Making presentations involves good planning, logical

organization, effective collaboration, proficient technology use,
meaningful visual support, and strong delivery skills.
Planning the Presentation

Purpose
Keeping your purpose in mind helps you decide what
information to include and what to omit, in what order
to present this information, and which points to
emphasize and subordinate. Most business
presentations have one of four purposes: to report,
explain, persuade, or motivate.
 Updating the audience on a project or event.
To Report Example: At a senior management team meeting, the sales
manager provides a monthly report of actual sales against targets.

Detailing how to carry out a process or procedure.

To Explain Example: The sales manager shows sales associates how to
accurately complete expense reports.

Convincing the audience to purchase something or to accept an

idea.
To Persuade Example: The sales manager encourages a new client to use the
company's services.

Inspiring the audience to take some action.

To Motivate Example: At a monthly sales team meeting, the sales manager
gets the associates excited about a new incentive plan.

Example of a Sales Manager Making Four Presentations with Different Purposes

(Newman, 2019, p. 350)
Planning the Presentation

Audience Analysis
The principles you use to analyze your audience of a presentation are the
same as those discussed for writing messages and reports. What you
discover gives you clues about what content to present, how to organize
your presentation, what tone to use, what questions to prepare for, and
even how to dress.
The audience's attitude affects your presentation. If, for example, you
think your listeners will be hostile—either to you personally or to your
message—then you'll have to oversell yourself or your proposal. Instead
of giving one or two examples, you'll need to give several. In addition to
establishing your own credibility, you may need extensive research size of
your audience also determines your approach.
Planning the Presentation

Audience Analysis
The size of your audience also determines your approach.
The larger your audience, the more formal your presentation will
be. For large groups, you should speak more loudly and more
slowly and use more emphatic gestures and larger visuals.
If you're speaking to a small group, your tone and gestures will
be more like those used in normal conversation. Also, when
presenting to small groups, you have more options for visual
support.
Planning the Presentation

Audience Analysis
If your audience is unfamiliar with your topic, you should use
clear, easy-to-understand language, with extensive visuals and
many examples. If the audience is more knowledgeable, you
can go more quickly.
If your audience is mixed, you could give two separate
presentations to tailor content to each group. Although this
takes more time and planning, breaking up groups is usually
worth the effort.
Planning the Presentation

Audience Analysis
The best approach may be to tailor your presentation to the key
decision maker in the group-often the highest-ranking person.
Take time especially to understand this decision maker's needs,
objectives, and interests as they relate to your purpose.
Try not to go into a presentation cold. Meeting with decision
makers before your presentation can help predispose the
audience in your favor, or at least tell you what resistance you
might encounter.
Planning the Presentation

Delivery Method

Informal and Formal Delivery Styles

(Newman, 2019, p. 352)
Planning the Presentation

Impromptu and Extemporaneous Presentations

Most business presentations are impromptu or
extemporaneous. You cannot prepare much for an Impromptu
presentation; for example, during a meeting, someone might
ask you for your opinion on a new product. If you did your
homework, you'll be able to answer the question well, but the
presentation is quite informal. You probably won't have any
visuals if you weren't expecting the question, and you'll speak
in a conversational, unrehearsed style.
Planning the Presentation

Impromptu and Extemporaneous Presentations

Like an Impromptu presentation, an extemporaneous presentation
requires unrehearsed style—but it is an enhanced conversational style. The
presentation is organized and fluid, typically delivered from an outline or with
visuals.

Preparation for extemporaneous presentations requires good notes, useful

visuals, or both. With presentation software, such as PowerPoint, your slides
can function as your outline.

The most adept business presenters do not need additional notes, unless
covering highly detailed or technical information. Reading diminishes eye
contact, confidence, and connection with the audience.
Planning the Presentation

Scripted and Memorized Presentations

In a few business situations, a scripted or memorized style may be
appropriate. For a scripted presentation, the presenter reads directly from
notes, as you see business leaders do at news conferences.

