I’m a business and marketing consultant with nearly 20 years of experience delivering presentations for investors, clients, and students. My closing rate on sales pitches is over 95%, and here are 5 key things I learned about delivering convincing and engaging presentations.

1 | Start with the end in mind

What story are you trying to tell? I see many people building presentations without knowing what key message they are trying to convey, where they want to take their audience, or what the audience will get out of investing time to watch their presentation. This results in extremely boring presentations that often feel disconnected because there is no point to it—just a mish-mash of statistics where they feel like the numbers are doing the talking. Great, sales were $1M in September. Is that good or bad? Where’s the context? What are the insights, and what should the client do with this information?

Is the goal of your presentation to show the opportunity in a new geographic market for an auto manufacturer? Or is it to present a new brand packaging for your company’s product? Determine the key message you want the audience to leave with, build the story framework and how each slide or point contributes to constructing the story before you dive into the details.

If you are sitting in on a pitch and find yourself asking questions like “What are you trying to get at?” or, “What do you want me to do with this information?” the presenter needs to do a better job.

2 | Cut out all the text you don't need

If your audience is reading the slide on the screen behind you, they're not listening to you. You, as a presenter, have zero value add and the presentation could have been an email. Needless to say, you want to avoid such situations and be the authority who has the stage and their attention to pitch whatever it is you're there to share. Cutting out all necessary text, shortening all your bullet points, and framing the headlines of each slide as the key takeaway for that slide at a glance will help keep your audience on track. Replace words with visuals, graphs, and infographics; your verbal explanation and storytelling complete the picture for the audience.

3 | Make two versions of your presentation

One for when you're there to deliver the pitch and another for circulation within your prospect's team. Sometimes, you don't manage to get all the decision-makers in one room; that means you need to rely on the people who ARE sitting there listening to you to relay your messaging to the other decision-maker (s) not in attendance. Do you want to leave that to chance? No. This is why when I deliver a presentation and know there are people missing, we prepare two versions. One that is simple, with large text and visuals, where the presenter is the focus of the delivery, guiding the audience by expanding on the meaning and insights of what is on screen, and another where the concept or information is readily and easily consumed WITHOUT the guidance of a presenter. This second version is usually expanded with more commentary and text to ensure that if your presentation is circulated, the additional viewers get the full picture and understand your ask and end-game.

I’ve done presentations where all I have on the slide is the name of a concept or a single image, and I do all the storytelling. One of my staff described her improvement after a few weeks of presentation training with me: “I felt I was driving the presentation instead of the [presentation] deck driving me.” Don’t use slides as a crutch; they should add colour and enhance what you’re saying.

4 | Treat presentations like a conversation, not a broadcast.

Most salespeople love the sound of their voices and are stereotyped as people who talk a lot. More often than not, they dominate the sales pitch. What you should be doing instead is to engage in proactive listening. Only then, when you’ve asked the right questions to determine what problem your prospective client is trying to solve, can you come up with an intelligent solution that adds value for them.

Talking doesn’t help you close the deal. Listening does. Only after you’ve heard and comprehended the client's problem can you figure out the age-old question of “what’s in it for them?”

So, before your meeting, do the baseline research. You need to understand the client based on whatever sources are available to you, and when you get to sit in front of the decision-maker, it’s time to ask them questions to get their perspective on the business. What YOU think is the big problem may not be a problem; it may be something entirely different that they want to focus on. Process that information in real-time, and then offer your recommendations. You'll realize that not all functions of your product may appeal to the customer, and if you just shut up and listen, your response will sound more consultative and tailored.

5 | Get a designer to polish up your presentations

One of the key learnings from reading Napoleon Hill's book How to Win Friends and Influence People is that people love the sound of their name, just as clients love their logo and brand colours. Who do you think spent hours developing the brand name, logo, and colour palette? It's like a second name to them. This is why for every presentation we deliver, we design it using the client brand's fonts and colours; first impressions last forever, and when you put that first slide up on the screen, you will see that it's a pleasant surprise for them, that you went the extra mile to create a tailored presentation.