Winning Business Presentations
Skills, Training and Coaching

In this series of blog posts Cath outlines the practical ways you can use the scientific principles of persuasion in your presentation .
Part 5: Liking

In this series of blog posts Cath outlines the practical ways you can use the scientific principles of persuasion in your presentation .
Part 4: Consistency & Commitment

In this series of blog posts Cath outlines the practical ways you can use the scientific principles of persuasion in your presentation .
Part 3: Authority

In this series of blog posts Cath outlines the practical ways you can use the scientific principles of persuasion in your presentation .
Part 2 : Scarcity

Would you like to be more persuasive and influential when you speak?
Imagine what it would be like if you know that you can persuade and influence people to take the action you want them to take.
In this post Cath outlines the 6 principles you need to take into account if you want your presentation to persuade.

You may have heard the saying “Failing to plan is planning to fail” and outstanding presenters really take this to heart.

And in the same way . . . .

Great speakers and presenters are liked by their audiences and being likeable doesn’t only help with presenting but will help you in your job, business, relationships, and life.

What makes great speakers so likeable and so successful? And how can we do it?

Here are 11 suggestions for helping you to stay fully focused and present for your audience. Each one is simple and easy . . . .

Listen to how his pitch and tone get stronger and stronger as he runs through his marathon ‘let freedom reign’. . . .

When you ask people what Abraham Lincoln is famous for it’s usually two things – being assassinated and The Gettysburg Address. The Gettysburg Address is considered to be . . .

In the present financial climate, when all seems to be doom and gloom, it may seem inevitable to dwell on mistakes, failures and the negative aspects of life. And as long as we continue to so, then that is what we will get. The process of what you choose to focus on, and what you [...]

Audiences have short attention spans and in this post Cath outlines 3 ways you can get your audience hanging on your every word

In this post Presentation Specialist Cath shares with you how to avoid your audience ever thinking ” so what?” in your presentations!

Cath outlines THE worst way ever that people begin their presentations that switches off the audience and how you can very easily avoid it.

Now whether or not you like Star Wars, the stories offer a number of ideas that we can apply in business and just one of them is the concept of the Jedi Academy.
Members of the order progress through four tiers of rank, at times referred to as levels. I’ve taken these and applied them to the development of Presentation Skills for your business.
So,with apologies to Star Wars fans, here is my version of the Presentation Jedi Academy…….

In this post Cath shows how lessons from MasterChef can help you produce an exceptional presentation every time.

Did you know that most business presentations fail? If this has happened to you then it’s usually for very good reasons – your presentation sucks!
..and here are 12 reasons why.

Did you know that how you stand can lose you clients? In this post Cath shows you how you can instantly appear more confident and have more authority by just changing the way you stand.

Two things have come together this week….. I had a question sent to me on LinkedIn and I saw a TV ad for the upcoming US Presidential debates between Barak Obama and Mitt Romney. How are the two connected? The question was “I’m not really convinced that body language, gestures, facial expressions and appearance are [...]

I’ve recently been watching some of the re-runs of the comedy show “Little Britain”, and you may or may not be a fan of it but I’m sure . . .

What happens when you get negative feedback after your presentation? Here are some tips for dealing with it.

I know that change has been a constant factor in business in the last ten years because if what you’re doing isn’t working then you must do something you haven’t done before if you want to get different results . . . .

So let me be controversial here.

“To be successful you need to put in the effort.” . . . .

The three best moments form the Olympic Opening Ceremony London 2012 and your presentation……

How good are you at describing your business in just 60 seconds?
Here are 11 Top Tips on how to do it in a way that will get you more business…..

Presentation audiences are very much like aircraft passengers…….

When you focus on what is really going to take you closer to your goals often the sense of overwhelm begins to disappear and effective time management becomes easier . . .

How would you like to achieve much more with much less time and effort? Sounds impossible?
Well that’s what many thousands of . . .

Now for many people Macs are like Marmite- you either love them or loathe them but they have four characteristics that can teach us something about an effective presentation…

When the messages are mixed it can create confusion and even hilarity…… have a look at this clip to see what I mean.

Facial expressions, body movement, gestures, posture, etc all display how we are feeling and the non-verbal message is harder to fake.

We all love to hear stories and effective use of stories is a key tool for creating an outstanding and memorable presentation.

So what’s your business story . . .

It was always a challenge to persuade the Laurens of this world as to the benefits of studying physics! But what has this got to do with your business? . . .

Feelings ranging from nervousness to sheer terror are common for many people and it has been said that the fear of public speaking comes higher than the fear of death for a large proportion of the population but . . . .

They all have hugely inspirational stories that are an example to us all but unfortunately most of the speakers couldn’t tell them in a way that engages and inspires an audience.

. . . your words say one thing but your gestures, body language, tonality, breathing etc. all convey something different to your audience.

If you do the same thing as Maria Sharapova it could be losing you business . . .

If you are in business you are repeatedly presenting yourselves and your business – whether that’s to a new contact, a prospect, your boss, a client, a procurement team . . . whatever the situation the impact you make is down to how effectively you communicate and . . .

How do social perceptions apply to your business presentations?

How a Young Entrepreneur’s story became the Winner of Young British Talent Showcase……

The astonishing and startling results from CERN about the behaviour of neutrinos can……

How you can use what you know from high school physics to give a winning business presentation…..

How a simple yet profound idea can be truly exciting and inspirational…….

Here are 10 reasons you need to improve your presentation and communication skills if you want to be more successful in your business….

How would you feel about losing a £26 million contract that you know you should have won?

Or don’t win a £7 million even though you know that you are by far the best company for the job?

Sounds like a nightmare….

but these are just two instances I have come across in the last few weeks where

Are you distracted or distracting when presenting in your business? and what are the consequences?

Chances are that whatever your business at some stage you will be have to do some sort of business presentation and this happened to the wife of a friend of mine recently …..

Did you know that most business presentations fail? and that’s really good news….

Have you ever done the same as this hotel owner I met in Scotland?……

Things to hate about PowerPoint… how many of these drive you nuts?

This was their opportunity to convey their business idea in such a way as to convince and persuade Lord Sugar to become their business partner and ……

Is your presentation saying what you think it is ? or is it saying something different to the audience?

The 10 questions that will help you to really tailor your presentation to your listeners

Have you ever had a conversation like this?
Have a look at this very funny video clip…..

It has been said many times that a great way to grow your business is through networking.

But it seems to me that “rude networking” is on the increase!

(By the way this is not the same thing as sexy networking and has nothing to do with clothing or the lack of it…)

Now that may seem a daft question…… who pitches to lose? but if you regularly pitch for business what are your results like? Do you win every contract you go for? because if not then sometimes you are pitching to lose. I was recently working with a company who were pitching against 9 other companies [...]