Very few situations call for a memorized speech. Memorizing takes time, is
risky, and like a scripted presentation, usually makes the speaker sound
mechanical rather than like an accessible, authentic, adaptable business
professional. Unless you're giving a TED Talk, stick with the extemporaneous
style.

Whichever method you choose, the key to a successful delivery is practice,

practice, practice until you sound confident, fluid, and conversational, as if you
barely rehearsed at all.
Organizing the Presentation

The Opening
The first 90 seconds of your presentation are crucial to capture
the audience's attention. The audience will be observing and
making judgments about your dress, posture, facial expressions,
voice qualities, visuals, and of course, what you're saying.

Begin immediately to build a relationship with your audience-not

just for the duration of your presentation, but for the long term.
Because the opening is so crucial to establish rapport, many
professionals write out the entire opening and practice it until
they are extremely familiar with it.
Organizing the Presentation

The Opening
The kind of opening that will be effective depends on your topic,
how well you know the audience, and how well they know you.

Consider capturing attention with a creative opening. You could

start with an interesting fact, a question to the audience, or a
story. But use your judgment. You might make a strong first
impression—or you might immediately lose the audience. Pay
careful attention to the organizational culture and know your
audience well before taking a big risk.
Organizing the Presentation

The Opening
Don’t start your presentation with an apology or excuse (e.g., “I wish I
had more time to prepare my remarks today,” or “I’m not really much
of a speaker”).
For most business presentations, let the audience know up front what
you expect of them. Are you simply presenting information for them to
absorb, or are you asking for their endorsement, resources, or help?

Your opening should lead into the body of your presentation by previewing
your content: "Today, I'll cover four main points. First,..." Typically, this will
be your agenda for the presentation.
Organizing the Presentation

The Body: Choose a Logical Sequence

Just as you do when writing a letter, email, or report, choose an
organizational plan that suits your purpose and your audience's needs.
Whatever organizational plan you choose, make sure that your
audience knows at the outset where you're going and is able to follow
you throughout the presentation.
In a written document, signposts such as headings tell the reader how
the parts fit together. In an oral presentation, frequent and clear
transitions tell your listeners where you are within the presentation and
how points connect to each other.
Criteria: Introduce each criterion in turn, and show how well each alternative meets
that criterion (typically used for presenting proposals).

Direct Sequence: Give the major conclusions, first, followed by the supporting
details (typically used for presenting routine information).

Indirect Sequence: Present the reasons first, followed by the major conclusion
(typically used for hostile or highly resistant audiences).

Chronology: Present the points in the order in which they occurred (typically used in
status reports or when reporting on some event).

Cause/Effect/Solution: Present the sources and consequences of some problem,

and then pose a solution (useful for problem solving).

Order of Importance: Arrange the points in order of importance, and then pose
each point as a question and answer it (an effective way of helping the audience
follow your arguments).

Elimination of Alternatives: List all alternatives, and then gradually eliminate each
one until only one option remains the one you're recommending (useful to guide
decision making).
Sample Organizational Plans for Presentations
(Newman, 2019, p. 352)
Organizing the Presentation

The Body: Establish Your Credibility

Convince the audience that you've done a thorough job of
collecting and analyzing the data and that your points are
reasonable. Support your arguments with credible
evidence-statistics, experiences, examples, and support
from experts. Use objective language; let the
exaggeration or emotion-persuade the audience. Be
guided by the same principles you use when writing a
persuasive letter or report.
Organizing the Presentation

The Body: Establish Your Credibility

Avoid saturating your presentation with so many facts
and figures that your audience won't be able to absorb
them. Regardless of their relevance, statistics will not
strengthen your presentation if the audience can't
digest all the data. Instead, you might prepare
handouts or distribute copies of additional slides with
detailed statistics.
Organizing the Presentation

The Body: Manage Negative Information

When faced with negative information, think about your own data
analysis. Despite criticism, you still believe in your idea.
The best approach is to present all important information— pro
and con—and to show through your own analysis that your
recommendations are valid.
Although you should discuss the important negative points, you
may reasonably omit discussing minor ones. But be prepared to
discuss all issues that the audience may raise during the question-
and-answer session.
Organizing the Presentation

