4 Ways to Make a Financial Presentation Interesting

Financial presentations are hardly ever entertaining. Yes, we try to pretend through them for the sake of professionalism especially when the information being presented is vital. Still, it typically takes a lot of effort to stay interested all through a presentation that just slides after slide of data and statistics.

But what do you do if find yourself on the other end of that table like the one delivering the presentation? You’ve definitely got your work cut out for you.

Fortunately, there are some simple rules and tips that can help you turn things around to make your financial presentation more engaging and impactful. We’ll cover a few of those in this article:

Let your audience know what they are in for

The truth is, even before your presentation begins, everyone knows that they’re in for a potentially boring session. But a simple trick around this is to help them ease into it by letting them know what’s your presentation would cover. It’s great, to begin with, a keynote that summarizes what your presentation will be all about.

For instance, you can say something like “I have X things to talk about today” then proceed to highlight these things briefly and stick with them. When you do this, you will give your audience an idea of how long your talk will last and help them to prepare their mind.

Summarizing the keynote of your presentation like this from the beginning also helps to spike their interest and ensures that they follow along. This will also guide you to streamline your presentation to relevant points only.

Give them a reason to care

One of the common mistakes people make with financial presentations is to spend the whole time showing their audience figures. But your job isn’t merely to show them the numbers. Numbers are dry, boring, and even scary when there’s no context around them. You need to tell them why the numbers matter and why they should care about it.

This begins with knowing your audience and finding out what’s important to them. This will ensure that you are emphasizing the right numbers and showing them the charts that will resonate well with them.

For instance, when presenting the profitability forecast for a product, you might want to explain why the numbers on the screen are important and the potential impact on the future of the product. This will ensure that your presentation is at least interesting to those concerned and will probably motivate them to take positive actions.

Packaging the Content

The content is perhaps the most important part of every presentation. However, having all the right data points to tell your story and organizing them into relatable keynotes is only half of the job. Being able to convey them in an impactful way is of equal importance and for this, your content needs to be properly packaged.

It must be visually appealing and designed to make sense in a way that best conveys the ideas you are trying to pass across. Try to make your presentation as visually impactful as possible using professionally organized finance presentation templates and impressive designs.

A text-heavy presentation will be boring and overwhelming. Visual aids can improve learning by as much as 400% and help listeners process information faster. But even when using visual cues like stats and tables, you need to ensure you are using the right ones.

For instance, even though tables help to summarize data very well, charts are much better for conveying information during presentations. Your audience will be able to understand what’s going on with the data with a short glance compared to when the data is presented as a table. Simple considerations like this will help you leave a lasting impression on your audience.

Make the presentation a conversation

Now to the presentation itself. The truth is, no one likes being talked at. You will end up losing your audience if your entire presentation is a boring self-indulgent monologue. To hold the attention, you need to figure out how to involve them and bring them into the conversation.

This should be easy if you already know your audience and understand their motivations. This will help you frame your presentation in a way that fully addresses their priorities.

Don’t wait till the end of your presentation before asking if anyone has a question. Create situations within your presentation that invite the audience to ask questions or discuss ideas and concepts from your presentation.

A two-way dialogue like this is much more interesting than simply talking at your listeners for several minutes. You’ll find out that your audience will be more interested in your presentation and will retain information better this way.

Conclusion

Financial presentations can be tough to crack. Even the most professional audience can get transfixed when they have to listen to a numbers-based presentation. But you can make yours different and transform dull and dry financial data into a great story that your audience will be interested in.

With some effort, quality visuals, and vital presentation skills, you can deliver a presentation that resonates with your audience and fulfills its purpose.

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