Learn how to plan a clear presentation strategy tailored for financial leaders.
In the financial world, gathering and analyzing data is just the beginning of a long process. As a financial advisor, you must take that information and develop actionable insights on how your company should proceed in order to maximize its profits. Once you have these insights, you need to deliver them to your company’s financial leaders so they can act upon them.
This final step requires intense preparation; otherwise, your hard work may not have the desired effect when you present it to your CFO and other business leaders.
To help you prevent this issue, we have provided some tips so you can confidently communicate these financial insights to your leaders, and they can better understand the direction your company should take to succeed.
How do I prepare and deliver financial insights to get the best outcome?
Having been a part of presenting information in the past, you know that in order for a presentation to go well, you have to actively plan them. The following steps will help you effectively deliver your message.
1. Know your audience
When you’re delivering a presentation to a group of financial leaders, you’ll need to learn about them before delivering them insights. For instance, you should know about the communication methods that they prefer and, if possible, their learning styles. Some people have to read information to absorb it while others do better with visual presentations. Understanding your audience is key to a successful presentation.
You can find software tools that will help you refine your presentation to suit your specific audience, such as programs that enable you to create exciting videos or engaging infographics.
2. Practice active listening
When you deliver insights to financial leaders, you are understandably focused on conveying your information. Often you can be so driven to deliver your points that you forget to listen. Practicing active listening means that you invite your audience’s input by asking for their questions and ideas.
When your audience members do share, you should be actively engaged by:
Taking notes
Asking questions of your own
Encouraging them to elaborate
Be sure to make them feel heard by focusing your complete attention on what they have to say and acknowledging any feedback that they have to give.
3. Be aware of nonverbal cues
An effective presentation relies on audience engagement, something you can often measure by nonverbal cues. These cues are usually pretty easy to interpret. Your audience may stop looking at you, play with their phones, or simply tap their feet. Their facial expressions may convey boredom or frustration. If so, you have lost them.
When you encounter these cues, you should not plow on until the end. Instead, you should switch strategies. Perhaps you can insert a little humor into your presentation. You can also change the tone of your voice in order to regain their attention. You may need to alter other aspects of your own nonverbal cues, such as changing your tone, relaxing your posture, or using hand gestures. If your audience is not engaged, do not give up. Instead, alter your presentation style midstream.
You can also employ software that helps measure audience engagement both during and after the presentation. These insights will help you improve your future communications with financial leaders by identifying your strengths and weaknesses when presenting.
Feeling more confident? Just remember the basics
By employing a few simple but essential strategies, you can present your financial insights more effectively to your company leaders. Knowing your audience, active listening, and interpreting non-verbal clues will encourage more engagement from these leaders and a better chance that they will retain and then consider your points. And you can find even more help at Capterra. Capterra offers you an extensive database of the best business software available, including programs that will help you plan and deliver effective presentations to financial leaders. Refining and delivering your insights are essential to your business success. Capterra helps you find the sophisticated software tools that allow you to deliver your best efforts.