The Ending
The ending of your presentation is your last opportunity to
achieve your objective. Don't waste it. A presentation without
a strong ending is like a joke without a punch line.
Your closing should summarize the main points of your
presentation, especially if it has been a long one. Let the
audience know the significance of what you've said. Draw
conclusions, make recommendations, or outline the next
steps. Leave the audience with a clear and simple message.
Organizing the Presentation

The Ending
To add punch to your ending, you might tell a story or show a dramatic
visual. However, resist the temptation to end with a quotation. Quotations
are overused, and you want your listeners to remember your words-hot
someone else’s message.
Avoid having to drop important sections or rush through the conclusion of
your presentation because you misjudged your timing.
Finish on a strong, upbeat note. Avoid fading out with a weak "That's
about all I have to say" or "I see that our time is running out." Your
audience may most remember your last words-choose them carefully
and deliver them confidently.
Organizing the Presentation

The Ending
To add punch to your ending, you might tell a story or show a dramatic
visual. However, resist the temptation to end with a quotation. Quotations
are overused, and you want your listeners to remember your words-hot
someone else’s message.
Avoid having to drop important sections or rush through the conclusion of
your presentation because you misjudged your timing.
Finish on a strong, upbeat note. Avoid fading out with a weak "That's
about all I have to say" or "I see that our time is running out." Your
audience may most remember your last words-choose them carefully
and deliver them confidently.
Organizing the Presentation

Humor in Business Presentations

Memory research indicates that when ideas are presented with humor,
the audience can recall more details of the presentation and retain
information longer. Humor also creates a connection between the
speaker and the audience
Personal, unexpected stories are often best for getting a good laugh.
Self-deprecating humor shows that you’re human and can laugh at
yourself. But be careful not to damage your credibility
Even if you’re an expert joke teller, use humor sparingly. You want
your audience to respect your ideas—not how funny you are.
Planning Team and Online Presentations

Team Presentations
Team presentations are common for communicating about complex projects.
For example, presenting a large company's marketing strategy to management
or updating the five-year plan may require the expertise and time of several
people.

Team presentations, like team writing projects, require extensive planning,

close coordination, and a measure of maturity and goodwill. Just as you would
for team writing assignments, delegate responsibilities according to each
person's strengths.

Not everyone has to have equal time in front of the audience, but it's odd to
have one person speak for 20 minutes and another for only 3. Most important,
your presentation should come across as coherent and well coordinated.
Planning Team and Online Presentations

Achieving Coherence
Because people have different speaking styles, sounding like
one cohesive unit is a challenge for team presentations. Group
members should decide beforehand on the presentation tone,
format, organization, and visuals. They should also agree on
what to wear, how to handle questions, and how to transition
from one speaker to another.
Use a presentation template to maintain one "look and feel” for
all slides. Have one editor review all slides for consistency
throughout the presentation.
Planning Team and Online Presentations

Practicing the Team Presentation

A full-scale rehearsal with visuals—in the room where the
presentation will be made—is crucial for team presentations.
If possible, record the rehearsal on video so that you can
review it later.
Schedule your final practice session early enough that you
will have time to make changes—and feedback. Critiquing
the performance of a colleague requires tact and empathy,
and accepting requires grace and maturity.
Planning Team and Online Presentations

Practicing the Team Presentation

Coordinate introductions, transitions, and positioning.

When others are speaking, consider sitting down rather than creating a police
lineup in which presenters nervously look at their notes and mouth the words
to their upcoming section.

Also plan how you'll handle questions. If a question comes up during the
presentation that you know a team member will answer during a subsequent
segment, avoid stealing the team member's thunder. Instead, respond, for
example, with, "Dylan will cover that point in a few minutes."

