In previous articles, I have talked about strategies for creating a strong opening to your presentation. Once you’ve grabbed your audience’s attention, it’s time to move into the body of your presentation. Here, you’ll discuss your topic in more detail. If your purpose is to inform, you’ll use the body of your presentation to describe your topic and demonstrate how it relates to your audience. If you’re goal is to persuade, you’ll use the body of the presentation to define the problem and offer your solution. In this article, we’ll discuss proven methods for developing the body of your presentation.

Remember, you have a limited amount of time in which to address your audience, therefore you must limit the number/breadth of main ideas covered in your presentation. Depending on the time allotted to you, it’s best to stick to two to five main points. You need to provide supporting evidence for each main point, so allow enough time to develop each point in adequate detail. It’s usually best to err on the conservative side – if there’s a question in your mind about how many points you can reasonably discuss, go with the lower number.

Once you’ve determined the most important issues to illuminate during your speech, the next thing you should plan is the appropriate organizational structure for your speech. Yes, you really do need to plan your presentational structure. There’s nothing more frustrating than listening to a speaker who jumps from one topic to another without explaining how the topics are related, repeats herself often, and never seems to get to the point. These are just a few the side effects of poor organizational structure. You should organize the body of our presentation in a manner that makes sense for your subject. In fact, most subjects naturally lend themselves to a particular structure.

The most common organizational patterns are:

1) Topical – use when several ideas relate to your theme, each distinct idea becomes a main point. This structure is useful for informative speeches.

2) Chronological – uses time sequence for a framework. This structure is useful for both informative and persuasive speeches, both of which require the presentation of background information

3) Spatial – organizes material according to physical space. This structure is useful for informative speeches.

4) Classification – organizes material by putting things into categories. This structure is useful for both informative and persuasive speeches.

5) Problem/Solution – organizes material by describing a problem and then presenting a solution. This structure is useful for persuasive speeches.

6) Cause/Effect – organizes material by describing the cause of a problem and then presenting the effects of the problem. This structure is useful for persuasive speeches.

As you can see, some subjects could easily be organized by a number of different patterns. Chose a structure that supports the presentation of the supporting materials you plan to share with your audience. Whatever organizational structure you chose, make sure to stick with it throughout your presentation.

Beginners always need to be guided in order for them to understand what they have to do. This is true even for businessmen since they have to learn everything about the company that they are going to run as well as the job that they have to perform. For those who are operating or managing businesses, you might have heard about the balanced scorecard and its abilities. This is a business tool that enables one get the overall performance of the company based upon the following perspectives: customer, financial, learning and growth and internal operations. Now, you have to understand that the BSC will only work if all of the employees within the organization now about it. Most company owners neglect this responsibility and only let those at the top level of the organization comprehend what the scorecard is all about. In this case, what you need are BSC presentation templates.

The BSC presentation templates can easily be obtained today from the web. You can download them either for free or there are others that might cost you a few dollars. Once you have acquired the template, it is easy for you to come up with a presentation so that those who are working in your company can appreciate and be enlightened on the topic of the balanced scorecard. Before you download scorecard templates however, you should make sure that you can use the content that is provided by the template that you have chosen. It should provide you help on the introduction up to the conclusion of the whole presentation.

You can look for free BSC templates that you can utilize during meetings, conferences or seminars. This is the right opportunity towards promoting the awareness of your staff towards the whole concept of the balanced scorecard. There are really useful BSC presentation templates which you can download and use in order for you to present to your employees the importance of the scorecard to the processes in the company. The templates will guide you on how you can create the entire presentation but of course, you also need to research on a few things which are connected to the company’s position

Implementing the balanced scorecard will become easier with the help of the BSC presentation templates. This is because all the people who are working in the organization that you are running can define what the BSC really is. Aside from that, they can provide other people with information about how the BSC is being utilized in the company. This is particularly useful for the new employees. It is not required to make a presentation every now and then especially when there are newly hired applicants in the business. You can simply ask the older employees to guide the newbies. This is an effective method and can save time, money and effort on your part. Nevertheless, you need to give updates and even provide new presentations to your employees when there are changes within the scorecard that has been implemented. This way, everything will be clearly defined for them and confusion is avoided.

Here are my 7 tips for polishing your presentations and giving maximum value to your audience:

1. Involve the audience by asking them questions and for their own stories and experiences to support what you are saying. However, only ask a question if you know they will get the answer right! You are not there to test them and a series of wrong answers will take you off-track and begin to irritate.

2. Talk for about 15 minutes at most without audience participation, or you will lose their attention. People always start to perk up if they think they may be asked for a contribution!

3. Use plenty of anecdotes and human interest to engage your audience’s imagination. Human beings love stories and they will be more inspired to think about what you are saying.

4. Don’t be afraid to repeat important points several times or to allow a pause for something vital to sink in. Even the most quick-witted amongst us welcomes the opportunity to mentally catch up and really appreciate a point before you move on.

5. Use plenty of visuals, whether that be PowerPoint, props or visual imagery. Being able to see or imagine something brings it alive in a fresh and powerful way.

6. You will probably need to speak more slowly, more clearly and more loudly than you would naturally. A normal conversational pace can come across as a gabble in a presentation.

7. And most importantly of all – look as though you are enjoying yourself! Moods and emotions are catching, and if you look as though you are happy to be there, talking to them, your audience will be more responsive.

Enjoy putting these tips into practice and you will become a popular presenter!