Refrain from adding to another member's response unless what you have to
contribute is truly an important point not covered in the original answer.
Developing Visual Support for
Business Presentations

When to Use Which Type of Visual

(Newman, 2019, p. 358)
Developing Visual Support for
Business Presentations

Creating Presentation Slides: Present Your Main

Points Clearly
Your title slide should convey what your presentation is about and, if
relevant, what result you expect from the presentation.
A main point slide, presented before the agenda slide, conveys the
most important message to the audience. You don’t always have to use
the main point slide, but this extra step will make your communication
objective clear.
Your agenda slide describes main points. Rather than generic headings,
you can use message titles. Using message titles for all your slides will
reinforce your main points throughout.
Developing Visual Support for
Business Presentations

Creating Presentation Slides:

Make Your Presentations Easy to Follow
Developing a well-organized presentation is only half the battle, now you
have to reflect that clear organization through your visuals. Clear
organization keeps your audience—and you as the presenter—focused.
In your slide presentation, you can include divider slides or a slide tracker.
With divider slides, you repeat your agenda slide, highlighting each topic
as you cover it. Divider slides are particularly useful for team
presentations as you transition to new topics as well as different An
alternative to divider slides is a slide tracker to show where you are within
the presentation. A slide tracker shows where you are within the
presentation.
Developing Visual Support for
Business Presentations

Creating Presentation Slides: Choose an Attractive,

Appropriate Design
Design is never as important as content, but visual appeal can affect your
credibility and, at times, the audience’s understanding. Choose
complementary colors, a cohesive design, simple photographs, and shapes
as visual cues.

Unless your company has a standard design that you must use, you can use
one of the many templates available for presentation slides.

Simple backgrounds are best for slides. Choose a solid color, gradient, or
very light image that travels the edges of the title slide but doesn’t interfere
with text or other graphics. You may sue either a dark background with light
text or dark text on a light background.
Developing Visual Support for
Business Presentations

Creating Presentation Slides: Choose an Attractive,

Appropriate Design
If possible, look at your slides projected in the room where you’ll deliver
your presentation.

Choose no more than two points for your slides. One font for a slide title
and another for the body works well, but more than that may look busy.

Unless you’re presenting for a creative audience, choose standard

business fonts. Serif fonts such as Cambria and Times New Roman,
which have small lines connecting to the letters, have a more classic
look. Sans serif fonts (without serifs), such as Arial and Calibri, present
a more modern look.
Developing Visual Support for
Business Presentations

Creating Presentation Slides:

Replace Text with Graphics
Presentation slides with few or no words are becoming more popular. Rather
than showing lots of bulleted text, the creator uses mostly graphics. For this
approach, the presentation relies more on the delivery skills of the speaker.

Even for more traditional presentations, avoid slide after slide of bulleted text.
Instead, use your creativity—and tools such as SmartArt in PowerPoint—to
convert text into graphics.

Graphics make your slides more visually appealing and, more important, show
your audience how concepts relate to each other. Consider using photos or
other graphics to replace text. But avoid irrelevant photos and goofy clipart,
which detract from your main points.
Developing Visual Support for
Business Presentations

Creating Presentation Slides:

Replace Text with Graphics
Equally mind-numbing as text-heavy slides are large tables of data projected for
your audience. A table of dense numbers is fine for printed report but not for a
slide.

You can use graphics to highlight data, and add animations to help the
audience follow along. Change colors and text enhancements, such as
boldface, to draw attention to key points as you review a slide.

Keep animations simple and avoid overusing them. Nobody needs to see a line
of text travel around a slide, accompanied by a Lady Gaga song, before it finally
lands next to a bullet. Similarly, you don’t need to control every word for your
audience.
References
Newman, A. (2019). Business Communication In Person,
In Print, Online (10th ed.). Cengage Learning Asia
Pte Ltd (Philippines Branch): Bonifacio Global City,
Taguig City
Part 5: Oral and Employment
Communication
Chapter 11: Oral Presentation
Business and Professional Communication
CBACom223

2nd Semester A.Y. 2022-2023

BSBA 2nd Year